Alexander "Xander" Joseph Nelson

We are so very excited to announce that our little Xander has arrived safe and sound. He was born May 1, 2008 (our little May Day baby - I know Grandma Menard had a hand in that one - we miss you Grandma!) and is in perfect health (he is pretty darn cute, too).

He was born at 3:20 pm and weighed in at 6 lb 9 oz, outweighing his older brother by 1 lb 1 oz and arriving 1 week and 1 day sooner than Eli, too (Xander was born at 36 weeks and Eli at 37). Eli and Xander were equal in length; both measured 19 inches.

I don't know how I got so lucky, but man, I get to deliver fully-baked babies early AND have super easy labors! I guess I make up for it in the pregnancy department. I think I must be part microwave or something.

Note to reader, the following narrative contains material that you may find too graphic or just uninteresting. Feel free to skim this part should choose not to read about such topics including, but not limited to, water breaking, contractions, pushing, etc...

As noted in a previous post, I had a doctor's appointment on Monday 4/29 and was dilated to 2 cm. My doc said I would probably deliver within the week, but I figured it would be a bit longer than a week so I didn't get my hopes up. After my appointment I was having some pretty good contractions, nothing too crazy, but my doctor wanted me to go in to the hospital to get checked just to make sure. This proved to be a false alarm. They told us we could walk the halls and see if anything happened or go home. Hmmm...let me think about that one for a minute...definitely go home! Who wants to walk the halls of the hospital? Not my idea of a good time!

We decided we needed to call in the reinforcements because I knew I was going to need to take it easy - no menial task with Eli running around - so Brandon's mom graciously agreed to come from Pocatello to help out while Brandon had to work. She got here Wednesday and we were able to have some fun playing with Grandma while I stayed off my feet (and I didn't have to cook dinner!).

Thursday morning Brandon was off to work at 5 am. I slept very little that night because of uncomfortable contractions and a very wiggly little baby. I woke up about 7:45 and felt a small little gush. I raced to the bathroom to try to prevent the mess I had when my water broke with Eli, but there was only one more little gush and that was it. I kinda questioned whether I was imagining things. So I hopped into the shower and got dressed (THANK YOU Grandma for getting up with Eli so I could have a nice, leisurely shower!). After getting dressed, I went downstairs to see what was going on with my noisy little munchkin. Eli wanted a "Mommy hug" so I bent over and picked him up. I felt another small gush and I decided I wasn't imagining things. I turned to Janice and said, "I think we might have a baby today." I called the hospital to see if I needed to go in - they said yes. I paged Brandon at work and told him to get on home (he was so disappointed to leave work - ha ha). He came home and we were on our way.

We got to the hospital about 9:00. My contractions still hadn't changed from what they had been doing for the past month or so, but they checked me and told me through their tests that involved obscure words such as "ferning" that I had fully ruptured. My blood pressure was a little on the high side so I didn't get to walk the halls (darn, I was SO looking forward to that!). They moved me to labor and delivery about 12:00 and my doctor came in about 1:00. He finished breaking my water. Well, that certainly got things moving VERY FAST! I did this one without an epidural too.

My contractions started doing what they are supposed to and we had our little man at 2 hours and 20 minutes later. If anyone is interested in hypnobirthing, it is totally awesome and I wholeheartedly recommend it if you are interested going natural. The doctor barely made it in time to deliver Xander. I literally only had to push three times, all on one contraction, to finish up the job. That, in my opinion, is the way to have a baby! I even cut the cord. Brandon was totally uninterested and my doctor asked me if I wanted to. I thought sure, why not? Brandon took a picture of me cutting the cord, but it is one of those pictures that we won't share publicly but rather just use to traumatize little Xander when he is a bit older. Xander sure had a death grip on his cord when they were getting him cleaned up. It was like they were trying to take away his only and favorite toy. He still grabs around like he is looking for it. It was pretty funny.

I was so relieved and happy to have him in my arms and 100% perfect. I was a bit nervous that he might have to spend some time in the NICU because he was so early, but he was fully-baked. What a blessing! He is such a sweet little man and we feel so incredibly privileged to have him in our family. Eli seems to be quite smitten with him as well. When we got home from the hospital today, Eli was telling Xander all about hot rods, diggers, motors, and was trying to teach him how to jump. So far he has been so good with him. At the hospital Eli was eating some of my grapes and he was so quick to offer some grapes to the baby. I think we are going to have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't share some things that Xander isn't quite ready for.

Anyway, there is my novel and here are some pictures. It is amazing how much Eli and Xander look alike. You'd almost think they were brothers or something - weird, I know. Some of the pictures I took could just about be the ones I took of Eli when he was first born. Looking at Xander and Eli is like looking at the results of a live time progression. Xander has a different nose, ears, fingers, and toes than Eli, but it is fun to see the similarities.

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS

BEFORE...

Before...belly of 36 weeks. This picture was taken Monday 4/28.Note that I am smiling, but you can totally see the discomfort on my face...not a very heartfelt smile.

AFTER...
Ahhh! Babies are SO much more comfortable on the outside. Now that is a sincere smile!

6 lb 9 oz & 19 inches

So happy to have him in my arms!

Little Muscle Man Pose under the heat lamp after his first bath.

He has the longest fingers and toes!

Xander's first lesson on cars, diggers, etc.

Eli playing with my MP3 player in my bed at the hospital. He sure knows how to make himself right at home!

Okay, this kid just cracks me up! He LOVES to bang on the screen and we have been trying to discourage this so he doesn't tear the screen. However, when I caught him doing this, I had to grab the camera before I told him to please stop.