One Month Young

I can't believe our little man has already been in our home for one month! He has been such an easy transition to our family. He's not quite getting the hang of sleeping very long stretches consistently yet, but other than that, he is usually a fairly content baby. He has given me a few small smiles and can't wait to see how his personality continues to develop. The comments we hear about him the most from others are "LOOK at that HAIR!" and "Wow, he's so dark, were your other kids that dark as babies?" And maybe a few unspoken thoughts about what ethnicity is this kid!?



At his one month appointment Grady weighed in at 10lbs 13oz and 22 inches. He's definitely a good eater! The other kids continue to love on him constantly. They have done such a great job welcoming him to our family.

Really, it's fall?!

Well, we headed over to our old stomping grounds this weekend to visit our favorite pumpkin patch. However, it was SO warm out, it didn't really feel like pumpkin patch weather. I think we were all sweating up a storm by the time we left. But, we did have fun enjoying the gorgeous displays this place puts up and checking out all the fun things like the straw maze, animals and taking a trek out to the real patch to pick out our very own pumpkins. We met up with some friends from the area to catch up and let them meet the newest addition to our family.

L O V E

Dance

Hadley is super excited to be starting dance class this week! She is taking a combination ballet, tap and gymnastics class that lasts 45 minutes and then is followed by a 30 minute music class. She absolutely loves it. Two other little 3 year old girls (whose parents are in our small group) are also in the same class with her. I just love seeing this smile...

Our Glow Worm

Grady is struggling with some jaundice so he has been put on the phototherapy light. His number had doubled to 15 when we went back for a check on Thursday so they ordered the light that evening. Then, it had still gone up a little more on Friday. We go back on Monday for another check. He is to be hooked up 24 hours a day, with the exception of a bath. So, it has made for a quiet weekend at home for us. (Well, the kids and I at least, Gabe has had a wedding at church this weekend that he was running sound for!) Nana has been here helping out with meals and the big kids this weekend and Grammy is down at Aunt Kara's to help out with Grady's new twin cousins, born just two days after him! We're excited to meet you Lincoln and Fletcher!!

We did make our first trip to church today. Nana took the big kids to their classes and Grady and I slipped in the side door and up to the sound booth where we plugged Grady's light back in and sat up there for the service. We came back home and had a quiet day at home with naps, some castle building, and a family movie night. Ahhh, life as a family of five!

The real deal

Well, just shortly after the "False Alarm" we headed to the hospital for the real deal! I sent my mom home on Monday morning thinking that it wasn't really going to happen any time soon. Well, Monday night, just when I was getting ready for bed about 10:30pm the contractions started in again and this time they were getting much stronger. Finally, about 11:15, I made a call to my mom and hesitantly asked her to come down again because I thought we were probably going to be heading to the hospital again. So, she gladly hopped in her van and drove down. By the time she got here about 12:30, I couldn't talk through contractions and was sure this was the real thing. So, we got up to the labor and delivery floor about 1:00am and they kept us in a triage room (with another laboring woman) hooked up to the monitors to "be sure they were going to keep me" until about 3:30am. Then, they decided they would go ahead and start my IV since I was progressing to about 4-5 cm dilated. Finally, at 4:00am they moved us to a room of our own and Gabe went to the car to get our stuff since we knew we weren't leaving without a baby. From there, things progressed very quickly. By about 5:00am, I was in very hard labor and was progressing quickly and the nurse decided it was time for me to head to the bed because she did not want to be catching a baby. The doctor on call had five women about to deliver so they would not break my water until the doctor was ready, so when the doc got to my room a little after 5:00 am and I was 9 3/4 cm, she called in the troops to get things ready and as soon as she broke my water I was ready to push. I pushed for 12 minutes before Grady made his grand entrance at 5:37am.

He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and 20 inches long. He came out sporting a FULL head of hair!
It was love at first sight...

for all of us!

Welcome to our family Grady Wilken, we are so glad you are here!
**Grady was picked because we like unique names. Wilken is a combination of both of his Papa's names- William and Ken**

False Alarm

Well, we thought for sure we were having a baby today. Yesterday, we had some, ahem, signs (that I won't go into detail about) that labor was on it's way. Then, a few hours later the contractions started about every 5-6 minutes apart. Not intense, but definitely there and regular. So, we had Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah come over to hang out for the evening and spend the night so if we needed to make a night run to the hospital we would be ready. Well, Gabe went to bed early so he would have a few hours of sleep in case we needed to head to the hospital. I went to bed around 10:30 and slept off and on for a few hours until about 2:30 when I couldn't sleep through the contractions any more and was timing them at about every 3-5 minutes. About 5:00am I woke up Gabe and said maybe we should head to the hospital and get things checked out (since Hadley's labor was only 5 hours long from start to finish, I didn't want to take a chance of delivering a baby at home!). So he got up and got ready and we headed to the hospital around 5:30, got sent up to Labor and Delivery, got in the hospital garb and hooked up to the monitors. I was disappointed to only be 1 cm dilated but I was relieved to see a steady heartbeat as the contractions measured every 4 minutes consistently for about 30 minutes. Then, the nurse said I could get up and walk if I wanted to. YES, let me move! So, Gabe and I walked the halls of the 7th floor for a solid hour and then went back to the room to get hooked up to the monitors again, this time sitting on the birth ball while they monitored contractions and baby. The contractions were then every 2-3 1/2 minutes apart and quite a bit stronger on the curve of the monitor but when she checked me again at 8am, no dilating progress- ugh! So, home we went. We took the walk of shame back through the emergency room (where we had to enter when we got there at 5:30am) and out to the van. We headed back home, helped get the kids ready for church with Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah and after they took off for Lincoln, Gabe headed off to church as well and made it there in time for the end of 2nd, and all of 3rd and 4th services. The contractions continued throughout the day, but did taper off in terms of intensity and length. Gabe and I walked at the church for an hour this evening before my mom came back to our house with the kids. She is spending the night tonight...just in case....