Introducing Aaron Kenneth Peterson

Vital Statistics
Date: Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Time: 9:06 pm
Weight: 8 lbs, 2 oz
Length: 20 1/4 inches

After hours of fighting to stay inside, Aaron was finally born last night. Diana's contractions started at 3am Thursday morning, growing in frequency and intensity until about 6pm. (We got to the hospital at 10am) At 6pm, the doctor "broke the bag" at 6 cm and she was fully dilated by 7pm and pushed with gusto until 9:06pm. All without any medications. Truly amazing!

We have obviously been getting ready for this for the last 9 months (plus an extra week) and have had plenty of time to get physically ready, buying all the stuff, setting up the house, installing the car seat, but I was not ready for the wave of emotion that came seeing Aaron enter the world in such a dramatic fashion and seeing Diana holding him for the first time (picture below). Wow is all I can say!

We did not know if Aaron was going to be a boy or a girl until last night, so naturally we had to have a boy's and a girl's name ready. (Diana has been determining our children's names since before we got married and has our first three boys and girls named) This, of course, did not come without a long discussion. Since I am partial to boys, I was more involved in the boys names and am particularly excited about Aaron Kenneth.

I like Biblical names and want each of our children to have names that have meaning and purpose. Aaron was chosen because we both liked the name, but also because there are a number of Aarons in our lives that we respect and admire. Aaron was also a strong spiritual leader for the Israelite people in the Bible and I want our Aaron to be a spiritual leader in his family and community. Kenneth was my dad's name and I wanted to honor his memory by using his name, particularly when our due date was May 13th, which is the day that he died. The name Kenneth means "handsome" or "good-looking," which our son already is, but my innermost desire and prayer is to see Aaron's life mimic the courage, determination and passion that my father had (and good looks too :).

So, welcome into the world Aaron and may God grow you into an amazing man after Your own heart.