Welcome Christian Elijah!! (with pics galore -- and labor details below)

You know it takes guts to post this one! :)The tied up cord

Kate's lookin' a bit nervous here...

One of the few times his eyes have actually been open

So being induced was the greatest thing ever! The nurse asked me about my pain number (they make you constantly tell them what you rate your pain as -- 10 being the worst possible pain you can think of). I told her my pain was 0 (since I wasn't in labor), and she asked what I wanted it to be before I had an epidural. I immediately replied, "0." Everyone started laughing, but I was totally serious. They said no one had ever said that before. What?? This doesn't make any sense to me at all. Why would I want to be in pain if there is no reason to be? I already knew I wanted an epidural, so why wait until the pain became unbearable? Just for fun??

Anyway, I got the epidural right away. The epidural worked perfectly -- I could still move my legs and feel the contractions. I even felt the baby squish out, which was pretty cool. The worst that happened was I felt a little woozy and nauseated during labor. It wasn't bad. For me the most painful part was when the nurse put the IV in my hand. She messed up, and my blood went SPURTING everywhere. In seconds my hand was covered and so were the sheets. I glanced down at it, and that's when I really started feeling faint for the first time. Yech.

Andrew was great the whole time, getting me ice chips and jello on command. And now he's the proud daddy of #2! We bought The Office (season 4) for this birth. For Kate's birth we bought Seinfeld (Season 9). We only got to finish one complete Office episode, though! Dang! :) We watched it tons after delivery, though. I forgot to mention that we were a few minutes late leaving the house for the hospital, and when Andrew went to go start the car it wouldn't start! We thought that might be a bad omen of the inducement not working or something, but we jumped it and just went on our way -- and we were only 15 minutes late.

Pitocin started at 8am and by 10:30am I was dilated to a 9. The nurse was shocked that it went so fast. She had me start pushing a little before 11am. I pushed a couple times, and then she told me to STOP PUSHING. She called the doctor right away. He showed up five minutes later, had me push a couple more times and POP -- hello Christian Elijah! Out by 11:07 am and just in time for lunch!

His heart rate dipped near the end of labor, and they put an oxygen mask on me to help him. Well, when he came out his umbilical cord was tied in a knot! Strangely, the exact same thing had happened to Andrew when he was born.

It made me feel grateful that we had him induced (even though initially I had mixed feelings about it) -- you never know what might have happened if we had waited. Also very glad that he slid out as fast as he did; the doctor said that if it had taken much longer, it would have gotten "scary."

He weighed in at 8 lbs 13 oz! 21.5 inches long -- a BIG boy. I tore a bit -- 15 stitches worth. I am feeling it! The labor part was great, but the recovery (with both Kate and Christian) has been the worst part (not counting pregnancy itself).

Christian loves to sleep -- which is great -- but we're still working on the eating part. As you can see from the pics, he's got brown hair -- the same shade (and length) that Kate's was as a baby. His eyes seem lighter than Kate's were, though, and will maybe be blue? Not sure. He's got long eyelashes and long fingernails that we're having a hard time tearing off. That's why he's got socks on his hands in the pics.

Kate seemed a little nervous meeting him for the first time, but thinks he's cute and likes to watch him and pet his soft head. Me, too! She is always talking about him growing up, and I know she's excited to have someone to play with -- just wish it didn't take so long!

Anyway, sitting like I am right now is not the most comfortable thing in the world, so I am off. :) Let me just say we love our little kiddies and are so grateful that Christian arrived safe and sound!! Can't wait to see who he turns out to be.

One last post before the baby comes...

Well, early tomorrow morning I am going in to the hospital to be induced. We are very excited to have Baby Christian join our family.

But before he does, and before I disappear into baby life for months on end, I thought I would post a few pictures of Kate at Itty Bitty Ball. Itty Bitty Ball is a four week (once a week) program for three and four year olds. Each week they are taught basic skills of a sport -- basketball, soccer, football, and baseball. The first two weeks I was nine months pregnant and on my own. I didn't realize that the program really requires the parent to be right there in the action. It was exhausting for me, and afterward I always felt like I'd just run a marathon -- sore for days. Luckily this past week my parents came to town and were able to help. And I was able to get some pictures of her playing football. Here I am super huge -- just imagine me "running" around the gym, kicking and picking up balls -- I guess I can understand why people were staring.

Papa Nick doing the stretches with Kate. That was one of the most awkward things for me, to get down on the ground gracefully and then try to get back up. Ugh.

Punting -- she's a natural. :)

This picture is poor quality, but look how cute she is -- the ball tucked under her arm and running her fastest. Man, is she skinny or WHAT?

Well, maybe I will have someone do a guest post for me and post some pictures of Christian in the next couple days. Wish me luck!!

Nesting, nesting, nesting!

The past couple weeks I've been paying close attention to everything my body's been doing and reading about the various signs of impending labor. One of the signals of labor on every list I read is nesting. Every time I'd read the list, I'd skip over that one, thinking, Definitely haven't had that one yet.

Well...today I vacuumed out and washed the car (preparing to install the car seat for baby), and just spent a couple hours furiously cleaning the kitchen. Of course there was a nap thrown in there somewhere, but I haven't had any inclination towards cleaning for a while.

My back feels broken in two, but the house is cleaner, dang it. And maybe labor and delivery isn't too far off???

Argh--forget everything I just said.

I will stop saying Kate's potty trained until she's ten and I'm CERTAIN.

To be or not to be...

Just a quick update on Kate's potty training. Kate IS potty trained! I think I've declared this more than once before, but this time it really seems true. When I stopped buying princesses as a reward for going poo in the potty, Kate stopped pooing in the potty. She basically told us there was no reason if she didn't get a toy. This bugged both of us, of course. So Andrew suggested taking one of her prized toys every time she went poo in her pants. We told her ahead of time and let her know she could only get the toys down off the fridge after going poo in the potty. Well, it worked! To her it was the same as getting a new toy -- and it was a lot cheaper for us.

She had built up quite a pile on the fridge -- about four toys. But she's gone poo in the potty for the last week and has gotten them all down! She only had one accident. Today will be the real challenge -- no more toys on the fridge, just stickers on a chart as a reward (which she loves also).

Anyway, she has been in panties the last few days, and I think she is really proud of herself for being such a big girl. She doesn't go by herself or anything like that (one thing at a time), but she has made huge progress this week!!

Manna from Heaven

A miracle happened tonight -- I didn't have to make dinner! Last night I started feeling sick -- sneezy, achy, sore throat. Added to the pregnancy equation = me feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. My wonderful friend, Larson (hope she doesn't mind me saying), must have been inspired because last week she offered to bring me dinner tonight (just because I'm in the last month of pregnancy--so nice). Then, it just so happened that I got sick, too.

Food has never tasted so good -- not in my entire pregnancy. Not even food I've ordered at restaurants. Kate called the food "chocolate soup" because she didn't quite understand me when I said "taco soup." But her description of it was more accurate. Delicious! It felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks! The way I gobbled it down would have been embarrassing if anyone besides Kate had witnessed it. Generally I feel like I'm force-feeding myself breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

So a BIG thank you to Larson, who has a three month old at home to take care of herself.

Here's to good friends and to everyone out there looking for ways to serve and make burdens lighter. It's inspiring!