Nathan Andrew Graves!

So, as I said in the last post things have been really crazy. I'm still not going to talk about the stuff with my mom right now, I'm trying to get my life back to normal a bit right now and am not ready to write about that. So I'l share the happy stuff.

On saturday May 23, I went in at about 5 p.m. to be induced. It took a while for things to get started, a couple hours went by and I was starting to feel the contractions, they hurt but were bearable so I waited on an epidural. Davie was with me this time, thank goodness, and he was so helpful. We watched a movie I had picked out earlier for while I was in labor, and we had lots of family come to visit me. Davie's mom came up and was there the whole time, which was really great, I'm glad I have such a supportive mother-in-law. Johnny played in the room for the first couple hours, then Davie's dad and sister Luci came and got him and babysat back at our place.

A couple hours into the induction they decided to go ahead and break my water, after that the contractions got stronger, which I was expecting. I kept debating whether or not to get the epidural, I was getting through the contractions ok, but I was so exhausted from not having slept the last two nights, so after talking with the nurse forever about whether or not I could do it, I decided to get the epidural so I could rest and have the energy I needed later. They did it a little differently than they had with Johnny, I had to sit up this time. Davie was there to help though, and after the dr got it into the right place I started to feel better. ( It took a couple tries....)

Ben and Charity came up to the hospital to help, which was really great too. It was nice just talking to everyone and getting my mind off of things. My dad and brother and sister came up a few hours into the induction, and I was really relieved that Emily was able to come into the delivery room. She had been sick all week but they let her wear a mask so she could be with me. They had been there about ten minutes when things felt different all of a sudden. I told the nurse, who had just checked me 5 min before, and she checked me again and said I was ready to push. I got really nervous then, but I couldn't think about it long, I had to try not to push while we were waiting for the Dr. to come in the room. He came in, put on his gloves, turned around, and 2 pushes later the baby was out. He was born at 1:03 a.m. on Sunday May 24. I couldn't believe how fast it happened, I didn't even feel like I was doing anything.

Davie and I still hadn't picked a name when we went to the hospital, but as soon as I saw our baby I felt like we should name him Nathan, luckily it was a name Davie liked....! Nathan looked so tiny to me when I first saw him, but he was almost 2 lbs smaller than Johnny was, which makes a huge difference with how a baby looks. He was doind really well though, and is a very calm baby.

Staying in the hospital was hard for me this time. I had lots of family and friends that came to visit and help out which was nice, but I couldn't sleep and couldn't stop thinking about things. Our first week out of the hospital was extremely busy and we didn't spend a day of it at home. We had lots of extended family around to help us out though, we appreciate them so much, we couldn't have done it all without them.

On Monday we decided, even though it was hard, it was time to come home. We needed to learn how to take care of two kids in our own place and on our own before Davie had to go back to work. The first couple of days were really hard, Nathan has been great, but Johnny was acting up a bit. He loves the baby, but he thinks he can get into everything when I'm busy feeding or changing the baby. We've done some rearranging to make our house a bit more child proof, and we're making use of the pack-n-play again. Johnny is getting better as we get back into our normal routine, I'm hoping he'll be good for me when Davie goes back to work on Monday, I'm not quite sure how I'll do it on my own during the day.

Nathan had his first Dr. appointment today and he seems to be doing really well. He's now 7.5 lbs, (was 6 lbs 12 oz at birth, 18 in. long) and 20 inches. So he's growing well, but still on the small side, the Dr. says that's fine though, Nathan was a week and a half early.

We've been so busy that we haven't taken a lot of pictures, but here are some we do have.....