Callen's First Month

Callen has had a very busy first month of life. We have made sure to expose him to quite a bit. We have been to the Mall of America at 8 days old, we went for our first walk at 5 days old, we have had a number of visitors and we also went to his very first autograph signing. Grandma Nona came to stay with us while Daddy went to the National Sprint Car races in Knoxville Iowa when he was 5 days old. We had quite an adventure that week as there was a pretty big storm and we got a TON of water in the basement. Luckily, I have a mother who isn't afraid of getting busy and took charge of the clean up while I was up and down the stairs taking care of Callen. We had 5 full shop vac tubs and about 30 containers from the hoover floor mate. It was awful and I would have been a basketcase if I was by myself. When Callen was 13 days old, we went to get an autograph for Daddy. I will be honest, it was not on my priority list of "to-dos", but Jerad hinted at it several times that if I wanted to get out, there was an autograph signing I could go to. So we packed ourselves up and met Danny Valencia of the Twins. Now this trip was also a bit of a stressful adventure. When you take out a newborn, you just never know what you will get, well he was just a doll while we were there, but due to some confusion on the location, we were about 10-15 minutes behind schedule and was really close to not getting it. We arrived about 11:15 (started at 11AM) and stood in line behind about 150-200 people. We were getting closer and closer to Danny and were getting the warnings from his marketing guy saying there was a good chance we wouldn't get our autograph. Well he must have seen the hormonal emotional breakdown that I was going to have if I didn't up there b/c he finally cut off the line at 3 people behind us. He probably understood how hard it is to get a newborn out and keep calm. So there was no breakdown and Jerad was thrilled to get the above picture in his email at work after we were done. Mission Complete!!

This was also the same night we decided to get our two "children" together for their very first picture together. They both look so thrilled, don't they? They don't know it yet, but I'm sure they will grow up to be best of friends.

At 21 days old we had a few visitors that traveled from a couple hours away. My grandparents - Callen's Great Grandma and Grandpa Miland came to meet him for the first time. Of course he was delighted with all the company. He also had a visit from his Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Evelyn. Grandpa Jeff visited in the hospital, but this was the first time Grandma Eve met him. They loved holding their grandson as they both love babies and definitely love their very first grandchild.

Twenty-two days old and we were out at Uncle Gary's work farm. Luckily, Uncle Gary gave Callen a pass this weekend and only made Daddy work this time. We headed out to Gary and Sue's house this afternoon so Jerad and Gary could set up their deer stands for this fall. Nattie also got in some puppy playtime as she saw her doggy cousins Frankie (shown in picture) and Freddy (who walked out of the photo). Freddy is her favorite cousin b/c they can rough house, but Frankie is in LOVE with Nattie and will walk around trying to hump her where ever she is...and mostly he is humping the air b/c Nattie walks away. It is quite comical.

Today was D-DAY!! Welcome Baby Zeus!!

I was up ready to call at 6AM!! And they will be ready for us at 7:30AM!! We get to meet our little guy today!! So here is our birth story:

We got to the hospital at 7:30AM where they had me put on the beautiful hospital gown and hooked me up to the monitors that are ever so comfortable and not in the way at all when you move around. (Yes, that was sarcasm) It turned out that I had already been having contractions every 6-8 min apart and didn't even know it. They started the Pitocin at 8AM and I think I started to feel slight contractions within 30-40 min. At 8:30, Dr. Cho arrived and said that I was 3 cm dilated and broke my water - no going back now. :-) At this point I am nervous because this is a completely new and unknown experience for me and no matter what others have told me before, my labor and delivery is going to be unique to me but at the same time very excited. When we were checked in, I was assigned to a wonderful nurse - Nurse Liz. I just wanted to state that right now...I wish she would have worked 12 hour days so she would have been the one to finish with me. Back to the story...by about 10:30 I had asked for the epidural and Nurse Liz had checked me and I was at 6 cm so I was moving right along. Dr. Bryan came in a little bit later and administered the epidural. I wasn't pain free instantly, but I will say that it worked pretty quickly. I was asked to lay on my left side for a while and then my right side started getting pains. It turns out that the epidural works with gravity...so I had to flip to the right side for it to flow to the right side. Ahhhh...now things are feeling good. By 12:10, I was at 9 cm....Nurse Liz was pretty shocked at how fast I was progressing. At 1:05, she came in again an I was at 10!! She had me sit in a laboring position in order for Little Zeus's head to drop a little more - which is sitting up in bed with my legs in the butterfly position. At 2:08pm, I started pushing. I will say it is hard to know when and how to push when you don't quite feel it. At 2:55, Nurse Liz showed Jerad the head. And there was a lot of hair on that head!! At 3:30pm I was still pushing and Nurse Liz was off the clock so I got a new nurse, who I don't remember her name and didn't quite connect with. She was great at the encouragement in pushing but I needed her to count b/c I was out of breath and didn't think her counting was on track as she would interrupt it with her cheers of "push push push". But later on, Jerad said that he was counting in his head with her and that she did stay on track....but in my shoes...or stirrups...it didn't feel like it. And Nurse Liz stood by my side, held my leg and counted and I had Jerad on my other side. This other nurse didn't stand by me...she stood at the end of the bed and was very hands off.....I had to hold my own leg! At 5pm I was still pushing and didn't have much left so Dr. Cho suggested the vacuum. I was hesitant b/c when we were in the birth and prep class, they showed us a vacuum and it was kind of scary and Jerad and I were opposed to it at that time. But I was so tired and needed some help and I really preferred not to have the C-section. Jerad left it up to me and supported whatever decision I made as he said that I was the only one that could know how much I had left in me. So I agreed to the vacuum....Dr. Cho pulled it out and it didn't look anything like the one they showed in the class...it looked much friendlier. I felt better but still needed to have steam left to push as she used the vacuum. After one episiotomy and 4 pushes/pulls, our little Zeus arrived at 5:07pm on August 7th, 2010 with the biggest conehead I have ever seen. He was 7lbs 15oz and 21 3/4 inches long. After he was out, I now know why I struggled...the little guy was coming out a little crooked. The left side of his crown was coming out first, not the center of the crown...so this conehead was also cock-eyed. But we love him so much that we don't care!!

Here our little guy is, getting weighed right away.

Here is the proud Daddy holding his son for the first time. Here is the Proud and VERY EXHAUSTED Mommy holding him after getting cleaned up. And here is baby Zeus - now named Callen Christopher Barker after what must have been a soothing bath as he seems quite relaxed.

40 weeks and still no baby!!

So today I am 40 weeks and sorry....we missed taking the picture of me at 40 weeks...but don't worry..it wouldn't have been that pretty and I can tell you that my belly circumference was 42.5 inches. So we went to the doctor today and saw Dr Cho who, by the way, told us at an earlier appointment that she didn't think I would make it to the due date...I would go early. So I had to remind her of that comment at this appointment. In the appointment she told us that we had a couple options, wait it out or induce. Everything was favorable as I was about 3-4 cm dilated and 65% effaced so it was up to us. Of course, as we are already at 40 weeks and today was Friday and it was the afternoon, our first question was if we choose to induce, when would we do it? She responded that she was on call this weekend, had sent her kids away and that she was open for business if we wanted to do it tomorrow or Sunday. We just had to call the appointment desk who sets up the inductions with the hospital. So Jerad and I decided to go for the induction - we are hoping to get in this weekend! I was ready to call as soon as we hit the parking lot, but Jerad said that I could wait until we got home. I called the number she gave us and they had an opening tomorrow at 7:30AM, but would need to call the hospital at 6AM to make sure they didn't get a ton of women delivering on their own before we got there. Looks like I have a little more waiting to do before I know for sure if we will meet our little Zeus tomorrow.