Peter's Funny Cousins

I have a few funny stories from the past couple of weeks.

The first story actually has pictures.

So Tara, Jared & Eva and Tim, Megan & Shaun David all came down to our house on the 3rd partially to check out Peter and partially to celebrate a belated New Year, since our New Year was spent in the hospital. Anyway, we have a travel swing and bouncer seat that we are borrowing from Tara & Jared and Eva decided to use them as her personal loungers. She is 14 months and obviously too big for them but she didn't seem to notice. So the story isn't that funny but the pictures are.

We're not quite sure what's wrong with the swing, so we're not quite sure how to fix it.

She looks very comfortable in the bouncer.

The second story happened sometime last week while my mom was still here; don't expect me to remember which day. :)

It was the evening and my mom and I were watching TV and Andrew was playing one of his computer games when Andrew's phone rings. It was Archie, Andrew's nephew who will be 8 next month, calling because he just heard that we had a baby. So it turns out that when Archie heard the news he went and found his Mom's cell phone and decided to call and congratulate us, or something to that effect. Andrew turned his phone on to speaker so we could hear and I think Jonathan, Andrew's brother, ended up doing the same thing. All the kids wanted a chance to talk on the phone, even J.J. who will be 1 at the end of this month. Andrew was telling them all about Peter and they all thought it was hilarious when Andrew told them that Peter has green poop. They laughed so loud that the phone clipped.

The last story happened yesterday.

We were up at Tim & Megan's house to finish the liquid soap project that Megan & I started before Christmas. We were at the last step scenting and coloring the soap (the fun part). Andrew & Tim were invited to a co-worker's daughter's birthday party yesterday; Andrew, Peter & I went but Tim was working on fixing his Pathfinder so they didn't go. Anyway, we went back to Tim & Megan's after the party to finish up the soap. Right before we were about to go Peter got hungry so I sat down and was using Megan's Boppy and Shaun David, 9 months, saw me using his pillow to nurse Peter and he started making his hungry noises. So he got peaches & prunes. A little bit later Peter was hungry again and SD did the same thing when he saw me nursing Peter. Then right before we were leaving Peter was fussing and crying a bit and SD made a screeching crying noise that sounded just like Peter. A couple of times I looked at Peter to make sure he was okay just to realize that it was SD making the noise.

Peter and the Doctor

Peter had his first doctor's appointment on January 5th and weighed 8 lbs 12 oz; a delta of -4 oz from his birth weight.

Peter with the Doctor

We took him back to the Doctor on the 15th for his circumcision and he weighed 9 lbs 7 oz a delta of + 10 oz from his last doctor's appointment. Holy Cow!! 10 oz in 10 days! Needless to say, Peter is a very healthy eater. Andrew took a video of him eating so that he could record how loud an eater he is. The camera didn't pick up the sound very well, but he IS a loud eater.

Peter modestly eating loudly

Why I Had a C-Section

The short answer is, it's a long story. :)

The long story goes something like this:

Once upon a time... When I was 19 I had twins and placed them for adoption. I had a C-Section then because I had toxemia pretty bad and was hospitalized for 3 days because of my high blood pressure. In the middle of the night that 3rd night I was having breathing problems and they discovered that I had fluid in my lungs in addition to the fun of having toxemia. So they decided to do an emergency C-Section. The twins were born January 3, 2004 at 3am. I was in the hospital for another 2 or 3 days and the boys were there for another week. Amazingly, they never had to be put on oxygen even though they only weighed 3 and 5 pounds.

This time around I was planning on having a completely natural birth (we took the Bradley class and everything). The doctor that I chose is a very nice man and a good doctor but he's a very typical mainstream type of doctor; in that he believes in the adage, "Once a C-Section, Always a C-Section." I could tell this because he said things like, "I'll let you try to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)," etc. So with me not progressing, I was 1cm dilated for 3 weeks AND Peter never dropped, we made a deal with our doctor: If I hadn't progressed (dilated & dropped) on my due date then we would schedule the C-section, if I had dilated more & dropped then we would wait for labor to start on it's own and if I still hadn't delivered by the 6th or 7th than we would do a C-Section then. As you all can guess I was a tight 1cm and Peter's head was not in position on the due date so we did the C-Section later that day. When it came down to it we really wanted to have Peter before the end of the year and since it was looking like we were going to have a C-Section anyway we figured we might as well get our tax deduction this year. Peter was one of 4% (annually) of babies actually born on their due date.

Even though I really didn't want to have another C-Section, I would say that I am perfectly content/at ease/comfortable/confident in my decision to have it. Peter is perfectly healthy and happy and in the long run that's what really matters. I am already thinking about next time (no, I'm not crazy, though I am really glad I'm not pregnant anymore) and I think I want to find a midwife and go that route, to better ensure a natural birth.

The End.

Surprise... It's a BOY!!!!!

Peter Duncan Gardner
12/30/2008 @ 12:48pm
9 pounds
20 inches

More pictures available here.