Baby Portraits

Our sister-in-law Danielle did some portraits for us, and we got them back this week. I think they turned out great! Thanks, Danni.

More pictures

Putting Out the Vibe

Aunts and Uncles and Cousins, Oh My!

JKW has now officially met all his cousins, aunts, and uncles. And he loves all of them.

M and Pa came down Saturday and helped out. Nancy and I even got to take a nap and go out to dinner. Thanks M and Pa!

On Sunday, Carrie, Nick, Logan, and Brynna came down to meet Jacob. Logan and Brynna both got to hold him, which Jacob loved. Jeff and Celeste and their kids Ethan and Emma also stopped by to visit for a while on their way through town. So at one point we had 4 crazy kids and a jealous dog running like Tasmanian devils all over the place, making all kinds of racket, playing foosball and air hockey, and generally causing chaos...and Jacob slept through every minute of it.

Jacob is a perfect baby in every way...until bedtime. He sleeps, well, like a baby all the time. But when it comes time for mom and dad to go to bed, he is a screaming banshee. We've got to work on that.

I can't believe he is already almost two weeks old. Sniff, sniff...they grow up so fast.

Now for some pictures:

Wide awake...must be bedtime

Uncle Nick and Aunt Carrie

Our front door

Brynna holding Jacob

Logan and Jacob

In our front yard

Celeste and jacob

A Fun Week

They say when you have a baby, your life is changed forever. By life, I think they mean sleep schedule. I have witnessed my wife, who had to fight hard to stay up past 10 pm before, stay up until 1:30 with no problem, sleep three hours, and get back up. I can live on 4-5 hours of sleep. Always have. But she has really had to adjust her sleepy time. But I haven't heard her complain one time. We are so in love with this baby boy that we don't even mind getting up at all hours of the night.

Nancy's Mom has been here all week, which has helped A LOT. While I would have loved to have taken a few weeks off to get everything settled down, it just is not possible. So I am glad that Nancy did not have to figure all of this out on her own. And my parents are coming down this weekend to lend a hand (they are really coming to spoil our child, but I'll play along).

We have really enjoyed having all of our wonderful friends and family come and meet Jacob. Danielle even came down today to take baby portraits. I will definitely post them when we get them back. Brooke just loves to hold Jacob, but Tyler is still refusing to give it a try.

Nancy's Dad also came down for a few days to hang out. They were all supposed to meet me at the clinic yesterday at noon to show JKW off to all my staff, but they had to turn around when I had a surgery go way longer than I expected. Nancy is going to try and bring him up tomorrow.

All in all, it has been a crazy, fun, tiring, incredible, amazing week. And we loved every sleep-deprived minute of it.

Pictures

As promised, here are some more photos:



Nancy's last belly pic





The fetal heart rate monitor that we stared at for 12 stressful hours










Nancy assuming "the position" i.e. the only position Jacob liked during labor




JKW's first photo


Our first family photo



Jacob's official weigh-in



milk drunk



Crashed out



Resemblance?

Jacob with M and Pa



Jacob with Grandma and Grandpa

Jacob with his Fauxhawk, thanks to Grandma

Ready to go home!

Makinley holding Jacob




Jacob's first bottle

Jacob with his cousin Makinley and Aunt Laura and Uncle Scottie

Chillin' in the swing

Jacob and his Mama

Jacob meets his cousins Brooke and Tyler and Aunt Danielle and Uncle Brandl

Jacob and his cousin Brookie

The indoctrination is starting early

Jacob Kyle Wiltshire

7 lb 13 oz
21 inches
7:35 pm 7/28/10

Well, Wednesday was interesting to say the least. Tuesday night they started trying to ripen the cervix to prepare for induction. They gave her three dose through the night...and NOTHING happened. That should have been the first sign that we were in for a wild ride.

They started the induction on Wednesday morning anyway. As soon as they started the Pitocin drip, Jacob's heart rate started dropping with each contraction. So they had to stop it for a while, then start it back slowly. The nurse finally figured out that the changes in the heart rate were not as drastic if Nancy was laying on her left side. Of course that meant that she had to lay on her left side, in the same position, without moving, for 12 hours. She did get an epidural as the contractions started hurting, but she was still pretty uncomfortable.

After 12 hours, when it became increasingly obvious that Jacob was fine as long as Nancy did not move or have strong contractions, but had problems any time she did, the doctor decided to do a c-section. The rest was a whirlwind. From the time they decided to do the c-section until they handed me Jacob in the OR was only about 45 minutes.

It turns out his umbilical cord was wrapped around both legs and his waist, and that he had twisted in the birth can and was facing upwards toward the front instead of toward the back. So there was no way he was coming out the old-fashioned way.

He has done well from the beginning, and is getting better with his feeding and napping. Him and mom will be home tomorrow.

Speaking of mom...

I have always known that I married an amazing woman, and that I am a very lucky guy...but the last few days she has absolutely amazed me. First of all, she was absolutely miserable all day on Wednesday, but she was so much tougher than I expected. We all had our moments during the stressful times when Jacob's heart rate would drop, but she did amazingly well, and was so much tougher than I would have been in her situation.

And she is an amazing mother. We both have been blessed enough to have wonderful parents, so it is only natural for her to be such a good mom. But she amazes me every minute.

That moment... when the doctor told me to stand up and look over the drape, and she held up that beautiful, coneheaded (from 12 hours being pressed against a defiant cervix) wrinkly, bloody, angry mess of a child up for us to see... is hard to describe. It definitely goes to the top of the list of the coolest things ever.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and well-wishes. They really helped us get through it. It was stressful and a hell of a long day, but in the end, my amazing, strong, tough, beautiful wife and I have a beautiful healthy baby boy.

So in the end, everything was perfect.

I'll post some more pictures when I get home.