Welcome Joseph Gustave

Hey everyone! Well, it is official! Our baby boy is finally here after being 9 days overdue! Kim is recovering from the C-Section perfectly! She is amazing.

Well, enough jibber jabber, here are some facts and the first photo of our little man:

Born 16 April 2007 at 0856am at Amberg, Germany's St Martin's Klinikum

Weight: 8.8lbs

Height: 20.5 inches

And here is a little about our experience:

So, there we are, 9 days overdue so time to go in for the c-section. Joseph just didn’t want to come out!! We went in to the hospital at 0630 and they start the monitoring and all the prep for the surgery. I was ok during this since it didn’t seem real. Well, okay until they got me into the OR and I saw an actual OR room complete with nurses and docs running around in green scrubs. Ok, then I got a little nervous. Plus, they took Howie (Tim) and he was getting prepped in another room completely. He had to strip down to his boxers and then put on scrubs, shoes, hat, and mask. Once I was completely done being prepped, they bring Howie in and sit him immediately (per my request,… and his!). One of the docs (anesthesiologist) tells him to hold the oxygen to my mouth and talk to me. During the c-section, I realize that Howie is sucking more oxygen from the mask than I am getting!! He said he was going to faint in the room next to the OR and had to walk around and flex his legs!

So, anyway, the doc walks in and 10 minutes later we hear the sweetest scream. All I could ask was, “is he really ours?” They let me kiss him real quick and then he goes into the next room to get cleaned off and get all his stats. Howie was watching him the whole time just telling me how beautiful he was. They bring him back to me so I can really see him, still seeming like an out of body experience. They take J into another area and ask Howie to go with or stay with me. I tell Howie to go with J. They finish up with me and I go into recovery. Howie went to the delivery room with J where the mid-wives finished cleaning him off and got him into his first clothes. I am there for about 10 minutes when they walk in. Wow. What an experience. He was simply perfect and he started, as he always had inside, putting his little fists up by his face and sucking on his hands (we never had a single ultra-sound where his hands were not up by his face!)! I had to stay in recovery for about 2 hours since the epidural didn’t start to wear off right away. When it did, it wore off from the top down (most people have it wear off from the bottom up). After the recovery, they brought me to my room followed by Howie carrying the little man. We sat there in the room and kept looking at each other saying, “now what? What are we supposed to be doing with him?” Hmmmm. Since I couldn’t get out of bed for a while, Howie became a diaper changing expert. I had to yell at him over and over again cause he would make me laugh every time and boy did that hurt after a c-section!! Howie had to give me play by plays with him and listening to him talk to J just killed me (“how does something like this come out of such a sweet little baby?”)!

My stay in the hospital could not have been any better. The nurses (God love them) were wonderful. The docs were just as wonderful. Here in Germany, our insurance is like German private insurance so we get the heads of every department for everything. The doc who did the c-section, head of OB. The doc who did J’s circumcision, head of pediatrics. The anesthesiologist, the head guy. It was an awesome experience!!

So now we have been home with him for a little bit trying to figure things out. We still can’t believe they let us leave the hospital with him without taking a test first. How does that happen? We have been learning as we go and have been having such a great time. Yes we are tired but as soon as he looks into your eyes, you forget about how tired you are. It is the most awesome experience we could have ever asked for. Joseph is a true blessing to us, our families and our friends. He is surrounded by so much love and he feels it every moment.

I think he has Howie’s personality. He is very sweet when he wakes up and is such a good baby overall. He smiles constantly (and no, it isn’t gas). When we smother him with kisses, he just takes his little hand and tries to push us away (he will get used to it sooner or later). A few times he just lets us have our way just to amuse us! He makes the cutest little noises too. Sometimes sounds like a doggie squeaky toy. Too cute!! Other times he sounds like a grown man in the bathroom……OMG!!! Again, too cute! He makes us laugh all of the time.