Hello, World! (again)

Nicolas William Hajjar

On Sunday, 09-05-2010 at 01:37 AM EDT, we were blessed with the birth of our son, Nicolas William Hajjar. Like his big sister Eva, Nicolas was delivered at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Frederick, MD. But quite unlike his big sister, Nicolas' birth was indeed a vaginal birth. He decided to be a good boy and not wrap his cord around his neck.

Nicolas was SO anxious to bust out that he decided to try to escape early. And unfortunately for Sarah, it was too late for her to partake in the use of pain-reducing medications during labor and delivery. But she was amazing. The birth felt more like a raucous sporting event than what I would have imagined a traditional birth to be. We were all yelling "PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!" and "GO! GO! GO!" and encouraging Sarah the whole way along. The actual pushing only took about five minutes, much to Sarah's relief.

Nicolas weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 21 1/4 inches in length. His first name is that of my dad, who left this life in 1994. His middle name is the name Sarah's uncle, PFC William Leon Carey, Jr. who gave his life fighting for the USA during World War II. The name William is also Sarah's dad's middle name.

Out and About

Nicolas popped out so quickly that I had not had time to grab the camera (my hands were full with all of the other items we thought we were going to need for labor). I took these pictures after he was taken to the nursery for a checkup.

Bad Hair Hour!

After Nicolas was checked out and stuck under a heat lamp, the nurse washed his hair. I think he took it quite well!

Back to the Heat Lamp

Nicolas spent some more time "warming up." It was not long after this that Sarah was patched up enough that she was able to breastfeed him. Her recovery, thank God, has been impressive.