I'm sure you've all been wondering, how did the first night alone go?  Well, it went ok.  Much better than our first night with Isaac.  I was up about once an hour...usually to feed but sometimes to adjust the swaddle.  The good news is that Joshua usually went back to sleep quickly, so that was very nice.

Look...a tiny person is in the swing again.  In many ways, it's kind of sad that we're expecting this to be our last child.  The littleness can be a lot of fun!  But I'm sure that soon I will also remember why it's nice when they're older.  And I keep finding Isaac to be more and more enjoyable, so I expect I'll do the same with Joshua and not look back.

I finished Joshua's quilt over the weekend.  It had been very close for a while, but i put the finishing touches on.  So we now have a baseline picture at 3 days old.  hmm.  it seems like he's been around longer than that (in a good way).  The hospital distorts time a bit.

Isaac and Joshua.  As I was getting Isaac ready for bed I was struck at how much bigger he is.

A short tummy time.  Joshua had a dirty diaper.

Wednesday: home and pictures

At the hospital!  I think this is after the epidural, but I'm not sure.  Except for the contractions I felt in pretty good spirits, and with the contractions so far apart I was mostly in good spirits.

We have one like this from Isaac too.  (Yes, we did that on purpose.)  I felt as though I was sitting up more than it looks.

Joshua is born!  It was interesting how having the two kids at different times of the day changed things...we got some different pictures due to it.

Isaac came over and read a book with me.  The lift the flap books are awesome.

First family picture.

Another family picture.

Joshua at night, holding onto Ben's finger.

Leah and Joshua.  Leah is two months older than Joshua...and what a difference it made!!

Day 1 - Joshua

Day 1- Joshua and me.  There was more down time in the morning so I took some extra pictures.

New room.  You can see Ben in the bathroom mirror. :)

Our Congratulatory dinner.  And poor Joshua, the guest of honor, didn't get to eat any.

Isaac getting to hold Joshua for the first time.  It went pretty well.

Going home!  He is so small in the car seat.

Isaac wanted to get us some flowers.

Ben's first time looking after the two boys.  He did an awesome job.

Tuesday: day 1

Today was Joshua's first full day in the real world...I think it went well. We had a relaxing early morning and then the influx of people started...for about two hours it was one person after another.

Around 1pm I was asked to switch rooms because they had an influx of six people coming in and were running out of delivery rooms. That was fine with me. They transferred me out at a brisk pace. They weren't running, but they were far from dilly-dallying either.

We had our celebration dinner at night...and poor Joshua didn't get to eat any of it. Isaac showed up after that; he had been having too much fun at Grandma's house to be bothered to come any earlier. He did well reading the books for about thirty minutes and was then ready to go. He did help me read "dear zoo" to Joshua and that was fun.

We also had several visitors throughout the day: Betsy and Leah, dad and Pat, Jon and Nicole, and Derek, Julie, and Abby. Just the right amount to keep the day interesting but not overwhelming.

More pictures to follow...I don't have a good way to get them on the ipad anymore.

Joshua

Well, this delivery is a bit of a saga...

Friday:
12pm: VBS finishes
1:20: Isaac is picked up by Dad to spend the weekend up north.
1:35: I start having contractions. What great timing!
10:30: we go to the hospital because contractions are frequent, but neither of us think we'll be staying. I don't think they're painful enough and we both think I'm too happy.

Saturday:
1:30am: We leave the hospital. I'm having contractions, but they were farther apart than I thought. We might have been able to stay, but that idea was unattractive. The nurse thinks we'll be back later that day.
7:30: I wake up after having an excellent sleep; contractions start.
7:30pm: after continuing all day, contractions finally get close enough that we could go in again. Ben takes a shower first.
7:45: contractions stall out.
8:30: contractions completely go away. I guess it's nice that we're not at the hospital and I don't have to be embarrassed, but seriously?? They were happening all day.

Sunday:
6:00pm: contractions finally start again. It was a nice painless day...and it was nice not having to watch the clock. My contractions tend to not follow a nice pattern with respect to timing, and it always makes me frustrated.
8:30: I go for a walk around the lake after drinking some water. That was a mistake. Water has been going through me in about five minutes this whole weekend. Contractions are coming fast.
9:00: I sit down and contractions pretty much stop. I had actually been wondering if these were Braxton-Hicks as they were acting a bit differently.

Monday:
12:45am: I wake up with a contraction and the need to go to the bathroom. Which one woke me up?
1:30: the contraction. I get out of bed to try and not distub Ben so he can get some sleep. I do disturb Flurry.




4:45: I wake up Ben...we're going to the hospital! I expect to stay.
4:50: on our way to the hospital I only have one contraction...oh no, they're going to send me home. How embarrassing.
5:30: we get to stay! The contractions picked up enough to fool the nurses and I'm dilated to a stretchy four. We settle in.
7:00 shift change - we now have the nurse that helped deliver Isaac. I'm dilated to a five and the doctor breaks my water.
9:30: I'm dilated to a six and the contractions are slow (5-7 minutes apart) and painful. But phew, since my water was broken they can't send me home. It is one of my larger fears for some reason.
10:00: we decide to go forward with an epidural and petocin
11:00: I'm really starting to hurt and have been wondering where that epidural is. It finally show up, along with a friendly doctor.
11:15: ahh. We also have a nurse change and she start the petocin on the lowest setting. I'm dilated to a six.
11:30: I'm really glad that I have an epidural; some contractions are still mildly painful.
12:15: an alarm goes off on the petocin dispenser and a nurse comes in.
12:30: the baby's heartbeat goes out of the safe zone. The nurse tries a few things and then has me lie on my side. That helps, but she also checks on the baby's progress...baby is on his way! I'm fully dilated and at station +2 (I.e., the baby has started moving down the birth canal.
12:40: Ben goes to quickly grab some lunch while the doctor is called.
12:45: the doctor shows up faster than expected and gets everything ready.
12:48: Ben returns with lunch, surprised to see everything ready to go
12:53: I push through the last part of a contraction
12:58: I push through the first part of a second contraction...yeah, they're still rather far apart
1:02: I stop pushing so the doctor can cut the umbilical cord around baby's neck.
1:05: Joshua Alan is born!



Due to the speed and the umbilical cord, his breathing was a bit raspy...the fluid wasn't all out of his lungs. Nothing to be worried about, but the nurse monitored it and said that only Ben and I should hold him to keep the stress down. So we limited our visitors for the day, although an hour later he was doing fine. So we just had a nice, low-key evening.

Saturday: babies and puppies

Throughout the pregnancy I've had a problem where I'm super hungry and need to eat something and that means that Isaac wants to eat too.  Except that he doesn't need to eat because it's an hour after breakfast or something like that.  So I started saying that the food is for the baby, and he doesn't need any.  I stuck to that excuse, and he eventually learned that it meant he would get no food.

Of course, he thinks he has a puppy in his tummy.  So he's started to tell me that he needs to eat some goldfish crackers "for the puppy."

Friday: VBS

Well, I made it through the whole week of VBS.  Today's craft wasn't much of a craft, but did require a bit of set up time.

I also found one picture of Isaac from the week's pictures.  He's in the background, riding the tricycle.  Although I'm not sure his feet are on the pedals, so I have wondered how well it worked.  He seemed to love VBS...especially the slides and singing.  It was a very nice change of pace.

Thursday: play sand

Isaac received some moon sand (or something similar) last week at Jamie's wedding.  It has been his favorite toy since.  He loves to play in the sand, and this is something that he can do inside without a lot of prep, so I like it too.