Our Family of Four: Welcoming Grant Robert

We are officially a family of four!  It seems so surreal saying that.  Our little guy finally made his entrance into the world and into our hearts on August 26th, 2015 at 10:22 AM.  He wasn't interested in coming into the world willingly, so we had an induction of labor when he was 3 days past his due date. 

Winnie Palmer Hospital has been very busy lately, for about the past 3 months in fact, our numbers of deliveries have been increased compared to previous years.  We are the second busiest Women and Babies hospital in the country delivering 14,000 babies every year.  That averages out to about 40 babies every 24 hours.  The numbers are mind boggling and the work is very busy.  That being said, sometimes people who are electively having their baby don't always get to come in at their scheduled time.  Take me for example.  They called me the night before to let me know it might be too busy for me to come in at my scheduled time at 5AM.  However, being that I work on the unit, they made me an offer.  Come in super early, at midnight, to secure my bed and get my induction started.  I didn't refuse, thinking I probably wouldn't get much sleep anyways, and we headed to the hospital in the dead of night.

Things were fast a furious once they started the medication to make me have contractions.  After I got my epidural, my midwife broke my water, and in no time I was completely dilated.  My medication was started at 1:30 AM and I was completely dilated at 5:30 AM!  Things progressed so fast that my epidural didn't quite cover my pain as well as it should have.  For the next four hours we worked on pain control, a little bit of pushing, and some position changes to get this little guy out.  We would also come to find out that Grant was positioned in a way some refer to as "sunny side up", his face was looking up towards the ceiling.  This makes everything a lot harder to get the baby out.  After about an hour of pushing, more pain control issues, and another 30 minutes more of pushing, we had our son!  Grant Robert finally came out at 10:22 AM.  The next few pictures show some of our first looks at him.

The look of pure joy and relief!

My son!

A very proud Daddy!

Snuggles with Grandma

Our big guy weighed in at 9 pounds 2.2 ounces!  I was shocked to say the least.  I had a suspicion he was going to be big just by the way my belly felt.  I was very big in the belly, and it felt very heavy, however I was always measuring normal when I went in for check ups.  Sophie was only 7 pounds 11 ounces, so this guy was a pound and a half bigger!  He has a voracious appetite to go along with all that poundage.  Thank goodness, because I have a lot of work to do to feed this guy, so he had better request it from me!

Big boy!!

First photo with Mommy and Daddy

Sophie was able to join us at the hospital later that evening when she was done with school.  The baby nurse wheeled him into the room and Sophie patiently awaited to see him.  This is one of her first looks at her baby brother.

 





Shortly after I placed him in her arms she said, "Mommy, you hold him?"  Still a little timid

When Sophie sat by my side looking at him, she just wanted to touch his face.  She spent a few minutes stroking his cheek and his very soft hair.  She wanted to touch every part of his face but we had to restrain her when it came to the eyes and such.  She's still a little unsure about holding him, and doesn't like it when he cries.  If he has a poopy diaper, she immediately asks for me to change him because she can't stand the smell or the idea of someone sitting in their poop.

First look!  Such a cute face on my girl

Brother and Sister, best buddies already

My dad got into town on Saturday, the day after we made it home from the hospital.  He was so excited to meet his new Grandson who's middle name is Robert after his Papa.  There is one thing that Grant does that is just like Grandpa.  When he sneezes, it's usually four in a row, and his Grandpa has a knack for sneezing multiple times in a row.  There is something about baby bodily functions that makes us all laugh every time.

Papa's first look at Grant

Milk Drunk!

"It's so bright out here!"

Morning snuggles

Daddy's new buddy

 

There is still plenty of debate going around about who Grant looks like.  The Swartz's say a Swartz and the York's have said a York.  We don't think he looks a whole lot like Sophie, except for maybe in the nose area.  Either way, he's a whole lot of cuteness!

Be still my heart...

First bath at home

Both of my babies liked getting their hair washed

Peek-a-boo!

On our way to our first doctors appointment

We have had an outpouring of well wishers and congratulations from family, friends and co-workers.  It's all been overwhelming and we feel so lucky to know such great people!  Grandma Cindy is staying to help us over the next month, so we are very fortunate to have her here, since she basically waits on all of us hand and foot, all while working from home for Pfizer!

Life is about to get crazy!  Check back to see if we're surviving :)

With a little extra love,

The Yorks
Dan, Jess, Sophie, and baby Grant

Fun with Family

Sophie and I took a trip to Illinois to visit my parents, family and friends over the July 4th holiday.  We had a nice baby shower as a part of the trip, you can check out more details about it in the previous post.  Or you can read about it by clicking here.  Sophie was so excited to see her Grandma and Grandpa.  She is especially fond of her Grandpa and found it hard to wait the length of the flight to see him.  Grandma was there at the airport to pick us up, so we began our adventure to the 'burbs.  The car ride is a bit long so we decided to entertain Grandma with a new song we learned.  Sophie learned "Blackbird" by the Beatles because I sing it to her at bedtime sometimes.  Grandma was so impressed she missed her turn and took us past O'Hare airport.  We had landed at Midway Airport...  Cue massive amounts of traffic and 30 minutes later we were back on track to get out to the 'burbs to see Grandpa.  Thanks for the fun detour Grandma!

 

Sophie thought she could fly to Illinois herself

Airplane nap!

Grandma and Grandpa worked long and hard to get all sorts of stuff to prepare for our visit.  Some of those things included toys and various items to entertain a busy 3 year old.  Luckily, their next door neighbor had a little girl who had outgrown plenty of things she used to play with.  Dress up clothes were included!  I think she spent a few hours changing into different outfits and modeling them for us.  She's definitely a girly girl!

A sassy pose

Who needs toys when you have an Uncle Brad!?

Pedicures are something I always make sure I'm in need of when visiting with my mom.  So we planned a girls morning to the salon to pretty our piggies!  Grandma Ardis, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Brad and Angie had all come to town to visit for a few days.  So we let the guys do their thing, and all of us girls headed out, including Sophie who was getting her very first pedicure!  Lucky little girl when Grandma is involved :)

Cute kiddie chairs

Not quite sure what's going on...

The gals!

 

Sophie and Mommy

A play house complete with a picnic table? Yes please!

We had a fun evening out for the July 4th festivities to see fireworks and enjoy a carnival.  We had some delicious fair food, I think Sophie's favorite thing was a corndog!  She is such a fan of hot dogs, it doesn't surprise me that she loved a breaded one on a stick!  We rode rides with Grandma and Grandpa and played some fun games to win some prizes.  The night was topped off with a great display of fireworks and Sophie loved every bit of it!

A yummy corndog

A carousel ride with Papa

A train ride with Grandma

While we were in Illinois, we had the pleasure of celebrating an 80th Birthday!  My dear friend Margie had a wonderful party celebrating the big event.  She used to babysit me when I was a lot younger, and we have kept in touch ever since.  She is more like a grandmother to me and a big part of our family.  Margie and her husband Rufus have always been big fans of all things Hawaii, including Luaus, hulas, leis and mai tai's.  So naturally she had a party with a Hawaiian theme!  We were entertained by a hula dancer that has been performing at Margie's parties for as long as I can remember, so probably 30 years or so!  She got the audience to participate and had some pretty great moves still after all these years.

Sophie danced with Grandma and Margie

Our entertainment



Margie performing a hula dance

Silly Grandpa did a hula dance too!

Sophie and Margie

Selfie time!

On the last day of our visit we visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  We have all been to this museum plenty of times, but this was Sophie's first visit.  She had a great time seeing all of the exhibits!

Jolly ball!  We love this thing!!

Watching chicks hatch



Hey, that's our name!

On a train engine with Grandma

Getting Sophie to go to bed is always a challenge these days.  She's three, it's to be expected I suppose.  Triple that challenge when we're having so much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  So I put other people in charge occasionally.  Grandpa had his turn to tuck Sophie in and read her books before bed one night.  He thought he had conquered the task one evening when we saw Sophie come downstairs saying she had to go potty or needed a song sung to her.  Grandpa was immediately back on task and took her upstairs.  Her bedtime was quite late while we were visiting, but I chalked it up to being on vacation and having a good time.  This night was, however, getting pretty late, so I decided to go upstairs and call it quits on book and song time.  This is how I found Grandpa and Sophie...

Nice job Grandpa

We finished our trip with a visit to the old neighborhood where I grew up.  We drove past our two previous houses and pointed out all of the old landmarks around town while wondering how long others had been gone.  We finished the evening at an old hangout of mine, Happy Jacks.  They had started off as an ice cream store and added on with a restaurant.  Thank goodness it still stands because it is always delicious!

Finally, dinner at one of my favorite spots!  Happy Jacks

That concluded the adventures of our trip home.  We had a wonderful time with everyone!

 

Much Love,

 

The Yorks