Welcome, Eman Avner!

*notice: pictures are in reverse chronological order until I get some more time.

Eman Avner (EE-mun, (sounds like "have")AV-ner)was born to our expanding family this past Sunday, March 1, at 12:25 PM! He weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz., was 20 1/2 inches long, and appears to have to have the same strawberry blond hair that Jasper had when he was a baby. He's already a fun little guy with a sweet face and a great personality--he makes some pretty funny faces, this kid.

After thinking that I might be going into labor on my own, and a couple of days of a LOT of walking, I got fed up and went in to be induced around 4 AM. It was a slow night for them, so the nurse that got me all hooked up to the pitocin was happy to have something to do. I was happy that for a while there, I was the only mother on the floor laboring! If you can call sitting there, experiencing regular contractions with NO CHANGE in dilation "labor"!

We figured out with the last pregnancy that once I have 1) regular contractions, 2) broken waters, and 3) an epidural in place, then things really get moving. Every time, it hasn't taken much longer before I have my baby in my arms. The first time, it was only three and a half hours later, the second time in was three hours later, and the third time it was about an hour and a half later. Sweet, huh.

We didn't think it would only be a little over an hour later before we had Eman, so we had Jasper go home to get the Ensign, and the saline solution for my contacts, and a book for Jasper to read. Then the doctors came in to see how things were doing. Eman's heart rate dropped a bit after I switched sides in the bed so they were going to place some fetal monitoring devices to keep an eye on things. They never did place the instruments. I was already at a 10. That's when they asked where my husband was. I told them he was on his way back for grabbing a few more things. I called him to see where he was--in the parking lot--and all I told him was, "Run." He's like, are you serious? And after a few more explanations he was on his way running up there. He made it there just in time. And after six or seven pushes, Eman was laying on my belly and we've been in love ever since!

Mimi and Papa brought the boys over to see their new brother. They were quite pleased with their new sibling. You can just see the wheels turning in Varick's head: so what exactly IS this new brother supposed to DO? Kai has been very helpful so far and enjoys holding Eman from time to time. Varick likes to see the baby eating his milk, as he calls it. They've been very soft with him and things are going well so far. Keep up the good work boys.

We went home from the hospital on Monday evening--the same day that Jasper had corrective eye surgery--and have been enjoying staying at home all the time... riiiiight...

I actually went straight to rehearsal from the hospital, with my mom to drive me, and Eman to finally listen to all that music from the outside! That was a fun way for me to start feeling normal again. But you ca bet I went to bed once all that adrenalin wore off!

The next day after Kai got back from Joy School we headed to the doctor's to get a 48 hour check up on Eman. Apparently he'd lost 16% of his birth weight since then, so they gave us another 24 to do something about it. The doctor was really worried about it, but I wasn't. I knew my milk had just come in that morning, so I was probably not nursing him long enough and he was only getting the foremilk. It was good to have the heads up though. So after feeding him more often, and nursing him for longer on each side (to make sure he'd get the calorie rich hind milk) we took him back to the doctor's office where he weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz. Yeah, I think he'll be juuuuuuuust fine. :)