A Skunk and a Sweet Pea

Halloween isn't my favorite holiday, I'll be honest. I don't really like dressing up, and then there's that whole interfering-with-my-birthday-weekend thing. But in the past few years, Halloween has become more fun... mostly because one of the best ways to make your kid even cuter is putting him in an adorable costume. Like so many things in life, Halloween just takes on a different mood when viewed through the eyes of a parent. :)

We started off the day with pumpkin pankcakes. I thought I would be creative, but maybe I shouldn't have been... they were ok, but not great. . To redeem myself with my boys, I went out for treats at the new Krispy Kreme near our house. Although they don't make any donuts there (meaning you can't get them "hot & now" much to Mark's dismay), they did have some pumpkin (decorated, not flavored) donuts that Nathan was pretty excited about. [Side note -- our music director at church gave Nathan a paper pumpkin earlier in the week, and since then, he has been insisting that all pumpkins come from "Dr. Z." Including the pumpkin donut. Even though he was with me when *I* bought it. Sigh.]

We spent the afternoon relaxing. Well, Nathan and Mark relaxed and watched football and napped, while Anneliese decided she wanted to be rocked and soothed for hours. But I still enjoyed the snuggle time with my sweet little girl, I won't lie.

Then we got the kids dressed up! Last year Nathan dressed up as a giraffe (because that's the costume I got for free online) and this year he dressed up as a skunk (because that's the costume I got from my mom) and we put Anneliese in a pea-in-a-pod costume (because that's what we got free as a hand-me-down). Do you like the trend? Frugality makes our Halloween decisions, that's for sure!

We trick-or-treated with our neighbors (they have a 1-year-old son, right in between our kids' ages) for a while. I pushed Anneliese in the stroller, but didn't get too close to any houses (again with the keeping people's fingers away). Nathan was sort of timid, but he could usually be coaxed to say trick or treat, even if it was quiet! He got tired pretty quick (being close to his bedtime didn't help), and he told us that a couple of other kids costumes were too scary! But other than that, he did great, and he liked it.

It was really muggy and warm out, though, so when we got home he was begging us to take his costume off! When we got it off, we could see why: he had been sweating buckets under there!

And he raked in some good loot for mommy and daddy! He doesn't really eat candy, but we let him have the pretzels out of his goody-pumpkin. And he also got a capri sun juice pouch from someone's house, which we'll let him drink as well. Everything else is for us!!

Happy Halloween, everyone! For more pictures of our family's day, click on Nathan the Skunk, below.

by mgoetts

Maybe-Blue Eyes and Other Girlishness

I thought, since my last few posts have been pretty Nathan-centered, that it was time for an Anneliese update. We have fallen into that second-child pattern of not taking nearly as many pictures, so this is another of the portraits from when she was a week old.

For Mark and me, her most distinguishing facial features are those big round cheeks and her dark blue eyes. We have no idea where she got them. Nathan told us they were maybe blue. Which is his way of saying navy. (He also thinks his skunk costume is maybe blue; he gets it confused with black!) I don't know if they're quite that dark, but they are certainly darker than most other caucasian babies we've seen! But oh so pretty. :)

Anneliese had a two-week checkup on Tuesday, and she is up to 9 1/2 pounds! So... yeah she's getting enough to eat. :) I have totally healed from my injury, and I'm glad to be done with the bottles for now. My life is so much simpler this way. Don't get me wrong, though, we'll be glad to reintroduce them when we're ready to leave her alone, though!

Also at her appointment, we realized that her umbilical cord stump had gotten kind of stinky and was oozing something green and gross, so (against conventional wisdom and what "the books" say) our doctor went ahead and pulled it off, since he was pretty confident it wouldn't bleed (he was right). It was a little infected but he didn't want to put her on an antibiotic at this age (and cause thrush/yeast infections, etc) so he thought we could kill it with... air. And he was right again; it's much better now and not stinky at all. And soon it will be totally healed and she can have a real bath. (And by real bath, I mean any bath, since we have not only been slack with picture-taking but also with baby-cleaning.) I'm kind of glad that cord stump is gone, Nathan's took almost a month and this one was looking that way too!

Our church had a rosebud in honor of Anneliese's birth last Sunday. Since then, some friends have been bringing us dinners. Since Mark and I are both still exhausted (yes, still), and since the evening hours are the hardest for us (both our children are fussiest between 4 and 8, it seems), we're very grateful for the support!

She is getting much better at using her waking hours for things other than fussing, and she is actually turning into a champion sleeper! (At night anyway, and that's when it counts.) She has been going 5-7 hours in a stretch, which means she only gets up for one feeding per night. Awesome. It's totally worth it to have her eat every hour and a half during the day, and not nap well. I promise.

Anneliese has almost outgrown many of the newborn-sized clothes we had on hand for her, so I'm enjoying dressing her in some of the slightly-bigger (up to 3 month) stuff. This is why having a daughter is fun, right? :) And my multi-talented friend Kristy made her these gorgeous burp cloths (amongst a box of other great gifts), in her spare time from being a doctor, apparently. At first I thought they were too pretty to get spit-up on them, but then I realized I wanted to make all the other moms green with envy when I pulled them out of her bag. (Yes, the awesome bag.) So we will definitely be using them, pretty as they are. They need to be shown off.

We have one more week with Mark before he goes back to work. He's easing back into it, though, so it won't be too sudden. I'm still a little concerned about what I'm going to do with Nathan while I'm nursing Anneliese, to keep him from destroying the house or hurting himself. I know zillions of moms do it, though. Anyone have any hints?

First School Picture!

It's not my favorite picture he's ever taken, but since it's a milestone of sorts, I thought I would share Nathan's first "school" picture. These are the pictures the preschool arranged, like all schools do (for whatever reason). Mark and I have no idea how they got him to sit like this, or why. Looks like a quintessential school picture, doesn't it? :)
Nathan is adjusting pretty well to being a big brother. He really loves Anneliese and hasn't asked for her to go away yet (we've been told to expect that at some point). He wants to hold her and hug her and kiss her and he hates it when she cries -- when she's fussing, he gets very close to her face and says things like it's ok, baby and feel better, Anneliese. So sweet. :) But we have noticed an increase in the whining and tantrums, so on some level he is clearly starting to recognize the decrease in attention. It will get even worse before it gets better; Mark goes back to work at the end of next week so with me home alone he'll get even less attention than he's getting now. But we're getting into a groove and trying to keep him focused on his big-brother pride and love for his little sister.

Birth Date Winner: Cindy Gesell

Thanks to everyone who played along in our pool to guess Anneliese's birth date and time! We had thirty-eight guesses, and none of them were for her actual birthday. It was actually the only date in the first half of October that no one guessed! We should have seen that Oct 13 missing date on the guess list as a huge sign!

Most of you actually thought she was coming early. Less than half of the guesses were for her due date or later, and by the time I went into labor, only two people were left in the running!

Of those two, my former coworker Cindy Gesell was the closest to when Anneliese actually came (about 17 hours off). Cindy was a great colleague; she did quality control on parts of my work, and she was always friendly and helpful and kind to me.

Since she works in the company's Kansas office, her prize is a whole lot of Carolina goodness. She has some southern-style deep-fried peanuts (go ahead and eat the shell too!), some traditional Moravian cookies, some straight-from-NC barbecue sauce, good southern apple butter, and two kinds of NC-specialty jellies (muscadine and moonshine) coming her way. Enjoy it, Cindy, and thanks for your support -- both at work, and now for my family!

Below are all the guesses (I'm keeping a record of them here for posterity's sake); thanks to everyone who played!

Sept 24, 9:24am - Lois C
Sept 30, 12:00am - Shanna H
Sept 30, 11:32am - Erin O
Oct 1, 12:00am - Grandpa B
Oct 1, 3:49am - emu
Oct 1, 12:01pm - Marmie
Oct 1, 3:26pm - Mathieu G
Oct 2, 3:00pm - Aunt Barbara
Oct 3, 7:30am - Kendra N
Oct 3, 5:00pm - Peggy H
Oct 4, 2:21am - Mary C
Oct 4, 7:30am - Farrar H
Oct 4, 6:31pm - Lauren P
Oct 4, 11:32pm - Grandma G
Oct 5, 2:50am - Uncle John
Oct 5, 3:05am - Tony B
Oct 5, 2:30pm - Sarah D
Oct 5, 3:17pm - Merritt S
Oct 5, 8:46pm - Megan L
Oct 5, 11:30pm - Daddy
Oct 6, 2:44pm - Betsy M
Oct 6, 11:00pm - Katie F
Oct 7, 9:00am - Jessica W
Oct 7, 4:52pm - Cassi T
Oct 8, 12:00am - Grandpa B
Oct 8, 10:30am - Hope M
Oct 8, 10:30am - Debbie
Oct 8, 12:00pm - Luanne R
Oct 8, 4:22pm - Ruth C
Oct 9, 8:07am - Roxann
Oct 9, 11:31pm - Kelley C
Oct 10, 2:47am - Uncle Brad
Oct 10, 10:10am - Betty B
Oct 10, 10:00pm - Aunt Ashley
Oct 10, 10:34pm - Andrea S
Oct 11, 3:14pm - Mary W
Oct 12, 8:35am - Cindy G
Oct 14, 5:00am - Jenny C

Big Brother Bike

So one thing I left out of my post yesterday about the grandparent visits is that my mom showed up with a toddler bike as a big-brother present for Nathan. Yep, you read that right: a bike. Not a tricycle (or tri-bicycle as Nathan calls it), but a toddler-sized bicycle. Complete with training wheels and a handle for pushing.

If you're assuming he's a little small unskilled to use it correctly, you would be right. And although normally I would firmly insist on toys he's not ready for being put away until he is ready (no sense letting him see it and touch it for months until he can use it, and then he's bored with it), but in this case the bike is actually ok. He really likes it. And he wants to ride it (not just push it around by the handle, though he enjoyed that too). He can't actually do the pedals yet, but I bet he'll get it soon. (And if not, we'll put it away and try again next month so he doesn't tire of it and get frustrated.)

He was so so happy out on the street in front of our house, sitting high on his big-brother bike. He must have told us it was red a thousand times, and told us that his "hat" had a car on it a thousand and one times.

I think it's so cute that he calls it a bicycle. We might have the only two-year-old on the planet who prefers to say bicycle instead of bike. :) And yes, some of you might have recognized my Grandpa's (now hairless) poodle Tammy, who came along with my mom for the visit.

Stay tuned to see when he learns how to pedal!

Meeting Grandparents and Friends

The past few days have been busy with a plethora of visitors. Everyone wants to meet the new arrival! (Though I think Mark and Nathan and I were the ones who cared most about the visitors!)

Most importantly, Anneliese got to meet three of her four sets of grandparents. Mark's mom came on Thursday night but only got to see the baby for a few minutes before she went down in her crib.... for six hours. Amazing. (The rest of the night was awful, so don't get jealous of me too quickly.) I felt kind of bad since I knew Grandma wanted to play with Anneliese, but nothing (nothing) is worth waking a baby who is learning to sleep for extended amounts of time in her own crib. So instead Nathan got all Grandma's attention for most of her visit. Anneliese did get a little snuggle time before she left too!

Then my dad and Cathy came up and brought lunch and stayed for the afternoon. We had an incredibly pleasant and relaxing visit with them (so relaxing that I think at one point all four grownups had dozed off!) even though Nathan skipped his nap for the first time in his life (yikes, that better not be a habit already). We ate chicken and I even drank some sweet tea for the first time in several weeks. I didn't worry about caffeine too much when I was pregnant, but both of my kids have proven very sensitive to it in breastmilk (trust me when I say the results are not pretty) so when I have it now I have to dump the milk -- something I don't like to make a habit of -- so real tea is a very rare treat! They also brought a few matchbox cars for Nathan, which made him crazy happy and he's barely put them down since they left. Doesn't my dad look sweet with his grandkids (and a lap full of cars)?

And then my mom came up. I was so glad to see her! I think there is something about being a new mommy (even for the second time) that just makes you want you own mom around, you know? And mom was nice enough to leave her house at like 5:30 in the morning (she would have been up anyway, don't feel too bad for her) so she could hang out with Anneliese while we went to church -- and that meant I got to sing with the choir. (I don't mind taking Anneliese into worship with me, but I can't really bring her into the chancel to sing, of course... and we're not quite ready to leave her in the nursery yet, considering it's flu season.) We figured since we know now that she can take a bottle if needed, we should take advantage of mom's willingness to help out. Mom also fixed us an awesome homemade lunch (chicken pie and baked apples and green beans and brownies).

Anneliese also met a few of our church friends this week. The Chamblees, who -- if you recall -- came down with H1N1 the week Anneliese was due, have recovered and were very anxious to finally meet her. Of course Nathan was super-stoked to see Hayes too!

And our friend Nathan (who happens to share a first and middle name with our Nathan -- isn't that weird? We didn't even know him when Nathan was born) came to meet her too. He hasn't been around many newborns, but he did fine and he even held her for a little while, though he seemed hesitant at first (he wasn't sure about the whole neck support thing, apparently). And our Nathan was very happy to see his friend "Another Nathan" for a little while outside of church!

So it's kind of been a tiring week, but since we don't have much else going on besides learning to adjust at home with both kids (and that's actually going fairly swimmingly), we were glad for the company and adult conversation!

For more pictures of our week of visitors, click below on Ashley and John with Anneliese.

by mgoetts

Party of Four

We're at the onset of a whirlwind weekend of visitors. So while Anneliese is meeting a slew of friends and relatives, enjoy this picture of our new family (we couldn't convince the pups to pose with us, so that will have to come later).

Somehow we didn't manage to take one of these shots until a week after we got home from the hospital, but here it is now.

We're somewhat less rested than we appear in this picture. :)

For a bunch more pictures of our first week at home as a "party of four," click on Anneliese, below.

by mgoetts

State Fair!

We ventured out today as a family of four to the state fair! As I mentioned last year, the fair is one of the highlights of fall around here, and I didn't want to miss it just because Anneliese came a week later than we thought she would. So we packed up both kids and had a fun morning together! I think we'll do it this way again next year -- a weekday morning was such an easy and pleasant time to be at the fair! So much less crowded than evenings like we've done in the past.

We saw farm animals (Nathan liked the roosters but proclaimed the horses to be too scary), tractors, and lots of police (well, state trooper) vehicles including cars, motorcycles, and even a helicopter. Which, knowing what you know about Nathan, you can assume made him incredibly happy. (And you would be correct.)

We also saw a motocross and bmx bike stunt show. I think Nathan
was just as happy with the bikes when they were on the ground as when they were flipping through the air, but he clapped and cheered with the crowd for all the stunts anyway -- so cute! (I don't think he had any idea why he was clapping.)

And Nathan got to ride some rides: a merry-go-round with Daddy and a giant fun slide with Mommy!
He liked both of them, and asked to do it again after both!

We ate fair food: ham biscuits, a pineapple slushy, sausages with peppers and onions, and yes... the requisite fried snickers bar. As usual, they had a whole plethora of fried foods (including chicken-fried bacon... what does that even mean? isn't all bacon fried?), but we just stuck with the snickers. I made a huge mess of powdered sugar while enjoying my fried feast. :) I tried to offer Nathan a bite, but he wanted nothing to do with fried chocolatey goodness on a stick. He's so not my son.

Surprisingly, very few people commented on the fact that we were out with a newborn. Although one woman did tell us that her mother would "roll over in her grave" if she knew I was up and out in public and (gasp!) pushing a stroller with my one-week-old baby. Haha! But Anneliese slept through the whole fair and didn't even wake up until we were near the front gate on our way home. It was actually a great outing with a newborn -- we kept her snuggled into the car seat/stroller with the canopy up. And once again I was reminded how much more human I feel when I go out and do something instead of just sitting around at home.

And Mark has never looked more like a DAD than walking through the fair, pushing a tandem stroller, wearing a purple backpack. Just sayin'. :)

One Week Old

Anneliese is one week old today. Doesn't she look tiny and precious in Daddy's hand? Things have taken a decided turn towards normal around here. My "injury" has pretty much healed, so Anneliese is nursing on both sides now, without pain or problems. Which makes my life bottle-free and therefore approximately 80% easier.

Also, she slept in her own crib all night last night, from 8pm to 6am, and only woke up twice for milk. Mark figured the reason she kept fussing when we put her down in her crib before was the sudden temperature change, and he was right. We borrowed an idea from our friend LeAnn: we wrapped her up tight in the swaddle me (thanks Betsy!), then used a heating pad to make a warm spot in her crib (yes, we took the pad out before we put her down). And she stayed down just fine! For about four hours at a time. Over and over again, all night. And now I hate to admit it but I miss holding her since it feels like it's been forever. I know, I know... I can't be pleased. :)

I am so in love with my daughter. Have I mentioned that recently?

Aunt Ashley and Uncle John

Anneliese got to meet her Aunt Ashley today! She and John came up for the afternoon to see both kids. Nathan was very excited to get some special Ashley love, and Anneliese slept contentedly in both Ashley's and John's arms.... which I'm pretty sure means she likes them too. :)I'm used to seeing Ashley cuddling my kids, and she's always had such a nurturing/maternal instinct anyway that it seems perfectly normal to see her in that role. But it was surprising and fun for me to see John cuddling Anneliese while he watched a football game. It looked very natural on him too! I'm excited for Ashley and John to get married already and start making babies of their own. Since they spoil my kids, I reserve the right to become one of those annoying people in their lives who nags them about baby-making. Get on it, you two!

Ashley also pointed out that with Anneliese drinking bloody milk, she's sort of a vampire baby. But we'll refrain from calling her Renesmee, or from thinking of her as a vampire in any way. If we focus our brains very hard, we can follow emu's "strawberry milk" idea -- which Mark is a lot more comfortable with! Only when Ashley and I are together would vampires even enter the discussion!!

We also took Anneliese to church for the first time this morning. I think people were kind of surprised to see me -- last Sunday I was singing in the choir, very very pregnant. And then
today I was there with the baby all snuggled into the Moby wrap (I wanted as few people to be tempted to touch her as possible!) and dozing through the service. I know some people say you're not supposed to take a baby out in public so soon, but I really needed to get out of the house, and the timing worked well with her feedings for us to be able to make it to worship.
Which I think we both needed. Something about being out and about just makes me feel more human, you know?

But at the end of the day we were both definitely exhausted. I didn't even know Mark took this picture until I just found it on our camera. It kind of sums up the mood of our evening.

Adjusting: Life at Home and Pink Milk

The first few days at home have been... well, they've been. We're tired but we're functioning, which is pretty much what to expect with a newborn in the house, right? Anneliese is very soothable, it just takes a lot more effort than we expected -- or what we remembered from last time!

She eats about every two hours, and she sleeps pretty well in our arms, which is where she spends most of her time (though she has done an afternoon nap in her crib both days -- yay!). She is spending nights in our room, alternating between the pack & play and the recliner (with me).

Even though it's tiring, I am finding myself less frustrated in those fussy moments than I thought I would be. I know now how fast this newborn period goes by, so I am just trying to enjoy the snuggling while it lasts! Soon enough she will be ready to move on and be a big girl, so I don't want to wish this baby time away being frustrated or stressed.

The breastfeeding has thrown us for an unexpected loop. Since I had nursed Nathan for almost two years, and since Anneliese latched on so quickly at the hospital, and since I wasn't having any pain and my milk came in fast and she's filling up more diapers than we can count (seriously we abandoned the whole counting diapers thing about five minutes after hospital discharge), we made the mistake of assuming that nursing was going fine and would be easy this time around again. Well... turns out she had a bad latch (bottom lip curled under... bottom lip... who thinks to look there?) and it didn't start hurting until late Thursday night and Friday morning. But it quickly went from hurting a little to cracked and bleeding. Ugh. I realized it was a real problem when I went in for the post-nap pumping and the bottle filled with bloody milk. Lovely. Nice to know that second-time moms can have trouble with this, too, huh? I feel a little sheepish and little like a dunce, but... it is what it is.

So while it's healing, I am skipping her right-side nursing sessions and she's getting that milk from a bottle instead. It's way sooner than we thought we'd introduce a bottle, but... I've got to heal. Pushing through the pain in this case would just make it worse. Mark has been a little grossed out by the blood in the milk (though it's perfectly fine for her to drink... she had been getting it that way from the breast anyway, before we knew what was going on), but I told him to just think of it as "it's a girl" milk and that made him laugh. So I think he's feeling better about it now. I don't know, I think it's sort of festive, don't you? (This is what was left after she finished; you can still see the pretty color.)

But because of my breastfeeding "injury," Mark did get to give Anneliese her first bottle. He seemed glad for the bonding moment with her. And as you can see, she's latched to the bottle just fine (bottom lip and all!), so here's hoping she can translate that back to the breast when we reinstate her right-side feedings.

Mark and I are both anxious for her to get back to exclusive nursings -- me, because I have to be honest and say that bottles are a huge pain. And Mark, because then he can take a more passive role in the middle of the night again! (He's being a very good sport, though!)

Anneliese's first doctor's appointment also went great. She is healthy (not yellow at all, yay!) and back to her birth weight already (so apparently that bad latch was pretty effective after all), which means we could stop waking her for feedings... if, you know, we were the ones waking her for feedings. Which we're not. To say the least. :) But it's still good to know that if and when she does decide to sleep for more than a couple of hours, I don't have to have mixed feelings about letting her do it.

We took her on her first outing today (no, going to see the doctor does not count) -- to Kohl's to get her some pants, and then to the airport, so big brother Nathan could watch the planes. It was lovely to get some fresh air (seriously I needed it to feel human again), but it was much much colder and windier than we thought it would be were dressed for. Even with Anneliese bound up tight against me in the moby wrap, she and I were both shivering, so we spent most of the time watching Mark and Nathan play from the warmth of the car. Which was still incredibly pleasant.

Overall things are going fine! And Anneliese will start meeting more friends and relatives this week, so we will have some help distracting her from fussiness during her waking hours!

Big Brother & Little Sister

Nathan and Anneliese got to meet each other today! We got home from the hospital when Nathan was still at preschool, so Anneliese and I snuggled on the couch and watched tv while we waited for Mark to go get Nathan.

These two will will carry the roles of big brother and little sister for the rest of their lives, and it was kind of fun to see the first moments of the relationship. We got some of them on video (my favorite part is where he tells us she is dirty):

Nathan is very excited to have Anneliese home with us. He is always aware of where she is and he wants to be near her, hug her, kiss her, and hold her. We're still working on always being gentle and touching nicely, but he's getting better. I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now they're very sweet together.

For all the pictures of Anneliese's arrival and homecoming, click on my pregnant belly, below.

by mgoetts

Pictures from the Hospital

Most of these pics are the same ones posted on Facebook, so I apologize for the redundancy. But I have non-facebookers (grandparents and other relatives and friends from church) clamoring for more pictures, so I am posting them here as well.

Anneliese and me, just after sunrise on her birthday, enjoying a fresh clean postpartum room and the fact that our tummies are full from breakfast:

A big yawn from a little girl:

Daddy and Anneliese... Mark is in love already!

Anneliese and I have matching PJs which have seriously been all the rage here in the maternity wing. The nurses and techs, the doctors, the housekeeping and food staff.... everyone has commented on the fact that we match. I promise I won't make her dress like me all the time, but it's been fun here at the hospital. One of those things you can't really do with a son. :) And since everyone has asked -- we got the whole set (nursing tank top, pants, baby gown, baby cap) from Old Navy and it comes in green and pink.

We think she looks kind of like Nathan in this picture. She loves to sleep with her arms up, just like he did. Touchdown! She had a rough(ish) first day and was kind of fussy and didn't sleep much, but towards the end of the afternoon she did sleep for a couple of hours in the bassinet (not our arms!) and seemed pretty calm and happy, so we're hoping that's an indication of good things to come.

In Praise of Epidurals: A Birth Story

Brace yourself, this will be the most boring thing you have ever read about childbirth. That's because I had the best labor ever. And since we're stuck in the hospital for one more night (argh), I am taking the time to write it all out before I forget the details.

10am - I had a 41-week checkup (people are really nice to you at those; they feel bad that you even had to schedule a 41-week checkup!) and while they were checking Beanie (she was still Beanie at that point) on the monitor, they noticed I was having decent contractions every 6-7 minutes. Who knew? Not me, they were so mild I hadn't even noticed. They told me to come back for a labor check if they got to be more intense or if they got down to 4 minutes apart.

11am - I took Bowden to the vet (you knew I would end up at the vet during early labor) and ran some errands nearby -- shoe shopping and fall scent-hunting at Bath & Body Works. Contractions were still pretty mild but got to 4 minutes apart, so I headed home.

1pm - we packed our stuff for the hospital, left Nathan with Uncle Nick (who I grudgingly allowed to take this picture), and went back to the OB's office. Even though contractions were about 3 min apart, my cervix was still only at 2cm so they didn't want me to go to the hospital yet. Left with instructions to go eat something, sit still, and see if they intensified on their own, without walking etc.

2:30pm - did my early labor at Panera Bread. For the record, a chopped cobb salad is really good labor food. :) Contractions weren't closer but they certainly got more intense.

4pm - went back to the OB's office for another labor check. Yes, I have now been to the office three times in one day. Cervix was still 2cm, and I started to get scared at that point. I was beginning to have real pain, and based on how fast Nathan's labor went once I started dilating, I knew that once it started, it would be a race to the finish. I was worried about getting admitted in time to get an epidural. Midwife gave us instructions to go home and (although it seemed counterintuitive) try to slow down the contractions -- hot bath, nap, no movement. She thought if we could slow them down, then when they restarted (which they would, if it was real labor), they would be more productive.

7:30pm - guess what, she was right. After a bath and some couch time with Nathan, my contractions had slowed down and then come back to between 2 and 3 minutes, and were pretty hard. Suddenly I knew, it's time. NOW. I think Nick was a little awkward and worried ("um, Nathan? Go hold mommy's hand, ok?") but I have to give him credit for not freaking out even when he could tell my pain was getting worse. I mean, he's never been around anyone in labor before. So anyway we woke Mark up from his nap and headed out the door in kind of a rush. A rainy rush. A rainy rush where people on the road are driving way too slow and oh Lord don't they know I'm in labor??? Pain, people. Labor is painful.

8pm - I started remembering why I hate hospitals. Sitting in triage, in pain, and the nurses want me to recline in the bed so they can monitor Beanie's heart rate. Seriously? That is not comfortable and the contractions are at least four times worse when I do that so I will not be reclining back on this bed. I promise she's alive in there and you will not get in trouble for not keeping her heart rate steady on that stupid piece of paper printing from that stupid machine in this stupid little triage room where I am in pain. I will be sitting upright or standing, thankyouverymuch. Some gem of a nurse came in and found the equivalent of "fetal heartrate tracking is irregular due to mother won't cooperate" in her computer and told me to do whatever felt best. I saw Jesus shining from that nurse's soul.

8:20pm - found out my cervix was still only at 2cm. So even though my contractions were hard and close, and my pain was very very real, that's technically not labor. And technically you're supposed to be in labor to be admitted to the labor & delivery unit. Technically. But amazingly, the awesome OB who was on call decided to trust my instinct that she's coming, and trust my instinct (and birthing history) that once my cervix moved it would go really fast, and decided to admit me anyway. (I'm sure my pain and the fact that I was already five days late factored into that decision.) Jesus was shining from that man's soul and his earlobes. He even got me hooked up to the antibiotic I would need for my strep-B (proof that he believed me on the speed thing, since the second dose has to come four hours after the first, but before delivery) and the fluids I would need before getting an epidural, all before I was even moved to a labor room. Yay for doctors who trust moms' bodies and instincts!

9pm - got into a labor room and we're pretty sure it's the same exact room Nathan was born in. I did shed some tears over the fact that Beanie might have to wear one of those ugly hospital hats when she was born, but then decided to stop crying about it (no idea why it upset me so much, so let's just blame labor mmmkay?) and just found another hat in our bag and put it in the bassinet so they'd put her in that one instead of theirs. Problem solved, tears abated, and then (only then) did Mark decide it was safe to laugh at me. I agree it's funny in hindsight. :)

9:30pm - Contractions just under 2 minutes apart and hard. I was still waiting on the epidural and the pain was getting worse and worse, though I think I powered through it like a champ using breathing techniques and focusing on Mark telling me stories about Nathan to get those endorphins rushing to whatever "natural" pain relief they could bring. I was more scared than in pain, I think, because I knew how much worse it could get and that sort of terrified me. I was having horrifying flashbacks to Nathan's delivery which was way too fast and ended with the epidural man not showing up until I was ready to push. Fortunately this time I had a dream of a nurse (kind, sense of humor, not a cheerleader, I'm telling you Jesus was shining through people all over that L&D wing) and an experienced hubby and they both made it much easier for me to talk myself up instead of down, and to keep me from panicking.

10pm - epidural was in. Two words: PURE BLISS. Still only 3cm dialted, but at that point I didn't care if labor took all night or if they had to pump me full of sixteen bags of pitocin to get me moving. I was happy, people. Epidural happy. And I daresay there's no better kind.

11pm - read some magazines, watched some tv, chatted with Mark, and took a nap. That's right, I took a nap in labor. Did I mention that the epidural rocks?

12:15am - our nurse noticed Beanie's pulse pattern showing indications that there was pressure on her head. Which probably meant that the cervix was opening and she was lowering. So she checked me and indeed I was 8cm. With no pitocin. I felt incredibly validated about the whole going-fast thing!
12:35am - my water broke on its own and within 10 minutes I was fully dilated and ready to push. I don't think Mark and I understood that at the time; we just thought they were calling the doc to come check me or something. But I did start feeling the urge to push and I felt very relieved, since I had been worried the epidural would take away that sensation and I would waste a bunch of time and energy pushing wrong. No need for the worry, I could feel the pressure but not the pain, so my body knew exactly what to do (and was already asking to do it!), but they had me wait to push until someone from pediatrics came up, since Beanie (like her brother before her) had made a big ol' poop inside the womb.

1am - all the necessary parties were present (including a peds resident with fabulous Fabio hair) and I started pushing every time I had a contraction.

1:27am - Beanie arrived! (And she stayed Beanie for another hour or so while we finalized our name choice.) I got to cuddle her and snuggle her and talk to her and marvel at the fact that I have a daughter, all while they stitched me up and I relaxed, pain-free.

I know there are lots of people with lots of valid reasons for wanting to deliver their babies without pain medication. But for the record, I am not one of them. I have done it both ways and I have to say that I much preferred the latter. The one with the working epidural. The one I enjoyed. The moral of the story? Have the delivery you want, so that you can be happy and proud at the end. Whether that's numb or natural or something in between, just do what works for you -- there's no wrong answer.

And while you're deciding, I will forever sing the praises of my epidural. :)

Happy Birthday, Beanie!

Meet the newest member of our family...

Anneliese Caroline Goettsch

She is 8 lbs, 4 oz and 21.5 inches long. She was born today at 1:27am after a relatively uneventful labor and uncomplicated delivery. Both mom and baby are doing great!

And, for the record.... she was six days late: She was worth the wait, though, and we're happy to finally have her in our arms.

Children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. (Ps. 127:3)

Big Brother To-Be

No, I have not had the baby yet. No, I am not in labor yet. Didn't want you to get excited in any way by the post title or what you might have been hoping it meant, so let's just get that out of the way. She's not here and there are no signs she's on her way.

While we're waiting oh-so-patiently (or not), I wanted to share some big-boy stuff Nathan has been doing over the last few weeks. He seems to have grown so much, so fast recently -- in speech, behavior, and maturity. Such a big boy, and we're excited to see him as a big brother! Here's what he's been doing to get ready:

While he still loves reading with us, he has also been very much into reading books to himself (we hear a lot of Nathan do it!) in the last few weeks. And it's not nonsense babbling -- he's naming everything on a given page, counting, and telling us what shapes and colors he sees. How is it even possible? I mean, I just gave birth to him, right?

This shot below isn't a great photo (it's actually the thumbnail from a video file), but it does show Nathan drinking out of a big-boy cup. He loves to have a small cup to use without a lid, which we've started letting him do (with water) at meals. He still spills pretty often (but hey, that's how they learn, right?) so milk, juice, and playtime drinks away from the table still get lids until he's a little better at it.We have tried a couple of different kinds of cups and this one is the best. It's a specimen cup from my OB's office (never used for peeing, don't worry) and it's sturdy enough to use over and over, unlike dixie cups (which we also have a stash of for this same purpose).

Nathan has also been getting better and better at keeping himself entertained on his own while I am getting stuff done around the house. Please, God, let this trend continue when Beanie comes home. Here he is playing with his beloved tupperware while I work on dinner. We keep this cabinet un-childproofed so that Nathan can have access to the plastic tubs and lids. There's nothing in there that can hurt him or be hurt by him, and it seems to make the other cabinets less tempting anyway, to know what he can play with instead of just what he can't. (You should also know that he can -- and will -- tell you every single machine on that shirt. He can tell the difference between a dump truck, a backhoe, a digger/front-loader, a bulldozer, a steamroller, a garbage truck, and a crane... even upside-down.)

I'm not sure if this next one is a big-boy trend, per se, but Nathan has really enjoyed watching clips from Fantasia 2000 this week. His favorite seems to be the Noah's Ark sequence below. He's been asking to watch the animals after his nap sometimes. (He also asks to watch the whales which seem to be his second favorite.) It says something about pregnancy hormones that this video makes me cry every single time I watch it. What in the world??


We're excited at what a big boy you're becoming, Nathan. You just get more fun the older you get. Easier, too, for the record. And we absolutely cannot wait (no, seriously... we're tired of waiting) to see you become a big brother!