The story and an update

Here I am bright and early Monday morning all ready to have a baby. I was enduced at 7:00am and nothing happened for a few hours.  I was getting bored so Jacob turned on a movie for me. When the movie was ending, the doctor came and broke my water.  That's when things finally got moving although very slowly. After a few more hours I thought I might die so they checked me and I was only at 4cm. They gave me something to take the edge off the pain and I felt like maybe I was going to make it for a short while. After that wore off, they checked again and I was still only 6cm. At this point I thought for sure I was going to die so I gave up and asked for an epidural although it was POINTLESS. The guy doing it was only a resident so he had to have somebody watch him. That somebody took FOREVER to get to the room and they were lucky I was only half alive when they arrived. (Yes I am a bit dramatic and I don't have a very stong threshold for pain. ) The epidural took a while because he had to keep adjusting it. They finally got it in and a little while later I was at 10cm. I could feel the baby pushing through so they ran and got the doctor.(wait a second, i'm not supposed to be feeling this.) A half hour of painful pushing later he was finally born. After having such a hard long day I think I did die but found myself in Heaven holding a sweet little angel that made it all worth it. 
Now for the update. This little guy is a GREAT sleeper so far. He wants to eat ALL day long. What can I say? He's a big boy.  He is starting to be a little  more awake during the day and he poops more than anyone I know.  I've only been peed on once and since Lily has to be so involved with everything, I think she got sprayed a little too.  

Lily loves the baby so far. She always asks me if he is hungry and if I say  no then she goes down the list. "Baby sleep, baby poop, baby peep, baby diaper, baby blanky, baby binkey." She loves to bring me diapers and she makes sure the little basket is stocked with them at all times.  She is very concerned for him when he cries. Yesterday I was changing his diaper and he was screaming. I could see that she had a worried look on her face and after a while she just couldn't take it anymore so she yelled "STOP IT" She deffinately has a mothers ear. She hears him as soon as he starts crying and runs to the rescue. The jealousy factor hasn't started yet although she is very clingy to me. I try to keep her involved and play with her while  feeding him so we will see how it goes. 

Visitors and Visiting

Here is a picture of Floyd post-bath. Sleeping soundly.
Kat, as you can see, is in great spirits.
This is my mom and dad. They flew in this afternoon for the week. We are very glad to have them here.
Lily holding Jake for the first time. She hasn't a clue what to do, but she tries.
This was taken the day of Jake's birth. Isn't my wife hot???

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HERE HE IS: Floyd Jacob

At 4:22 Floyd Jacob "Jake" was born. We got to the hospital at 6 this morning, so it was quite a day filled with watching To Kill a Mockingbird AND Singing In the Rain. Well, here's what you all want to see:

Stats: 9 lbs 2 oz (yes, NINE) 20 3/4 inches long, and hair.

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Why Floyd?

Most of you already know that Floyd is a family name. It has been given to the oldest son for three of the last four generations. The one generation that wasn't named Floyd was me. Since I'm the oldest son of my family, I was supposed to be Floyd. I can't say whether or not my mother, who pleaded with my father to not name me this, was right or not because that's not myname. However, in naming my first son, I can't think of a better tradition to carry on than to name him after three of my heroes: My great-grandfather: Floyd Delamar, my grandfather: Floyd Hill, and my dad: Floyd William.

Each of them have outstanding qualities that makes them men who I want my son to emulate. My great-grandfather was an electrical engineer for General Electric. He moved his family to Eerie, Pennsylvania and raised them there. When he arrived, he found the church to be almost a non-entity, a complete opposite to life in Tooele, Utah, where he was raised. He realized he had to make a choice: be an active, faithful member, or not be a member of the church at all. The decision he made has affected over a hundred people, including my son. He was a stalwart member of the church and a pioneer of sorts. He was a patriarch in the stake where he retired, in Orem, Utah.

Above is my grandfather. He attended school at Brigham Young University. He was there back when students were part of the bucket brigade, and carried buckets of paint up to the Y on the mountain to keep it shining white. After undergrad, he married my grandmother and took her with him to Salt Lake for law school (at a university which shall not be named). He served for many years as a District Attorney and then a judge. After serving as a regional representative, he went on a mission to New Zealand with my grandmother, where they worked as an office couple. From there, they were called to preside over the Santa Rosa California Mission. Whenever I want to talk sports, I call my grandpa. He is the greatest sports fan I know. We both love BYU sports and watching Tiger Woods play. The only difference is that I root for Tiger, while my grandpa roots against him. He loves rooting for underdogs (which in golf is anyone playing against Tiger). It is from him I get my love of storytelling. My grandfather has perfect timing in telling jokes and anecdotes.

Last we come to my dad. My dad is so many things to me. He's my biggest supporter and fan, my friend, and my teacher. He loves the gospel and he loves to serve. Often we'll talk of people who would be willing to do anything for someone, and that's my dad. He has a great balance of life. He exercises his body, mind, and spirit very equally. He's healthier than many people my age (including me), he's smart (has written and published two books), and he knows the gospel backwards and forwards. We have great conversations and it's been that way for as long as I could remember. Ever since Kat and I moved here, he and my mom have written us every week and mailed us their letters. Besides telling us about almost every meal he eats, he offers us lots of encouragement, and always reminds us that he's praying for us. My dad wants everyone to succeed, except for teams playing BYU. His greatest desire in life is to go on more missions. When he and my mom retire, they plan to go and serve. I'm so proud of him. He's the greatest example I've had in my life of righteous living, hard work, and patriotism. Plus, he thinks I'm funny and loves to read my books.

Floyd is old fashioned. There's no getting around it. But I feel as though I wouldn't be honoring these men properly by giving my son their name as his middle name. It doesn't preserve the tradition I want to carry on. So, while our son will go by Jake, his name is Floyd. I hope one day he knows what a privilege it is to have this name.

Last, I want to thank Kat for letting me name our son. I know how much she didn't want it, but she also knew how important it is to me. She's a wonderful wife and friend, but a terrific mom. I've named both our kids now, so I suppose I really owe her one. But I could go on and on about all the things I owe her for, as she's just so great. Anyway, tomorrow Floyd comes, and we're very excited.

PS Also, tomorrow I should find out whether I made the first two cuts in the Amazon book contest.

Confused

Lately I have been trying to help Lily understand that there is a baby in my tummy and soon she will have a baby brother. After all my hard work I finally felt like she was starting to understand a little. She would point to my stomach and say "Baby in there." Then she would pull up my shirt and kiss my stomach saying "Baby kiss." My favorite thing she does is when she sits on my lap, she  pulls up her shirt and mine then lays on me so our tummies are touching.  She likes to snuggle this way sometimes.  I was happy to see she was finally understanding  and then I said something that confused her greatly. The baby was moving a lot and so I told her that he was squirming around. Lily thought I said squirling and since squirrels are one of her favorite animals right now she was very excited that I have squirrels in my tummy. Now she points to my tummy and says "Squirrels in there." Oh well. I guess I will just have to wait till he is born to show her she has a little baby brother. 

Boo Yah!

Spring Break is here. That means a little more time to write. Sometimes, I take a quick break and play a short game of Hearts or something. As you can see .... I'm pretty good.

NCAA Basketball

It's that time! I love March basketball! I'd like to post a few videos to demostrate just how AWESOME NCAA men's basketball is. GO COUGARS!

Lily and friends

We babysat for some friends the other night and Lily was so excited to have some kids to play with. Especially cute little Lucy and Finn. She loves them and talks about them all the time. During dinner, I had a cute little conversation with Finn:

Finn: Kat why is your tummy so big?

Me: Because I have a baby in it just like your mom did a little while ago.

Finn: (very concerned) Oh, so you have to go to the hospital?

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We Take Things Seriously at BYU

Congrats to BYU for beating the yewts, 63-50! 

GO COUGARS!!