Levi's Bris

Last Thursday, 3/17, we celebrated Levi's Bris.  In doing this we dedicated him to God and joined him into the Jewish family.  This was both an exciting and traumatic day for me.  Levi did a great job handling, not only all the new people, but the fact that he had to get circumcised in a room full of adults he mostly didn't know.  I, on the other hand, almost both passed out and cried during the ceremony.  Everyone had told me that this is worse for the mom than the baby, and they were definitely right!  Levi did cry a little, but he cries every time his diaper is off, so who knows if he actually felt anything.  He had his Papa sitting right by his side the whole time, and his cousin Caroline encouraging him from the doorway.  I think my favorite quote of the day was Caroline saying "Don't worry Levi, Papa is with you.  He will take good care of you!"  They do truly have the best Papa a kid could ask for and Caroline knows that.  Someday Levi will too.  The Mohel who performed the Bris was also great with Levi.  He took a lot of time before the ceremony getting him prepared (mostly this means holding him and giving him wine and sugar water to ease the pain a bit) and afterwards, holding him to make sure that he didn't get passed around like a hot potato, so that he would have time to recovery and rest.  I really appreciated him, he had a great personality, you could tell he loved kids, and he was very comforting to me as well.  I was so glad that many of our friends and family came out to meet Levi and to share in this Mitzvah with us.  Here are some pictures, don't worry there aren't and of the actual cutting :-)

Announcing Levi Timothy Mertens

Levi was born on Thursday March 10 at 12:53 PM.  We have been home since Friday evening, and we are enjoying the process of learning how to be parents!  I created this blog to document the milestones of Levi's life, and to be able to share these things with our family and friends.  I am working on typing up the birth story which I will post here when it is done.  For now, here are some pictures. 

False Alarm

We had a false alarm yesterday.  We got so excited because we thought that you were telling us that you were ready to be born.  As first-timers, we are not experts on this process so, not surprisingly, we are jumping at every little twinge and hoping that it means that you are ready to come out and meet us.  I was having contractions all day yesterday, and started to time them around lunch time.  At that point they were about 5 minutes apart, but not at all painful.  We decided to run some errands and keep busy for the rest of the day and see what happened.  At around 10pm I decided to start timing the contractions again as they were coming closer together and getting a little bit stronger.  They were consistently 2 minutes apart for a whole hour.  Like I said, we don't know much about this process, but I did know that 2 minutes apart was pretty close.  I wasn't in much pain, but still figured it would be better to get things checked out than to miss the window on getting to the hospital.  We headed in and they hooked us up to a monitor.  I was having consistent contractions but they were not very strong. The nurse and doctor were super nice, and did not make us feel like the rookies that we are.  They had us walk the very short labor and delivery hallway for two hours to see if that would help things progress.  After the long hours of walking my contractions had gotten significantly stronger which was exciting news, so they decided to let us stay for a while.  They told us to try and rest and as I fell asleep the contractions disappeared.  At around 5:30 they decided that we should head home as this could be a long process and there was no telling how much more work these contractions had to do to actually start meaning something.  We were sad to be coming home without you here, but the more I thought about it I was grateful that you did not come out before you were ready.  I am hoping that next time we go to the hospital it will be the real thing, and that we will get to meet you very soon.  We cannot wait!  We are praying that you continue to grow strong and healthy, and that when you are ready to come out you will make it clear to us. 

Dear Levi,

Dr. Brennan says that she expects that you will make your appearance very soon!  We are all ready for you, and are really hoping that she is right.  Your Aunt Jenn is hoping that you hold-off until tomorrow so that she can share her birthday with you.  I am ready for you any time now.  I am getting uncomfortable and anxious and am ready to move on to a life that includes you.  Our main hope is that you will be healthy when you come out, and physically ready to take on the "outside world" whenever you do choose to be born.  We are so excited to finally meet you, to see what you look like, and to get to know you.  You have two crazy, affectionate dogs eagerly awaiting your arrival as well.  They will be great playmates once you are big enough to handle them.  You have three very fun cousins, aunts, an uncle, and grandparents who are all just waiting to play with you, and spoil you.