Langdon

I am so behind on my "Adventures of Mary Laine" posts, but I know that the grandparents are anxious to see pictures of their newest grandson, so I'll jump ahead a little and post about Langdon. Words cannot express how thankful we are that he is here (and, of course, that bedrest is OVER!!). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I stopped taking my contraction-stopping meds on Monday morning. Throughout the day on Monday, the contractions continued to get stronger, but were intermittent. I didn't sleep at all on Monday night because the contractions were pretty intense, but then they slowed down again on Tuesday morning. They continued to build in strength and frequency throughout the day. Gary and I were able to go out to lunch (McAlister's), to see a movie (The Social Network), and then out to dinner (Biaggi's). After some pretty painful contractions at dinner, Gary encouraged me to go to the hospital to get checked out. We arrived at the hospital at 7:15pm and were so thankful to see my doctor's smiling face as soon as we walked through the doors - she had switched with another doctor to take call that night and so she was able to deliver our baby (she had been out of town when Mary Laine was born). When we checked in, they told us that we would definitely be having a baby that night, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought that it may be a long night of waiting. I was very wrong! Things happened very quickly (as they did with Mary Laine) and I had the baby only about 3 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital. We found out after Langdon was born that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck (we did see that his heartrate was dropping everytime that I had a contraction), but thankfully he came so quickly that he wasn't hurt by it.

I think that the first thing that I said when I saw him was "he looks like Mary Laine!". There are definitely some major differences, but I can see so many similarities in them as well. The major difference that we have noted is that Mary Laine has very small hands and feet, while Langdon has incredibly long hands/fingers and feet/toes. We very affectionately call him "Thumper". :-)

He has been such a joy so far. He is a great eater, sleeper, and just a very content baby. We went for our follow-up doctor's appointment today and he is only 2 oz lighter than he was at birth and everything else looked great. And Mary Laine is a very sweet big sister. She loves to give her baby brother hugs and kisses and I think that she is proud to show off how gentle that she can be with him.

And now, what I know that most people have skimmed over the other stuff to see - the pictures:

Last family shot before I left to camp out in Jackson until the baby came

Mimi brought Mary Laine to Jackson to spend the day with us on Monday. We went to the Natural Science Museum and she loved the fish!

Checking into the hospital

Langdon with Kathryn's cousin Micajah

Happy family of four

Langdon with Cindy Mercer

Langdon with Aunt Su-Su

Langdon with Dr. Meck - so thankful that she was on call!

Langdon with his great-uncle Mike

Headed home from the hospital

The O'Briens came to welcome us home

Not happy about his first bath

My sweet friends came and decorated the house and left goodies for our arrival

So so thankful for great friends!

First Wake Forest football game -

as a Deacon fan, Langdon is going to have to learn to live with disappointment

My sweet cheerleader and football player

Still smiling even though we lost. Go Deacs!!