News

Rather than try to word the announcement, I figure a picture is worth a thousand words.

Labels: announcements, Family

My first few pictures of Caleb are in. You can find them here.

Labels: announcements, Caleb

Big news... Caleb is here! Congratulations to Brent, Emily, and Kam! I've heard that mom and baby are doing well. I will give more news as I get it.

Also, I want to apologize for not posting this earlier, but a very special thank you Christian's mom for coming in and helping us with the baby. It REALLY helped. Thanks to Mr. Troy as well for those long car trips. We appreciate it guys.

I will post some pictures of Brent and Emily's new addition when I get some. Also, there are a few more pictures of Charlie in his January 08 folder.

Congratulations again to Brent and Emily!

Labels: announcements, Caleb, Charlie, congratulations, Emily, thanks

Well, he wanted to take his time and make a grand entrance. And he did.

We would like to introduce Charlie - "Charles Anthony Graffagnino" to the world.

Charlie and mom are both doing wonderful.

Christian started having contractions Monday afternoon, but they were not consistent. We talked with Dr. Abbott that afternoon, weighed our options (no pun intended) and decided we would like to schedule a C-section. It was scheduled for Wed at noon.

But throughout the day Tuesday, the contractions started getting more consistent. By the afternoon, they were below 15 minutes apart. As night fell and the full moon rose, the contractions quickly went to 7, then 5, and then at one point, 4 minutes apart. At that point, I called the doctor to have the get ready for us at the hospital, and had a friend come over to pick up Neo. Then, we headed over to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.

When we got there, we had the help of a wonderful nurse named Melinda. Melinda asked how Christian rated her pain, with 0 being no pain, 10 being the worst ever, and 5 being bad enough to want medication. Christian rated her pain at a 2.

What was funny was that when Melinda did her first exam, and saw that Christian was 8 centimeters dilated! She was bragging to the other nurses that Christian could have had that baby without flinching. The exercises, the vitamins, the diet, the relaxation techniques, the reading... all of those things really paid off even though we decided in the end to have a C-section.

And, when we heard the weight - 9 lbs 2 oz - we knew we had made the right decision. Charlies was 21" tall. Melinda did a great job of helping me to keep Christian calm and talk her through the process. Charlie's APGAR rating at 1 minute was an 8 and was an 8-9 at 5 minutes. Awesome!

Dr. Abbott did an amazing job. She said the surgery went perfectly with no problems. Of course, there are still risks in the recovery, but thankfully, everything is going extremely well.

We are getting to know our new little bundle and settling in with feeding and sleeping at the hospital. We expect to be going home Saturday evening, but that is just a guess.

Thanks for all of the prayers and support. We look forward to sharing little Charlie with all of you. Special thanks to "Mr. Borland" for looking after Neo for us.

Here are the pictures we have so far. Since I don't have internet access at the hospital, my next update might not be until we get back home.

Labels: announcements, Charlie, Christian, congratulations

We had the ultrasound today... ITS A BOY!!!

I know many of you were hoping for a girl since we have quite a few boys running around... but this is going to be so much fun to see all of these boy play and grow up together.

Since we don't have a name yet, we are using the name "enfant" which is french for child, or kid. So, the pictures are in the enfant ultrasound folder.

Labels: announcements, congratulations