Josh's Birth

I can't believe we made it. We actually got moved, for the most part unpacked, with just days to spare before Josh arrived, but we did it! It is so nice to be in our new house and know that we don't have to move again anytime soon! And it's OUR house! On top of that, we moved out of our lease house Nov 1st and it's being re-rented as of Nov 15th, so we don't have to stress about paying out the duration of our remaining eight months. The timing couldn't have been much better!

I had three solid nights of regular contractions before Josh arrived, and each night I thought, "Ok, I'm having a baby" but then morning would come, the contractions would stop and nothing would happen. The third night, it didn't stop and the contractions although far apart, started to get more and more painful. We hemmed and hawed, but decided in the end that we had better go to the hospital just in case. Good thing, because by the time I got there at 9 am, I was ready to just go ahead and have an epidural! My Mom met us at the hospital and took Alex off to play (ok, well actually to go get his flu shot and then play), I got admitted, finally had that epidural and labored in comfort for the rest of the day. Albert said that he didn't think having a baby looked all that hard- you got to just lay in bed and watch movies all day! So much nicer to watch the contractions come and go on the monitor but otherwise have no idea I was having them at all! In fact, now after two labors with great epidurals, I can't imagine having to go through labor and the delivery without one! My Dad came by for a visit in the afternoon and was able to stay for the birth. Unfortunately my Mom couldn't be there too, but she was off entertaining Alex. Around 4:45pm my water finally broke and it was time to have a baby. Josh arrived kicking and screaming at 5:32pm. Couldn't ask for anything more- I got exactly what I was hoping for- a straightforward birth, no surgery/c-section, and an apparently healthy newborn!

We stayed in the hospital just barely long enough for Albert's parents to make it up from Houston for a brief visit, then checked out 24 hours post-partum for the comfort of our own home. Little Josh has been doing just great- nursing well from the very beginning, sleeping 3 hours at a stretch before needing to eat again, and generally being an adorable sweetheart!

Thanks to all for the good wishes, flowers, meals, gifts and general help! Being a parent to two babies (one big, one little) isn't as hard as I expected, but does have it's challenges. More on that later... I'm off to bed for now, that is, for about 2 hours and 15 minutes until a certain little someone needs to eat again!