Welcome Henry Joseph

On Friday, August 13th, we welcomed Henry Joseph O'Claire to the world. He was born exactly at 7:21 PM and weighed in 7lbs 9 ounces (the exact weight as Lilly at birth!) and was 21 inches long. It was a long 24 hours to get Henry to that point, as Chris first started having consistent contractions while having dinner with NanaE at Madison Park. After deciding to leave Lilly with Nana, we headed back home to make a few final preparations. We ended up making our way to Swedish hospital around 12:30 AM, only to be told that we weren't far enough in labor to be admitted. After a long 3 hours of being monitored in Triage and roaming the halls of the hospital, while Chris was enduring very painful contractions, Chris was given a morphine shot for the pain and we headed home. After getting a few hours of rest, not really sleep, we cheked in with the on call OB and decided to stay at home Friday morning. After a long walk around West Seattle and a light lunch, we called Dr. Levine, who asked us to come into the office. After his checkup, which showed Chris to be 3.5 cms dialated, he made the call to get us admitted and we were off to the races.

Once admitted, things really got rolling. First things first, Chris got an epidural for the pain and was able to get a much needed few hours of sleep. Our nurse, Shannon, was incredible (she was from Yakima, after all and grew up a few blocks away from ChrisO) and was a huge help in getting everything ready and making us comfortable. After some concern that the contractions slowed down, around 6:00 PM they picked up and little Henry was off to the races. Nana O and Papa made it in from Yakima around 7:00, and were able to say a hello before being ushered out of the room. Dr. Smith was called in for delivery, and after a few big pushes, Henry was almost there. After Dr. Smith asked for a little push, Chris started laughing in joy and he was out. Dr Smith said, "the baby was laughed into the world".

Henry Joseph has been a joy from minute one. The rest of the stay at the hospital was pretty uneventful, and we got to go home at 1:00 PM on Sunday. Highlights included visits from both sets of grandparents with Lilly in tow, Uncle Will, Emma & Lucy, Uncle Brooks and Aunt Molly, with Caroline, Devon (with Dicks burgers to boot), Kym, Aaron & Lucas, and Kate Scales. Henry also had plenty of medical visitors, incuding two from Dr. Franklin of the West Seattle Pediactrics group, a hearing exam, some blood work, his circumsicion, and a professional photographer, whose pictures turned out beautiful.

We look forward to having Henry part of our family and we'll enjoy watching him grow!