Curious Onlookers

We've all been enjoying having a little baby in the house.  And it's been particularly special to watch our older two kids enjoy the new little one.  He definitely has our attention.  And he lets us know if he thinks we're averting our attention at an improper time. :-)

There's a bit more movement going on in these pictures than my camera was ready for, but I'm still glad I captured this moment.  As I'm sure you can tell, the little babe didn't put up with this photo shoot for too much longer.  Precious moments even as quick as they may be.

Sandy Beach

The past few days have been insanely beautiful here.  Temperatures were in the high 70's and low 80's which is pretty hot for August in SE Alaska.  Since we have some visitors here to welcome the birth of our little babe, we tried to make the most of it and went to Sandy Beach one afternoon.  It was so nice, we had a hard time leaving when the time came.  Warm sunshine, sand to play in and build with, and plenty of maritime activity to watch in Gastineau Channel.  It all made for a pleasant day for us all.

 Our little babe enjoyed soaking up the sun too

 staying in the shade in his own little cabana (aka the kids IKEA pop up tent--I just love IKEA.)

 waving off the tourists who visited Juneau that day

 sleeping babe

 the little missy and her prized possession of the day

 With Uncle Eric and their sand castle fortress

 They built it in just the right spot.  When the high tide crested, it was just inches shy of their handy work.  Of course, no sand castle was a match for the destructive nature of the little man.

 Grandpa bought them candy necklaces...mmm.  Treats from Grandma and Grandpa are always that much sweeter.

 The best shot I got of all three.  Granted it was sunny and the little babe especially didn't appreciate the sun in his eyes.

Hope you're enjoying your August days too.

It's a Boy!

On Tuesday, our family welcomed a new little boy, Levi.  He is so precious and we're so glad he's here.

He weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.

After 9 months and an extra week and a half of waiting...and all the wonder and concern over his health earlier in the pregnancy...I finally got to hold my precious baby.  Healthy and strong, just what we had prayed for.  Thank you dear Lord.

After about 2 weeks of sporadic and inconsistent contractions, my doctor and I thought it was time to try to catch these contractions and use them rather than let them fade off as they had done previously.  So we scheduled an induction for Tuesday.  But a medical (pitocin) induction was the last resort.  When I got to the hospital, I had been having contractions.  They set me up on the monitors and for about 45 minutes I continued to have contractions about every 4 minutes.  None of them were very strong, but at least they were consistent.  We (the doctor, Shawn and I) made the decision to break my water and hope that would prompt my body to take over and move on to the next stage of labor.  This plan worked marvelously.  My very next contraction was significantly stronger and longer.  My contractions slowed down a bit (to every 5 minutes), but they gained in intensity.  Before too long laying on the bed was no longer comfortable.  So I moved around to new positions to try to manage the pain.  Things were working well.  My doctor checked me and confirmed that things were progressing. 
Then, I got in the whirlpool tub thinking I'd try it for about 30 minutes.  Well, I guess I fell into a bit of a time warp because I was in there for an hour.  It was very productive hour though!  I started to feel the need to push and the nurse got the doctor.  I saw my doctor give the nurse a look that said, "Am I going to have to deliver a baby in the tub?!"  But she was sparred that adventure.  I was able to get to the bed between contractions.  And praise the Lord, I only had to push for 15 minutes!  That felt like record speed to me since I pushed for 2 hours with my first and 35 VERY LONG and HARD minutes with my second.

I was much more nervous about this labor than I had been previously.  I know you're supposed to know everything by your third child, but you know how they say every baby and every labor is different?  Well, they are completely right.  My second delivery was completely opposite from what I was expecting.  The first went so well, that I was just flying by the seat of my pants with the second.  I just figured that everything would fall into place as it did with the first.  Well, it turns out I was wrong.  There were multiple differences which I wasn't prepared for.  So this time around, I did a lot more preparing.  We went to a few birth classes to refresh our minds.  We had many good conversations about what I wanted and what we were going to try to do during labor.  I had a fantastic and thorough appointment with the nurse midwife at my doctor's office to help me organize my thoughts and address my concerns about labor.  And I even wrote out a birth plan--first time for that.  As I reflected back to my previous deliveries, I realized that I become very non-verbal as things intensify.  So I tried to counter this by communicating as much as possible before labor really got going.  Knowing that Shawn knew what I wanted and wasn't just going to "read my mind" was very reassuring.  He was a great coach and I couldn't have done it without him.

Here are some more pictures of our first two days with our little baby.  He is such a good baby so far.  He sleeps a lot more than I remember our other two even at this point, and he's much easier to please.  And as you can tell in these pictures, he's very loved.  

Here he is getting his first bath.  Our nurse assistant, Agnes did the honors.  I believe she also gave our little man his first bath too.   We had some fabulous nurses this time.  I felt so blessed by their care and hard work to help me deliver this precious boy, their attention to his needs, and then help in my recovery.  OB nurses are something else!  They all seem to have a healthy helping of Super Woman mixed into their personalities.

Born with long fingernails, it was fairly soon that he scratched himself.  I just hate it when they do that.

ready to go home

Here are my two little boys today.  Surely they are discussing plans for future adventures together.  And I'm looking forward to seeing them grow and play together.  What a blessing all of my children are to me.

Passing Time at the Park

First of all, no baby yet.  Apparently this child prefers to have an August birthday.  Totally not what I thought would happen.  Just shows me to check all expectations at the door and trust in God's plan.  His are usually better anyway! :)

Secondly, we had almost the worst case scenario happen the other day.  We're literally waiting for this baby to make it's arrival any day now and our canon digital rebel died on us!  So we were down to our little Sony point and shoot that isn't really that great of a camera.  Definitely not a camera I wanted all this child's first moments after birth being captured on.  Fortunately a friend of ours loaned us her practically brand new Kodak easy share camera.  (Thank you so much, Amanda.  You at least saved my sanity!)  So the other day when the warm weather was beckoning us to come out and enjoy it, I played around with it and made myself comfortable with the settings. 

Also, in camera news, my sister-in-law is now back in town, so now were also able to borrow their cannon dSLR which is very similar to ours that just went kaput.  So maybe this baby being a bit late is a good thing--from the documenting stand point at least.

Ok, back to the warm weather.  When the sunshine was calling, my mom and I took the kids to the park for playtime and to feed the ducks.  Enjoy the pictures of us making the most of our waiting game.