Baby's First Roadtrip

Henry is now 2 1/2 weeks old and he has grown quite a bit. He's in the 100th percentile for his weight, height and head size--he now weighs 11.5 lbs, which means he's into 3 month old clothes. He enjoyed his first Christmas, though he didn't seem to care that much about opening presents, since he slept through it. We'll teach him more about being greedy next year.

We spent Christmas morning as a family in Detroit, but Sunday afternoon we drove down to Missouri and surprised my family. Henry was quite a trooper on the 12 hour drive. We got in at about 3:30 in the morning and snuck into my parents' house and slept until they woke up. Everyone was pretty excited to see us there (though I'm pretty sure they mostly cared about Henry).

Henry has barely spent any time not being held since we've gotten here. He's just passed from uncle to grandma to grandpa, with his parents occasionally being allowed to hold him.

 Everyone absolutely adores him, which isn't hard to do considering how adorable he is. In my own unbiased opinion.

He's already growing up a lot and it's fun to see him start to interact a bit with people and visibly notice things around him.

Henry Bernard Fisher

It finally happened! Ben and I have the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for--our son Henry.

We went into the hospital Wednesday. After 36 hours of labor, even though I had completely progressed, he just wasn't coming out. So we went into a c-section.

Finally, Friday morning at 7:19, Henry Bernard was born.  He weighed 10 lbs 7 oz and was 22 inches long.  He is beautiful and healthy and wonderful.

We had a few visitors in the hospital, including my mom and brother Geoff.

They love their new roles as Grandma and Uncle.  It was hard for both of them to leave Henry.

It was amazing how instantly Henry became a part of our family.

We brought him home from the hospital on Sunday. It snowed on his birthday, so we bundled him up nice and warm.

We love having Henry around. He is such a joy to have in our home.

He has such a great little personality and he's quite pleasant.

We especially enjoy watching his expressive faces.  He does some good work with his eyebrows.

Not to mention his long feet already fit in the booties I knit him.

He usually likes to be fully clothed, but every now and then he'll get a little scandalous.

Ever since he's gotten here, it seems we just sleep

and sleep

and sleep.

The best part is, I now get this face to look at every day.

Christmas Time is Here

My mom and brother have been here for the past week helping out as we prepare for Baby. They've been a lot of help, doing chores around the apartment and distracting me. Unfortunately, one certain fetus does not seem to be as excited to see them as they are to see him.

We put up our Christmas tree this week, which is always one of my favorite things to do. We even already have presents under the tree, though none for me. Apparently Ben and Baby are just loved more.

Tonight we go into the hospital again for another induction. Though it will be a different hospital and different doctor than last time. Since I'm already 6 days over, there will be no failure this time. If I am not progressing by early Thursday afternoon, they will perform a c-section.  The doctors are worried that he's big enough that he just won't descend, and a week overdue should be enough to kick-start something if that's a possibility. 

So I've resigned myself to the idea of a c-section. I'm not excited about going into surgery, but we feel like we've done everything we can and that this just might be how he needs to be born. So by Thursday night we should either have a new baby or I will be in labor. Hopefully the next time we post, we'll have some handsome pictures of a very fat little boy (and maybe a name to go along with them).

Movember

Nope, still no baby. And today is now the actual, original due date, so hopefully he'll come soon. My mom and brother are here, so they're going to try to help me jiggle this baby out. And we seem to have the doctor situation figured out, so he can come any time.

For work, Ben participated in Movember. For those of you who are not cultured enough to know what this is, it is a month in which men grow mustaches to raise awareness for prostate cancer and to remind people to donate to the cause. He's been pretty excited about it and has especially loved staring at himself in the mirror.

Week 1--Pubescent Mustache

Week 2--Creepy Pencil Mustache (and mysterious fruit)

Week 3--Mustache Explosion

Week 4--The Final Result

We (meaning I) were worried that the first time the baby meets his daddy would be with a mustache. But as much fun as Ben had with this, November is now gone, and with it, the mustache.

Baby Mama Drama

So still no baby. In fact, we currently have no baby and no doctor. Needless to say, we've been through a lot in the past week.

The doctor that I had transferred to down here turned out to be a nightmare. She wanted us to come in for an induction last week because our baby was measuring large, but she didn't want to answer our questions about why it needed to be done right then. She also made it very clear that after two days of trying, if my body didn't respond (which we were already pretty sure it wouldn't, since my body was not showing any signs of being ready) she would send me to a c-section. We realize that sometimes c-sections are necessary, but we felt like she was being quite premature, and she wasn't really answering any of the questions that we had.

She ended up yelling at us and accusing us of not being considerate of other people's schedules. She also lied to us multiple times. It really just seemed to us like since she was going to be at the hospital for the next few days, she just wanted to get us out of the way.

Anyway, we decided to give an induction a try, and we went in Tuesday night and stayed until Wednesday night. I had no progression but spent the day hooked up to an IV and a bunch of machines. The contractions weren't very fun either.

We felt uncomfortable staying another day but our doctor told us we weren't allowed to leave. We left anyway (with the blessing of the nurse and doctor on staff, who said we shouldn't have been bullied into anything)--we didn't want to be stuck in a position where she'd try to force us into a c-section.

So after dealing with this woman who apparently doesn't believe in parents' rights, we decided that we didn't want her to have anything to do with our baby. We want our son's birth to be a happy moment, and she makes us both feel very insecure and uncomfortable. Plus, if she yells at Ben again while I'm in the middle of labor, I can't be held accountable for what I'll do.

But basically, to make a long story short, we both still feel like we have made the right decisions all along. We just want to give my body a chance to do what it was built to do, plus we've never been fully convinced on the November 21st due date--December 1st seems much more in line with my progression. And if we still end up needing a c-section, at least we'll know we've done all we can.

So now we're just waiting. We are lucky to have great family to support us. Not to mention friends, ward members, and of course, family of family. My mom and brother are coming up this week to help out with everything, too. What's important is that our baby is healthy, showing no signs of stress, and we still have options. Oh, and we didn't have to stay in the hospital on Thanksgiving. Pie makes everything better.

T-minus 7 Days

And counting. With only a week left until my due date, I thought it might be a good idea to document this last little bit. Not that I'm very excited about showing off how I look at the moment (maybe I should have changed out of the sweats....), but I think someday I'll like to look back and see it. Like once I've instantly returned to my pre-pregnancy weight/shape after giving birth. Because that's how it works, right?

I also got a nice video of Baby kicking Mommy. He moves a lot--I think it's him saying he wants to get out. I say let him out now. Though I will miss feeling those kicks. Some of them anyway....

The Sound of Music

With eight days and counting until my due date, we're trying to get everything ready and take advantage of the last bit of baby-free time we have. Ben's been sick the past few days, so that mostly involves hanging out around the house, eating soup and taking naps. In the meantime, I just try to ignore the multiple comments a day I get about how miserable/huge I look (just a little advice--expectant mothers still have feelings).

We did make it to our favorite Eastern Market on Saturday, where we were entertained by this man (who reminds us both of Grandpa Fisher) and his musical abilities.

Since we live on a busy street not far from downtown, it's not uncommon for us to hear traffic and occasionally loud conversations. The performance we witnessed this afternoon was the best that we've seen on the street so far. This woman (or man, we couldn't really tell), walked up and down the street multiple times singing gospel tunes. The sound's not great, but you get the idea.