Naming Ruark

We knew his name would be Ruark but we couldn't decide on a middle name. We plan on naming our girl Charlize after Chase, and so we thought maybe name him after me, Nicholas. We tried everything for a middle name...Daniel, David, Kristoff, Christofer, Nicholas, Gary, Eugene, Charles, Kevin, Aiden, Xavier, Christian, Wendell, Jack...and so on. The night before we checked out we asked him all those names out...we tried calling him those names and nothing fit. Every time we used one of those other names, he made a face. Finally we had no more ideas, when I all of a sudden thought what about Chase, we never really thought about naming him Chase. And when we called him Ruark Chase Andrews, we got goosebumps and Ruark gave us the biggest smile. Call it gas or whatever you will...he knew his name and he picked it out. We had no choice, he was a little Chase everyone who came to see Ruark couldn't stop gushing how much he was the spitting image of Chase. The only ones who didn't agree were Chase's family...which was a little odd! So here he is, Ruark Chase Andrews!

Finally here

Well, after all the things I tried to go into labor, all I got was weeks of contractions, no sleep and NO BABY! I was finally able to go into the hospital at 11:30 PM December 30th, 2008. They started the pitocin right away, two hours of contractions later Chase found liquid all over the floor...the pitocin wasn't plugged into my IV, medicine was running all over the floor. I was contracting all on my own. YEA! At 2:00 am the pitocin finally got started and away we went!


At 4 I was almost at a 4, so they gave me some Stadol so I could sleep until the anesthesiologist was able to get to the hospital. I could barely wake up to get the epidural! I was so tired, Chase held me up to get the epidural and then put me back to sleep. I was so loopy from the Stadol all I could talk about was Lego Batman! Which I played like crazy the last few days! At 9:00 I was almost there, at 10:30 they started waking me up because it was almost time. Chase was putting cold washcloths on my face trying to wake me up!


This picture was taken when they woke me up to start pushing. It had been a LONG night for all of us! Mom, Chase, my sister Angela and Danielle were all there coaching and helping me. It was the coolest experience!

10:55 I started pushing...20 minutes later Ruark was here!!! He was the most beautiful newborn I had ever seen! LONG, DARK hair and SO beautiful. Chase didn't think he was very cute at first, I had forgotten to explain that they're gray and covered with gook when they come out. He was definitely relieved when he started to "pink"up and get even cuter! Ruark just layed on my belly and stared into our eyes, he was so calm.

What a Proud Papa!

December 31, 20081:15 am

6 pounds 10 ounces

20 inches long

How thankful and lucky are we that our son has so many people who love him! Chase's mom Susan, and little sister Sadie were out in the waiting room during the delivery. We were so glad they were able to experience the first moments of Ruark's life!

My dad was just around the corner from the hospital, he couldn't believe it was over so quickly, none of us could! He ran right over to hold his newest grandson, he was the thirteenth in my family, and seventh in Chase's. I can't wait to do it again!