In this last photo, I was quickly trying to catch a sweet moment at the airport, but for some reason my camera focused on the background instead of on Angie and Fenn. Oh well, you can still see what's going on.
.jpg)
After Fenn's nap, Aunt Angie brought Fenn to the hospital for a visit. Fenn and Boone wore their adorable Big Brother & Lil' Brother t-shirts. They were made by Becky of Polka Daisies. Click on the link and check out her blog. She makes all sorts of adorable stuff for kids.
.jpg)
I know... I know... we changed the name on you. At the last minute, we decided not to use William and went instead with Joshua. And unfortunately, we couldn't figure out a way to let Boone be his first name, so he's going to have to deal with being called Joshua and having to correct people a lot. Boone Joshua just doesn't flow as well, and I don't want people to start calling him BJ. Personally, I'm not really all that fond of initials being used as an actual name (versus just being used as a nickname), but then I also don't like the way almost every phrase has been turned into an acronym these days. I guess I just don't like for things to be abbreviated.
We appreciate everyone participating in the name poll. It was really fun to see which name was the most popular. I wanted to let you know why we decided to go with Boone. First of all, we just like the name and think it is unique (like Fenn's name). But also what helped seal the deal (at least for me) was the feedback we got from some young people. Someone I work with was telling her teenage son and nephew about our name choices. They didn't really like Liam, but when she said we were thinking about Boone, they said "That's a cool name." And then Dan was telling some girls down the street (I think they're around 12 or 13) that we were probably naming him Boone and they really liked the name, too. So I think it's a good sign that young people like the name. Now... onto the birth.
I got up around 4:00 a.m. to start getting ready to go to the hospital. We were supposed to be there at 6:00. Right before leaving, I went into Fenn's room to pat him on the back and tell him goodbye. I was hoping not to wake him, but as soon as I touched his back he popped up. So Dan and I gave him quick hugs and kisses before leaving him with his Aunt Angie. We were so fortunate that Angie was willing to come and take care of Fenn while we were in the hospital. We arrived at Parkwest Hospital around 6:15 a.m. Since we had already done the pre-admission stuff a couple of weeks ago, things went quickly. They induced me (i.e., started the Pitocin) around 7:30 a.m. Dr. Cottam came in and broke my water around 7:45 a.m. At this point, I was already dilated about 2 centimeters. Aunt Angie brought Fenn by for a quick visit before taking him to school. It was so good to see my little man for a few minutes. We let him go to school in an effort to keep his schedule as normal as possible. I tolerated the contractions for a little while. But once they started becoming pretty intense, I asked for the epidural and got it around 9:30 a.m.
The morning went by pretty quickly, and I had dilated a little more each time they checked me. This time was a little different than when Fenn was born. With Fenn, I didn't really feel anything once I got the epidural. But with Boone, even though I wasn't feeling any real pain, I was feeling a LOT of pressure. Although it wasn't unbearable (thank goodness for the epidural!), it was definitely very uncomfortable. As with Fenn, we had our Bose stereo with us and listened to some great music all morning (Michael Buble', Shawn Mullins, Ray Charles, etc.). Because Fenn's birth went so smoothly and we had so much fun that day, I wanted to listen to some of the same music. Call me superstitious! Angie came back to the hospital after taking Fenn to school. And my mom got there sometime between 10:30 and 11:00.
By lunchtime, we were getting really close. I can't remember how much I had dilated by this time, though. But between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m., things progressed faster than I was mentally prepared for. Right before 1:00, Leigh (my labor & delivery nurse) told me to push. I thought she just wanted me to do a couple of practice pushes so she could see how I was going to do and how the baby was going to move. But then I realized it was really time for me to push. And Dan had stepped out of the room to go down the hall to the waiting area. I started asking where Dan was, and for some reason I thought he was just outside the room and couldn't get in past all the hospital staff for some reason. Once I figured out he was actually down the hall, I started worrying about him missing Boone's birth because I was already pushing and he was coming fast. I kept saying, "Somebody get Dan. Somebody get him in here now!" He did make it in time, but probably not until a couple of minutes after 1:00. I officially started pushing at 12:59 p.m. Nine minutes later, after just 5 pushes, Joshua Boone Piper arrived at 1:08 p.m. on Friday, May 15, 2009 to the sounds of Ray Charles (the Ray soundtrack). Within a few minutes after he arrived, I commented that I didn't know which song was playing. One of the nurses immediately said it was "Georgia On My Mind". That's appropriate since Dan and I met in Georgia. Boone weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. This is one of the very first photos taken of Boone.
He came into this world with a head full of dark, wavy hair. And it looks like he'll have brown eyes eventually because right now they're that dark gray-blue color. Keep in mind that Fenn arrived with a head full of very blonde hair and eyes that were obviously going to stay blue.
Just like with Fenn, my mom was there during the delivery... she was on one side and Dan was on the other. Thanks for being there Mom!
Not long after Boone's arrival, he got to meet his Aunt Angie and his Grami & Poppy.
Angie picked up Fenn from school a little early and brought him back to the hospital to meet his little brother. When he walked in the room, he was carrying a bouquet of multi-colored roses for me. So sweet! When he got up on the hospital bed with me while I was holding Boone, he quickly started trying to push Boone away. Uh oh... not a good sign. I don't think he liked the fact that I was holding another baby. And I'm sure he was a little confused about why I was in the hospital bed. All in all, we think it went pretty well for the first meeting. Here's our first family photo. (Wish it was more in focus, but one of the nurses took it.) Our family is complete now.
.jpg)
While Fenn was napping, Dan insisted we do a little photo shoot of me and my belly. Unfortunately, we were so busy during this pregnancy, that we didn't take as many photos of me as we would have liked. But we do have some at different points throughout the pregnancy.
I'm proud to say I don't have the first stretch mark on my belly!
Later in the afternoon, we went back out to do a few more shots and were able to get a pretty decent family photo and a sweet photo of Fenn.
We're pretty excited around here. Just 5 more days until we meet Piperbean #2!
Fenn is chasing the bubbles coming out of his mower (which his daddy is pushing). Notice his hands... he's signing "more".
Next are some fun shots of Fenn playing with his big bottle of bubbles.
And this is the "new normal" at pretty much any mealtime in our household. Petey learned pretty quickly that the place to be is in the kitchen whenever Fenn is in his highchair.
