IT'S A BOY!

Austin Charles Gargalis
8 lbs. 7 oz. 20 3/4" long
Sunday, August 9, 2009, 5:51 p.m.
Proud Parents: Greg & Melissa Gargalis

Melissa called us Sunday morning at about 7:30 to put us on stand by because she'd been having contractions since 2:30 a.m. and this time seemed to be the real thing. She wanted to try and go to church at 8:30, which she did while her contractions were 10 minutes apart. After 3 false alarms to the hospital, she wanted this to be the real thing. Since our church was at 10:00 we opted to once again be on stand-by rather than go to church only to have to leave. She called back before 10 and they were getting stronger, then a half hour later she wanted us to come.

She got to the hospital dilated to 4 cm and 90% effaced so she was relieved when they admitted her and immediately started her epidural. She got it just before the brutal double-peaking contractions began so she was pleased to watch them on the monitor instead of feel them. Her labor progressed effortlessly, and at 5:51 baby Austin arrived.

He looks exactly like Dylan with even more dark hair and better sideburns. He has Luke's dimple on the left and one of his very own on the right. He is such a sweet combination of his big brothers.

We bathed the boys and put them in their p.j.'s and went to visit at about 8:00. Melissa wasn't in her room yet and when we arrived the nurse was finishing up Austin's bath and scrubbing that head full of hair. Once she dried him off she put him under the warm lights and that's when we got to meet him.

Luke and Dylan were fascinated by their new brother.
Our darling Melissa and her third baby boy. They wanted to be surprised by the baby's sex. Since her pregnancy and labor were so different I was beginning to think it might be a girl after all. It is fun that her sister has 3 girls, and her brother has one of each.
Today I met Melissa and Greg at the hospital with the boys and they were so happy to see their baby brother and their parents. Greg took them to lunch at Burger King and let them play for awhile and I got to stay and hold Austin, who was alert for over an hour.
He is so bright eyed. . . . . .and check out these sideburns!
Austin is our 4th grandson, so now our total is 8, with 4 of each. Interestingly, the girls were all late and the boys were all early. Austin was early by one day.
They came home tonight, 24 hours later. The boys were so happy to have them home.
I asked Luke if he wanted to hold the baby, and he said, "No, I just want to play with him a little bit". He is so sweet and loving, but Greg and Melissa will have their hands full teaching their rough and tumble boys to be sweet and soft. Greg already said, "No head-butting the baby". LOL.
Dylan loves cars and went and got his prized bucket filled with them and put a car on Austin and said, "Here go baby". It was such a darling 2-yr old gift of love.
Now the trick will be just hoping he doesn't dump the entire bucket on the baby! That's how Dylan loves to play- dumping out and filling up a bucket or container with cars, trains, blocks, action figures or whatever toy he's playing with.

It's been a long few weeks, but we are so happy to welcome this new baby to the family, and especially grateful he came in time so that we can leave on Wednesday to go up to Utah for Ben's BYU graduation!