He's Here!

At 11:53 pm last night, Levi Christopher Godzwa was born! He is 9 lbs, 1 oz, 21 inches long and one of the cutest newborns I've ever seen (click on picture above for a photo gallery of Levi's first day). Both Levi and Jen are resting from an eventful night and are doing great.

It was a pretty crazy day. I finished filing our taxes around 5:30 pm and Jen said, "I guess we can have a baby now!" I think Levi was listening. At 7:30 pm, Jen's contractions, which had been weak and infrequent, started getting closer together. As we put Sam to bed, we were able to explain what might happen that night. Sam was excited (we could tell because he started bouncing on the bed exclaiming "I'm so excited!"). Jen's water broke 5 minutes after we put Sam to bed.

Things started to happen fast! Jen's contractions were coming 2-3 minutes apart. We were hoping to make it to the Maternity Center in time. A quick phone call got our neighbor Mark to wait with Sam until one of our students, Elizabeth could get here to spend the night. We collected our stuff and headed to Bethesda, Md. I have to admit I did drive a bit above the speed limit.

When we arrived @ the Maternity Center, Jen's contractions were one right on top of another. After 2 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing, Levi was born! He arrived with a thick head of black hair and barely making a sound (very different from Sam who screamed for about 20 minutes). Jen was amazing, handling the pain of having an above average size, posterior facing baby without drugs! I was able to help deliver Levi and cut the cord. It was an incredible experience. Even though Levi was over 9 lbs, he was the smallest of the 3 babies delivered at the Maternity Center last night. There was a 10 lb, 6 oz baby delivered down the hall!

After the rountine tests and resting up overnight, we made our way home @ 11 am. We've both been able to rest up a bit and regain our strength from our crazy day. Sam has been spending the day with our friends Franklyn and Anita and will meet his litte brother tonight.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who was praying and who pitched in to make it all go smoothly. We sensed God's presence with us and we're extremely grateful for His blessing us with our healthy and happy little Levi.