A Word from Mommy

I really feel very good today, what a blessing. I've bounced back much faster than with Layla. Yesterday was long, primarily because we just sat around all day waiting for that stinkin' petocin to do something! Dave, mom and I had a lot of hang time! I came into the hospital at 7am dilated to a 2 and had only progressed to a 4 when my Dr. decided to break my water around 4pm. I had a couple hours of productive contractions but had only moved to a 5. I was getting a little frustrated. But then, all at once, Cooper decided his time had come! At 6:55 I was still at a 5 and by 7:19 he was born. Dave barely made it back to the room and the Dr. had just made it back to the hospital. It was my first, and I hope only, delivery without an epidural. So I was doubly thankful that it went so fast! We look forward to more visitors tonight and then going home in the morning. Layla loved her time at the hospital today with "her baby" but I could tell she was a little out of sorts with the odd schedule yesterday and several different caregivers (although she loves them all)! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to take care of and love her while we're in the hospital. She got to start her day with Jaime, spend the day and night with the Shaulls and now, she is home with Mama Faye and Papa Fish. All week long she has been informing me of all the things she will do with Mama Faye while she's here. The first thing was shopping, in which daddy and I are not invited. She told me on Wednesday that "Grandmas shop and boys work." I always knew she was brilliant!

A Word from Daddy

A Cyclone is Born!
He is here! Layla thinks he needs a diaper change every 5 minutes! Mom is doing great! Now I have two little helpers to train dogs. Thanks to everyone for all the prayers - we knew you were with us. Of course - we are getting spoiled in the hospital with room service, diaper service and help that is only a phone call away!
We should be home by Saturday morning.

Cooper David Handsaker

He's here! Cooper David Handsaker arrived at 7:19pm tonight weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2". We are all doing great and he looks just like daddy. Once my Dr. broke my water at 3:30 it was show time! The last hour was intense, but we made it. We are off to get some sleep, but we will post pictures tomorrow.

And here we go.........

We checked in at 7am and they have just upped my Petocin. So, hopefully labor will start getting a little more active. As you can tell, it's not too serious yet! Thank you for all of your prayers. We will keep you posted.

43 Hours and Counting..........

So, as promised, here's the baby update. I had a Dr. appt. this morning and I have actually started making progress towards delivering this baby! YEAH! Not a lot of progress but enough that my Dr. went ahead and scheduled me to be induced Thursday morning at 7am. Please be in prayer for us. Right now I am battling some major nausea and have been for the past 24 hours. Not sure if it's just my body preparing for labor or if I have some bug. Also pray for delivery and Layla as she adjust to a few different caregivers during the time we're in the hospital. Thanks!

Happy Easter

We had a great, low-key Easter Day. Hope you all enjoyed the day as well. We did have snow flurries, but thankfully, no accumulation! However, it was a bit depressing seeing the white stuff fly. The Easter I was pregnant with Layla, mom and I spent the afternoon cleaning out flower beds in short sleeve t-shirts.

We had a fun weekend and, of course, kept busy. We decorated Easter Eggs with Layla and spent yesterday in Des Moines watching the Iowa State women's team compete in the first round of the NCAA tournament (they won!) and play Rutgers tomorrow night. Yes, we will go!

No news on the baby front. My official due date is tomorrow. If I haven't had the baby by Tuesday morning I have another appt. with my Dr. Hopefully, that will be a day of making some sort-of decision to help this baby along!

Top 10 List

Here is a list of the top 10 things I did yesterday to kill time while waiting for this baby. Keep in mind, these are not things I do......EVER! Thank God I have to go to work today or I may start mopping our gravel driveway.

10. Made a Holiday sized meal on a Wednesday night (pork loin, bread stuffing and sweet corn)
9. Organized my sock drawer
8. Organized Dave's t-shirt drawer
7. Made a trip to Goodwill with only a 7 pieces of clothing
6. Organized Layla's hair accessories by color and subcategorized by size
5. Washed all of the hats, mittens, scarves and winter accessories I could find
4. Read Layla her doll magazine 16 times
3. Vacuumed out the register vents
2. Cleaned behind the washer and dryer
1. Washed walls

The Penthouse Suite

Apparently my womb is a very good place to be because my babies don't seem to want to come out! I think it must be my height, it creates a spacious penthouse in there. We had ANOTHER Dr. appt. this morning complete with ANOTHER non-stress test and ultra sound. Baby is doing great and is at an estimated weight of 8lbs. 3 oz. However, my body has not changed AT ALL and we are no closer to labor than we were last week (or last month for that matter). This makes me "uninduceable" at this point. Not the words I wanted to hear at 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. So, looks like we're in for another long wait. I'm praying it's not an additional 2 weeks like with Layla. If I haven't gone into labor by Tuesday March 25th I have another appt. and we will re-evaluate.

"Oh my goodness, is this my party dress?"

There aren't a lot of things that excite Layla more than babies, seeing her cousins, her grandmas, beautiful clothes and PARTIES! We went to Great Grandma Kellen's 89th birthday party in Omaha yesterday and Layla got all five of these things in one day. When we were getting dressed for the party I gave Layla a new shirt to wear. She exclaimed excitedly, "Oh my goodness, is this my party dress?" She was thrilled! Here she is enjoying her chocolate party cake.

Dave, baby and I are still plugging along. I did have some good cramping on the way to Omaha yesterday, so I'm just hoping that means progress! We will keep you posted.

I'm 9 months pregnant, how can I kill some time......

How about we load up our 2 1/2 year old and spend 13 hours straight in the car? That does seem like the logical thing to do! Yesterday Dave announced our top female dog was in heat and needed to be breed. No big deal, just another day in the life of a dog breeder. Well, what I didn't understand is that we needed to go to Garrison, MN to get the deed done. So, I figured, why not! It would kill another day as we wait for this baby to arrive. So, off we went. Layla did so good, just one minor 20 minute meltdown about 10 hours into the trip, Today, we're off to Omaha! It's Great-Grandma Kellen's 89th birthday and the whole Kellen clan is getting together at Grandma's assisted living home.

We took Layla bowling for the first time last week and boy did she love it! The lanes were new, smoke free and had automatic bumpers that came up and down each time it was her turn. She used a ramp for her ball and scored a 77. We decided it was a great activity we had to try again. My little Brutus decided she HAD to use the 10 pound ball (because it was purple) and insisted on carrying it to the ramp herself. By game number two, she was barely getting the ball off the floor as she dragged it to the ramp. But, she still did it herself!! I did have pictures of the event and if I figure out to recover them off my flashcard, I'll post them.

Twins?

OK, so not actual twins. However, after seeing this ultra sound picture last week of baby #2 all I could think of is how much this baby looks like Layla! The second it appeared on the screen I said, "that's Layla!" On the bottom is a picture of Layla at 3 mo. old taking a nap. The top is the ultra sound picture of baby #2 at 36 weeks. So, is it a boy or a girl?