Welcoming Peter

Peter Christopher Silva was born January 14, 2014.  
Here's how he got here...

On Monday January 13th, Chris and I sat in our living room winding down for the evening.  We had just returned from a potluck FHE with some other families in the MBA program.  Jane was in bed.
Chris looked over at me sitting on the couch holding my big belly with a pained look on my face.  "Are we going to have a baby tonight?" he asked.  I laughed.  I was exactly two weeks to my due date.  "I'm just wondering if I'm feeling a contraction or if I just need to go to the bathroom," I said.  In the end I decided it was gastrointestinal and dismissed it.  A little later around 10pm, I stood up and felt a tiny gush of water.  When my water broke with Jane, it was a big gush of water, so I wasn't certain that this was the real thing.  We spent a little time investigating on the internet, but when it started happening more frequently, it became apparent that this baby really was coming tonight.  We showered and ate, packed bags and made arrangements for Jane.  By the time we dropped her off with our dear friends, the Paxsons, it was midnight.  We checked into the hospital around 12:30 and confirmed that my water had broken.  They started me on Pitocin to get my contractions more regular, I was feeling a little discomfort on the way to the hospital, but I honestly wasn't even sure they were contractions.  Around 3AM, I started to get really tired and asked for my epidural so I could just go to sleep.  With big, heavy, numb legs, I fell into a not terribly restful sleep.  When I woke up around 6 am, I felt some intense downward pressure with each contraction.  I notified the nurse and she checked me.  Within minutes the room was buzzing with nurses and the doctor setting up equipment and getting in position.  After three quick pushes, Peter slid out at 6:51AM and they laid him on my tummy while they cleaned him up a little.  He was perfect and nearly as calm as Jane was.   He weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz, was 19" long, and sported a pretty good head of hair.  I can't believe how smoothly it all went.  We feel incredible blessed to have him come healthy, happy, and two weeks early.  Chris even had a six day MBA break starting the day after he arrived.  It couldn't have been more perfect.

Peter's first bath.

A not so flattering picture of me post-delivery.

 

 

Chris picked up Jane later that morning and brought her by to meet Peter.  She touched him very gently and waved her hand and said "hi".   She's been mostly very gentle and sweet with him ever since.

 

 

 Grumpy face.

Crystal Cove

Crystal Cove is beautiful beach state park.  The picturesque village was originally built as a sea side colony movie set in the 1930s and the beach is full of tide pools and sandy coves.  We went down for a nice walk and some tide pool exploration, but didn't expect it to be such a beautiful beach day.  I wish we'd brought swimsuits and towels.

  Mason doesn't look too excited to be holding this starfish.

 

 

 Jane was surprisingly interested in touching the sea life.  She loved to poke the sea anemones and watch them recoil.  It's so fun to watch her explore things.

Lunch at the Shake Shack.  Tasty, but over-priced.

Christmas

 We drove down to California for the holidays.  My back has been giving me just a little more trouble these days, so I was a little worried it was going to be a miserable drive, but we all managed quite surprising well...  Even though the normally 9 hour trip took us 13.5 hours. More frequent stops for me and a detour in Las Vegas contributed, but mostly it was traffic south of Barstow, CA.  We made it though, and the 80 degree weather was worth it.  We got in on the 23rd and spent Christmas Eve with the Reids.  They whipped up a superb Christmas dinner complete with a spiral cut ham, candied yams, and martinelli's.  It was a fun evening.

We had Christmas morning at Chris' mom's house.  Jane came downstairs to a Little People Noah's Ark  from Santa.  She was interested, but not nearly as excited as she was about the hot wheels cars she got in her stocking.  She also got a stuffed penguin, some books and Disney's Peter Pan (which she watched several times while we were there).  She got a baby doll from Grandma Silva and a baby Anna doll (Frozen) from Grandpa.

Before we left for California we opened a few presents including this one from my parents for Jane.  She was pretty excited about her pony, but the real treat was when she found out it played music and talked. She would push the button and sit down in front of the mouth and swing her arms back and forth.  It's the first time we've really seen her bust out a real dance move.

 We did Christmas dinner at Erik and Juliana's house.  As the only toddler in a house full of adults, Jane was well taken care of.  She got passed from person to person, but that doesn't really bother her.  Mostly, though, she just wanted to follow the dogs around and pet them occasionally.

 

 I got to go to Laura's baby shower while we were there.  She is due with a little girl just a week before I'm due.

 Cute little Reid kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 36 weeks pregnant.