A few spare minutes

Well I found a little time here to post a couple of pictures of Jack. At some point we'll get someone to take a family picture of us, but so far we're just focused on Jack. His grandma and grandpa sent him a birthday card (for his actual birth day) and he just loves it. We slept at home for the first time last night, and "slept" is a loose term here. Everyone is tired today, but Jack has the benefit of sleeping whenever he wants. Lucky boy.

Thanks for the card Grandma and Grandpa Culwell!

Out of the hospital!

Here are a few more pictures of our stay in the hospital. Fortunately, everything with Jack checked out fine and he was able to come home Saturday afternoon. He's doing very well for a normal newborn, let alone one that had such a rough start. He hasn't commented much on his new home, but he seems content. There will be plenty more pictures to come, but they'll be posted between naps (both Jack's and Mom's!). Stay tuned.

We had a visit from Jack's Aunt Annie who was in town visiting from Idaho.

Jack loves to sleep on his daddy's chest. He could just lay there for hours!

Pretty Rough First Day.

(Posted by Sander, since Angie is recovering from having a baby!)

Well, after 26 hours of labor with two hours of pushing, Jackson (Jack) Sander Marshall was born by cesarean section at 1:37 am on Wednesday May 21, 2008. Angie went into early labor about midnight Monday night and we finally went to the hospital at about 9am Tuesday.

Everything started out really well with Angie dilating pretty quickly. Jack's heart rate dropped whenever there was a contraction so unfortunately she had to stay lying down in bed, which soon led to an epidural. Everything still went okay, with Angie starting to push around 10:30pm Tuesday. After two hours of good pushing and Jack not coming down at all, and combined with Jack not being able to recover as well since the contractions were almost right on top of each other, it was decided that a c-section was needed. They got Jack out at 1:37 am Wednesday morning. He wasn't breathing when he came out, which the doctors think was due to all the heart rate fluctuations, but finally they were able to get him breathing on his own. He spent all of Wednesday in the NICU with an IV and antibiotics.

Both he and Angie are doing great right now and he should be in the room with us Thursday sometime. Since Angie had a c-section she needs to be in the hospital for three days, but they are taking good care of her and Jack.

No baby yet

Just a quick update for those that are wondering. No, the baby has not arrived yet, and yes, I was due on the 8th! But these things happen in their own time, I suppose. My doctors don't want me to go past 42 weeks, which is on Thursday, the 22nd, so the baby will most likely need to be born sometime this week. I have an appointment on Monday (the 19th) during which we will "discuss inducing labor," but I'm really not interested in being induced. I'm actually quite comfortable still, the baby seems to be doing just fine. So, when there is news, we will definitely be sending phone calls and/or emails to everyone. Time will tell...

Just for fun, here are a couple of pictures from last month when Grandma Culwell and Miriam came to visit. These were taken at the hospital before an ultrasound. We were all able to watch the ultrasound together, which was pretty fun!

The end of pregnancy

So this is the month our baby will be born. We're just patiently waiting for Jack to decide when his birthday will be. Personally, I'm hoping it will be before Mother's day! We'll keep everyone updated and hopefully soon we'll post some pictures of newborn Jack. So far the pregnancy has been fine, nothing too exciting besides Jack's kidney issue. A little heartburn and some swollen feet, but that'll all be in the past soon. Hopefully all will go well with labor and delivery!