Happy Spring

It's nice now that Spring is officially here. We have been enjoying the warmer weather (it's been up to 65 on some days already) and have even managed to make it out of the house this last week to go on some short walks. We loved the snow and the winter weather, but everything just seems to be a little easier when you don't have to worry about bundling up in 10 layers just to open the front door. The trees and plants aren't blooming yet, but it is nice to at least have the sun out.

We've been having an enjoyable past few weeks. Yes, it has been tiring with Christian waking up at least three times a night and Julia and Ethan still wanting to wake up at six, but we still feel we have very blessed lives. Grandma and Grandpa Little came to help out for a couple of weeks right after Christian was born, which really made life so much easier. On a couple of days they even took Julia and Ethan on day-trips, once to Palmyra and then to Niagara Falls (somehow they even managed to smuggle them across the border to Canada on that trip), allowing Rebecca and Christian to get some much needed extra rest. We all enjoyed their visit and all of the time we were able to spend with them; it has been kind of lonely way over here in New York all by ourselves. Luckily, next week we will have Grandma and Grandpa Swift with Uncle Caleb come to visit.

Thanks for all of the help Grandma and Grandpa Little!

Ethan has such a great smile!

Can you believe that Julia and Ethan's favorite food is hotdogs? These are the big sausage ones and they both probably ate three; definitely more than either Rebecca or I had.

We stuffed a block of bird seed in the lattice outside our back porch. Julia and Ethan have been eagerly waiting for some birds to come get their food.

Luckily I always have two helpers whenever I try to do any work from home.

Christian's Birthday

I wanted to give some more details about Christian's birthday. Early in the morning, I started feeling some contractions but was able to dose in and out of sleep until about 6. By then, I realized today (last Thursday, March 4th) was probably the day because the contractions were increasing instead of going away. However, my parents weren't flying in until that evening, and I still had laundry and grocery shopping to do that day. So Joshua went off to work, and I thought/hoped I could last until the evening. But, the contractions started growing very close together and very painful, and around 9:00 I called a friend to come take the kids. When she arrived at 9:30 I was feeling terrible and knew I needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Joshua had rode his bike to work though, and I didn't want to wait for him to ride all the way home, so I decided to pick him up (the hospital is a couple blocks away from his work). Probably a dumb idea, because my contractions were about a minute apart, but luckily I made it and we got to the hospital about 10. It seemed like it took forever to get into the room and have the nurse see me, and all I could think about was the pain. Finally, the nurse saw me and said I was fully dilated and I waited a couple more minutes for the doctor to arrive, and then about 45 seconds later, Christian was born 10:32 am!

We love him so much; I am so grateful he is healthy and strong and here! It's amazing that my love for him is just as strong and encompassing as with Julia and Ethan when they were born--my heart just seems to expand in capacity for each child. I didn't think it possible to love so much.

Below are pictures of Julia, then Ethan as newborns. We're trying to decide who Christian looks like, if anyone.

Christian Arthur Swift

Baby Christian Arthur Swift was born on March 4, 2010 at 10:32 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Baby and mom are doing great and came home from the hospital today. I will let Rebecca update on the delivery story later on, but just wanted to get out some pictures a little sooner. Please pass the word on to others!