C.J.K.

Last Wednesday night I spent the night at my parents house with the boys just in case I went into labor since Blaine was at work.  I thought it was totally unnecessary because I just did not feel like it was going to happen that night.  I slept pretty awful, which was pretty normal for me that last 9 months, but woke up in such a good mood!  My doctor had predicted that the baby would come on Wednesday and since that day and had come and gone, I think I had put the thought that it was immanent behind me.
We headed home around 11, ate lunch, and started getting ready for nap time.  Blaine got home around 12:15 and around 12:30 I started to feel like I was maybe having a contraction.  I had been having them sporadically for the past week, so I didn't think much of it.  Once we got the boys down, I told Blaine I was going to go lay down and see if they stopped and to stand by.  He kept checking in on me and the contractions kept coming about 7 minutes apart.  About two hours into it, I called the doctor to see if I could come in to get checked out since my doctor told us to head to the hospital when they were 7 minutes apart since I was 4cm the week before.  I was pretty skeptical, so I begged them to let me just come into the office, but they made be go to Labor and Delivery.  I drove myself there and left Blaine at home to wake up the boys, get them dressed and have him drop them off at my parents house while I was on my way to the hospital and worked on getting someone to come watch the boys.  The hooked me all up, determined I was having consistent contractions, and was 5 cm, so they admitted me around 4.  Blaine got there just before I was moved into a L&D room, and we got to calling family to head up to the hospital because baby was coming! It just didn't seem real! I feel like I had gotten to the point of feeling like it was never going to happen or at least not for a few more days since the following Monday was my actual due date!
Unfortunately my doctor had left town on Wednesday but Dr. Cowan was on call, who is amazing, so I felt pretty lucky.
My mom had rotator cuff surgery the week before and had been bed-bound, but she was determined to be at the hospital so my dad drove her up.  It was obvious she was in a tremendous amount of pain and she could not handle being there.  It was hard to see her leave, but even harder seeing her being there in the amount of pain she was in.  My dad took her home and he headed back up to be with us.
We were all surprised at how long it took to get to 10 cm.  Everyone thought it would go quicker than it did.  Don't get me wrong, it still went pretty fast, but my doctor was concerned about it happening super quickly after breaking my water. So we just hung around the room together and waited.

My nurse was named Sally and was absolutely amazing! She was adorable, and sweet, extremely accommodating and calm, and just perfect! Her shift was over at 11pm but since we all thought baby would come by 9:30 we weren't too worried about having to switch nurses.  But around 9:30, there was still no baby, but Lauren had made her way up to the hospital with two bags of snacks, and blue beads for everyone to wear! I watched in envy as everyone snacked on all the goodies she brought.

At 10 till 11 Sally said she would check me one last time, and if I was ready, she would stay with me for my delivery.  Thankfully, I had finally made it, so she got everything prepped and she had me do two practice pushes to see how I would do and how the baby would do.  After the second "practice push" she had me abruptly stop and said baby was coming and called Dr. Cowan in quickly.  I pushed through one contraction.  I started to push through the second contraction and Dr. Cowan looked up at me and said "Emily, his head is already out."  I couldn't believe it!!!!  One more half push, and he was here!!!!!! And he was still nameless.

Look at Lauren's face back there, I just love it!  Did I mention that Lauren was in the room for delivery?!?!?!  We had not planned it, but she was there and I didn't want her to leave for the practice pushes, and a couple minutes later he was born!  She stood with her back glued against the wall in the back of the room, and I think was probably in utter disbelief, couldn't believe she was actually there and what she was witnessing.  It was fun to have her there, and I feel truly lucky to have a friend who I would even want in the room with us! (Sorry BJ,we missed you!). It was such a special moment for her to be apart of.

The Best. Nurse. Ever!

Everyone got to meet him and hold him, and I was able to nurse him just after he was born while we were still in the recovery room.  Everyone we came into contact with that day/night was just so wonderful and accommodating and made the whole experience so much more wonderful than it already was.  I think out of all three, this was the best experience.
It was already late, and we were required to spend "recovery time" in the room until 2am before moving to my post-pardom room.  And after getting into our new room, being evaluated by our new nurse, nursing again, and getting situated it was 3:30 before we were able to go to bed....a very. long. night!  Of course it didn't end there, at 4:30 they were back to nurse, at 5:30 back to draw blood, at 6:45 to switch shifts, 7:30 back to nurse, you know how it is.  We decided to sleep on the whole name thing and make a decision in the morning.
Our first night was pretty good considering.  Baby latched on right away and nursed pretty much every 4 hours the whole time we were in the hospital.
Saturday morning, Blaine went to get the boys to come up and meet their new brother.  They were napping when I left for the hospital, and when they woke up, I was already gone, so I didn't get to say good-bye or tell them what was happening.  Eli was highly anticipating the baby's arrival, and who knows what Owen was thinking!
They were every excited and interested when they came up and both wanted to look and hold him, for about 30 seconds before wanting to hand him off.  But naturally, the best part of coming to meet their brother was the buttons on the bed that made it go up and down and up and down.  And up and down.

I really felt great the next morning and was up and about like normal which was great for when the boys came up, I could be on the floor with them and play with them. I didn't want them to see me in bed and think that anything was wrong.
Before Blaine left to take the boys home for lunch and naps, we finally decided on this baby's name!  Cash Jacob Kruger!  Jacob is after my great-grandfather on my dad's side of the family.
We had an influx of visitors after that all day Friday and Saturday morning, and unfortunately I didn't get pictures of most, but you get the idea here.

 Susan brought my mom back up Saturday morning to meet Cash, and her pain was much better the second time around!  Thank goodness!

Rachel pretty much stayed up at the hospital the whole time, don't know what I would do without her!

Since my mom was out of commission, Blaine was with the boys a lot more than we had planned since they weren't able to stay at my parents house, so Rachel was his stand-in when he was with the boys.
I just totally and utterly fell in love with this baby the second I saw him!

We were able to be discharged Saturday afternoon.  Rachel was with the boys at home and put them down for their naps and they were still sleeping when we got home which was nice because it gave us a little time to get our bearings with a new bundle at our house.  When they woke up, we were home, and they got to check out their brother again which was really fun to see!  Owen just wanted to hold him over and over again, and during dinner got up every five minutes to "look at Baby Cash."  Eli had lots of questions and wanted to hold him and show him some tricks and introduce Larry to him.

I am finding my bearings with a new baby again and starting to get the hang of things.  It makes it easy that he is just the sweetest little thing.  More pictures are certain to come!

He is Here!

Cash Jacob Kruger

7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches long

July 19, 2012

Totally in LOVE!!!!

The Waiting Game

39 weeks, and one day, but who is really counting?!?!?

And the Party Goes On....

The festivities continued for Rachel and Hobo and their nuptials last week.  Unfortunately I was too in the moment to take too many pictures of all the happenings, but here are a few to get you up to date.  Hopefully I can get my hands on the photographers pictures and post some.

The Tuesday before the party, some of Hobo's family had come into town and they rented a house on Mount Bonnell so they could all stay together since there was 9 of them all together!  Ethan also got into town Tuesday night, so we spent most of our time at my parents house hanging out all together and helping Rachel get ready for the party and my mom get the house ready to host Hobo's family for dinner on Thursday night.

Thursday night Hobo's family headed over for some steak (my dad's knows for his delicious steak!) and margaritas.  We also took the opportunity to celebrate Blaine's birthday that night with everyone there.

Ethan and I had spent all afternoon running errands for Rachel to places like Home Depot getting some last minute things for the party that was on Saturday night.  I had planned on getting Blaine a new grill for his birthday, something he has been wanting for quite some time now, so Ethan helped me pick out the perfect one and we loaded it up into the car that afternoon.  After dinner, Rachel tricked Blaine into thinking she needed help getting some heavy stuff out of my car and he opened up the back to a new grill.  I just wish I had gotten his reaction on camera.  It was priceless and he was so excited.  I just felt like he really deserved something special considering all he has had to put up with these last 9 months with me, and how much he had taken on with the boys over the last few months so that I could go do things with Rachel to help get ready for all the wedding stuff, bachlorette weekend, girls weekends, parties, showers, and things I wanted to go out and do before this baby comes.  All the attention is on the mom when you are expecting a baby, so I really wanted him to feel like he was appreciated for all he does for us.

Friday afternoon some wonderful friends of my mom's, most of them are like second mothers to us, hosted a beautiful luncheon in honor of Rachel at the Waxman's home.

 Mary Davis meeting my grandmothers for the first time.  If you look closely, you can see the bruises on my grandmothers face, she took a spill earlier on in the week, so we are thankful that she is OK!

 Do you think Rachel is excited about this baby?!?!?!?

 Everyone gave Rachel advice on marriage and she read them aloud.  Of course she couldn't get through it without tears.  It was Susan "Susu's" that really set her off!

Friday night Hobo's family hosted a "Friday night dinner" for all of their out of town guests at Iron Works.

Not many pictures were taken, but it was a wonderful night and we were able to meet a lot of the Davis' family and friends.

Saturday morning we started out the day by meeting Charlotte, Pete, Sully and Theo at the Austin Zoo.  It was an exceptionally hot morning, especially for Charlotte and I, she is expecting in September.

The rest of the day I tried to rest up so I could get myself through the night,  ran a few errands while the boys napped and got ready to head over to Rachel's house early to help her into her dress and get to the venue early for pictures while Blaine stayed home with the boys until my great friend Katie came over to watch the boys that night, which I was so, so thankful for!  

The party was PERFECT.  Rachel did such a wonderful job with decorating a little special touches to make it really wonderful.  She was beaming the entire night and looked amazing.  Half way through she changed into a beautiful little white dress and cowboy boots.

Pictures to follow.....Need to wait to get some from the photographer, mine just don't do it justice!