Conner Paul Arvidson

Introducing Conner Paul Arvidson

Born May 21, 2009 at 1:01pm

7 lbs 14 oz 21.25 inches long

Conner has finally arrived! He is doing great. He's gaining weight, eating and sleeping well, and has all of his fingers and toes :) We went into the hospital on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning the Dr. helped him along by breaking my water. We had a very uneventful labor and delivery, which is always a good thing.

Dallon and Jace came to the hospital and met their little brother later that evening. I don't think they fully understood what had happened, but they seemed very excited about the baby. The boys spent their time during the day playing with Grandma and Grandpa who came over from Forest Grove for the weekend to keep an eye on them for us. They had a great time going to their school party, visiting the Children's Museum in Pendleton, and seeing the replica pirate ships docked in the Columbia River.

We came home on Saturday afternoon. The boys had made a birthday cake for Conner with Grandma. They were excited to see me at home. I was worried that Jace would be jealous of the new baby and not want me to hold him. I was surprised that he would get angry and protective of Conner when anyone else held him. He says its mommy's baby and demands that they give him back to me.

Bianca is obsessed with the smell of the new baby. She checks out everything that is his.

Conner reminds me so much of Dallon, only blonder. He is very alert when he is awake. I caught him wide eyed last night and got a few pictures of his cute little face. I'm hoping he is blonde and brown-eyed (then I won't be the only brown-eyed one in the family). He is very sweet, and doesn't need to be held to fall asleep. He's very calm and has been very tolerant of the noise in the house.

Jace has been trying out the baby things. This little dome was a little small for him, but he thought it was fun.

Quick Update

Generally things are going well, I'm getting around alright most of the time (although I have my days when I can hardly move). Dallon and Jace have their last day of school on Wednesday followed by a school party on Thursday. They sent home a letter that said to expect water games (it is supposed to be almost 90 degrees today) a petting zoo and other fun stuff. It will be a fun day for the boys. I have been so impressed by the excellent job that their teachers have done for my boys there. Jace will be continuing to go to pre-school there next year, and I've just finished with all of Dallon's transition meetings for him to go to Kindergarten next year. The school district has been very open and inviting about Bianca coming to school, and I'm excited to be able to take her when I'm NOT pregnant anymore!

Dallon is still obsessed with Transformers. He thinks we need to stop at Walmart everytime we drive by just to get Transformers. He set up his guys and wanted to do a photo-shoot with them. He LOVES to take pictures of his toys. If he gets one of our phones, we find videos and photos of his favorite toys filling up the memory :)

Still no baby Conner. His due date is 2 weeks from today, making me 38 weeks along. I've been having pre-labor/early labor for the last 3 weeks or so which has resulted in a very slow thinning and dilating process. The same happened with Jace, so I guess I'm just one of those lucky women who have weeks of early labor :) The bright side is that it should mean that when things really get going it should be relatively quick (from 3cm to delivery with Jace was a total of 4 hours). Hopefully we won't go too much longer considering that Conner is likely more than 8 lbs already! My next dr appnt is on Wednesday, and hopefully I'll still be making a little progress (so all of the sleeplessness and discomfort hasn't been for nothing!).

I had a baby shower last week. It was great. My neighbor Missy and my good friend (and college roommate) Ann-Marie threw it for me. They were so sweet, and did a fantastic job. We were so lucky to already have some friends here in Hermiston when we moved here, and we've been so very lucky to have made so many more great friends in the last 2.5 years!

Hopefully the next time I post, it will be with pictures of Conner!