Family of Four

He's here!  Our beautiful boy is here: Hezekiah James Horn.

Kai was born on Thursday, October 24, and we couldn't be happier to have this precious little man join our family!  He's a bundle of joy, a big bundle of joy, and we can't stop kissing and hugging and snuggling this sweet boy who's changing our life.

After waiting the full 40 weeks of a typical pregnancy, we were eager and ready to meet our baby.  We didn't know if we were having a boy or girl and we were beyond excited to find out!  That, combined with the fact that my doctor was eager to get this kid out of me for fear we were having another big baby (Caleb weighed 10lbs 2oz), we chose to get induced the day after my due date.  Sounds simple enough, right?  We had no idea what a long week we had in store...

We went to the hospital Monday morning for the induction.  Long story short, it didn't work.  We stayed overnight and tried being induced again on Tuesday, which failed again to bring our baby into the world.  One of the nurses joked that I must have an amazing uterus because our kiddo just didn't want to leave it!  But it was truly exhausting, mentally and emotionally and physically.  The anticipation of having a baby was replaced by fatigue and disappointment.  We were sent home Tuesday night with no baby in our arms.  I was still pregnant, and frustrated for being so.  We spent all of Wednesday at home with Caleb and then I returned to the hospital that night to begin another form of induction overnight.  That, combined with pitocin on Thursday morning, seemed to do the trick.  Third time's the charm!  By 6:19pm, our son finally decided it was time to meet us.

As it turns out, my doctor was right to worry that we had another big baby on the way.  Kai came into the world weighing a robust 10lbs 8.5oz!  We could hardly believe it!  When he was placed on the scale, which I couldn't see from my angle, Eli and the doctor and the nurse all started laughing.  When Eli told me how much our son weighed I thought he was joking.  Praise God that the labor and delivery went perfectly fine!  I'm crediting Caleb with prepping my body to deliver another big boy :)  We've got another moose baby on our hands!  We are thrilled, simply thrilled!

We named our son Hezekiah James.  We knew that choosing such a unique name would probably require an explanation, so here it is: first, I should probably confess that years ago, long before we were thinking of starting a family, we used to joke about having a kid and naming him Hezekiah because wouldn't that be hilarious?  Who would name their kid Hezekiah, right?  Haha!  Well, after joking about it for so long, the name actually started to grow on us until we downright liked it.  Then, when we found out what it meant, "strength of the Lord", we were even more intrigued.  And of course, King Hezekiah in the Old Testament is someone to be greatly admired.  "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel.  There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.  He held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses" (2 Kings 18:5-6).  Lastly, when we realized we could shorten his name to Kai, which we both love, we were sold.  Yes, Hezekiah is a bold and unique name choice, but we know it's a strong name and we are praying that our son will live up to the meaning of his name.

Caleb, who is 17 months, has been a little intrigued but mostly indifferent to his new brother.  Caleb had a long week too.  Between being entirely off-schedule all week (due to our being in the hospital twice as long as expected because of the failed inductions) and catching a nasty cold in the beginning of the week, he had enough to deal with.  So it's been up and down since Kai was born, but we are managing.  We're expecting him to adjust sooner than later and hoping that he'll find great joy in having his "little" brother around!

meeting the next moose baby :)

I love my boys!

We are so thankful for Kai's safe arrival and we know how incredibly blessed we are to have him in our life.  We praise God for creating him and for granting us the gift of caring for him in this lifetime.  He is absolutely precious and we are humbled to be his parents!