Welcome Tilley-Gray

Tilley-Gray Gwyneth Cheek, the second love of my life, arrived in fantastic style Thursday, December 1, at 5:00 pm.  She was 8 pounds and 21.75 inches beautiful.  Lindsey did an amazing job and she is such a wonderful mom.  

This is Grayson, better known here as "The Husband."  Lindsey asked that I please update all of you because she wants to share this special moment in our lives.  I have tried to wrap my head around how to tell the greatest story of our lives.  I have decided to give you what I can and Lindsey will fill in the rest.  Here goes:

Serendipitous is the only word I can find to describe the unfolding of this beautiful story.  To start, Lindsey was scheduled to be induced Thursday morning.  We were to call the hospital at 5:00 am to see if a bed was available, but Lindsey went into natural labor at 3:30 am.   Her water broke at home just an hour later, which  was so important to Lindsey, as she wanted to give birth as naturally as possible (with the absolute exception that she accept the gift of an epidural).   Today was meant to be the day.  

I gathered our bags, numerous as they were, and helped Lindsey to the car to travel the 1.8 miles to the hospital.  We were having our baby TODAY.  This is where things got even better.  In our delivery room we were introduced to our nurse named, and get this, Fifi.  No, kidding!  So here we are with two Fifis in the room, and they both instantly had a calm sense of purpose about them.  

Lindsey labored until about 3:40 pm when Fifi told her that it was time to start pushing - we were about to have our beautiful baby girl.  This prompted Lindsey to tell Fifi that she needed 15 minutes to hot roll her hair and do her makeup.   Lindsey would not have Tilley-Gray arrive to anything other than her mother at her absolute best.  She is the most beautiful mother there ever was (this shot was taken seconds after we became a family). 

Lindsey pushed for one hour and our little girl arrived with the prettiest, fullest head of brown hair.  She is going to give her father so many happy days and a ton of gray hair. 

The photos in this post were taken by Millie Holloman.  Up until Thursday, Lindsey and I were fortunate enough to call Millie a close friend.  Now, she is simply part of our family.  Millie, who is in my opinion the world's best photographer, was the only other person in the room with us.  She, in addition to capturing the special moments you see here, was also helping Lindsey count through her contractions.  After Tilley-Gray's arrival, I saw her with camera in one hand and bulb syringe in the other.  She was wonderful.  

Today we are a happy family of Three.  There are so many more details that I want to share, but Lindsey is excited about coming back.  I will save the rest for her.  In the meantime, here is one more picture of one proud father who just fell in love all over again.