On July 25th at 6 p.m. we welcomed Samuel to the Olsen Clan. He was 20″ long and 7lbs 6oz. This means he was born 2.5 weeks early (kinda glad because he would’ve been a big baby). Here is the, not so brief, story behind that:

Thursday we went in for the standard prenatal exam after eating a late lunch. Kristen’s blood pressure was high and had elevated protein levels. The midwife told us she wanted to have Kristen monitored at labor and delivery. Between 5 and 9 they watched her blood pressure as well as test the levels in her body. At 9 we were told they believed she has preeclampsia and told us the treatment for it was to deliver. We trusted their judgement and decided to start inducing Kristen into labor. They got us all situated and started her treatment with an IV that included magnesium sulfate to fight the elevated blood pressure. After that they got her started on something to get her to induce. We quickly came up with a list of stuff for me to go and grab, as we hadn’t had the chance to pack a bag beforehand, and I went home to get it. We spent the whole night not getting much sleep as Kristen started to have contractions. We spent all day Friday doing this and the midwife wanted to break the her water but didn’t because Samuel was still not low enough. Come early Saturday morning the inducing was having less of an effect so she was taken off for a few hours and we were able to get a good amount of sleep. They then restarted her later in the morning and had her try to walk around to get Samuel to drop a little. This had the desired effect and one of the doctors came in and broke her water. Labor progressed much quicker from this point as the contraction started becoming stronger. A little after 5 Kristen was ready to start pushing and at 6 p.m. sharp Samuel was born. Everything went great and we have a healthy mom and baby. After two days they discharged both of them and were told to get lots of rest these next two weeks. We’re all really excited to start this new season of life.

Go to the photo gallery to see a few pictures of this guy.