Earlier than expected

Niels Christopher Rowland 

was born on Friday, May 3rd.  He weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. and measured 21 inches long.

 Hattie was peeking in his diaper and telling me he went poo poo.

 These were the best pictures I could get of Hattie.  She was just being silly the whole time.

Niels was born 16 days early, so I was a little surprised when I woke up feeling contractions around 2:30 am.  I arrived at the birthing center around 4:15 a.m. and Niels was born at 7:39 a.m.  I have had all of my babies naturally, so when the pushing is over and they place the baby on my chest, it is such a relief to be done.    Everything went really well, and we came home later that afternoon.

It took us a few days to decide on a name.  We had it narrowed down to two, but couldn't decide what we liked best.  Brendan liked the name Niels from a ski movie he watched.  When I looked it up online, it said it was a Danish name that was popular in Denmark.  When I told my Mom about that name she reminded me that was my great great grandpa's name, Niels Rasmussen, who immigrated from Denmark when he was 12 years old and his mom died crossing the plains.  I liked the idea of using a family name, so Niels it was.  Christopher is Brendan's brother's name.

Hazel and Hattie love having a brother.  When they came in and saw him for the first time Hazel said, "Look at his hands they are so small.  Oh and his feet are so cute, but my favorite are his hands because they are small like my doll's."  Hattie can be a little rough with him, but she loves to hold him.  It's crazy we have three kids, but we love them all!