Daniel's Birthday

Saturday, June 26th was Daniel's 9th birthday. It was an exciting week for him as Jonathan broke his glasses yet again and he had a spot on his head that reached it's peak for help that week. For his birthday, we spent a couple of hours that morning getting his head the medical attention it needed (and medication). We then packed up all the kids and headed to Round Rock (just over an hour away) to check out a place I had been told about to celebrate both of the oldest kids birthdays. We spent the rest of the day there playing.

That night Daniel got to open his presents. I love it when the kids make things for each other. Here's the card Amanda made for Daniel. I love the look on both of their faces. Here's the birthday boy on his birthday.
Here we are actually having birthday cake on Sunday. We really let birthdays last a long time this year.
Daniel was scheduled to be induced a day after his birthday. We were very grateful we did as after he was born, the placenta had shown considerable calcification (what happens when a baby is really late and the placenta starts to shut down).

We were told to call the hospital that Tuesday morning, just to verify they had a bed for us. They didn't. So we waited. The night before I had even gone in to have prostaglandin put on my cervix to try to encourage things to start on their own. It DID NOT have the desired effect and we'll just say I'll NEVER do that again. Christina had spent the night over at my grandparents house with my mother "just in case" so when we found out that we weren't going in right away, we headed over there.

It was an interesting morning, we kept calling the hospital to see if they had any room, every hour. It was kind of frustrating waiting but after waiting so long for another baby, what's a few hours? Finally, around noon, they said if we hurried, we could have a bed so we did.

They finally were able to get things started about 12:30 pm. Things seemed to be going rather slowly when around 4 pm, I was only about half way dilated so I gave in and had an epidural. I really didn't want one after my experience with Christina and the epidural and when I found out it was the same anesthesiologist, I really was reluctant. But I had started out half way with Christina and that had taken another 12 hours so I was nervous about how long this would last.

Daniel was born at 5:01 pm, weighing 7 lbs. 3 oz. I still remember the beautiful view of the mountains from the labor and delivery room (I still try to picture that when I'm in labor) and how it really added an eternal perspective at the moment.

Daniel is so smart, loves to have fun, and loves to read. I can often find Daniel sitting in a corner somewhere reading a book. He's been learning a little martial arts from his dad lately and really enjoys that. He's doing really well at school and recently earned his Wolf in cub scouts. We're very proud of him.