Just Being Green: We Welcome With Love

Ashton Alexander
Born 01/02/2011
6 lbs. 11 oz. & 18.5"

We are BLESSED to welcome a healthy & beautiful (I am biased) baby boy. Please don't ever tell my new son that I thought he was a girl through my entire pregnancy. That information can only cause some permanent and serious damage.

We wanted our boy to join us before the New Year. Who couldn't use a nice tax break? He waited until 34 hours AFTER the New Year, and then made his debut.

I had made plans for our entire New Years Day. I knew that the baby was due in a little over week, and this was one of the last days we could spend together as a family of three. But then I woke up and decided that getting dressed was probably going to be my biggest accomplishment for the day. I hadn't been feeling well, so I parked it on the couch and tried to be as lazy as possible. I did a pretty good job. Maybe it was God's way of telling me to slow down. He knew I was going to need some strength and energy that night.

I woke up around 2 a.m. with contractions. This was nothing new. I felt like I had been in labor for five weeks - always waking up with contractions. I tried to go back to sleep, but they started coming faster and stronger. Since I had already embarrassed myself once with false labor, I told myself I wouldn't wake Matt up until I knew for sure. I was in labor with Tristan for two days, so I figured I had time. I laid in bed for a few hours not really thinking anything of it. But then I started looking at the clock, and was a little surprised to notice that the contractions were coming four minutes apart. The hospital was 45 minutes away, and Matt drives like a Grandpa. I woke him up and strongly encouraged him to move quickly.

Fifteen minutes later, we were on our way. And the police officer that normally drives 5 miles under the speed limit, made it to the hospital in exactly 23 minutes. Good job, Matt.

We expected the labor to take awhile, because we are morons. We called all of our family and told them we were at the hospital, but that they probably didn't need to come down until the afternoon. And then I dilated from 5cm to 10cm in an hour. I wasn't lying when I told them the contractions were more intense than I ever remembered with Tristan. The Dr. was called in, and five minutes and three pushes later, our precious boy was born. Since we hadn't found out what we were having, Matt was the first to proudly announce, "It's a boy!!!" I immediately had flashbacks to the day before when Tristan ran laps around the couch for an hour and a half. My first thought? "Two boys? I'm going to be exhausted for the rest of my life." And then I saw my new, gorgeous boy, and I realized I was totally ok with that.