We made it one month...Collin

It really does feel strange starting all over as a parent.  I had completely forgotten what it was like to have a very helpless baby again.  The truth is, I have become spoiled with how self-sufficient Caleb has become.  I'm sure I'll get back in the swing of things.  We have at least made it a month!  :)

Enjoy Collin's 1 month picture...

We made it forty-three months...and we made it 1 week!

On July 28th, my two sons, Caleb and Collin, both had a milestone:  Caleb hit 43 months and Collin hit 1 week.  It is so great to now have my two sons here with me and Allison.

Enjoy Caleb's 43 month picture...

Enjoy Collin's 1 week picture...

The birthing of the baby…

Our grand plans of the birth of our second child began by scheduling a time where we would go in and Allison would be induced into labor by the miracle that is modern medicine. The scheduled time was at 5 o’clock in the morning. At first I was unsure what Allison meant when she said “in the morning”. This was so early to me and I thought that she must have been confused and that pregnancy had finally stripped her mind of all intelligence. Who does anything at 5 o’clock in the morning?! She assured me that she had not lost her senses and that we would have to be at the hospital at 5 o’clock in the morning.

At four o’clock in the morning, our alarms started to sound, stirring us from our, at best, fitful sleep and started what would be one of the longest mornings of my life. Since both Allison and I are “planners”, the car was of course packed, everyone was told when and where they were supposed to be and all we had to do was get the womb to the hospital. We arrived a little before five and the receptionist said that we would be placed in a room, but the storm from the previous had thrown every other pregnant woman in Tarrant County into labor evening (I assume from the change in barometric pressure) and they were a little busy at the moment. Three hours later (8:00 am), the interim nurse (Candice) came in and informed us that our “real” nurse was busy trying to catch a baby and that she would be starting Allison on the pitocin. At this point, I didn’t care who gave Allison the drug, I just wanted someone to start this ball rolling. I had spent the previous three hours thinking about how much more rested I would have been if we had just been granted another hour of sleep, not to mention three!

Now that the IV had been hacked into Allison’s arm and the pitocin was flowing, surely this would be the beginning of the baby. It was the beginning, just a little slow beginning. After about another hour of waiting, the doctor (Dr. Fielder) came in to explain the plan…”labor, labor, labor, push, push, push… baby”. I’m very glad he included the “baby” in the plan, when he was first explaining, I was unsure if we were going to have a baby or a bowel movement!

After significant “labor, labor, labor”, the doctor, along with our “real” nurse (Suzette), came in and broke Allison’s water around 11:15 am. There was no turning back now. We were going to have a baby today!

The contractions were coming with more frequency and I’m assuming intensity, so it was time to get some relief. An epidural for Allison and a hot dog for me. I won’t go on and on about the hot-dog, but it was the best hospital cafeteria hot-dog I have ever eaten. I got mine with chili and cheese and French fries, too! Oh and another doctor (Dr. Carpenter) came in and gave Allison the epidural around 1:00. It looked like she was as happy with that as I was with my hot-dog.

At around 1:40, Dr. Fielder came in to see how close the plane was from landing and much to our disappointment we had not progressed to the degree that the pain of the contractions had. Allison was only dilated to 4cm, 80 percent effaced (we started at 2 cm and 50 percent, 6.5 hours earlier). We were determined not to let the supposedly little progress daunt us. We were going to get this plane on the ground. Thankfully I had a pair of orange coned flashlights and started waving them in the air.

The air-traffic control must have worked because the next time the doctor checked (3:30) Allison was dilated to 8cm. He simply mention that there was another couple in labor next door and that we were in competition to see who could deliver first. Allison must be very competitive, because less than two minutes after the doctor left the room, she said we needed to get the nurse back in here because “something had changed”. The nurse came back in the room and checked her and she had gone from 8cm to 10cm, in two minutes and Allison was definitely ready to “push, push, push”.

The nurse told her to hold off pushing until she got the room ready. Suzette made one phone call that set all wheels in motion. It was amazing how quickly our little room changed from a waiting room into an action room.

Allison started pushing and really only pushed for probably 10 minutes, before the nurse told her to hold off. She said the doctor usually wants to catch the baby and so she would go and get him. After the doctor came in with him the accompanying pomp and circumstance, the pushing resumed. Within about 20 minutes of first starting pushing my son, Collin Andrew Kitchens burst into this world.

Collin weighed 8 pounds and 0.4 ounces and was 21 inches long. His color was good and his head was full of hair, just like his brother. It was almost like a mini-version of Caleb was in the room. I’m sure that Collin and Caleb will join forces and gang up on their poor parents, before we know it.

We made it forty-two months...

It must be a miracle...my son is out of town and yet, we were still able to take his picture in front of his door with his bear.  I'm not saying we cheated and took the picture early...you guys out there will just have to be amazed. 

Enjoy Caleb's 42 month picture...

We made it forty-one months...

Caleb was in a mood this evening.  He was SO hyper from who knows what and when it came time to take his picture it was like some talent show.  He was dancing around having a good old time.  This picture is the result of the "dance".

Enjoy Caleb's forty-one month picture...

We made it forty months (and two days)...

Well this was the first time that I forgot to take the Milestone picture. I guess that means I am getting old or am just too busy.  Probably just old.  :-(

 Enjoy Caleb's forty month picture...
 

We made it thirty-nine months...

Caleb is just a professional. Usually we take at least 20 pictures every month and pick out the best one to be the official "milestone" picture, but his time we only took 8 pictures.

He finally realizes that Daddy is not going to stop this thing until he is 18 years old! It only took him 47 milestone pictures for him to realize.

Enjoy Caleb's 39 month picture...

Mean Mommy!

This would have been the sonogram where we would have found out if the new baby was a bouncing baby boy or a beautiful baby girl, but NO...that did not happen! Mean mean mommy does not want to find out. I wonder when she will want to know…perhaps when the kid is three or four years old!?

I guess the only consolation is that we got to see a few pictures. Since we got to see the pictures, you get to see the pictures too!

The baby was really moving and the technician was having a hard time getting the baby to pose. We did get a few snap shots to share though.

Enjoy!

The face?


The face?


The face?


It's a baby foot...


It's the baby's profile...

We made it thirty-eight months...

We almost missed his picture this month. Caleb was all ready for bed and saying his goodnights and Allison reminded us that we missed something!

Thank goodness for mommy!

Enjoy Caleb's 38 month picture...

We made it thirty-seven months...

Ok...I think he is wearing the same shirt he had on for his 36 month picture. Caleb wasn't cooperating either. So the picture is a little wonky.

Oh well...such is life with a three year old.

Enjoy Caleb's 37 month picture...

We made it thirty-six months...

Today my little boy turned three years old! In a few years I won't be able to call him my "little" boy...he is growing up too fast!

Enjoy Caleb's 36 month picture...


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Oops we did it again...

Well life is full of surprises. Some surprises are small. Surprises like finding and unexpected $5 in the laundry or maybe turning the corner at the store and seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Other surprises may be a little bigger than that, like when your wife comes to you and says, “I think I may be pregnant”.

We are right in the midst of the larger surprise. Yesterday Allison and I went to the doctor to confirm that, if all goes well, in July of next year Caleb will have a baby brother or sister.

Currently the baby is only the size of a gummy bear, so you won’t be able to make out the beautiful features that are so common with my bloodline.







We are still very early, so pray that everything is well for both mommy and Caleb’s future brother/sister.

We made it thirty-five months...

Caleb came in from "school" wound up like a top. What a perfect opportunity to get his milestone picture made!

This time we thought pj's were perfect for the occasion.

Enjoy Caleb's 35 month picture...


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We made it thirty-four months...

We had a pretty busy day and almost didn't get around to doing his monthly picture! Never fear...the picture is here.

Enjoy Caleb's 34 month picture...

We made it thirty-three months...

This morning was a major whippin' due to some major fit throwing by my precious boy and the subsequent reaction from his father. However, this afternoon my son was a perfect angel for his picture. I guess this is the life during the terrible twos?

Enjoy Caleb's 33 month picture...


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We made it thirty-two months...

We have moved the growth chart to the door to make it more permanent in his room. Hopefully it will stay up and not fall down like it did on the other wall. We had to take it down and put it up again month after month. It was had work being this obsessive!

Enjoy Caleb's 32 month picture...


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We've been working on the railroad

Today, Caleb and I went to ride the little choo choo train in Fort Worth. Allison had the "opportunity" to go to work, so I took most of the day off and we headed for the tracks.

Caleb getting ready to "ride the rails"...


He really liked to hear the whistle!


He also kept pointing out where the tracks were...


It was slow going, but he eventually warmed up to the train...






This is the front....



This is the back...



After the ride was over, Caleb wasn't too happy to get off the train. He wanted to ride again, but Daddy was ready to get to some air conditioning.



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Sunday Times

Yesterday we tried out a new church. It is close to "the little house in the hood" and has a private school where we are thinking about sending Caleb. We kept Caleb in "big church" with us and he did very well. There were only a few times that he started to get restless, but nothing major.




After church, we took a mini vacation. We loaded up the car and drove all the way up to Frisco to the most wonderful store in the world...Ikea. After the eight hour drive, we reached mecca.

There was a ton of stuff that I wanted to buy, but Allison has yet to support me in the way I want to be accustomed. So, we only got two items...both of them for Caleb. We got a step-stool and a bag of finger puppets.

This is what the step-stool looked like when we got home.


This is what the stool looked like after about six hours of hard labor!


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Blogger tool for the iPad

Well in an attempt to be more faithful at posting to the blog, I have purchased an app! It is called "blogpress". I don't know if it is going to be any good or if it is going to keep me blogging more frequently. We will use this post as a test.


The picture above is Caleb and his twin Caleb 2.0. We spliced them together one afternoon when we were bored.

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We made it thirty-one months...

You know it is kind of funny how much my little baby is changing. He is really moving into the little boy stage.