Our newest farm hand!

It’s a boy! Introducing Elias Anton Groves.. born on Sunday morning, 8lbs 7oz.

Mom and son (and dad) are doing well. Just going through that sleep-deprivation stage with newborns.

Newborns are so wonderful. I mean, so, so wonderful. Elias is darling and snuggly and squeaks a lot. We landed on his name just on Monday morning. We had been stumped for 9 months trying to come up with a boy’s name. My great uncle’s name was Ellis, and that was in the running. Ivar liked Elliot. We also thought about Elijah, but none of these names felt right. Then finally one morning Rory said, “how about Elias?” We had heard it once before, but it’s not a family name. Immediately, I felt my heart swell and knew we had finally landed on his name. Something about it felt right to us.

We looked up the meaning and found that Elias is an alternate spelling (Greek) of Elijah, which means “Jehovah is God”. We later found out that Elias is the source name for Ellis and Elliot (!!).

We will likely call him Eli, but for now I am trying to use Elias, mostly so I remember it! It’s a new name to us, not any of our family, so I have to go through my own foggy memory to remember…Elias. Mostly we call him “Alden…I mean, Elias” and likely will the rest of his life. 🙂

Rory’s great grandfather was named Anton. And his grandfather’s middle name was Anton.

The nurses that delivered Elias were the same two who delivered Alden two years ago and we all remembered each other. I ordered french toast four times after delivery, as well as three different omelets and bacon every time with everything. The hospital food service people kept saying to me, “it’s nice to find someone who likes hospital food. We’ll be sure to tell the workers in the kitchen.”

And now we’re back home, just the three of us. We just woke up from a good nap in our own bed which was wonderful. Rory said, “sure beats the school bus seat cushions I slept on the last two nights.” The kids will come back from Mimi and Papa’s tomorrow, and then life will pick right back up, I’d imagine. But we’re ready for it.

We’re going to have corn on the cob and tomatoes and mozzarella for dinner now and then I’ll go take a bath in my super clean tub. And then we’ll try sleeping for a few hours at a time all night long, working on nursing, trying to get a good burp. I feel seasoned at this newborn thing, and yet it is amazing how awkward it can all feel at the same time. I changed him into an outfit before we left the hospital and he flailed all around. It felt like I was getting my sea legs back. So that’s what we’ll do this week. Elias and I will work as a team, finding our rhythm. And the fab four will come back and we’ll transform into a family of seven as we find our footing.

My heart is positively overflowing.