Being Big Sister

Throughout my pregnancy, Audrey has been extremely excited about her new role as a Big Sister.  We have tried to involve her with most aspects of baby preparations such as washing his clothes and toys and arranging his room.  I think the effort has paid off, because I don't think there could have been any little girl more excited to see her little brother than Audrey was yesterday when she met Barrett for the first time.  Billy happened to catch a photo of her walking in the hospital room yesterday...priceless!

Once she got to see Barrett, she could take her eyes off of him.  Trying to get her to look at the camera long enough to get a picture was difficult; all she would do when he was around was gaze and smile at him.  At first, she did not want us to do anything to disturb him when he was quiet.  I asked Billy to take off his hat so everyone could see his hair, but Audrey wanted nothing of the sort because she thought he might not like it.  Eventually, she started to realize that he was not a china doll, and then she wanted to hug, kiss and hold him. 

Billy and I have had a reprieve while Audrey has been with my parents, so we've just had to focus on the two of us and Barrett for the past day.  Tonight that will change when she stays with us and Billy stays at home with her overnight and especially when Barrett and I go home tomorrow.  We are now a family of four and Audrey is officially a big sister. 

Perfect Timing

Last night we went to a wedding for one of Billy's friends from Boeing.  We had a great night with friends dancing and having fun.  After we got home and were preparing for bed, I kept praying for guidance about our plans to drive to Greenville today to spend the rest of the weekend on the lake.  Greenville is 1.5 hours from the hospital where we planned to deliver baby boy, and it made me nervous to be that far away when I had such a quick labor with Audrey.  I fell asleep praying that God would make it clear to me if we were not supposed to go to Greenville.  Well, God is faithful, and at 4:30 this morning I started having the undeniable labor contractions.  They were far enough a part I let Billy sleep a while longer while I took a shower and got my things ready.  We left home about 7:20 and arrived at the hospital 20 minutes later. 

Just 2 hours later, we welcomed our baby boy.  Barrett William Nance was born at 9:39 a.m. today.  He weighs 8 pounds 12 ounces and measures 20 3/4 inches long. So far he has been very good.  He is eating well; when I first started nursing him, he didn't want to stop.  He has also been pretty easy going; he doesn't cry a lot unless he is dirty or hungry, and those are easy things to fix.

I too am doing well.  I made it through labor without any pain medication; don't give me too much credit though, because my labor was quite short compared to many women.  I do feel much more like myself this time though, and I think it is because I do not have all of the drugs in my system.  God really was watching out for me, because as frustrated as I have been by all of the pre-labor contractions, I know that they were just preparing me to make the actual labor short and relatively easy.

As the title of the post indicates, Barrett's arrival is truly God's perfect timing.  We were at home, only 20 minutes from the hospital. Audrey was already in Greenville with my parents because they watched her so we could go to the wedding.  The delivery was in the morning, so we get almost 2 whole days (and more importantly 2 whole nights) in the hospital to recover before going home.  It also made it easier for me to get through the labor without medication because it was just Billy and I at the hospital until after Barrett was born.  Praise God for taking care of us and bringing our baby boy safely into this world!       

Passing Time

My mom had come to St. Louis Wednesday night and stayed with us, thinking that the baby was coming very soon.  When he didn’t come, she took Audrey back to Greenville with her yesterday and will keep her through the weekend; the plan was always to drop Audrey off with my parents tonight so Billy and I could go to a wedding tomorrow sans child.  The unexpected non-event just extended Audrey’s visit.

With Audrey gone, Billy and I are trying to enjoy our evenings and our time together.  As disappointing as it is that baby boy hasn’t arrived, we are trying to take advantage of these few quiet nights together.  Last night, Billy started work on a boat mobile for baby boy’s room and I worked on re-organizing Audrey’s room since the rest of her furniture was delivered on Wednesday.  I’ve also been able to get some laundry done and a few other small things, which has been nice.  I've also found time for frequent blog posts.  It helps me to stay busy and focus on what I can get done in this additional time that we have now. I guess it’s really a distraction, but at least it is productive and useful, right?