three bargerons.

It has been twenty-one days since our world was turned upside down in more ways than we ever saw coming. For nine months, we anxiously awaited the arrival of our firstborn child and dreamed of what it would be like for him to be ours. Five days before our expected due date, early on a Monday morning, TJ + I loaded up Becca and excitedly drove to the hospital. We giggled the whole way there at the reality of parenthood being upon us, and were admitted as soon as we got there. The giggles quickly went away when my contractions decided to go from zero to ten in no time at all, and I remember telling myself over + over again not to despise the pain because it was helping me prepare for the greatest joy I had ever known: our baby boy.

After several hours of contractions + about forty-five minutes of pushing, Braxton Michael Bargeron entered the world at 5:33 p.m. on Monday, January 12th, 2015. He weighed seven pounds + eleven ounces, and was twenty-one-and-a-quarter inches long. His hair was bright blonde, and that first chirp we heard him make was the most beautiful sound we had ever heard.

And just like that, there were three Bargerons. Those first few moments together as a family are something I'll never, ever forget.