Welcome Home Baby!

We got to leave for home on Friday around 6 in the evening. They try and keep you at least 48 hours if you've had a surgery, but most stay 72. Griffin was doing great and I was feeling good so they let us go a little early. Here are the three of us in front of the fountain at the hospital right as we're leaving. Like Tucker, Griffin is way too small for his car seat! It looks so uncomfortable, but we're sure he's safe.

When we walked in the door, Tucker gave me a big hug and sat on my lap for a while. Then he noticed Griffin! He went over and looked and looked at him in the carseat and smiled such a big smile! He kept squatting down and looking at Griffin and finally looked at me and said "Cool baby, mommy!" The best reaction I could have ever imagined!

Tucker wanted to hold Griffin and hug him and kiss him. His favorite thing to do is rub Griffin's hair.

Tucker took pictures of Griffin with mommy's camera, grammy's camera and then ran and got his own camera! So far he's been really great with him. He says "baby wants to play cars" and is working hard on saying "Griffin" and not just baby all the time. At least once a day we hear "cool baby" and our hearts melt all over again!

Griffin Cory Spence

I started having contractions off and on at about 5 pm on Tuesday, December 1st. Grandma and Aunt Jane stopped by and we all went out to eat together. After they left for home, the contractions stayed very irregular throughout the night and even stopped completely for a couple hours. They started in again in the morning so we called the hospital and they said because of our pregnancy complications (low fluid, small size, thyroid) that we should probably come in and get checked out to make sure the baby was doing ok. I checked in about 8:30 AM and Doyle sat in the parking lot with Tucker since he wasn't allowed in the hospital. I have been incredibly luckly that both times I've gone into the hospital my OB was on call that day! It's so nice to have someone there who has been with you the whole ride and knows everything that has happened. By 9 they decided I should stay for observation for a couple hours so we called Papa to come stay with Tucker. My contractions were still very irregular, but the baby's heartrate would drop with most of them. It always came back up, which is better than Tucker, but it still isn't a good sign. At 11 the doctor came in and said that we would give him another 2 hours to see how he handled the contractions, but if he continued to have trouble with them we'd probably go ahead with a cesarean. 1 o'clock came and went and he was still showing signs of distress so we started prepping for surgery.

This time is wasn't quite as much of an emergency, not like Tucker's. But we were still wanting to get him out quickly since the contractions were picking up. The spinal was a very different experience for me from the epidural. I don't know how to explain it, just very strange. Griffin Cory Spence entered the world at 1:57 pm on Wednesday, December 2nd. Griffin is just a name we liked and Cory is a family name on my side. My grandma Avise's maiden name is Cory and it was passed on to my mom and sister and other variations in other places in the family. He weighed 5 lbs 15 oz, just 2 ounces more than Tucker, but was 1 inch shorter at 18 inches long. He has tons of long dark hair. Doyle thinks he looks like a teenager trying to be cool with his hair just over the tops of his ears! He's got some good strong lungs and is just ...Perfect!

This picture is pretty fuzzy, but it's just like the one we have after Tucker was born. So small!

First Bath

Dr. Messenger, we just love her!

Look at that hair!

Daddy has to do most of the work since I can't do much moving after the surgery. He's looking pertty tired.

Wide awake!

One of our nurses, Jenna. She was amazing! If we didn't know better, we'd have thought we were her only patients. We found out the first day that her sister works with Doyle at Apac, small world.

All dressed and ready to head home.