When Andy and I talked about having kids, he always teased me and said, "Oh, you don't want kids. They poop everywhere." So I knew Andy had this coming, but I didn't think it would happen within hours of coming home from the hospital.

For those of you who love labor stories, here is mine (for the squeamish, I omitted all gory details). I started feeling like I was in labor around 9:00 Thursday night. I told Andy, and we decided to try to sleep for as long as possible. At 12:00 am I woke up with some pretty intense contractions. They were painful and only a couple of minutes apart. I wanted to try to stay at home longer, but I also didn't know how quickly the pain would increase so we got ready to go.

We got to the hospital at 1:30 am. A nurse started going through the laundry list of things to check us in. Although I wasn't very far along in labor, the contractions continued to get stronger and closer together so I got an epidural around 3:30 am. All I can say is I LOVE the epidural. The anesthesiologist gave me a little booster with the epidural so the pain relief was immediate! I cannot tell you how great that was. With no pain left to worry about, and knowing we still had quite a long way to go, Andy and I got to sleep off and on until 7:00 am in the hospital room.

Everything continued to progress and at 10:50 am I was ready to push. The nurse said that the average pushing time for a first time mom with an epidural is 1-3 hours. That seemed like a daunting task, but I was ready for it (again, gotta love that epidural!). Most of the time that I pushed it was just Andy, the nurse, and me in the room. It was a really relaxed atmosphere, and Andy and the nurse were great cheerleaders. The epidural was perfect because although I wasn't in any pain, I could feel just enough to know when I was having contractions so I could know when to push. Almost 2 hours later, little Joey popped out. I say "little," but he certainly didn't seem that little right when he was born. The nurse and doctor both exclaimed what a big baby he was to have just come out of me.

First of all, thank you for all of the wonderful comments and emails everyone has sent. How amazing to have all this technology to share this momentous occasion with our friends and family all over the country.

We got home Sunday afternoon. It was nice having two days in the hospital to recover. Since then, I've been trying to sleep as much as possible, but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Guess my adrenaline is still pumping. :-)

Looking back over the last few days all I can say is Praise the Lord! The Lord has blessed us in so many ways throughout the whole pregnancy and especially during the labor and delivery. Everything went so smoothly, and we have a beautiful, healthy addition to our family.

Here is a short video that Megan's dad took shortly after Joseph was born. Pretty neat.

I am thrilled to announce the arrival of Joseph Alan. Joseph was born at 12:42 this afternoon. He was 8 lb. 5 oz. and 21" long.

Megan went into labor late Thursday night, and we headed to the hospital early Friday morning. The delivery went very smoothly with no complications--praise the Lord! Both Megan and Joseph are still at the hospital and are doing great. They will likely return home Sunday afternoon, at which time Megan can give you all the details. In the mean time, I wanted to let everyone know the scoop.

It was a whirlwind night, but Joseph is finally here. I never knew I would be this excited. We just thank the Lord for His wonderful blessings. It's amazing.

It's 1:00 am pacific standard time, and we're off to the hospital...

In order to rescue me from spending countless hours taking notes at grocery stores (I spent two more hours at another grocery store yesterday), my mom and I decided to hang out. She drove over to our place and we went to downtown Escondido. It's a really cute part of town that has all these little shops and cafes. We wandered in and out of shops for a while. There were art galleries, an antique shop, pet stores, and even an old fashioned babershop. It was beautiful out and actually seemed like autumn for the first time with leaves lightly falling as we walked. For lunch we ate at this little French cafe, and sat on the patio out on the sidewalk. It was delicious.

Still no baby though...

I know it's not quite the Christmas season yet, but in an effort not to go crazy waiting to go into labor, I decided to go Christmas shopping today. I hadn't been to the mall in our town yet, so I printed out directions from Mapquest and I was on my way.

My trip was fairly successful, but I just have a couple of questions: why are girls so much easier to shop for, and why do I have mostly guys on my shopping to-do list?!

Today is the day, and I'm still pregnant. It's my due date which means I'm exactly 40 weeks! It's weird because I never knew if I would make it to that milestone. Now when people ask when I'm due, it will be funny answering them in the past tense.

As you can see, the belly is large and in charge. I'm still feeling really great, and I'm not that uncomfortable. Besides all the trips to the bathroom, I'm even sleeping well at night. I finally feel ready for the baby to come, but that could easily change the moment I go into labor.

We'll keep you posted!!!

This weekend, barring any babies popping into our lives, Andy and I plan on taking it easy and just spending time together. My due date is tomorrow, so this will probably (hopefully) be our last weekend with just the two of us.

This morning we went to a donut shop in downtown Escondido called Peterson's Donuts. There was an article in the newspaper about this little family-owned place. They are reputed to have amazing donuts so we decided to try it out. We weren't disappointed! Andy's donuts were both enormous. They looked like hamburgers.

The rest of the day will be spent napping and reading (by me) and playing video games (by Andy). Tonight I think we're going out to dinner which is always one of my favorite treats!

It's a good thing that I don't really have a life right now since I just spent 3 hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles this morning. The whole time I kept thinking, "This could get really interesting if my water breaks."

I needed to go to the DMV in order to get a California's driver's license and to register our Honda Pilot. California has these crazy strict time frame restrictions about how long you have to get these things done after you establish residency or start a job. Besides that pressure, I wanted to get this done before the baby arrives.

I got to the DMV this morning right after it opened and picked a number. I showed the lady what forms I brought to make sure I had everything I needed. She told me I also needed my birth certificate or passport. I had checked the DMV website the night before to make sure I had everything that I needed, but somehow I missed this. I decided just to stay there, get the car registered at least, and then come back to do the driver's license later.

Even though I got there early, the wait was still about 30 minutes. It was fine though since I was busy reading the California Driving Manual. In California you have to take the written test to get your license renewed when you are from a different state. This made me very nervous because when I was 16 and had to take the written test I missed as many questions as you can while still passing. It was a close call!

Finally, they called my number and I went up to the appropriate window. The man was very nice and thankfully, I did have all the paperwork necessary. Since we bought the Pilot less than a year and a month ago, we had to show proof that we paid sales tax. Then they find out the difference in sales tax from New Mexico to California and we have to pay the difference. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, and he told me that I owed him "fifteen ninety two." I started writing out the check for $15.92, when he stopped me and clarified that it was one THOUSAND, five hundred ninety two dollars. I just looked at him in shock. He must have felt badly for him because he looked at the date we bought the car, and told me that we wouldn't have to pay that if I came back on October 26. He then clearly told me that he couldn't tell me what to do, but asked me if I was canceling the registration. I thanked him profusely and told him that I was most definitely canceling!

At this point it was almost an hour after I got there, and I had accomplished zero of the two things I came to do! I went home (which thankfully was not far away) to get my birth certificate so that I could get my driver's license. I got a number before I left so that part of my waiting time was driving home and back.

When I got back to the DMV I only had to wait about 10-15 minutes more, and then I got called to a window. Everything was going very well until the lady asked for my marriage license. At this point I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was really confused about why they would need that until I realized that my birth certificate only had my maiden name (duh). This lady was also very, very nice and suggested I go through with everything until the last step of them actually processing the license. I would just need to come back later with my marriage license. I followed her advice and took the vision and written test. Thankfully I passed the written test! Hooray!

After this I was back to the main desk to get yet another number. The lady at the desk must have thought I was crazy! Thankfully she didn't press me for an explanation. I went home for a second time to get my marriage license and then drove back to the DMV again. My number was finally called, and I showed the lady all the documents I had. Success! A mere 3 hours later and I had completed one of my two goals for the morning.

As a bonus, on the way home I did get a smog check for the Pilot that we will need when we go back next week to register it.

A few thoughts kept me laughing at all this during the whole ordeal...
1. As I mentioned before, I don't really have a life right now. The only other thing on my agenda today is a nap.
2. Everyone at the DMV was extremely nice. It changed my idea of DMV workers all being grumpy, mean people.
3. The whole time I was thinking that this would definitely be blog-worthy!

Here are some pictures of our condo. They are not the best, but you get the idea. The first two pictures are the baby's room. The bassinette will actually go in our room. The third picture is our study, although this picture shows it in its early stages. Then there's our room. The last picture is of our kitchen and family room area.

For the last four years, Andy worked at a place that was in a high security area, and you needed a security clearance to get in. It was also located on an airforce base, so I never even saw the building he worked in.

One of the nice things about Andy's new job is that I get to stop by and visit him. In the 3 1/2 weeks he's worked there I've already stopped by 3 times. So much fun! The first two times I surprised him, but today we planned to go to lunch together. One of Andy's favorite California things is the famous In-N-Out Burger, and there's one about two minutes away from his work. It was really fun picking him up and going out for our lunch date!

The baby is officially due on October 22nd (Sunday), so he or she could really come any day.

Last week I had a ton of stuff to do, and I was paranoid that the baby would come early. Every day I prayed that the baby would stay in my belly so he or she could develop more and I could get more stuff done. Well, it certainly worked! I got my haircut, replaced a couple of broken lightbulbs in our house, took care of some money stuff at the bank, cleaned the house, unpacked the last of some boxes from our move, made and froze meals for after the baby comes, went to a La Leche League meeting, and on Sunday Andy and I made it to our last birthing class (although Andy probably would have not been too sad about missing that).

Because I got so much done last week, I'm a little worried about this week. I really don't have much to do so I think this might be the week I go crazy playing the waiting game! It's just so weird thinking that anyday now our lives will be changed forever. Everytime I feel a contraction or have some cramping, I think "This probably isn't it," but one time it will be "it." Weird!

So, my plan for this week is to nap and relax as much as I can. I wish it was possible to store up on sleep so then you wouldn't need any for a while! I'm also reading a book now that has nothing to do with babies, labor, or breastfeeding!

And so the waiting game begins...

Wow, I'm officially part of the blogging world! My wonderful and talented husband spent many, MANY hours this past weekend designing and working on my blog so that it would be up and running. I'm sure he'll keep tinkering with it over the next few days and weeks, but it's fully functional so I'm ready to go.

I'll be honest, I'm a little bit nervous about posting on my blog. I'm used to emailing and giving updates about my life to friends and family, but that was always for a very specific audience and purpose. It's a little scary thinking that once I push, "Publish Post," my thoughts go out into the vast world of the internet. I'm sure I'll get over my trepidation soon.

So for now, welcome to my blog! The inspiration for it comes from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip at the bottom of the page. I just love Calvin's zest for life!