Andrew Edwin

Your Name:

That day back at Lake Mac in a joking conversation names came up. Wayne knew right away what he wanted to name his first born. He looked over at his best friend and said Andy, Andrew. I said I wanted Edwin for the middle name after my Grandpa and my dad. So there it was Andrew Edwin from the day we found out we were pregnant before we ever knew we'd have a boy.

Had you been a girl, the thought was I would pick out the name since Wayne picked the boy name. I knew I wanted to pass on my family name, Elizabeth, from my Grandma, to my aunt, to me, on down. For a first name I played around with some ideas a while and the name I had decided on, McKenleigh Elizabeth. McKenleigh had both Ken (Grandpa Tonsager) and Leigh which I spelled like Auntie Jenn's middle name. Turns out the Tonsager family puts the accent on the wrong syllable and the name sounded very Chinese and not at all how I had wanted. Probably good you are a boy.

 

The night it happened:

At 35 weeks we went in for our check up with Dr. Edward Pelton. He said if I were to go now they probably would not try to stop it. I was in full nesting mode. The next day we had Carrie over and looking back she said she knew I would go soon because I was working like a madwoman. 

I had been determined to finish my High School Scrapbook before the baby arrived so from then on I could concentrate on a baby book. I had pretty much done the last page of graduation and only had a few 9/11 pages left to stick in. Wayne and Carrie had been watching "Open Water" which we all deemed one of the worse movies EVER! They stayed up late having a good time and I stayed up late scrapbooking. We had just gotten our new camcorder for xmas and new parts had arrived int he mail that day to attach. Wayne had been messing around with that. 

Finally around 1am we decided to put in Brother Bear and go to bed. We had been in bed maybe 3 minutes after our busy night and good ties when I was laying on my back on the waterbed and felt my stomach push up toward my chest then down again and this sensation like a waterballoon had popped. I knew right away what it was and told Wayne my water had broke. He mumbled something about I had probably just wet myself and to go back to sleep. 

He was passed out and I was wide awake. I had contractions every 5 minutes all night long and could do nothing but pace. At 4 my time, 5 back home, I called my mom and told her. She asked if I was sure and I told her how my water broke and continued to break over again every hour or so. They packed up and headed out the door around 7am central time.

At 7am our time I finally shook Wayne awake and said "Don't you think ou want to call your mom and tell her before she heads into work?"

He asked "Tell her what?"

Oh my Gysh! REALLY?!?!?!?!

Well, Wayne, my water broke at 1:05 last night, 3 minutes after we layed down. You were already passed out and told me I peed myself and to go back to sleep, but I never did...you did! That got him awake!

He called his mom and then was stoked. He wanted to leave right away for the hospital but we had to stop by Carrie's first to tell her.

 

When we got there I was at 5cm. They got me all checked in and as tradition in our family went for labor with the first born, we played cribbage with inauguration in the background on tv. This lasted a couple rounds until they decided my contractions weren't picking up fast enough and they gave me pitocin. Ugggg. That did it. Mom and Dad and Tiff and Grandma walked in just in time to be kicked back out as I reached 8cm.

They let me start pushing around 4:30pm. Poor Dr. Pelton it was his day off too. It took an hour of pushing and during that time my IV that had taken them 6 pokes to get in, had popped out of my hand! They said they had to put it back in so I would have to breathe through some pushes till they got it. It was my first one too. They finally got it back in after a couple more pokes. The record remains 8 but has nearly been reached since.

 

At 5:20pm with a feeling I will never forget, Andrew Edwin came into the world. 

6lbs 14.5oz and 20" long He had lots of dark hair frosted with blonde and was the prettiest baby ever!

He was the 2nd baby born in Chadron Community Hospital for 2005 and we received a quilt to honor this. Then 4 more babies were born before we left. 

First Moment

Daddy cutting the cord

Already trying to suck his thumb, which he did on the inside too.

1-20-05

first family photo

Pine Ridge Quilt Guild Quilt for being the 2nd baby born in the year. This was Chadron Community Hospital's online baby page and Andrew's hospital picture.

 

We had lots of visitors including Klingers from Colorado! My mom stayed a week to help out, which ended up being a horrible week in the hospital as Andrew had severe joundice and was almost sent to the NICU in Rapid. Then they had moved us to a wing full of people with influenza and refused to keep our door shut while they coughed down the halls. I ended up getting it. They gave mom, Wayne and Andrew all Tamiflu but Wayne still got it 2 weeks later. Mom never did and Andrew just caught a cold. I was furious and then the nurses treated me absolutely horrible after I got it even though I blame them. I am just glad Andrew never got it or I would have raised hell. 

When he was a week old we returned home with a billi blanket and were on our own after a few days of Grandma Gayle helping out.

Grandma Walker and Baby Andrew with his Billi Blanket

Andrew's Birth Announcement

Announcement from Hot Springs Star

Grandpa & Grandma T

PARENTHOOD!

Our First Journey to Parenthood....

The following are snapshots of a scrapbook...

A re-cap of the story in previous post.

Wayne loved taking morning sickness shots of me.

We had an ultrasound to verify dates at 7ish weeks. We got a conception date of the second week of May and a due date of February 18th, 2005.

We kept very busy during pregnancy. We became formally engaged but decided to stick with our original discussions of a summer 2005 wedding.

3 months pregnant I had a nice pouch going.

I craved tacos from Taco Johns & Ice cream with weird topping combinations. I could not stand the smell or deer meat or hamburger helper and would not touch leftovers. This caused Wayne lots of sympathy weight.

At 4 months I could take out 9 gallons of milk in a month! I was not lacking in calcium. My two closest friends from Holdrege both announced pregnancy at this time. Sonya due in April and Tanya also due in February. Some of my classmates and some of Wayne's were also pregnant at the same time. We were the first among our local circle of friends to get pregnant though. We were also bring the first grandchild and great grandchild into the world for our families (we did later here one of Wayne's cousins in WI was due shortly before us). That's a lot of people fussing over you. ;)

At 5 months I had stretch marks regardless of endless moisturizing and prevention products. I also had completely switched to maternity clothes. Couldn't even begin to fit any regular attire. I had not actually gained any weight at this point. I lost ten pounds at the beginning with morning sickness and was still down a few pounds. I did not break even until 6 or 7 months and over all gained about 10 pounds.

We had our big anatomy ultrasound right before the holidays. Wayne was just sure it would be a boy and when the tech pointed out the part he all but cheered. I had always imagined a boy first too. We sent a rose tipped in blue to my eagerly awaiting mother at work to let her know the gender. Our family hadn't had a baby boy for an entire generation. Grandma had 4 sons and they all had daughters and my mom has one sister who doesn't have any children. Even more fuss was to be had.

Halloween 2004. Me, Sonya & Tanya and our baby bellies.

Over Christmas Break Liz and Mom and Tiff put on a baby shower for me in Holdrege.

They gave Wayne a daddy diaper changing tool belt equipped with tongs and a mask and all!

We had a great turn out and got lots of goodies.

We were in a lease until May in a dumpy trailer. We had a good sized master bedroom we converted mostly to a nursery. We planned to use the cradle I slept in as a baby that my Great Uncle had engraved, Gayle redid Wayne's old dresser for us, we had lots of handmade blankets and I decided on a Winnie the Pooh nursery theme.

8 months pregnant, getting big. At the shower we did a guess baby's birthday weight and length. Many ladies guessed I would go shortly after Christmas. I was huge!

This was my last pregnancy photo. I was 34-35 weeks.

And then came the main show....