Welcome To The World Patrick John!!

We're thrilled to announce the arrival of Patrick John McLaughlin. Patrick was born on Friday, May 12th at 4:33pm. His stats are as follows:

Weight: 8lbs, 1oz
Length: 20 inches

Labor was fast and relatively painless thanks to one heck of an epidural! The day after was when I felt the pain. He is a beautiful healthy little boy. And his brothers Liam and Connor are beyond overjoyed at his arrival. Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days. The picture to the left is Patrick at one day old.

The pictures below are mostly from his first day. The first one of him looking at Mommy - Patrick is only about 30 minutes old!

Five Days Past Due...

Today I'm five days past my due date - and still nothing. Liam was born 5 days late. Connor was born 1 day late - so I thought that this baby would be early or at least on time. Wrong again!! So, we continue to wait... and wait... and wait...

No Hay Nada....

I believe that's Spanish for "there is nothing" - appropriate to describe my current status. On the one hand I got a very good night sleep last night - which was very much needed after the previous day/night's experience. But that also means that my contractions ceased completely. Today Liam went back to school, and Connor and Beth and I went grocery shopping. Walking through the grocery store I had lots of contractions and pressure (freaking my sister-in-law out a bit) - but as soon as I sat down, it all stopped. So I'm just not going to sit down. I will walk and walk and walk to get this baby to come and meet us. Liam was very sad yesterday and I think he's doing better today. He was really disappointed that his brother didn't come yesterday.

Today Was A Blur...

So I can't believe I'm writing in this again, having just spent 8 hours in the hospital. Last night the contractions really started heating up. I slept for about 3 hours and awoke at 2:30am with strong contractions that were mostly 2 minutes apart. After an hour of this - I called my doctor and she told me to go to the hospital. We took the kids with us - and Adam's sister, Beth came and picked them up. It all seemed too perfect - and we settled in to our room thinking that we'd be there for a while. Unfortunately I was still only 1-2cm dilated. My contractions continued to be painful - however became less frequent. I would have them 2 minutes apart and then nothing for 20 minutes. Long story short... at around noon they sent us home. It all seems like a dream now that I'm home again.

Still Waiting....

Although I did have more contractions today - and they were stronger - we're still waiting. I'm getting pretty frustrated as I start to write down the times - but I no sooner do that and they stop for a while. Sigh.... We'll see what tomorrow brings. In the meantime, I'm going to go see what's going on with the crazy man - David Blaine. He's the guy that's been in a fish tank for a week and is going to try to hold his breath for 9 minutes to break the world record. Very exciting.... ha ha.

One Day Past...

Still not much going on. I still am getting contractions everyday (about 2 per hour) but they are not that significant in terms of duration and pain. So who knows. I feel confident that we'll have the baby sometime this week but that's about all that I can predict at this point. The kids continue to be very patient - they're just excited to know that it will happen sometime soon...

Today Is Almost Over

So today is my due date - and still nothing. Other than my husband being overly nervous as I think he really thought that I was going to go into labor today. Doesn't appear to be the case. So we'll see what happens now that it seems very likely that this baby will be born late...

We did win a little money on the Kentucky Derby - yeah!

As the due date approaches....

Well tomorrow is the official due date. Some of you may be thinking Sunday - that was the original date I was told and the date that I told most people. However when my disability paperwork was completed by the doctor, they had 5/6 instead. So - that's the "official" due date. Since I'm writing in this blog - obviously nothing has happened yet. I wake up every day thinking, "Maybe today..." and I go to sleep every night thinking "Maybe tonight...", but so far, nothing. The kids are also very anxious - but are doing well with being patient. Adam is starting to get nervous - but is also hanging in there. I think he's happy I didn't go into labor during the week and is hoping for this week-end so that he doesn't miss anything. All for now...

No News Is.......No News Unfortunately

Well nothing continues to happen. Other than my patience wearing thin!! I made zero progress this week when I went to the doctor's. I'm still 1-2cm dilated - same as last week. So, we continue to play the waiting game. The good news is that the weather has been great, the baby continues to move a lot and the baby should come soon (I keep reminding myself of this last one!)