Eliana Quinn

The only time I was separated from Julie was when they wheeled her into the operating room.
It only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

I thought regular deliveries were intense. They're nothing compared to a c-section.

Moments after delivery. Eliana has never been louder.

I LOVE that, much like a Taco Bell drive thru,
the hospital has instructional posters hung in the operating room.

Eliana may be our most chill baby, yet. Julie, are you sure you don't want more?

This is Amelia's life calling. And even the phlegmatic Truman can't hide his fascination.

There is no prouder big brother on the planet.

Good friends of ours were two doors down with their new son Dominic.
With nurses visiting every three minutes, smuggling beer into the room was no easy task.

So sweet. So calm.

Eliana has fully claimed her mum.

You'd think we'd brought home a puppy or something...

Baby Tiny

Still working on a name for Baby Tiny. So far she reminds me the most of Truman. She's super relaxed and an expert eater.

She was born Tuesday morning at 3:09 AM.  She weighs 8 lbs 5 oz and is 20.5 in long. It looks like she's got black hair (more than any of our other kids had) and brown eyes.

The c-section was super fast (she was born less than an hour after we got to the hospital). Mom was awesome.

Baby Tiny is pretty much perfect.

Change of Plans

Um, so the second I hit publish on that last post... Julie's water broke.

And she immediately went into full blown labor.

And we rushed to the hospital a mere four hours before we were *supposed* to be here for our appointment.

Baby Tiny was still sitting head up. Despite our plans, there was no version attempt.

So Julie had a c-section.

One hour after arriving at the hospital, we had a brand new baby girl.

So let's recap:

Despite all of our other children being born by their 37th week, Baby Tiny waited until within days of her 40 week due date.

Despite most babies staying head down this late in the pregnancy, Baby Tiny decided to flip back to the head up position.

Despite making plans for a possible version or c-section at 6:00 AM this morning, Baby Tiny hustled on out at 3:09 AM.

She is absolutely beautiful. Let's hope she's a little more cooperative going forward.

The Big Day

Tomorrow is the big day. (Well, technically it's already here since it's after midnight.) It's weird that it's finally here after all this waiting. It's like I know what's coming, yet I'm still sure it's going to seem so new and be full of surprises.

Apple is announcing their next iPhone.

Are you as excited as I am?

Oh yeah, and we're having a baby.

I haven't done much blog updating on Baby Tiny lately, so let me give you the latest scoop: Julie has been having contractions for weeks now (some fairly intense) and we've even been to the hospital a couple of times to get checked out, but Baby Tiny has thus far refused to vacate the premises. (The premises being Julie's body.) Basically, the doctors have said her uterus is relaxed enough (thank you twins) that Tiny has plenty of room to maneuver and the contractions haven't been enough to get her to move into the birth canal. On top of that, Julie had an ultrasound two weeks ago and we discovered that Tiny, despite having been head down for many weeks, had flipped over and was breech (headed out feet first). It's unusual for a baby to flip this late in the pregnancy, but again, Tiny apparently is comfortable moving around in there however she pleases.

So here we are, in our 40th week. The plan is to go to the hospital tomorrow at the crack of dawn and do an ultrasound. Hopefully we'll see that Tiny has flipped back to the head down position. If she has, they'll induce labor right away. If she's not head down, they'll try a external version (trying to flip the baby manually from the outside). If they can get her head down, they'll induce. If they still can't get her to go head down, then they will perform a c-section tomorrow.

One way or another, Baby Tiny is joining our clan tomorrow.

I'll admit I'm way more excited about Baby Tiny's entrance into the world than the launch of another iPhone. (Though wouldn't a brand new iPhone be great for documenting and sharing said entrance?) And by excited about Baby Tiny, I think I might mean terrified. It's 1:00 in the morning and I don't feel like sleeping at all. There's a lot of adrenaline already pumping through me. It's not that I'm terrified by newborns or that I'm worried about having five kids aged six and under. But I do worry about Julie and the new baby during the actual birth. I'm nervous every time (though I try not to show it). Plus I'm getting a little anxious about how our whole family dynamic will change, especially after things seem to be so settled now. So while I am excited about meeting this wonderful new daughter, I am also nervous about a day that seems full of uncertainties.

Cross your fingers for us. Pray for us. Wear your lucky underwear. You know, all that good vibe stuff.

Go Home!

8 minute apart contractions + 1 centimeter dilation = go the hell home

Despite Julie's best efforts to get unpregnant today, her mean old doctor sent her home from the hospital. So what you see in the picture below is not a woman getting ready to have a baby, but a woman sent to labor at home with a prescription of getting lots of rest and drinking lots of water. Sound advice if you have a cold, but not that great for this weary trooper who is being awoken by contractions at all hours of the night and who already spends half her day peeing.

It was an interesting trip back to the parking garage as every nurse, doctor and custodian had something to say along the lines of "you're headed the wrong way" or "see you soon!"

My water better not #$%! break on the way home.

Announcement

Amelia dishes the news on the gender of Baby Tiny.

Holy Crap, It's a Baby!

Is there anything worse than people that feel the need to show you pictures of their kids? Yes, there is. It's people that feel the need to show you pictures of their pets. But you know what's worse than that? People that feel the need to show you ultrasound pictures of their kids. Seriously. What are you supposed to say? Wow, that's a beautiful grainy, indecipherable, blob of an alien kid you've got there. You must be so proud.

That being said... suck it. Here's a photo of my blob of an alien kid. He or she is beautiful. We're only thirteen weeks along, which seems like nothing, but here we are with this real live baby slowly working his way to being born. It never ceases to blow my mind. Holy crap -- I have at least two more years of diapers to change.

Long before we got pregnant with Darwin, Jameson had foretold, with great confidence, that we would have a baby boy next and he would call him Bob. He then went on to divine that we would follow up Baby Bob with a girl that he would call Baby Tiny. Despite our certainty that Darwin was going to be a girl, Jameson was right on the money. And despite warning Jameson that there might not be another baby after Darwin, his prophesy again came true. That giant noggin in the ultrasound looks like my other boys, but given Jameson's track record, maybe we should assume Baby Tiny (which is now the official name) is in fact going to be a girl. At least Amelia is hoping he's right.

Oh, and for good measure, here's a picture of our pet. He's the smartest, most beautiful and most talented goldfish you've ever seen.