Nathan's 3rd birthday

Nathan wanted a globe cake just like his big brother. So Rachael did her magic and made another globe cake, this time with lots of green ... a green turtle, frog and lizard all on the cake because Nathan's favorite color is green. Not that he will tell you that. He doesn't exactly know his colors yet. But when given a choice he usually always picks green.

We had the party at the Little Jumping Bean, one of those jumpy places that has the inflatiable slides and stuff. There were lots of kids from Nathan's class, and everyone had a good time!




Our cake maker, Rachael (rachmakescakes.com) putting the last minute touches on the globe cake.


Nathan singing the "happy birthday" song!

Birthday extravaganza!

Colin's birthday was a four-day long celebration. Lucky guy! On the actual day of Colin's birthday, Friday, November 21, we invited both classes to Candler Park after school. It was cold so not many people showed up, but the ones that did brave the cold got hot chocolate and pizza!

On Saturday, Uncle Ian and Aunt Roxanne came over to celebrate both Ian's and Colin's birthday (Ian's birthday is November 16). That's when Colin opened his presents from Mom and Dad and Nathan. He got a scooter from Mom and Dad, and a paper airplane making book from Nathan.




The big birthday party was on Sunday at Atomic Tangerine where Colin had a globe cake that tasted like orange juice (special request by Colin!). Everyone did a special art project and made a space creature.



Colin's birthday walk at school was on Monday. That's where Colin walks around the elipse five times to represent five years, and one parent (that would be me) talks about significant events that happened during each year. I spent a lot of time preparing and had too much information, so the presentation was dramatically cut. I don't want all that work to go to waste, so I am creating a photo book of Colin's first five years. You know I just don't have enough to do, so this won't be any problem, right?

Dad's card to Colin

Bob's birthday

Happy birthday to Bob! We celebrated by going to our newest favorite place in the whole wide world -- Th Porter, a beer bar that just opened and is stumbling distance from our house! Who could ask for a more perfect birthday present.

Here is a birthday card that Bob received that captures the moment perfectly:

Grace turns 5

Colin's friend Grace turned 5 and had a pizza/pool party. It was a blast as usual.

Purple party

My 40th birthday party was a purple party. Everybody asked why a purple party. Because I like purple! We had purple flashing balloons, purple glowing cups, and purple m&m's.



The cake was by Rachael, of course! www.rachmakescakes.com

I am ...

I've had this idea for a poem/essay that briefly and concisely captures the essence of me. So happy 40th birthday to me. This is who I am.

I am the first born.
I am shy.
I am the kid at school that never said anything.
I am the kid at school that the teachers always said "was a joy to have in class" because I never said anything.
I am a "schoolie".
I am a rebelious teenager trying to ditch the "schoolie" image.
I am best friends with the boys (but not in that way).
I am a Catholic high school student … and not Catholic.
I am nobody's steady girlfriend for more than 2 weeks.
I am an honor roll student.
I am breifly a sorority girl.
I am Bob's wife.
I am a Structural Engineer.
I am a CFO.
I am Colin's mother.
I am Nathan's mother.
I am a marathoner.
I am an Aries.
I am stubborn.
I am determined.

Happy Birthday, Nathan!!

Yesterday was Nathan's 2nd birthday, hard to believe that 2 years ago Bob and I were racing to the hospital just in time for Nathan to be born. I remember Colin's assessment of the situation when he came to the hospital, "Baby born?"

So we had a little party for Nathan with Uncle Ian, Aunt Roxanne, our friends in Roswell, Amy, Eric, their children, Grace, and Tyge who are Colin and Nathan's age; and some new friends from the neighborhood, Karen, Bill and their son, Fritz who is Colin's age. The party was at 5pm and we did a burrito bar where you could build your own burrito. We got the idea from Tyge's birthday party which was at dinner time and included build your own pasta dinner. Tyge's birthday was on Monday.


We also had a cake, that is a cake from Rach Makes Cakes again. She's the one who did Colin's Dr. Seuss birthday cake. This time we wanted a cake in the shape of a puzzle piece because of Nathan's obsession with puzzles. It was perfect!


Recap of the wonderful presents (so I don't forget), from Fritz, finger puppets and a Steve McQueen Cars from the movie. From Grace and Tyge, a Melissa & Doug puzzle (with 12 interlocking pieces of a farm yard) and an aquatic animal 6-in-1 block puzzle. From Uncle Ian and Aunt Roxanne, a Cars activity center with paint, crayons, workbook and game. From Mom and Dad (me and Bob), a cobbler's bench.

Birthday party!!

Colin's birthday party was last Sunday. He was so excited. We invited a handful of kids from school, our next door neighbor Mattison, and Grace from the old house. Being the holiday weekend, I fully expected about 50% to not be able to come. Well, big surprise! Everyone except for one family was able to come! At least it was going to be outside, I thought. Well, then it rained all day Sunday (day of the party), so everyone was inside -- good thing we have a big house and Colin and Nathan's rooms were clean so the kids could go upstairs too! We ended up having 12 kids and 15 adults here! Have you ever heard about that rule of thumb that there should only be the number of kids equal to the number of the birthday? That would be only 4 kids, oh well! Colin had a great time!

The day before the party, Colin asked if his teacher, Maureen was going to come. Didn't invite her, I told him. "Please, call her and invite her to the party," he says. So I did. She was very flattered, and said that she would stop by and make an appearance. All the kids were so excited to see their teacher at the party. It was really pretty cool.

As you can see from the pictures, Colin is wearing a pretty outrageous outfit. A blue/green striped long sleeve polo with a short sleeve plaid shirt on top of it! He picked it out all by himself. And I was very proud of myself that I let him wear it ... very montessori of me (and him!). I guess I figured that we have plenty of pictures of him looking like I dressed him, that it wouldn't hurt to have the pictures this time looking like ... well, that he dressed himself!

All the other birthdays, I've always waited to the last minute and got a cake at the local grocery store. The cakes were okay, but this time I was talking to someone at Bob's office that mentioned his girlfriend makes cakes. I was intrigued and checked out her website, www.rachmakescakes.com . I figure it's about time to get a professional cake for Colin's birthday. Bob and Colin came up with the idea to do a Dr. Seuss theme, specifically the Lorax. We've read this story to Colin several times, and he really likes it. So I asked Colin to pick out his favorite page in the book. It had Truffala Trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots on the page he picked. So I emailed Rachael scans of the pages from Colin's book. She said that she had some ideas and thought it would be pretty cool.



When the cake arrived, WOW it looked so cool as you can see from the pictures, and you can eat everything on the cake too. What I wasn't counting on was how delicious the cake was. Colin wanted chocolate cake, and she put chocolate chips into the chocolate cake which made it even more incredible. I think I've found our cake maker for the rest of our birthdays and holidays and get-togethers and whatever occasion that I can think of!

I think that just about sums up Colin's birthday party. Lots of people, Colin's crazy outfit (and I mean that in a good way!), and the awesome cake. Hope all the rest of the boy's birthday parties are this successful.

Colin's 4th birthday

Colin had a great day! He turned four on November 21st, and Grandma and Grandpa G.G. were in town to help us celebrate the occasion.

First the day started with Nathan and Colin climbing into our bed for some good quality time with us. (Grandma and Grandpa were still asleep.) Nathan practiced saying "Happy birthday, Colin" which came out sounding like "AA-kee dada Colnn". It was close enough for us.

I proposed that the grandparents and Colin and I go to the new Coca-Cola museum during Nathan's nap. But when I asked Colin if he wanted to go he said, "Do they have a playground?". Hmmm, maybe the Coca-Cola museum wouldn't be the ideal place to go for Colin. The adults would really like it (well, I would), but this is Colin's birthday, so the plans were changed. We went for ice cream at Zesto, then to the brand new playground at Piedmont Park.

For dinner we had steak, Colin's favorite. Although Colin was too excited about presents and cake after dinner that he barely touched his steak. Finally, it was time to bring out the cake, which consisted of about 16 mini cupcakes with flags and 4 candles. We sang, Colin blew and blew and one candle went out, he blew some more, and another candle went out. After several more attempts, all the candles were out which made Colin very happy.

Colin then opened his presents from Grandma and Grandpa G.G. (glow-in-the-dark dinosaur puzzle, Dora Candy Land Game and Dora Memory Game), and Grandma Mary and Grandpa Jerry (Moon Sand, Cars mini-books with CD and a horse painting set). Nathan also gave Colin a dinosaur puzzle. Colin received an art easel from Mom and Dad.

Happy Birthday to my big guy! I can't believe you are four years old.

STOMP

Last year I went to the show STOMP at the Fox Theatre with my friend Leslie, and it was amazing! So when I heard that it was coming back to the Fox, I wanted to take Bob and Colin. I thought that Colin would really enjoy all the percussion even though it would be really late for him. It was a risk. The show started at 8pm and would probably go until 10pm, and Colin really likes his sleep.

So the show was last night (Bob's birthday), I fully intended to get Colin to nap but with Bob's birthday and wrapping presents and getting the house ready for Bob coming home from a work trip to Colorado, the nap just didn't happen. My bad.

When the show started, Colin's eyes got so big! He said to me, "I like these guys". I'm thinking all right, we are going to make it! The shows energy and excitement will keep him awake.

Unfortunately, about 15 minutes later he started in with "I wanna go home." Darn! So I tried to get him to go to sleep on my shoulder with the show going on but he said it was too loud. I really wanted Bob to see the show, so Colin and I went out into the lobby and found a secluded bench where Colin laid down and went to sleep.

After a while, I put Colin on my shoulder and went back to see what I could of the show. I ended up at the back watching the last 30 minutes, and I didn't miss the trash can sequence where three guys stand on top of these big 50 gallon trash cans and walk around to the beat of the music, it's my favorite part! And I got to watch this while Colin was asleep on my shoulder -- talk about a sound sleeper!

All in all, maybe I should have waited a couple more years before introducing Colin to his first show. But at least Bob got to see all of it, I got to see half of it and Colin liked what he saw.

Dad's crown

Bob turned 40 yesterday! Yikes, I'm next!

So I gave Bob a book of paintings by one of Bob's favorite artist, Ferjo. I asked Colin what he would like to give Dad for his birthday, and immediately Colin said, "A crown". So we made a crown for Bob's 40th birthday!

April 15-20 trivia

This post is completely not related to the kids, but about stuff that happens between April 15-20. It's very bizarre, but this time frame is like the modern day Ides of March. All kinds of bad stuff. Here is a list:

April 15 (Tax Day)

1865 - Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot the previous evening by John Wilkes Booth.

1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, causing the deaths of about 1,503 people.

1989 - Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, a football stadium in Sheffield, resulting in 96 deaths.

April 16

2007 - Virginia Tech massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in American history, leaves 33 dead, including the killer.

April 18

1880 - A F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.

1906 - An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, destroys much of San Francisco, California.

April 19

1993 - The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.

April 20

1889 - Born: Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born dictator who ruled Nazi Germany during the Second World War (d. 1945)

1914 - Seventeen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a bitter Colorado coal-miner's strike.

1999 - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves in the Columbine High School massacre.

Sorry for such a downer post.

Mom's Birthday

April 18th is my birthday so when Bob came home from work that day, he asked me to stay upstairs for a little bit. When I got downstairs there was an ice cream cake waiting! My favorite! So Colin and Nathan are sitting on my lap, they start singing "Happy Birthday", Colin really knows the words to that song, and Nathan is clapping like crazy! It was so sweet!

Nathan's birth story - doula's version

Kristine’s first labor was long and arduous so she was due for a beak the second time around and she certainly got one!

She was expecting this little one on January 15th but as early as January 3rd the midwives were seeing changes in her cervix that indicated that she might go earlier. As of that appointment she was 50% effaced and a centimeter dilated. By Monday the 9th she was 2 cm. She was quite ready to go early and little Colin was ready too. “Mommy hurt?” he said when Kristine grunted and groaned her way through each day toward the end.

On Wednesday Jan 11 she was not too surprised to find her belly hardening a little more than before and had some pinkish discharge. At 2:30 in the afternoon she had a massage and Roxanne used the pressure points known to stimulate labor. At 5:30 that evening Kristine had her first ‘real’ contraction and wondered if this could be ‘it’.

By 11:30 she was still contracting and called me, the doula, to give me a heads up. At midnight she lost her mucous plug and by 1:30 am her contractions were 7 to 8 minutes apart.

At around 2:20 am, with Bobs hand on her big belly they both felt a ‘big movement’ as Kristine’s water broke. Time to head to the hospital!! The couple got things together and waited for Roxanne to arrive for Colin. They left home about 2:50 and called me to meet them at the hospital.

Apparently it was a pretty wild ride as Bob zoomed around an unsuspecting driver waiting at a red light. He raced to the hospital while Kristine tried desperately NOT to push.

When they arrived at Northside Bob began filling out the myriad of paperwork while Kristine sat nearby making fairly loud noises. She noticed that the security guard seemed to be trying his hardest NOT to look at her! Finally a nurse arrived with a wheelchair saying “We’ll take it from here.”

By 3:24 Kristine was in her room. All the nurses were trying to get Kristine not to push. She was, as she called it “tree frogging’ as Colin does, repeating over and over, “why,why,why” (why can’t I push??) The answer, no one was authorized to catch the baby; they were still waiting for the midwife.

Finally, the midwife was there and the pushing could begin. The baby’s head was already crowning. Apparently Kristine was pushing anyway! It only took about 5-6 pushing sessions, and at 3:37am a boy was born!

At 3:45 I walked into the room to a wailing baby and a shaking mother. “Things happened so fast” she said, and, of course, the one midwife who was her least favorite was the one on call. Kristine could hardly wait for the suturing to be done and the midwife to move on.

I got some blankets from the warmer, which helped with the shaking but not as much as finally getting her baby into her arms. It began to subside as she held little Nathan, or was it Kade, or maybe Kyle????? At least she and Bob were sure of the middle name, Martin, as they looked at their new son and tried each of the first names one by one.

He nursed well then had his first bath around 5 am, crying heartily while Kristine ate a much deserved but not too great sandwich. At least breakfast would be served soon!

By 5:30 or so he was back in his mothers arms and it only took one glance for his parents to be sure…his name would be Nathan!

So with Gush in one arm and Nathan tucked safely in the other Kristine was ready to move to her post partum room and wait for Colin to come meet his new brother.


It was an honor to serve you during this pregnancy and birth.
Blessings to you all
Guina Bixler, CLD

Nathan's birth story

Since I recorded Colin's birth story, I have to keep things equal so here goes Nathan's story!

I was due the 15th, which was a Sunday. That means the Friday before is Friday the 13th. I'm not super superstitious but I really would prefer not to have my second born on Friday the 13th, bad vibes I guess. So Wednesday the 11th, my sister-in-law Roxanne offers to give me a massage, she is a message therapist. She is aware of my desire to have the baby prior to Friday the 13th and during the massage is working the labor inducing points. During the massage, I am also working my natural birth mantras. My goal is a natural, unmedicated birth. I was not able to accomplish this goal with Colin because it was so long -- I had an epidural.

Well, that was at 3pm. At 5pm I had my first contraction, but I didn't know for sure if it was. Colin's labor started with my water breaking, so I never experienced the contractions coming first. For the next five hours, the contractions are coming every 20-30 minutes with no regularity at all. I'm still not sure. By 11pm the contractions are more regular, and we are pretty sure a baby is on the way. However, last time it took 30 hours, so we figured we'd call the doula to give her a heads up, go to bed and try to get some sleep. Thought we had plenty of time.

From 11pm until 2am, we are laying in bed and I'm visualizing the pain leaving through Bob's hand. (Pretty bizzare, huh!) I didn't plan on doing this, it just happened. At 2:20am, the contractions are about 6-7 minutes apart and then Whamo!, a big kick or something and a big gush. My water broke and soaked me and Bob! Instantly the contractions go to 2-3 minutes apart and the baby is coming! We have to call Roxanne (she's going to watch Colin), call the doula and pack the remaining stuff for the hospital. We figure that there's a mid-wife at the hospital on call, so we didn't call them.

So we get to the hospital, breaking many traffic laws including flying around a car at a red light. During the ride the urge to push becomes uncontrollable, and I tell Bob "I'm pushing". He later tells me that he thought I was doing it on purpose! So as we are checking into the hospital a nurse hears me (the whole hospital probably heard me!) and wheels me back while Bob finishes the paperwork. Then they keep telling me not to push. We had to wait for the mid-wife, (who would've been ready if we would've called first!). Turns out the mid-wife is the one that I don't like. As I say, it's the bad one. She calls me Jennifer the whole time in the delivery room.

Thirteen minutes after checking in, a baby boy is born! Bob and I are shocked. We thought it was going to be a girl. The pregnancy was so different than Colin's. But we are not disappointed in the slightest, he is beautiful! My first impression of him, is that he is screaming and I told Bob to go comfort him. And Bob starts talking to him and instantly he is better. They had him under a light to warm him up, he was a little cool when born.

Then I'm shaking uncontrollably, and the doula shows up and convinces them to put him on me. My shaking instantly goes away! Silly hospital, why use a warming light when you have the mommy's body heat to warm him up!

Now the naming decision, we had a girl's name picked out, and brought a list of boy's names. We knew that the middle name was going to be Martin, after my dad. I can't even remember some of the options, but I knew that Bob really liked Nathan. The more I looked at him, the more he looked like a Nathan to me.

So Thursday, January 12, 2006, Nathan Martin was born weighing 9 lbs 8 oz and 22 inches long.

My first impression of Colin

So now I have the birth story documented, I thought I would document my first impressions of Colin after he was born. Immediately following the birth, I was exhausted, relieved to be done with that part and just plain loopy from the whole experience that honestly, being moved by the sight of my first born did not happen. Sorry Colin. I remember Bob being moved to tears, and I was just, "hey, I did it, I finally had this baby". This is completely opposite to the way I react under normal circumstances. Usually I am so emotional, everytime we passed the hospital or when we took the hospital tour, I would tear-up and start crying.

So we were moved out of the labor room to the ... I can't remeber the name but next room that you stay in after the baby's born. And Colin made a little sound. I remember my heart just stopping. I think it was the first time I heard Colin's voice (he didn't protest much that I remember after he was born) and it was the sweetest little sound that I have ever heard. Sometimes when Colin is talking now (he is 3), it reminds me of that first time I heard his little voice.

Colin's birth story - super long version

Patty, my doula wrote this birth story for me. Since I gave the short version, I figured I would also post the long version.


When Bob first called and told me that Kristine’s water had broken a little more than an hour before (12:26 am) on 11-20-2003, we were all excited thinking there would be a baby here fairly soon. Well, fairly soon ended up being a mere 32 hours later. J

After talking to Bob, I spoke to Kristine who told me the midwife had wanted them to come to the hospital due to Kristine’s amniotic fluid being yellowish, murky green brown and thicker than water. When meconium is present in the amniotic fluid, it indicates the baby has been in some kind of distress and requires a little closer monitoring. It’s decided that they will head to the hospital and call me when they need me to come.

Kristine and Bob arrive at the hospital about 2:45 am and checked into their room by 3:00am. The internal check shows Kristine to be 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. They then complete the marathon of hospital paperwork and Kristine is put on the monitors. As Bob brings in his many bags, the hospital staff laughs and jokes it looks like he and Kristine are moving in. Little did they know how long we were going to be there! From about 4:30-6:00 am Bob and Kristine sleep. I receive a call about 7:10 am from Bob stating Kristine’s contractions are picking up and I should start to head over.

I arrive at the hospital about 8:45 am and the contractions are about 4-5 minutes apart. Kristine is borrowing from the baby an adorable blanket that is in the shape of a white cat. Envision a really soft stuffed animal that has been totally flattened into a blanket! The tag says “My Blanky – Romeo” and it is a gift from Kristine’s mom. She also has a special stuffed animal, Gush that dates back to her high school days that was providing some nice comfort.

At about 9:45 am Bob is on one side of Kristine rubbing her back and I am giving her a hand and arm massage. George Winston’s Winter is playing in the background. For the next hour and half, Kristine uses vocalizing and imagery (painting the contractions away). She is also doing an excellent job keeping her fluids up.

At 11:30 am the Cervadil is removed and Kristine’s cervix is checked. The Cervadil had not done as much as was hoped and her cervix showed 1-2 cm dilated. The midwife, Ruth was suggesting pitocin be started and I asked if we could have a little time to move around and see if we could get things started. She said she would give us 1 ½ to 2 hours to see what progress could be made, but due to the meconium she wanted the labor to get started.

For the next 45 minutes Kristine alternated between sitting on the birth ball and being in a hands and knees position. We listened to one song from the “Smashing Pumpkins – Adore” CD and then moved on to the “Red Hot Chili Peppers.” The midwife (Laura) later joked with us that we were the 2nd or 3rd couple who were listening to “Red Hot Chili Peppers.”

Around 1:15 pm Kristine and Bob were swaying thru some contractions while U2 was playing. I was able to capture this in a picture. It was around this time that Laura (midwife) stopped in to say hello. Next we decide to do some hall walking and soon we ran into Susie (nurse) who says Ruth (the first midwife) is ready to start the pit. We then run into Laura and Kristine and Bob explain they would like to avoid the pit right now if possible. Laura agrees that she would like to get a reading on the contractions and the baby to see if the pit is necessary yet.

It is now about 1:45 pm and Kristine is put on the monitor. Madonna is singing in the background and Kristine is able to sleep between the contractions. I go to grab a quick bite to eat.

Around 3:40 pm Kristine is checked again and found to be 2 cm, -1 station. It is decided that pit is needed to get this party started. The pit is started at 2 and is increased by 2 every 30 minutes. By about 5:00 pm, Kristine is using her patterned breathing and is going into the labor zone. Bob and I give her verbal encouragement and massage her hips and legs. We encourage her to drink water and give her wet wash cloths for her head. She has been working so hard, but is getting very tired. She had virtually no sleep the night before. By about 5:30 pm, she is throwing up and it is green. Later, not then, Bob makes a joke about how it reminded him of the “Exorcist.”

It is now 6:15 pm and Kristine is checked again. She is found to be 3 cm, 80% effaced and at -1 to -2 station. The pit is at 10 and the contractions are hard. Kristine is disappointed that she is no further dilated then this and is so tired. She has been working hard for many, many hours. She states that she really wants an epidural. She and Bob discuss this. Everyone (Bob, Laura , and I) agrees with and supports Kristine’s decision. Laura reminds us of all of the work which will be needed for pushing. Hopefully the epidural will give some much needed and deserved rest.

At 6:40 pm the epidural is administered and an amnioinfusion is started. The amnioinfusion is used to help flush the uterus with saline solution and get the meconium out. Soon Kristine is getting relief and Bob goes to grab a bite to eat. Kristine and I talk. When Bob returns, the nurse that has recently started her shift says that she thinks this is a “big baby”. Bob tells her about their cat Neechy who is 21lbs. and jokes that they have big cats and big babies.

Soon everyone is resting. About 9:30 pm I decide to run to McDonalds. While I am gone Kristine is checked and found to be 4-5 cm. Progress is slowly being made. For the next couple of hours everyone is getting some sleep.

When Kristine is checked again at 12:40 am, 11/21, she is 5 cm – 100% effaced, 0 station. By about 40 minutes later, the pit is up to 20 and Kristine is feeling the contractions again. She has some more vomiting and is given some more medication. She is still at 5 cm when checked at 2:15 am but a mere 1 hour and 15 minutes later she is at 8cm!!!!! However, the contractions are back full force and Kristine is feeling them completely on one side. At 3:40 am she is redosed. She soon is feeling relief on both sides. Bob and Kristine are getting so excited knowing they will soon meet their baby!

By 5:20 am, it is time! Kristine is 10 cm, and between t2- t3 station! Yahoo! Soon Kristine is starting to push. Bob does a fabulous job at watching when the contraction is starting on the monitor and counting to 10 as she pushes. Bob and I are supporting Kristine legs because she is completely numb. Kristine asks that the epidural be turned down so she can get some more feeling back. At 6:15 am this is done and by about 7:00 am there is a noticeable improvement in her pushing. It is much more effective. With the epidural turned down so low, Kristine is feeling everything very intensely. Bob and I continue to verbally encourage her and I keep stroking her hair. This is very hard work, but Kristine is pushing so well and we soon see baby Sandage’s head. We can see some curly hair. Kristine is getting very tired and starts to question if she can do this. Bob, Laura and I reassure her that she is doing a great job. Bob tells Kristine how proud he is of her.

Soon the baby’s head is born and the cord is wrapped tightly around his neck. Laura quickly cuts the umbilical cord and instructs Kristine to give one last big push. The baby is out and “it’s a boy”!!!!!! Colin Robert Sandage is born at 8:31 am weighing 8lbs. – 12 oz. and 21.5 inches long. He is taken away only momentarily to be suctioned and then he is placed on his mama’s chest. What a joyful moment!
Kristine has suffered a 3rd degree vaginal tear and a cervical tear. While the midwife and Dr. are stitching her tears, Bob is with Colin while he receives his first bath. Soon it’s time to try to nurse. Colin latched right on and began suckling - no instruction needed here! At that I leave so the new family can have some alone time.

Colin's birth story - short version

Colin's birth story is pretty well documented by our doula Patty, but I wanted to make sure that one additional thing was recorded, so I will summerize the whole thing adding my one additional fact.

Midnight on Colin's due date, my water broke after we went to bed. "Uh-oh" I said to Bob, but in his sleepy state, it didn't even register what I was talking about! So off to the hospital. My goal was an unmedicated natural birth. Well, the way that Bob likes to put it is if there was any one that should've been born via C-section, it was Colin. However, being the stubborn person that I am, Colin was born 32 hours later after an epidural (so I could rest), and 2.5 hours of pushing.

So it was Wednesday night when my water broke. Bob called the office Thursday to tell everyone that he wouldn't be in because little Sandage was on his/her way (we didn't know if it was a girl or boy at that time). Friday morning comes and people start coming into the office wondering why Bob has not contacted the office with any news. So the our secretary Deb called the labor and delivery room, just as they determine that I am ready to start pushing. The phone rings, everyone looks around and is like, "do we answer that?" I'm definitely not answering it, laboring away like I was! The doctor says, "sure, I'll get it!" and tell's the caller "she's not available right now, she's about to have the baby!" Perfect timing Deb!

Nathan's birthday party

Well, Nathan turns one next week, but over Christmas while we were in Omaha where the grandmas and grandpas live, we had a big early birthday party for Nathan. Nathan did the obligatory smash cake routine for everyone where he got frosting and cake everywhere. So I figured the easiest way to clean him up would be in the sink. So in the sink he goes, I take off his shirt and pants and start cleaning his hands and face. Next thing I hear is Colin saying "I'm next!" and I look down at my 3-year old taking off all of his clothes! There are tons of people around, and he just doesn't care. So after Nathan is clean, I pick up Colin ... don't want to favor one boy over the other ... and put Colin on the edge of the sink. Then Colin says "I'm peeing in the sink!" I look down and sure enough, he is. I look over and my aunt has the camera taking a picture. Great now it's officially recorded.