Two Weeks Old

Isaac has had the last two weeks off of work and has been a great help taking care of Nate and things around the house. Our church has been bringing us meals - mmmm mmmm good! We're still getting used to being parents... but so far we haven't screwed anything up too badly. There are so many things for us to learn about being parents and about Nate himself. I can't believe how much we love him already. We can just sit there and stare at him for hours sometimes. He's been such a good baby. He isn't really fussy - just when he needs to tell us to change or feed him. At night he's waking up to eat about every 3 hours or so. Not too bad. We're trying to get in the habit of napping when he does but it doesn't always happen that way. I've had a couple of check-ups and I'm healing well. We've been given a little more freedom from the docs... I'm not on house arrest anymore. But still need to take it easy so I don't hinder the healing progress. Nate weighs in at 7lbs 15oz at two weeks old. Breast feeding has obviously been going well, according to the weight gain. We're still getting the hang of it, but doing alright.

Welcome Our First Son!

Well... at 2:30am on Thurs 7-7-05 my water broke. Contractions started shortly there after. My mom and our backup doula, Paula(Julie was on vacation), came over late morning to help with the labor process. We all worked well together and things progressed. We decided to head over to the hospital around 4:30p or 5p. When the CNM checked me we were dilated to 6cm(thats good). We labor for awhile longer, trying different positions and things to be as comfortable as possible - we made it to 7cm dilation. Eventually progress stopped and it seemed that we were running out of options to stick to our birth plan. There were concerns about the baby's heart rate and the fact that labor had slowed and we hadn't dilated any more after several hours of labor. After about 24hours of labor and trying many things we felt we needed a c-section in order to keep a healthy mother and baby. The surgery went well and we have a beautiful baby boy!
Our Baby Nate was born Friday July 8th, 2005 at 3:20am. He was 7lbs 7oz and 21 1/2 inches long.
He's got a head full of dark hair and we're totally in love with him already. The hospital staff was wonderful - they took good care of all of us. Little Nate and I are still getting the hang of breastfeeding, but we're working on it together. We were released late this morning and we're all tired but glad to be home. Here are a few pix of the handsome new Penrod boy! Thanks for your continued prayers as we settle in with our new joy.

*This was obviously an abbreviated version of the story. For those who really love hearing birth stories I have the long version in a word doc if you are interested.

nearing the end...

Went to the Dr.'s today. My blood pressure was high this whole last week and again at the beginning of my appointment. However, everything else is normal and they had me chill in a recliner (on a monitor checking the baby's heartbeat) and took my BP again and it was normal. Yeah! Thank you, Lord! I was really relieved. She still wants me to take it easy this week to make sure it doesn't get higher, etc. I am not working anymore so it shouldn't be too hard to kick back a little bit, its an excuse to stay out of the heat! Anyway, we'd appreciate your continued prayers as we near the end of the pregnancy and the beginning of parenthood!

Is it time yet?

Here is a pix of me, my aunt Kath and cousin Janet - both of which have already had their babies... dang them... jk

I'm so anxious to have this baby. I can't wait a whole month longer! I've people saying they think I'm gonna go early, I'm gonna have twins, I'm gonna go late... I just want to be done! Our doula is on vacation until the 9th... and the CNM we're hoping to have at the delivery is leaving to get married on the 16th... so I'm hoping to go in that window of time somewhere. As if I can choose when this baby comes. There are things that can be tried to help things along... we're waiting a bit longer before trying anything... but give me another week and I'll be willing to try a thing or two. Please keep us in your prayers. Even with all the preperation we've done for this I am nervous about the birth. I'm sure He's got it under control but extra prayers never hurt anything!