Joey!

Our beautiful Joey was born NOvember 29th, 2006.

As you can guess, I've been a bit overwhelmed by new motherhood, that i'm a little bit behind on my blogging. Recently, i was blessed with a brand new laptop, which is going to be very helpful to me, as I can carry it around the house with me anytime i want, and be everywhere that Joey is. So I don't have to go all the way down to my office at midnight when i'm ready to crawl in bed, after Joey is sleeping, and I can finish up my "day," close my computer, and go to sleep. Can you say "blessing?"

ANYWAY...back to Joey.

Wow. He's amazing. Joseph Spero Azar III was born at 11:53am. He was 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and 21 inches long. Healthy and beautiful! The labor was quite short, in consideration of the average "labor" for first time pregnancies. In fact, the nurses and doctors were asking me if this was truly my first pregnancy/labor. I guess I was just blessed. I thank God it all went well. It wasn't easy, by any means. I got the hospital at 1:00am with some significant contractions, but nothing to cause major alarm...just enough to notify me that it was "time." So by 1:30am, i was hooked up to all the machines. I figured it wasn't time to order up an epidural, and that i'd wait for the contractions to get a little more intense. Next time, I'll know better!!! By 2am, I was howling. My luck, there were 14 other women on the floor pushing out babies that morning, so it took 2 and a 1/2 hours to get the epidural. Note to future mothers: DON'T TRY TO DO IT WITHOUT DRUGS.

So I finally received the pain killer at 4:30ish, and then all was right with the world. At 5am, they broke my water. We were a little nervous because at that point, they discovered JOey had already had a bowel movement, so the docs ordered up a neonatal team to be on standby for the delivery. I slept for a few hours, and by 8:30ish, i was pushing. I pushed on every contraction for the next few hours. (EXHAUSTING!!!!). Finally, 11:53am was the magic moment....and out he came. I'll never forget it.

My labor nurse was amazing. Her name was Rebecca. I swear, she was an angel. She was so knowledgable about everything, and so soothing. Very sweet spirit. She kept Joe, mom and me very calm through the whole thing, and she was an amazing encourager. I couldn't have done it without her.

Here are a few photos of him while we were inthe hospital! We can't wait for you all to meet him in person! He's pretty cool.