December 6th, 2007

That was the day! Little (well, not little exactly, lol) Ian Joseph made his appearance that day at 12:38 pm after about 12 hours of labor-and only about 4 hours of "work". He wasn't named for four days after his birth. I don't know why deciding on a name was so hard, and then irony of ironies, we went with the name we had chosen for Annalise if she'd been a boy, lol. It was what seemed right to us though as we got to know him. He weighed 9lbs. 2 oz. *after* a poop, lol, and was 22 1/2 inches long. He was born in the birthing pool in our family room by the Christmas tree. It was a sunny morning with sunlight glinting off the water. I was alone in the water and was the one who lifted him up and out of the water-I literally gave birth to him all by myself. It was amazing. I sat there holding him against me and for a few moments longer, it was just the two of us. Even once we got out of the water, he wasn't taken from me for over an hour. To me, it was the most amazing birth ever-and I'll write the story out soon.

He is sweet as can be. When he's awake, he's very alert and calm. He looks around, watches the Christmas tree, and coos a lot. Mostly he nurses and sleeps though. He had a touch of jaundice and our doc made us go through 3 bilirubin tests :( but now that is dissipating and he's doing better. He seems to have an eye infection too with lots of yellow mucus coming out of his eye. It freaks me out a bit, but we have some drops from when the same thing happened to Abby earlier this year that we're using and it seems to be helping. These things always happen on the weekends when it's impossible or expensive to see a doctor.

I can't believe how easily John and I have fallen into our baby-care modes. He takes super good care of me so I can take super good care of Ian. He changes diapers (thousands of times a day, lol), brings me food and drink, and does anything that he can for me or for the baby. He also takes care of the girls when they're here. I remember now what a great man and father he is. Our 16th anniversary is this Friday. No going out for us this year, but what a gift we have instead. :)

I can't believe this is happening. After trying, hoping, praying and crying for so long, he's here. He's really here. All the pain and sorrow over the other losses is gone. They happened for a reason-so that Ian could be here. HE was meant to be. Our family was incomplete without him, and now it isn't. I'm not a religious person, but thank God. This little boy has healed my soul in so many ways. I am complete. But I still can't believe he's really HERE. He came early! Blows my mind! LOL. Oh, he's a sweet little one. I am in LURVE as Ris would say. :) Boys ROCK.