IT’S A BOY! A beautiful little BOY! Harrison Matthew Spead entered the world on May 21, 2020 at 11:31 pm, weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and measuring 20.5 inches long. We could not believe he was a boy! Nor could we believe how incredibly fast he arrived. He has a full set of hair, beautiful tan coloring, and gorgeous blue eyes. So far, he has been a dream baby. He eats like a champ, sleeps like a rock, and mesmerizes his sisters 🙂 Best of all, we finally got to put the HMS monogrammed hat to use–after bringing it to the hospital with both girls. He is the most precious little person.

To back up a bit…Thursday, May 21 started out as the most ordinary day. We woke up around 7:30 and the girls climbed into bed with us. Vivi played with the babushka and Caroline tried on 6 pairs of my shoes. We snuggled, I had breakfast with them downstairs, then came back upstairs and signed on. I had a full day–conference calls, meetings with my boss, etc. I ate lunch with the girls and returned to my “office” to do more work to prep for my maternity leave. I signed off around 5:30 and joined Mike on the patio for dinner. He grilled burgers and veggies and we all ate outside. Afterwards, we played in the basement and face timed my parents around 7 pm. Around 7:30, I felt a few contractions, but didn’t think much of them, since I had had a few Braxton Hicks contractions earlier that week.

Around 8 pm, Mike put Vivi down while I helped Caroline get ready for bed. The contractions started picking up and I had a suspicion that this could be the night. So, I did something unheard of in our house…I walked into Vivi’s dark, quiet room and gave her a big hug and kiss, just in case I would be leaving for the hospital. I felt a little twinge when I was saying goodbye to my baby that the next time I saw her, she wouldn’t be my baby anymore–she’d be my middle! I also told Caroline when I kissed her good night that if we weren’t there in the morning, it was because we were having the baby. I think this really threw Mike off since I hadn’t said much about my contractions–the next thing he did was put Suelen on alert that this could be the night!

After the kids were both down, I started frantically preparing for Mike’s brother and dad coming to stay with us–their visit was set for Friday night and I wanted to be sure that if we were going to the hospital, that we left our house ready for guests. I threw in a load of laundry and Mike cleaned up the kitchen. Mike then asked, “Do you want to watch some Mad Men?” And I was like, “nooo…I think we should get ready for your family, just in case…” So we both prepped the house a bit.

Around 9:30 pm, I felt my water break and told Mike that we should head to the hospital. At this point I was a bit disheveled. Mike kept trying to get me out of the house and I kept trying to straighten things up. Until one strong contraction hit and then I was all, “we need to leave right now.” Suelen came upstairs and by this point, my contractions were strong enough for me to hug her goodbye, thank her for watching the little ladies, and tell her “never have babies–it hurts!”

En route to GW Hospital, I timed the contractions and they were about 6 minutes apart. I remember seeing 9:43 on the clock and then again feeling another at 9:49, then 9:55. We parked directly across the street from the hospital (one of the “perks” of having a baby during a global pandemic…free, close parking!) We donned our masks and entered the hospital with our suitcase. The team at the entrance took our temperatures and we headed up to Labor and Delivery. They had me fill out paperwork and I was already so uncomfortable during the contractions that my brain was angry I had to do anything with papers. After what felt like forever, they brought us back around 10:10. At once point, I checked my phone and saw that Chrissy had texted me and said if this kid was gonna share her birthday, I had 2 hours to push out that baby!

First things first–a COVID test (ouch!) and they checked to see that my water had indeed broken (much to my surprise, they said no) and told me I was already 8 cm along. I begged for an epidural as the contractions picked up. I wanted nothing to do with laying down–I only wanted to stand up and push against Mike. They moved us into the delivery room and I kept breathing through the contractions (and my mask, auggh) in between begging (literally, begging) for an epidural…at one point I actually asked, “is there really someone further along than me right now??”

FINALLY someone announced that Malcom, the anesthesiologist, arrived, and I almost cried tears of joy. Mike said to him, “you are about to become my wife’s favorite person.” It’s true! The minute I got the epidural, everything felt so perfect. I was relaxed, and nice again to the docs and nurses and to Mike. Someone came in and announced that my COVID test was negative so I could remove my mask. I thought that was funny because now, with the painful contractions over, it didn’t matter. At one point I asked what time it was and someone said it was around 11:15. I remember thinking, ok, well there is no way it will be here before midnight, so it will share Vivi’s 18 month birthday on May 22. But then one of the docs said, ok, give me a big push! She counted a few times and I just did what I was told. Everyone was so nice and saying I was doing a good job.

Then all of a sudden, I saw this tiny squirmy body on mine and heard crying. I was so relieved! Then Mike called out, “It’s a boy!” I looked right at him and said, “oh good! now you get a boy!” I couldn’t stop smiling. Apparently I also said he was tiny, which Mike thought was funny–he actually wasn’t that small, but the minute I saw him, I knew he was smaller than Vivi and I suspected smaller than Caroline, too. The time of delivery was 11:31 pm. I couldn’t believe it. I looked at Mike and we were like, did we just have a baby?? It was all just so fast! I mean, we’d only been at the hospital for 80 minutes!

Our very first phone call was to Grandpa Harry, to let him know he had a new grandson AND his name was Harrison Matthew. He was so excited and alert (even though it was 12:30) and it was one of my favorite memories, talking to him from the hospital room where I’d just delivered our son. Next up, we called my parents, who were SO EXCITED we had a boy. Then we called Suelen, Louis, Matt, and Tommie, to let them know. Everyone was so happy for us! Suelen of course had known it was a boy the whole time!

The nurses came and weighed Harrison–I had guessed he’d be 7 lbs 4 oz, and Mike guessed 7 lbs 6 oz (same as Caroline), but he was 7 lbs 13 oz, and 20.5 inches long. Perfect in every way!

I sent this text message to Joy, Chrissy, Lee, Meg, and Kelly: “5.21.20, 11:31 pm, 20.5 inches, 7 lbs, 13 oz.” I figured when they woke up, they would see it 🙂

Post-delivery, Mike got a little boy mischievous look in his eye and said, “is the VIP room available?” Each time we’d had a baby, he has asked for this room, and each time, it was not available…until now. They said, “you’re in luck! it’s open!” There was no arguing with Mike and I said good thing this is our grand finale baby. I have to admit, it was so nice having a whole wall of windows with a great view. Ironically, we got the biggest room the only time we had a baby where we couldn’t have any guests come to the hospital!

They wheeled us to our fancy VIP room where Mike fell asleep so fast on the luxurious couch (such an upgrade from the recliner they had him in the last 2 times)–he was exhausted after such a big day. I was too excited to sleep. It was all so surreal–I was thinking, normally now we would have just gone to bed after watching Mad Men…and now we have a new baby!

The next morning, we called so many people to tell them about Harrison’s arrival. We snuggled him and let him sleep on our chests. We face timed Caroline and Vivi and showed them their new baby brother…Caroline said he was “sooo cute” and then wanted to talk about the strawberry yogurt I had on my tray 😉 We ordered room service and watched TV and I took a stroll around the L&D floor with my mask on, helped myself to buckets of the BEST ice ever…have I mentioned I LOVE hospital vacation?? I feel like all I did was stare at him. Wonder at how perfect he was. The day went so fast!

The next night, we really got to hear Harrison’s lungs put to work! He seemed a bit more fussy and let out more than a few high pitched squeals/screams. I also took a shower, which felt delightful. We ordered room service turkey dinner which was phenomenal. Our goal was to have his circumcision and try to get home by noon so we could overlap with John, Eva, and Harry, who were at our house en route to Massachusetts. The morning went smoothly and we checked out around 1:15 pm. We dressed Harrison in his carefully-selected whaley-cute onesie and loaded up our little boy for his big trip home.

Here we are outside of our room on the way out the door:

When we pulled up to our house, this beautiful stork greeted us! Such a sweet gift from Ed & Susan 🙂

And the best moment of all–Harry, meet your newest grandson, Harrison. Three generations of Spead gentlemen.

Next, Suelen got to meet Harrison! She was so cute with him…probably whispering, “I knew the whole time you were a boy!” 🙂

Later in the afternoon, Vivi woke up from her nap and met Harrison. She loved him right away and couldn’t stop touching him.

Then, Caroline joined in the lovefest and kept saying, “Hi Baby Harrison! You look so cute in this outfit!”

Harrison took it all in stride. This little guy is gonna have a LOT of sisterly love to get used to.

Welcome to the world, Harrison Matthew! The world needs the likes of you right about now. We are so glad you’re in the family 🙂