Welcoming a new family member

Happy back-to-school week! I hope you celebrated the last holiday weekend of summer with a sunny day of hiking, boating, strolling or other active activities.

This year I spent Labor Day celebrating no longer waiting to go into labor (tee-hee). We welcomed our latest, not so tiny, member of the Second Helpings family on Wednesday just before the dinner hour. He is already savvy enough to know that arriving during the day meant we could take his first photos under natural light to capture our best sides. What a thoughtful little guy!

Once again we were grateful for the option to have our baby at home. Labor felt imminent for several days prior to Wednesday. I decided to continue with normal activities until my body made me stop. Mid-afternoon on Wednesday, I concluded my discomfort was indeed labor and called my brother to pick up The Little Helping. A little less than an hour and a half later Scoop was born! If we had planned to deliver anywhere else we might have had another TV appearance. This would have been the headline: “Local food blogger delivers ‘Second Helping’ along Highway 99.”

The Little Helping spent the night with his grandparents and when he arrived home in the morning was eager to get a close up look at his brother. Within the first five minutes of meeting they grasped hands, rubbed noses and big brother attempted to poke little brother in the eye (unsuccessfully). I think they are going to get along just fine.

Life will not be the same but we are used to embracing changes. In the coming weeks we are looking forward to getting better acquainted with our newest family member and watching him transition from a wrinkled and squinty old man into himself. We feel very blessed.

Scoop stats:

9 pounds

20 inches

2-3 hour active labor (it was a fuzzy start)

Born at home, thank goodness!

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