Ryan, Steph, and the Boys: Austin Jeffrey Walker

Austin Jeffrey Walker was born at 1:42pm on Monday, December 6th, 2010. After our ultrasound came back okay the week before, we anxiously waited for Austin to come on his own. I guess it was really nice inside my tummy because Austin stalled until my scheduled induction on Monday morning.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30am, filled out the mountain of paperwork, got hooked up to an IV of pitocin and fluids, and waited for things to get going. At about 9, I was finally in active labor. 4 1/2 hours later, Austin was here! He weighed 7 lbs 8 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. He has lots of dark hair that sticks up all over the place, just like big brother did. He has Sammy's nose and his face looks a little like mine when I was a baby. He has long arms and legs that he started stretching out right away. Now I have proof of how active he was in my tummy!

Austin and I stayed at the hospital for two days to recover. While we were there, they did an ultrasound on his heart as a follow up to the ultrasounds a few weeks before. There was some concern that his aorta narrowed at one point, so the doctors wanted to be sure everything was okay before he left the hospital. Luckily, everything looked great on the ultrasound and his heart is perfectly normal. Hooray!

On to some pictures!

Here I am looking glamorous in the labor & delivery room after my epidural. Love those hospital gowns. And the four hundred things I am hooked up to.

Baby Austin's first bath! He loved the warm water. The nurse thought he was so cute stretching out like this.

Here is big brother Sam! He is holding a darling sign my friend Cami helped him make for his new brother. Sam wasn't quite sure what to make of the baby at first, but once he realized Austin was a real baby and HIS brother he was so excited. Now my greatest challenge is keeping Austin from getting loved too much.

The rest of the pictures were taken by Cami at the hospital. She has an awesome camera and an even better eye, so I was so happy she could come and take our picture! Thank you Cami!

Here is the proud Daddy!

More of Daddy and Austin. So cute.

Here are my boys! Aren't they handsome?

Austin has such a sweet little face...

Our first picture as a family of four!

Grandma (or Gammy, as Sam calls her) holding baby Austin. She is staying with us for a few weeks to make sure we eat and Sam doesn't destroy our house :)

Love that hair.

Sammy is thrilled to be a big brother. He runs around saying "Where baby brudder? I hold baby brudder!" He can't wait for Austin to be bigger so they can play cars and trains together.