Forget the Countdown - the Baby's here!!!

So anybody that's been watching that countdown on the upper right corner of the blog for the baby due date can forget about it. Monday night during FHE, Suzy was having some contractions that were pretty strong. We didn't think too much about it since it was still 11 or 12 days early. We went about our normal nightly routine, and went to bed shortly after 9. She was still having contractions, but we both thought they would let up soon. I was out pretty shortly and Suzy woke me up at around 1AM. She said she couldn't sleep because of the contractions and was going to watch a movie or something. I was pretty tired and out of it so I said OK and figured I still had another 4 hours to sleep.

Right before 2am she came back in and woke me up again. The contractions were coming more frequently and more intense. She had called the hospital and the doctor told her to come in. The hospital is a half hour away, so we wanted to be sure, but everything seemed to be happening like it was a baby waiting to be born! I called my brother Josh here in town (I had warned him previously that we would be calling when we went into labor even if that was the middle of the night,) and he hung up on me without even answering. I called back and he answered. I told him what was going on and he said "Sure, bring Jackson over." We gathered a couple basic things and headed over. Sally met us at the car and helped bring stuff in without even letting Suzy out of the car. It still seemed surreal, so I told her that if it happened to be false labor we would pick him up in the morning.

We continued on to the hospital and were literally the only car on the road in Rifle Colorado. There was one police unit that was parked with about 3 or 4 cops having donuts along mainstreet that eyed us the whole way down. HA! I had my cruise control set at 28 MPH. They weren't gonna get me tonight!

The contractions intensified on the drive to the Glenwood Springs hospital. We got there and when they hooked her up to the machines the contractions were coming frequently and she was dilated to a 4. A little bit later she received the epidural. Luckily it worked the first time! The anesthesiologist was having a bit of a difficult time, but it ended up working out fine. She wasn't as numb as with Jackson and could feel a lot more of the pressure during the contractions and pushing.

They gave her some petosin to speed things up after the epidural because the contractions slowed. This made it somewhat more painful. She started pushing around 7:15, and our baby boy was born at 7:40 am June 2, 2009.

As for the name.....we had been thinking either Wyatt or Peyton for a while. Last week we were talking and thinking about names again. We threw some others out and both liked the name Braden. We decided we would either do Wyatt or Braden at that point. So after he was born we thought about it and looked at him for quite a while. Eventually we decided that Braden was a better fit for him. It was just easier to picture ourselves calling him Braden than Wyatt. His full name is Braden Kim Yates. Later, one of the nurses said "I didn't want to say anything while you were thinking about names, but it seems that every other baby that comes through here lately is named Wyatt." I guess it's a popular name this year, or at least in this area.

Braden is feeding pretty well, and sleeping a lot. He was so active in the womb that it is kind of surprising how calm he is. We haven't heard many cries. Jackson came in this afternoon and met his little bro for the first time. I tried to hand Braden over to Jackson and he pushed him away. He didn't want anything to do with him and was actually kind of scared to even get close to him for a while. Toward the end of his visit though, he began to touch his face and smile really big. It will be an adjustment to share his mommy and daddy, but he'll be a great big brother.

Braden having a nice yawn shortly after his grand entrance.

Jackson sporting little brother's beanie cap from the hospital. Those things are stretchy!

Here's one of the first family photos. Suzy going on pretty much no sleep, and me on about 3.5 hours. This one's going in an 11x14 on the mantle for sure :) Can you believe how big Jackson looks though!