Welcome Rebecca

I finally have a couple of free minutes without kids and am excited to post about our new baby girl!

For three weeks I was having fairly regular contractions that would come every 10 minutes for an hour or two and then fade away. So on Saturday when they started in the afternoon I didn't pay much attention to them. Around 3:30 after much prodding from Tim I started keeping track of the times. I think he could tell they were getting stronger because he kept asking me about them and telling me we should get ready to call my dad to come and take the boys. By 4:30 they were definitely coming closer together so I gave in and agreed that we could take the boys to dad's house and if they were still strong there I would call the doctor.

Sure enough, by the time we got there the contractions were coming every 5 minutes but I was pretty sure they were going to disappear like every other day. However, I called the doctor and we were sent to the hospital.

Upon arriving at the hospital, I signed in with the information desk while Tim parked the car and was asked if I wanted a wheel chair. I said that would be great for when they need to bring me up and so the lady brought one over and insisted I sit down. I informed her that my contraction were easier if I was standing and I'd wait to sit if that was ok only to be told by her that it was hospital policy that I sit in the chair. Now I'm not usually a confrontational person and if this was my first labor I probably would have just sat down, but this is my third and I know what I want. I kindly said again that I am much more comfortable standing and that I would just stand by the chair and wait for my escort. Again, she insisted I sit down. I should let you know that during this back and forth time I'm of course having to pause for a contraction. In the end I won out. I guess I'm a pretty stubborn pregnant woman when in labor!

So we stood by the chair waiting for someone to come and take us to labor and delivery. My contractions kept coming closer and closer. After 15 minutes or so they were about 2 minutes apart and the guy at the emergency desk offered to call up and see what was taking so long. I think he was afraid he might end up delivering the baby! Turns out our favorite lady from the information booth failed to call up and let them know we were waiting.

Finally someone takes us up to labor and delivery triage where I'm put on monitors and the nurse checks me right away only to find out that I'm already 7-8 cm dilated. So they hook me up to an IV (I was strep B positive this time) and immediately take me up to a delivery room. I meet the nurse there and she quickly goes to call the doctor who is about 45 minutes away. The nurse starts setting everything up and when the doctor walks in the door I'm at 10 cm and ready to push. It was another super quick labor for me - yah!!

Our little girl was sunny side up and giving me tons of back pain that made it almost impossible to push, but after about 45 minutes and the doctor working to turn her, she was born. They cleaned her off a bit and put her on my chest for some snuggle time which was great! After about 10 minutes it occurred to me that no one had said anything about gender, so I had to ask, "It is a girl right? I didn't check!" With happy reassurance I was told yes, we had our little girl.

Then when they took her to bath her and check her over, they brought me paper work. Turns out I was suppose to sign it all upon arrival but things progressed so quickly they didn't have time. So after the fact I was signing the permission slips for them to treat me. lol They put her on the scale and announced that she was 7 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long. I knew there had to be a mistake - I make 8 lb babies. "What?" I asked. The nurse repeated the numbers and I simply couldn't believe it. When my first was born at 8lb 1oz he was considered small in my family.

We ended up staying in the hospital for two nights and came home Monday. I feel great physically now and Rebecca is doing well. We don't have very many clothes small enough for her so she mostly swims in 0-3 month sleepers and is just adorable as can be. Here are some pictures from the last 5 days!

Michael's understanding of the world

Had a few more cute 4 year old stories recently that I wanted to share:

1. If you read some of my recent posts you know that Michael brought home a gold fish from preschool. In the parking lot we had a discussion about how sometimes fish don't live very long. Michael took it all in and thought for a while before telling me that when fish die they just go away, they don't go to heaven. I asked him who told him this and he said, "No one, I just figured it out for myself." I of course then get visions of a parent calling me one day irate that Michael just dashed the hopes of some poor classmate who just lost a family pet. As it turns out, it was the other way around. Our fish died yesterday after refusing to eat for 2 weeks and today at lunch Michael tells me that one of his classmates had a fish die too, and this kid said that the fish was up in heaven. It seems Michael is reconsidering his theological revelation.

2. Michael has been into pretending a lot recently. The other day he had his play-doh out and was pretending he was a cook at a restaurant. I was talking with him about it all and this was the story he came up with: He had started working at Steak n Shake for three years but then he got too big and too old to work there so he switched to Chili's. He has been cooking there for six years and four months. When I commented that that was a long time he replied, "I know - they haven't traded me!"

3. Over the past week and a half the boys have had bad colds and been up a lot at night. To separate them, Michael slept on a mattress on the floor of our bedroom for two nights. One night he half woke up screaming as if in the middle of a nightmare. I tried to calm him down and ask what happened and he blurted out, "I wanted to have something else for lunch!" Apparently that is nightmare worthy in the life of a four year old. :)

Stubborn, Stubborn

Both my boys seemed to have inherited stubbornness, and I'll be honest it was probably from me. However, both enhance their stubbornness in very different ways. Michael is a routine boy and and always expects things to happen the way they are suppose to. He has a strong sense of justice and likes to know what is right or normal. You cannot get him to change a schedule once it is set without a lot of discussion about why the change is right for this situation. Jon on the other hand is a very flow with the moment type of guy. His stubbornness is more related to wanting to do what he wants when he wants to. He could care less what the pattern or instructions are, he goes with what he feels like in the moment. Let me give you an example from this morning:

The boys are suppose to sleep until at least 7:00am, but Jon woke up at 6:30 and started screaming. I tried unsuccessfully to put him back down and finally gave in and got him up because poor Michael was clutching his clock whining that it wasn't 7 and he couldn't sleep with Jon throwing a fit. So I take Jon downstairs and he immediately goes to the kitchen pointing at the fridge and grunting - indicating he wanted some juice. Ten minutes later after half a cup of juice and a small breakfast he is standing at the foot of the stairs pointing up and screaming at me. I try to get him to go back and finish breakfast or to find some toys but there is no swaying him. So I follow him up and he heads right to his bedroom and wants back in bed. Who'd ever figure!

Well, I decide that this would be a great opportunity for me to take a shower in peace since that doesn't happen often. However, a couple minutes in I hear crying. I try to ignore it thinking Jon just wants up again, but when I turn the shower off I realize it is Michael crying. Turns out his clock had fallen to the floor and the battery had fallen out, so he didn't know what time it was. Could he get up? Was it breakfast time or time to get dressed? His world was falling apart!

So there you have it - my boys. I'll just call them Stubborn 1 and Stubborn 2.