Welcome Seth!

The much anticipated baby decided to arrive! Seth Johnathan Goodman was born at 2:38 am on February 17th, 2015. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz at birth, and 6 lbs 15 oz at 24 hours when we left the hospital. 21" tall. 

With Ada being early we really had expectations of another early or at least on time baby, but he thought 4 days late was the way to go... 

Anyway birth story below, definitely TMI so read at your own risk :)

On Saturday night I started having a tiny bit of blood, and slightly more intense Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing major. On Sunday night and Monday I had really bad hip/groin pain on the right side. I had it periodically during pregnancy but never for this long. Basically if I was standing or moving quickly, and the baby decided to move in a certain way, it was really painful, pinched nerve/severe muscle cramp feeling. Since it correlated with his movements, I was hopeful it would go away after birth, but I was stressed it would cause issues during labor. 

Anyway after not a great day on Monday, I went to bed and maybe dozed for a few minutes before my first contraction at 10:53pm. I checked the clock to get a rough estimate of spacing. I think my sac broke at that point too, though just a tear as I pretty much trickled all night (no gush). They weren't really close together, but intense enough that I woke up Ty at 11:30. As with Ada, my contractions were sporadic. ~6 minutes apart, with the occasional double length one. I took a Zofran and managed to keep down fluid, unlike with Ada. Yay for advance preparation. I think that part would have gone the same for me (nausea during contractions) since I felt it but managed to control with the Zofran.  Given the intensity we called the OB (Damon Cobb - I picked him as I heard he is one of the 2 San Diego OBs who are pro-natural birth) just before 1am and he just said we could come get checked if we wanted. So Ty packed up the car, my mom moved down to the couch to be able to hear Ada, and we were on our way to Pomerado Hospital at 1:30ish. After pulling off the highway I had a contraction with urge to push. But we were most of the way there... one more in the car, 1 in the parking lot, walked through the ER. (In retrospect maybe should have stopped for  a wheelchair...). Between the ER and the elevators to L&D, I had 2 more contractions and I dropped to my hands and knees to get through them. Ty was unsure what to do at this point (go get help, keep slowly working our way to the elevators, or deliver the baby himself in the hallway), but I didn't want him to leave me alone. So we made it up to L&D at ~2am, I wrote my initials on who knows what form (might have accidentally given away the baby) and told them I had felt the urge to push. Dad note: We were then assigned the closest delivery room to the desk, since the look on Rachel's face said that it was the perfect room (location, location, location).

We got set up under monitors, they checked me and said I was a 5-6 cm and very thinned. That was horrible to hear because they wanted me to not push and I felt like I had so far to go! (Ada was born ~5 hours after I was measured at 8 cm). They put me on my left side to slow things down and I struggled to get through contractions without pushing (which in my opinion is near impossible - you can maybe cut back intensity but to completely not push?). Between contractions they were attempting to set up a saline lock. That never made it in. 

[Side note, after getting home I heard the story that when my grandma was birthing my mom, the doctor wasn't there yet so they tied her legs together. I can no longer complain about being told not to push.] 

Back to it, the OB made it in and saved the day, he checked me and said let's have a baby, go ahead and push, and said it would probably be 2-3 pushes. He was right if I remember, it was 3 contractions worth of pushing and the baby was out. The staff was really great about getting him straight to my chest for some bonding time.

Remarkably different experience than with Ada. Slow and gentle and steady with her, and fast and intense with him. Not sure which I'd choose...

Dad's notes:

Rachel was amazing through the whole process. She handled some really intense contractions in less than ideal circumstances (in a car...in the hallway). After the delivery she somehow found the energy to start the slow and difficult process of breastfeeding. I was almost literally passing out and I didn't even do any of the hard work. She stayed up for hours after patiently working with Seth to get him used to the new world he had been brought into.

We were so lucky to have Rachel's parents out here to help us out. They were great in helping us get ready for the baby and ease some of the stress on us during the whole process. Not to mention, if they hadn't been here we would have had to drop Ada off in the middle of the night at a friends house, and there is a very good chance we would have had a far more interesting story about a roadside, daddy mediated delivery (hopefully, that would have still had a happy ending).

So far, Seth has been a great baby. All his vitals are fine, he is sleeping and feeding as well as can be expected, and he is insanely cute (coming from a completely unbiased observer)...I mean handsome. Ada has also been pretty good so far at coping with the little intruder in her life. I think she is going to be great with him once she fully understands what gentle means.

Ada meets her brother

2.5 days old

More baby waiting with Mormor and Morfar

Ada's favorite lounger - a wooden rocking chair from when I was little plus a stool ottoman

On Valentines day there was still no baby, so we were able to make our usual heart shaped pizzas and cookies, this time with Mormor and Morfar to share. Here's Ada helping Mormor eat cheese (and/or decorate pizza)

Pizza #1 = veggie alfredo. Not pictured are a supreme and a buffalo tofu. 

Mormor inspired me to make Popsicles that were not my usual blueberry and yogurt for Ada. These were banana, yogurt, cinnamon and vanilla. She likes them. She doesn't pick up popsicles to eat though, she cuts them with a fork. Silly daddy decided to give her a huge salad serving fork to try. 

and cookies. I think the first year we did this they were heart shaped after baking but these definitely were not. oh well. 

Lucky Ada has gotten to go to the park a lot while she stayed home with Mormor and Morfar. She seems to be less scared of the big slides now too (though I guess she looks a bit tentative here). 

 Mommy boldly went down the slide at 39 weeks pregnant

and managed to stand up all by herself at the bottom.

Baby, where are you?

Due date is tomorrow. Since Ada was pretty early I wasn't really expecting to still be pregnant today. My parents here for a week so we're all set, any time! Plus Ty has Monday off so that would add to the convenience of a very soon delivery. But talking to Mom I remembered yesterday that she was ~10 days early with Tim, and 1 day late with me. So maybe I'll follow that pattern. 

36 week bump

Thanks Monica and Mom for all the boy clothes! Baby boy clothes are all blue!

These are shower (and Ada's birthday) balloons. Both Ty and I had showers at work and everyone was very generous so we are set on gift cards to supply baby stuff for a while. Regulus's shower was funny, it was for 5 babies due within a few months. That company is all at that age I guess. Avidity was for me and a coworker whose SO had a baby in December. 

And a selfie of my uncovered belly at 39 weeks. 

Bonus videos and pics

Happy Daddy and Ada after bath with Clifford. Thanks Grandma for Clifford and Aunt Quel for going out of her way to get Clifford back to Ada!

In her new helmet. We got her a glider bike (no pedals) for Christmas. So far she just kind of walks with it between her legs. Now lately we've seen a few kids with 3 wheeled scooters moving really well. We even saw a 16 month old boy scooting around! So maybe that would have been a better option.

Ada loves Daddy's new haircut and mustache. 

ABCs.

Popping packing materials

Reading a book. It won't be obvious but we think this is very cute. This book has a mommy and baby lion, so Ada will say a high roar for the little one and a lower roar for the big one. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Ada!

Ada is 2! She is at a really great age, lots of fun. She of course has moments but in general full of energy, smart, and cute. She loves singing songs and is still into some Christmas songs. she learned Jingle Bells and Santa Claus. And now is able to sing Golden Slumbers which is very cool. She also definitely speaks so well which is great, I think she is less frustrated since she can communicate when she wants to. 

Gadys always does a fantastic job with holiday celebrations and birthdays. Her daughter Pamela did a little photo shoot of Ada in her dress and crown and got some good ones.

Ada definitely seems to enjoy the attention with her friends.

On her birthday, we went to the zoo safari park for the first time. In the background in this pic is a mama and really cute baby gorilla.

The safari park has a big open area with lots of animals that you ride a tram through. We thought she would be more into riding the tram and seeing the animals but really she just did a lot of climbing back and forth between our laps.

She liked the elephant statues though!

Since we were at the zoo all day we just went and bought a cupcake. She loved the singing and candle (can't tell from her expression in this picture...)

The frosting was a hit as well

Healthy birthday dinner!

Lots of love to our beautiful little 2 year old!

Christmas in St George

A few shots of Christmas presents and the exchange. Each couple drew another family and got 30 minutes at the store to pick out present. Worked out much better than expected, was lots of fun!

 Singing Christmas songs the night before the big day. Ada and Briton even put on a little dance recital for us (Little Drummer Boy really inspired some body moving).

 Dad checked out the awesome stuff that Santa brought for us while Ada helped organize and pick the stuff that she wanted to have.

Ada is a big fan of the candy canes and decorating in general.

The 'pads' bring the family together.

I think this is Ada helping with the ornaments rather than trying to snag a few ornaments for our tiny tree at home.

Relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa surrounded by Christmas spirit.

Grandma and Grandpa got an awesome new play set to turn the backyard into a playground. Ada got to take the maiden voyage on the kiddy swing. Logan was put in charge of watching Ada to make sure she was okay. He took his job very seriously and did a great job (Kash helped out, too).

Ice cream!! Ada decided the best method of eating was to chomp the bottom off the cone, let it melt, then scoop it up with a spoon.

Planting the puzzle doing seeds early. I think Ada did most of the sky in this puzzle, but maybe she had some help.

Sick Rachel (over the week we all got a fun 24 hour bug) trying to lift her spirits by hanging out with Link and Sequoia watching some high quality entertainment (Alvin and the Chipmunks VII)

Checking out the new desert garden on the red hill. Ada had a blast going through the different paths and checking out all the plants that we wouldn't let her touch (we are mean).