Before and After

Friday 6/19/09, 5 AM2.5 hours, 9 lbs 1 0z, and 21.5 inches later........He was a little bruised since he was a good bit larger than what we were expecting

Av was incredibly excited to see brother (which is what she calls him).

She immediately ran to him, kissed him, sang him a lullaby, and wanted to hold him. So sweet. I think she would kiss him a hundred times a day and hold him all day long.

1 day after being out of Mommy's tummy. This little man has already stolen my heart.

Ready or Not

Bottles and Pacis have been boiled

Bumper pad, sheets, and all other linens have been washed and put on the crib

The pack-n-play is up in our room

Bags are packed

Av has been punted to my SIL

Bought diapers, wipes, and new parts for the breastpump

We have to be at the hospital at 5 AM tomorrow

Somehow even though getting to check off this list makes me feel calmer, I don't think it's prepared us for adding another child to our family. We are so excited and I can't believe that the day is here.

Did I mention that we still don't have a name? I thought we had pretty much nailed it down.....until last night. At around 11 last night J decided that we needed to "think out of the box" and basically start from scratch with names. I thought I was going to lose my mind or strangle him--don't worry, neither one happened. J is still here and I think I'm still sane. Soooooo, we'll see. He might be baby boy Leonard for a little while.

I think we have WiFi in the hospital, so if I can give pics tomorrow I will! I would REALLY appreciate your prayers!

Farming Freedom

I thought I would share our last weekend as a one child family. Av was with J's side of the family at the beach last week. I love my daughter, but at 9 months preggers it was bliss for me to rest and get last minute things done without trying to keep up with a 3 year old. We spent part of the weekend at the farm. J just had to get a pic of me--again 9 months pregnant, sweaty, no make-up, AND by the tractor. J loved it, but I know he wished that I had on waders with either a shotgun or a fly fishing rod on my shoulder.We have had incredible amounts of rain, but thankfully the lake was not overflowing. I have to admit I was a tad concerned that we could get stuck in the mud and that I would go into labor out in the woods. Thankfully that didn't happen either.

The blackberry bushes have really benefited from all the rain, but not ready to pick just yet.

Most of the blueberry bushes are at the same stage as the blackberries.

There were a few blueberries ready to be picked and I wanted to get them before the farm bugs and critters did. We were able to get about a quart of the blueberries, and they were gone in 4 days! They don't last long around Av and me, I'm ready to go back for more.

Anyone want to join us next time? We don't have running water, but we do have this lovely toilet "chair" to take in the woods to avoid, um, squatting. What can I say? We're a high class crowd around here :).

Villainous

I had to give an update on my sweet little girl and how she is dealing with adding another kiddo to our little family. Overall she has done very well, especially since Mommy has been so sick and I definitely have not been myself this entire pregnancy. The funniest and actually most consistent thing has been that Av decided months ago that she also has a baby in her tummy. She says that brother is in my tummy and sister is in her tummy.....and her name is Surla. Yes folks, that's Surla. Where did that name come from? We have no idea! Av likes to lay on her back and push her stomach in and out to show us that "Surla is kicking." We then have to go over to her and put a hand on her stomach to " feel" Surla.Sometimes Surla is in her tummy, but other times she's in Av's back and it makes her back sore. I have to give it to her, the girl's got imagination.

The other recent change is that J is the new hero and AV is not very interested in me. My only guess is because I am carrying her future sibling. She wants to cuddle with J, have him read her books, put her to bed, etc. Another part of it is that Av likes to assign people characters from books and movies. She is typically sleeping beauty, Cinderella-you get the idea. J is prince or hero and I have consistently been the villain. Recently I have been the wicked stepmother, Malificent, and the "bad cheetah" from Kung Fu Panda. I thought those were pretty bad...until this weekend. We were eating dinner at my parent's house when Av starting telling us all what characters we were that night. When it got to me Av informed me that I was a mouse (Cinderella) so that the dragon could eat me!! It was hilarious. I couldn't believe it.

Tonight's post is for Becky-not only 2 posts in one month, but 3 in a little over a week :)! 3 days left to go until baby boy Leonard is here! Still no final decisions on names.

The Name Game

All right folks, would you like to help with name options for our son? We have a number of family names that we are considering, but we just haven't been able to get it nailed down yet. I don't have any one name that really stands out to me. So here are some of the names on the short list-what do you think? It will probably be some combination of 2 of the following.

Brett
Shepherd
James
Owen
Andrew
Jonathan

We really do like Shepherd, but does Shepherd Leonard sound to sing-songy (-erd -ard)? We would probably call him Shep anyway?

On to the OB update. Saw my DR yesterday and so far, so good. I had a C-section with pregnancy #1, so will also be having one this time around. It's scheduled for next Friday-yes, that's 8 days from now!! I have started dilating and he is almost completely dropped, so I am a little nervous that I will make it until next Fri without going into labor.

On a completely unrelated note, funny story of the day. I had an adult male patient today wearing a metal bracelet. I hadn't paid any attention to it until someone asked if I had read what it said. I assumed it said "peace" or maybe had a Bible verse on it. I could not have been more wrong. It said "I 'heart' boobies*"All I could think was, at least he's honest! Think I should get one for J for father's Day?

Go vote on baby names!

*Can anyone tell me how to make the heart symbol?

Countdown

Well folks, I have 10 days to go until Baby Boy Leonard is here. Next Friday is supposed to be the date.....as long as I can make it that long. The C-section is set for 5 days before my due date, Av was 9 days early, so I am slightly nervous. I'm probably also nervous b/c I still have quite a few things to do in these last 10 days. Right now my list is topped with coming up with a name for our son and finishing organizing the nursery.

As to my last post, I did pass boards!!!! Thank you for any prayers-I can now continue practicing medicine :). I did put quite a bit of studying into it--hence the lack of blogging and I went to a review course in Dallas. I guess it all paid off in the end. The review course was quite torturous-sitting in a hotel conference room from 7 am to at least 5 pm daily and then taking a 2 hour practice test every night. I know you're jealous.

Actually here's the part you might be jealous about. So I love Fleetwood Mac, found out they're on tour, and was determined to see them in concert before they "retire." Possibility 1-they were in Atlanta...the night that my flight was booked to fly to Dallas, so that was out. Possibility 2-they were in Dallas while I was there for the conference, but a that wasn't quite feasible with the all day class and nightly test. Any other city they were in would have been an additional plane flight and hotel stay somewhere...while in my 3rd trimester, also out of the picture. I gave up, decided it was more important that I pass boards, and just decided to hope that they would tour again one day...sigh.

One day at lunch while at the conference hubby called to check in and let me know he had quite a dilemma.....2 14th row, center stage, on the floor tickets to the concert that night in Dallas. I was supposed to go out to dinner with Becky that night and thought J had sneakily arranged for the 2 of us to the concert. Turns out he had gotten the grandparents to watch the kiddo, flown to Dallas that morning, and was in the hotel lobby when he called me!! I was completely shocked! I did have to call Becky and let her know that I would be ditching her that night-sorry Beck, but thanks for being so understanding. I skipped my last lecture (so unlike the nerd that I am), got dolled up, headed to Capital Grille where J had made reservations, and then onto the concert--that was fantastic!!!! He's so thoughtful and creative. I still can't believe that he pulled it off, our entire family was in on it.

I have an OB appointment in the AM and will let you know of any news tomorrow. If you think of any great boy names, let me know!