Today my little baby boy, Christian, is one month old. One month!?! I'm not quite sure what I've been doing for the last month. But it involves 1000ish tiny diapers, seeing all hours pass on the clock, and eating a lot of dark chocolate.
Being the math and number nerd that I am, I secretly hoped that I would go into labor on 11-11-11. Which didn't happen. I missed it by a few hours. Next time (did I just say that?), I think I will try harder to conceive a few hours earlier. But I’m not sore about it. Really. Ahem.
It was two weeks before my due date, and I came home from a baby shower to take my standard try-not-to-get-a-migraine nap. When I woke up, I had a few contractions. Since I hadn't memorized "What to Expect When You're Expecting" (like I did with my first pregnancy), I felt a little rusty, so I appealed to Google. I typed in "regular contractions," read a little bit, then stood up, and my water promptly broke. Which is why Google is the best invention on the planet.
I called Mark in a bit of a frenzy and said "My water broke. Come home now." And then I hung up on him. Because there's nothing like a constant dripping of aminotic fluid down your legs to rattle your brain a little.
I made two important phone calls: one to dump the next day's Sunday School lesson off on someone else (how nice, because I had not started preparing yet), and the other to tell my mom to make haste, and then we were off, over the river and through the woods to the big H we go. Labor was shockingly slow (compared to the last two)--only five total hours--which resulted in me actually being able to experience the "munch on ice chips" thing everyone talks about.
Incidentally, they had blueberry ice chips, which I thought were super cool until I realized that our baby's scrapbook was going to be full of pictures of his blue-toothed mom. I will be forever grateful to my friends who threw me the baby shower, because it caused me to actually have makeup on in my delivery pictures. (A first after four kids!) The makeup was nice to offset the blue tint of my teeth.
Our little guy was little, just 6 pounds 3 ounces.
The girls were thrilled to meet him. Lily showed up with Grandma in her witch costume, and apparently sang "I'm a Mean Old Witch" on her way up the elevator. I wasn’t so concerned with the witch costume as with wondering when my [former] little baby turned into a giant.
Eliza wrote on her school paper: "I like my mom and I like my dad. I love Criustin my babe bruthrr." She loves to tell people about the time she saved his life by rescuing him from Lily, who picked him up without supporting his neck.
Sage will be a great big sister. She's been the slowest to warm up to Christian, though. Or, in other words, the only one to not smother him constantly, but she is pretty happy to have another family member with dark hair and possibly brown eyes.
All good things must end, and eventually it was time to leave the luxury of the hospital, with its full-time cleaning staff, menus, and room service that we will be paying for for a good long time, I'm sure.
I made sure we snapped enough pictures of ourselves from the perfect angle so I would have something to send out to announce our baby's birth that didn't show me in that glorious hospital gown with "Central Laundry" printed dead center. Also my teeth were no longer blue.
We were met by a very adorable welcome home party.
My mom outdid herself with caring for our kids. Eliza had made a cootie-catcher that she was thrilled to show off. Sage had made a candy bar poster with leftover Halloween candy. Lily had opened most of my baby showers gifts while I was gone. The girls had all made Welcome Home signs and cards and even helped Grandma write a song about the new baby.
Here is (in the words of Eliza) the “little yellow man” himself (go away, jaundice). Or, the “dorito baby” (burrito baby), if you listen to Lily. But after one tiny trip to the name change office, we're now happy to call him Christian.
Is that a smile or a grimace under that blanket?
We love our baby boy, Christian.
16 comments:
I love that boy too . . . and his mother (and co.). :)
you forgot to mention no dove chocolate ice cream in the hospital!!! :( I'm still mad at Macey's...and Smith's...for not carrying it...and Day's and Allen's for closing at 11pm...
Huzzah for baby Christian! (ps we need to talk about these ice chips? what the?)
Janel, he's adorable! I still can't believe that you haven't used Jacarandas for a name yet, but Christian is good, too. Congratulations. :)
Hooray for Google! That's an awesome story. And Hooray for cute little Christian! Congrats to the whole fam. This post has me in tears. . . I'm pregnant, remember. :) It's just so sweet. There really is nothing like a new baby! And it's so true that your previous baby is suddenly so enormous- It gets me every single time. Ah- more tears! (dumb hormones)
Blueberry ice chips?! What the?? That's pretty cool.
And I'm curious, what was the name changed from?? (We're on the hunt for yet another boy name around here, ya know.)
Congrats, Willimas family! You'll love having a little boy around- they are so fun.
I love that teensy swaddled bundle on your bed, and he is such a tiny bump in that carseat! And I LOVE Liza's note, ha ha!!! Criustin the babe. And we don't even get to see the blue teeth at all?! Cutest pics ever. I can't believe you're already functioning and posting a blog about him, so cute and comprehensive. I haven't even gotten around to Cindy's yet!
Congrats! Mary told me you had your baby and I am so glad to get to see his cute little picture. I think he looks like you in the last picture.
Congratulations! We happen to love the name you chose. It's the same name we have chosen for all three of our girls in case they were boys. We are expecting number 4 in March, gender unknown, So don't be mad if I copy you :) he's cute, and I'm so glad your girls have a brother. Yay!
Yeah! I'm so glad I finally got to see pictures of beautiful Christian :) And you look great in those pictures - you should see my post-labor mugshots (just kidding, no one will ever see those). I'm glad everything is going well, can't wait to see him in person :)
Good work! He's adorable, as are all of your kiddos.
He's amazing. You're amazing. Your whole family is gorgeous.
You are hilarious and wrote down all the funny things I think in my head i.e. Me always wishing I had put on makeup when I look at post birth pis of myself, and amniotic fluid rattling my brain. When my water broke my neighbor showed up to drive me to the hospital and I was naked from the top up trying to figure out how to put a shirt on. He is so cute!
CONGRATS! What a cute little guy! Hope the newborn, lack of sleep months go alright! Merry Christmas!
beeeeautiful!!! You and Christian look amazing! Man, i need to get on my reader more often, so i'm sorry this is so late, but congratulations!!! You are totally inspirational!! So tell me, how's 4, cause I think 3 is cah-rah-zay some (most) days. Please tell me 4 is somehow easier?? Congrats again: on delivering such a beautiful boy, choosing a great name, keeping your wonderful sense of humor AND looking great while doing it all!
Congratulations! If it wasn't so painful, staying in the hospital would be almost like a resort--especially knowing that your kids are well taken care of.
You'll have to let me know how 4 is. We're approaching it soon. . . (duh duh duuuuuuuh)
I know I already commented but I just wanted to let you know I cannot stop laughing about all your funniness in this post! Thanks for being so hilarious and I wish you still lived in the room next door to me. I could use the laughs and on demand parenting advice. P.s. You and marky never age. It's remarkable!
Janel, obviously I haven't been reading blogs for a long time, because I would have already commented on this post. So sweet. All the stories and pics. I love the blue teeth and you do look fab after labor. I also love that Lily is wearing Addisyn's dress! Enjoy the newborn, he'll be gone too soon!
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