Stew News: November 2006

Happy Wesley Day!

So as you know by now, the baby didn't come on Thanksgiving. He cooked a little longer in the oven and decided to make an appearance early Saturday morning. So here's the rest of the story... (and yes, if I write this here I will be also able to use it for our scrapbook later!)

I was thrilled to get out of the house on Friday to do a little last minute shopping, and that night we even got all of our Christmas decorations put up. As Dave says, this was typical Christina timing. Daniel pranced around helping with ornaments and wearing his Santa hat all night.

I didn't sleep too well and woke up about 2:45am thinking I might have had a contraction. I confirmed this at 3am with an official contraction. My dad got the middle of the night call and arrived at our house around 3:30am to stay with Daniel. It honestly didn't feel any worse than it did with Daniel and by the time we got in the car, I was really looking forward to my epidural within the next hour or so. I even thought about calling ahead : )

We made it to the hospital around 4am and the contractions were about 4 minutes apart. I had a few bad ones, but again, I thought I was hours away from delivery. When I asked for my epidural and was told, "You're not going to make it for that", it really hurt my feelings. Actually, it scared me to death. I did not comprehend how close I really was. Dave looked more than a little shocked, when the nurse picked up the phone and started yelling orders to wake up the in- house doctor. Then she told me not to push. And then I felt like pushing.

We barely made it to the delivery room, and I was hooked up to the monitors for exactly three minutes before Wesley was born. I didn't get any pain medicine, but after seeing the doctor ready to go, I realized I just had to get through it. And it really wasn't that painful, just very exciting. And it was over in about two minutes. Dave got to cut the cord this time and I was able to hold the baby right away. He was awake, alert and very cute. Amazing.

The rest is a little blurry, except Dave had to go back outside to get the camera, and our doctor showed up about ten minutes after the birth. I was not even checked into the hospital yet, so we had to do a little paperwork so I could finally get some pain medicine! Not that I needed it anymore, I felt like a million bucks compared to when I had Daniel (and still feel great 5 days later!).

After we got over the shock of the birth experience, we were able to start calling family with our news. Wesley had a great first day and got to meet his brother when he was about 4 hours old. So far Daniel does acknowledge "Wessie" and talks to him at times. We are thankful for a healthly, safe (made it to the hospital- whew!) delivery of our new baby boy. He is already a joy and a huge blessing in our lives. Life at home is going well. Wesley is actually sleeping for several hours at a time at night.

Pictures to follow....

Happy Turkey Day!

Today is the big DUE date, and it looks like the little guy is going to be late. Just as well, because our doctor is on call at a different hospital tonight, so we would rather hold off anyway. At the latest, we have an appointment bright and early Sunday morning to get things going. Hey- I might even get to go shopping tomorrow!

Everyone is coming over here for the big dinner, and Daniel will be very excited to see PaPa, Grammy and Aunt Julie. I am going to continue with my sit and do nothing mode, since I twisted my ankle earlier this week and walking is still a little painful.

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope to have some baby news to tell soon!

Black Friday is almost here...

I was reading an article about Black Friday this morning and I learned something new:

Black Friday "is more midseason now," said Jay McIntosh, a retail analyst for Ernst & Young. "It's a promotional event to try to get customers in the stores." The whole article goes on to explain retailers are wanting you to start shopping earlier each year, in hopes you will spend even more.

Funny, most people I know think of Black Friday as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Of course, I'm pretty much done at this point, for obvious reasons. I plan to not buy anything on Friday. Unless I can send someone on my behalf from the hospital- I got some good deals at Walgreens last year....

Gobble, Gobble...

Yes, we are still all here and no one has been to a hospital. Daniel's big accomplishment this week is learning the turkey says "Gobble Gobble". Sometimes he says "Dobble, Dobble" instead and it's really cute.

Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor, who will hopefully tell us what day we can schedule this birth if this thing goes on after Thanksgiving. I'm trying to slow down, but last night I did take Daniel to Publix for all of the holiday samples (we are getting our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals from there) and I won a $20 gift card. And I bought flour for 20 cents and popcorn for 35 cents. I love my grocery game! The great thing is being able to donate a lot of stuff I have gotten for free or next to nothing.

Well, I'm off to make some pumpkin bread. Gotta bake while I can!

Election Day

Here in the 99% Republican County USA, we take our voting very seriously. Like the rest of the area, the waits were around 1-1/2 hours all day long. Here were our wait times:

Dave: 2 hours
Me: less than one minute

Yes, I pulled out the "38 weeks pregnant" card and moved myself to the front of the line. I had gone once to the polls earlier this morning and left, but then I found out from our eye doctor (got new glasses today, Daniel ate the old ones) I could skip the line. So I left Daniel at a friend's house and was gone for about 15 minutes. Dave left work at 5pm and didn't get home from voting until 8pm. He made a lot of new friends in line, while I'm sure I made a few enemies. I don't feel guilty at all. I have to pee every 10 minutes. I never would have made it otherwise.

Deer Report

Yes, it's here this morning. A dead deer out my kitchen window. Hanging from the playset across the alley. Happy Monday to me. Now the countdown begins for how long it will hang this week.

It's a little early this year, since last year it was New Year's weekend and the year before it was Thanksgiving. At least the guy is consistent. I know they have twins on the way, so maybe he is getting his hunting in early this year.

Update: The deer was gutted and removed by 9:30am this morning, a new personal record for Mr. Deer Killer.

The Baby Cometh....

Today I had a clean freak urge. I cleaned all of the hardwood floors on my hands and knees (with kneepads), and vacuumed every rug downstairs. Then tonight I cleaned out the entire refrigerator. That's some serious nesting activity....

I also broke down and we took Daniel to have his hair cut at "Snip Its"- this cute little overpriced kids' haircut place. He cried the whole time as usual, and it was totally worth the money to not have to deal with it. He looks so handsome with his trimmed up hair.

And we have eaten two meals out this weekend already - a very rare occurance, but I'm just not motivated to cook and clean dishes, and soon we will not be going out for a nice meal for a long time...