AJ's Homebirth

Dave already posted his version of AJ's birth so I'll post a few birth photos. I promise they're all "G-rated" and no placenta pictures! Many of the photos of AJ are out of focus since we didn't want to use a flash and the room was dimly lit. Considering Dave was juggling a million tasks that evening, he did a pretty good job at photodocumenting the event. We even have some video too! I'm so glad we were able to have a homebirth and it was definitely a much better overall birth experience than Charlotte's hospital birth. I'm also happy that my mom was there for the birth. She missed Charlotte's birth by an hour (our fault for not calling her earlier) and I really wanted her there this time. We were blessed with a healthy little boy and a fantastic birth team. I'm actually looking forward to doing it again (just not anytime soon!).

A smiling mom less than 5 minutes after AJ was born. I was completely euphoric for two reasons - labor was OVER! (at least the hardest part) and I had a healthy baby boy.

So happy to have my mom by my side. During labor, it was a another story. For some reason, I couldn't handle her being in the room with me. I had a hard time focusing on relaxing for fear that she would worry about me being in pain. It was a silly concern, but we're not completely rational during hard labor. My mom stood just outside the room until just before AJ was born. Thanks for understanding, Mom.

Nursing AJ for the first time.

Dave recorded contractions on the back of a Hallmark card!

Regina giving AJ a full exam - this was about two hours after his birth.

We were all laughing at how AJ stuck his feet straight up in the air. He weighed in at 8lbs 14oz. Yesterday, he weighed 10 1/2 lbs on our home baby scale while completely naked. We go for his two week check up on Thursday so we'll have more stats soon.