Happy Birth Day Tyler!

Tyler James was born Monday July 15th at 2:41pm, weighing in at 7 lbs and 1 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches long.

Tyler decided early Sunday morning (about 5:30am to be exact) that he was ready to roll and the contractions were coming about every 30 minutes. We went about our Sunday, even stopping at a baby store to pick up an outfit to bring the baby (gender yet to be determined so we bought 2) home from the hospital in.

Fast forward to about 12:30am Monday when we left home to head to the hospital based on the contractions coming every few minutes and getting a lot harder to ignore! We were kind of excited, kind of anxious and kind of worried that they'd send us home saying this wasn't actually real labor.

From the arrival at the hospital at 1am to Tyler's arrival at 2:41pm, there was a whole lot of action but I'll spare you the details. I can say there was pretty much every possible emotion- from smiles to tears and back again but when Kevin took one of Tyler's first pictures and he appeared to be smiling the cares of the last 24 hours were gone in a second.

Tyler gives us his first "smile"

We've now been home with Tyler for 4 days and he's going on 1 week old tomorrow. Bringing him home from the hospital was again, exciting and nerve-wracking all in one. The first night went like we hear most first nights do...none of us slept a whole lot! Since then we've already settled into a little routine having Tyler around, our life pretty much operates in 3 hours increments right now since that's about how often he wants to eat. We've already run into challenges, we've already googled at 3:00am to get some answers, we've already seen the pediatrician who assured us Tyler was doing great 5 days post-birth even though we (or I at least) thought about 100 different things might be wrong. Who knew it is basically impossible for a newborn to have too many dirty diapers! 

Kevin and I have already been discussing the changes we've seen in him in the last 6 days...he's not even 1 week old yet and we are pretty sure he's growing up right before our eyes. So far, we are just loving being Tyler's mom and dad. 

First family picture a few minutes after Tyler's arrival!

Gerken Baby Pool

The Gerken family's baby pool is underway- here it is in picture form, if you click on the picture it will open it bigger so maybe you can read it.

Baby H has already gotten the best of a few of you...

39 Weeks

July 10th and we are 7 days away from the due date (which makes us 39 weeks along for the math majors in the crowd)!

We saw the doctor today and the baby and I have been making steady progress towards a birth day. The baby is getting lower and lower- which makes it a little easier to breath and a little harder to be far from a bathroom- and I'm getting close to 2cm dilated which the doctor seemed to be happy about especially since I am a first-timer. She said a lot of first time moms don't make any progress until they show up to the hospital so I guess we've got that going for us.

2 weeks ago I mentioned we'd have an ultrasound at our next appointment which we had...and found out that waaaaay back then (week 37) little Baby H was tipping the scales at 7 pounds and 5 ounces. My first question to the doctor after hearing the weight was "exactly how much more weight will the baby gain if we are still 3 weeks away from due date?!" She said usually around 1/2 pound per week at this time...so it seems as if "little" Baby H might not be so little anymore.

All this talk about baby's weigh-ins and it got my mom curious enough to check back in the official record of my birth day to find out how much I weighed- 9 pounds and 1 ounce. I had heard from Kevin's mom that he clocked in at 5 pounds and some change (although he was 2 weeks early) so it appears this little guy or girl might me getting the birth day weight trait from me!

Speaking of, if I stop to think about it, there is a whole long list of traits that I hope Baby H gets from dad- they include Kevin's calm, unwavering, happy and content way of life- but there is one trait I am REALLY hoping Baby H takes from me and NOT dad...and that is...head size! Kevin has a hard time fitting into most XL sized baseball hats to give you some idea.

Anyway, last minute preparations are underway, the Hockemeyer house is pretty much ready for baby action and we are just waiting around for whenever Baby H is heading our way! According to the doctor today, we won't be waiting any more than 2 weeks (at the most) as she doesn't intend to let me go much past 41 weeks without an induction plan. So we'll just be waiting to see how comfortable Baby H is...

Family Pic at  39 weeks

And the standard side view