Announcing...

Oliver Henry Daniel Hwang has arrived! Our little boy was born on January 5th, 2011 at 7:34 AM. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and measured 20 1/4 inches long!

We are all doing well, despite an extreme lack of sleep! We feel so blessed to have this precious baby boy in our home and he truly lights up our lives. Here are some pictures from his first day of life:

If you have no interest in birth stories.. feel free to skip the end of this post :) But I know some of you might be curious.. so here it is..

My due date was Tuesday the 4th and subsequently I went into labor that night. Tony was just heading out to play basketball with his friends, and my mom and I were hanging out. I think we were watching football and I was doing some laundry. All of the sudden around 7:30 PM I started having lower back pain. In waves. About every 5 minutes apart. It didn't feel like the Braxton Hick's contractions I had been having for the past several weeks. No matter what position I moved in to, they didn't go away. For some reason I wasn't willing to admit it was labor just yet. I sent Tony a text message asking him to check up on me in half an hour because I might be going into labor but I wasn't sure. My mom kept telling me that I looked like a woman in labor. I told Tony it was probably time to head home and he did. We left for the hospital around 9:30 PM. I came to the realization that the contractions were just going to get worse and I didn't really want to be experiencing them on the 30 minute drive to the hospital.

At the hospital they started monitoring me and the nice nurse taught Tony where to give me counter pressure for during the contractions. The midwife came in and checked my cervix and told me that I was dilated to 7 centimeters. I thought that was awesome news.. and figured that the labor would proceed pretty quickly.

Well.. I was wrong obviously. Our doula met us at the hospital and I began the real work of labor. I labored on a birthing ball, in my bathtub, and then in a huge tub all the while with the assistance of Tony, our awesome doula Lena, and my mom giving me counter pressure in my back. The time just kind of all runs together in my memory. I remember falling asleep between contractions because I was so exhausted while I was in the big tub. They were having a hard time monitoring the baby's heart rate because I kept leaning forward through the pain and it would move the monitor and stop tracking. I eventually had to go back to my labor room to make sure they could track him better. I remember seeing a clock in the hallway and thinking to myself.. Is it REALLY 5 AM?!? What is taking so long?

After another cervical check I was at 8 centimeters and the midwife recommended that now was a good time to break my water. I remember being scared because I knew it would make labor more intense.. yet at the same time I was so ready to be done with it all that I was ready to get over the hard part already. Having my water broken was weird. And it made me throw up. Within an hour I was ready to push. That was such a strange sensation. All of the sudden my body knew what to do. My mom and Lena encouraged me, all the while telling me I was doing a good job. That was so reassuring because this was the scariest part of labor for me.

I remember the pain being so intense, and I felt like the baby was almost ready to come out. I was going a little faster than everyone expected because our doula said, "I can see his head!" and then everyone started rushing into action! Just a few minutes later and our baby was born. I had my eyes closed through almost everything and it was so incredible to open them and see him being placed on my chest. I'll never forget that feeling of relief and absolute awe as I looked at him for the first time.

I can't stop thinking about the incredible process of pregnancy and bearing a child. It is such a miracle and so humbling to me to be entrusted with this little one.

Welcome, Oliver. We're so glad you've come to join our family :)