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We have new pictures of Jillian posted in her new 3 – 6 month album.

The pictures have finally been updated.

Tyler
Jillian
The Kids Together

Tyler (2 new)
Jillian (4 new)
The Kids (1 new)

Tyler (8 new)
Jillian (11 new)
The Kids (1 new)

It’s been three weeks since Jillian was born so it’s about time I write the story of her birth.

We knew ahead of time that Emily would give birth on April 12th. Every time we went to see Emily’s doctor — Dr. Elizabeth Schleuning — she would measure Emily’s uterus. She did this by feeling on Emily’s stomach where the top and bottom of the uterus is. Then she stretches a tape measure from the bottom to the top. It’s not a 100% accurate measurement but when done by an experienced doctor it’s close enough.

The size of the uterus corresponds to certain number of weeks into the pregnancy. If the measurement and the actual length of pregnancy match then you have a normal size baby. If the measurement is larger than the actual length of pregnancy then chances are you’re going to have large baby. Emily consistently measured at least 1 week large so she opted to be induced about a week before the official due date. The reason for this is that Emily did not want to push out a large baby again like she did with Tyler.

Sometime near the end of March Emily talked with her doctor and both agreed on April 12th as the induction day. This made planning a little easier and less stressful. We didn’t have to worry about timing contractions and rushing to the hospital in the middle of the night. We didn’t have to worry about what Emily would do if she went into labor while I was at work. April 12th was the definite birth day and that is what we planned for.

We wondered what the baby would look like. Would it look like Tyler or would it look completely different? We wondered if we would be having a boy or a girl. We wondered what kind of temperament it would have. We had all of our newborn supplies on hand and ready to go. Emily’s suitcase for the hospital was all packed. April 12th couldn’t come soon enough. On Monday, April 11th I said goodbye to all my co-workers and they wished me luck on the new baby. I knew by this time the next day I would have a new son or daughter in my arms.

On my way home I got a call on my cell phone. It was Emily. She told me that her doctor was sick and if she wasn’t feeling better by the morning she would have to delay the induction a couple of days. This was not good news. Imagine if you’re a young child and Santa Claus goes on the evening news to announce Christmas might have to be delayed a couple of days. That’s what it felt like to us.

We prayed hard that night for her doctor to be feeling better in the morning. Emily’s friends prayed for the same thing. We went to bed that night not knowing if we were going to have a baby the next day or not. It’s was kind of a weird feeling. We were hopeful but uncertain.

In the morning we got up and prepared as if we were going to go to the hospital and waited for the doctor to call. A little after 7:00 AM the phone rang. She felt better! The induction was still on! We put our stuff in the car, said goodbye to Tyler and took off for the hospital.

I suppose I should mention at this point that my mother was staying with us and was taking care of Tyler in our absence. I wouldn’t want anyone to think we said goodbye to Tyler and left him at the house by himself.

Some of you might be wondering how labor is actually induced. They hooked Emily up with an IV and gave her a supply of Pitocin. Pitocin simulates the naturally occurring hormone that’s released into the body to start labor. You should also know that induced labor typically lasts longer than natural labor. That’s was okay because Emily had an epidural to eliminate the pain of the contractions.

If you’ve watched any of those birth shows on Oxygen, Discovery Health, or TLC then you probably think that labor and birth all happens within 30 minutes. In real life though there’s a lot of waiting around. We passed the time by talking about Tyler and generally joking around. Emily’s friends Lisa and Sarah were on hand to lend their support and help pass the time. Ginger was also there to help coach Emily and provide support and encouragement. Cheryl Hultgren stopped by for a bit and Rachel Latham was able to come near the end of the labor. At around 5:15 PM Emily was ready to start pushing.

With our first son Tyler, Emily had to push for two and a half hours before he was born. We knew the second baby would come faster so we figured she’d be pushing for maybe a hour or a little longer. Well, after ten minutes and four good pushes the baby’s head was already showing itself!

We could see just the top of the head; not a whole lot but a small patch of thick dark hair. The doctor wasn’t even in the room yet so the nurses told Emily to stop pushing until the doctor could get to the room to deliver it. At this point everyone else in the room turned their attention to getting the equipment ready for the delivery. I kept my eyes fixed on the baby’s head. This was my first glimpse of our new baby and tears of joy welled up in my eyes.

Then I noticed something. That small patch of dark hair was getting bigger. At first I thought it was my imagination but after a few seconds it was obvious the baby was still coming out despite Emily not pushing at all. I spoke up. “Uh, I think it’s coming out further. Guys! It’s coming out! It’s coming out!” The baby’s head just slid right out! Only the head came out. The rest of its body was still inside but it was just resting there with it’s face against the bed. By this time the doctor had just managed to get in the room and was hurrying to get her gloves on. Once she finally did get her gloves on she took hold of the head and pulled the baby the rest of the way out.

I leaned over the baby so I could see if it was a boy or a girl. I was probably obscuring everyone else’s view including the doctors and nurses but I had to see if we had a boy or girl. So I looked and uh, looked some more. I couldn’t tell! Without getting into too much detail a baby’s anatomy is a bit different from an adult’s anatomy. Some things can be swollen. Some things can be really small. So I couldn’t tell. Then someone said, “It’s a girl!”

Wow! A little girl! Emily and I were so happy to have a little girl! During the pregnancy we had both said we would be happy with either a boy or girl but I know that we both were secretly hoping for a girl. We got our wish. We had a beautiful baby girl who — by the way — looked almost identical to Tyler when he was a new born.

Her name is Jillian Beverly Luton. She weighed 8 pounds and 7 ounces. She was 20″ long.

Jillian is a name that both Emily and I thought was pretty cool. We were probably influenced by the fact that the actress who played Scully on The X-Files is named Gillian. However, we decided to go with the more traditional spelling. Beverly is the name of Emily’s mother who passed away in 1995. Jillian also shares the same birthday as Emily’s mother which is a special connection we hadn’t planned but we’re extremely glad it happened.

Almost immediately after she was born Emily came up with the nickname Jilly Bean and we find ourselves calling her that more often than her real name. And a lot of the time we call her just “Bean”.

So far Jillian has been a very easy baby to take care of. Her temperament and sleep patterns are just as good as Tyler’s when he was a newborn. Even though she looks just like Tyler her features are more delicate and feminine. She has a smaller nose. Her feet are much smaller and her fingers are longer and more slender. It’ll be interesting to see how she who she looks like as she gets older.

That’s the story. It feels like there should be some kind of summary paragraph here that ends on a sentimental note. But right now my writing brain is pretty much tapped out.

We have a winner in the baby contest. Congratulations Danny Fitelson! Danny guessed the sex and length exactly correct and guessed the weight to within of 1 ounce of the actual weight. Art Matthews guess the sex, length, and birthday exactly correctly. However, given the wide range of choices for weight I decided to give that item more weight and that broke the tie.

Here’s some other interesting information. Eight of fifteen people guessed Jillian would be a girl. Danny Fitelson guessed the second lightest weight at 8lbs 8ozs. Everyone else thought this baby would be even heavier. David Latham even guessed 10 lbs 5 ozs. That’s a big baby! Three people guess the length exactly correct at 20″: Art Matthews, Danny Fitelson, and Daniel Livsey. Two people guessed the birthday exactly: Art Matthews and Brent Atkinson. They made their guesses long before we knew what the induce date would be.

So once again congratulations to Danny. We’ll send your Amazon gift certificate to you soon.

If you want pictures, you got pictures! Lots of ‘em.

Tyler (18 – 24 months) – 18 new
Jillian’s Birth – 4 new
Jillian (0 – 3 months) – 20 new
The Kids: Volume 1 – 7 new

That’s 49 new pictures! That should hold everyone for a while until I can back into my Saturday morning update routine.

Pictures Are Here! The full story of the birth will come soon.

The Baby 2005 Contest is now online. Enter for a chnace to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Emily had her 20-week ultrasound on Monday. We got three pictures from that which are on the Baby Luton 2005 page.

We also have four new pictures of Tyler posted.