Welcome Baby Jacob!

The newest redhead to the Hartke family arrived on Monday, July 12th at 11:01pm. 8lbs, 6oz, 21 in. Here's the story . . .

My due date was July 8th, and even though I had this feeling all along that he wasn't coming early, I hoped and hoped that he'd come anytime after 38 weeks. But 38 weeks came and went and then we were at 40 weeks. My doctors absolutely will not schedule inductions for convenience purposes and only consider them at 41 weeks, so at my 40 week appointment, which was a Friday, my doctor asked that I come back in that following Monday to do a non-stress test and schedule an induction, which would have been for that next Thursday. I was really, really excited about that . . . even though it was a week later, at least I had a date!

So I went into my appt. on Monday and I thought everything was fine until a nurse came in to check my blood pressure a second time. Apparently, my first reading was high and so was my second one. My doctor asked me to go right to the hospital and not to even go home. I ended up running home to get the kids situated and by the time I was in the car on the way home, I was feeling pretty dizzy and knew I shouldn't be driving by myself.

At the hospital, my blood pressure almost immediately went back to normal and my wonderful doctor decided not to send me home, but keep me so we could have a baby that day. You have no idea how happy I was to hear that!

After 6 hours of pitocin, I still couldn't feel any contractions, so the dr. broke my water, got the epidural going, and by 10:20pm it was go time.

I knew Jacob was big. I just knew it, and I was right. He almost didn't make it out:) Right at the end, he had one shoulder in and one shoulder out. All of the sudden, the doctor was yelling something about supra bone pressure and our nurse jumped on top of my and had her hand pushing on my stomach. They were calling for extra doctors and nurses and every time I tried to breath, they kept yelling at me to keep pushing. It was kind of scary for a few minutes there. I knew he was stuck and knew it could have been a bad situation. But a few minutes later, out he came and it was no surprise to me that he was a healthy 8lbs, 6oz.

So far, Jacob is a sweet, good tempered baby. He eats like a champ and really only wakes up at night to eat and goes right back to sleep. As of today, I am not feeling to terribly sleep deprived, but I do take advantage of any nap I can get.

The girls absolutely adore him . . . they even have their own burp cloths so that they can help take care of him. They love to hold him and sing to him and Jenna, especially, just can't get enough of him! Sometimes I have to ask everyone to "step away from the baby." They just love him so much:)

Welcome Baby Jacob . . . we're so happy you are ours!

Life On Hold

School's been out for just about two weeks now, and in that time, Jenna's had a two day virus with fever and an ear infection (two separate events). Abby had the same two day virus (at a different time, of course) and now has a severe case of hives--which we can't figure out what is causing them. So I feel like our life is on hold--even more than usual.

I know I am nine months pregnant, but being at home all day every day with children who want to be on the go is not my cup of tea. We've planned playdates, trips to the pool, as well as to the park. Many of those have been canceled in the past few weeks due to some illness or another--so I feel like my summer is still waiting to really begin.

"On hold" has been my life for quite a while, actually. I've been waiting to start a new online teaching position that seems like it's taking forever to get started, I've been waiting for our new baby to arrive, and we've been waiting to settle into a home rather than in a temporary apartment that we will soon outgrow when the baby arrives.

Being on hold has been good for me in some cases because it's forced me to make healthier decisions amidst transition (move, new position for Nate, new baby, new everything), but I'm ready for it to be done. I'm ready for healthy kids, a new baby, and a house to experience life in.

We have had a few fun things going on in between the illness in our house--one of which was a trip to Camp Pioneer last week with the youth group at church. It turned out to be too windy for the kids to swim, but they had a blast playing on the beach building sandcastles. And just being at camp makes my day, so it was a good trip all around:)

My due date is in three days, so I'm sure that when I feel like my summer has started, the baby will arrive--which is so exciting! But then life won't be on hold, it will just be new and chaotic and all things baby. And just in case you were wondering . . . according to my doctor, this baby boy is not showing any signs of coming out anytime soon. Not much progress has been made in that area, and my doctors don't consider inducing until 41 weeks. They could actually let me go up until 42 weeks. So I am trying to stop expecting him to arrive any time now and get my mind wrapped around being pregnant for two more weeks:)

Enjoy a few pictures from our day at Pioneer!