Three generations of Bonds

These pictures are from when William was less than 2 weeks old.  David's Dad came to visit along with his sister Rhonda.

The hospital gave us a copy of the newspaper from the day that William was born (I guess as a memento or something?)  David thought it was funny that the headline read "Feds say posse hit team killed 13".  By the way, all three men in this picture share the middle name Alan. :)

sleepy snuggles

Handsome man

Tummy time with the boppy.

Little little toes

He loves kisses from big sister.

More tummy time

First Bath

 Last week William got his first bath at home.  I put his little blue tub in the big bathtub, and Eliana hopped in the big tub to help out.  She of course loved it!  What could be better than playing in the water with your baby brother?  Will, surprisingly, didn't mind the bath at all.  Even when Eliana drizzled water on his head, he didn't cry.  He did, however, pee all over me when I pulled him out of the tub.

Not so bad, he thinks.

Helpful big sister

Notice how Eliana is always staring so intently at her brother in all of these pictures?  She loves him!

Freshly clean snuggle-bug

Pictures from when we got home

 Ok, a little bit of an overload of pictures here.  Just some from our first days home together.  Things have been so peaceful so far.  Family has been in and out to visit.  David gets almost two weeks off of work.  And right now, William is still in a sleepy newborn phase, so he has been taking lots of naps (mostly during the day so that he has plenty of energy to eat all night long).  We've been enjoying our little paradise here at home. 

I have a picture of Eliana just like this!

Chatting with his Daddy

She wants to hold him all the time.  When asked, Eliana says his name is William or Boy.

Welcome William!

William's birth story:
Last Tuesday I was having some contractions (which was not unusual for me - I am the queen of Braxton Hicks).  They came and went all morning, but I noticed that around 1:30 they became pretty regular.  I texted David and said he might want to try to come home early for work.  Then I started doing some serious cleaning!  While I was in labor, I did two loads of laundry, swept the entire floor upstairs, changed the sheets on the bed, cleaned the kitchen, and even dusted under the furniture in the living room!  It helped pass the time and being on my feet might make labor move faster.  Lucky for me, Eliana took a long nap that afternoon.  David came home from work early and my brother Michael and sister-in-law Melissa came over.  This just so happened to be the same day as the USA vs Belgium World Cup game.  So while I was marching around the house in labor and Melissa was taking care of Eliana, David and Michael watched a soccer game.  Of course the game ended in a tie and went into overtime.  I had told myself that I would stay at home until the game ended, but I really started to lose my cool when it went to overtime.  We got to the hospital around 8pm.  The nurse and resident both thought I was progressing pretty fast, so they kept saying they thought the baby would be born before midnight.  So when the resident said around 9pm that was about my last chance for an epidural, I said no, I didn't need one.  Labor is so much easier when you don't get induced!  The pitocin they give you for inductions just make the contractions so strong.  So I was doing pretty well and thought - let's just get this thing over with.  I was bobbing away on my labor ball and breathing through contractions.  And time just kept ticking.  Midnight came and went, and still no baby.  As the contractions continued to get worse and time kept going, I realized that I had made a TERRIBLE MISTAKE.  What was I thinking not getting an epidural?  I told David that I couldn't do it, and that I would rather die, and then I begged the nurse for any kind of pain medicine that she could give me.  That's when the resident said it was too late, they couldn't give me any pain medicine because the baby would be coming soon.  That's when I really started yelling.  Poor David took the brunt of it, but no one in that room was safe.  I said that they better get that baby out right now or just kill me, because I couldn't do it.  I kept repeating "I made a mistake!"  I did not die, however, and within minutes I was pushing.  Baby William came out so quick that the resident almost caught him.  The doctor made it in just in time, and we had a big, healthy baby boy at 12:59am!  William weighed in at 8lbs 10oz and 21in long.  He was perfect in every way.   We all love him so much, especially his big sister Eliana.  When my parents brought her to meet him that afternoon, she didn't want to "share" him and kept delicately kissing him.  She is a wonderful big sister!

PS.  Eliana funny for the day:  Yesterday when Eliana woke up from her nap, I found her wearing her rain boots (she apparently slept in them).  When I asked her why she was wearing her boots, she said, "They keep my toes safe so they don't get bit."  "Who is going to bite them?" I asked.  To which she replied, "The horse in the basement."  What an imagination!

Another naptime, Eliana brought her hard plastic doll house into bed with her.  Sure looks comfy.  The sign above her bed was made by her friends as daycare for her last day.  We are going to miss that place!

Last day as a family of three

Last Monday, I had the day off and David had a light day scheduled at the clinic.  We decided to take our little family of three to COSI (the children's museum) and spend some time together before the new baby showed up.  Good thing we did because it turns out I went into labor the next day!  I think it is really special that we got to spend this day together as a family, focus a lot of attention on Eliana, and have some fun before the birth of Eliana's brother.  We went to the outside part of the museum, which we had not checked out before.  Eliana ran around a lot and did lots of squealing, so I would say she enjoyed it.  After lunch we ended the day with a trip to the little kid play space, which is always fun.  Eliana ran right to the barnyard. 

This thing sucked up balls out of your hand and then spit them out of the pipes on the top.

Eliana couldn't hold enough balls in her hand!  She might have just stayed here all day at this one spot if we had let her.

This was a giant stone ball suspended on a small fountain of water.  With just a little bit of effort, the ball could be rolled in all directions.  I don't think Eliana quite got what was cool about this, but she did like the layer of water on the giant stone.

Taking a break on her checkers seat.

Then back inside and off to the barnyard.

Eliana found these glasses to wear.  As with all glasses, she preferred them on upside down.

Pre Baby Fun

For those dedicated followers of our family's blog, I am sure you are eagerly anticipating a post about baby William.  However, in the interest of chronological continuity, I wanted to post a couple of things about Eliana before William came along.

Our new house is just two blocks away from a really nice park (one we used to drive for fifteen minutes to visit).  We have been walking to the park as often as possible.  And one of the best parts is that this park is also just a couple of blocks away from Eliana's good friend Adele.  So the two girls have been spending lots of time playing together.  Two weeks ago I spent an hour walking the trail around the park hoping to get labor going with William.  (I put myself on a strict hour a day walk regimen starting at 39 weeks.  Ten days later I finally went into labor, so I don't know if it helped.  But at least I got outside for a little bit...)

Eliana and Adele running around on the bridge.

Eliana and Adele, two peas in a pod.

Eliana has been loving our new backyard.  She has tons of room to run around, plus a sandbox, pool, and slide to play on.  She also likes to "help" me in the garden by picking up clumps of dirt and breaking them into smaller clumps.

Playing in her new baby pool

Another walk along the Scioto River (part of my hour a day walking plan).  This park along the river would be a lot nicer if they actually had a walking trail.  Instead you just walk along a small road within the park that cars occasionally drive along.  Oh well.  Eliana loved watching the boats drive by on the river. 

The day before my due date.

Eliana wanted to walk too

This was her "running."  Quite determined!