Special delivery...Keenan Charles. . .3 weeks early

Keenan in traditional hospital garb,
our son looks very comfortable in Mom's arms

Immediately after birth, Lori's first look at him
(she still on the O.R. table)

Already foiling his mom's planning nature, our son Keenan arrived three weeks early. To be fair, Dad had encouraged his arrival by whispering to Lori's belly while she slept. We are both ecstatic, yet fatigued, and are lucky and blessed to have a healthy mother and baby.

Here are his stats:

Birthday: 4:58 am Janurary 21, 2008
Weight: 6 lbs 12 ozs
Length: 19 inches

The short version:
From start to finish the whole birth was rather quick. Although if you count the contractions Lori was having the evening before at Babies R Us, and the day before that at Tysons corner mall, maybe it wasn't so quick.

Lori woke me up at 1:45 am in a frenzy, telling me her water broke. This was a bit of a surprise, since his due date was three weeks later. After hastily packing, we made our way to the hospital (and made great time too!).

She received her epidural, was prepped for surgery, and a couple hours later had delivered our first son.

We received some amazing advice from the hospital's nurses. By Thursday however, we were beginning to have confidence to do this parenting thing on our own. Instead of giving him to the nursery, Wednesday night we kept him overnight in our room and survived! So we came home Thursday evening, looking forward to our own bedroom and no more nurse/doctor visits every half hour.

I'll let Lori tell the minute-by-minute account, but here are some more pictures for everyone to enjoy:

Proud parents of a well-swaddled little man

Let the bonding begin

Here is Zack, Keenan's cousin born in September

Grandma and Grammy with the munchkins

The best little sucker in Virginia (Click on the Play arrow to see our man in action)

Keenan's first close-up

First bath!
(Keenan is not exactly thrilled)