January Update

We brought Timmy home from the hospital on Saturday, January 15th.  Thankfully, my mom came from St.Louis to help us make all of the adjustments to being a family of four as well as helping with all of the household chores while I recovered from the c-section.

Timmy got his first bath a few days after being home and he did NOT like it one bit.  We quickly learned that this kid does not like to have his clothes off!  He loves to be all warmy dormy all the time.

 He is already growing so fast! He had a 2 week checkup on the 27th and weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz (33rd%ile).  He also measured 20.3 inches in length (33rd %ile) with a head circumference of 14.5 (42nd %ile).  He's a big boy, but not quite as big as Hannah was.  It's been fun to use the newborn size this time around.

 Hannah's been finding ways to entertain herself while mommy has to do things like change diapers and feed baby Timmy.

 And we all need a little humor these days!

Meeting Baby Timmy

Before Timmy was even born, he was one loved and prayed for little baby.  He had soooo many visitors that couldn't wait to finally meet him and hold him in their arms.  First to arrive was Grandma Deibel.  She couldn't help but remark how MUCH he looked like Hannah when she was a baby!

It was so fun watching Hannah meet her little brother, too.  She fell in love instantly!

Our next visitor was our friend Meredith Conrow.  She definitely needed a baby fix :)

We welcomed Melissa Kern to the hospital, too, to get some advice on raising boys--she has three!

And here's our precious baby all ready to come home from the hospital.

 

 The Houtmans came to visit. They also made us a delicious meal that was incredibly helpful!

 

Our beloved friends, the Botts, came as well to welcome little Timothy into the world.  They were also the ones who took such fabulous care of Hannah while I was delivering the little guy.

I love this picture of Monica!  She has lots of experience being a big sister to Luke and Gavin.  Hopefully she can train Hannah :)

Thanks for the lasagna, Kristin!  It was so thoughtful!

We've welcomed many other visitors, too.  The Pastor came with his wife, Marsha.  We were also blessed with the company of our deacons, the Theumes, and two of my unofficial mentors from church--Sue Harms and Donna Russell.  What a fun time we've had showing you off, baby Timmy!

Timothy's Name

We brought Timmy home from the hospital today...and his name doesn't seem to fit him quite right.  We had a list of about 10 baby names that we thought were just OK, but none of them felt like THE ONE for our baby boy.  While in labor, the only name I could remember from the list was Timothy.  We love the name!  But when we look at baby Timmy it just doesn't seem like HIS name.

Other names on our list were Carson, Adam, Micah, Levi, and many others.  But none of those seemed right either.

So Timothy Caleb it is and it will stay.  Hopefully he will grow into it.  We get so many compliments on his name and we really do love it so I think we made the right decision...I hope!  :)

Timothy's Birth Story

Hannah was 11 days late. So, naturally, I assumed that Timmy would be late. Much to our surprise, my water broke at about 8pm on January 11th and I wasn't due until the 28th! Caleb was sledding on the driveway with Hannah and I opened the front door to tell him the shocking news. He laughed and continued playing. It took me a few minutes to convince him, but once he realized I wasn't kidding he went into crazy packing mode. Me, on the other hand, I just stood there in shock. I couldn't function. I had packing lists but couldn't follow them. I just couldn't believe it.

My due date was January 28th. We went back and forth on whether or not I should try a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Hannah's delivery was not so fun and ended up in an emergency c-section situation after 24 hours of labor and I did not want that same experience with Timmy. I wanted to enjoy the experience and marvel in the miracle. After much debate and praying over and over again about it, we decided that we would schedule a c-section for the 25th of January (since Hannah was so BIG and Timmy was already measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule) and if I went in to labor early then it must be a sign from God that I should try a VBAC. I don't like to make "deals" or "bargains" with God, but we just didn't know what the best decision was.

So, I had just cleaned up the basement and I stood up to get the vacuum and couldn't believe what I was feeling. I was not ready. Normally, I'm the kind of person that has everything ready way ahead of time. This wasn't supposed to be happening yet. My mom wasn't here to watch Hannah. My bags weren't packed. I was supposed to have a c-section on the 25th!

I gave my friend, Hilary, a call and asked her if she would take Hannah for a day or two. She was so happy to do so and Hannah was thrilled to spend the night at her friend Carleigh's house. She was running around the house like it was the night before Christmas. It was so comforting to know that she would be treated like family and I didn't worry one bit about her while I was in the hospital.

Next, I called my mom and prefaced the news with, "This is not a joke." She couldn't believe it either. She was having a huge luncheon at her house the next day so she could not come up right away. Thankfully, she was able to drive up to Michigan after the luncheon the next day and take Hannah off of the Botts' hands.

So, once Hannah was on her way we loaded up the car and headed to the hospital. The roads were very snowy and it was a slow drive, but my contractions hadn't kicked in yet so we weren't worried.

I was taken to triage and the contractions started up on their own at about 10pm. The doctor obviously decided to admit me since my water had broken, but all of the rooms were taken so we had to wait in triage for several hours. 

We finally got our room at 2:15am and settled in for a long night. My contractions were getting much stronger and a little closer together.  Unfortunately, I was still only dilated to 1 cm so the doctor gave me a Foley bulb.  It worked quite well because by about 6am I was dilated to 4 cm.  I really did NOT like my nurse at this point because I was in a lot of pain and she asked me if I'd like her to take me down the hall to see someone who was actually having labor pains.  Not a nice thing to say to someone!  I was in labor and I was having major contractions.  You see, they had inserted an internal contraction measurer thingy because they had to monitor my contractions much more closely since I had the c-section with Hannah and was at a higher risk for uterine rupture.  Turns out that it was inserted incorrectly and when the doctor from my practice came in to check me he said it had been done incorrectly and had pretty much fallen out.  He said my contractions were much stronger than what was appearing on the monitor. 

I was so extremely grateful when the next nurse came on duty at 7am.  She was wonderful!  By 8am, Dr. Deenadaylu from my office had checked on me.  I was up to 5 cm and 90% effaced.  I had made a lot of progress since the evening before, but it was slow going and reminded me so much of what I went through with Hannah.  I was trying to stick it out as long as possible without the epidural this time because I felt that that might have stalled me with Hannah even though the doctors and nurses assured me that wouldn't have been the case.

By 9:15am I was desperately wanting the epidural and my new nurse, Julie, was so supportive and could tell how much pain I was in.  She told me there was absolutely no reason to wait any longer and I got the epidural as soon as possible and felt immediate relief!

Dr. D checked me again at 12:20 and I had not progressed one bit.  I was so disappointed because I was feeling a lot of pressure and thought for sure that I must have been at least 7 or 8 cm.  They couldn't up my pitocin anymore since I had the prior c-section so I was pretty much just stalled.

I told him I was ready for the c-section and he was extremely supportive.  We decided to give it another hour to see what would happen and I still had not progressed.

So, at 2:13pm we welcomed our little boy into this world via c-section.  When Dr. D. got me open he said I had an abnormally large amount of scar tissue from the first c-section.  I also had complicated issues with my bladder being in a different location or something and my uterus had scarred to my abdominal wall as well as my bladder.  He said he was so thankful that we called the c-section when we did because he wouldn't want to do the surgery in an emergency situation.  He was glad to have plenty of time to work around my issues.  He even had to run formula (different color than urine or blood) through my bladder before I was stitched back up to make sure he hadn't accidentally cut it because it was so entangled with my uterus.

When I heard my baby boy cry for the first time tears of joy just streamed down my face.  It had been such an incredible journey for us and at one point we weren't sure if we would even be able to have a second child.  It was such an amazing feeling to go from a family of three to a family of four and we are so thankful to God for blessing us with our new addition!
              

Timothy Caleb Coddington
January 12, 2011
2:13pm
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches

December Update

We kicked off the month of December with "Movie Night" at preschool. Hannah had a blast eating hot dogs and watching "Santa Paws" with her friends.













The next day we went to a local farm to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree. This was a special treat because normally we are traveling for Christmas and don't even bother putting up a tree. It was a fun experience with Hannah. She loved marching around the "forest" in search of the perfect tree.













The finished product!

















Hannah even got to decorate a tree for her bedroom with ornaments that she has been given as well as our annual family-made ornament and some that I've picked up along the way with her name on them.

















One very cold and icy morning we headed to the mall for our annual picture with Santa with all of our close friends from church. They did surprisingly well this year and Santa was so sweet. Hannah was excited to share with him that she wanted a purple butterfly for Christmas.

















Playing in the snow with daddy is so much fun!



























Daddy taught Hannah how to sled at a local school. They had the place to themselves and the hill was the perfect size for Hannah.

I managed to waddle around the Toledo Zoo for the Christmas Lights display mid-December. I think this is the last picture we had taken as a family of three!













We went with our friends, the Kerns, and Hannah had so much fun with her "boy" friends.













Grandma and Grandpa Deibel came with Aunt Lauren to celebrate Christmas with us this year. There was no way I was going to travel 10 hours in a car with a 3-yr-old at 8 months pregnant. We were thankful that we could still spend time with family and Hannah ate up ever morsel of attention!

















Making a gingerbread house with Aunt Lauren!













Playing dress-ups with Grandpa Pete.













Thank you for the princess clothes, Aunt Lauren. I wear them all the time!













Last, but not least, we spent New Year's Eve at the Kerns celebrating kid-style.

November Update

November was a busy month. Hannah did lots of playing, singing, swimming, and visiting with JuJu and PaPa.





























Hannah loved her swim lessons at the Hartland Pool with daddy. The kids got to play in all of the fountains on the last day of class.

















JuJu and PaPa came for a visit this month, too. On Saturday, the 20th, we went downtown to the Brighton Holiday Glow. We sang Christmas carols, watched the lights turn on, and even saw Santa Clause and his reindeer.































At preschool, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast. Hannah's class participated as Indians and the other class as Pilgrims. She did a good job singing her song with all of the motions.



























On the 26th, we went to Huckleberry Railroad to see the lights and ride the train with JuJu and PaPa. Hannah had so much fun on the train, and especially loved riding over the lake. She wasn't too keen on the loud fireworks, though.

The Iceman Cometh

Caleb, Hannah, and I traveled up to Traverse City, Michigan, again this year for the Iceman Cometh mountain biking race. This is Caleb's 2nd year entering the race and I'm sure there will be a 3rd.

Here are the guys at the starting line. Aren't they handsome?














Hannah is wishing daddy luck. She loved riding the buses to the different areas.


















He did it! Caleb was able to shave about 2 minutes off of his time from last year and the trail was a bit longer.


















Having fun in the hotel pool. What a fun weekend!