Welcome Luke Kirby Ridenour

Luke Kirby 

Ok, so I knew I needed to hurry up and post the last one!  I guess I thought right when I thought I might be in labor that Tuesday.  I haven't been wrong yet, but for some reason I decided to ignore it all day (could probably be due to the fact that I was four weeks early and supposed to have a March baby!).  Quick summary of the birth story:  after ignoring contractions all day long I went to sleep around 10 only to be woken up by another contraction at about 1am.  I had a few other signs of labor, but like always waited a little longer to time a few more (why do I always do this!?).  I finally woke Gil up around 2 and after stating contractions were 10 minutes apart he practically flew out of bed exclaiming that he wasn't about to deliver a baby in the car.  I called mom and in about 10 minutes we were out the door.  The only things I had were the clothes on my back and my wallet and phone.  I was still a little uncertain if this was the real thing as we walked out the door, but once again by Jackson (about half way on our 45 minute trip to the hospital) I was certain and told Gil he needed to drive FAST (as if he wasn't already!).  I started to have a few flashbacks and kept reminding myself this wasn't Mikey.  We got to the hospital around 3 and baby came at 5:40 (plenty of time- even got me an epidural!).  I was pretty worried and had many questions:  Why am I in labor so early?  How much will he weight?  Will he need the NICU?  Will I have to stay in the hospital long?  And I knew our friends and family would all be surprised!  I still don't have answers to all of my questions, but soon after the birth many of my worries were relieved.  Luke weighed 6 lb 11oz.  Not bad for 36 weeks!  And most of all he was found to be perfectly healthy!!!  Praise God!!!  He and I both recovered splendidly.  He took a while to learn to nurse well, but now at ripe old age of one week is doing great.  He is just perfect and we feel blessed beyond measure.

Luke Kirby was a martyred saint from the 1500's in England.  Gil really wanted to use Kirby and when he found it was a saint name he was sold (Gil plans to call him 'The Kirbs').  And we both love the name Luke.  It is hard to believe we have another member of the family and now have FOUR kids under our roof!