Darin vs. Kristin

Time from surgery to standing:
D:8 weeks; K:5 hours

To walking:
D:3 months; K:24 hours

To helping with the kids:
D:8 weeks; K:1 hour

To mowing the lawn:
D:10 weeks; K:well, she never did that anyway...

To running any distance:
Ha ha ha ha ha

Micah Neal Anderson!

For those of you who were not riveted to your facebook yesterday - here's the scoop:

Micah Neal Anderson was born at 6:47 pm Tuesday (10/27), weighing 8 lbs, 7 oz - 20 inches long. (All of our boys have preferred an evening arrival - Seth a Tues. at 4:46 pm, Caleb a Tues. at 4:56 pm and Joel a Wed. at 5:27 pm.)

We arrived at noon and were processed quickly back into triage - where we waited (the OR was full)... and waited (our doctor wasn't here yet)... and almost went in... but then had to wait some more (I did see the cute twin girls as they came out of the OR, so I guess it was worth waiting)... and waited... and then they took us back around 6 pm. Keep in mind that Kristin wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything since dinner the night before - so all day she was starving (still is, actually - though she enjoyed her grape juice this morning). After that it went quickly and smoothly.

Micah is a sweet baby - he sleeps with his mouth open and makes little murmur noises, almost like he's purring for you. The wonderful nurses here kept him for us last night, so we were able to sleep from about 12:30 until 6 - a pretty impressive first night's sleep! Micah did great, taking 1 oz at 11:30 last night and another at 3:30 am. He's due for another ounce shortly, but is enjoying cuddle time with Mom.

Kristin came through surgery great. The spinal block (and not laboring for 14-24 hours) made the procedure and recovery considerably easier than her previous C-sections (Hallelujah for that big answered prayer!). She was able to get up at midnight last night, not even 5 hours after they closed her up. It was painful, but she did it. She got up again at 6 am, with a little less pain and a little more speed. She is now totally tube free and only in moderate and expected pain. We'll be here at Norton Suburban until Friday or Saturday. Nana and Papa have the other boys (who are excited but a little bummed that they can't see him in person until we come home, thanks to flu season).

(A classic moment for me in this strange modern birthing process - as if updating facebook every 20-30 minutes wasn't strange enough - was getting Paul Bengtson's comment on one of my posts saying, "Darin, put down the video camera, it's time to have a baby." But technically it was an iPhone, not a video camera, so there.)

Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers!

10/27, 2 pm

Micah is scheduled to arrive via C-section at 2 pm on Tuesday, October 27. Please pray especially for Kristin as she cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight Monday. Her folks will be staying at our house with the boys all week - so that part is well covered. We have everything we need and more to re-enter the baby phase. HUGE thanks to so many of you who graciously shared your baby clothes and stuff. Everyone is very excited - along with a variety of other emotions. We'll update facebook as soon as he is born, and send out an email as soon as we can. Thanks for praying!

19 Days and Counting

October 27 at 2 pm. We've never known our baby's gender before, much less a name and much much less the date and time of their arrival. So it's been fun this time around to be talking about and praying for Baby Micah - and to know that he'll be here well before Halloween. (The boys wanted to dress him up as Yoda, but we decided he probably wouldn't be quite ready for that.) We're also thankful that it will be a scheduled C-section as opposed to the 2 emergency Cs that came after hours and hours of labor (I'd put numbers but Kristin would only have to correct them later).

Kristin is definitely feeling the effects of being 36 weeks along. But she is a trooper and keeps taking care of the rest of us in addition to lugging that chunker around. We reflected that in some ways the last few weeks of pregnancy might be the most difficult of parenting, because you can't put the kid down or get help from anyone else... If he decides to stand up sideways and beat on your gall bladder all you can do is poke him a little and hope he gets bored of it. And if he gets hiccups all you can do is wait 'em out.

Thanks for praying for all of us, especially Kristin and Micah! We are very thankful and celebrate with those close to us who have also just had babies: the Gareaus in Charlotte had Landon James, the Wojnickis in Louisville just had Daniel John and my brother (well, his wife) in Portland just had Sean David. All three baby boys had minor health issues that have mostly resolved but please also join us in praying God's richest blessing on them as well! More young men who will be raised to serve the King!