12 days old!

The past 12 days have certainly been a blur... I can't believe that Eli is already 12 days old! I don't know how we would have handled these days without the assistance of grandma and grandpa... I think we could have handled Eli on his own, but throw a 2 year old into the mix (who is pretty well behaved, but needs some attention - as all 2 year olds do), and we would have been in over our heads on our own.

4 days old... Sleeping like an angel.

Hanging with Big Bro Ben.

The next 2 are when Eli was 6 days old...

One with mommy...

Daddy with his 2 boys...
Ben having fun in the backyard! Smelling the hops with grandpa.
Looking like such an *older* brother!!

All has been going well for me - with the exception of a Day 6 - 2 hour, horrendous cramp-fest, with a slight fever, that took this mommy out of commission for 2 days.

For those who need their newborn fix, but are too far away, here is a quick clip of Eli doing the typical 'squirmy-random-newborn-arm-movements' with a 'melt your heart' face...

While we had help here, we also took on a few tasks: sorting through a ton of kid clothes, removing air conditioners and moving a ton of junk from storage after taking our house back off the market... No way could we have done these without help - Thanks grandma and grandpa!!!

Tomorrow is the big day. Grandma and grandpa are leaving to return to MN, and daddy is heading back to work. I will take Ben to his daycare/ pre-school in the morning, so Eli and I can have some time to hang out... We've been pretty spoiled so far always having someone to watch/ hold/ burp/ change a diaper on both boys that this could be a tough transition... (I think daddy held the record with 10 poopy diaper changes in one day). Ben will probably have the toughest time missing his playmate, grandpa... We will ALL miss them and appreciate all of their help! Thanks mom and dad!!!

Announcing Elijah Morgan!!

Born at 8:32PM on August 31

8 lbs 9 oz, 20.5 in

We are thrilled beyond belief!

First visitors - Grandma Jeanne, Papa Doug and big brother, Ben!!

Ben was very sweet and gentle with his baby brother.

Ready to head home
The next morning Ben greeted Eli with bed-head and all!
We got a visit from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Rhonda

The details of the birth story...

I awoke at 2AM on Tuesday early AM with some contractions. I started timing them - they varied anywhere from 10 minutes apart down to 6 minutes apart. I didn't get much sleep (obviously...), even though the contractions weren't super strong. In the morning, we called in the stand-by baby sitters, Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug to watch Ben. They headed our way, but my contractions weren't really progressing, so we all hung out at our house until about 1 in the afternoon when I called my OB's office to report what had been happening. They suggested that we come in and get my cervix checked for progress in their office and then head to the birthing center to get admitted if things looked promising. At about 2PM, I was at 3 cm, but the baby was still fairly high, and after some discussion we decided to just get admitted rather than drive back home... Good thing, because my contractions intensified fairly quickly after that, and we checked in to the birthing center and ordered an epidural fairly quickly. I got it at 4:20, and got some rest. I started feeling some pressure and they checked me around 7PM - I was at 7cm, and pretty much getting close to having the baby. At 8PM, my doctor arrived, broke my water and then the nurses and doctor all left the room for about 15 minutes. When they returned, I was ready to push. The doctor was a bit concerned because the baby's head, which should be face down, was actually sideways in the birth canal. I pushed a few times and the doctor tried turning the head, but he kept slipping back to the sideways position. I guess that the baby's heart rate was dropping pretty low at this point (60 to 90 beats per minute), and I pushed a few more times and then the doctor asked if I was OK with a forceps delivery. Whatever was best for the baby - of course... So after a total of maybe 15 minutes of pushing, and a heck of an assist from the forceps, little Elijah was brought into this world! Turned out that the umbilical cord was around his neck (which is fairly common), which was probably causing his heart rate to drop so low. He was "floppy" at first (meaning not very active), but as soon as they got him to the warmer, he let out a big cry, and started flailing. His oxygen levels were low, so they gave him some 'blow by' oxygen and he perked right up. He did swallow some amniotic fluid (which had some meconium in it), so they suctioned some fluids from his stomach and mouth right away. They worked on him for quite a while before I got to hold him which was so hard. I couldn't take my eyes off of him once they handed him to me. His little head was just perfectly round (no cone head for this guy!), as was the rest of him. Quite a different delivery than Ben's where I pushed for 3 hours...

This little guy is nursing like a champ and is a pretty happy little guy so far. My parents arrived yesterday about 4PM from Minnesota.

I think Ben is really liking this 'new baby brother' thing, because he is getting lots of attention, new things to play with and new books to read. Having a new baby in the house *really* makes Ben look so much older. It's like he just grew 5 inches, gained 10 lbs and added 50 words to his vocabulary... Andy's comment on our first night home with Eli after dealing with a late-night wake up by Ben "Wow - I think we have a 10 year old in there - he is SO big!"...
A few more of precious Eli... He looks a lot like Ben in this one and not much like him at all in the next one...

Batter Up, Chasing Bubbles, Bath Time, and 'I think we're ready...'

Does he not remind you of Bam-Bam with that little bat???

Here's an old clip of our friends' visit with their son and dog...

And Ben's first bubble bath. I'm not sure why it took us this long to do this... He certainly enjoys it.

Tomorrow marks the 39th week of my pregnancy. Man, time has flown the past few weeks, but I feel as if we are about as ready as we can be for the arrival of our second son. We can't wait to meet this little guy!

Preparations are pretty much as complete as we get them: guest room is ready for grandparents to stay, tub is scrubbed, all of the newborn clothes are washed, neatly folded and put away, house is moderately clean, list is ready for the trip to the hospital, insurance paperwork is in order, bills are paid, groceries are semi-stocked, Ben is in his new big boy room and bed - with NO pacifier, infant car seat is installed, the name list is whittled down to about 3 choices, gift for baby from Ben is ready, gift for Ben from baby is ready, a tour of my classroom has been given to my long term sub and the first 2 weeks of lessons are ready to go, camera and video camera are downloaded and charged, and eye doctor, dentist and hair cut appointments are complete... What am I forgetting? Oh yeah - deep breath.

I haven't had any regular contractions (I didn't with Ben at all, until after my water broke!), but I did have one doosey of a contraction the other night while sitting in a funny position on the couch. The baby is still up pretty high, but you never know when things might happen!!!!

The Calm before the Storm

Since this was probably one of the last weekends with our family of "3", we decided to make the trip to The Enchanted Forest (a nearby theme park), to maximize our "Ben time". Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug came with us and we all had a nice time.

Ben entering the rabbit hole... ...and coming out over here.
Peering in the windows of the Snow White and the 7 Dwarves house.

Waiting his turn on the Little Old Lady and the Shoe slide.
Going down the slide with daddy.
Peering into the "Witch's mouth"

and coming out the slide on the other side.
Riding the Choo-choo

with daddy, and then again...

with Papa Doug.

Grandma and Andy on the Ice Mountain ride.

Ben and Papa Doug watching.

Papa Doug's hand, Ben and Daddy from the Indian Caves.

One last trip down the big slide.

Fun times!

Oh, and Andy and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by going out to dinner for Moroccan food and catching a movie - Thanks Grandma Jeanne and Papa Doug for watching Ben. I can't believe it's been 5 years... Yea, us!!

Big Changes...

Goodness - It's seems like a lot has happened since the last post!

Our close friends, Jim and Deb, and their son, Levi and dog, Otis stopped by for an evening visit - Fun times!
Ben took his first swimming lessons - Parent and Tot Swim - 2 weeks - M-F every night at 6:30. He was probably the most stubborn in his class, but did make a ton of progress - from clinging to mommy's hip on the first day to doing some good kicking and even jumping off the side of the pool and going down the slide! Here he is with daddy...

Today, we had a nice time at a sweet park in a nearby town - lots of equipment and even a splash pad... I took a ton of pictures, and I couldn't decide which ones to post, so here are a bunch.

Oh, and we made a very tough decision to switch Ben's daycare to a pre-school-type center. It was very tough to say goodbye to his daycare provider for the past 2 years... But, so far, he has been liking this new daycare. We chose to make this transition *before* the baby came, to make it a bit easier on Ben... Hopefully, it works out for the best!

I'm at 36 weeks at this point - Overall, things have been going fine. I've had a few days of pelvis pain that were pretty rough, and I tend to have a post-lunch crash that knocks me on the couch for a hour... But, we are getting close to being "ready" for this baby to make it's entrance. The nursery is ready and the baby's car seat is installed in my car.

(Cute story - Ben woke up from a nap and I told him that daddy was putting the baby's new car seat in my car, so let's go see it. He was pretty excited to "see it", and I didn't quite get why... We get to the car - he says - "Where's baby brother?" I guess that he thought the baby came with the car seat... I said, "Oh - the baby is still in mommy's tummy: See?" (pointing to my *huge* belly). He replies: "Open it" and lifts up my shirt, wanting the baby to just *come on out*... If only it were that easy, Ben...)

I forgot a few

A few more Ben-isms that I left off of the last list...

"What's dat - way down dere?" from the backseat of my car - referring to anything he wants to know about down the road...
"What happened?" or "What's happening?"
"All done nap." Heard from the monitor yesterday as he was waking up...
"Still sleeping, daddy" - as Andy peeked in on him last weekend during the end of naptime.

The rest of the fest (-ival)

The rest of the festival weekend went well. I'm pretty sure that Ben had a blast!

Thursday - watched the kid parade, shared an elephant ear with mommy

Friday - checking out the crafty booths, listening to a bit of music

Sat - BIG parade, Andy's fam came over for the evening - we had dinner, another elephant ear, and fireworks!! Ben got to stay up late and watch the fireworks from our backyard. Watching them with a 2 year old sure adds a new twist - We got to listen to the color, size and loudness factor of each firework - "Woah - ne-now (yellow)." "Woah - bright green". "Loud?" "Little one", "Wow - BIG one".

Of course, the fire engine sirens were "Too loud" for Ben. Poor guy inherited my super-sound sensitive ears...

Sun - cruise by the car show, hang out, shark pool in the evening.

Great weekend!