Welcoming Alexander

July 27, 2009 we welcomed the newest little addition to our family. Alexander Clark Winfree was born at 13:13:13 (military time) and weighed a whopping 5 lbs. 14 oz. He was 18 1/2 inches long and just plain cute. The doctor had estimated his due date to be August 23, so according to that estimate he was born 4 weeks early. It all began Sunday, July 26 when Chris and I had to give talks in church. It was so terrifying it caused me to go into labor....no, it didn't really, but we did have to speak the day before. I was feeling fine, maybe a little tired, but I was totally not expecting to go into labor the next day. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. with the first of my intense contractions. I had a scheduled dr. appt. that day for 9:00, so I figured I would just wait it out until then and see what he thought. When I showed up to the appointment, I mentioned to the doctor that I'd been having contractions all morning long so he hooked me up to the monitor to check out the frequency and the intensity. At that point I was dialated to a 2 1/2 and I was about 80% effaced. The contractions were coming every five minutes. He told me it could be false labor, but from the look on my face during each contraction he said he figured he'd probably see me later that day. I went home and had Chris drive my neice home (she'd been babysitting my kids) and I mentioned that maybe he should take the boys to my sisters house, just in case. He hadn't been gone a minute when all of a sudden my contractions hit full force. I was SO glad that the boys were gone. Chris couldn't get home soon enough. By the time he got back, I was to the point that I couldn't even walk. He had to carry me out to the van because it felt like I was having one long continuous contraction that wouldn't ever end. At the hospital they checked me in and told me I was 100% effaced and dialated to a 6. Keep in mind this all happened within an hour of the doctor's visit. They gave me an epidural (thank goodness!) and not too much later, we had a beautiful, healthy, baby boy. Enjoy the pictures!

This is post-epidural and pre-baby :) See how relaxed I look? That was not the same face a couple minutes earlier.

Day 1

First bath--You might notice that he's being bathed in a regular sink, instead of how they usually do it. This is because he was born early, they put me in a room close to the NICU, just in case. So they don't have the same amenities as normal maternity rooms.

The happy parents!

Day 2

Day 3-Ready to go home

First bath at home. You can see how much he loved it! He immediately stopped crying as soon as we wrapped him up in a towel. He was just freezing.

1 week old.

We've had a lot of fun having this new little guy around!