Words from Hattie and Anna

Here are a few other funny things Hattie and Anna have humored us with recently.

-- Niels does not like to have his diaper changed. During a recent diaper change when he was giving out a blood-curdling scream, Hattie asked in disbelief, "How can he cry without any teeth?" Who knew teeth were requisite for crying.

-- Niels loves to be swaddled up nice and tight. Upon seeing Niels swaddled and ready for bed, Hattie went over and lovingly cooed, "Niels is an ice cream cone!! His head is the ice cream and his body is the cone!"

-- The girls were fighting over a fuzzy boa that I made a few years ago. In order to choose who could play with it first, I asked them to each pick a number and whoever was closest would be able to have a turn with it first. Hattie thought for a moment and said, "Twenty!" Anna thought and said, "PINK!"

It's coming...

One month from today is Match Day...the day that we find out where we'll be moving to for the next five years. All through November, December, and January Paul traveled across the country interviewing for radiology residency programs, as well as preliminary year programs (radiology requires that he completes one year of an internal medicine residency before starting radiology). Now that all his travel is over, we have created our match list. We rank all of the places that he interviewed, in the order from most favorite to least favorite. Likewise, each of the programs where he interviewed will rank all of the applicants that they interviewed. All the rank lists go into a computer and through some algorithm, we are matched with our future residency program. 

It sounds simple, but I am starting to get anxious. As we worked on our list the other day, trying to determine if we would rather live in Milwaukee or Little Rock, Oklahoma City or Galveston, Richmond or Miami, the reality of it hit me. This is a day that we have waited for for the last 4 years of school...and it's only 1 month away. It seems a little bit like a lottery...make your list and hope that you get matched to a program you like. We could be ecstatic on match day...or super disappointed. It all depends on how well the programs that Paul liked liked him, and how well he interviewed in comparison to all the other hundreds of applicants. So be watching for a post on March 16th...and cross your fingers for us.

Quick pics

I just wanted to throw a few quick pictures up...This was taken 2 days before delivery...the girls were already showering Niels with love and stickers.

 And here Niels is 5 days old

 Hattie is already turning out to be a great big sister. She loves to hold him.

A blanket for Niels

I've always tried to make a quilt for my babies, so here is what I made for Niels. It is the same design as Anna's, only different colors. I started it just 6 days before we had him, and was scrambling to sew the binding on Thursday night before surgery. I like to close the binding by hand, so that gave me something to do while sitting around the hospital all weekend. It was a fun project and I hope it likes it!

Story time

Yesterday Hattie saw me writing in my journal and asked me what it was. I told her it was a place where I wrote down stories of what happened to me. She immediately wanted to write in it, but I told her she had to know how to read and write before she could have a journal. So, she grabbed a piece of paper and said she was going to write a story. This is what she wrote:

My Little Boy

At my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, he came into the exam room and said, "Do you want to have this baby on Friday?" Honestly I was a little dumbstruck. We were planning on having a c-section on Monday the 6th due to my doctor's travel plans, but last minute his trip was cancelled, leaving Friday open for surgery. So at 6 am on Friday, Paul and I arrived at the hospital. 5 IV pokes, a spinal, and 2 hours later, Niels Pehr Iverson was born, weighing in at 7 lbs 15 oz, 19 inches long, 14.5 inch head, 14 inch belly. We are both doing well. I'm up and walking around and Niels wants to sleep all the time. The girls love him and are wonderful with him. 

 My mom flew in the night before surgery. Laying over in Denver, she almost missed her flight due to snow and still hasn't received her bag since the Denver airport is closed. I'm just glad she made it on time!

This being my 3rd c-section, I feel like I'm a pro at it. During the surgery my doctor told me that there was no way this baby, or any baby, could come vaginally, my bone structure providing a very small hole for a birth canal. So now I know why I had such a hard time delivering before. My doc was wiling to let me try a VBAC, but only if my body was progressing. And at 39 weeks, I still hadn't dropped, dilated, or had a single contraction. Although it is major abdominal surgery, there is something to be said for how calm the whole experience was...walking into the hospital in no pain, getting a spinal/epidural while not having contractions, laying on a table with warm blankets on you while someone else does all the work of delivering the baby. Then it gets rougher as the spinal wears off and your immobility sets in. But the actual birth is quite calm and nice...that's the only way I know it!