Sleeping...at the same time!

So I feel like I have just managed to make it up Everest and back down--the boys have taken two naps at the same time today!! I joined them during the first nap, and during the second I feel like I have mostly sat around waiting for them to wake up. I tried doing something productive but that is just so...boring. So here I am, blogging.

Things are still going pretty good, no news from the doc, which I hope is good and translates to: we were wrong, your insides are not rotting. Cade is still trying to figure out why Luke isn't going away, he has been throwing little temper tantrums and we are trying to be patient with those for at least a few more weeks as he adjusts. Strangely, he is trying to punish us by not eating--he throws his food on the floor and screams bloody murder until we take him out of his high chair. Then, he begs for food from us. Not sure what to do with all of this. Any advice would be great.

The pictures are some of the last few days, all of my boys, and then one of Cade trying to fit into his old favorite again. At least Luke wasn't in there when he climbed in...

LUKE MITCHELL

After a long few weeks, Luke Mitchell Grogan finally arrived on Tuesday, August 19th. All in all, once it got started, labor and delivery were once again really quick and easy, and we are all making a a really good recovery. Cade is adjusting, but with a whole host of family here for him to entertain he has been taking things quite well. Next week (tomorrow!) Chad will go back to work, so we'll see how my outlook changes about this whole 'family of four' business.
I will post the pictures first, which is probaby what people will actually want to look at, and then if you are so inclined you can read the gory (or actually not so gory) details of the birth. Sorry there are so many, but until I take the time to actually figure out the trickery of the fancy slide shows I have seen, I just have to post each photo individually!

Luke, just a few minutes after he was born. He has been pretty relaxed like this since he was born, I just hope it is a personality trait and that at least one of the boys will be laid-back!

Cade and Luke on day #3. Luke looks SO much like Cade's baby pictures

These are a few of Luke after his first bath at home.


And yes, I know I look like I belong in the drug mom ward--if they have one of those--but this is the only picture of all of us after the birth, so for lack of a better option...




AND the birth story, for any who may care:

So my last post was detailing the lovely fact that last week the doctor believed that I had (or have???) kidney stones. On top of all of the glory of being 39 weeks pregnant, that episode nearly put me over the top. I wrote though that I got some relief on Saturday night which was hleping me think that I could probably carry the baby for another week, if necessary. Well, my appointment on Monday went fine, but didn't result in labor or anything, but Monday night was horrible. I wasn't sure if the kidney stones stuff was back or what, but I just felt awful. I woke Chad up and told him to call the doctor because I needed something (he had promised pain killers for the kidney stones earlier). He wanted us to head into the birthing center just to get checked out, so even though I was sure they would send us home and I would just end up feeling like a wimp, we packed the car and went.
We got to the hospital at about 7:30 am and they came back to us at about 9:30 to tell us that my blood work and labs were all looking very strange. they had a few more tests to run to be certain, but things were looking like they were going to have to induce. We really wanted to avoid pitocin and inducing in general, but once all of the labs came back they said we really didn't have much of a choice. I was starting to show signs of Preeclampsia, and on top of all of that my pulse was strangely low.
We were admitted to the hospital at about 10:00, and started on the drugs about a half hour later. The pitocin kicked in right away, and I started having regular contractions. Things went along just fine, I got an epidural at about 1:00. I just can't say enough about the kind person that invented this miracle of modern medicine, but it is just such a night and day difference. I relaxed, laughed with the nurse, read a magazine, and really just enjoyed labor. Anyways, the doc broke my water at about 1:30 and said that everything was looking fine.
about an hour later things stopped feeling fine. I literally went from reading a magazine to telling Chad to call the nurse now. He turned on the video camera--I am on film telling him to turn it off and go find a nurse-- and once the nurse came in she called the doctor and some back up nurses to help get everything ready. The next few minutes were kind of a blur...but basically four minutes and two pushes after the doctor got there Luke was born!
So I have to go back in to the doctor this next week to see what they heck is going on with me, I had an ekg in the hospital to check out my crazy low pulse, but they still want to confirm or look at the kidney stone mystery and make sure that everything corrected itself with the delivery. All in all though, things went great and we are all doing pretty well now.

and STILL no baby!

We are now officially only one day away from the due date, and little man has given us no indication that he is ready to come out. No contractions, he is still moving around like crazy, and it feels like he is growing exponentially.
We had our check up this morning to confirm that everything is ok and we also were able to confirm that the Doc thinks that I do indeed have kidney stones...which is really fun, let me tell you. I was in so much pain last week that I called the doctor. I had been unsure if I was feeling contractions since the pain was so different (read: worse) than I remembered. To put it bluntly, things got so bad that I think I went a little crazy. I was crying all the time, for no reason, and I was probably a little meaner and crankier than I could justify. I even asked Chad if we could just schedule a C-Section so that I could be done with the pregnancy. Something happend Saturday night though, either I passed the stone, or God answered our prayers, because I feel like a different person and like I can actually keep going until I go into labor.
Thats not to say that we aren't trying to be proactive though, we had the doctor strip the membranes today, and we go into tomorrow for a repeat treatment so that hopefully we can get this show on the road.
Pray for us, we need to have this baby!

Catching Up

I was really hoping that by now we would have some baby news to share, but it looks as if the little guy is going to hibernate for winter and not come out all. Actually, if I can keep it together until Monday the doctor is going to get a little aggressive with trying to lure the baby out, but that is a big IF. I have been threatening that I am just going to check myself into the hospital and insist that they do something!!

Since I don't have any baby news or any baby photos, I thought I would do some catch-up and update this with some of the summer happenings. So far, the most notable thing we have done is go camping at Diamond Lake, so here are some of those pictures.
Still the three of us....for now!


Diamond Lake, nice place to visit if you have a bug net


Cade LOVES blueberries, and literally eats himself sick. He broke into the cooler to steal a snack, but with a face like that, how can you punish him?

He spent the whole weekend either rolling around in the dirt or pushing his stroller and firetruck around. He is a really hard little worker!


Hopefully my next post will include pictures of the newest Grogan on the block, but don't hold your breath!