theZtree

Well, being 2.5 weeks early didn't stop our little 7.5lb 20.5 inches long guy from showing up. We made it to the hospital very casually at around 5:45am Monday morning and by 8:36pm Lucas had arrived. His arrival was noted and celebrated by many immediate family that had waited, rather impatiently, as we made it through the delivery process. There were no major complications though the epidural had slowed down contractions and the dreaded "baby vacuum" was threatened but never had to be used. Blessings were plentiful throughout Monica's pregnancy and they continued through the labor. We keep running into those little "God sightings" everywhere whether looking for them or not; we keep saying "well that worked out nicely, almost too nicely" or "wow, that's a weird coincidence" which generally means and should be deciphered as "wow, there's God pulling His stunts again."

About the only complications we've had at all is getting him to nurse right and having some jaundice. But we're supplementing with formula and have him in a bili blanket to fight off the jaundice, it looks like something right outta Star Trek- click here to learn more about jaundice. Here's a picture of him in the bili blanket.

Some of our visitors mention some similarities between father and son, but I don't see them.

Birth Certificate issued, he's finally legit.
Ok this picture may take you by surprise, but for fun time I often play video games with some friends so this picture I photoshopped for their benefit. You might just want to quickly scroll to the next one :D

I'm not sure what else to say other than thanks for all the prayers we've received. As was mentioned we've been counting so many blessings that we're losing track (need to get em' written down)! Our nurses at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar MO were great, and having the whole process done in one room was great (no room transfers and the baby can stay in the room as much as you want). We'd love you all to meet out strawberry-blonde boy. No, we're not sure where the strawberry blondeness comes from, maybe too many strawberry limeades from Sonic?
His name is derived from Luke (as in the Gospel author) who was a physician who described our Lord as the Great Physician (quite well observed during this whole pregnancy labor process). Mark is for Monica's father who has been observed as being a "pretty good guy" to underscore his countenance and demand for goodness and honorable approach. Yea, hearing the boy's name pronounced did hit Monica's dad right in the soft spot. :D Also, you'll notice that our son's initials are LMA, which is likened to the initials for "Les & Monica Allard" just to throw in another little detail into how his name was envisioned. A visitor noted that, "you guys put way too much thought into stuff" which is pretty accurate. And no, if we have another son someday, his name will not be "Matthew John" just to make sure we cover all four Gospels! (though that is a cool idea, maybe i'll regress on that statement)
I'll leave you with one last picture to show him off, as i'm hitting writers block and missing my boy, maybe i'll write more in later.