Eric and Lisa

Nine days later, and Baby Ian is doing splendidly! He's such a good baby and is surprising the heck out of us by sleeping through the night. We wonder if that will last. Although, he does seem like he's on a fairly regular schedule of feeding/waking/sleeping. He's a very docile baby and often doesn't complain even when his diaper is rather messy, so we have to work hard to keep on top of things. It's a good challenge, though. We are having so much fun with him.

His mommy is still struggling a little bit, though. I tore a lot during the rather quick delivery, so I'm still pretty sore. On Thursday, I had to make an impromtu visit to the Ob/Gyn to take care of some infection and pulled stitches, but I think I'm on the road to recovery. I still can't walk or sit real well, but it's getting better everyday. Maybe soon, I'll be able to eat dinner at the dining room table instead of on a comfy chair in the living room! The doctor said my recovery will be about two weeks longer than it would have been without the infection or pulled stitches, but that's ok. I'm just glad I have a healthy baby!

This is the first chance that I've had to update things since we've been home. Our son (Ian) was born this week at 10:51 am. He was only 6 pounds and 14 ounces; however, he was 19 1/2 inches long! Ian had a rough entry into the world. His heart rate kept dropping dangerously low during labor, and the doctor was faced with deciding whether or not to do an emergency C-section. He decided to give Lisa (and Ian) the benefit of the doubt, and Lisa responded by pushing him out in only 15 minutes. Lisa went through all of this without having an epidural or any other pain medication. I now owe her 27 trips to Cold Stone Creamery. Anyhow, because of the difficult labor, they had to keep Ian in special care overnight, but he was released to us the next day. He's a happy little guy who looks a lot like his mother, but already seems to exhibit a temperment similar to his daddy. We've posted just a few of the many, many pictures that have been taken of him in the photo gallery.

Well, he's been crying a bit, so I guess I should go check his diaper. He's already blown a couple of them up today.

--Eric

This past Thursday (April 6th), we had a very interesting doctor's appointment. During the exam, Dr. Stauffer looked up at me and said, "Are you sure you're not in labor?" Apparently, I had dilated 2 more centimeters during the week (a total of 3cm), and was around 90% effaced. However, I wasn't (and still am not) feeling many contractions -- only the occasional Braxton-Hicks -- so I'm really not in labor, but it was funny to see the look on his face! He seems to think I'm not going to make it to my due date, but we'll see. You never know with these types of things! Babies come pretty much whenever they please. At least we shouldn't be too surprised if he does come early.

Anyway, we had a very nice weekend together. We were able to enjoy a lot of sunshiny spring weather, and even went on a date Friday night. Yesterday morning we went to an IU football scrimage and almost froze our buns off in the chilly morning breeze! The sun was nice, though, and the team was fun to watch. Yesterday and today, we also went to a local park where Eric disc golfed and I served as his "caddy." It was so nice to be outside two days in a row and get some good exercise. We both feel better.

We're just trying to be patient and not too anticipatory for the upcoming BIG event. That's pretty hard though, now that we know things are really in motion!

Today is the 2nd day of April -- the month in which our child will be born! That's an odd concept to grasp at the moment. It's hard to truly comprehend how different our lives will be in just a couple weeks....or maybe even a couple days! Who knows? According to a doctor's checkup on Thursday, things are well on their way to "progressing" for the Little Guy's arrival. He's making his move!

Because of this, Eric and I are savoring every moment we have together. It's not that we're not excited about becoming parents -- we really, really are -- but we're starting to realize that our time together will be very different soon, and that we really do like how things are right now, just the two of us. I think that's a good thing. When the baby comes, we'll be fully dedicated to him, but we'll still need each other, and it's nice to know that we at least have a fairly good foundation of closeness on which to stand so that we hopefully won't completely abandon our marriage relationship for that of our parental relationship with our child. Maybe we'll miss the times of quiet and flexibility that we have right now. But then again, maybe we won't. Maybe they'll still be there, just in different forms and opportunities. That's my hope, and that's what we're committing ourselves to -- to maintaining our relationship together in the midst of our new family relationships. It's going to be an interesting experience, and I'm looking forward to it.