Andrew's First Bath

Earlier this week Andrew lost his cord and got his first real bath. He was not particularly pleased at first...

...but calmed down after a while. He reverted back to his initial state of panic if we weren't holding hands. That made bathing him a bit more tricky.

Katelyn loves her brother, and she likes to help take care of him. She was excited to help with the bath, and I let her be the official photographer for a while. Here are samples of her work. :)

For some reason she refers to the above picture of her finger right over the lens as the "rainbow" picture.

After Andrew was all clean Katelyn helped brush his hair before we got him dressed.
I sure love these cute kids!

Andrew William Halling arrives

So 1 hour after my sister Elizabeth started heading back to Michigan (4:45PM on August 3rd), my water broke- 5:40PM. I called Jason at work to inform him that such had happened. I'm extremely grateful that he was on client only a 5 minute bike ride away, because he would not have made it to the birth had he been on one of the other clients he is usually on. Luckily my mom had also decided to come over even though I wasn't "in labor" yet.

So my water broke, and my initial thought was we'd put Katelyn down for bed while Jason's mom and sister drove (2 hours) to come watch her. It became very clear very quickly that things would not happen that way. Contractions were suddenly coming quickly and with increasing intensity. Jason called around and found a wonderful friend willing to take Katelyn immediately. We hurried to the car and dropped poor, confused, sad Katelyn off. We went directly to the hospital, and got to labor and delivery around 6:30 PM. Luckily there was an open wheelchair by the door when we arrived. Jason hurried me inside while my mom parked the car.

The nurses were initially going to take me to triage to make sure I was really in labor, but it became evident to them that wasn't necessary. They checked me moments after our arrival, and I was dilated to 7 cm. When my mom arrived a few minutes later I was at 8 cm.

Andrew William Halling was born less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital. Because things happened so quickly it happened without an epidural or any other drugs. I was definitely very...vocal...at times during that 50 minutes or so. :) On August 3rd 2011 @ 7:20PM our cute little...or not so little...Andrew was born. He was 9lbs 7oz and 21 inches long. He has quite a bit of blond in his hair, and he definitely favors his dad's looks.

We came home on Friday. Katelyn has been very sweet and cute with her little brother. He is a very pleasant, relaxed boy. We are feeling so happy and blessed to have him. As I write this I realize my "due date" is still 3 days from now. I'm very glad Andrew decided to join us before that point. :)

More Progress

I had another OB appointment this morning. I'm now over 3.5 cm dilated. Happy day. Still no contractions that I have felt really, but it is looking like labor could start any time. Here's how I'm looking today at 38 weeks 3 days. (Just ignore the weird grimace I made as I looked into the sun.)