He's Here!!!

This last week we had the grand opportunity of welcoming into the world our brand new son - James Lototele Christiansen. He came on Wednesday, February 16 at 6:17 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and was 19 and a half inches long. Who wants to see this cutie? That's what I thought. Here he is:





I know it's hard to look at words again after all that adorableness, but do your best. It was quite the week for Lisa and I.

On Tuesday afternoon Lisa sent me a message at work that the doctor had just called her telling her that he wanted her to go into the hospital in preparation for being induced the next morning. I immediately became very anxious about how everything would happen.

The hospital was supposed to call her and let her know when she should come in. Well, it was getting close to 5:00 and they still hadn't called, so she called the doctor about it. They told her that if the hospital didn't call by 6:30, to call the hospital. Well, 6:30 rolled around with still no word, so she called them. They told her all the rooms were full and that they would call as soon as one opened up. My first thought was, "Dang, there's no room in the inn...."

So, we went out and got some dinner and then decided to just go ahead and head down to Provo. They hadn't called yet, but we figured we would just hang out until they called. Well, before we even stopped the car anywhere, they called and we headed over to the hospital.

That night they began prepping for the inducing, and the actual inducing began the next morning. Lisa was amazing through the whole process. Around 5:00 in the evening it was time to start pushing. She pushed for about 45 minutes without being able to get him around the pubic bone. The doctor thought the baby might be face up, so he put his hands in there and helped James get face down. In the next set of pushes after that, He got right around that bone. It was crazy, I could see the top of his head the whole time.

Well, they then brought in the doctor to do the actual delivery. If it had been a bit later, the doctor that delivered Lisa would have ended up delivering James. As it was, the doctor stayed there past the 6:00 time he was supposed to switch with that doctor. Well, on Lisa's first push after that, she got the head out, and then then the next push brought the shoulders. The rest followed thereafter.

The doctor asked me if I wanted to cut the umbilical cord. I was about to say that I didn't need to and have him just do it, but at the last second, I decided to go ahead and do it. He handed me the scissors, and my hands were visibly shaking. I snipped and thought I was done, but then the doctor showed be how it was not cut all the way. D'oh! Another shaking-hand snip and it was done.

Everything was pretty surreal. It was an amazing experience. We spent the next couple of days after that just recovering in the hospital. The morning after the delivery, they circumcised James. That is a very difficult thing for a man to watch. All I can say is that I'm very glad that that was done to me when I was his age, and that I have no memory of it whatsoever.

Lisa is doing very well, and other than some jaundice (which we are hoping is gone now) James is also doing very well. We are very grateful to have him in our family.