The Fabulous Baker Boys: Introducing Braden Edward Baker

He's finally here after 9 long, hot months! Braden Edward was born at 10:50 am on October 8, 2012.

To keep the long story short, here's how it went: I had been contracting since Sunday (the 7th) at 7 am into Monday morning. Most of Sunday they were between 15 and 30 minutes apart but they never stopped the whole day. Ron wanted to venture over to U of I's Vet Med School for their Open House and also wanted to take the boys to see a tiger that was over by our house. I relented and went hoping that the contractions would start to come sooner. They didn't, so we had planned a date night earlier in the week and decided to go. We hit up Alexander's for some good steak and then went to see Taken 2. I was pretty uncomfortable both places but managed to make it through, I'm sure Ron's hands were tired from me squeezing them everytime I felt a contraction!

Around 5:30 am, the contractions were finally about 5 minutes apart. Needless to say, it was sleepless night for both of us, especially me. Ron called his brother Dwayne to come over so that he could help walk Ronald to the bus stop. As soon as he came, we left so that we could drop Talin off at daycare before I went to the hospital. When we got there, the nurse said I was 6-7 cm dilated and around 8:30 I FINALLY got my epidural (thank goodness!!). My regular doctor was on vacation, so the doctor on call was my next best option. She was super busy and had to do a C-section before me but came back and broke my water about 9:30. I pushed for about 45 minutes (the baby was still pretty far up) and at 10:50, Braden was born. 7 lbs, 2 oz., 19 1/2 inches, tons of hair. Since everything appeared to be alright, we were able to leave the hospital by 3 the next day. Definitely one of the easiest labor/recovery I've experienced.

Ronald and Talin have been very excited to hold their little brother. They can't seem to keep their hands off of him. Before they go anywhere, they have to make sure they give him a kiss and Talin loves to sing to him. It's been very cute watching them together and I can't wait to see what life has in store for us in the coming years. In the meantime, it's back to diaper duty and sleepless nights!!