Grandpa Goose & Grandma Jan

My folks visited Harriet this weekend and we had a very nice time hanging out, eating, walking downtown Holland, and smiling at the little girl.

Because you miss Win too

Win has spent the past couple of day in Fort Wayne playing, reading, and walking to the mailbox with my parents. He returned home to us today. Jared and I had missed him so much. It just wasn't right having the house so quiet during such an exciting time. But it was also really nice not to have to worry about waking a toddler in the middle of the night because Harriet was hungry.
Today was the first time that Win got to meet Harriet here at home. He LOVED her. We asked him if he wanted to hold her. He quickly reached out his pudgy arms and grabbed her like a doll. He gave her a big hug...
a big kiss...

and then he pointed out her nose.He clearly knows that she is really special and he seems to like her anyway.

The Site Meter

If you haven't checked it out yet, try clicking on the little green button at the bottom of this blog. It will lead you to a site that shows the traffic on Win and Harriet's blog. Here is the graph that shows the traffic from this last month. Can you guess which day Harriet was born?

More of the Little Girl

My Two Girls...

Are home from the hospital. We came home last night around 7:30, and loaded Harriet immediately into our stroller for a walk downtown and an ice cream cone.

Hanging Out

We're still at the hospital, hanging out. Harriet is allowed to come home tonight after 7:33pm. She is a super-sleepy girl, and incredibly cute. Here are a few more pictures we took this morning.

Email

I just opened Rachel's email to read her anything important, and this is what was at the top:

First Kiss

Win has been practicing kissing on his singing toy horse for the last few weeks. Today all the practice paid off when he planted a big one on his little sister. This is a good angle to see Win's mullet.

More Pictures

Here's a few more pictures of baby Harriet. She and Rachel are still doing very well - Rachel is feeling way ahead of her recovery from last time. Harriet has been super sweet so far - very relaxed and happy, and she loves to eat.

Harriet Rachel

Here she is!!! Harriet Rachel Henderson. 8 pounds, 1 ounces. Born at 7:33pm. Delivery went great, mom and baby are doing awesome. Looks like a brunette so far. Click on the pictures to see larger versions if you want.

T-15 minutes

Rachel's at 9cm right now, and should be pushing within 15 minutes. I probably won't post again for a little while, until the baby has been out for a spell. Thanks for all your prayers!

Mission Control

This is a picture of "mission control," inspired by Steve Post's comment on our earlier post.

A little more info: Rachel's contractions got quite painful for a little while, then she got the epidural. Now she's laying down smiling and saying things like "I like drugs." We just started a little bit of pitocin, so we expect the baby's arrival between 7pm and 9pm, give or take 7 hours.

The anestaesiologiist (sp?) was a weird bird. He kind of ignored Rachel who was in obvious pain and insisted on talking to me about Apple computers and Civil War historical fiction. He also told a joke about the definition of a "double blind" study: two Orthopedic Surgeons discussing an echocardiogram. He thought it was even funnier when I told him my dad was one.

More info...

Rachel's contractions are coming faster and more painful now, but still without a ton of resulting dialation. So, we're about to get her an epidural and some pitocin. This morning they gave her Cytotek or something like that (prostoglandin?) which technically isn't an inducer, just a cervix ripener (for those stubborn, hard-to-ripen cervixes). So we expect things to pick up soon.

Rachel just told me that if pastoring doesn't work out, I should become a 'techno-doula.' I guess that means I would hire myself out to assist and encourage labor while simultaneously taking digital photos and videos and maintaining a constant stream of blog posts. I'm thinking about it.

In other randomness: our morning nurse Natasha got a kick out of Win & ?'s blog, and showed us her blog. Wierd. Also, today we've gotten 138 hits on this site. Who knows where we'll be at by the time she gets here.

A Little Progress

Yes, those are small contractions on the printout. Rachel is starting to have some regular contractions although at this point they aren't very intense. But we're happy for progress. The top squiggle is the girl's heartrate, which the nurses love. Everytime one of them looks at it they say: "what a happy baby!!!" I guess that's good, or something.

The next step

Very little is happening. Which you probably could tell by the fact that we have posted three times already. This girl refuses to budge. Rachel hasn't even started having contractions yet, and we've been here since 7am. So, a few minutes ago, they broke her water. Still no contractions. I know yall need something to do at work, so I'll keep bringing the updates. Hopefully something will happen soon.

Still Waiting

So far, almost nothing has happened. Except Grandma and Win stopped by. Win's favorite thing by far was when he learned how to turn on the faucets with the footpedals.

Here we go again

We're all moved in over here at the hospital. We have a big corner room, Rachel's comfortable, and we're starting the induction process. So far nothing much is happening. Doctor came by and said we should have a little girl by dinner, and then added that he really has no clue what he's talking about as far as timing goes. So, we'll keep you updated. Lots of time + good wifi = good blog coverage for yall. Does this picture look familiar?

A Blue Sky, Lots of Friends, and Even More Pesticides

In Holland there's this thing that you do in the September, especially if you have kids. You go to Crane's on a gorgeous blue sky day, pick apples, drink cider, and eat little donuts. Jared and I have a decade of going to Crane's nearly every year.

Crane's is where Jared first spotted out friends Matt and Val holding hands. It's also the location of the legendary apple tossing that lead to a sharp scolding of our friend Brian and our group being escorted out of the orchard with instructions to never return. It's the place where Randall convinced an employee with a golf cart to escort him around for nearly an hour so that Randall could pick nearly 75 lbs of apples. He then let Randall drive the cart. We really like this little tradition of driving down to Fennville with friends and gathering more apples than we really plan on using.

This was the first year that Win has been able to fully enjoy the delights of this tradition. He did all sorts of fun things.

He pointed at all of the "balls" that were in the trees.


He watched Daddy......and did everything that he did.

He got pretty good at distinguishing the red raspberries from the green ones......and helping himself.

It was tiring work.

But is was worth it for the donut.

She's not budging.

Pilates Challenge

Randall had stopped by for a visit the other day just as Missy was leaving for her Pilates class. Within seconds he started teasing Missy. To prove the rigorous nature of Pilates Missy challenged Randall to The Ultimate Pilates Challenge. Randall, not to be out smarted, dropped to the floor immediately and began doing The 100 (a standard Pilates move).
Winfield, loving the action, began his own version of The 100. Within another 60 seconds both Randall and Missy had left Jared, Win and I wondering what had just happened. It was like an attack of random silliness with a Pilates twist.

The little girl is still taking her time.

No Girl Yet

This morning I had an appointment and we scheduled an induction for Monday morning if the girl hasn't come on her own by then. We'll see.

Name Clue

Win, who knows the little girl's name, isn't very good at his pronunciation of it yet. Missy and Denise are often trying to pry it out of him. He's not much of secret keeper so he'd tell them if he could. He's just not that much for clear speech either.

So I just asked him to say her name. He looked at me and clearly shouted, "Ha-Monte."

Jared and I are considering it.

Introducing...

A random picture of Win in the back of our truck. Still no news.

Josh and Sarah

A few weeks ago Rachel shot engagement pictures for our super good friends Josh Powell and Sarah Loomis. Rachel and I have gotten to know Josh and Sarah really well over the last year and they are an amazing couple. Josh now works with me at the Vineyard part-time leading worship and is doing a tremendous job. Josh and Sarah are getting married next June and Rachel will be shooting the wedding. The pictures came out really good and you can check out the slideshow for more. Also, I just finished updating Rachel's website with a bunch of new photos, so if you haven't been over to check it out recently, go ahead and take a look.