Colin's First Visitors

As soon as Mimi, Pappy, and Aunt Jen woke up on Saturday morning they began their 10 plus hour journey to Charleston.  They would have liked to have been here sooner but who knew I was actually in real labor Friday!  To pass the time away we opened gifts from Nana and Grandpa that arrived that day! (Perfect timing!)

Posing with my birthday gift, Mom & Me: A Conversation to Keep Recordable Book.  I can't wait to do this with Colin when he gets a little older:

Colin even had his own gift to open...with a little help from Daddy!  He received two special outfits that Daddy wore when he was a baby:

We also passed the time away video chatting with Uncle Hunter in Germany (unfortunately Colin was at the nursery) and talking to Uncle Connor on the phone.

At last, at the stroke of midnight the rest of the Owens family arrived!

Mimi holding Colin for the first time:

 Love this precious moment:

July 16, 1983: my mom was in the hospital after giving birth to her first child, now, 28 years later, she is holding my first child after giving birth on the same day:

 So peaceful in Mimi's arms:

                                                   

Avery proud Aunt Jen (or as I like to call her when she's not around Aunt Sis- she'll learn to like it!)...I think he's going to be just a little spoiled by her. She's already got him a bunch of outfits to wear and made him an extra special blanket:

 The next day we were able to have Mimi capture a family photo:

 Pappy looking on at Colin:

Mimi, Pappy, and Aunt Jen  stayed until Friday and we were so grateful to have them!  Over the weekend we had a few of our friends stop by the house.  First up was my friend Kaela, her husband Jon, and three year old son Noah. Kaela had the same due date as me (Aug. 3rd). At the time of this post, we are still waiting on her little boy to arrive! (It may just be on his big brothers birthday, Aug. 1st).  I am so bummed that I didn't take a picture while they were over!

Next up were our friends Colby and Angela.  They enjoyed lots of cuddle time with Colin :

We have felt so blessed by Angela, who set up a care calendar of meals for us through the spouses in Tim's squadron.  I can not even begin to thank each of the spouses that have offered to make us meals.  Angela's chocolate chip cookies really helped me feel better when I was having some breastfeeding trouble.

Having visitors has truly brought us joy over the past two weeks.  We can not wait to visit the Goodwillie side of the family in a few short weeks.  We are very sad that we will be missing Colin's Aunt Erin, Uncle Thomas, and cousins Sarah, Pierre, and baby Augustin but we are hopeful that we will see them at Christmas when they will fly back home from France again.

We are anxiously awaiting our next set of visitors- Aunt Jen will be coming back down with my cousin Aunt Veronica when Daddy leaves for a training exercise and then my dear friends Tess and Kate will be taking over for the second part of Daddy's absence.  So excited for their visit but not for Daddy to leave and miss out on three weeks with Colin!

(One final note: I am so proud of myself. I completed this entire post while holding Colin in my arms!)

Welcome Baby Colin!

Mommy received the best birthday present ever when Colin Edward arrived at 3:31 AM on Saturday, July 16, Mommy's birthday!  Turns out Mommy was also born on on a Saturday!  We had a feeling when Mommy was feeling uncomfortable for a few days before that he might decide to come out on this special day.

We're not exactly sure how long I was in labor since the contractions were so inconsistent due to back labor.  Let's just say I woke up at 2am on Friday morning in pretty extreme pain and didn't have Colin for over 24 hours.  My contractions finally became regular (less than 3 minutes apart and lasting over a minute and a half!) after 11pm.  We made it to the hospital at 12:30 and I was already 8 cm dilated!  I knew that I could go natural if I went this far already and was ready to push in no time.  The pushing was traumatic and lasted over a hour and half but it was all worth it!  Dad spent a lot of time at the doctor's end of things and says he enjoyed watching each "millimeter of his head come out."  I had to try 3 different birthing positions until Colin's head was in the correct position to come out (this after the doctor had already stuck her hand up me multiple times to try to help it to move with no avail).  I seriously thought his head would never make it out!!  Later my lactation consultant told me that she felt the same when and thought during labor, "Oh my god this child is going to be 18 before he makes it out." This is pretty much how I felt as well!

Fortunately, he finally made it out and was as precious as can be!  Weighing 6 lbs 12 oz and measuring 21 inches:

The first question that they asked after he came out was "So what is his name?"  I had to defer the question to Daddy since he was the one that said we had to see him before we could officially say his name is Colin.  Turns out he looked like a Colin!  Good thing because he didn't have a single back up name.

Cuddling with Mommy for the first time:

Colin later went to the nursery for testing while I enjoyed a relaxing bath.  Colin was brought back asleep while I was in the bath and when I got out I found this scene (less than two hours after delivery):

Daddy is never letting that one down!

Once Daddy finally woke up, we were able to snap a picture of him and his baby boy:

Daddy captured this sweet moment between Mommy and Colin:

Close up of our baby boy:

Finally, everyone's favorite feature, his beautiful blond hair!

We could not be happier.  We are so blessed to have this cutie patootie in our lives.  He has already enriched it in so many ways!