A couple more pictures and a story

So, I was trying to upload videos of the li'l guy, but that isn't working on the hospital internet, so I'll just tell you about the labor and delivery and first few days with a couple of pictures.

Labor: Crystal was pretty close to labor (contractions 6-7 minutes apart) on Monday just before our regular OB appointment. Contractions had started Friday and by Sunday we had had enough waiting and walked until they were 5 minutes apart (but still pretty weak) and tried to get admitted to the hospital. That didn't work, so we were pretty sad at this appointment. The doc said we were pretty close and so he performed a little operation that sometimes accelerates prelabor. I posted about this part already.

Soon the contractions were close enough to go, and we were admitted. They were accelerating very rapidly and becoming much worse. I helped coach breathing a little, then Crystal got the epidural. The rest of the night was pretty chill, with various nurses coming to check on us. Crystal progressed kind of slowly, and her water didn't break until the early morning, right before she was ready to push.

Pushing was an ordeal. The pain and pressure was starting to be just a little too much for the epidural to handle, but Crystal pushed like a champion for about two hours. Seems as though our boy wasn't playing ball, so they called our OB and he used suction to get the baby out. Crystal again pushed like there was no tomorrow. Soon our baby was born--he was giant! They weighed and measured him-- 10 lb 11 oz, 22.5 inches long!

Tommy's first day in the big world was a hit. He is such a beautiful baby. There have been trials of getting him to learn how to eat right--he's so big he wants more than his mom can provide by herself, so we are supplementing until the milk comes in. Today he learned to take that bottle right, after his real meal, of course.

Pictures of our baby:

Announcement!

Thomas Spencer Chatterton was born at 6:06 am Arizona Time in Banner Gateway Medical Center in Gilbert, Arizona. He weighed 10 lb 11 oz at birth and was 22.5 inches long. (I suspect he's only fatter and bigger now at 9:30.)

Coming Soon to a Hospital Near You

"Epidurals are amazing." - Crystal

So, we're at Banner Gateway Medical Center, having had a really rough weekend of expecting the baby to come at any moment. We came in on Sunday after a walk got Crystal's (then weak sauce) contractions to about 5 min apart. Monday we tried to do our things (Crystal had big cleaning plans) and wait, but it was hard. We had an OB appointment and he performed a minor procedure to get things moving along more. I decided after that that I wasn't going to be able to finish my workday, and that we'd watch one episode of Psych and wait to see if the contractions got regular and hardcore. They weren't quite there at the end of the episode (you know, the Civil War reenactment one? That one's great) so I did about a half-hour more of work. By this point we were really close, so I took another little break and we sat down for a bit and very soon we were ready to go. Contractions were about 3 minutes apart and nearly bringing Crystal to tears. It was about 5:05 when we actually got out the door.

After our two false alarms, it was a relief when we were fairly instantly admitted. We were working on getting everything ready in the LD room, but no nurses came soon. Seems they were pretty busy today. By now the contractions were pretty much back to back and really painful. I did a decent job coaching breathing, but it was clearly time for the epidural, which apparently was super awesome. Crystal's just chillin' and I'm obviously updating the blog.

The Year of New Beginnings

Today marks one year since our second first date. I made a video in celebration of this event and the awesomeness that has followed. Enjoy!

How You Know You Married the Right One

So, in the past we've used a blue dry-erase marker to write notes on the mirrors of our apartment. We hadn't done this much in the last few months, but this morning I found that Crystal had written this on the bathroom mirror:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Bears eat honey,
and I eat bears.

It was awesome. I am so blessed to be married to this woman, on account of she's hilarious.

Easter Fun

We had an awesome Easter! It rained on Saturday (a rare occurrence in the Phoenix area), but our ward went ahead with the Easter egg hunt that was planned in the park. Everyone was soaked, but nobody seemed to care. The Arizona natives all seemed to agree that when it rains you must get out in it and really enjoy it. So, we did. Here is a video to prove it.

We dyed Easter eggs together for FHE. It was really fun. Then on Easter we hid each others' eggs around the apartment and spent some time searching for them. Ben replaced the light bulb in my lamp with one of my eggs and I hid one of his inside our printer. We enjoyed Easter dinner with a family in our ward and had a great time visiting and playing Catch Phrase with them after dinner. Needless to say, it was a great weekend.
The Easter egg in my tummy continues to get bigger! Here is a picture at 31 1/2 weeks (about 7 months). We are getting excited and anxious for him to join our family. This week we got a crib (thanks Amanda and Aaron!) and a little organizer with drawers for his clothes and blankets. The baby moves a lot and he still likes to kick Ben when he gets the chance.

Dateline

In which we talk about a date. Real short.