Our newest arrival

It has been over a month since his arrival. And like anything or anyone that comes into our lives, it is hard to imagine what life was like without him. He fills a hole we didn’t know we had until he came.
Taivan Joseph Loveland was born at 12:56 p.m. on June 21st. He was nine days early, but I had been expecting his birth for a few days—or at least hoping for it. My water broke about 5 a.m. so I was able to have most of a nights sleep instead of laboring through the night like I usually do. And it was nice to know I needed to head to the hospital instead of waiting around wondering if I was in labor since this is the first time we lived thirty minutes from the hospital. 
Tom and I were able to finally settle on a name between contractions on the way to the hospital. Taivan  (rhymes with Ivan) comes from the Mongolian (where Tom served his mission)word enkhtaivan (transliterated) which means peaceful. All of our other children were named quite traditional names with traditional spellings so we were really stepping out on a limb with this name. It fits his personality so far.
Something interesting that I don’t want to forget about is that this little boy, for whatever the reason, would wiggle and squirm so much with each contraction through the whole labor and consequently the heart monitor did not read correctly until I held it in place by hand, which I did a couple of times so the nurses and doctor could get a good reading to know that he was doing fine.
He weighed 7 pounds and 13.5 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.
Here is a picture of him that first day, still a little swollen after birth.

Proud Mama with her long awaited bundle

Even prouder Daddy holding his third son.

Thought this was cute and had to take a picture. Something so precious about little babes holding onto fingers.

Lu Lu is a big sister again. Pretty happy moment for her.

Jenny is pretty excited about this little boy, too. She can’t stand to hear him crying.

And the big brother who waited for one little brother now has two.

Here he is at almost two weeks old.

Had to share this picture of his long fingers, the one trait I can pinpoint as coming from me. The rest of him seems to be his father all the way.

Except for maybe his jaundice.

Tommy has adjusted so much better than I ever expected him to. No real sibling jealousy like I thought. He has just loved and adored and touched his little brother “Taiv” on the head so many times. Tommy touches Taivan on the head every time he sees him pretty much. I was wondering why Tommy seemed to adjust so easily a couple of weeks after Taivan came home. And the thought came to me that Tommy had been waiting for his brother to come and join him in our family and now he was finally here.
Love the little baby feet sticking out

And I love this picture. Both enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap together.

Taivan is such a good little baby. Easily comforted. Doesn’t really cry much. Doesn’t really keep us up at night. Fun to hold. Wait. I think that one is a given and my unfolded laundry is evidence of that. I love this picture of Matthew snuggling Taivan.

Oh, and this is Taivan at one month and one day. He loves taking baths and he becomes so calm when I put him in the water. As you can see, he is starting to fill out in the cheeks and under his chin. Oh, how we love and adore this baby boy!