Batter Up

This post was written the day Sam was born and the events described are from a few weeks ago.  I meant to post it over the weekend but well, things got in the way.  In any case, enjoy!

As I'm sure everyone knows I'm a huge baseball fan.  I don't get to go to as many games as I used to but I still watch plenty of baseball (to Margaret's frustration).  For Christmas Josh got a t-ball set so with the nicer weather we decided to let Josh play with it outside.  Josh immediately enjoyed it but to my pain he had some initial trouble holding the bat properly.  I tried to show him the right way to do it but he refused to listen.

Here is a video if his first few swings.  Margaret said that if he ever becomes a professional baseball player and they want to show a video of his first time, this will be it.

After a few minutes  I was able to fix how he held the bat and he seemed to see the benefits

I'm still working on teaching him how to throw and catch but I'm pretty happy with the beginning of his baseball career.  Here are a few more pictures

Keeping his eye on the ball

Keeping his head down through the swing - good form!

Welcome to the world Sam!

Some of you have heard the story or part of it, but here is the adventure that led us to Sam's birth.  Not exactly how we planned it, but the result is great!  Because we were both a part of it and want to share our side of the story, here it is with Margaret's point of view in blue and Julian's point of view in red.  

For the entire week Sam was due I was having contractions everyday. They would get closer together or slightly stronger, but nothing like the true labor contractions with Josh. We went to bed a few nights thinking for sure I would wake up in labor but it never happened.

I had contractions all day Friday (my due date), but they never got stronger or progressed. I complained to everyone that would listen that I was grumpy and still pregnant. I headed to bed on Friday night a little after 11 pm. I started noticing much stronger contractions at around 11:30 and thought this might be it. We waited a bit to call Julian's dad and the doula because we wanted to see if there was a pattern to the contractions and to be sure this wasn't a false alarm. At 12:20 we decided that this was it. Julian called his dad and I texted the doula. 

We had asked my dad to watch Josh while Margaret was in labor but we didn't want to call him too early.  He lives 30 minutes away and we didn't want him to come over for a false alarm in the middle of the night. In hindsight we probably should have called earlier...

I then headed to the bath tub to better manage the contractions. We talked to my midwife and she said to call back when our child care arrived and we would decide when I should come in.

By 1 am Julian's dad arrived and the midwife told us that we should head to the hospital based on how close my contractions were. I started getting dressed and ready to go, but the contractions were very hard to manage. Julian had to really help me through each of them. I thought for sure that I would be getting an epidural ASAP. The doula arrived and helped me through a few contractions while Julian let her know how things were. My water broke after one or two contractions and our doula told us we needed to really hurry now. She helped me change quickly and we were out the door. 

I could sense from the doula that we really needed to leave - I didn't even tie my shoes racing out the door.

I couldn't sit in the car so I kneeled backward in the front seat.  We had 2 carseats in the back. Less than a mile from our house I had a feeling we weren't going to make it.... Julian didn't fully believe me and we kept going.

Maybe I was just hopeful we would make it.  I couldn't believe we would be those people who don't make it to the hospital...

I felt an intense urge to push with each contraction. By the time we were on 270 Julian was giving me time updates and telling me to not push, while I could do very little to stop things. 

"Only 5 more minutes!"

I could feel the head starting to crown, but at the end of a contraction the baby would be still inside. When we finally got off 270 I told Julian that the baby was coming out and he had to stop. 

"Crap crap crap crap"

He stopped and our doula came running just in time to see the baby starting to come out. She told Julian to call 911 and one push later the baby was out and she caught him. Sam didn't cry right away, so she massaged his chest and got him to cry. 

"Breathe... breathe... breathe...."

The 911 dispatcher was talking to Julian and telling him what to do. They had him find a string (his shoelace) to tie off the umbilical cord. 

Good thing I didn't tie my shoes!

Julian and the doula then focused on trying to keep me and Sam warm. The ambulance arrived a few minutes later and took over. They cut the cord to get me out of the car, and Sam and I rode in the ambulance and got checked out. The EMT that took Sam commented that he was big and he thought he was 9lbs. I told him no way--clearly I was wrong!  Julian and the doula followed and met us at the ER. I'm really not sure how Julian managed to keep it together and drive to the hospital! (Or how he managed to drive with me in labor next to him).

The EMT asked if I was ok to drive - I knew my adrenaline was pumping and I felt fine so I told him I was ok and would freak out in an hour or two.

When we got to the hospital the midwife sort of laughed, because she figured something like this must have happened since we were very late getting to the hospital. She asked if we were in the grey SUV because she passed one on her way to the hospital. She said she considered stopping. She did a great job taking care of me and fortunately I didn't deliver the placenta until the hospital. The doula stayed with us while they checked us all out. Sam weighed in at 9lbs 2oz and 21 inches long.

We had been on the fence about hiring a doula and we are SO glad we did. I don't know what we would have done without her!! Even once the baby was out it was so nice having someone helping me so that Julian could stay with Sam while he was checked out.

Money well spent!

We are all recovering well and fortunately Ellie's pants and a towel we had took most of the brunt of the damage, so we think the car will recover. We are so thankful for our doula and the speedy EMTs!! (And dark leather interior!). But most of all I am thankful that Sam is healthy and recovering so well!

My active labor with Josh was about 16 hrs. I labored at home for about 4 hours and showed up at the hospital at only 2cm. Everyone says your second labor is faster, and most people say it is about half as long. I was expecting about 8 hours of active labor. So start to finish of a little over 2 hrs was a pretty big shock....whoops! I never in a million years would have guessed my labor would be that fast!

Overall neither of my births were at all what I expected. Both were surprising and perfect in their own ways. :-)

Special thanks to Julian's dad for watching Josh while we were in the hospital and thanks to Heather for helping out with Josh as well - we couldn't have done it without you!

Smile from the delivery room!

Welcome Sam!

Proud Daddy

Josh meeting his baby brother

Josh sharing a cookie with Sam

Family of 4!

The Werfel men

Josh on the left, Sam on the right

Happy Due Date to me

Well today is my due date, and this baby is not here yet. Josh was born before his due date, so I was sure this one would be too. I guess everyone is right, no two babies are the same. At my checkup yesterday the midwife was telling me what they do in the next two weeks if there is no baby. I looked at her in horror as she told me that they would let me go to 41 weeks and 5-6 days, but then they would want to induce. Man I can't even imagine another 2 weeks of being pregnant, lets hope I don't have to.

In the mean time, I have had lots of time to finish nesting! The nursery is ready, except for one piece of art for the wall that has not arrived yet. It finally shipped, so maybe that is why this baby is waiting to arrive :)

I like to call the nursery woodland meets safari :-)  We needed to get some new stuff because Josh is not done with everything, and he is keeping all his toys/animals/blankets. So we decided to go with a woodland theme, because it is still cute animals and similar colors. So this baby has some new woodland stuff and some other cute safari animal stuff--some new and some hand-me down.

Here are some pictures:

Quilt I made and some new animals

I'm waiting for Josh to steal them...

No nursery is complete without a giant giraffe

New safari animal quilt, with MY animals :-)

New art

Closeup of the quilt I made for baby

Closeup of the quilt made by a friend for baby :-)

Big boy room

We put the finishing touches on Josh's big boy room last week. I bought a miror for above his dresser which still needs to go up, and sent his quilt to be finished. But I wanted to share some pictures of his room.

We didn't want to repaint our guest room in part because I painted it when we moved in and it seemed like a waste to repaint it so soon. We know that Josh is soon entering a "color on the wall" phase, so it seemed even more stupid to repaint before that. We also hope that eventually both boys will share the room upstairs, so we don't know how long this will even be Josh's room. 

But that left us with a lavender room for a toddler boy. The internet did not provide any suggestions or ideas for turning a purple room into a room for a boy, so I had to get creative. I decided that lime green, grey and white would go well with the wall color and "boy" it up a bit.

We got lucky and got a good deal on a white dresser and it really brightens up the small room. We got the rest of the furniture from Ikea in white and light wood color. Ikea happens to use lime green as an accent color in many it's, so it was easy to stick with the theme. We got a darker grey carpet cut to fit for his room that will hopefully cover any stains. I also decided on a few craft projects to tie the room all together. I made Josh a poster with his name, and used an Internet hack of painting IKEA spice racks to use as little bookshelves with the same color paint. The biggest project I took on was making a quilt for the room. 

Making a twin size quilt was a much bigger task than I realize. It took me over a month to find and pick out fabric that I wanted, and then another few weeks to put the quilt together. I couldn't find much fabric that I liked in stores, so I ended up ordering it online. I wanted to bring together the purple, green, grey and white in the quilt with some patterns and fun prints of animals and things Josh likes. I ended up adding lots of other bold colors (blue, teal, orange and red) in the prints. I was worried about this not matching well, but I love how it came out.  I made the top of the quilt, the bottom of the quilt and prepared the binding for the outside. I just sent it off to have it machine quilted, because I don't have the time, skill or proper sewing machine to do it myself. I can't wait to see how it turns out :-)

We needed a lot of help from family and friends to convert this room from a guest room to Josh's room and really appreciate everyone who helped out. From moving furniture out, to putting up shelves and lighting we couldn't have done it without everyone. I also really appreciate all the crafting and sewing advice from near and far. 

A friend recommended getting Josh excited about his new room by picking things out for it and that was great advice. We couldn't always take him shopping with us, but we showed him each item as we got it and let him "help" get the room together. He LOVES his new room and loves talking about the things he did to get it ready :)

Here are some pictures of the room. I'm really happy with how it all turned out. Take that Pinterest and the Internet, you can make a purple room for a toddler boy!

Big boy bed!

Posters, toy storage and little table

New dresser and shelves

Reading area :-)

Unfinished quilt, just to see what it looked like. And a view of the new ceiling fan.

Better view of the corner of the quilt

Helping Daddy!

39 weeks!

Belly pictures for those who have been requesting them :-). I'm in the home stretch!

Feeling big!

Hugging baby brother :)

Eastover

I heard someone call the combination holiday of Easter and Passover, Eastover and I like it. Certainly very fitting for us this year. We decided to host a little egg hunt and passover Seder this year with some friends and family to make sure that Josh got to celebrate both. Josh learned at daycare that you "hide the eggs and then find them!" and that the eggs have candy in them. So easter was not a hard sell :-P Fortunately he is a big fan of Matzah and gefilta fish, so he enjoyed both parts of the holiday. This year I also took over the tradition of hiding Easter baskets in diabolical locations for my cousin, sister and our spouses to find. 3/4 were very hard to find. Fortunately I have a whole year to come up with a good location for Julian's next year ::muh ha haaaa::

I hid some eggs in the yard for Josh and our next door neighbor to find, and they had a great time. We then had a passover style meal with very abbreviated Seder (4 questions and explanation of the seder plate). I made Matzah ball soup for the first time, brisket, and flour-less chocolate cake. Which all came out very well. I also tried to make nut free charoset, but really should have added more wine :-)  The gefilta fish was really not popular among our guests, so their loss.

I would say the biggest holiday fail was a book I bought for Josh on Big Bird and Grover's search for the Matzah. If you are looking for a book about passover for a child, I would certainly skip that one! The book doesn't even tell of the story or discuss any passover traditions.

Easter reminds me of both of my Grandmothers who I miss dearly. It was fun this year that Josh was really learning about both holidays and getting to experience them. It was nice to get to start passing on some of the traditions I grew up with.

Eating his findings

Soup success!

Mmmm Brisket

Basket hunt :-)

Mark didn't think I was spry enough to hide a basket in the ceiling :-) 

Finding his basket :-)

I told Josh he couldn't have his chocolate bunny until after breakfast and put it on the counter. He promptly got his stool and got it anyway. I awarded his cleverness with chocolate bunny.

Change is Difficult

Our family is going to change dramatically in the next few weeks and to get ready for that we have been making lots of changes at home.  Transitioning Josh downstairs and into his new room has been a big change but we expected it to be hard on Josh.  It turns out it has been harder for us.  Josh has been sleeping in his new room since Saturday and overall it has gone very well.  The first night he slept through the night without any trouble.  Last night was a bit rougher, he woke up several times but he just needed to be shown where his pillow was. Overall he loves his new room, and when we ask if he wants to sleep there he always says "Yes!"

Margaret and I on the other hand find it very strange for him to be downstairs from us.  I keep seeing his old room without him in it and it feels very strange.  I have to remind myself he is downstairs and everything is fine.

We are almost done getting his room ready. We have moved most of his things downstairs. We just have a few more things to put on the wall, and Margaret has a never ending hunt for the perfect hamper for his room. In a week or two we'll start shifting his old room to be ready for the new baby, we'll see how he handles that.  I'm not sure it really will make sense to him until he see's his little brother in his old room.

A friend gave us some very good advice to get him excited about picking out things for his new room, and to let him help with it to get more excited. This has really helped! We have shown him each new item in his room as we buy or make it, and he gets very excited. He watched Daddy and cousin James put in his ceiling fan and loves to talk about it.

We also changed the child proofing downstairs so that he will always have access to his room. He loves being able to run to the living room and then back to his room. We put a gate in front of our basement steps, and locks on our office and hall closet to keep him safe.

Once the art is on the walls in his room we will take some pictures to share here :-)  But for now some cute ones of Josh enjoying his new room.

Happy in his new chair

Sleeping soundly - yes we are stalkers...