Lawson Andrew Leeser has arrived!

He's Here! Lawson Andrew Leeser was born on February 15, 2010 at 7:58 p.m., weighing 5 lbs, 8 0z. He surprised us and came about 5 weeks early!

His birth was a bit of a whirlwind. That afternoon I was sitting at home, on a conference call for work (on only day 2 of bedrest) when I noticed that I was having contractions. After a few hours I thought "maybe I should count these...but they feel different than last time, so there's no way I am in labor..." After having 8 contractions in an hour I called my doctor and she sent me to to hospital. I swung by Andrew's office to pick him up on the way, and we laughed about how it was probably a false alarm and a total waste of time. But... 30 minutes later we learned that I was in labor (and leaking amniotic fluid) and we'd have the baby that evening! After scrambling to get Lincoln picked up from school and taken care of for the night (thanks to friends Nicole and MaryBeth) we found ourselves sort-of in shock...and worried about the baby's health. (An ultrasound a few days earlier estimated that the baby weighed 4 and a half pounds, but with limited movement, due to the fact that my stomach had pretty much quit growing and the placenta shut down.) After some prayer we headed down to the OR. It was a bizarre experience - I walked to the OR with Andrew, my doctor and the nurses, laughing and joking. I watched them prep the OR and I got a spinal. Then, my friend Alissa strolled in to to be my anesthesiologist! She was so sweet and came in to the hospital even though she wasn't on call- I was very well taken care of! It was fun that she was a part of Lawson's birth.

This time, unlike my emergency c-section with Lincoln, I was VERY aware of every step of the surgery (although the nurses, Alissa, my doctor (who also delivered Alissa's baby) and Andrew were joking around and chatting the whole time - the fact I was being cut open was clearly no big deal to them :) But soon enough I heard those wonderful words - "there he is!" Lawson was breech, so they pulled him out "bottom first." He was screaming (a good sign) and was so little and adorable!

First family photo

Lawson being delivered

Me with Alissa, in recovery (though I really don't recall having this photo taken :)

Our fabulous doctor, Dr. Beard

Immediately after delivering Lawson the NICU team took him to check him out. He was having some difficulty breathing, but weighed 5 lbs 8 oz (a full pound more than we expected.) Andrew got to hold him for a few minutes and I got to see him before they took him to the NICU. He was so precious! After that, the last thing I remember is Alissa asking me if I wanted to "take a long nap" - I said yes, and woke up a few hours later :) Andrew had gone up to the NICU to see Lawson already. I had to wait until the next morning to get out of bed so I could see him, and I felt a little overwhelmed seeing him in the NICU for the first time with lots of tubes and monitors attached to him. But, he was so precious and snuggly, even from the beginning! The NICU nurses were great and we got to visit him as often as we wanted.

NICU, day one

First time to be held by mommy

Although Lincoln wasn't old enough to visit Lawson in the NICU, he hung out with me in my hospital room to keep me company each day. He saw some pictures and videos of Lawson, and was very excited about his "big brother present" - a baseball glove

NICU, day 3 - most of my tubes are out!

Lawson got lots of visitors in the NICU - his grandma Sims, Bryan and Gina Borden, Matt and Jeri Davis, Krystal Scott and Nicole Mitchell.

Lawson with Grandma

Lawson with Krystal and Nicole

God was so good - Lawson improved steadily over the next few days and we got to take him home on Thursday, February 18th. He weighed right at 5 lbs. My mom had flown in on the 16th to help take care of Lincoln, and she had scoured Sugar Land for preemie clothes...it never dawned on me to buy any just in case. The recovery was a little harder from this c-section, and unfortunately, Andrew was in the middle of busy season and had to work some crazy hours for the first few weeks that Lawson was home. I was so thankful that my mom could stay for 2 weeks. She was amazing - she cooked, cleaned, babysat, entertained Linc, shopped, and even took some middle of the night feedings. Moms are the best!

Getting ready to leave the hospital!

Lawson and the "car seat test" (doesn't he look ridiculous? Thankfully, he passed and the insert was small enough to cushion him appropriately.)

Some other pics: