Anders Rhys Wilhoit

On February 3rd, 2017 our family officially expanded.  Arriving at 11:10 am at 6 lbs. 9 oz and 19.5 inches long, Anders Rhys Wilhoit was a perfect handful of a babe.  I have to admit that the experience of having #2 felt drastically different from #1.  I don’t know if it was the wisdom of experience, the convenience of a firm delivery date, or just the sheer amnesic exhaustion of welcoming an infant whilst running after a toddler, but I found this time around to be lots easier.  Every medical professional I met with for prenatal care recommended that we skip a VBAC attempt and simply schedule our delivery - so we did.  While every baby is exciting and anticipated, the near 100% guarantee that we were going to deliver on February 3rd was surreal.  It took so much guesswork out of our preparations.

With all that said, our experience with Eila taught us that there is no such thing as too much help.  We’re big believers in the “it takes a village” philosophy and are so grateful for everyone who stepped in to help make Anders’ arrival so easy.  Our parade of visitors began on Feb. 2nd when Steve and Linda arrived to care for Eila and Zoe while the rest of us were in the hospital.  We treated them to a favorite local BBQ joint in Fife for our final meal together. It was so wonderful to be able to simply focus on bringing home a healthy baby since we knew our first born loves were so well taken care of at home.

As usual, the wise Wilhoits did not arrive empty handed.

This quilt was made by a good Anacortes friend, Pat, for Eila.  Another was made for Anders.

Better than any gift, Oma is always willing to share her phone full of pictures and games with Eila.  Zoe was just glad someone finally slow down enough to have a lap to spare.  

Our final “pre-baby boy” picture.  Oh boy, indeed!

We were asked to be at the hospital by 7:00 am for check in.  While we tried to sneak out quietly, we weren’t stealthy enough to convince Eila to stay in bed.  I’d love to say she was excited to see us off...but she was really just excited that Oma and Opa were staying with her and their electronics had come with them.  

The view from our hospital suite.  Early morning in Tacoma.

It’s so much easier to smile in pre-baby pictures when you’re not in active labor!  

 I feel like the momentousness of delivering a baby should come with more of a story - but a scheduled C-section is pretty much the easy way to go, as far as I’m concerned.  The most drama we saw that day was when one of my nurses accidentally stuck herself with the needle she was using to dig around in my arm in a futile attempt to find a vein in which to start my IV.  I really did feel badly for her, but there was a small part of me that felt like karma was taking over.  I swear the most painful part of my whole surgery was the bruise on my forearm from where she kept sticking me.  When she reappeared after Anders’ delivery I tried to reassure her that she couldn’t have gotten stuck by a patient with a more boring medical history.

It’s almost bunny suit time!

Ready to meet baby boy!

My view from the surgery bed. 

The birthday boy has arrived!

The delivery was so clockwork that the doctors and nurses seemed to talk about everything EXCEPT the surgery.  One of the nurses actually apologized for the seemingly unprofessional banter but I assured her that my goal for the day was to be the most boring patient for dinner conversation.  Nothing interesting - just happy endings.

A little cleaner and ready to meet this side of Momma

Anders was delegeerde in the same hospital and possibly the same OR as Eila two years earlier.  What was remarkable to me, however, was the improvements that had been made in baby friendly practices.  I didn’t get to hold Eila for hours after her C-section.  Adam was her first skin to skin contact.  Anders, on the other hand, was given to me right away and was trying to eat within minutes of his eviction.  Such love! 

Parent picture while the docs were still stitching away. 

Time to meet the family!  

Sibling Love.

Handsome like his daddy.

Meeting Oma and Opa

At the recommendation of many experienced families, we were sure to have a small pile of presents for Eila to open each time she came to the hospital to visit her brother.  Shameless bribery, we were determined to have her associate Anders with happiness and toys.

Personally, this was the only present I needed (especially when he’s sleeping and wrapped so prettily!) 

We knew we wanted this “baby’s first rock concert” picture again.  What we hadn’t anticipated was needing to take him to the “concert” three times in order to get him to pass his hearing test.  As I write this nearly three months later I can say with surety that Anders hears JUST fine.  But it took a few anxious weeks for the doctors to figure that out and send us home with a clean bill of hearing health.

Peek-a-Boo!

Opa’s turn!

 Bath time at last.  It took a few days to get Anders his first bath since the orderly first came at 11:00 pm to try and give him his bath while he was sleeping.  No longer a first time momma, I was much better at saying “not right now” in attempts at getting Anders plenty of opportunities to sleep.

We were home full 24 hours earlier than expected thanks to such great care and an easy delivery.

Baby’s first car ride!

We were met by a beautiful little girl and a super fun sign.

This pretty much sums up 99% of all of the pictures we try to take of Anders and Eila together. 

Baby toes!

We actually brought Anders home in a small snowstorm.  In fact, the first two days of my maternity leave were snow days, which I only slightly begrudged my co-workers.  Unusual in our area, the white cold-stuff made a beautiful backdrop for some memorable first day home pictures.

First family pictures!

So, what’s in a name?

We tend to lean towards uncommon names - so we get lots of questions about where we got them.  Here is our “origins” story:

Anders = The Norwegian form of Andrew, which seems pretty close to Adam.  With our Americanized pronunciation, though, it’s a hat tip to our Andrus family.  Adam and I seriously considered being Adam and Callie Andrus when we got married - so it seemed appropriate to pay homage to my maiden name.  Plus, if Anders' teachers ever do things alphabetically by first name, it will put him at the head of the class.

Rhys = This name has been in the back of Adam’s mind ever since we adventured to New Zealand.  We honestly didn’t know of anyone famous with the name - but apparently there are quite a few.  Adam particularly likes the idea that it it will likely earn him lots of Reeses Pieces throughout his life.

Of course, also true to our history, it took all of one month before I found this screen pop up on my Pinterest feed.  I think our “coolness is debatable” but we’ll take it while they’re offering.