Our little Hercules

He's been doing this since day one, but we finally got it on video. He's so dang strong.

He's three weeks old now, and each day gets better and better. He does have his fussy times in the evening now which aren't too terrible. We just call him names like Rumplefusskin, Senior Fussybutt, Fussbucket, Sir Crankerton Fussy the 2nd, etc.

It's still amazing that he's here and it's funny to think of Eric and I as "mom and dad". When we're home I find myself thinking about what he's going to sound like when he starts talking, what he's going to be when he grows up (i'm banking on rich and famous enough to buy his parents a vacation home), and what he'll look like.

Eric puts him to sleep every night and he usually only wakes up once. He does get up at 7:30-8AM no matter what. I've become more comfortable taking him places by myself, and we've ventured out a few times. We even drove over to the west side last friday and had lunch with Eric.

Aidan has also found his thumb.

Aidan Smiles!

Holy crap, quite possibly the best thing yet.

Serious baby means serious business,,,

Getting a little easier

Wow. I don't think we quite expected it to be quite this hard or stressful in the first few days. I had heard about the lack of sleep, but that's all anyone really ever mentions. There are so many things that come about that you would never think of.

He's finally started to sleep by himself, which I think is due in part to him actually getting more to eat. He's no longer jaundiced and has gained 2oz since yesterday which is fantastic. He's so amazingly strong. He moves his head up by himself and has the control not to slam it into your shoulder when he brings it back down. He also rolls on his side by himself. We still haven't cut his nails, but we're going to file them down tonight so he doesn't scratch his face off when he tries to eat his hands.

I have to say that we're also really lucky to have such fantastic friends and family for support. I've done my share of crying over the past few days and just talking made it so much better. It seems to be getting easier as the days go by. I'm updating now because he's actually taking a nap and neither one of us are holding him. :)

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but even I forget he has hair unless he's got his hat off, and none of the pictures this far have shown it off, so here's his awesome hair. It's all business in the front and party in the back. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, he's almost rocking a mullet because it's shorter on top and longer in the back. He also has some little sideburns which are crazy adorable.

You are getting verrrrrrrry sleepy....

It's 5:37AM, and I'm obviously awake. It's the 2nd night home and the little stinker won't sleep unless you're holding him. He sleeps for upwards of 6 hours at night, but only in the arms of Eric or myself. Obviously that makes it hard for us to get any rest, but we're managing by sleeping in shifts of about 2-3 hours at a time. I get to wake Eric up at 7AM.

We took Aidan to his first doctor's appointment yesterday and all went well. He's lost 11 oz. since he was born, but the doc said that was within the normal range. She said he looked a little yellow in the face, and just to be sure we have to take him back this morning to get weighed again and to check to make sure he's not jaundiced.

He's really a little bundle of awesome, not getting fussy unless he's got a good reason. We haven't quite mastered the diaper changing...we've been peed on twice and let me tell you, he's got some serious aim.

I'll post some more pictures later, apparently I didn't realize that he's got a hat on in almost all the previous ones and you can't tell he's got a full head of hair! He's even got what looks like mini-sideburns.

Finally home

We got home about 11AM today and it's been wonderful. What's even better is that we came home to a clean house, so all we had to do today was be with Aidan.

Awwww

Aidan Robert

Born 2/3/09 at 5:05pm
8lbs 3oz
19.5 inches long

Almost?

Well, Katie's got about 15 tubes and 8 wires stuck in her so I'm updating. They checked her at about 22:00 last night and gave her another Cervidil and some Ambien. 15 minutes later she was out. 2 hours after that she was up, having more hardcore contractions and realizing her water had broken. They took out the Cervidil, moved us downstairs, gave Katie an Epidural and hooked her and the baby to all kinds of tubes, monitors and the machine that goes PING. That was all finished around 4:00. By then Angie had gone home and made it back, so I slept for a few hours.

So now we're waiting for about another 1/2 centimeter. Angie, Debbie and Sue are here. Katie's been napping in between blood pressure readings. I got to level 19 on Dr. Mario and managed to win a game of solitaire. For a place with so many people working 12+ hour shifts, the vending machines around here have a severely limited selection of energy drinks. Also, Katie kinda sounds like Darth Vader when she's got the oxygen mask on.

UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH Part 3

The contractions are more intense. Ow.

Only another hour and a half until I get checked again, let's hope I've made some progress. My sisters are here and we just got done watching Wall-E. We also ordered some pizza from Ian's which was crazy delicious.

UGGGGGGGG Part 2

So while Eric ran home, it somehow got to be 75 degrees in this bitch. It really hurts now to get up and walk around, so I waited for him to get back and fix it. I suppose I could've called the nurse, but I didn't think about that.

I tried my hardest to get some rest, but it really didn't work at all. Nurse says my contractions are 3-5 minutes apart. I feel most of them, but it's my back that really hurts.

Eric also stopped at blockbuster and picked up a few movies, so maybe that'll take my mind off the pain just a little. He also somehow managed to find chocolate covered pop rocks. WTF? As he proceeded to open them they flew everywhere which was pretty hilarious. I told him that's why we can't have nice things at home.

UGH Part 1

Yeah, so I'm uncomfortable. My back hurts and so does my butt. They need to get some recliners up in this piece. I can't lay on my side because then they can't monitor the baby as well. It's pretty irritating.

Eric's going to run home for a few things and stop at blockbuster to get a few movies. It's super boring right now. My sister Debbie stopped by on her lunch and brought Eric a sandwich from Gino's. I had hospital lunch, which consisted of soggy fries and two chicken strips. Blech.

Groundhog Day

It's 9:15AM and they're done with the cervidil. It hurt like the dickens for about 2 minutes. Now I'm just supposed to sit here in bed hooked up to the monitor for most of the day unless I magically go into labor before it's done doing it's job.

I shaved my legs this morning and put on my most favorite socks (they're stripey ones that Eric's mom got me for xmas a few years ago). After finally getting Eric out of bed, we packed the few remaining things and headed out. Yeah, I realize it's not healthy, but we stopped at Burger King for breakfast.

Eric's playing Super Mario Brothers 2 on the DS and I think I'll find something on Hulu to watch. Maybe I'll take a nap.

The night before

Friends & Family:

So we're watching the superbowl. I tried to take a nap, but apparently my mind felt the need to drop into the game every 10 minutes to see what was going on.

We got all the laundry done, and I told Eric that if he cleans off the kitchen counter and table, that I'll finish making the bed. I'm not sure I've seen our house so clean, with the exception of when we first bought it.

Funny thing, I'm not really anxious or nervous yet. Maybe I'm just having a hard time believing that after all this waiting that tomorrow or tuesday we'll likely have the most adorable, cuddly, and most perfect baby in the entire world.

I'm being admitted tomorrow morning at 8AM to the hospital. They're going to use something called cervidil to hopefully get labor going. If the first does doesn't work, they're going to do a second. If both of those don't work, they'll start potocin. The hospital has wi-fi, so we'll be taking the lap top. The first dose works over 12 hours, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to sit around in bed, so at least I'll have the internet to keep me busy for a bit. We're also taking our nintendo DS and gameboy. It's too bad the damn Wii isn't more portable, otherwise I'd want to take that too so Eric and I could play Lego Batman.

It would appear that we're ready to bring this baby home, I guess we'll see soon enough.

Baby: Today your mom and dad played Lego Batman for a few hours on the wii before the Superbowl. Your dad also went to Target for mom, looking for a pink Domo. Trust me, it's something that is crazy cute. I am expecting you to cooperate tomorrow and make your entry into the world as easy as possible for me.