Asher Durrant Hunter Pettey

Well, he's here... sort of. Asher was born on Sunday December 28th 2008 at the University of Utah Hospital at 10:14 pm. He weighed seven pounds and was twenty and a half inches long at birth. He has some light brown hair and blue-gray eyes (for the time being).

He's a smashing young lad but he has come with a couple of little problems that the medical staff is trying to work out. First off he has some air by his lung that needs to go away - the doctors feel that this will resolve itself and a second x-ray seems to indicate that it will do just that. The second problem is that they feel he may have pneumonia, so he's been on antibiotics for a few days and will probably remain on them for another 2-4 days.

All this means he has had to remain in the hospital under the supervision of doctors and nurses rather than his parents. I won't lie to you, it has been difficult both physically and emotionally. Each day we see him several times for feedings and then we go home without him. It breaks our hearts each time we kiss him on the forehead and say goodbye. This is not what we expected, but at the same time when we compare what we are dealing with to what others have gone through, or are going through, we count our blessings.

Jill is doing well, she feels sore, swollen and oh so exhausted; but again we have been blessed as she is in excellent health considering all that she went through in labor. For any of you who keep tabs on peoples labor, we started timing the contractions at about 3:00 pm on Saturday and the child was born at 10:14 pm on Sunday....you do the math....ouch!!! On the upside the "pushing" stage (personally I don't think calling it pushing does any justice to what exactly happens) only lasted around 20 minutes - so again blessings abound.

Asher has already given us so much joy, I wish I could tell you all how we feel, but words just aren't enough. I guess we finally know for ourselves what so many of you have tried to explain to us, being a parent is a wonderful thing.

I hope that Jill and I will be able to give you some more details about all that has gone on over the course of the last few days. I would try to do so now, but am are experiencing that "lack of sleep" thing that we have heard so much about so I don't know that either of us has the energy to give you much more than this right now.

We'd like to thank you all for your prayers and for all the help you have already given us. We have been given food, clothes, care and concern insomuch that we feel we will never be able to repay any of you. Thank you so much! We love you all.

Christmas Traditions

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree this year - right next to our Christmas tree last year. Not so different, hunh? Well, D and I are specializing in the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. We have decided that personality is more important than aesthetics. Oh, and the gifts aren't ours, they are to be given away and are for effect only.

Anyway, so I was talking with Teryl the other day and she was kind enough to send me an email of some of their family Christmas traditions. She had some really good ideas - some of which I'm going to steal (I really like the candle-light dinner for Christmas Eve). D and his family has a tradition of going to Modern Display here in SLC and then heading across the street to Hires to get a burger in the car. I have yet to experience this tradition, but am very excited to check it out in a few weeks. My family, thanks to Brandon and Susan has a Hunter/Hillyard 12 days of Christmas song that we sing recounting all the crazy things that we experienced that year. That and some of the craziest white elephant gifts (a live cat in a box) I have EVER seen. Good times.

Durrant and I are just starting out and are excited to create our traditions, we wanted to continue last years event (Aloha Hawaii!!!) but, the economy... We have loved hearing your comments on other posts, and if you would be ever so kind, we would love to continue to hear from you! What are some of your traditions?

Side note: Our families have some other fun traditions that we'd be happy to share with you - let us know if you are interested and we will put them down as our next post.

A question for parents.

A bit on the serious side this time.

Jill and I have about one month until the due date for our first child. My question to those of you who are parents is this:

What should we do in our remaining month of "freedom"? What is it you miss the most? Do you miss going to movies at any given hour? Do you miss quiet walks together? What do you miss the most?

I know that having children is a blessing and you would never trade having them for the world, but there are surly things that you miss about the times you had when you were just a couple - things that you may not get to experience again for 10-20 years. What do you wish that you and your spouse could do just one more time?

Clumsiness of Pregnancy

So, I'm discovering that clumsiness and pregnancy are actually synonyms, much to my surprise. Not only am I forgetting EVERYTHING and then forgetting to remember it later, I am also walking funny and tripping over mid-air (it was HUGE, I promise!!!).

However, I have to confess that Sunday night I took it a bit too far. I was getting some cauliflower ready for dinner when my paring knife decided to have a malicious mind of it's own and cut my thumb off. Okay, not really off, but legitimately to the bone. I must have said something because Durrant came over with a concerned look on his face and interrupted my confused and disgusted stare at my gaping wound. Immediately, he took action - getting shoes, coats, presentable pants on to go to the hospital.

I, on the other hand didn't budge. It was only 3-4 centimeters long - yeah, I saw the bone, but I really think superglue will take care of it, right? Well, I decided to get a "second opinion" and called (step-mom) Dayna. She, was on my side - super glue will work great, you don't need to go to the doctor, you'll be fine. (This is me jumping up and down with joy)

That didn't fly with my very concerned husband. So, I called his brother, who is a nurse. Unfortunately, in his professionally medical opinion, he suggested I go see a doctor and get the wound stitched up. Hmmmm... This wasn't what I wanted to hear. (Meanwhile my Love is pacing around the house, wishing he could drag me out by the hair)

Okay, I said, we'll split the difference and call my brother doctor Craig, whom I knew would be on my side. No such luck. He said I needed to get it stitched up too. So, 25-30 minutes after the initial cut I grudgingly got in the car and went to the doctor to get the cut mended. However, I insisted on taking dinner with me

Moral to the story: don't call a doctor if you want to get out of going to the hospital. :)

Weigh in on potential baby names..

Okay, so we feel pretty confident in the name we will give our baby, but it's always a good idea to have a few extra names ready just in case the name you pick doesn't really "fit" your child. Here are some we have been considering:

1 - Gerbelton Mekankowitz (Jill's idea, not mine!)
2 - Muhammed (Just the one name no middle or last)
3 - Carlos Ballerga (a former baseball player, my wife seemed a bit taken with the name)
4 - Tariq Abdul Wa'had (former basketball player and it is in keeping with Jill's love of Middle Eastern culture
5 - Crustacious Jones (just has a good Christian sound about it)
6 - The Sarlac (babies are destructive and they don't really move very well for quite some time)
7 - Ted Striker (from the greatest comedy of all time...who's with me??)
8 - Clinton Barak Carter (again one of Jill's)
9 - Luca Brasi (from the Godfather, but things didn't end well for him so we might skip this one)
10-Enrique Velasquez (hmmm...Jill seems to like this Latin thing...perhaps I should become El Durante)

So to all two of us who faithfully follow this blog (being Jill and myself) let us know which name we should go with; or suggest one of your own.

E-gads Batman

Wow, birthing classes are disturbing things! We just read something about the fetus consuming body hair and some other skin preservative while in the womb....God's design or not that is just disturbing! And to think my wife is concerned about what I eat.