meet winston

Here he is, 

We are very excited to have him here safe and healthy. He was born on November 13. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. 

Birth by planned C section is not especially exciting or unique. Basically we went to the hospital early in the morning, they put in my IV needle and then we watched two episodes of White Collar. I told you it was boring. 

About two hours before the surgery was scheduled, they came and took me to the operating room. They insisted on wheeling me away on stretcher, despite that the only difference between when I got there two hours ago was a tiny needle in my hand, just the needle, not hooked to anything at all. I was cool with it. 

After the epidural, which is always so very pleasant, I laid on the table for the next hour. This is perhaps the most isolating experience in Thailand. Basically it's just me laying on the table while a bunch of nurses prep the room. No one talks to me and all I do is worry about all the things that can go horribly wrong with a major operation. 

In the operating room there was music that would come on every now and then, mostly classical. I'd been laying there for about 40 minutes when out of no where the song, 'Danny Boy' came on. Right away I started crying uncontrollably--I was already an emotional mess. I couldn't help but think about the Smart family St. Patrick's Day parties.  After all the games Ricker always wanted everyone to sing 'Danny Boy'. Rocky has a lot of talents, A LOT, so really it wouldn't be fair if he had a drop of musical ability. The Smart rendition of the song can sometimes be a bit of a struggle.  But Ricker always had this giant grin on his face like the singing was the sweetest sound in the world to him. It made me think of how excited he always was for every new grandchild and how he would be so excited for Winston to arrive in our family. 

The doctor finally came in a few minutes before the surgery was scheduled and Rocky was able to come right before it started. Everything went well and Winston came out screaming like crazy. Which is always the best sound.

He has our babies' signature black hair and square face.

When the girls first met Winston. We had been worried about Violet, she's pretty attached to us and gets really jealous but she's done surprisingly well. She gives him about 20 kisses a day, pokes him in eyes 30 times and gets really worried if he doesn't have his blanket. We'll see how long this lasts.

First family picture. These are always keepers.

So far Winston is very sleepy. Both are girls were born at 41 weeks and Winston was delivered at 39 weeks, so we've never had a baby this young or this small. We're taking advantage of it while we can. 

Rocky was in charge of the name and he spent a hefty amount of time researching. He had whittled his options down to three names when we went to the hospital (Winston wasn't one of them). After he was born we talked about a few different options and then he said a bit out of the blue that he thought Winston was the one. I loved it so we went with it.

People have asked us if we named him after Winston Churchill, I think they ask this because of the spot on resemblance. Winston Churchill was definitely a solid inspiration. He's always been one of my personal heroes and maybe this will inspire me to read the 3000 page biography trilogy that has been on my "to read list" for a few years--I'm not making any promises.       

                                            

Although, after we filled out the birth certificate paper work, Rocky pointed out to me that Winston means, "Joyful stone." So he had actually named Winston after himself. Which I'm okay with.