He's here....

The waiting is over. On Monday, November 26th, after 17 hours of labor, 1.5 hours of pushing, and 1 c-section, Lucas Kieran joined our family. He is 9lbs, 13 oz, and 21.75 inches long, and a happy baby.

It was a wonderful experience, and I am so happy that I tried for a VBAC, experienced natural labor and pushing, and have a beautiful baby boy. Really, no complaints. No regrets - and that was my ultimate goal.

We came home yesterday, and are thrilled to be here. While everyone at St. Vincent's went out of their way to make our stay there wonderful, it was hard being away from Max for so long. I really missed him and couldn't wait to be back in my own bed.

Things are good right now. Not easy yet, but good. I am very sore, and moving takes a lot of energy. Luke developed jaundice, so he is hooked up to a bili-light as much as possible right now, and sleeping whenever he's not eating. I feel like we hardly get any time with him yet. Max is very loving towards Luke, but is struggling with typical toddler issues of tantrums and not listening to mommy and daddy. And as much as I want to get down and wrestle with him and hug and play and remind him just how much I love him, I have to hold him at a distance so that I don't get kicked or banged up. That hurts us both. But really, things are good right now.

And they'll continue to get better....

So thankful.....

As usual, life loves to throw us curve balls. For some reason, I FULLY expected that Baby Luke would be here before Thanksgiving - the only question was would we be home from the hospital yet. But, as things would have it, it is 9:00 pm on the evening of Thanksgiving, and Luke is still nice and comfy inside.

It was a great day anyway. My mom worked really hard to clean house and make a wonderful dinner here at our house, and despite a possibly tragic flight delay, Erin and Alex were able to make it just a few hours later than expected. I got to hang out with my Dad, and Marian, Carrie and Tom came to share the day with us. It was wonderfully laid back, and the time flew by. Max was thrilled, yet highly overwhelmed to have all of his favorite people in the same room. And largely I got to just sit back and watch it all happen.

I am so lucky to have all of these wonderful people in my life. People who are willing to gather around and share time together because that was important to Dan and I. And besides the much-deserved jokes about the immense size of my belly, the support for welcoming our child into this world at the time he best sees fit.

While I am more than ready for this birth, I am also glad that I got to be here to share this wonderful day with my families.

Sometimes you just remember....

I always love Dan. Obviously. But sometimes there are days that remind me just how much I love him....

Today we were driving home from a quick mall/library trip, when we saw a small cat sitting in the middle of the lane. He wasn't moving, and I was afraid he has already been hit. I sighed, felt terrible for the poor cat, and expected that we would continue on home.

To my surprise, Dan immediately turned around, jumped out of the car, and picked up the cat. It was ok - just very scared and soaking wet. We put him in a box and took him to the Humane Society. When they wouldn't take him, we headed to the animal shelter where they thanked us for bringing him in and prepared to get him cleaned up and fed. The whole "ordeal" took a couple of hours - not exactly what we had in mind for our Saturday.

It was when we were back in the car that I really thought about the afternoon. How many guys would have done what Dan had? I was surprised Dan would turn around. When he got out of the car I expected that he would move the cat out of the road - but didn't expect that he would take the extra step of making sure that the cat stayed safe. And to spend so much time doing it...

Wow. I am so thankful to have a man like this in my life. It's the model of a man that I want for my sons. A kind, caring, compassionate man.

And every once in a while, I remember just how lucky I am........

One of those days....

Ok, I knew it would happen. Saturday I was reveling in the end-of-pregnancy, enjoying-the-moment-as-a-family-of-three feeling. Today, well..... not so much.

The major projects are done, work is set up enough for a sub to start, and Luke's arrival is all I think about. For some reason, I had myself fooled into thinking that once all of that was in place, labor would begin. Unfortunately, the contractions that I have been having since 23 weeks seem to have really slowed down, and there aren't any signs of labor on the horizon.

Today was a stormy Pacific Northwest kind of day, and like happens at the end of some three day weekends, Max and I both had a little cabin fever. Dan puts up with us so well on these days, but we aren't much fun to live with. How he does it, I just don't know.

So, tonight, I want to focus on a couple recent "Moments with Max":

1. Tonight at dinner Max insisted over and over "I love beer" - no amount of reminding him that he had never had beer, and that it is just for daddies could dissuade him. Of course, Dan and I cracking up about the absurd statement coming form our two-year-old cherub's mouth didn't help much either.

2. After letting him come into bed with us for a few minutes this morning, he rolls over to me and says "I love Mommy", and then rolls to Dan and wakes him up with an "I love Daddy". Doesn't get much better than that.

And it's things like that that make me remember that even though I'm impatient as all heck right now, there are moments when even "those days" are pretty darn good.

Coming to some sort of peace...

The last couple of weeks have felt frantic. For months we had done nothing to prepare for the arrival of Baby Luke, and then all of a sudden, crunch time was upon us. We hit 36 weeks and realized that things could begin sooner rather than later, and there were things that needed to be done. Over the last two weeks we have cleaned out closets and cupboards, turned Max's room into Max and Luke's room, washed all the clothes and diapers, worked on the garage, and prepared substitute lesson plans for every day "just in case". Dan's work has been busy, and I have been doing my parent-teacher conferences every morning before school and every afternoon after classes were done.

But then today came. And with the beautiful fall sun, a sense of calm has come over me. We're ready. Or, rather, ready enough. Should anything happen, we are ready to welcome Luke with open arms and excited, rather than anxious, hearts.

We spent the morning downtown picking up a gift and going to Finnegan's toy store to get a present for Luke to give to Max (a frontloader) and a present for Max to give to Luke (a stuffed giraffe). We had a relaxing lunch at Todai, and picked up a couple more diaper covers. The downtown streets were busy, but with the sunshine and fall leaves it was nice to be out and about. I had the distinct feeling that there won't be that many moments left to be a family of three, and really enjoyed the time we got to share.

So, there it is. I can't guarantee that the panic and stress won't come back at some point in what is left of the waiting game we are playing now. But today we have come to a wonderful sort of peace......