Calvin's arrival!

Though he wasn't due until June 19, Calvin decided on June 9, the first day of the full moon cycle, that he was tired of waiting. That's okay, so were we! Everything started at 2am on Friday morning when Cortney's water broke. Actually, she wasn't entirely certain that's what had happened, but after a failed dash to the bathroom her contractions became somewhat regular, so we started timing them. At 9am, still uncertain whether we had broken water or incontinence with strong contractions (yes, looking back now this sounds silly), Jon called in to work to take the day off "just in case" and Cortney decided to go on with her daily 2 mile neighborhood walk, this time joined by Jon, who timed the contractions, and Kristin (since that had been planned the night before), who recorded the data. We walked for almost 3 hours, after which Cortney showered and trimmed the pets' nails while Jon mowed the lawn and vacuumed (got to be prepared, right?). Around 2:30pm, still uncertain about that incontinence issue, we decided to take no chances, especially since it was Friday, and we headed over to Labor and Delivery Triage at St. Joe's. Good thing.

On the way to the hospital the contractions became more powerful and more regular (now coming every 5-7 minutes, not every 5-15) and when we told the triage nurses that we thought we would be sent home, they laughed at us (in a good natured way). It was clearly not incontinence, but broken water, and we had been laboring courageously for around 14 hours now. We were admitted. When we arrived at our Delivery Room at 4:45, Cortney had been laboring for nearly 15 hours had progressed to only 3cm (only 1cm farther than the 2cm she had been in her Dr.s appointment on Tuesday), and we were both exhausted. Nothing seemed manageable under those conditions and it looked like a long road ahead, so we opted for the epidural. Great choice. We both got some rest, and the relaxation really moved things along - we made 10cm in the next 4.5 hours! Around 9:40 the nurses were astounded to find Cortney ready to push, but they guessed that it would be another couple of hours before we would meet our son. We showed them! At 10:10 they found themselves rushing to ready the room for this rapidly approaching infant, and, finally:

38.5 weeks of waiting

+ 20 hours of labor

+ 20 minutes of pushing

= 6lbs 13oz and 19inches of Calvin Curtis Ophoff, born at 10:11pm on Friday, June 9.

Nesting, nesting, nesting...

Our bag is packed, we're ready to go...plus all the baby clothes have been washed, the car seats are in, the freezer is stocked with what amounts to about 20 nights of meals, the crib and bassinet are made, the cameras are charged.  Let's get on with it!  Cortney has arranged and rearranged the closets a few times, and cleaned out every cupboard in the house.  And it's not just Cortney - yesterday Jon was frantically washing the dogs' bedding, vacuuming, and organizing the instruction manuals for everything that we own.  It's an omen, we think, but not the kind that means today was the beginning of the apocalypse.  Funny that was mentioned, though...Hell sure made one heck of a profit off that omen (6/6/06) by selling T-shirts, etc., to the approximately 10,000 people who showed up there to "celebrate" the momentous occasion.  Who knew hell could be so fashionable?

Tattletale

Cookie has a way of testing boundaries and Moose has a way of telling on her.  No matter where she is or what she is doing, if it isn't quite legitimate the wiener dog will let us know.  Tonight we were relaxing in the sitting room and that little stinker of a dog was running back and forth between the bedroom and our feet doing his best "Timmy is down in the well" impression, only to point out that the darned cat had ensconced herself in the basket beneath the bassinet draped in the clean baby linens.  It wasn't quite legit, but it wasn't quite off limits either - the mosquito netting only covers the actual cradle of the bassinet.  Good job Moose.

Raining Kangaroos

It is, perhaps, an amazing, if not miraculous, truth that in all of our zoo visits we have only ever been rained on twice.  Until today it had been once, but now it has been twice.  Of course we knew we were stretching our luck when the forcast called for scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, but we just didn't know how many more Saturdays we would have to make a trip like this before Raspberry makes his appearance, so off we went.  And we did the zoo backwards today, too.  Usually we head straight for the tigers because they are most active right away, but today we headed straight for the back corner of the zoo to see the kangaroos.  That new exhibit really is a lot of fun.  Since it was still cool, and since there weren't too many people in the exhibit yet, the kagaroos were a very rewarding first stop.  Several of them were highly active, hopping right across the path and coming within feet of us.  One specific, and rather large, male was a major camera hog.  While we were looking in another direction he snuck right up next to us so that when we turned around he was about four feet from us.  Four feet!  No zoom required for that photo.  Since we didn't get to see the joey on that trip through we also visited again later and that was when we got caught in a downpour.  Did you know that kangaroos hate the rain?  As it started to sprinkle every one of them stood up from their reclined positions and looked at each other, then headed straight for the shelter in a big train - don't get in their way!  That provided our best view of the joey poking his little head out of mom's pouch, but he was still pretty far away, hence the blurry zoom and crop.  It was worth getting wet anyhow.  And, just so that you don't think we spend all of our time in the kangaroo exhibit...here's a picture of the aardvark.

Building a library

We have been blessed to have the support of so many different groups in our lives, and we have been showered with so many wonderful gifts. But the one category of baby gear in which we have so far been deficient is books. Well, not after tonight! Jon's work threw us a fabulous shower. The Fabers passed on a veritable library of books that were Vivian's favorites when she was younger. The collection took all of us on a trip down memory lane. And yes, it is worth it to have three copies of Goodnight Moon in board book form so that when Calvin chews his way through them, we have backups.

The plans included a slew of relatively innocuous games. Guess how many squares of toilet paper it takes to encircle Cortney's belly (Jon was kind enough to severely underestimate, while Rick nailed it exactly)! Who can blow up the biggest balloon (rumors of popping balloons causing pregnant women to go into labor surfaced here)? How many words can you make out of the name Calvin Curtis Ophoff (Cortney blew away the competition with 38, but since you got bonus points for baby-themed words, some people had some very inventive, er, stretches. Phallus? Coitus? Poo? And these were coming from Jon's bosses and co-workers!)

The Fabers served a wonderful meal (grilled chicken, potato salad with bacon, tomatoes with bleu cheese, and more), prefaced by baby food hors d'oeuvres, and the pregnant women's standby, pickles. While Cortney had to miss out on the wine, there was also excellent home-brewed iced tea.