Home from the hospital!

We came home early from the hospital, arriving back around 3 p.m. yesterday. I was worried that we were pushing it coming home, but it was so nice to sleep in my own bed last night. Grandpa and Grandma kept Madeline, too, so we were able to continue our adjustment (and my recovery) for one last night before taking on a wild toddler.

Sully was very curious about our new addition. He'll probably take awhile to settle down.

Oh Henry

Introducing Sir Henry Edward Knutson
Born 10:05 on 10/29/07
Weight 10 lbs. 4 oz (for some reason I keep typing ox instead of oz.)
Length 22 and 1/2 inches

Well, apparently the word "induction" worried him so much that he decided to get things going on his own. Sunday night Becky started having contractions at 7:30 pm, and we went into the hospital around midnight. Becky got an epidural at 4 am so we slept for a while.

Before epidural After epidural

At around 9:30 am we were just sitting around calling people to let them know we were in the hospital when the nurse checked Becky and stated that she was at 10 cm! (which is why I married her, of course). This same nurse also stated to us that she predicted that Becky would only be pushing for a 1/2 hour. Of course we laughed (she had pushed for 2 hours with Madeline and 1/2 didn't seem likely). One series of pushes from Becky and the nurse said to stop pushing so she could get the doctors here for the delivery. Becky and I both couldn't believe it. Four more contractions later he literally popped out and into the resident's hands...it was hilarous (maybe you had to be there and maybe you had to be me, I guess the doctor laughed too).

We had a very special visitor yesterday - BIG SISTER MADELINE. She opened the door, walked over to Mommy and Henry, and proceeded to toss a present she bought for him onto him. It was cute. She still doesn't quite get the situation. She really hit the nail on the head with Henry when she was holding him and then said "he's heavy."

This is just a quick update, need to head back.

Getting into the spirit

Nathan and Madeline carved their first pumpkin last night. We admit it - we're not too into this holiday, but I suppose we'll get there as the kids get older. (Still sounds weird to think we'll have "kids" plural, instead of just Madeline. Now if he'll only get here so it CAN officially be plural.) Anyway, Madeline was interested in the process, but just couldn't get over the smell.

And here's the finished product - Nathan insisted on a "no flash" shot to show how scary it is!

Making cupcakes

Last week was extremely rainy, so we couldn't go on our typical stroller ride in the evening. So, we made cupcakes. Madeline was into the sprinkles (pronounced: sprink - a - ler), and managed to polish off a whole jar onto our batch. She was apparently very proud of her work - she didn't eat the cupcake but licked off all of the frosting and sprink-a-lers instead.

40 weeks, 4 days, and...

STILL NO BABY!!! Just like the last post, I've still been having a ton of contractions, but they just aren't sticking. Every time I get a good series of them, I get my hopes up that it'll be the real thing and it's just not happening. It's been really hard to stay positive. I don't remember NEEDING to get the baby out this bad when I was pregnant with Madeline.

I ended up taking off yesterday and today from work as sick days. I've been so uncomfortable and tired, so I just need these last few days to relax and catch up on some sleep. Plus, Madeline has croup. She sounds TERRIBLE - this barking cough and bad wheezing. I think the wheezing scared her last night, because she was in our room at 11:30 p.m. crying and it took us 2 hours to get her settled back down to sleep.

To top it all off... My dad is supposed to watch Madeline when we go to the hospital. He just called me with an update. He's heading to the hospital himself because he cut himself with his chain saw. I asked how bad it is and he said "not too bad - just a few inches long and 1/2" deep." So, he just wanted to let us know where he was in case I went into labor. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

Nathan is at home today to help take care of me and Madeline. We're all falling apart. Wish us luck. We'll try to add a post when we head to the hospital, so keep checking here for updates.

Interesting Facts about Pregnancy, Moms, and Babies

So, I'm bored at work and was looking for some hint on the web as to when I'm going to have this baby. Here are some interesting tid bits I came across:

1. In 1939, Lina Medina became the youngest mother on record at 5 years old.
2. Satyabhama Mahapatra, a retired schoolteacher in India, holds the record for becoming the world's oldest mother at age 65 years.
3. In 1997, Bobbie McCaughey set the record for the most surviving children from a single birth with septuplets (7).
4. Joseph and Annie Bleackley hold the record for shortest interval between their births. They are just 208 days (7 months) apart!
5. Elizabeth Ann Buttle's two children were born 41 years apart, setting the record for longest interval between the birth of two children.
6. Between 1725 and 1765, the first wife of Feodor Vassilyev bore 69 children. In a total of 27 confinements, she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four sets of quadruplets (of whom all but two survived infancy!)
7. The odds of a mother giving birth to twins is 1-in-33.
8. The odds of having triplets or other multiple births is 1-in-539.
9. The most popular day of the week to have a baby is Tuesday.
10. The most popular month to have a baby is August.
11. Jenna Cotton gave birth to three children on the same date - October 2. Her son, Ayden, arrived on Oct. 2, 2003; son Logan was born Oct. 2, 2006, and daughter Kayla was born Tuesday, which was Oct. 2, 2007. The odds of a family having three children born on the same date in different years are about 7.5 in 1 million.
12. The average woman in 17th-century America gave birth to 13 children.
13. 81% of women 40 to 44 years old are mothers. In 1980, 90 percent of women in that age group were mothers.
14. 11% of women end their childbearing years with four or more children, compared with 36 percent in 1976.
15. 24.8 is the median age of women when they give birth for the first time - meaning one-half are above this age and one-half are below. The median age has risen nearly three years since 1970.
16. A female oyster over her lifetime may produce over 100 million young.
17. A mother giraffe often gives birth while standing, so the newborn's first experience outside the womb is a 1.8-meter (6-foot) drop.
18. Mother prairie dogs will nurse their young only while underground in the safety of the burrow. If an infant tries to suckle above ground, the mother will slap it.
19. The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.

40 weeks, 2 days, and .....

Still no baby! My appt. was yesterday. My nurse practioner estimates me at 1 cm dilated, so less than what my doctor had said a week ago (???). The baby's heartbeat was low at 110 bpm, so she hooked us up to the fetal monitor to make sure he was okay. After 20 minutes of monitoring, she saw all of the heart beat accelerations and fetal movements that we were hoping for, so no need to induce immediately. We set up an induction for Monday, the 29th. Let's just hope that he decides to come on his own before then! Madeline was 4 days over, so I'm hopeful that he'll be the same.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and well wishes. We'll have baby news soon!

40 weeks and...

Still no baby. We had lots of action starting Friday night and continuing through Saturday night, but it never really kicked into high gear. At one point, the contractions were 5 minutes apart! I thought for sure we were heading to the hospital. Oh, well. At least we finally got packed. We're ready any day now.

So, instead I'm at work. And trying to keep my shirt covering my belly. And trying not to be too bummed out. It's getting hard to do all three of those things at once.

I have an appointment tomorrow, so we'll see if all of this action has led to any more progress.

Just the 3 of us

Well, it's not going to be the three of us for very much longer, so thought I'd add one last shot of the current state. This is from E&C's wedding last week. And here is the latest belly shot of me at 38.5 weeks.

Time for a new poll

I thought it was time for a new poll, so I thought I'd summarize the results of the "guess the due date" poll for posterity. (Thanks for voting!)

Week of Oct. 7 (38 weeks) - 1 (4%)
Week of Oct. 14 (39 weeks) - 8 (34%)
Week of Oct. 21 (40 weeks) - 11 (47%)
Week of Oct. 28 (41 weeks) - 3 (13%)

I had my 39 week appointment today. Baby is still moving well and has a strong heartbeat. And I'm 2 cm dilated, so more progress! I hope those of you that voted for this week are right!

39 weeks

39 weeks today, so you can imagine how my mood and physical condition is. (GRUMPY. I already have 1 co-worker who knows to stay clear.) We had a very busy weekend - Uncle Erik and Aunt Chelsea's wedding was on Friday night! Everything was perfect, and we're so happy for them. It was also a nice distraction from counting the days until my due date....

As of my appointment last Thursday, I am 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. It's hard not to get your hopes up when you hear of some progress! I also have had intermittent cramping, which I just wish would turn into contractions and get on with it. My next appointment is tomorrow, so we'll see if there is more progress.

38 weeks

Today marks 38 weeks, and we're hanging in there. Very little indications of labor or progress, although I did have 6 contractions in 1.5 hours on Sunday morning from 5 to 6:30 a.m. Nathan woke up when I was tensing up on the last one, and he responded to the news with "I haven't even packed yet!" Unfortunately, there is still plenty of time to do that...

I have everyone at work rooting for a big storm for me. I'm convinced I went into labor with Madeline after a huge storm - Nathan was at home because his work had no power, but I was at work having contractions for 4 hours before I came home!

Maddie and Emma

It had been way too long since we caught up with some friends, so we all enjoyed dinner together on Friday night. Madeline and Emma, who is just 6 months older, had a great time playing together. At one point, Emma was chasing Madeline as they ran laps around Tara's living room!

In one shot, you can see Tara slamming Madeline's sippy cup. Andy had filled it to the very top (thanks, Andy - you should have helped us get her to bed that night!), so she was helping us out. Wow how things have changed. That's not what we're used to seeing Tara slam....