Welcome Baby Joe

He's finally here! After a quick and relatively easy 5.5 hour labor, Joseph Carl was born on Monday, December 3 at 3:38 a.m. He weighed about 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20.25 inches long. For those who are curious, Ben was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19.75 inches long.

Proud Nana and Bampaw

Oma

So far Joey is a typical baby...he eats, sleeps, and poops a lot! He is very cute, in my unbiased opinion of course, and looks remarkably like Ben when he was born.

Ben is an excellent big brother so far. He remains confused about the fact that his shuggy (his nickname for his baby "sister") is actually a baby boy and we constantly have to correct him when he refers to Joey as "she" and "her." Oh well, either Ben will get it sooner or later or Joe will have a complex...either way we'll all survive!

We brought Joey home from the hospital yesterday afternoon and are adjusting pretty well so far. We have had lots of visitors, which is fun, and are enjoying spending time together as a family. Dean is home this week, which is a tremendous help to me. I am already a little nervous (okay, I'm dreading it) about Dean returning to work on Monday. Wish me luck!

I am doing well...a little emotional at times (darn hormones) and experiencing all the other typical postpartum feelings of being very tired and very sore, but mostly I am just feeling overwhelmingly blessed and in love with my boys. I am severely outnumbered in my house now, but loving every minute of it.

I will post more later. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and well wishes. Love to you all.