The Baby Is Here!

Well, the baby is here. And it's a girl! Katelynne Brooke Winward was born on April 30 in the early evening. She weighed 7lbs 3 oz and scored 8-9 on the newborn (self defense?) test. I only mention the score because she is going to need some pretty good reflexes to keep up/defend herself against her brothers.

As you know, we decided to wait until the delivery to find out the sex of the baby, and this ended up being a lot of fun. We still can't get over that fact that we have a girl. We're glad we waited to find out.

The delivery itself went extremely well. We arrived at the hospital at 2:30 pm, she was in a bed with an IV by 3:30, and the baby came at about 6:30. Maddy gladly had an epidural and a bit of pitocin, pushed 3 times, and we were done. She made it look easy. The nurses and doctor were great, and we expect to be discharged this afternoon.

Katelynne looks like a member of the family. We can see facial characteristics of all of our boys in her, and she seems to have a pretty easygoing temperament. So far so good.

To anyone curious about our living situation, it's a bit awkward right now. I (Nick) am still working Puerto Rico full-time, but we are hoping to relocate back to the States this summer. As such, it was convenient for us to send Maddy and the boys to Arizona for the baby delivery and allow the boys to be back in regular school. Maddy was having difficulty doing home school for the boys, handling the pregnancy, keeping Jaren happy, and getting bit by mosquitoes regularly at home, despite her willingness to keep doing it all. It just made a lot of sense for her and the boys to get to Arizona for family support and superior medical care, especially since our insurance benefits are the same in the US as PR.

Maddy's parents have been extremely generous to allow us to stay at their place temporarily, and I have continued working in Puerto Rico, but traveled with Maddy and the boys to Arizona and returned again this week for the delivery. I saved up vacation time and will stay here for two more weeks. In the meantime I am looking to transfer within J&J to the States or find a new position somewhere else. If you know of any jobs in the States (preferably AZ or west coast), I would love to learn about them. My LinkedIn profile is here.

We appreciate all your support and prayers. We have received more facebook comments and texts than we could possibly respond to individually, but it has been fun to read them all and feel your support.