say cheese.

i have posted some pics from the whole ordeal. use the slide show link to the left to go there. if the slide show doesn't start automatically press the green play button at the top of the pic.

i'll get to specifics as soon as i get the chance. we're still figuring out which end is up.

boy, oh boy.

we're back and online. hope the suspense hasn't been too great for you. i apologize for leaving everyone hanging like that but i just couldn't pull myself away long enough to add a new post till now.

here's the plan. i'll write up a blow-by-blow (or push-by-push) accounting of what happened. i'll get pics uploaded, too. and i'll keep you all well informed as to how life is, etc. but not right now. i'm still getting caught up on work, on sleep (that's not going too well for some reason), etc. for now, here's some info to tie you over.

he has a name. it took a good 5 or so hours after he was born to finally settle on one. i knew he looked like his name about 5 minutes after he came out. but the drugs had to wear off the belly (who is no longer the belly by the way) before we could come to a consensus. i decided to put my foot down. i cast the deciding vote. some may think me harsh because it may seem insensitive to my wife but i have to declare -

his name is isaac william glover. and what a wonderful isaac he is.

he weighed in at 7lbs 12oz. measured 20in long. he has some hair and it's either light brown or blonde depending on who you ask and was born at 1:01pm central time. amy was induced at 7am. started pushing at 11:30am. and here we are.

everyone is well. i am completely in awe of my wife. she has been fantastic. just amazing. isaac is also amazing. i didn't know babies were so conniving so early. he's a ladies man. any woman within 50 feet of him just coos and cuddles and melts. he's a man's man, too. any man within 50 feet of him just coos and cuddles and melts. he's even a dog's man. the in-law's wienie dogs love to love him.

isaac's dog (whom he inherited) had to spend the week at the kennel. she hates it there. she completely falls apart every time she has to go. she doesn't eat. well, except for her own paws. she doesn't sleep. she probably just barks non-stop. to add to the insult i make sure she gets bathed before she comes home, too. needless to say, when she comes home she passes out on the floor for a solid two days. and on top of all this, two weenie dogs have invaded her home. so maple could care less about isaac right now. she'll warm up once she forgives the brutal treatment she received.

i'm working a half day today so i hope to update the site with pics and more detail as i get the chance. i'm leaving early because isaac is getting an echo cardiogram to check out a heart murmur our family doc detected. it's fairly common and the boy has not shown any signs that it's anything major. by the way, my confidence in this doc is very high. let's just call him the best doctor.

that's it for now. more to come. you'll find the answers to these mysterious mysteries:

what happens to a father when he watches his daughter get an episiotomy?
why would a new dad want to watch his son's circumcision?
why so many questions about taking sharp instruments to very delicate areas?
is it normal, when you look at your newborn in a dimly lit room without wearing your glasses and his glassy tiny eyes roll from the back of his head to sort of focus on you, is it normal in that situation to be really spooked out and wonder what the definition of human is?

this and much, much more!

thanks to one and all for your wonderful wonderfulness. same bat time. same bat channel.

fore!

the doc appt. went well. the belly's blood pressure is pretty up there - 150/100 or so. they checked it four or five times to be sure. we even checked it at wal-mart, too. the doc stripped her membranes again, too. and, the big news is, the cervix is a four. the doc said it was our call. we could go ahead and plan to be induced. or wait it out and see, but we definitely have to go in wednesday to double check her blood pressure.

so, between bouts of panic we ate dinner. and we watched the clock as we think the belly is finally feeling contractions. she probably won't call them that, tho. so, instead of little crampy pains let's call them medium sized crampy pains. they come every 10 or 15 minutes.

the question of the hour is how quickly is this going to happen? hours? days? weeks? our big fear is we don't want to mess up our birth plan. here's our entire birth plan. epidural. the belly pronounces it in two words. epi. dural. if things are under way and we wait too long, we miss the window for an epidural. go in too soon and we just get sent home.

so, we're home waiting things out. watching some football (it's terrel davis' last time to wear a bronco jersey, you know). and watching the clock. if you don't hear from me again for awhile, i'm sure you'll understand.

when there's smoke, there's fire?

just had lunch with the belly. she said earlier today she'd have crampy pains every ten minutes for about 40 minutes or so. and during lunch she had a couple also. guess this could go on for days. we'll know more in a few hours after seeing the doc. i'll be sure and post tonight after that trip.

whelp.

the wife got really excited on the way to church yesterday morning. she saw our usual doctor driving the other way. i'm half surprised she didn't go into labor right on the spot. but, alas, that was not to be. the closest we came were several contractions - oops, i mean crampy pains - last night before bed. this morning she woke up and said, we made it. she really was stressed about our doctor missing the delivery.

our next appt. is this afternoon (it'll be late because he's triple booked after being on vacation). i'm curious to see how much she's progressed, if at all. maybe they have just been crampy pains? maybe they've been the same practice contractions she's had for months? or, like the belly likes to say, she gets both kinds - braxton and hicks. we'll see.

here's my prediction. the doc will check her out today and see a green light in there somewhere so he'll have us check in tomorrow morning and induce. or. he'll see a yellow light. in which case i think the belly will hold the title all the way till her birthday - a week from wednesday. so, 8/20 or 8/28. all or nothing. that's what i say.

what do you think? let us know. use the tag board (to the left) and set your predictions - but it has a low limit on words so be quick about it. or, use the comments linked to this post. or, you can even email me (another link to the left) and i'll share my favorite thoughts.

what were we talking about?

the belly is hanging in there. literally. the boy has dropped and now the wife is very homeresque in profile. well, just the belly. just check out the slide show link to the left and it's easy to see she'd beat homer in a beauty pagent hands down.

so, i guess that means things are still progressing even tho it seems there's no progress. our usual doc should be back in town today sometime. so maybe that will relax the belly enough to get the ball rolling? our next appt. is tomorrow afternoon. i suppose it's not too unlikely that he'll decide it's time for the kid to come and will set us up for induction tuesday morning. if so, i'll be sure to let you all know here tomorrow night.

but then he may want to let things run their course and i'll keep typing like the energizer bunny.

in other news. my cousin alicia and her husband robert are in town on their way to the old homestead. to celebrate the happy reunion we decided to paint the town mauve and invited our friends over, too. our little get together was pretty much a blast. as we ate dinner it dawned on me how cool it is that my family are growing to be my friends and my friends are absolutely like family to me.