What's My Name?

For the last 9 months the big question was what's the babies name?

Names have so much significance to us.

Joel - God is willing

Lisa - Consecrated to God

So when we were thinking about names we had many suggestions from aunties and uncles.

Here are some that were at the top of our list.

Benjamin  - Bento

Harrison - Harry To

Nathaniel - NATO (a political shout out to Amy & Jono)

Domo Ari Ga - Domo Arigato (thanks Mr.Roboto)

Chi - Cheeto 

O.K. so it can be a rough last name so we decided to go with some strong meanings.

Joel has always loved the image of a warrior for God. So here is the baby's official full name.

Kaden Anh Bao To

Kaden  - Spirit of Battle

Anh Bao - Protector

To - Joel's Surname

Thanks for all the suggestions the last few months...

It made for some entertaining times.

The Push!!!

Imagine Salt and Peppa's song: Push it Push it good.. playing in the background.

Nurses running around with pom poms cheering, "Give me a K... Give me an A...."

While the doctor stand at the end of Lisa's feet with a catchers mitt.

Yes that is what it was like during the delivery!

Ok not quite. I finished typing the play by play(see previous blog) as the doctors rolled up

into position. 

The reality was that it would take another 35 minutes of pushing before we would see Kaden.

Lisa began the pushing around 12:55. This was an insane experience. Watching your beautiful wife give birth to a new life is unreal!

One thing I have come to realize about Lisa after this experience is she is "tough as nails."

Every 3 minutes she was pushing for the life of her and Kaden. At one point the Doctor said he may have to use a vacuum to help Kaden out. Lisa and I looked at each other and said, "Hellz No!!" 

I told Lisa, "Remember the movie The Nativity when Mary gave birth to Jesus? Do it like that!"

Lisa bite down on a stick and began pushing. The final push was a whirl wind as the boy came out and was plopped on Lisa's chest I almost fainted. I didn't cry like everyone expected me to. I was in shock! After 9 months our son was laying right in front of us smiling ear to ear...

Seriously Lisa did such a great job. She did everything the doctors told her to do and ignored my crazy comments... My jokes must have been the most painful part of the final push!

Fun In The Delivery Room

We just can't take ourselves too seriously.

There is always fun to be had!

Peace out!
Uh... is this a contraction?
YES!!! It's a contraction!
Kaden wanted to join in on the fun....

Play by Play

While we were waiting for Kaden's arrival Joel had time to blog what was happening...

Unfortunately the delivery room had poor wireless connection. Can you believe that?

Technology fails us! 

So here is the play by play the morning after!Writing at 11:10 p.m.

8:30pm

Lisa and I got to the hospital @ 7 p.m.  on Thursday April 9th, 2008

They took us to an exam room right away and then hooked Lisa up 

to a bunch of wires to check Kaden and Mommy's heart rates.

By 8 p.m. the doctor told us Lisa was 5cm dilated and moved us to a birthing room.

That's when we started making the calls and texting to everyone.

It's 9:30pm

Mommy is a trooper and taking on the contractions like it is no bodies business.

Taking into consideration all of the previous mommies advice Lisa decided to 

take the epidural  around 9. 

From here it has been smooth sailing... (so our friend Annette says!)

10:20pm

The nurse checked again at 10ish and Lisa

is pretty much fully dilated.  It's Go Time!

11:00pm

The nurses have been running around setting up the room 

to welcome baby Kaden.  Doctor Orsini suggested we break 

the Lisa's water to help the process along.

11:30pm

So the doctor took this (well I won't go into detail...) Let's 

just say mommy's water is now broken and we wait...

It's now 11:54 p.m 

...it doesn't look like

Kaden will be coming on the 9th.

Lisa is sleeping and building up energy for

the birth...  She's had the shakes for the last hour, but 

the nurse just put an oxygen  mask on her and it seems

to have settled. 

It is amazing watching Lisa through this process. She is so happy 

and has not complained at all.  As an expecting dad I wish I could do 

more, but really I wouldn't want to be the one giving birth right now.

11:58 p.m.

Again we wait. 

12:00 a.m.

No baby... !!!

12:05 a.m.

 It seems like eternity!!!

12:15 a.m.

LISA Puked!

good thing she didn't eat a lot before we came...

12:20 a.m.

Doctors decide they should get started...

12:50 a.m.

Ahhh!!!! IT's Time!

.....We're gonna START this thing!

My First Pics

Happy Family of Three!

I am so cute!

being shy

He's Here!!!

Kaden is here!!! 6 lbs, 7 oz. 19 inches. Full head of hair... he's so precious! Can't believe he's here. We are all doing great... come visit us soon!  

waiting, working, walking

These last few weeks have been dragging! We have been waiting anxiously for the arrival of Kaden. We have less than 15 more days before our due date... so, really any day now. We have been working up a storm...trying to get everything ready for when I am away for maternity leave. Walking... we are trying to walk around and keep busy. Getting tired faster, but trying to stay active to make Kaden come faster!!! Hhehehee!!! hopefully our next post will be us preparing to go to the hospital!!! :-)