and then there were 4...

Well Landon took his time to make his entrance into this world.  We were possibly going to get induced on Friday morning but I had to call to see if there was room.  Before I even had to call the hospital I woke up having contractions about every 6 minutes.  It seemed like whether I was getting induced or not Landon was coming either way.  I called the hospital and found out there wasn't room for us to come in for an induction, but we kept timing my contractions and they kept getting closer.  When they were about 4 1/2 minutes apart we called the doctor and were told to head in.  As we were getting ready to go though my contractions started spacing out.  We still headed in but I told my parents I was worried we were going to be back home soon - and we were.  At the hospital my contractions had spaced back out to about every 6-8 minutes but nothing else was really going on.  The nurse told us sometimes with a second kid you could have contractions for days, possibly even a week or more.  Just what I wanted to hear :)  So back home we went and for the next 36 hours I continued to have contractions sporadically and varying in degree.  They'd come every 5 minutes for a while and then space out 20+ minutes.  Most of them weren't really too bad - sometimes enough to make me stop what I was doing but comparatively pretty easy.  After nothing happened by Friday evening, my parents headed back home but Leanne stayed with us.  She also spent all day Saturday here but decided to head home around 11:30 pm.  She figured if she headed home I'd go into labor.  Well about 2 hours later when my contractions started to get pretty intense Dane gave her a call to come back.  They were still varying from 4 to 8 minutes apart but were definitely strong.  At that point I think Dane was taking me in and figuring something out one way or another because he was having a hard time seeing me in pain.  We got to the hospital around 2:30 and I was 5-6 cm - thank the lord!  Within about an hour we were checked in, in our room, I'd gotten an epidural and I was 8 cm - relief!  Once I had the epidural it was a piece of cake.  We just had to wait for a bit for Landon to make his way down and then after a few rounds of pushes there he was.  Landon Karsten Huffman, born June 19, 2011 (Father's Day) at 7:31 a.m. weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 oz. (a BIG guy) and 21" long and perfect as could be and looking a lot like his brother.  We are so excited he is here and to have our family of 4 now!  The labor was so different than with Carter.  With Carter my water broke and I really didn't experience too many contractions at all.  Pushing was much more wearing and took longer with him too.  With Landon I definitely got to experience contractions but the pushing and actual delivery was really quick and easy (well easy for delivering a baby).  So both were easy/hard in their own ways I suppose.  I wonder if the variations in labor and deliveries for my boys will be indicative of how different they may be!



Dane taking a quick power nap before it was time to push - staying up for 24 hours is tough

  

Finally here!  Landon Karsten Huffman



with these super long feet!

And quite the chunker at 8 lbs. 7 oz.  We've always called Carter bubbers and Leanne said we need to call Landon chubbers since he's so big!

Meeting Auntie Leanne

Carter meeting Landon for the first time (Landon who already weighs a 1/3 as much as Carter!)

After a while Carter was more interested in finding Dad's truck in the parking lot

Meeting Grammy and Papa

First bath

He loved having his hair washed

Dane and his boys

Meeting Grandpa and Grandma Huffman

Meeting Aunt Tori

With Landon being so large they had to monitor his blood sugar which was occasionally dropping.  Since I was not quite equipped at first for the feeding needs of a 8 1/2 pound baby we had to supplement with some formula.  Along with needing to supplement we also had to watch his temperature as it could drop along with his blood sugar.  At one point he was kinda cold so Dane the inferno sat with him for a while and his temp. went right back up in no time.

Carter came for another visit in the afternoon and found the bulb syringe and thought he really needed to clean out the baby's nose

The multi-tasking second time dad - eating lunch, holding a sleeping baby and watching a movie on his phone

We ended up just spending one night in the hospital and were anxious to head home on Monday

Leaving the hospital

Carter sitting with Landon

Carter wanting whatever Landon had - Landon had a pacifier so Carter decided he needed one too

Holding Landon all by himself - he was very proud!

Kisses for brother

Tickling toes

Carter again wanting whatever Landon had.  I had Landon in his seat and was giving him some formula so Carter decided to get his chair, some milk and his blankie just like his little brother.