The Boys

We have been home for almost 1 week now and are settling in. Elias is adjusting to being a big brother and doing a pretty good job. He always has a slobbery kiss for Zac whenever we ask him to and loves to 'cuddle' with Zac when we lay him down for tummy time (sometimes his 'cuddling' is a little too close!)

Checking out eachother.

Elias holding Zac for the first time...it didn't last long and was well supervised!

Daddy's favorite thing to do when coming home from work.

Zac's first pictures

Here are a few pictures that were taken at the hospital. We did not get too many since Zac was not in our room very much.

Zac while in the NICU (the board on his left hand is to keep the IV in)

Zac and Mommy cuddling. We have one of Elias like this too!

Introductions

We would like to introduce to you...

Zachary Hanley Mathew

born 2/08/08 at 3:19 p.m.

6 lbs 1 oz.

19 inches long

He took a while to decide to join us, but once he did, we met him very quickly. The day was long for me, a lot of waiting and waiting, but thankfully I was comfortable (the epidural is definately my friend!). After what seemed like forever, Zac decided he was ready to come around 3 pm. We called my mom to come over to be there for the delivery, but Zac didn't give her much time (or the Dr. and nurses much time for that matter). I pushed through 2 contractions, a total of maybe 5 minutes and he made his appearance!



He did have some breathing difficulties at first and spent the night in the NICU with oxygen, but got off that pretty quick. He is off all monitors now and is working on nursing. We are getting the hang of it now and he is starting to gain some weight. Zac may spend one more night here, while I am being discharged today...but he is doing very well and should be home soon!



Elias has been at Grandma and Grandpa's all weekend and has been getting spoiled royally. He has not met Zac yet, and hasn't seen mom in a few days either. I am missing him terribly, but I am sure he is doing fine.

We are so thankful for him and this blessing from God!

We will post more pictures of Zac and the family as the week goes on. Stay tuned!

Waiting

We arrived at the hospital this evening after a relaxing dinner at Panera...one last time with just the 3 of us. Elias is at Grandma and Grandpa's doing great we hear...

The induction started around 8 pm and things are progressing well. I am having contractions about 2 minutes apart, but they are not too painful yet. Ben is watching TV and I am resting. The Dr. did say that he predicts a baby by morning....we are hoping... Hopefully the next update will be with pictures of a new Mathew!

Update

Well...the latest news is that we get to meet baby Mathew #2 sooner than expected. I had another ultrasound this week which showed that the baby's belly is slowing down in its growing, probably due to lack of nutrients. So the Dr. decided it was time to induce. Ben and I are going in tonight to get the process started and should get to meet baby sometime tomorrow. ( I was induced this way with Elias and he came in the middle of the night!) Elias will be at Grandma and Grandpa's for the night, and hopefully will sleep great so Grandma can even be at the delivery. We are very excited to finally get to meet this baby and be a family of 4!!! (Sometimes we still can't believe that we will have 2 kids)

On the walking front....Elias still is a avid crawler, but does venture to take steps every once in a while. His record has been 6 steps during the Super Bowl on Sunday night. We are still hoping that one day soon he will realize how much faster he can go when walking, or in his case...running! Maybe time at Grandma's will help!

I will try and get an update out this weekend introducing the baby...we will see.

The Countdown Begins

2 weeks from today we will have baby #2.
We found out last week that due to my gestational diabetes I will be induced on February 12th. It was a little bit of a shock at first, but we are excited to meet this baby and be a family of 4!

Our goal for the next 2 weeks is to get Elias to walk! We have begun daily practices and might have to go to "2 a days". He is making some progress, but still prefers crawling fast to taking the time to keep his balance and take steps. Hopefully soon everything will click together and he will be off and running!

We will keep you posted on walking and baby #2

Surprised!!

Some of you might know that this year is a momentous year for me...I am turning 30. A few months back I mentioned to Ben that since this is such a big birthday, it might be nice to have a party, maybe even a surprise party. He proceeded to tell me that I really didn't want one, that I didn't like that kind of thing. Well, being the "helpful" wife I am, I then went on to remind him weekly at first and then twice a week the past few weeks that my birthday was coming up...Ben, being the husband he is, seemed not to pay much attention. I really thought that he had not done anything about my birthday and was beginning to think that he was going to plan something the day of (not very exciting).

Well, last Saturday night we had plans to drop Elias off at my parents and go and see a movie, or so I thought. We had talked about doing dinner first, but Ben "conveniently" wasn't hungry. So off we went to drop off Elias and head out when....sure enough Ben had planned a surprise party for me at Mom and Dads. Friends from church and Emmaus were there to celebrate and boy, was I surprised! We had a fun time visiting and watching the kids play. I even did have a piece of great birthday cake (carrot cake, one of my favorites) despite my strict pregnancy diet.

Ben did a great job with the surprise...more than I could have asked for. Truly a great husband...now lets see what he does on my real birthday:)

The cake! Carrot and lemon poppy seed.