The Keyes!: Welcome Nixon!!!

We have had a busy week!

Welcome Nixon Daniel Keyes!

Here are the events that led up to Nixon's birth (Kim's words, not mine):

Friday evening I was having contractions every 7 minutes for a couple of hours which eventually stopped after 3 hours. My friends had organized one last girls night for me that night that I was able to go to, which was a lot of fun. I woke up Saturday morning at 4:30 having much stronger contractions that lasted through the day. They were irregular until about 5 pm that night when they started coming every 10-15 minutes. By around 8 pm I was having contractions every 6-7 minutes and we were trying to decide if we should put Lyza to bed at our house or take her to our friends who would be watching her. We decided to keep her home. Around 10 pm all of my contractions stopped and I went to bed. I was woken up at 1 am with contractions that were 5-6 minutes apart. They stayed that way for a while and were getting stronger and stronger. At 4 am I decided to wake Daniel up so we could start making our way to the hospital. It had been snowing all night and I wanted to make sure we left enough time to make the drive to Lewiston safely. We put our hospital bags in the car, woke Lyza up, and drove her over to our friends' house for her to sleep there. Daniel did a great job driving on the icy roads to Lewiston while I continued to have contractions. We made it to the hospital safely just after 5 am, got up to the birthing center, and got settled into our labor room. Just as I laid down and the nurse hooked me up to the monitors all of my contractions suddenly stopped again! They checked to see if I was dilated and said I was maybe a 1 ½ which was disheartening because I had been at a one for the prior 2 weeks. If my contractions didn't start up again they were going to send me home because it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Daniel and I decided to walk around the hospital for 30 minutes to see if that would help my labor start up again. We found some long hallways and lots of stairs to go up and down and sure enough it did the trick! My contractions started again. We went back to the room having regular contractions, I was suddenly dilated to a 4 and 20 minutes later my water broke (just before 7 am). We were staying and having our baby!

Daniel's back: The delivery went perfectly! Kim was amazing and everything went smoothly, especially once Kim got the epidural (around 9 am). The epidural was so effective that Kim and I both had a nap for a while before the main event.

Modern medicine is truly amazing. The delivery was nothing like the frantic scenes portrayed by Hollywood. In between contractions and pushing we were talking about the weather and the Olympics with the doctor and the nurse. It was a lot more relaxing than we had expected.

1:48 pm - Nixon Daniel Keyes was born. Kim got to hold him on her chest for a long time (Probably close to 2 hours) before he was weighed, measured, and cleaned.

That time felt like forever for me (I know, no one cares about the Dad at this point), but it was great that Kim was able to get that time to bond right away.

They got him all cleaned up, weighed, and measured

Cute little feet

Then I finally got some time with my little guy

And just when we were ready to start the photo shoot they put that gunk in his eyes

Happy to have him

So reverent

The next day Kim's parents brought Lyza to the hospital to visit with us. We are so thankful for the Hayes family, who watched Lyza early Sunday morning through Monday morning.

Meeting his grandpa

Meeting grandma

Lyza seemed both excited and indifferent towards meeting her new baby brother. She has been having some understandable difficulties with this transition

Hanging out at the hospital together

She missed her mommy

We left the hospital Monday afternoon. Here is Nixon ready for his first car ride

It was nice to come home

Lyza checking him out again

Hanging out at home

This little guy actually likes his soother (most people down here call them "binkies" or "soo-soos"). Lyza never took a soother

Lyza had lots of fun with her grandma and grandpa

She got some new food for her kitchen

Of course nothing compares to cuddles with mama

Except building SNOWMEN!

Here is Lyza on the quilt that grandma made for Nixon

It is super cute!

This little boy is so good natured. He is so sweet, and so sleepy! So far he has been really sleepy during the day and more active at night. We (especially Kim) have been pretty tired trying to match his "schedule"