As you can see, Carter loves to hold his new "bwover". He likes to kiss his face and give him a nose-nose. Don'y forget to look at the video in the next posting. Sorry about all the crackling noises. Our camera is wierd. 
Our new baby, Nolan Mack Burk, arrived yesterday at 1:15pm. He was 8lbs 1oz and 20 inches long. So the run-down of the whole experience, in a nutshell, goes like this:
Monday at the Dr. I was dilated to a 3 or so and the Dr. stripped my membranes. She told me labor would probably start within 24 hours. By night, I was skeptical because I hadn't felt any contractions.
Went to bed at 11:30, woke up at 2 with contractions about every 10 minutes. By 4 in the morning they were bad enough to get me out of bed and in a hot shower. Spencer woke up around 6:30 and we were off to the hospital by 7:30.
8:35- got to the hospital. I was the only patient so I had nurses all over me, eager to help. It was great. I was happily resting with an epidural about an hour later.
The epidural made my contractions stop so I had to have pitocin. After that I progressed quickly and had the nurse check me. She said, "OH, he's like, RIGHT there." Within 5 minutes I was pushing and another couple minutes and the baby was born. It was awesome and so much better than the first time around.
So everything's going really well. We are all healthy and happy and I'm especially happy to be home. We got here around 2 this afternoon.
So here are some pictures. Spence is wearing a mask because he was a little sick the day before. Carter is SO excited about his "baby bwover" and loves to give him kissies on the cheeks. He's adjusting to sharing mommmy and daddy, I think. He was sucking his thumb while watching a movie today. He hasn't done that since he was a little guy.
Anyway, just wanted to post a few pics and an update. I'm off to bed as soon as I'm done here!
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
I was tagged by Gina 'Messick" (New Last Name).
6 Facts about me:
1. I have become an obsessive-compulsive house cleaner. I will figure out after pregnancy if this is just a temporary nesting thing but until then, I have to assume that I've become one of those annoyingly clean people. On a typical day when I get the cleaning "bug", I'll start outside with mowing the lawn, sweeping, weeding the garden and pruning the rose bushes, then I'll move inside and clean my entire house top-to-bottom, including doing laundry.
2. My favorite part of my day is in the morning, when I wake Carter up at about 7:30 and he says, "Hey, mom! I want apple-juice. I lay on the bed with mommy." Then we lay in my bed for 15-20 minutes and cuddle and talk. I ask him what he wants to do that day and he'll either say, "I go a-Diseyland!" or "Go Chuck-E-Cheese!"
3. I hate television. Like seriously despise it. There are very few shows which I enjoy watching and everything else seems so completely worthless that I feel dumber after watching them. We don't even have tv. We watch movies if we need entertaining or watch a tv show on the internet.
4. I love to exercise. I do work-out videos at home, walk, and lift weights. Last year I thought, "I think I'll train for a 1/2 marathon." I got serious about it for about a month and actually woke up early (!) to train and stuff. Then when I could go about 7 miles I started thinking to myself, "Wow, I'm only 1/2 way there and I'm spending a lot of time running. This stinks." So I stopped training. But I still love to exercise. Just not one of those with a lot of endurance.
5. I take a nap every day. Regardless of if I'm tired or not, I nap. I love it and I know it's coming to a close real quick.
6. My favorite movies are mini-series ones like Anne of Green Gables and Pride and Prejudice. Others include North and South (not the one with Patrick Swayze), Victoria and Albert, Wives and Daughters, Daniel Deronda, and The Forsyte Saga.
I don't have that many people's blogs so I tag Kate, Sheena, and Michelle.
Yesterday was a day for stories, I guess. The first one happened when we were getting ready to go for a walk. Carter said that something was "Booful" (beautiful) and I asked what was beautiful. He said, "It's pretty, mom" and I said, "What's pretty, bud?" and he touched my hair and said, "This one hair". It was so cute. I was especially grateful because I had put extra time into my hair that day. Then today while he was saying a prayer on the food he mumbled something about "Daddy pretty hair. Mommy pretty hair." He notices the cutest things.
So story number two...I was digging through some old photos when I came across pictures of me and Spence in Palm Springs on a short gettaway when I was about 8 months pregnant with Carter. My face and everything was so fat so I went to go show Spence. I said, "It's that disgusting?!?" and Carter comes into the kitchen going, "I see as-gusting, mom?" so I showed him the pic. He goes, "WHOA, MOM. AS-GUSTING! Das HOWBOL!"
Thanks a lot, buddy.
We went to Oak Glen again last weekend as a family and had a good time going to the petting zoo and eating fresh apple donuts. Why is it impossible to get a good picture of my kid with an animal? I've tried it like 10 times and have maybe gotten one decent one. Actually, I'm pretty sure the problem lies with just my kid. He is in the "I'm not going to cooperate with you" phase that I love.
I had a Dr. appointment yesterday and tomorrow I'm 37 weeks along. She'll see me again in 2 weeks and said that if we want to at that time she can strip my membranes which will hopefully throw me into the horrible agony of labor within 24 hours or so. I think that's what we are going to do but I keep asking myself, "Why would I want to intentionally put myself into labor?" I guess that it is inevitable that it's going to happen sometime, so I might as well know when. It's just so freaky that it's so close. I've pretty much blocked my pregnancy from my mind this whole time just to make the time go faster. Well, it worked, and now I'm at the end and in a sortof panic that I let it creep up on me. We are really looking forward to seeing the new baby, though, and having a sweet little-little-one in the house again.
I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow. That is a nerve-racking experience. I'm still trying to grow it out (man, it is taking forever) so getting it cut seems like a bit of a step backwards. Plus, I'm seeing a new girl. That's the most scary part. You never know if she's just gonna go berzerk and whack off like 3 inches. I usually end up with lock-jaw for a couple hours after my appointment because I get so nervous in the chair. I'm just completely vulnerable and at her mercy. That she does a good job is my humble prayer. 
