And then there were THREE

Monday, January 2 . . .

Tuesday January 3, 2012 9:22 am - welcome Isaac Alan Mueller!

Coming home on our coldest day yet this winter - but you were well bundled!

Our friend Leslie watched Analise and Elijah during the morning so that Daniel could go to class. Then Stephanie had them over for lunch while Daniel came and got me so we arrived home with Isaac to a pretty quite house.

Grady must be thinking "Great, here we go again." Hard to believe the pooch has been with us through all of these adjustments and changes. He's sure a good little dog!

For posterity sake I'm writing down the birth story . . .

We woke up during the night because we heard Elijah crying, but once awake I realized I was having pretty regular contractions. Nothing very hard or uncomfortable but regular - about every 8 minutes (they say to come to the hospital when they are every 5 minutes.)

This got me thinking, "great, we're going to have a baby today. I'm going to need to call Leslie or Chandra. I hope they have their phones on. I feel bad waking somebody up - maybe I'll just wait and see how this goes." So from 3 - 6am I just dozed and waited and kept checking the clock every so often.

Then we got up - Daniel made coffee and I showered, finished packing the bag and called Leslie, who didn't answer her phone. I waited and at 7 called Chandra (another friend) who said she could come over. But again, I said no rush because I really wasn't feeling too bad and the contractions were not close yet.

Elijah woke up and came down to watch "George monkey" and "Cat in the Hat" - our morning routine. During these shows I started feeling it a bit more and had to walk away to breath a little - but Eli kept inviting me back to the chair to watch his show with him. :)

Closer to 8 I called Chandra again to say that we had really better be leaving and to see if she was on her way. She arrived a few minutes later and we left quickly.

On the way I had a few more contractions and definitely more intense. We parked in the parking garage and though Daniel offered me a wheel chair, I thought I'd walk. I was pretty determined to be tough this time around. I held Daniel's hand tightly and had to stop for a drink at the water fountain once -but we made it to the maternity around 8:45.

They put us in a holding room where they monitored baby's heart beat and my contractions. By this time the contractions were very intense - but still I was trying to be tough and not overreact that they weren't checking how far along I was. The nurse made the comment "Well, you should have a baby within the hour!" When she left I told Daniel "I don't think I can make it an hour!"

And thankfully it wasn't an hour - not even close.

The details from here are blurry to me but essentially the doctor came in and it was go time!

Daniel said it looked like a movie that they wheeled the bed quickly to the delivery room with a few people diving out of the way. Then the room was full of nurses getting everything ready and within three pushes the baby arrived at 9:22 - less than a half hour after arriving in the maternity.

Daniel stayed until lunch when he went and picked up Analise and Elijah. He made them scrambled eggs and cheese and then put everyone down for naps. That evening Leslie came and watched them so he could attend his night class from 5- 9pm. She came back in the morning so that he could go to class and come pick me up around noon. To add to the confusion, we didn't have a name chosen for the first 24 hours so I was thinking constantly about what we were going to name this child! Finally, when Daniel arrived we committed Isaac Alan to paper and immediately I felt relief and joy about the choice.

So after 9 months of waiting, in just over 24 hours we delivered a baby and were back home again.

God has been so good - everything went so smoothly, the baby and I are healthy, Analise and Elijah have been adjusting well, and Daniel is the rock that kind of holds it together right now - that it leaves my head spinning just a little.

The name Isaac means "laughter." Sometimes, when faced with such a mountain of blessings there is no better way to express the gratitude and joy at the absurdity and extravagance of the gift that we've been given than to break into laughter. When I think of this week I'm amazed at God's goodness and I'm definitely laughing!