A Few Pictures Finally

First of Many Inquiries

Get used to me posting mom related questions as I stumble through these first few months. Who has little boys that pee all over when you change them? What do you do? I would really like to solve this one soon as my little guy pees all over his face every time I change him and I am just not quick enough.

Ian Jacob Earl is Here!

On August 20,2008 at 7:39 am Ian joined our family weighing 7 lbs 8 ounces and measuring 20 1/2 inches. This is really the first few moments of "free time" I have had since his birth and am excited to finally sit down and write out his birth story. So here goes...I had been dilated to 3 cm and 75% effaced since my 36 week appointment and was not so patiently waiting to go into labor. At my 39 weeks appointment I was dilated to 4 cm and I asked my doctor to strip my membranes. I immediately started having regular but painless contractions on the way home from my appointment. This was at 4:00 pm. I had a baby shower to go to but decided if this was really the day I would like to spend some more time at home with Avery and finish cleaning the house a bit. We carried down all the hospital bags and got some other things ready. But since I had had a few nights of false labor prior to this I wasn't getting my hopes up that this could really be it. We went to bed around 11:30 pm. Avery woke up at 1:00 am and as I was settling her back into bed I had a strong pain in my back. After that I just couldn't go back to sleep and the contractions were picking up in intensity. I went downstairs and started trying to time them on Contraction Master. They were still only 10 minutes apart but were really becoming kind of painful. I started figuring this was really it though. Around 2:30 am I decided to get in the shower and see if things picked up or died down. Well they picked up and while I was putting on makeup and drying my hair, contractions were now about 7 minutes apart. I didn't think I wanted to wait until they were 5 minutes apart because given my family history of super quick labors I could be having him at home if I waited too long. I called my mom to come get Avery at 3:11 am and she arrived at 3:40 or so. We left for the hospital. When we arrived I was checked and the nurse said I was only having mild contractions and they were still only 7-10 minutes apart. I was so afraid she was going to send me home but when she did an internal exam I was 6 cm dilated! We were admitted. She must have thought my labor was going to progress very slowly from here because she said I could have some pitocin around 7:00 am when the doctors were up. I got my epidural right away which was nice. Then I just lay there and shook like crazy and waited. She check me again a short while later and I was 8 cm at about 6:00 am. We called Laura to come and said it shouldn't be long. I got a catheter inserted and noticed that I felt it go in and did not like it. Then I started to notice that I was feeling a lot of pressure and urgency to push which I never felt with Avery. We figured there was something wrong with the epidural and so called in our nurse. She said I could get a special boost from the anesthesiologist. Well when he got there and checked me out he said "oops! your epidural tube is disconnected!!" Now I am at about 9 cm dilated with no epidural! He was able to give me the extra shot but said it would take a bit to work. I am wanting to push so bad and am moaning in pain. Plus my doctor is 25 minutes away. At 7:30 pm he arrives and gives me a local anesthetic because he said I am going to tear. I am able to push immediately and 5 pushes later little Ian is out. I was able to feel him come out which was cool and I looked down after his head was out and saw his little body slide right out. They laid him on my chest immediately and he was perfect. He scored 8/9 on his apgar test. He is nursing well and he sleeps ALL THE TIME! I have to wake him up to feed almost every feeding. He is such a sweet boy and we are all so in love. Avery had a bit of a hard time adjusting but I think things are getting better there as I try really hard to spend all my extra time with her. Ian is a week old now and I will post about that when I get a chance!

38 Weeks!!

Well, here I am...38 weeks!! I can't believe it is finally almost time to meet our little guy. Every day is very suspenseful as I am hypersensitive to all of the prelabor symptoms I am experiencing...I think I have everyone convinced that with each new day I am certain I will be going into labor. But nothing yet. This is good and bad. Good because it gives me extra time to spend with Avery and bad because all I want to do is clean my house and be 100% ready at any given moment to head to the hospital. It is driving me and especially Chad a little nuts. You could call me the queen of nesting.

A Beaver On My Head

Avery: Croup, Ear Infection, Pink Eye, Eczema Outbreak, Teething, Diarrhea (from antibiotic).
Dana: Heartburn, Nasty Cough, Hemorrhoids (sorry, if you don't already know, I am a very open person) Bloated Right Leg, Insomnia, Decreased Lung Capacity.

-Two trips to Instacare, five new medications, two missed swimming lessons, 20 hours of lost sleep, 21 eye drop treats.

This pretty much sums up the last two weeks for us. Avery had a fever for 5 straight days and I checked her temperature constantly. She would often say "I don't want to have a beaver on my head anymore."

Greetings Baby Boy

For the 5-8 people that read my blog, 2-3 of you may not already know that we are having a boy!! For a little while, before we found out, I told people that I kind of hoped we would be having a girl for various reasons...I already have all the girl stuff...I didn't want to make new crib bedding...two girls close in age could easily share a room...Avery is an angel so I assume all girls are angels...boys seem loud and obnoxious and I am worried they won't like to snuggle or help me bake cookies...

But let me tell you how I glowed the rest of the day after our ultrasound when I thought about "my son." And I have convinced myself that he is going to be a calm, sweet, mother-adoring boy, (unlike his father who tore the legs off grasshoppers and ate rattlesnakes at scout camp and ran around non-stop sweating in his moon boots) because during his ultrasound he just lay very still, face down, a beautiful spine curving upward and yawned a few times. The technician was barely able to tell the sex for his lack of movement. Oh well...mothers can dream.

That said, I would appreciate any wisdom you could offer in raising boys.

Easter Angel

We were blessed with decent weather on this very early Easter Day and although it was chilly in the morning before church, Chad was able to get some beautiful pictures. I do wish the grass were greener and the tulips in bloom (if we had them) but at least there wasn't snow on the ground. What a little angel in her new dress and shoes that she begged to wear almost every day since we bought them some weeks ago and I said no-we have to wait for Easter. Later, the temperature was warmer and we had a very fun but short lived Easter egg hunt followed by Chad and I eating all of her candy after she went to bed.