Well, today is the first relatively productive day I've had in about two and a half weeks, so I think it's time I sat down and did a little blogging, seeing as the kitchen floor is clean, the laundry is done (until the next time Jacob chooses to projectile vomit all over our bed), two batches of Christmas cookies are ready for the freezer (with a few left out for pre-Christmas munching, of course!), Susanna is freshly bathed and fast asleep in her bed and Jacob is lying in my lap, contentedly staring up at the black-and-white tile pattern on the ceiling... I can think of plenty more things that need to be done, but tomorrow is another day, and I'm not supposed to overwork myself until the doctor gives me the okay:-)

So long-story-short, I ended up having to be induced (and judging by the 5 hours it took for the pitocin to actually get things going, I'm not sure this kiddo was planning an exit anytime soon anyway), but that aside, things went as I had hoped - no epidural this time (I'm not against other people having them, if that's their thing, but I had really been wanting to go without the drugs this time), water broke on its own, so the doctor didn't have to use the hook, and once things got going, Jacob only took a little more than 3 hours to enter the world... my first thought upon seeing him was that he looks like his sister, which everyone else has commented on, too (with no prompting from me:-)), so I'm guessing it's true... many thanks to my mother and mother-in-law, who were there the whole time for support, and especially to my wonderful husband, who, despite his aching arms, spent hours massaging my back, thereby making the pain bearable (or more so, anyway:-))! This was definitely a different experience than labour with Susanna - I had to have an epidural with her, and so there wasn't really anything for Nathan or the parents to do other than sit and be spectators and bring me the occasional popsicle from the hospital freezer. And I have to say, it was nice to be able to stand up and move around shortly afterward, since I could actually feel my legs this time. Anyway, I'm not going to get off on any anti-drug rant - I'll admit that I have a high pain tolerance (and even at that, it was darn painful!) - but I would like to say that if you can do without the pain meds, it's an incredible experience!

I would also like to say that it looks like God has chosen to bless us with another calm, content, relatively easy baby... I was guessing that after an easy first baby, we were about to get a wild child, but I actually think Jacob is more laid back than his sister... we've taken to calling him Goat Boy (affectionately, of course), because he rarely ever cries at full throttle (for the first few days, we weren't even sure he knew how!:-))... he just kind of bleats like a little goat when he's not happy. Susanna loves him to bits, which is great, and also means that we are constantly having to pull her away from him and explain that while it is nice that she wants to kiss her little brother, he doesn't like having her face constantly shoved into him... ;-) she is not quite the perfect older sister, though... yesterday, Nathan turned around to find her chomping on his little leg - left a nice little ring of welts (fortunately, she didn't break the skin)... needless to say, that one got her a sound spanking!

Anyway, maybe I'll be up to more frequent blogging soon... though 2 kids is definitely more than twice as busy as one and I've got a few Christmas projects to get done (only 23 more days!)... at least now you know I'm still alive...