Presenting...Jack Etherington Cannon

Our little Jack is finally here!! We actually went to the hospital on Friday night because I "thought" my water had broken. I had never experienced the breakage of water so of course I was mistaken and sent home. The next day I woke up with contractions but they went away during the day.
It wasn't until about 5 p.m. that I started having some heavy duty pains. I ignored them as we continued to do some errands and actually played a round of croquet with some of Chase's friends from work (I watched). I finally gave Chase the look of death and he told them we had to leave. One more stop at Target and then I thought it would be fun to show Chase where Jill and Behrad lived (we were in the area). We pulled up and because my last contraction was over we went in to have a tour. Then they came again and we decided it was time to leave (sorry for the quick departure Jill and Behrad).
We went home, put Sadie to bed and called Erin to come over. Once they were five minutes apart we headed to the hospital. Erin stayed until Uncle Curtis arrived to take over the midnight shift. Sadie woke him up at 5 a.m. due to the thunder and lightning going on outside. Poor things. I don't know who I feel worse for, Sadie or Curtis. Thanks again guys for stepping in to help. I was dilated to about a four once we got there and I was quick to mention to the nurses that I was ready for the epidural (although terrified at the same time). At that point it was 10:00 p.m. and they sent me over to labor and delivery. IV was put in and then I received the blessed most wonderful epidural. If I worshiped false gods (which I don't) then I would definitely have a golden epidural somewhere in my home. It immediately started working and those wicked contractions became a memory of the horrible past. They left us alone to sleep for a while as they added a little pitocin to speed things up. Well around 1:30-2:00 a.m. they came back and found me completely dilated and ready to go. I didn't even use that much pitocin. Pretty crazy how fast my babies come out (I was just grateful it wasn't in the car).

Chase and I had our cheesy moment where we even recognized how cheesy we were being and didn't care because we knew that we were going to have our little baby soon and were totally overwhelmed. It was such a calm delivery. The doctor came in to prep and I started pushing. We pushed for about 20 minutes and he was out at 3:02 a.m.
The whole process was only 6 hours. Hooray!!! What a sweetheart. He gave little whimpers but was so calm and cool about the whole thing. I was worried that something was wrong because he was so calm. He is just fine..in fact...he's perfect. I am totally in love. For the first hour I felt a little guilty for loving him (kind of like I was cheating on Sadie) but it didn't take long for me to feel a real loving bond with him that I felt for Sadie when she arrived.
I can't believe I am a mother of two and we are a family of four!! Crazy!! Jack weighed in at 8 pounds 5 ounces. He was 21 inches long and is very much an Etherington. We were still deciding between the names Jack (after my grandpa Jack or Charles after Chase's great grandfather Charles). I knew all I would need was to see his face and it was immediately Jack. He looks just like an Etherington baby with chubby cheeks, a round head and a stubby little nose. I am actually very excited to finally be representing my gene pool. Sadie looks so much like her daddy (she's starting to look more like me now that the freckles have appeared) and it's fun to have one look like mom for a change. I am enamored and completely head over heels for this little man I've only known for a whole two days. Chase says I've known him longer than that (being in utero for 9 months) but I like him a lot more outside than inside (very uncomfortable pregnancy:-). We tried to get some sleep but because we were in the hospital people kept coming in to poke and prod the poor little thing. They wouldn't leave me alone either. I appreciate their looking out for us but if I don't get sleep I turn into a manic depressive lunatic. That afternoon I completely broke down because they were banging so many doors and kept leaving my door open to hear everything that was going on. I finally called the nurse in and told her to put a note on my door and amazingly, everything became pretty quiet.

Sadie came to see him after her nap that afternoon and the first thing she said when she walked in was "where's the baby." She was very sweet with him wanting to share her lollipop and kept saying "ahhoooo..he's so cute." Jack arrived bearing gifts for Sadie. She was first presented with vinyl princess paper dolls which she hasn't stopped playing with. Then the next day she received a CARS race track. She has since made it into a train race track. We thought she would like him more if he buttered her up a bit (with our help of course). Uncle Curtis came too and we weren't at all surprised to see him fall asleep having a very early start that morning with Sadie.
Cate, MJ, and Richie came to the hospital to see Jack and then took Sadie back home with them for the night. Such a heaven sent to be able to have Chase with me at the hospital. Thanks again Cate and Mike.
Jill and Behrad also arrived and we all had a party in the room passing Jack around to be adored. Once everyone left we settled down and slept pretty well considering the millions of people that come in to check up on you. We decided to leave the next day instead of staying the full 48 hours. I was ready to have some uninterrupted sleep even if that means sleeping when Jack sleeps. I'll take anything. He was circumcised the next morning and that just about did me in. I couldn't talk about it with out crying (here comes the sleep deprived manic depressive lunatic) and because I was totally against it Chase is on diaper duty until it heals completely. This was agreed upon beforehand:-) So now we're home.
Leaving the hospital was fun. It was a beautiful day and even though Jack cried the whole way home (thus making Sadie cry..she's had a rough couple of days) we made it home in one piece. It was so nice to have Janine's delicious dinner waiting for us once we arrived. Thanks Janine!! We all slept great last night and are finally starting to feel more normal. We feel so blessed to have such a heavenly baby boy. He really is a dream boat. He's eating great and sleeping almost too well (waking him up to eat is quite a challenge). I can't stop staring at him. His little face is just too adorable and his cheeks are too chubby to not want to squeeze every second. Sadie is doing pretty well. I have to remember that this is going to be hard for her. I been giving her lots of extra hugs and mom time to make up for the guilt I feel at having to share my attention. She's been a little sassy lately and I hope it's just a stage. I just hope I know what I'm doing. This is all a new and very exciting (and terrifying) time for all of us. We'll keep you updated on our progress but until then we'll just keep squeezing those cheeks.