Landon Browne Thomas is here!

Landon Browne Thomas arrived on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 4:24pm! He came in weighing 8 lbs., 1 oz (which is almost a pound and a half more than Grady weighed when he was born) and was 21 inches long.

I had a "back-up c-section" scheduled for Nov. 11 at 12:30pm (since doctors don't like VBAC patients going too far overdue), but ended up going into labor at about 4am that morning. After having contractions for about one hour at home, I knew almost immediately that this was definitely "the real thing!" That is one advantage of having been through labor before...you can definitely tell real labor pains from fake ones. We arrived at the hospital at about 6am (we were scheduled to be there at 10am for my c-section, so all of our paperwork was already done), and by about 9am I was 5 cm dilated (so my c-section was officially cancelled by my doctor). Carleen and Kevin (my sister and brother-in-law) came over to the hospital, and Carleen was able to use her doula skills to really help me out through the whole process (which was quite intense at times), and Kevin was a great support as well! Brandon was absolutely great as usual (and helped me through some very painful labor moments), and my parents and Brandon's mom and brother came to the hospital too, so I felt very supported all around! :) I finally got an epidural when I was about 8cm, so I got to rest for a couple hours before pushing. Pushing only lasted about 20 minutes.... Landon seemed to literally fly out, which was great! :) It was quite an emotional experience watching Landon being born, and I'm really happy things worked out the way they did and I was able to avoid a c-section this time around!

We were very lucky in that we had lots of family around the day Landon was born! My sister and brother-in-law (Carleen and Kevin) live in Hillsborough, so they were there with us all day. My parents drove up from Pinehurst, and Brandon's mom and brother came from Boone. My other sister and new niece (Kelly and Hannah) were even able to be there via the webcam, which was really neat! Thanks to all of them for helping us out that week! We also had some very special friends help us out with Grady that day, and we are forever grateful to them as well! :)

Grady loves his little brother so far! We were lucky in that he was able to come to the hospital and meet Landon the night he was born.... He was very excited to finally meet the little guy who had been in "Mommy's tummy" for so long. He would always say that "the brother is eating Mommy's food!" :) He has been very gentle and loving with Landon, which has been so great! He always tells us that he wants to "pet Landon." Here are some pictures of them together.

Grady welcomed us home!