Step one, enter the stomach flu. On Thursday night Otto came down with his first ever stomach flu. It was not unlike the Exorcist and lasted for most of the night. By the morning I had it as well leaving eric as the last man standing. While eric spent the day washing what seemed like all the bedding and towels we own, Otto and I didn't move from the couch. We watched a lot of Curios George. Not many people would share a photo of themselves looking as good as I do here. Don't hate me because I am beautiful.
Not being able to keep anything in me and the baby taking all my strength, I became dehydrated by the end of the day, despite my best efforts. That night I was in a lot of pain and couldn't get comfortable. Not wanting to wake up eric who was finally getting some rest after taking care of Otto and I all day I decided to take a bath. It wasn't until I had been in the bath for a while that I realized, I wasn't sore from the flu, I was in labor, these were contractions! I woke up eric and we got a watch to count them. They were less than 5 minutes apart, time to call the hospital. With a c-section scheduled for Monday, this wasn't really what we had planned on. The midwife agreed, I should come in so they could see what was going on. We didn't really have a plan for this. Rachel and I had casually mentioned that she would be willing to come and stay with Otto, but now I had to call her at 2 in the morning, wake her up and have her come to the house to stay with Otto while he slept and pray that he didn't wake up puking everywhere while we were gone! Luckily she was happy to come over. We called my mom who had to wake up and drive here from the mountains, also not in the plans. With Rachel under covers on the couch and my mom on the way, eric and I headed to the hospital.
Once there, they determined that I was in labor but I was also dehydrated. They hooked me up to an I.V. for fluids and decided to see what would happen. Once I was on my second bag of fluids the contractions slowed down long enough for me to get a cat nap in. But by the time the doctor arrived in the morning they were starting again and I had progressed since they had checked my in the night. The doctor decided it was best to go ahead and do the c-section instead of trying to hold it off until Monday. I don't know how they would have done that anyway.
Since the contractions were still irregular they didn't need an emergency OR crew and just put me next in the cue for the O.R.. There was someone having a rather lengthy surgery before me so even though they made the call to do section at 9:30 am, I didn't go into surgery until 2. Lucky for me, I got to be in labor the whole time in between. Plus, I now hadn't had anything to eat since Thursday night and was getting hungry, but they wouldn't let me eat anything other than ice chips. Ice chips are not that filling.
At 2 they started prepping me for surgery and eric got to dress in his scrubs.
I was wheeled into the O.R. and at 3:07 Mette Hope Faden was born. She was healthy, screaming and beautiful from the very beginning. She looked just like her big brother and Dad.
Mette weighed a dainty but healthy 6 lbs, 10 oz. and was 18 inches long.
While I was in recovery trying to wiggle my toes, Eric went with Mette and the nurses where they gave her a bath and wrapped her all up for me. As soon as I was cleared for release they took me up to my room where they were waiting for me. Mette had been trying to nurse on her daddy for the past hour and was finally given a chance to try with me. It took her all of about 30 seconds (note from Dad: 3 seconds) to figure it out.
It is official, we are a family of four.
I even managed (with Rachel's help schlepping) to take both kids to playgroup this wednesday. Since is was so close to Otto's birthday we brought cupcakes to share. It was quite popular as you can well imagine.
Here is a cute shot of Mette in an adorable dress. I am afraid it won't fit her when it is warm so we wore it this week with leggings and a onesie underneath. What is there not to love, smocking, polka dots and great socks!
Just to keep things interesting, we had a squirrel in our basement. I thought I heard something awfully loud and took a quick peek downstairs. Nurkel ( or the cat formally known as Grendel) had it somewhat cornered. Eric the Ever Brave went about getting it from Nurkel. That butterfly net we bought to catch bats came in handy once again to catch the squirrel. Otto named him Jumpy and wanted to play with him.... 
We went for out first stroller outing to lunch with Yia-Yia and Papou this week. The new stroller is wonderful. Mette screamed out to the alley and half a block later was totally asleep. She slept all through lunch, the walk home and then was still. Just for reference, Otto was at least 4 months old before he liked the stroller and he never cried then fell asleep, ever.
Otto and I made oatmeal raisin cookies for a fun treat yesterday. He loves helping. This time I let him lick the paddle attachment for the mixer. He was in heaven. It actually works out quite well because it really keeps him busy, but there isn't very much batter on the paddle and he actually eats very little of it. Most of it goes on his face. 
Not being able to keep anything in me and the baby taking all my strength, I became dehydrated by the end of the day, despite my best efforts. That night I was in a lot of pain and couldn't get comfortable. Not wanting to wake up eric who was finally getting some rest after taking care of Otto and I all day I decided to take a bath. It wasn't until I had been in the bath for a while that I realized, I wasn't sore from the flu, I was in labor, these were contractions! I woke up eric and we got a watch to count them. They were less than 5 minutes apart, time to call the hospital. With a c-section scheduled for Monday, this wasn't really what we had planned on. The midwife agreed, I should come in so they could see what was going on. We didn't really have a plan for this. Rachel and I had casually mentioned that she would be willing to come and stay with Otto, but now I had to call her at 2 in the morning, wake her up and have her come to the house to stay with Otto while he slept and pray that he didn't wake up puking everywhere while we were gone! Luckily she was happy to come over. We called my mom who had to wake up and drive here from the mountains, also not in the plans. With Rachel under covers on the couch and my mom on the way, eric and I headed to the hospital.
I was wheeled into the O.R. and at 3:07 Mette Hope Faden was born. She was healthy, screaming and beautiful from the very beginning. She looked just like her big brother and Dad.
While I was in recovery trying to wiggle my toes, Eric went with Mette and the nurses where they gave her a bath and wrapped her all up for me. As soon as I was cleared for release they took me up to my room where they were waiting for me. Mette had been trying to nurse on her daddy for the past hour and was finally given a chance to try with me. It took her all of about 30 seconds (note from Dad: 3 seconds) to figure it out. 
