Timeline...

Just wanted to give everyone a timeline of Quint's birth, since our lives have changed quite a bit...

Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009

3:00 am-6:00am contractions 10 minutes apart
6:00-6:30am- tried to take a bath, but contractions getting closer and more painful
6:45- called hospital, doc told me to come into the hospital
6:45-8- finished getting ready, got things lined up for Reagan, in the meantime, having contractions 5 minutes apart that lasted 30-45 seconds and they did not feel good!
7:45 Lauren arrived to take care of Reagan...Reagan didn't know what to think when I was in the middle of a contraction...it scared her to death!
8-left for hospital
8:30 got checked in...contractions 3 minutes apart and I was NOT a happy camper! 6 cm
9:45 epidural ordered, and they said they'd be in within 20 minutes...
10:45 still no epidural!!!!!!!
11:00 epidural guy finally gets there...with "a student" (should have known that was a bad sign)
11:30 had to "make adjustments" with the epidural (basically, the student messed up the epidural...nicked the dura, so they had to stick me again)...ironically, the exact same thing happened to my sister 3 months ago
11:45 finally comfortable...ahhhhh!
12:00 doc comes into break my water, but I talked her into waiting on my mom...7 cm.
12:30 BP dropped to 88/28...not good, so they had to give me ephedrine.
1:30 Mom took off from Columbus to try to get here for the birth...7 cm
2:40 Mom landed at BWI...8cm
3:15 9cm, still waiting on Mom...cutting it close
3:20 Mom walks in, they break my water
3:30 start pushing
3:40 I yelled at Mom (funny story)
3:50 Carl Herman Kuhl V was born weighing 8 lb, 12 oz, 21 inches long, cute as can be!

Not much happened the rest of this night...Quint got his first bath and I got moved to another room. Angela (aka Nana) got there and was an unbelievable help! Jim and Charis came to visit us at the hospital. Carl went home to relieve Lauren and take care of Reagan and Mom stayed with me at the hospital.

Thursday, Jan. 22
Reagan came in to meet her baby brother for the first time. She got there at about 9:30 and didn't know what to think. She kept pointing at him, but other than that was disinterested. She was more fascinated by the different things in the room (Mommy's hospital bed, the phone, etc). I was feeling pretty good most of the day because they had me downing a TON of caffeine in order to produce spinal fluid so that my spinal headache from the whacked epidural would go away. Oh, little Carl got circumcised too. Poor baby!

Friday, Jan. 23
Today we get to go home! Most of the morning, we just got ready and tried to organize all of the stuff we had accumulated over the past 2 days. I was feeling really lousy all day though. I had all kinds of neck and shoulder pain and couldn't figure out what the deal was. The nurses just kept telling me it was from tensing up so much when I was pushing, but it was so unbearable. At one point, the pain made me nauseous and I got really sick. At that point, they were concerned about discharging me...ugh. I just wanted to come home and see Reagan! Finally they decided to send me home and we got home between 2-3. I was pretty miserable all afternoon and was only comfortable lying flat on my back, so I called my doctor back and she said I needed to go back into the ER for a blood patch. Basically, they take blood out of my arm (20 cc's) and put it into the hole in my back where they messed up the epidural to "fill the space". This allows the spinal fluid to be redistributed back throughout the spinal column and takes away the headache. So, once we got Reagan down for the night, we headed back to the hospital where they did this procedure on me. Though it hurt, the pain of the 3rd epidural was nothing in comparison to the headache! By 11:30 we were headed home and I was back to my happy self again!

What a whirlwind! Angela stayed until Saturday night and did a ton...took care of Reagan, ran to Target, Wal-Mart, and random other places for us, cooked, etc! Lauren was a huge help too for keeping Reagan all day while I was in labor, and I can't imagine adjusting to all of this without my mom here! She's been doing laundry, vacuuming, changing Reagan and Quint (I'm not supposed to be lifting Reagan yet), and helping me in the middle of the night when the boy's up! It's been crazy around here, but worth every second!

Weepy...

Lately I've been really emotional and I couldn't put my finger on why until last night when I was putting Reagan to bed. I went through our typical nighttime routine of changing her diaper and changing her into her pjs, giving her some medicine (this isn't typical, but she has an ear infection right now), rocking her while singing a couple of songs, praying with her, and then just snuggling her for a little bit before I laid her down in her crib. As I was doing all of this I was so, so emotional and Reagan just kept looking at me like "what is wrong mommy?" I realized that I've been this way because there are only about 3 weeks left until the baby comes which means I only have 3 weeks left to focus most of my attention on Reagan. I know that she'll be fine and I'll be fine, but I guess the closer I get to the due date, the more I wonder if I'm ready for 2 or not. It doesn't help that Reagan's been sick, so she's been really needy lately, plus I haven't been sleeping very well....which adds to me being emotional. I took this picture of Reagan relaxing with Daddy one day when he got home from work...so sweet!

Thanksgiving '08

This year for Thanksgiving, my parents and Carl's parents came for the weekend. It was so much fun. We ate, shopped, and I even put them to work. Carl fixed a really good breakfast Thursday morning because we were having Thanksgiving dinner that night. He made a sausage and egg casserole, bacon, and banana smoothies. Then, the women got to work on Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey, of course, dressing, green beans, baked mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, glazed carrots, rolls, gravy, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cobbler, and Italian cream cake. Mmmmmm! We had so much food and are still eating turkey and dressing! Mom, Dad, and I got up early for the sales on Friday and made it out to Target and Best Buy and later we all went to the mall and Reagan got to see Santa. Saturday, I put them to work...Dad and Carl built a huge shelf in our garage for storage and organization. I can finally pull the car in the garage for the first time since we've lived here. It's so nice in the cold weather. Mom and I started in Reagan's new room by moving a book shelf (and a ton of books) downstairs to the first level. We finished late Saturday night by re-organizing the first level...it looks sooooo much better! Reagan was spoiled by all of her grandparents and it was so much fun having both sets of parents here. Hope you all had a great holiday too!

Pumpkin Carving

Our original plan was to have 2 pumpkins...one representing each of our babies. We spent about an hour and a half carving and when I went upstairs to get the camera, Carl turned his back and our big pumpkin that represented Reagan fell off the island and smashed. So sad. It was a big heart with "LOVE" carved out of the middle for Reagan. The little one, obviously was supposed to represent the baby. So, since it smashed, we decided that this little one would represent both babies since technically, Reagan still takes a paci for bedtime. We had fun nonetheless!

Who is more pregnant???

New Kitchen...

A few weeks ago, our friends from Virginia Beach, Angela and Jimmy, came up to celebrate my birthday. We had so much fun decorating my kitchen. Angela recovered my chairs, made a valence and napkins and spruced up the entire look. I love it! Here are some pictures of the finished product and the one at the bottom is what it used to look like!

Launch Video

The Family Reunion...

We had a family reunion on my dad's side of the family over Labor Day weekend in St. Louis (Sparta) and here are some pictures...I wish I would have taken more of my cousins, but at least I got some good ones of my grandparents. This was the first time they had met Reagan since they live so far away in Spokane, WA. There are pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Rauch, Mom and Dad, my Aunt Paulette (dad's older sister), and my cousin Amanda. Also, note that my cousin Art, collects ducks!

Prayer...

Please go to http://mosaicchristian.org/signup/ and sign up to pray for Mosaic's launch this Sunday. Thanks!

Great Commercial...

Mosaic's First 'Preview' Service

This past Sunday, we had our first "preview service" at Mosaic. Carl compares it to what Coldstone does when they open a store. They set their grand opening for a certain date and advertise that date, but they actually open a week prior to that and still serve customers as normal, but it's more for them to "practice" and work out kinks before the big day.

So Sunday, this is what we did. We hadn't advertised, except through our launch team and on the website, so we were only expecting 30-40 people, but never underestimate God...58 people showed up...many people we had never met before! It was really exciting. I was working in the kids ministry and I thought we'd have a couple or three babies and maybe a few toddlers....we had 11! It was crazy! We were all three (Reagan included) exhausted by the end of Sunday since we had been at the movie theater all morning Saturday learning how to set up the equipment and of course all morning Sunday. I guess we need to get used to the weekends being a bit tiring!

We have one more "preview service" on Aug. 24th before the big launch, September 14th. Pray that we continue to attract people that want to meet God!

Baby #2

I got to hear the baby's heartbeat today and we got one picture. It's the size of a grain of rice right now and I'm due Jan. 28th officially.

#2

#2 is on her/his way. We found out a couple of weeks ago and are really excited. It's hard to believe that Reagan will be a big sister. She still seems so little. I know she'll be great at it! Pray for a healthy pregnancy and baby again! Thanks!

NYC Part 3

Sunday, we woke up and went to a church on the Upper West Side of the City called Redeemer Presbyterian where Tim Keller is the pastor. Carl loves him and has read is book, so he wanted to go there and hear him live. It was very different, but a solid sermon on forgiveness. After church, we walked over to Tavern on the Green for brunch. Ooo, it was so good too. None of the places we ate let us down. We even bought a knish from a street vendor Saturday and it was yummy! After Tavern, we went back to the apt, packed up, and headed home to see our baby who we missed terribly. It was a much needed trip and it was nice to spend some quality time together. 5 years flies by when you're having fun!

NYC Part 2

Saturday, we woke up and went running in Central Park. It was a much nicer day and made for a beautiful run. After we got cleaned up, we had a reservation at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Mmmm, it was delicious. I got a chopped salad as an appetizer and Carl got a smoked salmon quesadilla and we both got the Spicy Chicken and Sweet Potato Hash for our entre. It was amazing. We both loved it.

After lunch, we headed straight to Yankee Stadium. It was a blast because the fans were so passionate since they were all New Yorkers! The Mets ended up winning 7-4. Then, from the game, we went to the Empire State Building and stood in line forever even though we already had tix. It was worth it though, it was really cool to be up that high and see the city.

From there, we met up with our friend Becka and had dinner with her at Follow Me Caffe, another local suggestion (Becka chose it). We were exhausted from the day, and decided to head back to the apartment and hang out with Bec for a while before calling it a day.

NYC Part 1

We decided to do something fun this year for our 5 year anniversary, so we planned a trip to New York City. Our actual anniversary isn't until June 14, but the summer starts to get a bit crazy for us, so we went a month early. We had a blast! My mom came over for the weekend to watch Reagan for us. She got there Thursday night and we left first thing Friday morning. We got to NYC a little after lunchtime, and it was pouring down rain. We had tickets for the Subway Series (Yankees vs. Mets) game that night, which of course got canceled, but we ended up still getting to go to the day game on Saturday. Friday, we ate at this great European place for lunch called Le Pain Quotidien (the daily bread). It was soooo good. It seemed like something the Food Network would feature. Since it was still pouring down rain when we got done, we decided we needed to do something inside, so we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. I had never been to a cathedral before, so it was pretty impressive. After that, we took the Long Island Railroad out to meet up with our friends Kevin and Liz who live in Forrest Hills (Queens). At that point, the Yanks game hadn't officially been canceled yet, so we had an appetizer with them (crackers with 3 different types of cheese, pistachios, and sun dried tomatoes). Kevin is such a good host. Then, Carl found out the game was still on, so we headed back into the city. As soon as we got back in town, the game got called, so we found this place called Serafina that Kevin had recommended and ate there for dinner. Rachel Ray would be so proud of me...we found out where the locals eat and went there! After Serafina, we went to see Baby Mama, since it had been months since we'd seen a movie.

If I Were...

(Topic courtesy of Kim)

If I were a kind of cereal, I'd be Cracklin' Oat Bran or Grapenuts. Though I realize both of these cereals are typically for senior citizens, I love them both. Plus, some of my earliest memories are of me sitting on my dad's lap and him feeding me Grapenuts! Mmmmm!

If I were a painting, I'd be Vincent Van Gogh's Church at Auvers. My husband is the art buff, and his favorite is Caravaggio, but I like Van Gogh's use of color. I chose his church painting because so much of my life has been influenced by church/God.








If I were a country, I'd be the Bahamas. I've only been in the Bahamas for 2 days, but would love to go back. Of course, the only parts of the Bahamas I've seen have been the touristy areas, but it was so beautiful, and the beaches are so relaxing! Oh, and I love the bartering in the marketplace!

If I were an animal, I'd be a horse...in honor of the Kentucky Derby. I'm not a huge animal lover, though I grew up having lots of outdoor cats, and a St. Bernard dog. I went horse-back riding with a friend in college on her farm in Indiana, and it was a lot of fun, plus, you gotta love the "fastest two minutes in sports!"

If I were a grocery store, I'd be either The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's. I wish they were cheaper, but I guess you get what you pay for when it comes to good food! I love their produce, meat, and cheese. Unfortunately, I can't afford to shop at any of these for all of my groceries, but every now and then for special occasions, we'll treat ourselves! When we lived in Virginia Beach, my favorites were Harris Teeter (aka. Teets) and Farm Fresh (still on the pricey side, I'm afraid)!

If I were a food, I'd be home grown tomatoes. If I were a beverage, I'd be a Zinger (fresh squeezed oj, fresh squeezed lemon juice, lime juice, club soda and sugar, with lots of ice) in the middle of summer.

If I were a cartoon character, I'd be Sully from Monster's Inc. I just think he's really funny and has so much compassion...I'm not that funny, but strive to have more compassion for people every day.

How about you?

Cherry Blossom Festival

For those of you who don't know why Washington D.C. is so famous for it's cherry blossom trees, here's a tidbit of info...in 1912, Japan gave D.C. 3000 cherry blossom trees as an act of friendship. President Taft's wife decided to plant the majority of them around the tidal basin which is between the Jefferson Memorial and the National Mall (with the other monuments). We went down Sunday and had a lot of fun even though it was freezing. We had been to all of the big monuments before, but we had never walked over to see T.J, so we did that and we also saw the National Cathedral while we were driving down. It took something like 100 years to build...it was just completed in 2007. For more pix, you can look at Reagan's blog.

The Butterfly Pavilion...

So I'm in this mom's group through meetup.com and I get several emails a day announcing different events (the group is for MD, DC, and northern VA so there are tons of events). I started cracking up tonight when I got an e-mail announcing an event at a Butterfly Pavilion. The event didn't apply to me because it is for parents with toddlers, but it was announcing a meeting at this local butterfly pavilion where the kids could "make their own butterfly garden" by coloring, painting, stenciling, etc. The reason I cracked up was because I was reminded of this bit from my favorite comedian, Brian Regan. Check it out below.

Mourning March Madness...

My favorite month of the year is March for several reasons...we start to taste Spring (which leads to Summer!), but more than that, I love March because of March Madness. Today is Selection Sunday, and though it's an exciting day, it's bittersweet, because my favorite team, the Fighting Illini just lost to Wisconsin in the Big 10 tourney. They have no hope of making it to the big dance. They made an impressive trek through the Big 10 tourney, but just ran out of steam. So, I'll have to resort to cheering for my second favorite team the Louisville Cards.