Introducing Baby Ayden!

Yesterday I became an auntie for the second time and I was so jazzed about it that I made Matt drive 2 hours to my sister's city to spend 3 hours there, and then drive 2 hours home, all in the same day! He was a champ though, he didn't mind a bit.

Here's a picture of the newest addition to the family, little Ayden James:

Little Ayden, not even 3 hours old.

My sister delivered Ayden at 3:33pm, and was extremely sleepy after around 39 hours of labour and having a ton of pain meds pumping through her body, but despite all that, you wouldn't even be able to tell that this picture was taken less than 3 hours after her new baby was born:

A picture of the happy family!

I think she looks great, and I can only hope to look half as decent at that point after labour. Her husband looks pretty great too, considering how he hadn't slept in over 50 hours! It's amazing what adrenaline will do for you, especially when your wife is the one in labour, and not you. I've heard people say things about the way a woman's body sustains her through labour and delivery, but I think it should also be noted how well men are able to function on little to no sleep and a whole lot of stress, just out of sheer love of the person experiencing the pain.

Here's one more photo of my nephew Preston, holding his little brother for the first time:

Preston, smiling his biggest "CHEESE!" smile he could muster! While he IS very camera-trained, he really was pretty darn excited about "Baby Ayen" as he calls him. It's all he's been talking about for weeks!

So, not that I'm worried about labour and delivery or anything, but I really hope I don't experience what my sister did (and I'm sure she'd agree with me in hoping that.) It was a very long labour, and it turns out that Ayden was a 10 lb baby who just would not (and COULD not) be delivered any way other than a c-section. The doctor said that if they decide to have any more children, that he's scheduling her for a 39 week c-section rather than experiencing this again.

That, if anything, makes me REALLY glad that my due date is earlier than later (at first the midwives were trying to push it back. I protested a little, the tech's predictions supported mine, and now everyone's happy!) I just do NOT want to go weeks overdue, and the sooner I'm overdue the better, because then perhaps we can avoid this (especially if big babies run in the family!)

So anyway, there's my schpeel. It was cool, having my sister and I pregnant at the same time, but it'll be even cooler when we're BOTH done and have little babies that are close in age and can be besties. It's too bad that my son (hehehe my SON, that's so much fun!) will probably be a year behind Ayden in school, because to kids, that seems like a really big deal (when it's actually less than 5 months) but my sister and I are determined to remind them constantly how they're really peers, and that Ayden is not one year older. It's so funny how the kids in the grade ahead of you were always seen as bigger and more grown up, etc etc.

Anyway, I'm going to go give Pippin a walk and enjoy some of the nice weather we've been having!