Happy Birthday, Mason

Mason came into this world just like his big sister - three days early!  But that is where the similarities end.  Where Katelyn's birth was incredibly difficult (2 1/2 hours of pushing!) with complications and a long recovery for me, Mason's birth was relatively easy (au naturale and only 4 pushes!) and I felt great afterwards.

 Here is Mason's very first picture!  But we didn't know he was Mason yet.  After nine months of debating, we'd only come up with one name that we could agree on - Ethan.  But just seconds after he was born, Kenny looked at me and said, "He doesn't look like an Ethan, we can't name him Ethan!"  Uh-oh...

He didn't have a name, but at least he was healthy.

8 lbs, 6 oz, 20.5 inches long and perfect! 

Big sister meets Baby Brother (what she'd been calling him for the last nine months) for the first time.

Our new family!

And Katelyn promptly makes her "goon face."  It's the start of a beautiful sibling relationship...

 But then she followed it up with a sweet kiss.

 Daddy's boy!

 Katelyn holds her brother for the first time.  And if that wasn't scary enough...

 Kenny throws him in the air for the first time!  Get used to it, kid.

(I love Katelyn's worried look in the background!)

 Sweet, swollen face!

 Mommy loves you!

 Look at those gigantic feet!

 What's your name, baby boy?

 We'd been keeping the name a secret the whole pregnancy, mostly because we didn't want to hear people's opinions about the name we'd chosen.  Well, that plan totally backfired!  The sure-fire way to get anyone and everyone's opinion about names is to have a baby and not name him.

 Time to go home!

They told us we had 10 days to name him, but I told Kenny that we weren't leaving the hospital until we'd named our baby.  Finally, one hour before we left the hospital, we decided on Mason Henry.  Kenny came up with Mason, and we'd always known his middle name would be Henry (Kenny's middle name).  It may have taken us two days, but I love it, it's perfect, and it suits him!

So, Mason Henry, welcome to the world!!!

Kenny says, "Remember this face.  This is his 'I'm tooting' face."  Ha!

More pictures from home soon!