Welcome home George!

George Patrick Fuhriman has arrived! He was born Sunday, August 8, 2010. He was 8 lbs, 4 ounces and 21 inches long. He has ten fingers, ten toes and one...well, he's definitely a boy! It's probably a little too soon to be sure, but his eyes look like they'll be blue and he's got a tiny bit of dark brown hair.

Now here's how it happened...

AS many of you know, the baby wasn't due to be born until August 11--which is tomorrow. Helen's mom, Lorie, came into town on Thursday, August 5th to help out with everything going on. At about 8:30 on Saturday night we were all hanging out at the house, and Helen decided she'd like to invite some friends over to watch a movie. (One of these friends happens to be a Massage Therapist, and Helen thought it might be nice to have a little foot rub.) As Helen was walking out the door to go invite the Skinners over, Charlotte started to cry and Helen turned to see what the problem was. As she turned around, Helen lost her footing on our stairs and started to fall. She grabbed hold of a stroller that happened to be right outside our house and of course the stroller rolled out from under her leaving her sprawled on the cement driveway. Lorie heard the fall and went running outside where 4 or 5 of our neighbor kids were standing there with their jaws on the floor--totally speechless. I came out and we helped Helen up. She told us that the brunt of the fall was on her arms and her legs but she did land on her tummy. After some deep thought and a quick call to the nurse's hotline, Helen and I decided to leave Charlotte here with MeMe Lorie and go to the hospital--just to make sure everything was alright.

We got to the hospital at about 10:00 pm and the nurses hooked Helen up to a bunch of machines to make sure everything was alright. They told us they didn't think anything was wrong, but that they'd like to watch us for an hour and then call our doctor to see what he'd like to do. After an hour they came back and told us that our doctor decided to keep her at the hospital for observation for 6 hours following her fall, which meant we'd be there until 2:30 am. Helen and I both tried to get some sleep and then at about 3:00 am they came and told us that our doctor had called and told the nurses that he was planning on being at the hospital that day anyway, and if it was okay with us, he'd be happy to go ahead and induce Helen now instead of waiting until Wednesday!

By this time, Helen and I had been at the hospital for about 5 hours already so we decided to go for it! They put her on some medicine to induce labor and about 6 and a half hours later, she was ready to have the baby. After about 5 minutes of pushing, George was born at 9:54 am. Pretty crazy turn of events, but we were thrilled to have George here three days early! And let's face it, 8/8/10 is  much easier to remember than 8/11/10, so that was a bonus.

We're not sure if Charlotte really understands what's going on, but she seems to like spending time with her little brother. We're all at home now, and everyone seems to be doing really well.

Helen was absolutely amazing through it all. She never paniced and she handled labor like a real champ. And she looked absolutely gorgeous every step of the way. 

We're really excited to have George in our little family. Special thanks to MeMe Lorie who has been a huge help through all of this, Auntie Darci and Cousin Wendy who both helped with transportation and taking care of Charlotte while we were in the hospital, and to all of our friends and family who have sent their love and congratulations. We can't wait for all of you to be able to meet this little guy in person.