Hugs and kisses

Since Caden was born early in the morning, Zara was able to sneak away and meet him even before Blayne! Aunt Steph came to stay with Ms. Blayne before Daddy came to get her and introduce her to her new baby brother. The duo came back later to visit us in the hospital before we were discharged. We loved every hug and kiss!

Up to speed

Now that Caden is here, it is time to get him up to speed on life in Clear Lake Shores...

First things first, we introduced him to our main mode of transportation- now complete with two baby seats (poor Portuguese will never go again). And where might we go on such wonderous vehicles?? To the park, of course! One of about 5 or 6 in our neighborhood...

and you can see that we are still wearing shorts in late October...I tell ya, it's a hard life out here, I guess he'll just have to adjust...

Up close and personal

Here are a few up close pics of our new baby boy. Getting him to open his eyes, though, is another story...not that we're complaining...

Meeting of the minds

Once the dust settled from the surprisingly "early" (granted, relative) arrival of Caden James, Daddy headed home to clean up and get Ms. Blayne ready to come meet her brand new brother.

She didn't miss a beat- she came running into the room saying "that's Caden" and immediately wanted to "kiss him", "hold him" and "touch him".

Quite possibly the sweetest moment of all this was later that day when Aunt Steph came to visit us and meet Caden as well. As Ms. Blayne got ready to head home with Zara, she turned to Aunt Steph and said, "No take Caden".

We are so proud of Blayne and the awesome quick adjustment she has made to a change of pace. I believe Ian said it best when we spent some time alone with Caden Wednesday evening after everyone left and he turned to me and said, "Well, I may not be the luckiest man in the world, but I'm pretty damn close."

Caden's Birthday!

The whole story...

Well, as you know, we headed off to the hospital Tuesday evening around 5pm. We gave hugs and kisses to Ms. Blayne and left her with Zara- who fortunately was able to come stay with us and help- not only for the first few days after Mr. Caden's arrival, but a few days prior in order the help us prepare and take care of Ms. Blayne.

We got settled in and met with Dr. Nguyen around 6pm and he administered the cervidil...a familiar situation. I immediately started to have regular but not strong contractions.

Shortly after midnight I awoke with very strong contractions and had already progressed to 4cm. We quickly opted for the epidural and shortly after it was administered, they checked me again and I was at 8cm. Caden was born about an hour later.

He arrived at 3:37 am weighing in at 7 lbs 1.2 oz and measuring 20 inches- wide eyed and dimple chinned (did we have any doubts?).

We couldn't be more excited or more proud of the newest addition to our now family of four!

Welcome, welcome Caden James!!

Off we go...

Alright- well, young Caden seems that he will be about as strong willed as his sister. We are packed and headed to the hospital. We are looking forward to posting good news and lots of beautiful baby pics in the days to come!

Wish us luck!

Counting the days...

I am sure you are all waiting with bated breath, as are we...

We are still hoping Caden comes on his own, but come about 48 hours from now- the jig is up- it's go time. We'll head to the hospital Tuesday night and hope for the best.

With any luck we'll post good news before then, but I am starting to think Daddy's prediction, although unpopular, might be correct.