TaylorMade: Larkin's Birth Day

Well, my due date came and went and I remained quite large. The doctor said my body was ready for labor but it wasn't happening on its own, so they gave me the option to induce. Yes, please! We tried scheduling it for Tuesday, July 6th (the Dalai Lama's birthday, so fitting) but the hospital was "booked". So we moved it to Thursday. But the baby had plans of his own. I sent Phillip to work Tuesday and did my usual routine: work out, laundry, some cleaning. But I was more tired than usual. Turns out the little guy really wanted to be born on the Dalai Lama's Birthday! Of course I didn't think after all this time of "any day now" that I could possibly be in labor, especially since the pain started out at 1 - 4 minutes apart. I was supposed to call the doctor when they were 3 - 5 minutes apart... we skipped right over that phase! But Phillip made it home in time and I ordered my epidural from the car (to the great amusement of all the hospital staff) so once I got there it was smooth sailing. After 5 and a half hours of labor (thank you Jesus!) we had our little shortstop.

I'm posting this picture because it's the first of our family, but oh my gosh. Don't judge me after getting massive IV's pumped into me until I swelled like a parade balloon. Yuck.

Phillip is a natural!

Meet Larkin Lawrence Taylor!
Born July 6th, 2010 at 8:03 pm. 7 lbs 9 oz 20 3/4 inches long

We kept Larkin's name to ourselves the entire pregnancy. The truth of it is, I'm a big Barry Larkin fan, and for as long as I can remember I have planned on naming my son Larkin (I also liked the name, I'm not a scary Barry stalker). In college Phillip and I would joke about it, but he is a Red's fan also so we agreed it was a possible name for any offspring we might have in the distant future. Fast forward to actually picking a name for our son, and we debated a few things, but really it was our number one choice all along. We literally told NO ONE until the nurses asked in the delivery room. And I still swore them to secrecy. Lawrence is Phillip's grandfather's name and the Taylor's talk about how great he was so I was happy to have a special family name to pass on to our guy. Then when our families came to see him for the first time we were able to introduce Larkin Lawrence.

With Papaw and Grandma ?? My mom wants to wait to see what he'll call her.

Larkin with his Grammy and Gramps. He's grandson #2 on this side and has already been called Lleyton - his 8 month old cousin's name - plenty of times. Since we love Lleyton so much, we don't mind if they get names mixed up sometimes.