He's losing on us!

Well, we visited the doctor -- nurse, actually -- today for Jude's two day appointment. We left the hospital with him weighing 6 lbs, 9 oz. At today's appointment, he weighed only 6 lbs, 5 oz. The nurse that saw us was someone we had never met before.

Without an established rapport, she came across as overly concerned and put us into a semi-panicked state. She was very concerned with Jude's weight loss and advised us to supplement formula to Jude's normal diet of breast milk. Amanda and I both took that -- like a bunch of granola-heads -- as a personal challenge. We want so badly to prove that we can make him gain weight without formula! Amanda fed Jude today every 1-2 hours.

He was feeding so often that I thought it might work better for her to not wear a shirt?! (Yeah, I probably should keep that one to myself!) Jude sure was a busy bee though today. It's almost 10 pm, and poor Jude is just worn out. I had to laugh . . .Amanda had just finished feeding him for what seemed like the 100th time today and he started hiccuping. I wasn't sure which end his noises were coming from, and so I asked her.


Amanda propped Jude up to burp him and he just looked like this drunk sailor! After being fed all through the day, there he sat . . .his hat about falling off, hiccuping, not able to sit up straight and just wanting to sleep. Poor Jude!

To our friends of faith, please pray that Jude would gain weight between now and our next appointment this coming Saturday morning. Thank you!

3/1 UPDATE: Jude made his Saturday weigh in with some to spare. He weighed in at 6 lbs., 8.8 ounces, just .2 ounces short of what his weight was when we left the hospital. Praise God!

Hey Jude!

As you can imagine, we've gotten tons of feedback on Jude's name in the three days he's been with us.

For some, his name might conger up images of Paul McCartney singing the Beatles song, "Hey Jude." That's not such a bad thing. How can a band sell 8 million copies of a song and it be bad?! I'd call it (i.e., the song) safe.

The NFL thought he was a safe bet, bringing him in for the Superbowl the year after Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction! As part of getting Amanda's vote, it also didn't hurt that Jude Law is one handsome Brit!

Back to the Beatles . . .a buddy of mine sent me this YouTube video . . .priceless, thanks Truen! If you want to sing along to the song, LyricsFreak has the lyrics.

When you're done singing along, you might be interested to know that in Hebrew, the name Jude means praised, or "he shall be praised." The Greek version of the name is Judas -- we didn't name our child Judas. But Jude is referred to as Judas in this Bible verse (or this), which gives us insight that Jude was probably a half-brother to Jesus.

There's also a very good study aid at BlueLetterBible.org on the book of Jude. I actually haven't read the book for a long time, so writing this post has given me some motivation to dig in and learn what Jude has to say about false teachers of the day and what that means for us today.

I write all of this to try and deepen the meaning of his name, but in the end, we chose it because we thought it was a cool name, it didn't bring up images of horrible former students, and it has a historical biblical connotation. This child was the answer to prayers of ours and many of our friends and family for over 3 years.

Because of having to wait to meet him, we've grown in maturity and have a deepened understanding of what it means to be his parents. For this, we praise Him! More on that in a future post . . .

Living on love

Well, we made it through our first night. Diana asked Amanda, "Are you living on love?" Interesting how that phrase has so much more meaning, even after just one day.

One problem we encountered was how to keep the pacifier in his mouth. At 3:30 in the morning, images of psycho moms or nightmare daycares come to mind. We learned from some friends that a trick is to swaddle him super tight, and to let some of his swaddling ride high so it goes over his face a little bit. Very nice!

While we're on the topic of swaddling, I'll share that the Gerber swaddling blankets we got from Wal-mart are a bit small for him, even at 7 lbs.

The leg bone's connected to the . . .

It's day one, and we can't keep our eyes off of little Jude. It's so amazing to see his little body parts and to know that he was holed up, being knit inside mommy's belly for the past 9 months.

We dug up my baby photo (left), which we can compare with Jude's (right):

So here's our attempt at describing what he inherited:

Amanda	Dave	Body Part
X	X	Toes -- long toes and fingers!
	X	Calves-- skinny legs!
?	?	Butt-- verdict's out yet, let's hope he doesn't have Dave's big butt!A: I hope he has your butt!
?	?	Torso
X	X	Fingers -- long fingers!
	X	Hands -- Jude seems to have Dave's and his grandpa's hands
	X	Complexion -- fair-skinned with no hair!
	X	Chin -- he has Dave's underbite
X		Jawline -- he has the Kapilla Jawline
X		Nose -- thank you Jesus!
	X	Eyes - blue? that would be a surprise!
X		Eye shape -- Amanda's almond-shaped eyes
?	?	Ears-- maybe Dave's

2/27 UPDATE: Our friend Dan thought he looked more like me -- or at least had my hair!

That's what we're paying the nurses for!

Amanda and I wanted to bond with little Jude his first night in this world. As she told me later, she had just fed Jude and laid down to sleep with him on her chest. After some time, she started to smell his diaper. Ever heard of meconium (see right)?!

So it's like 3 in the morning or something like that, and I'm over in the pull-out chair/couch thing getting some decent Zzz's and I woke me to Amanda sitting up in bed with Jude trying to change his diaper. I don't even remember if she was asking for help or if it was Jude crying or something else.

If anyone knows me, I can fall asleep in less time than it takes someone to tie their shoe, and I sleep so deep I miss most evening thunderstorms. I was like, what are you waking me up for? And why are you changing his diaper?! That's what we're paying the hospital for!!! If' we're going to do it this way, let's go home!

Our friends had warned us that being in the hospital would be a refuge for soon-to-be sleep-deprived parents. In the moment, my guess is that she was a big frustrated with me . After laboring all night Friday night, she was already sleep-deprived.

Did I mention that I'm one astute fella? We did have a pretty good laugh about it this morning though . . .

Welcome Jude Mark!

Please join us in welcoming Jude Mark to the kapallen clan!

Born: February 23
Time: 6:33 p.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 0 oz.
Length: 19 inches

When we get home, we'll post some of the details about the labor and delivery process. Amanda was such a champ, laboring 8 hours at home and 18 in the hospital! After just 45 minutes of pushing, out came the first and only of the next generation of the Van Allen family namesake!

"Easy" does it

Amanda started pushing at 5:45, just when her dad arrived at the hospital. We had been in communication with family all day long. Mark finished his shift at 3 and immediately got on the road. After a long 2 hour drive, he was with us on the Labor and Delivery floor. Another nurse came in and said, "Amanda, your dad is here." We just looked at each other and thought, "What do we do?"

Our nurse had instructed us how to push. She wanted us to do 3 sets of counts to 10 seconds during each contraction with rest in between. We were in our second 10-count when I asked if we could stop and talk to her dad. That was a special moment!

After a quick connection with her dad, we were back on task. Pushing was hard at first because of the epidural. Her face would get real read because she wasn't pushing quite right. The epidural had partially worn off by now, but not so much that it was painful -- just enough to get a feel for when she was pushing.

With a little help from what looked kind of like a wardrobe mirror, Jude was born just 45 minutes later. I think the most exciting part of the whole experience for me was to see him exit the birth canal. Here's this little baby with his shoulders pushed together and neck and legs tucked tight. He came out of the birth canal like a transformers toy, shoulders, back and legs all straightening out as he explored the newfound space of the expansiveness around him.

Because of how he sat in the birth canal, his head had a big purple knot on it for the first few hours. By Sunday morning, it had reduced to the appearance of a light hickey-bruise.

Around 7 pm, Amanda's mom called to say that her train was almost in town. Amanda hadn't eaten now for almost 24 hours and was starving by now, so Mark and I left to pick some dinner up on the way to picking Linda up. Amanda's first post-birth meal: a PotBelly's Turkey & Swiss on white with a chocolate milkshake.

As we sat and talked about her labor, Amanda told us, "If I had to do this again next week, I could do it." While there's nothing easy about labor, after her painful first trimester, she had been gifted a wonderful delivery experience.

To that I say, "Bring on #2!"

The ninth inning!

We're down to the wire now. Amanda hit 8 cm around 3:30 pm and by 5:30 was 10 cm and fetal station +2. At this point, we thought about having Amanda's epidural topped off, but it was too late. We're ready to start pushing!

If I get a chance to, I'll add a video to this post later. Amanda gave me very specific instructions on how to count. "You have to count steady, don't slow down. 1, 2, 3. Hold my head up. You should have watched 'A Baby Story' with me this week, you would have gotten it all." How funny!

Amanda had DVR'ed like 10 episodes at the neighbor's house (Tom & Sue's) while they were on vacation in Florida and watched most of them during her two off days this week.

The eighth inning

When I got back from the cafeteria, I arrived and was surprised to see Amanda wearing an oxygen mask and a heart monitor probe attached to the baby's head! The nurse said that the heart monitor inside the elastic band around Amanda's waist wasn't picking up a signal and that the probe was a necessary step. Giving her oxygen was just a precautionary measure.

Amanda, you'll love that I've chronicled this for history! After arriving back and catching up on her progress -- she was now dilated to 6 cm -- I decided to kick back and relax with Amanda. By now, the epidural was in full effect and she wasn't feeling a thing. I had the reclining chair pulled out so I could face Amanda and was in a full horizontal stretch when she asked me, "What smells like Cheetos?" I couldn't smell it, but she sure could. Turns out the reason I couldn't smell it was because the smell was exactly 6 feet from my nose (it was my feet!).

The seventh inning stretch

The doctor came in to check on Amanda around 1 pm. Since she was at 5 cm the doctor decided to break her water. They told us that things should start to move a little more quickly now. As if they could go any slower!

Knowing this might be my last chance, I decided to head down to snack on some chili before the going gets rough!

The sixth inning

Now dilated to 4 cm, Amanda was given her pitocin around 11:40 am. About 20 minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural. How much do you think that changed her outlook? (See below for the answer.)

The administration of the epidural was a little stressful though. As the anesthesiologist was looking for the space between the vertebrae in her back, he told her that he would need to slightly adjust the position of the needle if she started to tingle. It wasn't painful at all for her, but was stressful for me to watch!

The fifth inning

It's morning now, and we've made it through the night. Amanda's now dilated to 3 cm and is 100% effaced. She's lost her mucus plug, but her water hasn't broken yet.

Once they gave Amanda the nubain narcotic medicine, they told us she wasn't allowed to have anything but ice chips. What fun is that?! Like a good husband, I sneaked her some ice water and Gatorade on occasion.

Things so far really have been going our way. Who am I to say -- I'm sure Amanda would have hoped to be more advanced than she was when we got to the hospital, and to experience a little less back labor -- but, all in all, it's been pretty good so far. Our next move was to try out the birthing tub.

We had the nurses filling up the tub earlier this morning. As they were filling it up, I caught them reading the instruction manual. Apparently it doesn't get much use! They filled it up half way and the temperature was reading over the maximum recommended 100°F, so they made us wait for it to cool down. (The whole time I'm thinking, why can't we just add some cold water to it?!)

Well, after an hour of waiting -- and listening to the screaming woman across the hall deliver a baby without an epidural -- Amanda finally got her bath. It really did seem cozy -- soft music, soft lights, a good book and a nice big tub filled with warm water.

At this point, I was starting to get hungry and had two alternatives to choose from: make a 10 minute walk for some cafeteria food or walk down 2 flights of stairs and drive the 7 blocks home. Bacon and eggs were sounding pretty good, so I made my way home.

Not a bad choice at all -- I made it home and back to the hospital in just 40 minutes. When I got there, Amanda was practically asleep in the tub! I excused myself to the delivery room where she joined me 20 minutes later . . .

Needling butterflies

The nurse told us that she was going to administer nubain to help with the back labor. She thought the baby might have been twisted or in an awkward position. In order to do this, she had to hook up an IV. Dave and I both told her that my veins were very hard to find, and the best thing to do is use a butterfly from the start.

The first nurse tried a few times and poked around. They never believe Dave or me when we say that I have difficult veins. Each new nurse thinks they are super nurse and take my veins as a personal challenge to overcome at the cost of my bruised arms.

The second nurse was finally able to tap a vein in my forearm. Once the nubain was working, I started to believe that medication was the way to go!

The third inning

Pre-registered, checked-in and now situated in our room, we decided to walk the halls for what seemed to be hours. Well, I guess it did last a few hours! Amanda and I began walking the halls off an on around 1:30 am. By 2 am, she was still just 2 cm dilated, but was 90% effaced.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, Amanda went to the doctor's who told her that she was 70-80% effaced. All that time had passed -- including laboring at home -- and we only gained that?!

We walked the halls until 3:30 am or so. She was experiencing some good back labor and, by then, it was getting to the point where walking around wasn't helping any more. Time for some medication!

Final preparations

With all of our preparations made, I thought it would be a good idea to try and get some sleep. That was easy enough for Dave!

I, on the other hand, was busy nesting in high gear . . . I took a bath (couldn't have hairy legs for the big event!). Cleaned the bathroom. Organized more baby stuff. Prepared the guest room for my parents. Tried to fall asleep (hoping I would be one of those lucky ones that could sleep during labor), but that did not work. So I tried reading to pass some time. But when I found myself unable to finish a paragraph due to the sharp pain in my abdomen, I figured it was time to wake Dave and get on the road to the hospital.

I woke Dave up shortly after midnight. He packed the car and we drove off with Pacey chasing us down the street. JC and Zsuzsanna offered to watch Pacey when the time came, and sure enough, the time was here. Dave walked Pacey up to their door and, surprisingly, JC was still awake. Keslie sure was happy see Pacey.

With all of our preparations complete, we made the 7-block drive to the hospital. We arrived at the emergency room entrance around 12:30 am and, after filling out some quick paperwork, wheeled up to the labor and delivery area (note: pre-registering ahead of time saved us time when quickness counted.) They put us in room 4, the same room we had for our practice run.

Wrapping things up @ home

With the movie over, we went home and made final preparations.

Task #1: I packed my overnight bag and moved our bags to the front door. Of course, Amanda has had her bag packed for a month or so already.

Task#2: Molly, our neighbor's dog, was still under our care. We knew that wasn't going to work out for the next few days, so I walked across the street to Dave and Cathy's hoping that they would be able to help out. Cathy was out of town, but Dave was home chilling out. Amanda was having contractions that were about 5 minutes apart at this point, and when I told him that, his eyes got pretty big! I said that if I called him between 6 am and 8 am, we would probably be at the hospital, and if I called after 8 am, we were probably sleeping in!

Thankfully, David was more than gracious and offered to watch Molly until Tom and Sue came home.

Our last DINK date!

This may be a bit of reversionist history, as I'm actually writing this on 3/8, but it's all for a good cause. Jude's been around for 2 weeks now, but I'd like to write some of this down so we don't forget. For Jude's sake, let's hope I can remember everything.

Amanda started feeling her contractions around 4 pm today. They were just different enough for her to know that they weren't the same as she had been feeling over the past few weeks. These were more regular in timing, coming about 12 minutes apart.

We had been talking about going out for dinner and a movie and, by this time, were fairly certain it would be our last date without a sitter. We made it over to Steak-and-Shake around 5:30 pm for their $2.99 double steakburger and fries deal. I had 2.

Afterwards, we caught the 6:50 pm showing of Juno at the new movie theater in town. Juno is a story about a high school girl who gets pregnant and has to decide between abortion and giving her baby up for adoption. What a great movie . . .great topic targeted at the right age group -- and super funny! My favorite quote was when Juno found out that she was pregnant. After buying her third pregnancy test, the drugstore clerk says to her, "That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet."

At the end of the movie, she delivers the baby. There's nothing like watching a movie about a pregnant teenager to get you in the mood to give birth. I highly recommend this route. For Amanda, all throughout the movie she was timing her contractions by looking at the clock on my cell phone. Three to 4 minutes apart. Yikes!

Surprise . . .Happy Valentine's Day!

After Tuesday night's practice run, I was a little worried that my little surprise wouldn't work. Well not to worry . . .it worked exactly as planned!

Look at that picture of her . . .isn't she the most beautiful 9-month pregnant woman you've seen?! Thursday was Valentine's Day, and after Amanda got me last year, I couldn't resist repaying the favor.

Last year, Amanda went in together with some girlfriends and surprised me and two of my co-workers (Scott and Rob) with a singing barbershop quartet. Imagine 3 guys standing next to each other being serenaded by four old-timers. Yep, and not to just one song, but two!

This year, Amanda's third hour class was able to witness first-hand the depths of our love. They were happy to partake -- and skip out on their planned quiz. I hope they thank me this Tuesday when I come in to wrap up week 3 of our Junior Achievement curriculum.

On a side note, you can't beat the price on this hot deal. The price tag includes two songs, a rose, a box chocolate and photos of the event with your significant other in full surprise mode -- which is priceless!

Baby name sites

There are probably a billion baby name web sites out there. I started with the Social Security Administration's site and then Googled around for some other ones.

There were 2 that I missed that a friend of ours (Summer) told me about today. Scott, you'll love these sites:

1. Nymbler is a site that allows you to start with up to 6 names ("inspirations")and then explore names they consider similar. From there, you can add names to a favorites list or block them. I have a feeling that the block feature really scores with the soon-to-be-parent teacher crowd.
   
2. The Baby Name Voyager brings alive the SSA's database list of popular names. They graph names in a java application that allows you to see the popularity of a baby name over time starting in the 1880s. Very cool.

Our practice run!

We don't know what labor looks like. What first-time couple would? We had been saying all along that we'd like to labor at home until Amanda gets into active labor. After our experience Wednesday morning, I almost thought we missed our shot!

Amanda woke me up at like 12:30 am with a strong contraction that had been lasting for an hour and counting. I hadn't really gone to sleep yet. (With her not getting good sleep at night, she's been going to bed early and I've been staying up late.)

So around 1 am, she called the Ask-A-Nurse hotline to find out if what she was experiencing was anything to be concerned with. In today's world of liability-conscious companies, they wouldn't give out any real answers. Instead, they transferred her twice, made her call back and -- when she got a hold of someone that was ready to do their job, we were told that we should go to the hospital . . .so there we stayed all night long. Well, sort of.

We got there and, after hooking her up to a bunch of machines, they told us that she might be in early labor. Amanda's strong/long contraction had subsided by this time, and we both had the feeling that we might be going through the motions of false labor. Her contractions were at irregular intervals between 3 and 6 minutes apart. The nurse told us that we could go into active labor and have this baby today, or that it might be another 2 weeks.

The nurse put a call into our doctor, who advised that we should probably stay over until morning (around 7 am). We only live 7 blocks from the hospital, and with only a recliner available, I thought it'd be easier to get some sleep at home.

They told us she'd be there until at least 7 am, but my phone rang at 5 am with Amanda on the other end saying she was being released and was ready to come home (there went my sleep!). So I drove the 3 minute commute and picked her up. Needless to say, neither of us went to work yesterday!

On a happy note, at least we were able to get a practice run in. Now, we know what the routine is. Amanda's vowed not to go to the hospital until she's in active labor! They wouldn't let her have anything but crackers and water -- and she probably would have been limited to ice chips if she had been any further along (water breaking, etc.)!

Full moon babies

So we took our tour today at the hospital, and the delivery room nurses said that they get busy when there's a full moon out. The next full moon is Thursday the 21st of February.

We're due on the 25th, so I guess we'll see what happens! Is there truth in the statement that mothers go into labor more when there's a full moon? Maybe we'll be a few days early . . .

Our baby has hazel eyes!

OK, it might not be 100% certain, but according to the science guys at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, they think our baby has a 30% chance of having blue eyes and a 70% chance for green (hazel) eyes. (That is assuming I've remembered correctly the color of my mother-in-law's eyes!)