Gideon Ned Armstrong

Gideon was born into our family on June 18th at 1:38 pm.  7 lbs 7 oz.  19 inches?  Maybe 18.5.  It really depends on if you ask the hospital that said they barely stretched him to 19 or the nurse who said he was 18.5 a week later.  (I didn't get percentiles from the hospital, but at his one week, I think his height was 2%, his weight was 16%, and his head was 66%.  Not so proportioned)  He was kind of tiny.  (Everyone, including the nurse, was surprised that he was as small as he was.  They were all sure he was going to be huge.)  His labor and delivery (and even pregnancy really) seemed pretty quick, but to us it seemed like we had waited FOREVER to meet him.  Ryan and I talked about this briefly the night before he was born.  We spent a lot of time praying and fasting and really hoping that we would have a baby #2 in our family.  We did a lot of things that we felt we had to do before we'd really be blessed with more people in our family.  We've talked a lot about some of those things too.  Most of them seemed (and still seem) completely unrelated to having children, but we don't claim to understand all the ways that inspiration and revelation work, we only claim to do our best to act in accordance with said inspiration and revelation.

That being said, I don't know if I can adequately explain the joy that Gideon has already brought into our lives.  My experience with him is way different than having Vidalia (although trust me I wanted both of them very much).  When Vidalia was born, it was just strange.  This little person that to me looked like herself and no one I really knew.  I didn't know her and yet she was my child.  It was a strange feeling that quickly gave way to adoration and abundant love.

Pretty much my whole pregnancy with Gideon I tried to convince myself that he was real and that he would be born alive.  When he was actually born he was super purple and didn't cry and I super panicked and asked a billion times if he was actually breathing (he was).  I loved him from the moment I saw him.  Maybe because I'm more experienced;  Maybe because I spent nine months psyching myself out;  I don't really know.

Now I've officially announced that he was born on our blog in probably way too many words.  I'll save more thoughts and more information on our family for future posts.