A New Addition!!

After much waiting for labor to begin, Logan Cohen Keller entered the world serenely and calmly and in water. He is 21" long and 8 lbs. 12 oz. of perfection. At 41 weeks + 4 days, early labor started on Wednesday at 9 pm, then stopped at 4 am, picked up the next day, the doula came over to help while Jim slept. At around 1 am, the doula and Kim decided it was time to go to the center. Kim went upstairs to get Jim up who was out of it. She told him it was time to go to the birth center now. He replied with eyes half open, "But we are the birth center." At which point, Kim realized he was sleep talking, and so she tried to shake him awake a bit more and explained again that they needed to leave and that the baby was coming. He then asked if we were going to pick everyone up in a hot air balloon :) . After a bit more effort, he was roused and explained in his dream, Mitzi (the doula), him and I, were members of a band called the birth center and we traveled around in a hot air balloon helping people.

After a nice laugh, we piled into the Passat (not the hot air balloon) and went to the birth center at 1 am. We had another entire night of laboring (and no sleep) only to have labor slow down (again!) at 7 am. So we went home and tried to get some sleep. However, the contractions made it impossible for Kim to sleep. Later on that Friday afternoon, we went in for an ultrasound and non-stress test to make sure he was tolerating his overdue status and the contractions well -- and he was a champ! By Friday at 6 or so, we placed another call to the midwife with the intention of asking for a prescription to help Kim sleep since one theory that the labor wasn't progressing was that she might be too tired to tolerate active labor. We went to the birth center to consult with one of the midwives, and we learned that we were 5 cm dilated and already in active labor and didn't realize it! So with that exciting news, we returned home to labor more comfortably and for at least Jim to get some sleep--which he did. By 9 or so, we decided it was time to go to the birth center because Kim didn't want to travel there by car already and didn't foresee wanting that desire to grow any as labor progressed. The doula arrived about 2 hours later. And little Logan, was born the next day, September 8, at 7:33 am!

Both mom and baby are healthy and happy to be home. And Jim got the best early birthday present a dad could ever get: a ridiculously cute, chunky monkey baby. So far, we both think that he's got those Cohen chipmunk cheeks and Jim's dippled chin. Right now, he's still a bit swollen from all his hard work, but that is going down by the hour. We had our first home visit this afternoon. He dealt with the newborn screen test like a superhero. He cried for the first two blots, then whimpered, and then just resigned himself to it all. He needed only to be held for a few seconds to be completely happy and calm again. The midwife will probably return in a few hours again to help out with some latching on and nursing issues.

However, other than that, we're overjoyed and completely in love. Here are a few pictures to get you started, more will come as the midwives took almost a hundred since we were there for two nights!