Will's foray into real food

Though we are strong supporters of breast-milk for babies, we also have decided with our children to start introducing other foods after four months and start incorporating them regularly after six months. So these were taken some time in the past two months (the exact dates are fuzzy but so is everything that has happened recently).

As you can see, solid food is the WORST thing that has ever happened to Will (watch for his reaction at 0:11):

It's been like that with everything we've tried (rice cereal, bananas, carrots). Kind of funny but frustrating because we'd like to start incorporating solids every day. Plus Will's weight is trending down (he's gone from 50th to 40th to - most recently - the 25th percentile of weight. Note: this is not bad, especially given who he gets his genes from, but still we want him to eat).

Other funny pictures of Will with food on his face:

Will's fist doctor visit

Last Tuesday we took Will to his 2-week doctor's appointment. It was quite the adventure for the little guy as he hasn't really done much other than sleep, eat, get his diaper changed, and lie around. He has continued to impress us with how calm and good-natured he is. I'm sure there are going to be plenty of circumstances in the future where he and his sister will have us pulling our hair out, but I must say that Katherine and I both are amazed and appreciative of what a calm baby he is. Especially given all the things we've had to deal with in the past three weeks.

Given how good of a baby and now toddler Lyla has been, we were expecting (and our friends were secretly wishing) that Will would be more difficult. If anything, he's better than even Lyla was. I'm not sure why we're so lucky, we definitely don't deserve it but we also not complaining. It's just one more thing on a long list of wonderful attributes of our beautiful children.

Here are the pictures from the visit to the doctor's.

Getting ready to go... Will sure doesn't like being put in his carseat.
LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!! LET ME... (tuck him in with a fuzzy blanket) ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ..............

He awakens in a strange place... hmm, this can't be good.

Hey, Beardy! What's going on? Where am I? Where's Lyla?

What the deuce?!?! That thing is freezing! Where are my clothes?

Oh, mom's finger! Excellent, I'll use this to call Lyla. She's come rescue me!

Seriously, Bearded Guy. What the heck is going on here. p.s. Do you have your tickets?... To the GUN SHOW? POW POW!!

Okay, that wasn't so bad. I got my shirt and socks back. I guess we'll go home soon, nothing else is going to happen to me.... wait, why does that guy have a needle?

Ow. That really hurt. Do you not see how scrawny my legs are? Why would you give me a shot in one? And I don't even get a Snoopy band-aid. What the heck!

Mom, you and the Bearded Guy better take me back to Lyla. I'm so over this place.

According to the measurements, Will has already grown an inch and a half and gained about a pound and a half. Surprise, surprise he's going to be tall. Who knew?

Sunday evening - the siblings meet

Along with all the other moments that made up that very long and amazing day, this was a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Lyla and Grandma came by the hospital Sunday afternoon to meet little Will. Lyla was intrigued, a little shy, a little curious. She definitely was aware that he was there and was receptive to us referring to him as her brother Will We'd been consistently asking Lyla where her brother was while Katherine was pregnant and she learned that he was inside of Katherine. So the concepts of "baby brother" and "Will" weren't foreign to her. There were a few times when I'd ask Lyla where her brother was and she'd point to Katherine. But overall I think she picked up pretty quickly that this kid was special.

I love the look of joy on her face. Katherine and I are both hopeful that Lyla and Will will grow up to be good friends, so the excitement that Lyla has expressed thusfar is real encouraging and heartwarming.

Where's your baby brother?

Can you give your brother a kiss?

She's still the best.

Shortly after Grandma and Lyla arrived, our friends Mandy (right) and Alisa (center) stopped by to visit. Mandy and Alisa are the mothers of Lyla's buddies Ian and Sadie (respectively) and it was Alisa's delicious pork tacos that sent Katherine into labor on Saturday night. I know they're both excited for the newest addition to their playgroup.

Will pics

Pictures from our adventures last night/this morning.

Post pushing, pre surgery picture. Kate is such a trooper.

The doors outside the operating room. Seems like only 15 months ago I was waiting anxiously outside these doors. (Looks like they've added some awesome decals to the doors in the last year.)

The boy emerges!!

Ooh, he does not like it out here.

Tending the umbilical cord.

Katherine and Will meet for the first time. Katherine was so much more aware this time around, the anesthesiologist did a great job.

7lbs 11 oz, what a big boy.

Mother and son. Katherine is such a great mother, it was awesome to see her love for Will come pouring out of her.

All cleaned up.

Tiny foot.
More pictures and videos later. I love my family.

It's a boy!!!!

William Kevin Ring was born at 3:25 am on March 15, 2009. Our beautiful boy weighs 7 lbs 10oz and is 20.5 inches long. Baby and mommy are doing fine, Will's sleeping in my arms right now and Katherine is resting. This was not how we were expecting today to end but it is definitely how I want this chapter of my life to start. I can't wait for you all to meet little Will.

We're having a baby!

It's 10pm on Saturday, March 14th and we are at the hospital. Katherine started having contractions earlier and they got quicker, closer, and more intense pretty quickly. Lyla's with the Macs, so pretty soon our son will be here. Pray for us.

-----update-----
It's not 11:45 on Saturday. Katherine was dilated about 7cm when we got to the hospital. They haven't checked her recently because the plan for right now is to wait at least an hour (target about 4 hours) because they're administering doses of an antibiotic for our little boy. Not sure when they're going to have her start pushing, I guess when it's time. So for now we're resting comfortably, watching Saturday Night Live starring Tracy Morgan. Our son will most likely be born March 15, 2009. Secretly I was hoping it would be the 16th so we'd have the same birthday. But I get a son, so this is going to be the best birthday ever.

Here's me and Katherine enjoying Room 3409.


----UPDATE----
2:50 pm Katherine did a great job, pushed from 1:15 until about 2:45 am. All this started after her water spontaneously broke around 1 am, to which we both remarked, we'll that's a first. Unfortunately, I kind of have a big head and so do my kids. So our little boy couldn't quite make it over (or under) the main hurdle. So we're about the head downstairs for a c-section. Should have a baby boy soon enough. One thing I have to say is Spectrum Health's staff is amazing. They've been great.

It's a boy!!

Or at least it will be sometime around March 17, 2009. For all y'all (that's southern for "those of you") who didn't know, Katherine's pregnant!! Again!! I know!! I can hardly believe it either!! Especially because Lyla and her little brother are only going to be 15 months apart in age. Next year is going to be CRAZY!!

Anyway, yesterday we went in for the ultrasound and the baby looks real healthy. We also found out the child's gender (we like to know the gender. I respect those who wait to find out a lot but Katherine and I both really enjoy knowing). During the ultrasound the little guy was being shy but the tech was able to get pretty good confirmation that he's a he. I personally hadn't spent much time before the ultrasound speculating about the gender, mainly because I didn't want to expose myself to the possibility of being excited. And also because I remember the rush of emotion when we found out Lyla was a girl and just the onslaught of anticipated future Daddy/Daughter experiences that came flooding in.

And yesterday the same thing happened. We saw that he's a boy and immediately I started thinking about my little man and playing catch and wrestling and teaching him to work on stuff and teaching him to be respectful and polite and chivalrous. It was (and continues to be great). Another thing I'm excited about is that he's the first boy among Katherine and my siblings. He has an older sister and two older girl cousins. Man are they going to terrorize him. It will be so much fun.
We've already received a number of suggestions for names from our family. Fortunately we have a lot of great names among the males in both our families. Right now the working name is "Michael Jeff-Jeff Stephen IsTheBest David Robot Awesome Dude 3000 Ring". Katherine and I are going to keep the real name to ourselves (probably) until he's born (like we did with Lyla), but think that might be easier said than done this time.

Anyway, we're super excited and it was so great to see him on the ultrasound. He's so cute. I can't wait to meet him.

Good Morning from Grand Rapids

Here is our house as it appeared when we moved in at the beginning of August.

And here is what it looked like when I walked outside this morning. I'm guessing this doesn't bode well for a balmy winter.

I was on my way to the dr.'s office when we took this. I had a Non-Stress Test, where they monitor the baby's heartbeat for 20-25 minutes to make sure she shows normal activity. She aced that, although mostly because she spent the last ten minutes kicking the sensor they had placed on my belly.

Then we went downstairs for an ultrasound where they checked out my levels of amniotic fluid. The tech was very relaxed about the whole thing from the moment I sat down, so we spent a few minutes just looking at the baby, checking for organs and what not. That also went well -- we are definitely having a girl! It was very interesting to see how much more baby there is inside of me right now! It was hard to make anything specific out in the pictures until the tech outlined it for us. Kevin seemed to have an easier time telling what was what, but I was looking at it sideways. My amniotic fluid levels were fine, so they're going to let me go a few more days. I have another Non-Stress Test scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and will have my normal weekly check-up after that. If she has not arrived by that point, we'll schedule an induction for later in the week.

At this point I think it would be almost a surprise if I do go into labor naturally. It feels like we've been waiting for her to get here for so long! It's really nice to know that one way or another, she'll be here within the week.

Snowflakes Keep Falling on my Head

Since we arrived in Grand Rapids four months ago, one of the most frequent questions we've received, apart from "Why did you move to Michigan?" is "Are you ready for winter?" We assured people that we both spent years on the East Coast, so we know what winter is like. In the past few days we've had temperatures consistently below 40 at all times of day and night, and have seen snow flurries several times, including this morning. And while we do know what winter is like, we are not quite ready for it. After living in Southern California for two and a half years, we both had to go out and buy socks -- all the ones we have are either dress socks or ankle socks. Because why do you need to cover more than your feet in Southern California? We've also both purchased new coats, long-sleeve shirts and sweaters. I still need to find some sort of waterproof boots. And I'm a little worried about what I"m going to wear post-baby. Conventional wisdom says you go back to the clothes you wore at around 5 months, but I was wearing dresses and shorts and tank tops at that point.

We are still waiting for baby to make her appearance. I'm officially late now. I have been having contractions for the past few days, but it's not quite enough to be active labor. I have a dr.'s appointment this afternoon, so we'll see what they say, but supposedly we're not even going to talk about inducing until next week. Physically I'm fine with that -- I would much rather go into labor naturally. But it is comforting to know that she will be here by some definite date. I do not want to be perpetually pregnant, especially since all the weight I'm gaining now is going straight to her. I'm starting to get a little top-heavy.

Waiting for baby

So, Baby Ring is due sometime between next Monday (the date indicated on the most recent ultrasound) and next Saturday (the date I am actually 40 weeks pregnant). But we want her to come now!

Nothing has worked so far. We've tried enticing her out with promises of new toys and fun times, but no go. We've been going for walks everyday, but it's gotten so cold I think that might be more of an incentive for her to stay in. We're collecting ideas from friends and books and websites about other ways to make her hurry up -- bumpy roads, painting nails and eggplant parmesan are the top three contenders right now.

In some ways this is so incredibly bizarre, because I know when she gets here everything in our lives is going to change. Kevin and I were talking about it last night, and agree that this is good training for the total pace-of-life change that will take place when she arrives. It's going to take us longer to get things done, and take more focus on our communication to decide on how to do things. It brings up questions about how we do things now and how we want things to be with our family in the future. And for every question we answer it looks like ten more will be raised.

So while we're waiting for her to get here, do we try and figure out all of these things? Or watch TV and read and eat delicious meals? I vote for the latter.