Picking up the Pace!

6:00 am

Contrary to the title of this post, the pace is quite calm this morning as we arrived at Northside Hospital.......thank goodness.  I thank the lord for the fact that you could not make a movie about either of Joanna's pregnancies or deliveries, so far.  The plot would be typical, dialogue mundane, and the action scenes would absolutely put you to sleep.  This IS a good thing.  I'm not sure if I could find the hospital if I looked over to see Joanna in writhing pain in the front seat, I would be too worried thinking about the baby coming out and landing in the floorboard.

We arrived at Northside right at 5am this morning, the staff quickly assigned us a labor and delivery room, E1.  Something felt very familiar as we passed the nurses station and saw the number on the door.  This is the same room we were in two years ago when Melanie was born!  How crazy is that, in the baby factory, to actually get the same room twice.  There is something very comfortable happening here.

The first nurse of the day, Jennifer is reading Joanna the bill of rights HIV, blood transfusions, consents, enema's, you know all standard stuff.  Joanna's doctor has more cases this morning than anticipiated, and will probably not be in to break her water until noon.  Looks like we could be headed for another afternoon delivery.  The coincidences begin to stack up.................stay tuned for more.

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10:00 am

We saw the midwife Lisa a couple of hours ago and she said she would start inducing labor this morning around 11:00 or noon.  There was a little mix up with the timing today.  Lisa called Northside yesterday to push back our admission by a few hours.  Well, the message never got to the lady who called last night and said to be here at 5am.  But we didn't have to get in a rush, and didn't get stuck in morning traffic, at least that's the silver lining Lisa pointed out.  At least we can just relax and take a nap.  Scratch that, the nurses come in too often to get anything resembling sleep.

Some very interesting programs are on PBS, so I guess we'll just learn about naked mole rats while we relax.

 

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1:00pm

The doctor came in this afternoon and started the pitocin drip, followed up by the anesthesiologist who inserted the epidural.  Joanna has it made in the shade now since she won't have to get up every ten minutes to go to the bathroom.  Well, at least realize she needs to go to the bathroom.  No pain below the belt from here on out.

The plan is to break the water here in the next thirty minutes and it should be all fireworks from there.

I promise the pictures will get better when I have something good to shoot.  For now, you get the epidural delivery system. 

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2:00

Lisa came in to break Joanna's water.  Man, is "water" a misnomer or what?  There is nothing that resembles water in that process.  Anyway, Joanna seems to be progressing nicely and Pace has calmed down after someone drained his swimming pool.  Heartrates and BP are good.  We lost our wonderful nurse Debbie (who actually hails from Texas, maybe even Dallas) because the patient next door is 10cm and pushing.  Lisa thought we might give her a run for her money and beat her, but alas it was not meant to be.  So, we wait.............They have Joanna on her side trying to move the baby into position.  The plan is to let her body progress on its own a little further before they turn on the spotlights, oh yeah spotlights!

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2:45

7cm, 100% effaced.........no need for any further details or pictures at this point.

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3:45

It's go time, about to start pushing. Will keep you all posted.............C'mon buddy almost there!

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4:08

Pace has arrived.  Pace Bradley Joyner Born at 4:08pm 8lbs. 20.5 inches.

Joanna is a champ and popped him out with three pushes!  She couldn't even believe what she was hearing when he started crying.  As soon as the tears stopped I picked up the camera...........

 

Melanie's new room

When Pace arrives, he's going to be taking Melanie's old room over.  That's what we've been working on lately.  Since Pace is taking Melanie's room, she will be taking over what used to be the guest room.  The guest room was just coming along, when we found out we were pregnant with Pace.  Since then, we've been struggling, trying to figure out how to incorporate a black bed into a little girl's room.  We didn't want to accept the fact that all little girls have to have white furniture.  So, we did the best we could to try and lighten up the room with other little girl touches.  Before we could get started with any of that, Mark had to rewire two outlets in the room, and re-mud the walls to smooth them out.  Last weekend, we got the final shelves and pictures on the walls, and think it came together great.  Here are a few pictures... 

Santa pictures

Here are some pictures from Shannon's Christmas party with Santa Sid last weekend.  Melanie wasn't too crazy about Santa this year, but we got a couple of decent shots...

 
 

2009 Haloween

 

 

 
 

Fall Y'all

 

Spirit Fridays

Melanie's got Auburn spirit on Fridays, even if she lives in Georgia.  War Eagle!

 

Matt and Ashley's Wedding

 

Well, we got the album posted right after we got home, but haven't had a chance to write anything, or really let anyone know it was over there.  But, there it is, over on the left.  Matt was a good friend of Mark's, in architecture school at Auburn.  I got to know Matt and Ashley at Ono Island, after everyone had graduated.  Matt's parents had the house on the island where we all hung out (we also rented the house next door, for more room).  Many fun memories were made on those trips, and that is where I got to know all the awesome people that Mark already knew from school.  We've gone to each other's weddings over the past 7 years, and have had so much fun at each one!  This one was in Southport, Maine, at the Newagen Seaside Inn.  We took a flight up there with the Fullers and the Littleton's, who drove over from Birmingham.  We all joked about how we didn't think any of us would get to the airport on time that day, but little did we know that catching the flight home would be even worse.  We arrived on Friday, safe and sound, just in time for the lobster bake. 

We've never really had a whole lobster before, so there was a little bit of a learning curve.  But, we figured it out soon enough, and had a great time.  The next day, hurricane Danny set in, but we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the sites.  The Fullers and Mark and I stayed at a different hotel, called the Beach Cove Hotel, which was in Boothbay Harbor (about a 10 minute drive from the Inn). 

 

So, that morning, we went out to breakfast, then we walked around all of the neat little shops.  That was when we really learned that we should have brought some shoes, other than flip flops and dress shoes.  The rain was freezing cold, but we really did have a good time.  Then, we headed back to the hotel to clean up for the wedding.  The wedding had to be moved inside, to the lobby of the Inn, but everything was decorated so nicely, it was still so beautiful. 

Being inside really made for an intimate ceremony, as well.  Our friend Marion, along with an official pastor, performed the ceremonies.  They both did an amazing job, and there were both tears and laughter throughout the ceremony.  After the wedding, we had a delicious sit down dinner, followed by dancing to a band with an affinity for 80's music.  Turns out, that Ashley used to host an 80's radio show in college.  So, that explained why she had no fears about getting on stage for several songs, with Matt.  After for reception, we headed over to the Pine Room for more fun.  This was an old game room, located at the Inn, where you could play candlestick bowling, pool, ping pong, the piano, or just sit around and hang out. 

This is where we had some of the most fun, catching up with old friends.  On Sunday, we stuck around Maine, to do some more shopping.  We went to Freeport, where L.L. Bean has their flagship store, among tons of other great outlet and regular stores (Patagonia, Northface, Banana Republic, J. Crew, etc.). 

That night, those of us that were left went back to Boothbay Harbour to go out to dinner at the Tugboat Inn and Restaurant, which looks like a real tugboat!  Surprise, surprise...what did most people have for dinner?  Lobster! 

We said goodbye to some that night, and took off for the airport the next morning.  Again, we felt like we had all the time in the world to get there.  But, after one last photo op on the rocks,

a short shopping trip (who can resist boat and buoy christmas ornaments?!), an hour drive, and a stop at an airport restaurant for a late lunch, we ended up almost not making the plane again!  All in all, it was a great trip, and we wish Matt and Ashley the best!  Thanks for the experience!