Taking it in

It's no secret that having a baby changes your life. I think that's especially true for your first child. Once that baby is born, life is not about you any more. Suddenly you are at the beck and call of another person 24 hours a day, ruining your body for their sake, feeding them at the drop of a hat (and no one told me that nursing would hurt so much!), changing literally 10 poopy diapers a day, trying to get them to stop screaming their heads off, all while longing for just a 4-hour stretch of uninterupted sleep. And that child doesn't even smile at you! Needless to say, becoming a mother was an adjustment for me.

When Jake was born, I was so shell-shocked that I didn't fully appreciate the miracle that an infant is. And then, before I knew it, he wasn't an infant anymore. Of course, he was a baby and doing all kinds of cool tricks like cooing and crawling (and even smiling at me!), but I feel like those first months with Jake were so busy spent with me adjusting to motherhood that I failed to simply take in and appreciate having a newborn. I wish I could get those first few months with Jake back.

This time around is completely different. I know what to expect. I went into this knowing that I need to go to bed at 7:00 in order to get a combined total of 8 hours of sleep by the time morning comes! I've already made that adjustment to motherhood, so adding another child isn't the same shock to my system. And now, I absolutely love having a newborn infant. I love to just sit and hold him and look at him. I am trying desperately to take it all in because I know that this is the stage that goes by the fastest (in fact, I've already noticed that he's starting to lose that "newborn" look.) Of course, that means that the dishes tend to pile up in the sink and the laundry has to practically yell, "Put me in the wash!" before I get up to do it. I'm truly embarrassed by the state of our bathroom and blogging has taken a little bit of a backseat, but our family has loved all over this little guy since the moment he was brought into our home. And right now, I think that's the most important thing we can do.

Our photographer

Jake has become quite the little photog lately. He figured out how to turn on the camera and change the settings so it's on picture mode and we'll often see him walking around the house taking pictures of things that he likes or things that are important to him. I recently went through the pictures on my camera and Jake had taken 249 pictures, many of which were total surprises to me! Here is a little snapshot (bad pun intended) of who and what Jake loves, in no particular order.

*Disclaimer* He has a knack for snapping these photographs at the most inopportune times...

Mommy (hugely pregnant)

Daddy (caught in the middle of dinner after just having his wisdom teeth out)

The Christmas tree

His trains

His trains again

And again...

(Yes, he took pictures of each and every one of his trains. I'll spare you the pictures of the rest of them.)

Himself

Eli

His Woody doll (excuse me, ahem, Woody action figure)

Grandma

Grandpa

Aunt Bethany
Elmo on the TV

The computer

Finally, this is one of my personal favorite series of pictures - Grandpa and Jake taking pictures of each other taking pictures! I think it must be in the genes.

The story

(This post about Eli's birth has been about a week in the making. I've worked on it a little here and a little there. Turns out it's a lot harder to get things done with two kids...)

On December 27th I had an appointment with my midwife. The baby's due date was December 28th (I say "the baby" because we had yet to pick out a name). I was starting to go into panic mode because Joseph only had until January 3 off from school, so if this baby came at all past his due date (like Jake, who was 5 days late and they had to induce me) then I wasn't going to have a husband around to help out. During my appointment, I knew I would have a little convincing to do since midwives don't usually induce without a medical reason. I came prepared. I had my list of "medical" reasons why this baby HAD to come right now:

1. Jake was 5 days late and was big (over 9 lbs.) and I just really didn't want to put my body through that again if I didn't have to.
2. My body just doesn't go into labor on it's own (this is somewhat debatable as I've never exactly given it a chance.)
3. Thanks to my white coat anxiety, I had a tendency to have high blood pressure when I went in for my appointments. That couldn't be good for the baby.

Some begging and pleading ensued, and finally my midwife consented and called the hospital to see if they had an opening for an induction. They said that the best time to induce was that night! At 6:30! All of a sudden my heart started pounding and I wasn't quite sure if I was ready for this, but since I had already pleaded my case with the midwife, 6:30 that night it was!

After some arrangements to watch Jake were made (thanks Nana and Papa!) and my house was cleaned (thanks Abby!) we drove to the hospital! At 7:30 they broke my water and the contractions started immediately, and finally after about 5 hours of some serious labor, I decided to have that blessed epidural. Unfortunately, however, the epidural stopped my labor and the midwife wasn't sure how I was progressing, so she went ahead and checked me because we were both "curious." All of the sudden she gasped, exclaimed, "You're crowning, you're going to have this baby right now!" and 3 contractions later, out came one of the most beautiful babies I've ever seen (I know, all mothers think that).

We were still stuck on a name, but Joseph kept telling me that he thought he looked like an Eli. That name was not one of the ones that was on our list, and I was not convinced. I really wanted to name him Andrew, so as a compromise we decided on Eli Andrew.

I had plenty of help when this baby came! Of course, Joseph was home for the week following his birth, so he was able to help with Jake and bond with Eli. My family came down and spent a few days with us then my mom stayed for a week to help out. In fact, I just got back from dropping her off at the airport. Yeah, I cried when she left. I'd like to blame it on the hormones, but really I think I was just scared to do this on my own! In reality, though, those fears are unfounded because Eli has been an absolute angel in every way (sleeping the majority of the time), and even though Jake has thrown his usual toddler tantrums, he has been a sweetheart also. I'm almost afraid to write that because I don't want to jinx it...

Welcome to the world, Eli! We are so thrilled to have you in our family and look forward to starting another new chapter in our lives with you.