Baby's home

Laina's home, and getting accustomed to her new surroundings. She had a much rougher night last night, not letting mom and dad get much of any sleep... but hopefully she'll do better tonight.

We're trying to apply the baby-language idea from http://www.dunstanbaby.com/
(my mom told us about it) to try to decipher her cries. She made an "eh" sound, which is supposed to mean "I'm gassy", so Jenna turned her over on her belly tp burp her. We found out she's pretty strong already, and can pick up her head and look around like you can see in the picture below.. What a cutie.



I also realized I never posted these pics of our house, so starting with the nursery, here we go:


Laina's room


Our bedroom, which we repainted from its previous fuscia/hot pink color. Coincidentally, we're eating mint n' chip ice cream right now, which is what I think of when I wake up in the morning in this room...


Here's the dining room, with our new dining set (pic is from easter)


And the family room



Anyway, there's the kid and the house for 'ya. Off to try to get some sleep!

Laina's One-Day Birthday!

Today's Laina's One-Day birthday! (I promise we won't keep doing that). Looks like we can go home this afternoon and sleep in our own bed and Laina can check out her new digs and meet Ella.

This are some more pics as requested... A newly enlarged Hoskinson Family pic, and a pic of mom with grandma and baby.


Jenna's feeling better every hour, and we're starting to get into a routine. Laina's been learning all kinds of new stuff, like how to breastfeed, how to make nasty poops, and how to use her vocal chords to reach maximum volume...

Jenna did awesome yesterday. After the previous post in the morning, she went from 5cm to 8cm pretty quickly, and barely even winced. 8 to 10cm was tougher, but her doula (Donna) was amazing at helping her get into the right position, giving her massages and support. I was really impressed at how much of a help a doula can be. Jenna doesn't think she could have done it without pain medication without Donna's expertise. It was really good for me, too, to have Donna taking care of Jenna so I could just work on not freaking out too much. She ended up in the pushing phase for almost 2 hours, which was really rough, but Jenna absolutely amazed me with her stamina and determination. I thought before I may have married out of my league, but now I now for sure. She definitely had some tough moments, but never even went into panic mode or lost it. I am totally proud of her.

Laina got checked out by the pediatrician today and she's perfectly healthy, so we are incredibly thankful for that.

That's all for now. I'm sure more will come, since I'll be home until next Monday or Tuesday, and Jenna will probably start posting soon, too. I guess with a new baby there will be all kinds of stuff to post about.

Thanks for all your comments! Personally I think she's the cutest baby that ever was, but I figure every new dad thinks that...

ITS A GIRL!!!

Laina Annette Hoskinson

Born April 18, 2007 at 1:08pm

7lbs 8oz, 21 inches!

Checking In

We checked in to the hospital last night, because Jenna's doctor wants to induce. She was still at 4cm yesterday morning, so she figured it needed a little help.

They put Jenna on a low-dose of Pitocin (synthetic version of a hormone that helps cause contractions) through the night, and this morning she's just about 5cm, and the baby is making its way.

So the nurse's bet is 11am, the doc is coming in about an hour to probably break the water, so hopefully we'll have a baby today!

Despite being on Pitocin (although a low-dose), Jenna is still barely feeling the contractions, so as long as progress is being made, that's a-okay...

I'll try to post not too long afterwards, with a pic of 'da baby!

are we there yet?

Well after 2 trips to the hospital to check our (my) progress, I am still 4cm dilated which is not quite through "early labor" which according to my pregnancy book is described as the cervix dilating to 4-5cm and contractions arriving every 15-20 mins (mine have been consistently 2-3 mins apart which is supposed to be "active labor"). The book also says "If your partner or coach isn't around, now is the time to contact him so he can be by your side". This totally makes me laugh. Basically (technically) I've been in early labor now for over 2 weeks! I feel bad for making Jay stay home from work on Fri (after we went to the hospital Thu night) but according to my book, he should have been home with me for the last 2 weeks solid! LOL. I know every woman and every labor and birth is different, so this doesn't really surprise me, but it is getting frustrating.

Anyways, we'll see what actually happens. I think that the next time I'll be ready to go to the hospital I'll want the baby's head to be crowning first so I actually KNOW there has been some progress...

Getting there....

We're just about there. Jenna had her weekly visit to the doc today, and she did a little coaxing to help things along a little, which has caused Jenna to start having contractions! She was already 4cm (10cm = baby's out), and still 90% effaced (I'm told 100% is baby-time) So we should be making a trip to the hospital pretty soon here!

Really exciting, and I'm getting really nervous. Next post should be post-birth!

Since all we ever do is copy the Heldts, we also just bought a laptop, so I may bring it along since they have wifi in the waiting room. Who knows, maybe they'll join us while we're there (but hopefully not, right Rachel?)!

I'm trying to decide if there's such a thing as bringing too much technology to the delivery room... I'm already bringing the digital camera, our phones which I just rigged up as mp3 players so Jenna can rock out while pushing, the video camera (I'm not sure what to video tape yet, but Rachel threatened Jenna with bodily harm if she didn't bring it), and now the laptop. Considered bringing the webcam too, to Skype and Messenger the family... but Jenna nixed that one... We'll have to wait 'till afterwards.

There's a big snowstorm brewing, expecting a foot of snow, so hopefully we'll be able to go before or after, not during the height of it. Luckily the hospital is only about 5 minutes away (maybe 10-20 driving at snow-storm speeds).

Blog 'ya soon!

The baby is on it's way...

So the big news is that the baby is definitely coming, and sooner than expected. Last week my dr found that I am 3cm dialated and 75% effaced, which basically means the early stages of labor have already started, and the baby could come any day! It's pretty crazy and makes this whole thing seem just that much more real. I am hoping the baby is just comfortable enough in the womb that it will wait until next week when my mom flies in from CA so she can be here for the birth. It's my parent's first grandbaby so that would be really cool if it can stay put a bit longer. I am really trying to take it easy now, because anything strenuous could throw me into labor. Of course the baby is full term and everything would be fine if it did come early...but I'm doing all I can to hold it off. Plus I've got Easter dinner planned with our friends, the Heldts, so Lord willing, no babies before then! (And my mom gets here the next day.)

In other news, we had a mild snow last week. It was our first snow in the new house, and it was pretty cool. The backyard has some pine trees and they looked really pretty with the snow. I got a couple pics of the snow, and then a pic of the next day when it was all gone. I guess that's the more normal pattern for snow here in the Denver area - snow one day and gone the next. I can hang with that!

The other thing that was really cool is that my mom threw me a "surprise baby shower in a box". She had a bunch of people from church back in Palmdale get together and they brought gifts and had a "wrapping party" and what looked like awesome food and everything. My dad took pics and put them together on a DVD with music and they sent everything to me. It was amazing and I was so touched...I was totally crying (and I am not normally a crier; I'm blaming it on the pregnancy hormones)! Anyways, it was really neat and I was very blessed by it. Thanks, Mom!