Updates on Baby Number Three

These updates are being given every 30 minutes to every hour. You may want to scroll down to 1:40 AM and read them as they progressed through the night (and day).

12:36 PM

Here is my little buddy. I have not slept yet and find myself to be a little nutty. The kids came to meet the baby and are so excited to finally meet him. Paige came to visit the baby. She had the children over night and they were happy to be with her. She said that Owen woke up in the morning and said, where is Bill?
Here is Anna holding her brother for the first time. She is going to be a big helper.
Here are my kids!
Owen holds his brother for the first time.
And what is his name? His name is Watson Truth Eshelman.

Where is Lydia? Room 4424.
Phone number to her room: 391.7331.

9:13

He is huge!

Baby boy born!

10 pounds, 4 ounces

22 inches long!

Name: We will see.

8:06

Lyd is working very hard. No baby yet.... maybe he is a bit stubborn??

7:05

We are at shift change. Lisa is leaving us for some sleep. Lydia is on the phone with Tante Heidi right now. Heidi was present for both of the other two children's births. She feels really bad that she could not be here. We understand the necessity of work though!

Dr. Van De Burg thinks that things are going to pick up real soon. We will see.

I would like a Venti Mocha with an extra shot of espresso. My eyes are a little burny.

6:44

Lydia is now at a 9. One more and she wins!

When we were here for our first child it was really an amazing time. To watch a life come into the world is so incredible.

After Anna was born they brought the three of us to the room where Lydia and Anna would spend the next couple of days.

I remember looking out over the city of Grand Rapids and saying to God, "How on earth are we going to be able to do this?"

He gives the grace that is needed though.

As we contemplate being out-numbered by our children, we again ask, "how can we do this?"

The Lord will provide all that we need for raising 3 unto his glory!

6:21

I have been asked to let everyone know that I am not neglecting Lydia by blogging right now. She likes some space in all of this.

Things are getting more intense and it seems that we may have an early morning baby yet.

5:50

Lydia is at a 7-8. (Go ask a mother what this means.)

We have turned all of the lights off and opened all of the blinds. Soon we will see the sun rise and a new life brought into the world.

I keep thinking of the Psalter selection:
"Now unto us thy mercy show/ let thy salvation now bestow/ We wait to hear what God will say/ Peace to his people God will give!"

5:24

Lydia is resting quietly between contractions. We have gone over some new age, I mean... super-Christian breathing techniques. I am not sure how helpful I am, but I am here for her. When she is having a baby I really realize how much I love her. Lydia is quite amazing.

4:51 AM

It amazes me how many of these people try to push the pain drugs*. When you first come in and they ask if you will be using pain meds- and you say (politely and in a Christian way), "no thank you" that does not mean that everyone will stop asking. It is kind of annoying because they make it seem as if it is really foolish to not use anything for pain (other than endorphines).
*Not that we are opposed to people using them if they need them.


One really great thing though is that Lisa is not making Lydia be on the monitor (this is the thing that watches the baby's heart rate and some how rates her contractions). We like that. She is checking on his heart rate about every 45 minutes though. She is being safe.

Lisa also made me some Hazelnut coffee. It is pretty tasty.

3:48 AM

We arrived at Spectrum just fine. The contractions are going well (at least from a medical perspective). We have settled into the room and it is a nice fresh green color. That seems like a nice color to deliver a baby in. The doctor has not arrived, but has been paged a few times.
We will give a further update as it is comes.

Our nurse, Lisa, seems really nice. She is not very 'baby annoying' like some nurses are. She is level headed and seems to mean business. I am sure that we will all get along just fine.

Paige has the children for those of you who were wondering. They were both asleep soundly and were told as we tucked them in and prayed with them that they would most likely meet their brother in the morning. They were too tired to care, but I am sure that they will love him when they see him.

1:40AM

We are on our way to Butterworth Hospital. We woke her doctor who was quite asleep. I am just remembering that Butterworth's main entry is being renovated. Where is the door to that place now?

I need some coffee. Starbucks is closed.

Why we will not be using the Public Schools

Not yet.

No baby yet.
Lydia was due Thursday.
It is Monday night.
If it does not happen Tuesday AM, I have vowed to lock myself in the house with her until this baby comes.

We cannot have her out bumping into things.

Clean House For Baby

Owen and I are trying to get the house clean for the new baby. Mama is exhausted and ready for this baby to come. We have decided that we still do not have a name... we are open to suggestions. We are quite ready for the new baby to join us! This week has been filled with anticipation as we looking forward to this blessed event! Pray for us.

Bacon Strip Lips

I will not tell you how he got a fat lip because some people are just way too sensitive. I will tell you that no one abused him. Well... some things are best left up to the imagination. (As for the Ritz crackers... I have no clue.... that is the preferred snack of the week.)

Family Update

Things have been quite busy around here. We are preparing for a new baby, our AC was out this past weekend, we had company for a week, and I have a lot of behind the scenes work being done as a part of my internship.

Some things seem to never change though, such as Owen wanting to nap with his vacuum cleaner tucked in next to him.
Since our visitors left we have cleaned out some of the things left behind in the refrigerator. Shawn and Tammy are organic-naturalpathics who do not use man made food-products. The result of this was some heavy whipping cream left which was unopened. Owen, Anna and I had a great time turning this into butter. I made them guess what the cream would be when it was done, but of course, they had no clue. When it turned to whipped cream, Anna exclaimed, "it's turning into a mocha!"

She loved the moment when it went from whipping cream to separated butter and water. It was like magic, minus the Harry Potter action.
Owen liked it on a cracker. He could not wait to eat more. We told him no.
Anna thought that it was really a great thing as well. Homemade butter.. what could be finer? Well, homemade bread on which to spread it!
We also went to Johnson Park for lunch today. The kids played and Lydia and I went through baby names. We may have one.... who knows. Lydia is quite excited about being delivered from this burden... I mean child. We are very excited to have three little ones. What a blessing and an honor to raise children unto the glory of God!
Owen and Anna are always telling * * * * * * * * * what the outside world is like... spankings and all. Here they are giving a pre-kiss.
I am sure that the next few weeks will be filled with pictures of our little guy. I will give a precondition now... we do not think that new borns are cute... this is a myth. But we do love them.

Slings and Things

Our friends were here this week from Albany. Tammy and Jody made a new sling for Lydia and the new baby.

You all should check out their website and order one. You can also order some clothes, hats, and bloomers to cover your bum.

Visit Scarlet Stitch.

Compu-update

I am not officially supposed to be blogging, because my computer is not fixed.

Here is an update:

• My HP vz6000 is officially in need of a new hard drive. This is quite sad because I use antivirus as well as ad and spy ware software.
  
• My friend, Mark Jurries said that he will put a new one in for me once I order it. I found one on Newegg for under $60. I am very happy that she can be saved.
  
• Adam Vedra, my oldest Grand Rapids buddy, was able to put the HP on life support long enough to extract all of the data that I had stored on it. I was very glad that he was able to do this (he is a Calvin College IT genius). One reason that I was so depressed this week about my computer is that my entire seminary experience is saved on it. I did not have any external hard drive on which I was backing up my material. Basically, Adam saved me from a bout with clinical depression.
  
• For now I am using Lydia's Sony Vaio laptop. It is really nice and I appreciate the fact that she allowed me to download all of my programs on it until my HP is raised from the dead.
  

Lessons learned:

• Back up your files. It can happen to you.
  
• Do not rely too heavily on these machines for writing. I have hard copies of all of the books that I use on Bible software. Do not be too dependent on the quick and easy ways to search.
• Thank the Lord that there are friends with diverse gifts. I talked with some guy in India for 2 hours and he told me NOTHING that Adam and Mark did not already say.
  
• Blogging is too fun to give up.
  

Here is a response that Nathan emailed to World Magazine regarding their recent article on the new Creation Museum. I will post it, because I think it brings up a very good point, and since he is unable to blog, heh, I will do so for him.

Ken Ham focuses on problems in society stemming from evolutionary thoughts and views--and not taking Genesis literally. While I agree with Ken, and appreciate the work he has done and is doing, I pray he also will recognize the importance of the Sabbath Day and the impact of not keeping the Sabbath holy on society. Nathan summed this up in the last paragraph of his letter.

Exd 20:8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

Isa 58:13 "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words."

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Dear Editor,


I just received my latest World Magazine, which is always an anticipated day at the mail box! I was interested in the article, Museum With A Message about the Creation Museum that Mr. Ham has established.

What amazes me most about this museum is that despite the focus on a literal 6 day creation (which is a great purpose for a museum), Mr. Ham seems to have forgotten what occurred on the 7th day! The Museum is in violation of the 4th commandment as they work on the Sabbath and charge fees for entrance on the Sabbath day. A Christian museum that calls itself a ministry should not be open on the Lord's Day, and especially with fees over $20 per adult. If they want to make an impact on society, they would make a stand on 6 days of creation and one day of Sabbath rest. Hebrews 4:9 says that there remains a Sabbath for the people of God.

There will be no societal impact when the world looks on and says, 'Its business as usual at the Creation Museum.' Obedience to the Word is what an unbelieving society needs to see, not obedience to part of it!

Nathan Eshelman