baby Theo's birth

I had been hoping my brother Nathan and his wife Ana would have a baby for what seemed like a long time, so when they told us back in March they were finally expecting, I was quite excited. Ana said my reaction did not disappoint. Since this was her first baby, I offered to help her. I had done the doula thing once before with my friends Seth and Kagney and hoped I could be useful to Nathan and Ana. 

The first night, Sunday November 2nd, when Terry and Nathan returned from the Fall Retreat exhausted out of their minds, Ana went into labor. Go figure. She was one week early! I got a text that her water broke at 2:30am (Monday) and I went over to their house mid-morning. We went to the doctor for some monitoring and they wanted us to check in to the hospital. That wasn't what we were hoping, but since her water broke it's what had to be done. 

So we went and they hooked her up to the pitocin. Here's proof I was there ;)

That pitocin is nasty stuff. I had it with Noah too and never wanted it again. Ana labored all night and into the following morning. In all, she was in labor for about 30 hours! All my births have been super short so that was something new for me. But Ana was a rock star and we finally got to meet big Theodore Arthur at 8:32am on election day, Tuesday November 4th. He was 8 pounds, 2.3 ounces and 19 inches long. And he had/has the cutest cheeks/jowls ever!

She looked ridiculously well for only getting a few hours sleep in all that time. I got less sleep, wasn't in labor and didn't look so good! That Theo is going be one good looking boy. 

Here's my brother's first time holding the little tyke. I love it. 

Here is Theo's first bath. He shares a name with both of our Grandfathers - Theodore. Arthur is our dad's middle name. They call him Theo and are working on cool nicknames. Of course all of the youth group girls are in love with the name since it's the same as a crush of their's from the movie Divergent - Theo James.

Later that evening we stopped by for literally five minutes just so the kids could meet their newest cousin. Noah was especially excited he finally had a boy cousin. Though, Evie definitely looks the most taken with him.  

Terry was trying to police the littles, Samuel and Ezra, which was stressful, so we left after a couple quick photos. Plus, I was exhausted out of my head after only a couple hours sleep the night before and a very short nap. It was bed time for all of us.

Ezra sure looks huge compared to newborn Theo :(

Here's that larger family, looking good despite their exhaustion, Nathan, Ana and Theo. 

He's so cute! I was so blessed and proud to have been a part of the birth of baby Theo.