More pics… from the beginning.

This is me in labor (before it got ugly).  After it got ugly, I couldn’t spare Matt to take pictures.  He was busy putting pressure on my back.

If you look at the bottom right corner of the screen, you will see the first of the ugly contractions.  That bugger hurt.

James’ first picture!

I think he looks like he’s singing here.  :)

On the scale:

Feeling pretty sad. :(

Cutie face

Snuggles with mommy after getting cleaned up

The fam (3/5ths of us anyway!)

More to come.  James is snuggling on my chest right now.  LOVE me some newborn baby snuggles!!

A few to tide you over.

I have tons to post, but here a few pictures of my sweet James until I can get more posted!

Aren’t these the cutest baby feet?!

He’s here.

James Matthew Pence was born October 18th, 2010 at 8:53am.  He weighs 8lbs 13oz and is 20 1/4in long.  The nursery just came and grabbed him, so I have both  hands to type!  Here’s the story before I forget:

I woke up to a painful contraction at 5:30 this morning.  Occasionally I’ll have one lonely contraction that hurts (and sorry if this is TMI, but I was thinking it may have been gas).  But when I got another and then another, I called my mom and had Matt start getting ready to go.  We managed to leave about 6:40 for the hospital.  We caught every red light.  :)  Even though it’s a work day, I think traffic could have been a lot worse.  We made it around 7am to the hospital.  They put me in a triage room (ha!).  Soon the nurse checked me and moved me to a regular room.  She had trouble telling how dilated I was; apparently my bag of waters was “hanging out.”  Lovely image, don’t you think?  Anyway, the doctor on call came in and pronounced me 7-8cm dilated, +1 station (I think that’s what she said), and 100% effaced.  The contractions were definitely hurting me at this point, but I was still getting some rest time in between.  Dr. Zavala was on call today.  So at the Care for Women practice, there are eight doctors: 4 men and 4 women.  I’ve had three deliveries, using each of the women doctors except my own!  Dr. Zavala left to assist in a c-section, but told the nurses to pull her out if I got serious.  I got all hooked up and bracleted; I threw up a time or two, had them turn on the fan.  Then everybody left me alone in the dark to labor.  They also left some paperwork with my poor husband to fill out.  It’s still not done.  :)  I labored and cursed a little as the contractions got stronger and closer together.  I took a picture of the first “really really bad” one on the monitor.  Ow.  A lot.  I probably should have started pushing around then, but I was dawdling.  It felt better when Matt put pressure on my back, which I made him do instead of filling out his forms.  :)  At some point we called the nurses because I was really hurting and definitely headed somewhere.  They came in and got ready and pulled the doctor out of surgery.  I had a couple more contractions (or what felt like a million right on top of each other) to bring him down a bit.  Then I really felt the urge to push so I did.  (I won’t write about all the crying and whining I did during this time.)  It took three contractions of pushing I believe.  I could really feel it working this time – it was cool.  They actually told me to hold off so the doc could get her gloves on.  Everybody worked very quickly!  Then he was born!  He cried pretty much right away.  He scored an 8.9 on the apgar.  It was a little low (lower than the girls anyway) mainly for his color; he didn’t pink up as fast as they would have liked I think.  I got to snuggle with him for a few minutes, then they cleaned him up and weighed him.  8lbs 13oz – I could not believe it!  That is quite a bit bigger than the girls!  Matt held him for a little while when they were getting me sewed up and cleaned up.  When I got him back he latched on easily and nursed forever!  I ate my breakfast too, and at some point the nursery came and took him.  He should be coming back soon!  My mom just got here with the girls and they’ve seen him through the nursery window.  We are waiting patiently for him, watching HGTV.  I’ll post pics soon, maybe now.

For Your Information:

Joanna was born 12 days before her due date and weighed 7lbs 4oz.

Natalie was born 3 days after her due date and weighed 7lbs 9oz.

James was born on his due date and weighed 8lbs 13oz.  Oh my!!

More Train Pics!

***FYI, this is my 1000th blog post!***

Here we are waiting for the train to pull up to the station.  Oh, I am so huge.

Cutie Pie #1:

Cutie Pie #2!

Celebration Sunday

The past three weeks at church has been our Stewardship/Commitment drive.  Our new mission/vision statement centers around three verbs: Connect.  Grow.  Serve.

Today was the culmination of that where we turn in our pledge cards and have some fun!  The usual five services were combined into two this morning, with a meal and activities following each one.

We hit the first service, and headed to the park at around 10:30 for lunch and fun.

The girls did some bouncing.  I appreciated that they had two separate bouncy houses – one for little kids and one for big ol’ rowdy ones.

Here is Natalie with Courtney, one of her friends from school.

The blurry figure in the front is Anna; you can see Joanna in the back, looking outside.

Miss Natalie, taking a little rest.  You can see Gran, Emma, and Lisa outside in the background.

Joanna loved the slide.  This shot is a little immodest, but I just love her flying pigtails!

After some good bouncing, we had fried chicken and fixins’ as well as cookies and lemonade and cotton candy!  When Joanna pointed to the cotton candy and said, “What’s that?”  I felt as though somehow I had deprived her of this.  How could she be 3 1/2 years old and not know what cotton candy is?  I detest the stuff myself, but it’s a staple of childhood and American society and all of that.  Fortunately Gran was there to share some with her.

They also had a trackless TRAIN!!

The girls (especially Joanna) loved it!  The girls and I rode first, while Matt was finishing up his lunch.  I don’t have pics of Natalie because she was on my lap.  Mom and David were also there, and they took some pics of our ride with Mom’s camera.  She said she’d get me those today, so I’ll post a train update later!

Then Daddy rode with the girls in the sunny car.  I was getting pretty hot and tired by this point.  :)

 

I think the train was such a good idea and very fun!  It was a gorgeous day for this celebration, and we really enjoyed it!

I like the look on people’s faces when we have this conversation:

Person: “When are you due?”

Me: “Tomorrow.”

What’s even more fun (but only in conversation) is when I say “yesterday.”  Hopefully Little Man will come before then!  Of course, we’re also happy to wait as long as he needs.  My 40 week appointment is in the morning, so I’ll update after that!

Saturday so far

Sometimes my girls are whiney and grumpy and bored and stinkers, but they’re really very rarely mean to each other.  It’s just not an option at our house (and their personalities help!).  I love it when I catch them at super sweet times like this:

Natalie really loves to color, and Joanna’s getting into it more and more.

Today we bought a new (to us!) table on Kingwood Yard Sales.  I’ve been wanting a round table in my dining room since I got the dining room, and this one was a good deal for us today.  The chairs are ugly in my opinion, so they’ll be reserved for when we need extra seating.  I don’t have pics right now, but they scream seventies beach house to me (or my vision of what a beach house in the seventies would be decorated like :) ).

We like our current chairs anyway, so that’s what we’re sticking with!  Eventually the whole thing will get a nice new stain, but probably not until the kids are through the sticky fingers phase.  I’ll sand all that oatmeal and applesauce off in a few years. :)

In this picture Matt is pretending to eat, that’s why he looks so silly.

It also has a leaf (you know, for all those dinner parties we throw!)

This table isn’t really any bigger (it may have a few more square inches to it) but it’s a much better shape for our space.  I’m excited to eat dinner there tonight! 

Hmmm… I wonder who’s cooking?

Conversation

(We were talking about a friend who had her baby on Wednesday.)
Joanna: When are you going to have your baby?
Me: I don't know. When should I have him?
Joanna: Tonight.
Me: Oh, really?!
Joanna: Yeah, but he won't come.
Me: Oh, no? When is he going to come?
Joanna: Not for a long time.

Hoping Baby Brother didn't hear that.