More pictures

First of all, a big apology to anybody that I forgot to notify last night. It was spotty, so if you didn't get notified it doesn't mean I love you any more or less, it just means that while I was going through my contact list and watching Mike in the nursery I didn't get your name for some reason.

My family visited last night and got some good pictures of him, and I snapped a picture on my cell phone while he was in the nursery.

Mike is getting checked out in the nursery. His hand is next to his mouth because he'd just tried to find his thumb. Not pictured is his other arm, which he was using to flex. It was adorable.



Cyndi showing him off for the camera.



Grandma and Grandpa Day visiting. He's my parents' ninth grandkid.

Introducing Michael Peter Day

Michael Peter Day just minutes after being born. He was born around 4:46pm MST, 6lb 11oz, 19.5" baby boy whose birth is a good example of just how angry God was at Adam and Eve.



This is a video we made around 8:30. He still hasn't had a bath, but he's adorable and Cyndi's been spending a lot of time bonding with him. When she holds him she just looks at his face and stares at him.

He's been mostly sleeping, but when he's awake his eyes are wide open and he can't decide whether wants to sleep, look at his mother, eat, or suck on his thumb/sleeve. While he was getting his vitals checked he kept going for his thumb. After they put a shirt on him, he started sucking on his sleeve. Between the hair and the sucking of thumbs and sleeves, there's no doubt about his parentage.



This is Cyndi's nurse trying to arrange her tubes and hange a new bag. She was a very good nurse and we were very glad to have her.

We'd love to be visited tomorrow, just give me a phone call or text message and I'll give you the code and make sure that we don't overwhelm Cyndi or the baby with too many people.

And now for the story. We arrived at the hospital at 5am. Our first nurse only had 1 hour left on her shift, so she was in no mood to start labor. We waited until 6:20 before they started Pitosin.

For the next couple of hours Cyndi was having contractions and didn't hardly feel them at all. In fact, she was ready to take a nap and wanted to get the epidural early so that she didn't sleep through her window of opportunity.

This continued for the next few hours. Cyndi and I read, she played her DS, went in and out of consciousness, etc. Right around 3, Cyndi was at around a 7 and the epidural started wearing off. We got another doctor in to give her another dose, and it started kicking in over the next ten minutes. The nurse was having Cyndi lay on her side because Mike was coming out sideways and they were hoping to turn him.

Mike's heartbeat before now had fluctuated at points. For 10 minutes his heart rate would dip really badly during a contraction, but then go back to normal for a while. Cyndi and I were concerned but her nurse wasn't as much. 10 minutes after getting the second epidural shot Mike's heart rate started going down again. His normal heart rate would get down to 110 during a contraction, when it was fluctuating badly it would get down to 90 or so. At this point, his heart rate was dipping to 60. The nurse called her supervisor in and they started having Cyndi roll to try to get Mike's heart rate up again. No dice. They tried her left side, then her right side, then flat on her back, then they even had her get on all fours.

By this point there were five nurses and two doctors in the room waiting for Cyndi's OB to get here to deliver the baby. They had Cyndi stop pushing and the doctor was trying to keep Mike from getting pushed and his heart rate from going down. That finally worked and kept him happy and healthy until our doctor got here.

After that it was ten minutes until Mike was born. Everything's been kind of a whirlwind and restful at the same time. I went to the nursery with him while Cyndi went to sleep. Come to find out, the food tray came right after they took the boy to the nursery to check his vitals, and so she was still awake when he was done so she got to feed him right after eating some food herself.

We were visited by Emily, who's got a wedding all weekend, and my parents and brothers and sisters still living at home. It was a nice visit, perfectly timed so that we got a good visit with the family and they left right when Cyndi was ready for alone time again.

Everything's going well

My gorgeous wife just got an epidural from one of her best friend's dad. She's very happy, everything's going great and she's getting ready to take a nap.

We got here around 5am, they didn't set up the IV until 6:20 (much to our dismay), and Cyndi got to figure out what contractions feel like. They didn't pain her at all, but she decided to get the epidural before she fell asleep. That's right, Cyndi was so comfortable in her pitosin-induced labor that she was falling asleep. She's amazing.

The room is bigger than our bedroom at home and our nurse is very friendly and competent. She's always greeting us with a smile and making Cyndi feel more comfortable. We've got a picture of her trying to sort out all of the lines going in and out of Cyndi. Fun time!

She's currently got 4 things running into her: a basic saline drip, an antibiotic because she's (apparently) got a mild strep infection, pitosin, and now her epidural line. Overall, the experience has been very laid back and positive. The hardest part's been the boredom which, all things considered, is a good sign.

Cyndi's nodding off now. Tonight we'll probably try to restrict our visitors to just family. I'll post tonight as soon as Cyndi has the baby and I can get a few pictures up and Cyndi's resting. If you want to visit just text or call me and I'll give you the code.

No Breastfeeding

So, we've been doing a lot of research about advances in baby formula, and we've decided that if we love Michael, it would be irresponsible to breast feed him. But more on that later.

A few weeks ago, my wonderful mother-in-law, DeAnn, put together a baby shower for me. It was so much fun. I got to see friends and family that I haven't seen in a long time, there was amazing food, and we got a lot of adorable and useful baby things. The whole thing was fantastic. Have I mentioned yet how lucky I've gotten with my in-laws? :)

Today, I am technically 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant. The last few days have been awful. The past month has been pretty difficult, but the last few days especially. I have been miserable and nauseated and uncomfortable and cranky and Jeff has been so incredible and supportive through all of it.

Yesterday, we had our second weekly visit with Dr Judd. As we were finishing up, he asked us if we had thought about inducing early or if we wanted to wait and let mother nature take her course. Our first impression was wait it out. Why would we induce before the due date? To not be pregnant anymore, our blunt doctor responded. We thought about that for a minute.

Truth be told, we wouldn't have even considered inducing if this last weekend hadn't been so incredibly bad for both of us. We were tired and unhappy and just ready to be done with this pregnancy.

We did question the doctor thoroughly. Is there any danger to the baby or mother? What if my body just isn't ready to give birth? Is labor any harder with inducing? In the end, we decided to talk about it and call if we wanted to do it. By the time we got to the check out desk, we had made up our minds. We were ready to not be pregnant anymore.

So, in short... WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY ON THURSDAY!

I am getting induced a week before our due date, which is the earliest our doctor feels comfortable doing it. We'll show up at the hospital at 5am, the doctor will start the IV, and we'll see what happens. Since I haven't been mentally preparing myself for anything else, I will more than likely end up with an epidural as well. I can live with that. It is a technological advancement and I'll be happy to feel what labor is like and then not have to anymore (until next pregnancy) ;)

We are so excited (and a little stressed). There is so much to be done before Thursday. Jeff will be bringing a webcam to the hospital -not to be used until Michael is born- so keep an eye on the blog because he should be posting a lot!

Oh, and just kidding on the baby formula thing. I'm totally breastfeeding.

A few pictures:

Here is me with my big, big belly. I figured we needed at least one of these on the blog before I actually gave birth.


I broke my favorite pot lid yesterday. It's really depressing, but a little cool looking too. I think the fact that I didn't cry says a lot for how stable I was after finding out we're going to be "done" on Thursday.


This is the cute changing table I found on ksl. We got it for $40, so now we have a place to store baby clothes and diapers and whatnot. (One less thing for me to worry about.)


Oh! And a quick Hezekiah update for those who can't read my family's blog!:
Ki recently went through surgery to remove the metastasized cancer in his lungs. The surgeon told my dad after that it ended up being much simpler than he had expected.


The examination of the removed lesion showed that the cancer in Ki's lungs is all dead, so now they can move forward with the big tumor and Ki's liver. Ki is getting on the transplant list for a new liver, but it isn't positive that he'll be needing it yet. They might just be able to remove the tumor. Unfortunately, they won't know until they've got Ki on the operating table again so we have to have an available liver, just in case.

Ki hasn't been eating lately, but he has another blood transfusion today and hopefully he will feel better afterwards.

Ciao!