Introducing Chase Michael Barnum!!!!!!!

We are so excited to announce the next addition to our little family! Chase Michael Barnum was born on Saturday April 18, 2009 at 8:25 AM! He was 7 lb 11 oz and 19 inches long.

I went into labor a few hours after writing our previous post! The doctor's appt really worked well to get things going! I started having really hard contractions around 11pm Friday night so I called the hospital and talked to the midwife on call to let her know my contractions were about 7-10 minutes apart and had been for hours- well- she wasn't convinced I was in active labor and told me to stay at home longer- about a half hour later the contractions were really painful and 2-5 minutes apart!!! Mike rushed me to the hospital- I really started to worry about having the baby in the car! We made it there and I was already dilated to a 6! They even told me they didn't know if there was time for an epidural- however- thankfully Chase gave his mommy a little time to make sure she got some drugs!!!! Thankfully early Saturday morning the midwife I have been seeing regularly (and is wonderful) was on call- so she came in and told me to call her when I felt like I needed to push- well I never called because I was so numb from the epidural- she finally came in a few hours later and was shocked to see baby Chase almost out on his own! He was out in just 3-4 pushes!

We are so happy to have him home! I feel great- I can't believe how much easier the recovery has been this time around! Joshua is doing well although sometimes when Chase cries he goes over and yells "no!" I guess the crying bothers him! We are trying to teach him to help soothe the baby. He's been a little jealous of the baby's attention and has been known to sneak off in other rooms to suck on Chase's pacifer or draw with crayons on the TV screen while we were bathing Chase in the kitchen! Life is fun!

Grandma Briggs is here to help and has been awesome! We love her so much and are so grateful for all her help- she even came in and got Chase at 2Am this morning and offered to put him to sleep- come to find out he ended up sleeping with her in her room until 7AM! Thanks so much mom- we love you!

Well- sorry for the novel- but we are so happy to have a complete little family! We will post some more pictures soon!

39 1/2 Weeks and Still No Baby!!!!

Wow- I really didn't think I'd be writing this post! I thought for sure this little guy would be early- and though his due date is not officially until Monday- I feel that he is late! It's hard when your first one is 8 days early- because you expect the same with the next! I went to the doctor today and when I left I was 75% effaced and 3 cm dilated. She did strip my membranes which may or may not result in the onset of labor! At this point- I'm just hoping he comes before my mom leaves on the 27th! We could really use the help with Joshua while I'm in the hospital! Keep your fingers crossed for us- we're hoping for sometime this weekend! Hopefully our next post will be new baby pics!

38 Weeks!

According to the doctor yesterday this baby is ready to come! I've been having contractions like crazy- the baby has already dropped, I'm 70% effaced, and 1 cm dilated! She said she could get things going for delivery- but we're going to wait until next week if he hasn't been born already to give grandma a chance to get here! We are sure looking forward to her visit and also the help with Joshua! So- here's to hoping the little guy can hold on for just a few more days!

The Culprit and his after conference Messes

Joshua was a busy boy during conference this weekend. We tried the usual distractions- coloring, playdoh, etc. But- it was a long day for the little guy and this is what our apartment looked like when it was over!

Swimming

We finally got Joshua a little baby pool to play in, and we are working on a sandbox- we just can't find any place that sells sand! Mike suggested we have lots of beaches here so we should just....(you know the rest) I'm going to look a few more places before we resort to bringing home the beach sand! Whenever I take a picture now- Joshua smiles and says "cheese" it's really cute!