Family

Sorry it has been a very long time since Sarah or I have posted so it is high time. A couple of notes:

The Website has been updated. There is now a Gallery tab rather than link. This tab integrates our old Gallery into the new and improved updated webpage. It is really slick and deserves to be checked out.

Luke is two and half months old. How time does fly. I will try to get some newish pictures of him up soon. Again check the gallery, there is some pretty recent stuff in there. Now on to the topic of the day.

Luke for the last few months has been up pretty late in the evenings. He has historically been going to sleep around 11 maybe 11:30. As you might expect at first this takes a toll and then you just start getting used to it. Well, Sarah and I have gotten used to it (although, I still think that she needs a nap most days, whether she gets it or not). So in an effort to pass this new found time we have been reading books together. We have started with The Chronicals of Narnia. We had both already recently seen the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe so we started with the Magicians Nephew, then read the Horse and His Boy. We are currently about 3/4 of the way through Prince Caspian (we will hopefully be able to get out and see the movie once we finish).

Now, this may sound like a wonderful relationship building thing to do together. It really is. But, it does have negative side effects. Last night, for instance, Luke went to sleep around 10:30 (he is in general going to sleep much earlier). However, do to some other stuff going on we didn't get to read until about that time. I ended up reading to Sarah until just about midnight. It is really ridiculous. You would think we would learn our lesson and take sleep whenever it is offered. Not so much.

Apparently we are just gluttons for punishment.

In any case, Prince Caspian is a great story from a master storyteller. I would encourage anyone to either pull out or borrow from the library the Narnia books. They are so much fun and perhaps you will find yourself so enthralled that you forget the time and immerse yourself in the story.

W

Wyatt hasn't been getting great sleep so I decided it is my turn to add to the blog. A few months ago Wyatt and I were trying to decide if we should get rid of the fishtank in an effort to create more space and make a second baby room. Turns out, it was fortunate that we didn't.

To preface this explanation: when Peter was born we stayed in the hospital for 5 days. For a good portion of that time he had to stay on a special bed to treat jaundice and was only allowed out for feeding and changes of diapers. As a result by the time we got home from the hospital he had learned to sleep in his own bed for two to three hours at a time. (Notably, the time in the was no cakewalk and involved a lot of fussing and fingersucking).

Because Luke only stayed in the hospital for 23 hours we needed to find a different way to help him become accustomed to his own bed. We got a bassinet from a friend, with hopes of transitioning him from our room to his own over the first week; of course...he had other plans. Unlike Peter, Luke is addicted to sucking and putting things in his mouth. Even when we swaddle him from using his hands, he wakes himself up gumming for the hem of the swaddling blanket. The only way he would sleep for long periods of time was on daddy's chest (my chest is, unfortunately, too tempting). We tried putting Wyatt's worn shirt in the bassinet to give him the comforting scent, but it was without effect. Finally, last night Wyatt took Luke into the office for a little midnight web development while I got some shut-eye between feedings. After 10 minutes, he noticed that Luke had been sleeping soundly and realized that the fishtank had been providing the perfect solution: white noise. Excited from this revelation, Wyatt quickly dragged the bassinet into the office and laid Luke down on his side (also a new thought). Viola!!! He slept for 1 hour without a peep. After the next feeding, I laid him down again in the bassinet on his side and he slept for 2 hours! Success is so sweet.

Thankfully, my mom gave us a white noise maker with timer and volume-adjustment for the crib. Hopefully the transition from fishtank to crib will be much smoother than we had anticipated.

I have added a bunch of pictures to our gallery. Follow the link in the next column over and just hunt around a little bit.

Wow, we are really here. And baby is actually among us. I got this picture this morning as Sarah and Luke were getting a little much need rest. Luke is eating really well and things are going very smoothly. He is a great little dude. He has just been doing all the right things and doesn't seem to have any problems. If all goes well today we should be out of the hospital sometime this afternoon. I think we are all ready to have a good nights in the comfort of our own home. Thank you all for your prayers and we look forward to sharing little Luke with you all.

 

Well, He has arrived, about 10 days earlier than expected. Sarah is happy and healthy and everything went very smoothly. Sarah started laboring last night Saturday night around 9:00PM. She kind of slept through the night and and got remarkably good rest. This morning things hadn't calmed down and the contractions got more intense as the day went on. We just Sarah spent most of the day on the bed or couch just trying to relax as best as she could. Around 3 we started walking around our room to see if we could get things moving a little bit. (Sarah was afraid of going to the hospital and only being 5cm dialated). Her contractions got a lot closer together and more intense so we decided it was time to get to the hospital. When Sarah got out of the car she had a really strong contraction and she thought she had to push. About 5 minutes later we were in full force pushing with a whole herd of nurses trying to get things ready for this little bubba to arrive. Exactly 21 minutes after we arrive little Luke (unnamed at the time) laid on momma chest for the first time. I think both of us were a little shocked at how quickly things progressed from normal laboring to baby in hand. But, all said. things went just about as easy as they could have.

So now for the details. Luke was born at 4:31. He wieghed in the same as Peter at 8 lbs 4 oz and is slightly shorter at 20.9 inches (53cm). However, he got the nursing thing down pat right out of the gate. He ate twice in his first hour. In contrast, it took Peter about 4 days to really figure out the whole eating bit.

So, things are good. Peter came to the hospital with Mammy and Poppy. He had a great time checking out his new baby brother. He seems very excited and happy to have the baby here. We are looking forward to having Robin, Sarah's mom, arrive tomorrow.

We hope this news finds you somewhere close to as happy as us.

 

So you would think that naming a child would be pretty easy. We named Peter and it sure was. We looked through some books and found Peter both Sarah and I loved the name it worked really well. Settled... Number Two has not been nearly so easy. The story begins before we were even pregnant. We found out my uncle (actually my 2nd Cousin) was sick with Cancer. It turned out to be terminal and truly truncated a wonderful man's life. Prior to his passing away Sarah and I decided that we would either his first or middle name as the middle name of our next child. We talked it over with him and he wanted us to use his first name, Dale. So when Sarah got pregnant we figured we had smooth sailing, we were, after all, half way there. Unfortunately for us, no name jumped out of the books. We looked and hunted and instead of one name we got a bunch of names. You can see the list in the poll at right. So we are seeking feedback. What should we name our next little dude. ______ Dale Erickson.