fun. crazy. life.

I got on the scale this morning. Yes, I had a baby last week so that was probably dumb. But I was very curious. I am proud to report that in the last 8 days I have lost… are you sitting down?… 22 pounds!! 22! Pretty good start. Especially since I have been doing nothing all week except nursing and eating everything in sight, since I am ravenously hungry all the time. Admittedly, some of that most of that was baby and baby-related materials, but still… not too shabby!!

Think the remaining 13 will come off  next week?

So things began on Easter Sunday on the way home from lunch with friends.
Husband said, “It’d be great if you could have the baby tonight.”
I said, “Stop by the drug store and I’ll try to get things going.”
So we picked up some castor oil! Good ol’ faithful that brought Grace into the world Mixed it into a McDonalds milkshake and drank it down at 5:30. At 6:30, almost on the dot, I started having contractions about 10 minutes apart. I was walking around the house, cleaning the bathroom, packing up the hospital bags in case this actually worked… By 9:00, they were about 5 minutes apart but not really hurting very much. At 11:00, I called my doctor. They were 3-4 minutes apart and were really starting to take my breath away. We called friends of ours who were going to take our kids and told them we were coming over! Husband drove the kids over to their house while I got our stuff ready to go and at around midnight, we left for the hospital! Yay for castor oil! (The strange part is that I had no of the usual, um, side effects of castor oil. I took it and went right into labor! Weird.)
They put me right in a room and put me on a monitor. I immediately started breathing easy, since the nurse told me they would not send me home without a baby Then they told me that my Strep B test had come back positive, so they needed to slow things down and give me an IV of antibiotics. (Wait! Slow things down??) So I had antibiotics at 2am and 6am. Around 4am, I decided I had had enough of this ’slowing things down’ nonscence and was getting a tad tired of “breathing through the pain.” (Whatever.) I was getting really tired, having been up for so long, and I was worried that I wouldn’t have energy for later. So I got a lovely epidural. That was wonderful. Did I mention it was lovely?
Then the fun started around 6. My blood pressure started falling and shooting up randomly. (Like going from 70/30 to 140/110 or something). I felt dizzy and nauseous and was making my husband very nervous. That part really sucked.
Things seemed to level out around 8:00, so the doctor broke my water. Yay! About 2 hours later, contractions were so strong that I was breathing through them with an epidural! (Can you imagine if I hadn’t had one? Good Heavens, I would have died.) Then I told them it was time to push. Two pushes later, I heard a gush of water or something and the doctor said “STOP!” I opened my eyes and suddenly, there he was! The doctors gown was barely on, the nurse didn’t even have her gloves on yet, but this little guy was not going to wait! He was a tad blue and didn’t cry for a minute or so, since his lungs were still filled with fluid that normally gets pushed out when they are being born. But then he seemed to pull it together and start to scream properly!
So that’s it! The doctor put me back together - again, thank you, epidural doctor - and we had a beautiful, perfect baby boy!! Here’s his first, slimey picture!

Colin Paul

March 24, 2008

Colin Paul, 8 lbs 8 oz, arrived at 10:22am today, March 24th, 2008!

Both Mom and baby are doing well.  Pictures to come soon!

Contractions started around 6:30pm and by 9:00 they were 5 minutes apart, although not painful. After 3 or 4 false starts, I was not going to get my hopes up. I called the doctor around 11 when they were about 3-4 minutes apart and starting to get very uncomfortable, and we’re going in to the hospital! Husband is driving the kids to a friend’s house, then we’re going to head over to get checked.

I’m praying that its not fake labor, cause I’ll be really annoyed ;-)  I’ll send you all an update when I can!

Pray for us! 

Boys.
My brother even called me to find out how my husband convinced me to buy a new tv. He wanted exact wording, apparently hoping to use the same arguments on his girlfriend. Although, seeing as he is a poor grad student who doesn’t even have cable, I believe my helpful advise was:  “Good luck with that.”
He also keeps calling me to remind me the proper spelling of his name and all possible nicknames, since we will of course be naming the baby after him. What other names could we possibly consider? (None of my family who reads this blog is remotely surprised by this campaign.)
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After being on bed rest and getting meals delivered to our door every other day by the wonderful ladies in my Bible Study, I am cooking again! I love to cook. And since I have been doing little except watching the Food Network  while laying on the couch, I am so excited to be in the kitchen.
I’m sad, though, since we don’t have any Easter plans this year. We can’t invite anyone over, since we may not be here, and we haven’t made any other plans. I love cooking big holiday meals. Maybe we can have a delayed celebration after the baby comes…..
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So, I’ve been told I’m pretty irritable lately.
I don’t see it.
Frankly, I think I’m being downright pleasant, knowing all the times I have been holding back what I really want to say. But, my picky family seems to think otherwise. My kids keep telling Daddy that “Mommy is grumpy.” And my husband has said something along the lines of “Boy, will I be glad when this is over!” To which I said something totally non-irritable like “YOU can’t wait until this is over? Did I miss the part where you were 9 months pregnant?” And he said something like “No, but I have to live with a 9-months-pregnant crazy person.”
And he’s still alive. Do you see how incredibly non-irritable I am? Whatever, Dude.
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Went to the doctor again today. He said baby could come any time, but it would probably be another week. A week!! What the frick?!? Wasn’t I laying on the couch for three weeks  to keep this baby from coming out? And now that he’s allowed to, he decides to stay in longer? Excuse me?? 
This kid is going to be trouble. I can tell.