Some cute lap shots

Buddies

Happy Father's Day (or should it be Fathers' Day?)

Sunday was fathers' day, and my family made me feel very appreciated. Azalea was full of hugs, Naomi was extra snuggly, and Laura made a nice card for me. My parents made it down for the day, and it was their first time seeing Naomi. We had a nice day together, and Azalea had lots of fun with her grandparents.

Lucas, Jonah and Logan come to see Naomi

Last week my brother Lucas and the boys came to see Naomi for the first time (the girls were out in Montana for a wedding). We had a nice visit, and the kids had fun playing with each other. Azalea followed Jonah around all night and copied everything he did. We went to the park after dinner so the kids could play outside, and Jonah pushed Azalea in the stroller. Azalea loved it, and giggled the whole way there!

Two of the newest May family members, Logan and Naomi. We're missing one... Tolo, Jason and Shannon's baby boy born Just before Naomi. It's a busy year for the May family. Josh and Stacy have one on the way too in October.

Azalea is keeping order.

Fun at the park.

The family

Video of Azalea's first encounter with Naomi

This was kind of funny, but very sweet.

A couple videos

A couple more pics of the cutie

Going home!

The docs have been by this morning already, so we should be back home by noon today. Mom and baby are doing great.

Sisters

Azalea came for a visit tonight with grandma and grandpa Hudson. She had lots of fun running around the hospital again and riding the elevator... boy is she busy! She stopped for a minute to say hi to her baby sister, and I caught a couple cute images on the camera.

"Healing Arts"

The hospital we are at right now is very much into complementary and alternative medicine. All patients here are offered such modalities to aid in the healing process. Laura thought she would give it a try today, and had a "healing touch" treatment as well as acupuncture today. I guess she felt more relaxed following the first thing this morning. She said the acupuncture just made her finger hurt, and wasn't sure it really eased the postpartum cramping much. Interesting stuff... a little voodoo for this doctor of "western medicine." I had to snap some pics.

Needle stuck in the side of the pinky finger.

It's kind of hard to see in this pic, but there's a needle sitting right in the top of her head... ouch.

Monday

It was a pretty good night, though Laura didn't get much sleep. She's having some ongoing pain, though doing pretty well overall. Naomi is doing really well. She's precious! It sounds like we're going to stay the full 2 days, so will likely be going home tomorrow (Tuesday).

Welcome Naomi Jean!

The Stats:

Birth date/time: Sunday 6/14/09 at 13:34

Birth Place: Woodwinds Hospital, Woodbury MN

Weight: 7 lbs 12 oz

Length: 19 inches

Well it has finally happened, and certainly not the way we had thought. Today Laura was one week past her due date, and the plan per her OB doc was to come in today for a prostaglandin gel treatment to "ripen" the cervix and then induce labor with pitocin tomorrow. In prep for this Grandma and Grandpa Hudson were coming in to town to watch Azalea while we were going to be at the hospital (and of course to stay down for the birth). Well they got going a bit late and Laura had to be to labor & delivery at 9:30 AM. I thought no big deal I'd stay home with Azalea and Laura could go there herself, and then we'd hang out and do family stuff the rest of the day. Well it started to get kind of late, and finally Laura called and said I should come drive her home since she was having some pretty bad cramping after the gel was placed. When I got to the hospital (maybe around 11:30), they had put her in the bath tub to soak and try to alleviate some of the cramps (and wash away some of the excess gel). It didn't work well, and once she got out of the tub we waited for a while and she started having more intense pain. She says there really weren't contractions, just constant unrelenting and worsening pain. Her nurse checked her and wanted her tough it out for a bit. Around 12:30 she had dilated to 5 cm, and they decided she was in active labor and to keep her at the hospital. She was really in a lot of pain, and decided to do an epidural after things really got painful. By the time they were set up, though, she was fully dilated and the baby was coming so no time for the procedure (less than an hour had passed!). They paged her doc STAT and we found out she was at home by lake Calhoun in Minneapolis (a long way from Woodbury). I was worried that the baby would be out by the time the doc arrived, and worrying that I might have to gown up (yeah right, the nurses would be way better in that situation that me), when finally the doc arrived. A few pushes later and the baby was out. It's really crazy how fast things went, and I feel really bad for how excrutiating the pain was for Laura (way worse than Azalea's), but thankful that it went otherwise well and baby and mom are healthy and doing OK. It sure was a crazy day. We were really not prepared.... I didn't even have the camera with, so most of these shots were from late afternoon.

Grandma has her in this picture. Look at all her dark hair!

Daddy and Naomi. Mommy wasn't too enthused with the idea of her picture going up on the blog today (although she looks great).... maybe tomorrow.

Azalea's first encounter with her went well. She patted her gently on the head, gave a little hug, and even tried to share some french fries with her. Then she was off terrorizing the hospital, running around and having grandpa try to chase her.

No baby yet

We're still waiting on our baby (maybe tonight?). Laura's follow-up appointment on Monday went fine, and there were no changes. If no baby by Friday she has an appointment for some further testing and then discussion about inducing labor.

On the other hand... we've been preceded by my brother Jason and Shannon's baby boy Tolo (born Monday), and my friend Steve and Molly's baby boy Bo. Congratulations guys! I hope we join you soon.

Waiting on Baby

There's been no significant baby activity yet. Today is Laura's official due date. She had a follow-up visit with her doc on Friday, and apparently the doc said she'd be very surprised if Laura made it through this weekend without having the baby. We'll see. If nothing happens today she has another visit and they'll talk about how long to let it go before deciding to induce labor. I don't think it'll come to that.

There's been lots going on this week. Laura had her "retirement party," on Monday. Things went well, and she wasn't too sad to be potentially calling it quits with work for good. I've been wrapping things up with my work (done at the end of the month). Things really slow down at the end of the academic year. I don't have any more talks to give, so it's mostly administrative stuff now and preparing to usher the next year's chief resident group in.

We also have been working on buying a lake lot in Willmar. I got the financing in order with our bank, and we just met up with my dad yesterday to go over the paperwork for submitting an offer. We'll see what happens. It is quite exciting.


Yesterday we also got our families together up at Jen and Lucas's place. Azalea hadn't seen her cousins for a while and she had lots of fun playing with them. She especially liked Jonah's castle bed. She kept climbing up there and got quite mad when we'd pull her down. She was very gentle with Logan and even gave him a hug and a kiss! It was pretty cute, and we're hoping she'll be that loving with her new baby sister. Azalea was also very thrilled when Emily gave her one of her care bear doll's to keep. Thanks Emily!

Emily just graduated from her kindergarten class. We got to watch a video of the ceremony, including Emily's costume and singing, and got to have some of her graduation cake. Congratulations Emily... or Felicitaciones Emily, Estamos muy orgullosa de ti!