A Freak Event, Not To Be Repeated...

All THREE of our kids are asleep at the same time during the day!!! I was really hoping to catch a few zzz's myself while Michael is out picking up some groceries, but I realized we haven't even had a chance to share about Baby John's birth!

During the first week of June, my main goal was to sit tight until Mom came to take care of the big kids. Friday finally arrived after much "airplane" pretending by A, T and Grandma Kelley. Judy (aka Grand-ma-MA) arrived at noon, then we watched Amelia eat loaf after loaf of bread at Outback while Thomas lifted fry after fry from Michael's plate. Contractions started that evening, just as we'd hoped, but after a hot bath, things slowed back down for a good night's rest. Same thing happened all day Saturday, but another bath and a good night's rest pushed us right up to the day before his due date (6/8). Both of the other kids were born the day before their due dates, so we had high hopes for Sunday.

With all the activity at our house, we decided on Sunday morning (6/7) to visit Labor and Delivery @ UNC for some peace and quiet and to get a baseline on the frequent, but not regular contractions. We recognized Eeva, our nurse from Thomas' delivery, and asked if we could get her again if we stayed. She agreed. They actually wrote on the board we were there for "peace and quiet," so all the nurses and physicians got a kick out of that. After some monitoring, they decided to admit me, although the decision wasn't totally a clear one. A couple hours of hanging out won me an epidural and some pitocin, followed by some nubain for itchiness. The attending OB, Dr. Mauro came around to introduce himself. We were enjoying getting to know him, thinking we'd be having a new baby later in the evening. We realized we had Amelia in 2006 in room 06, Thomas in 2007 in room 05, and this baby in 2009 in room 07, but we felt like our family was small compared to the 7 kids Dr. Mauro and his wife have. Mid-conversation, my water broke (2:16 pm), and 20 minutes later (not a peaceful 20 min!) our baby boy was born. He was healthy and big - a whopping 9 lb 1.9 oz and 22.5 inches long. Our 6 "maybe" names were written on the wall, so we polled all the healthcare workers, and Michael finally chose one of the 3 names no one voted for - John Allen. John because we like it, and Allen for Papa Kelley.


I was pretty much ecstatic to see a vigorous, healthy baby emerge as that meant the eventual return of all those things I'd missed SO much - bending, standing, walking, breathing, sleeping, etc. Part of my joy in the pictures is that my time of gestation is hopefully complete. We'll miss Dr. Boggess, though, who has been a part of our life since late 2005 when she became our OB. She's seen us for a LOT of visits these first 4 years of our marriage!

Ok, both of the boys woke up hungry, so I must continue "the rest of the story" later...