He has finally arrived. Tracy, David, and Elijah were blessed to receive Matthew Jeremiah this morning at 8:46. Tracy was taken in for a routine c-section and all went well. Matthew weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 inches long. He is beautiful and healthy and we are thrilled to finally meet him. As you can see from the picture below, he was born ready to eat. He was sucking on his fists in no time while Tracy was still in recovery. Matthew was eventually taken in to see Tracy so she could nurse him and he did a great job.
Elijah was smitten from the start. He wants to hold and snuggle him as much as possible. He told Nana that he "just can't stop looking at him" - love at first sight. Elijah gives explicit instructions to anyone who comes to visit to wash "both sides of your hands" and you can only hold him a minute before being asked "can I have him back now?" He also doesn't like too many pictures taken of Matthew because "you're probably hurting his eyes". Each time Matthew jerks or flinches, Elijah calls it Matthew's "robot dance".
David and Tracy are elated to have been blessed with a healthy child. Each shed a few tears of joy and everyone who has met Matthew so far falls under his spell within moments. As the saying goes, "you just want to eat him up". As you can see by the pictures, one of his best traits is his hair. We're not sure where the dark color came from, but we love the style. After his bath, he has it all styled and is ready to meet his guests. It almost looks like the nurses have jazzed it up with some product.
Other than the horrific nausea and hot flashes, Tracy has felt pretty good. As with all new mothers, she is pretty tired but seems to be going on the adrenaline and excitement of meeting her new son. New mothers are so beautiful.
You can't imagine how proud Nana was to meet her new grandson. She has grinned all day. She's been holding her breath that she might get to hold him for a second or two later tonight. She has been amazing as she has helped entertain Elijah, support Tracy, and doing what she does best which is just serving others any way she can. Nana will be staying at the hospital with Tracy tonight so David and Elijah can go home and catch a few winks.
As of now, Tracy and Matthew should be able to go home some time Saturday morning.
Here are more pictures:
After church, we came home and began snapping pictures of all the little "bunnies". The kids all looked adorable! Here are a few of the "formal" Easter pictures.
Corbyn's shoes were hurting her feet. I feel the need to explain this picture for all of our northern family members who are laughing hysterically at the barefoot in the south photo.
For those of you who know Corbyn and Elijah well, you realize that there is always the element of competition. It is very important that one counts his or her eggs & a winner is proclaimed. The twins are simply in it for the chocolate.
After the candy had all been opened and sampled, we started to get ready for church. Praise the Lord, He is Alive!!! God is so good!!
This year's hunt at the church was great. Tracy and Elijah joined the boys, Corbyn, and me. The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to get out and spend some fun time with the children. The day began with the egg hunts. The big kids went to the soccer fields and the little ones went to the playgrounds. The eggs are always in plain sight so the big kids are finished in about 0.2 seconds.
Tracy took Corbyn and Elijah while I took the boys. The twins were hesitant at first but got the hang of it after I mentioned that the eggs hand chocolate in them. Handling both of the going in different directions was difficult so Hayden Park helped by taking Carson on his hunt (Thanks a million, Hayden).
