A Man on a Mission

We are thrilled to announce that our little boy arrived this past Sunday, July 13th (his due date!) after a VERY quick and intense five hours of labor (thanks, buddy!) -- here are some pictures.

John Patrick Huffman
8 pounds, 11 ounces
20 inches
Born at 2:53pm, July 13, 2008

Everything went very well, he came so fast though that we didn't even have time to call our families to tell them he was on his way. Minor labor started as we walked out the door to go to Mass. By the time we got home, things were getting more intense, so I started keeping track. Within 45 minutes, I knew we'd be going to the hospital, so we activated the Nora-watching plan. Within 20 more minutes, my mom arrived and we were out the door. 30 minutes later, I was huffing and puffing in a wheelchair at the admissions desk... 5 minutes later in triage, they bolted me straight into Labor and Delivery where a SWAT team of nurses hustled my admission (they can't order the all-important epidural w/o me being in the computer). Within a short period of time (that felt REALLY long to me), the anesthesiologist arrived and got me set up with my epidural, which helped a lot. I relaxed a little for a short period of time, but about ten minutes after they rolled me onto my right side to get the epidural to work better on that side, my water broke. Brett popped out into the hallway to notify the nurse, and when she came in to check it out, she told me not to move. She said as soon as they rolled me onto my back, I was going to have that baby, and they wanted to give the doctors at least three minutes to get into the room and get gowns and gloves on! SWAT team #2 swarmed into the room, five minutes later they said "let's go," and about ten minutes after that, John was here! Brett and I barely felt like we were keeping up with the developments as we found out about them. As we were getting ready for delivery (we were right there... the nurse was telling me to get ready for my first push), our head nurse turns to Brett and says "I forgot to ask! How are you going to be with all of this? Will you feel faint?!" I would have laughed if it weren't for everything else I was focused on, because if he did have an issue, it would have been way too late for him! He was trapped in the room by the position of me, the doctors and all of the support staff, even if he'd wanted to bolt! But he did great, just like when Nora was born.

It turned out that Chris had dropped Beth off on his way to our house (we'd called them when it was looking probable that I was having real contractions, and they left Portage immediately). We'd actually gotten a call in the room that one of our parents was there, but it was right after the nurse had told me not to move and called for the doctor, so Brett told the receptionist he couldn't come out because the baby was coming, and could she please tell whichever parent it was to call the other parents to let them know? So when all was said and done, he went to the waiting room and found his mom, John's first visitor.

My parents were by that time on their way to the hospital and arrived ~15 minutes after Beth came back

And Brett got in touch with Chris at the house who got Nora up from her non-nap and they came about 15 minutes after my parents

Nora seemed excited to see us and the baby, but was a little wary of all the hospital equipment, my IV and blood pressure cuff, etc.

Andy came to visit after everyone got back from dinner

and Genny and Clare arrived straight from Chicago later on, but still in time to meet John on his birth-day!

The next day Lon, Diane and Brett's grand-pa Riggs came over to see John

and Angie

and Genny and Clare came back with Tristan (Andy's girlfriend) -- I unfortunately don't have a picture on my camera so will have to get copies from Gen or Clare

and Beth and Chris brought Nora back up to visit again

Everything went very well with all the post-delivery checkups, so we opted to leave the hospital a day early and came home at about 10pm Monday. Since then, we're just getting used to having a baby in the house! W/ the early discharge, we had to take him to teh pediatrician yesterday, and his weight was down to 8lbs 4oz. But we took him back today for a jaundice check (he was looking a little tan, and you know we aren't tan folks!), and he's already rebounded to 8lbs 6.5oz. Looks like he might follow the same porker track his sister took in the first year. He's a very good baby, so far only cries when he's hungry, naked, or gassy, and is otherwise very mellow. Nora is very interested in him and getting more and more comfortable with him around.

Thanks for all your well wishes as the due date approached, and thanks to those of you who have already e-mailed us with congratulations... we really appreciate it.

Take care,
Sarah, Brett, Nora, and John