Happy New Year and New Addition

Happy 2010! This is the first year in five years that we did not head to Mexico for New Year's. The reason was that I was very pregnant and due a few days after the new year. Anyway, New Year's was mellow this year with dinner with Julie and Art and their friends who were visiting from Australia. We were home by 9:30 and in bed shortly after. I had been sick with a sinus infection since before Christmas and it showed no signs of going away. We had a Dr. appointment on 1/8, which was 2 days before the due date. At that time I was 3cm dilated and almost completely effaced, but she was still up high. We decided that if she didn't come by the following Thursday we would induced because I was just tired of being so stuffed up and feeling yucky. So last weekend was beautiful in San Diego with temps in the mid 70's, perfect for long walks to help speed up the process. Nathan seemed to know that something was up and was extra snuggly and clingy to me all weekend. On Sunday evening we went to Julie and Art's house to celebrate Jared's birthday, which was our official due date. Still no signs of labor. However, about the time we sat down to dinner, I started having mild contractions. They were about every 30 minutes, but not painful. By about 9, they were much stronger and about 15 minutes apart. I went to bed to see if I would be able to get some rest before I needed to go to the hospital. I slept about 2 hours and then was woken up to strong contractions that were 5 minutes apart. I timed them for about an hour and then woke Brian up. He called his mom who was over in about 15 minutes to stay with Nathan and we were off. Once we were checked into triage they monitored us for awhile and were ready to send us off since the contractions didn't seem to be changing, but then baby's monitor strip was not spiking like they wanted so they ended up admitting us and putting us into Labor and Delivery. Around 3 I opted for the epidural because my contractions were strong enough to warrant it. For most of the night I was breathing oxygen and rolling from side to side to try to spike baby activity. At one point they mentioned having NICU staff on hand for delivery, which scared us, but around 4 they said there was enough activity to start pitocin. By about 9, I was 7-8 cm and the dr. came to break the water. By 11:43 she was here and weighed in at 8lbs 14oz (exactly one pound larger than Nathan) and 20.5 inches (exactly one inch shorter than Nathan). We spent one night in the hospital and were ready to get home to Nathan. Once home, Nathan was happy to have us home. He has been pretty good, but is starting to show signs of needing additional attention, which we are trying to provide. He is really doing much better than expected, but it has only been 4 days so I am sure we are in for our ups and downs. At any rate, we are happy to now be a family of 4 (6 if you count the dog and cat, which we do).

Big Brother/Little Sister




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Proud Grandpa



Just after birth