Adventures in Becoming Parents

I've had a hard time knowing where to start with this post because there is SO much that has happened in the last two weeks. I guess the best thing is to start from the beginning, so here we go! On the evening of Sunday, January 23rd, I was visiting with my family downstairs and it was getting late so I decided to go up to bed. I found Josh watching a movie in our room and as I went to say something I felt, well, like I had peed my pants. As you can probably assume, my water broke. We were admitted around midnight and from there, we knew the baby was on his way! I was already 5 cm dilated and the contractions definitely started kicking in full swing. After 7 hours they started me on Pitocin to speed up the contractions and then gave me the epidural (which made all the difference for me). From then on my contractions got to be on top of each other and it was only a matter of time. Luckily I had a GREAT team!

Josh, Mom, Manna and Jason (who took all of these amazing pictures) were all camping out with me in the room...i guess the room was a little cooler than I thought.

After almost no sleeping but lots of Jello, the doctors told me it was time to push.

And two hours later at 4:03pm on January 24th...

Kade Andrew Keene was born!!

He was 10 pounds 0.7 ounces and 21 inches. The first thing the doctor said was, "Congratulations, you gave birth to a two year old!" I can't even describe what it was like when they put him in my arms. I cried more than Kade in that moment because I was so happy, excited, tired, and felt so blessed to finally have him here safe. I've always heard that good things come in small packages. Kade has helped me understand that you can't exclude the bigger ones as well; they're just as perfect. :)

He has since grown to 22 inches and weighs 10.5 pounds. Healthy boy! Here are some of our favorite pictures and videos of our little one.

So here we go on our journey of being parents. I'm so excited to watch him grow. We are so thankful for our family and friends. Hope you enjoyed meeting our little boy. :)

Nat & Josh