Arrival

Thursday, October 18th at 2:46 pm is the day mine and Ryan's life forever changed. We welcomed a sweet, super deduper cute baby boy into the world. We waited several hours before naming him. Our little boy is Gavin Douglas Jahns.

I really wanted to name him after my dad who died in October 1981 (Douglas Dewayne Haas). My little brother is going to do the same. He gave me the idea as he wanted to do it when he has a son; I asked permission before using it, though. I think it's no big deal if cousins share a middle name.

So here is the birth story of Gavin Douglas Jahns:


My water broke. in the wee hours on Wednesday. Sort of. It was hard to determine. My midwife ran some tests that came back ambivalent to negative. That afternoon I called her with updates and just as I was going to call again with another update she called. She re-ran a test that she did that morning because it becomes more accurate as the sample has time to dry on the slide. It was positive.

I asked kind of nervously, "So, what does that mean?" even though I knew exactly what it meant because the same thing happened to my sister-in-law Jenny. They would have to give me antibiotics and induce me.

"Well, my dear. It means you are going to have a baby. Friday morning at the latest you should have him."

That just seemed so real that I almost started crying. Not tears of joy. Tears of fear and apprehension.

She had me go to the hospital for my first round of antibiotics and first dose of medicine to 'ripen' my cervix. That was at 2:30. She called me just as I was on my way out the door to Baby's R Us to buy some more essentials.

While this was happening we had a crew working in our back yard attempting to remove an old oil tank that leaked and contaminated the soil. It involved a huge flat bed truck and a tractor moving down our street lined with cars thereby reducing it to a one lane road.

The young guy on the crew came to the front door to ask if they could disconnect our phone line for some work they were doing. I had just hung up the phone and was in a state of shock and was frantically trying to pack my bag for the hospital using the check list that was in a book we received at one of our classes.

Poor guy looked like he was 18. He just wanted to know if he could disconnect our phone and a frantic pregnant woman answers the door with eyes as big as saucers. I told him I would have to call my husband and ask because we might need the phone because I had to go the hospital to have my baby.

It was his turn to have his eyes bug out of his head. Ryan said they could disconnect the phone so I opened the kitchen window to tell the guy in the tractor (yes, a tractor was in my back yard) that they could do what ever they needed with the phone. Before I opened the window I read the lips of all of the crew (who all had eyes popping and jaws falling): "Baby?"

The guys were so sweet. They offered to drive me to the hospital. I said I could drive but thanks. I packed and took my bag outside and went around to tell the guys one last thing before I left. The owner of the tank removal company put my bag in the car and offered again to drive me to the hospital. He was very concerned. I thanked him again and told him I wasn't in labor but they were going to induce me because my water broke. Maybe it was too much information but he was so concerned I didn't want him to worry.

At the hospital I received my first ever IV. Ouch. It hurt. It was nothing like giving blood or receiving a shot. It hurt and continued to hurt. I figured that pain was going to pale in comparison to what was coming.

Antibiotics were administered and an oral medicine to speed up the process of labor was given. Heather, my midwife and great friend, switched her office and on-call day with another midwife in her office so she could be there to deliver my baby. I was so happy! She came in to check on me and told me I could leave after they finished with the monitoring. I was to come back at 9 for my second dose of induction medicine and antibiotics that I would receive at 11 pm.

I heard come back at 11. Oops.

Ryan was at work during the first trip to the hospital. I told him to stay there; nothing was going to happen and if it did I would call him. I picked him up from work on my way home. He helped Gordy, his step dad, prepare the basement for carpet to be installed (carpet that I ordered the day before). I rushed around upstairs packing up as much crap as I could from the baby's room. I managed to pack several boxes, eat a little dinner and take a very brief nap.

Heather called sometime after 9 to see if I was coming in. Uh, yeah at 11 like I was told. : ) I looked at the discharge papers and found that I was told and it was written down as come back at 9. No big deal though. It just meant that I would have to stay at the hospital until 1 am instead of 11pm. That actually worked better for us anyway as it gave us 2 extra hours to work.

Nothing exciting happened in our second trip. We were given the option to stay and be admitted or we could come back at 7:30 for my last round of antibiotics and receive the 'real' stuff if I wasn't in labor at that point. I opted to go home because it would give me a few more hours of sleep in my own bed and I was hungry. If I stayed they wouldn't give me any food.

My last meal was a Jack in the Box hamburger. My plan for breakfast was eggs - protein would fill me up and have to last until the tyke was born.

At 5:30 am the contractions were such that I could no longer sleep through them. That and my water broke a little more. I woke Ryan up and told him we had to go to the hospital. Now.

My water really broke in the car.

Gross.

Contractions took a turn from mild to vicious at that point.

Normally you have a contraction that lasts about a minute then there is a rest phase of about 5 minutes (in the early stages of labor like I was in).

Not so much with mine. I would get three contractions with no break in between and the break only lasted a minute or two.

Ouch.

I held out for 2 hours before receiving the godsend known as an epidural at 7:30.

Sweet, sweet relief. I hadn't felt that good since I became pregnant. Nothing hurt. Nothing. Hips, feet, knees, back, shoulders, ankles were all pain free. I was also kind of loopy from the drugs at first and I was able to drift in and out of sleep.

So beautiful. Before the epidural I could only focus on the pain; I wasn't able to see beyond it to the birth of my son. No.

After the epidural I was able to get some greatly needed rest and focus with joy on the arrival of my son which was anticipated to be late afternoon or early evening which later changed to late evening, like after dinnertime.

My contractions did slow down so they gave me pitocin to speed it back up. If I concentrated I could feel mild pressure to indicate I was having a contraction. That was helpful to the nurses because I changed positions frequently and as a result was moving the contraction monitor (I was hooked up to monitors for the whole labor because of the induction).

I was checked around noon or so and was found to be at 5 cm. I told Ryan he should get out and get some lunch and stretch his legs while he could. He suggested he run home and help Gordy unload the carpet. I thought was a fabulous idea.

About 1pm I started to get nauseous (which is a sign of low blood pressure and also a sign of the impending birth). I had extremely low blood pressure. At one point it was 80 something over 32 or 36. But that was a little deceptive because it was taken on my top arm while I was side lying. My blood pressure did hover around 80/40-48. I obviously received a boat load of IV fluids to keep my from bottoming out.

Needless to say I called Ryan to tell him I wanted him to come back because I was feeling sick. (I think I knew it was going to happen sooner than we anticipated). He was on his way back.
Half an hour later I called him again. He was en route.

My last call was just as he was walking through the door to my room. That was at 2:00.

Just before my last call to him I requested a bolus of the epidural medicine as I was starting to feel contractions and they were getting more painful.

The pain medicine kicked in just around the time Ryan returned. And it wasn't a moment too soon. Twenty minutes later I started to push (I was able to feel when to push)!

Twenty-six minutes later Gavin was born.

A nurse said it was the most beautiful birth she has seen in a long, long time. Heather said it was a picture perfect labor (my water breaking in the manner it did was the only blemish). I had an 8 hour labor which included 26 minutes of pushing.

Ryan and I cried when we saw Gavin. The nurses put him on my chest as they cleaned him off.
We had a few minutes together before the took him (he still stayed in the room) and weighed him and did their nursey stuff.

I ordered lunch and hoped in the shower as soon as the nurse would let me. I ate like a starving woman and fed my baby for the first time.

We went home on Saturday. Thank God for Nanas! Nana Jo was here on Saturday and Nana Jo arrived on Sunday. Yes. Two Nana Jos. Ryan's mom in Mary Jo and my mom is Jo (Betty Jo but calling her Betty Jo is a surefire way to put yourself on her bad list). Mary Jo doesn't want to be called Nana Mary Jo because it doesn't exactly flow off the tongue. I thought they should be Nana M and Nana K for their last names. Oh, well. They can duke it out if they want to. It hasn't been an issue so far; you know in the first week. : )

Ryan and I can't stop staring at him. He is SO CUTE! Everyone who sees him gushes and gushes about how incredibly cute he is. The first cute baby comment is obligatory. After that it's true. We are not biased. Everyone has reinforced his cuteness. He is even cuter in person.

Gotta go. I think the cutest baby ever has a dirty diaper.

p.s. The picture of his is all bundled up on our bed amongst pillows and comforters. It was just a convenient place to bundle him up. We don't let him sleep with us.

Feeling

I have a feeling Jr. isn't far from making his world debut. Mostly feelings of odd cramps in places I've never felt cramps before. That and a few other unmentionable signs leads me to believe that it could happen any day now.

I was able to get into have my ultrasound this morning. Monster Jr. is not such a little monster anymore. He is now in the 66th percentile and is weighing in at 7.1 pounds, about a half a pound larger than average. That would put him at about 8.5 pounds if he came on time - a bit better than a 9 pound baby. The thing I was most concerned about was the amount of amniotic fluid - it's on the high end of the normal spectrum. Whew.

Really shocking was the hair the kid has! It was clearly visible on the ultrasound that he had hair on the back of his head that was waving around in the amniotic fluid. I was a bald baby. I'm sure Ryan was a bald baby.

Since the painters have started at our house I am not staying there until they are done and it airs out so I'm staying at my friend/midwife's house tonight. What better place is there to crash than your midwife's house? : )

I'll keep you posted.

One Day More!

To get the full effect of the title of the post you have to know the song from Les Miserables (I don't know if it is entitled One Day More or not but that phrase is repeated throughout the song). It is a song about revolution and how everything is going to change and as the song progresses it picks up in intensity.

There isn't much in the way of revolution going on in the Jahns household but painting of the basement begins tomorrow at 9am! That is worthy of celebration! And here is the real shocker: we may not have carpet ordered and ready to be installed by Thursday and I'm OK with it.

Let that sink in.

I'm not freaking out and the only reason I'm not freaking out is because Ryan promised me that all of the stuff I don't want in the baby's room, save the guest bed, can be stored in the laundry
room until the carpet is installed. Whew.

That means I can get the baby's room ready (I think I would like to move the twin bed upstairs and store the double bed in the laundry room as to make arranging the baby's room easier).

Church was great today. We visited the church plant for South Lake Union that is currently meeting on Capital Hill. It is super convenient for us. 10 minutes to church tops. It is quite an unconventional church. Once a month the service is a breakfast and people congregate around round tables by the neighborhood they live in. We sat with some friends who used to go to the parent church and who are also in my bible study. We were the only South Seattle residents in the West Seattle/South Seattle table, though.

We met some new people at our table and ran into some old friends (Ryan's old roommates from his college days and dating April days). After church we lingered and chatted with old and new friends. It was great.

The format, from what I gathered is such: breakfast one Sunday a month, 'regular' sermon twice a month and once a month there is no service but outreach ministries where the congregation goes out in small groups and serves the community.

The size was pretty small, I'd say there were less than 200 adults there total. There were lots of babies, toddlers and soon-to-be in the world babies (I looked the closest to popping). One woman scored major brownie points when she was said I looked, and I quote: "tiny" for being 9 months pregnant. Appearance all depends on the clothes. Some people tell me I look (and I quote): "huge" and comment: "are you sure there is only one in there?" or "did you calculate your due date right?". Hmpf.

I don't really mind the first time some asks if I calculated my due date correctly but I bristle when the response is, "Really?" or "Are you sure about that?"

Who is a better judge of my menstrual cycle? Me or the general public?

Don't worry, my male readership! Soon the gory details of pregnancy and the insults hurled at me by nature and by the real or imagined insults hurled at me by other people will soon be replaced by the gory details of newborn peeing and pooping and of the natural wonder that is breastfeeding.

Something for you to look forward to.

Lazy Day - or so was my plan

Poor Ryan is at work today; Saturday. He's going to put in a full day. We are going to (maybe) go look at one last carpet sample tonight then order it.

Tomorrow we are going to play Christian and go to church. Our attendance has been so spotty that I feel parched. I know one does not have to go to church to be in God's presence but it is so nice to have the community and fellowship; not to mention the worship (of the music variety). We are going to give the new Union church a whirl that our church planted in the South Lake Union area. It's much smaller than our home base congregation but that's not saying much - most churches are smaller as UPC has a membership base of 3,000-ish people. With that big number people think it's a 'mega-church' but it really isn't.

The pastor, Earl Palmer, is down to earth even though he does at times seem to have his head in the clouds. He is such a great story teller and gives fascinating lectures but we are looking for more of a sermon than a biblical history lesson. There have been times when Earl has 'laid down the law' from the pulpit and actually has given an opinion or two but that is rare. I kind of appreciate his lack of political statements from the pulpit. Politics can be so polarizing; it's refreshing that he does not waiver from biblical truths and and is able to keep a diverse congregation focused on the things of Christ without turning his position of influence into just that - a position to influence his flock so to speak to do his bidding at the polls.

After I took Ryan to work I returned home and went for a long walk to Galaxie Espresso. They really do have great coffee. I sat there and sipped my delicious single short non-fat latte with beautiful foam art and read through eat.shop seattle to see what they had to say about the places to go in Seattle and especially my neck of the woods, Beacon Hill.

From there I walked back towards my house and stopped at Despi's bakery as I was on the prowl for an iced sugar cookie but they only had chocolate chip. I settled on a maple bar. They really should make those smaller.

Now I'm off to Queen Anne for a bang trim since I want to get it done before the baby arrives.

******

So much for plans.

This weekend is the semi-annual Let's-see-how-much-closer-highway-99-is-to-collapsing check up. I forgot. The fastest, easiest way for me to get to Queen Anne is to cut through part of downtown and hop on 99. I saw the signs throughout the week that gave clear, advance notice that 99 was going to be shut down this weekend.

I completely forgot. It came flooding back to me when I saw the orange cones being set up by crew in orange vests as they shut off access to the on-ramp I wanted. Poo.

Instead of snaking my way to I-5 and trying to figure out a completely new path to a familiar destination (read: I only know how to get from point A to point B on fixed routes - change the route and I get lost).

On my way back home Ryan called and asked me to pick him up from work so I turned back around and headed toward downtown. What should have taken maybe 3 minutes took over 20 minutes because of the highway closure. It would have taken longer but I was able to cut up to a less congested path and make my way to his office. Being stuck in traffic on a weekend seems worse than on a weekday.

After spending 10 minutes at home we went to Home Depot where we spent the next several hours looking at paint and picking out paint, and looking at carpet and not ordering carpet but writing down every detail we could to see if our carpet connection could get it for us any cheaper and picking out pavers for a new window well.

Good times.

At the 3 hour mark my back had enough so I went to their book section and sat in a swivel chair that is for people who want to apply to the H.D. At Lowe's I usually go sit in their garden/out door furniture section but Home Depot doesn't have that.

So how does Apple Crisp, Whisper Yellow, Asparagus, Chocolate Brown and Creamy White sound? Lame? Yeah, I know. We are painting the downstairs Apple Crisp (kind of a terra cotta/carmel color) and Whisper Yellow (a light buttery yellow) with Creamy White trim and a Creamy White ceiling.

Jr.s room, if we have time, will be Asparagus on the upper 2/3 of the wall and Chocolate Brown on the lower 1/3 - the colors will be separated by chair rail. If either of us had more time (or artistic talent) I would make the border between the two colors an argyle pattern. That would be so cool. But it's so not going to happen.

Our carpet connection didn't call us and he didn't pick up when we called him so we will try again tomorrow. I'll call before church and after church and in the evening if I have to. If none of that works, I don't know what to do.

At least we got the paint and it's ready to go for Monday. : ) Ryan and I taped and draped everything we don't want to clean up after the texture goes on tomorrow. Although I've been pleased with how quickly the drywallers are putting up the drywall I've been a perturbed by the mess. I know it's a messy job but the mud is everywhere, on windows, window screens, in electrical outlets, on the toilet, on cabinets, on the stereo.... everywhere. It can be easy enough to chip off once it dries but I don't want to chip it off an electrical outlet... I'll need to find a plastic spatula for that job.

Flakiness

Time is of the essence. Time, as we all know, is fleeting. We are hemorrhaging time right now.

Wednesday night I called four painters who could start painting right away to come out and give us bids. They were lined up for 9am, noon, 7:30 on Thursday and 2:00 today. After I scheduled them I went and scheduled my last ultrasound for next Wednesday. I passed up an early time on Thursday morning because Kenny the painter from Olympia was going to give be here; I also passed up an afternoon time today because Professional Painters were going to be here giving a bid.

It surprises me that no-shows continue to surprise me. Kenny didn't show or call yesterday morning. Brandon didn't show at 7:30 yesterday and when I called him he told me he lost all of my information. Rith did show up a few minutes late BUT he called first to tell me he was going to be a few minutes late. I appreciated his phone call.

Today I called to confirm to make sure the last company we scheduled would in fact be coming out as scheduled. The receptionist asked asked if I got her message earlier about their request to reschedule for Monday at 2:00. No. It was on my voicemail that I hadn't checked yet. They called 3 hours before the appointment. At least they called but they told me they couldn't start until the 22nd. Lame. I must not have been very clear about wanting work to start early next week when I scheduled the bid.

Just to make sure the first bid we got was fair I called a few more painters and got rough estimates before determining the first guy was giving us a reasonable price. Funny. All Rith had to do was show up to get the job (that and give us a fair rate with a guarantee to finish by Wednesday).

There are seemingly few things that need to be finished in the basement. Finish the mudding & taping of the drywall then adding texture. Priming and painting then carpet. That's it, right?

So here is the time frame we are looking at. Dry wall finished by Saturday, dries on Sunday, painting begins on Monday and is finished by Wednesday at the very latest. Carpet goes in on Thursday and Friday, Saturday the baby's room is cleared out and Sunday the baby's room is cleaned and put together.

Monday Monster Jr. is officially invited to make his grand entrance into the world.

We'll see.

First Day

Yesterday was my first day as a lady of leisure. It wasn't all that leisurely. My plans for the day were big. I was going to hit Southcenter (center of all things shopping - a place I despise but must go since it has what I need) for Babies 'R Us and Target and sporting goods stores so I could find one last present for Ryan.

My big plans were shot hours before they were to commence. At 2:30 in the morning I woke up - wide awake. I stayed wide awake for several hours before falling back asleep around 6:30 then I was back up when Ryan left. I felt kind of guilty seeing him off to work - I didn't feel any different than I had the week before so why wasn't I going to work? Oh, that's right. I need to rest up before the baby comes.

So I waddle off to take care of the screaming horde of animals (well, the cats scream for breakfast and the dog just follows me closer than a shadow and wills me to feed her with her huge brown labrador eyes).

I didn't make it out the door until 10:30. No good. That left me enough time at Babies 'R Us to pick out the carseat/stroller combo; I chose the Chicco by default. The salesman was showing me how to work the Gracco Quattro Tour Deluxe blah, blah, blah and I just wanted to pick it up and throw it across the store. He said it was so difficult to operate because it was a floor model and was pretty beat up. Uh, the Chicco was also a floor model and it worked just fine; besides, with all of the stairs we have and with me not being Grace Kelly I think I'll go with the brand that can hold up to freaked out new moms and dads manhandling the floor models.

On the to buy list was also the Diaper Champ (unlike the Diaper Genie it doesn't require a plastic bag for each diaper - more economical and environmentally friendly). Throw in some glass bottles (there has been bad news about plastic bottles off gassing some nasty stuff into the milk which causes problems later in the child developement). Ooh, and I got a breast feeding pillow that is supposed to be better than the Boppy.

It was a pretty exciting trip at the baby superstore. I almost bought a Santa hat for the baby but I don't want to buy one that will be too small when it's finally time for him to wear it. A santa hat is a requirement for all babies too young to reach up and pull it off their cute little heads. If he comes within two weeks of Halloween I may buy him a pumpkin suit onsie costume. Too cute!

After my big day at Babies 'R Us I met up with my old boss who took me to lunch to celebrate me leaving that office. : ) Lunch was nice and it was good to catch up with Meg since we used to see each other every day.

Next on my agenda (or so I thought) was to go home and bake the sugar cookies I prepped the night before for Ryan's birthday. It wasn't until I got home and was throwing the ball in the alley for the dog did I remember that I didn't buy Ryan's last present so I hopped back in the car and drove to Westwood Village (the major shopping center in West Seattle). I hit the three clothing stores that have men's clothing and I thought I found the lightweight rain coat he wanted at Big 5 - turns out it's just an athletic warm up jacket. Oops.

I was finally able to return home, bake the cookies and frost them with store bought frosting : (
and add super fun sprinkles.

It was now 5:30 and I was missing my nap. I laid down to rest for a few minutes when my little brother called. We chatted for a few minutes then I got up and it was time to go again. It was Ryan's birthday so I picked him up for work and we went to Bamboo Bar & Grill on Alki as it is his favorite place to get a margarita and since we know the bartender she made it extra special for him.

Last night was great for sleep! Even though I woke up every 90 minutes to empty my not nearly full enough to wake me bladder I was able to go right back to sleep after each trip! I feel so good! By the way, I'm not kidding about every 90 minutes. It was almost to the minute. Crazy!

Dropping

I think Jr. dropped a bit yesterday. It doesn't mean a whole lot. First time mothers experience lightning or dropping days to weeks before the birth. I really hope it isn't a few days before birth. That would suck. The house isn't ready, we don't have a car seat or the bassinet yet.

Update on Bill who was going to do our basement. Your keen eyes picked up on "was", right?

It turns out that Ryan has a soccer buddy (a different one) who is a dry wall installer by day, soccer player by night and on the weekends he will pick up an odd job doing drywall here and there. Soccer buddy is going to install our drywall over a period of two weekends beginning this Friday. : ) That means I will have the house to myself during the week and it will be done before Bill could get it done!

Woo-hoo!

Ryan is going to lay the tile in the bathroom. Tile isn't that hard or complicated to do and Ryan has tiled the fireplace in our old house, the fireplace in our 'new' house, the entry way in the old house, the bathroom counter top in the old house and the kitchen in the new house. He's practically a pro. Soccer buddy has all of the equipment so that will save time and money for us, too. : )

If I could bend over better I would do the grout but I think that would not be so good for my back. As much of a pain as grouting and cleaning up after grouting can be I would still love to do it and be able to say, "I did that." I guess I can point to the baby and say, "I did that instead."


*******
Soccer Buddy and Co. started hanging drywall yesterday at 4:30pm and didn't stop until 11:00pm. They said they would be here again at 7:00am. At 7:00 this morning there was a faint knocking on our front door (he probably didn't want to wake me) - it was Soccer Buddy and Co.! On time!

I don't know if he could ever go into business for himself as a contractor. I mean, he showed up on-time, worked really hard late into the night then showed up again on the second day, on-time, and got straight to work. What's up with that? He's so not a contractor.


******
Yesterday was my last day of work! Woo-freakin'-hoo!!!


I wore jeans and left early (not by much) - that's the most I could rebel. The office had a lunch for me and the agents came to say goodbye. The agents gave me flowers and cards and gifts. I felt so loved and appreciated.


My first trip back to the office will be much sooner than I had anticipated. While doing laundry last night I pulled out the key to the supply closet out of my fleece jacket. Oopsies. I'll be going back next week again sometime as Ryan's birthday presents trickle in that I ordered from Amazon. (His birthday is Monday so some gifts will be late).