Hullaballoo, Caneck, Caneck! Today was Lawson's first Aggie football game. Well, on TV anyway. He was dressed for the occasion in his Aggie duds, furnished by fellow Ag, Aunt Mary Beth. Unfortunately, he peed on himself (and Daddy) within the first 5 minutes of the first quarter and so he had to change. Glad I did the pictures early, although I really wanted a father-son pic. Maybe next Saturday.... I think he enjoyed the game. He ate himself into a coma and spent most of it passed out, but I'd like to think his contentment was due to the satisfaction of an Aggie win. It was also fun to watch Kansas State totally kick some Longhorn butt. Whoop!

Lawson Alexander Wineman is here!

I went in to the hospital Thursday night (the 20th) to start cervidil for my Friday morning induction (it's a drug that helps prep the body for labor induction). Cervidil gets you ready and then they give you pitocin the next morning to actually start the labor. Cervidil causes a very small percentage of women to go into labor, but I wasn't the slightest bit dialated, so we weren't expecting me to be one of those women. Imagine everyone's surprise when my water broke and I started contractions (2-3 min apart) around 3:30am! They decided pitocin wasn't necessary...

However, very soon the baby started showing signs of distress - his heartrate was dropping and he wasn't getting enough oxygen - they gave me an oxygen mask to breathe through for about an hour. At 8am, my dr arrived and gave another internal exam. After 4.5 hours of labor, I wasn't the slightest bit dialated!!! The baby still hadn't descended into my pelvis and so basically, I wasn't going to dialate. The dr said we had to do a c-section...now. Within minutes, nurses swarmed around me and I was prepped for surgery. At 0849, Lawson made his appearance - 7 lbs, 4 oz., 21 inches long. Even the surgery was difficult. Turns out, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his body which was partly to blame for him not descending. He was so stuck, it took a while for them to pull him out through the incision they made - they eventually used a vacuum to remove him. He was immediately put under an oxygen dome, and was rated an Apgar 1!!!! (babies are rated 1-10 on how well they fare after delivery, 1 being the worst) He improved rapidly, but they still wheeled him out to the nursery right away, where he stayed until Saturday. I finally got to see him Friday night, 9 hours after he'd been born. That was so hard. Dh was able to go to the nursery and take pictures to show me, but it wasn't the same. Poor little guy was hooked up to so much stuff. It was scary, especially since I had such an easy, comfortable pregnancy. But, the good news is he's completely fine now. We saw the pediatrician yesterday and he got a clean bill of health and is on track developmentally - you'd never know he had such a traumatic entry into the world. He's a total cutie and we're completely in love. Hope you like the pictures! Remember, if you click on a picture it comes up in a new window so you can see it better.

One last picture before leaving for the hospital:

Lawson with an IV, hooked up to various monitors:

Proud Papa:

Yay! I FINALLY got to see my baby!

Lawson's first bath. He really didn't like it:

Post-bath. Snug as a bug...

This is one of my favorite pictures. He just looks so sweet:

At home in the bassinet. This is my favorite thing he does - the startle reflex that shoots his arms up in the air like he's on a roller coaster.

Lawson's first at-home bath. He still hated it, but at least he had a cute towel to dry off with.

That's it for now. We've been taking pictures every day since we've been home, so there are lots. Check back often for updates.

Ohmigosh....I am getting so huge! I really need to take another picture and get it posted up here because I'm really something to see.... I'm not waddling, but man it's an effort to get up from a chair or from bed! Brad keeps laughing at all my "oofs" and "yerks" as I try to move. He does give me a boost, though. Rolling over in bed is about a 30 second ordeal as I twist in small increments, trying to get to the other side. I feel like a turtle stuck on its back.... Thank goodness this is just a phenomenon of the last week or so and I find it as funny as everyone else around me, so it's all good. But I think I am officially tired of being pregnant. Bring on the baby!

I've got a baby update for you! I'm scheduled for an induction a week from today (the 21st). Unfortunately, I'm not really dialated much (almost, but not quite 1 cm) and the baby hasn't moved down as much as he should have by now. So, the dr is giving him one more week to work down on his own and then he'll induce labor to get him out. Another unfortunately is that the reason he isn't moving down might be b/c he can't fit in my narrow pelvis and therefore I'll need a c-section. I know it's not the end of the world, but I'd really prefer not to have one. Oh, well. One way or another, I'll have a baby by this time next week!

In other exciting news... due to the decrease in temperature around here (I'm assuming), the swelling in my feet has gone down. I can actually feel the bones on the top of my feet again! I'd almost forgotten they were there!

Brad and I had a fabulous date afternoon/night yesterday! We watched our Aggies play Fresno State in the first televised game of the season. The game went into overtime and so we had to miss the end b/c of our plans - we left thinking the Ags lost. Lo and behold, they pulled it out! No need for that kind of stress - our boys really fell apart there in the second half. I'm so glad it's football season again. It's especially fun to watch home games and get a glimpse of the students and campus and stuff.

As I said, we had to leave b/c we needed to grab dinner before heading on to see Rob Riggle at a new comedy club in town. Rob is currently a correspondent on the Daily Show and we love him. He's gorgeous, smart AND a Marine (wonder why I like him....). He's also from a suburb of KC so he had lots of funny things to say about the area. His humor was a bit sophomoric, but he's so physical you can't help but laugh your butt off! We had a fabulous time! We topped off the evening with a big ice cream cone from Cold Stone. It was so nice and we really tried to savor it b/c goodness knows how many more opportunities we'll have for a while....

I just got back from a yummy lunch with my friend, Tracie, at my favorite restaurant in town. It's a tea room run by some local Brits, but they also serve hearty pub-grub. I had the most fantastic plate of bangers and mash! But, the highlight of the meal was the butterbeer I ordered. For you non-Harry Potter fans, this post will make no sense and I apologize. If you are a fan --- isn't that cool??!! I guess the Harry craze is causing companies to market all the made-up stuff from the books. You can buy Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and apparently, order a butterbeer. It was non-alcoholic and tasted like one of those butterscotch candies, only in liquid form. It was delicious for the first few sips, but eventually I had to stop drinking it because it tasted too sweet. But, it totally made my day.

So, since we're pretty much ready for the baby to arrive any day now, Brad and I decided to have a little time to ourselves this weekend - we'll be a big family soon. So naturally, we went where all grown-ups go for a day trip - the zoo! The Kansas City Zoo had two koala bears on loan from San Diego through Labor Day and we just had to go admire the cuteness. Neither of us had been to a genuine zoo in years and we had a blast. We wore ourselves out walking all over the park, but it was worth it to see those cute koalas, meercats and monkeys/apes. Here are some of our favorite pics. The koala and gorilla ones were taken through glass, so they're not super sharp.

This gorilla put on one heck of a show. He had this HUGE habitat, but preferred to throw him/herself on the ground in front of the window. Drama Queen!!!

I luv Meercats.... These little sleepy ones were just so cute! Yes, that one with his face in the ground is definitely sleeping, not grooming.