Month-by-month: November

The events of November are more or less why I still haven't caught up from November ... ;-)

First, the headline:

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, LUKAS GEORGE!

The baby was due on Nov. 11, but that date came and went without any sign of anything at all. As did the entire next week. We had another doctor appointment that Wednesday, and decided to schedule an induction for Sunday -- basically because I didn't want to be in the hospital over Thanksgiving, which was the following Thursday. And that seemed to have the same effect that induction-scheduling had with Annika (i.e., lighting a fire under the kid).

On Friday morning, the household started to stir just before 7:00 a.m. as usual. While R. went to get Annika, I went to use the facilities and my water broke -- definitively this time, like in the movies. I told R., then called the labor & delivery department; they didn't even argue, just told me to "get your things and come on in." So we did, leaving Annika at our house with Mamalah, and off we went.

We made good time, getting there just after eight (the ride was about 20 mins.). There was the usual hassle with admissions and waiting for an examination bed, but the contractions were totally manageable with breathing still, so it was OK. The examining doc, who looked like Marcia Brady, said I was at 4-5cm. They put us in a big, nice room overlooking the trees, which were in bright fall color -- really lovely to look at. I got an epidural awhile later, and changed positions a few times to help it "take" on both sides; mostly I lay there and dozed while R. took care of various administrative and notification duties, heh.

Sometime around 1:30, I was getting tired of being on my left, and asked the nurse to help me turn over. Before she did that, she checked again, and said, "Whoa! You're at 10 centimeters! We're delivering!"

R. and I couldn't believe it -- we thought the labor would be shorter (how could it not beat 27 hours, right?) but this was crazy. The whole team came in (including Dr. Marcia Brady), somebody said "We'll have this baby by 2:00," and yada yada yada there he was at 1:55 p.m.! Truly shockingly easy and fast -- I couldn't stop laughing about it.

And this time they actually told me what the baby was -- showed me before they toweled him off, in fact. Annika was right the whole time I was pregnant! It was a boy!

I was able to talk on the phone as soon as they were done messing with me (and him -- no NICU visit, whew!). R. put me on with my mom, and then she handed the phone to Annika, who marveled, "A baby boy for a brother!"

He looked so much like Annika, and was just a sweetheart who seemed like he'd been part of the family all along. We're so glad you're here, precious baby -- we all love you so much!

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Mamalah and Annika get the first visit

Late Friday afternoon, my mom brought the big sister for Lukas's first official guest visit. I felt so much better than I did at the same point the first time, and it just squoze my heart to see my little girl's sweet face, and to see how she peeked through the bassinet at her baby brother.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Amy get the second visit

Since they were already out and about for date night, Amy and Paul came by that night to see the newest and final nephew. It was fun -- and then R. and I both dropped off to sleep in about thirty seconds after they left. At like 8:30 p.m.

Yo Gabba Gabba! Live

This happened while Lukas and I were still in the hospital, on the afternoon of Saturday the 19th. We had bought tickets months ago -- the super-deluxe package with awesome seats and a meet-and-greet party after the show -- for Annika's main 4th birthday present. We thought at the time, what are the odds of me actually giving birth at the exact same time as this show? and we damn near almost had a conflict ... but I was fine and the baby was fine and we had agreed R. would take her no matter what, so he did, and they had a mind-blowing time. It was loud and Annika was kind of freaked out -- she spent a lot of the time hiding under R.'s arm -- but she rallied to pick up a sackful of the confetti-cannon items (from streamers to snowflakes) shot out during the show, and to get her photo taken with each member of the Gabba gang, and she's still talking about it (and re-enacting, etc.), so it clearly made a major impact. I'm not sure how you top a birthday gift like that ...

Thanksgiving

My mom stayed through Thanksgiving, so we were able to actually do it up with a turkey and everything. I think we sat down around 4:00, and it was one of those ones where we were all kind of overwhelmed with things to be thankful for. The baby slept right through it, sweet little snurfly thing, which we would later learn was pretty rare for him -- he likes to be HELD, DAMMIT, and he gets really twitchety if he's ignored for more than about 30 seconds. But we all got to use both of our hands for this one meal, so -- that's another thing to be thankful for.