Our Baby Girl

Laura gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 2:00 am January 18, 2010. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. Her name is Emma Rose Hatch. We'll give you a more detailed account of her birth, which is quite the story if you haven't heard it yet, but it will explain why Dad here is wearing the scrubs.

One Reason I Love My Wife

This post is a little bit long, but when you have a few minutes, it's a pretty good story.
5:40 pm Sunday night-Laura has her first contraction. Contractions continue somewhat sporadically between 20 and 30 minutes apart. Laura is handling her contractions very well.
8:30 pm-Laura's contractions go between 10 and 15 minutes apart. The intensity of contractions picks up some.
9:14 pm-We call Laura's parents to see if they can come and watch Graham so we can go to the hospital.
9:44 pm-After a couple of contractions that seemed relatively weak, and remembering that we had three nights of contractions like this before Graham was born, we call Laura's parents again to let them know that it would probably be okay if they came the next morning.
11:59 pm- Laura's contractions continue between 10 and 15 minutes apart. Laura lays down to try and relax.
12:34 am-Laura's contractions get to about 10 minutes apart. We call Laura's parents to see if they can come now.
1:20 am-Laura's contractions drop down to about 5 minutes apart. We get ready to call Laura's parents to see how close they are.
1:40 am-Laura's "water breaks." We try and clean her up between contractions.
1:45 am-Call Laura's parents. They are far away still.
1:48 am-I knock on our neighbors door, Tyson and Jenny, to hang out in our apartment with Graham--he was asleep--until Laura's parents get there.
1:54 am-We get in the car to drive to the hospital.
1:55 am-About two blocks from home Laura has a contraction and says, 'Alex, I am feeling the urge to push. I think she's coming.'
1:56 am-A few blocks later, another contraction, a scream 'Alex, I don't think I can hold her in.'
1:57 am-Pulling into the hospital, another contraction, 'Alex, this really hurts, I don't think I can wait any longer.'
1:57 am-Still pulling into the hospital. Alex 'Let's say a prayer.'
1:57 am-Still pulling into the hospital. Laura 'Heavenly Father, please help her stay in five more minutes, please help her stay, ohhhh.'
1:58 am-Park the car in front of the door. Alex runs to the door to grab a wheelchair and comes back.
1:58 am-Alex opens Laura's car door. 'Alex, can you see her coming?'
1:58 am-Alex sees her head crowning. He tries to decide how he can get Laura into the wheelchair without squeezing Emma out.
1:59 am-Alex watches as her head comes out. With no one else around, Alex decides to finish the delivery. With a twist of her head and a small tug, she comes out and is caught safely. She starts crying and she is given to Laura. She wraps her in her coat.
2:00 am-Alex calls 911, tells 911 that we were in the parking lot in front of the birthing center and had just had a baby. She asks if we have anything to clamp off the umbilical cord. Alex starts to take off his shoelaces as hospital staff comes through the door.
2:05 am-Laura was placed in a wheelchair with baby still attached and brought up to a room. After a few somewhat tense minutes the umbilical cord was cut and Emma placed under a warmer. Laura delivers the placenta at some point and Mom and baby are determined to be healthy and okay.

Laura made labor look so easy, and it progressed so quickly at the very end, that it contributed somewhat to our less than ideal delivery. As she was born she stayed remarkably calm. The staff was very impressed that she was so relaxed. She had prepared a lot to have a baby without an epidural and she handled the situation so well. I was so glad that she was healthy and that Emma was in a good position for delivery. As we prayed in the months and weeks prior to her birth, I feel that, although the situation was different than anyone would really hope for, God blessed us tremendously to be able to act reasonably under pressure, and for Laura's body to respond so well to delivery, and that Emma breathed well and her umbilical cord was okay. I feel that we were watched overy by God and angels.

My wonderful wife.


Dr. Hatch-My clothes got some womb juice on them. After putting on scrubs a nurse said, well done Dr. Hatch. I said that I was pre-med and a little later a nurse said, I am so impressed that the two of you are so put together right now. You have a promising future ahead of you.


6:00 pm Tuesday-Alex starts cleaning off the birth chair in the car.
7:30 pm-After a lot of Oxi-Clean, Shout, Laundry Detergent and scrubbing and vacuuming, the car looks okay.

Yarr!

Graham Beard

Happy Halloween!

Graham's New Sibling Is...

Watch this short video and Graham will help you to know whether he'll have a brother or a sister. Sorry for those of you that have had to wait for our update to find out.

Grungy Pot Lids, Baby Kisses, and Graduation Belly

Well, I think by this point we have established ourselves as lame bloggers. Nevertheless, here we are with another exciting update for the Hatch family.

It's been a mellow summer. Alex did well in his classes this summer and has been working hard away at the water lab. Last week he started job shadowing an Orthopaedic Surgeon in the valley. Graham and I have been able to spend a lot of time together this summer. He is developing into quite an independent little guy. He walks everywhere now, crawling is so two months ago, and he doesn't want to be held much anymore. He'll hardly let me feed him anymore; he wants to hold the spoon and consequently, much of it doesn't make it to his mouth. Here is a picture of his first taste of black beans. Yum.


It's been fun to watch him learn and grow. I feel like he has changed more in the last couple weeks than he has his whole life. His favorite toys lately have been the lids to our pots. He tries to fit them on top of everything, and he'll carry one around for an hour or so.


One of my favorite skills that Graham has acquired in the last couple months is his ability to give kisses.


He's such a sweet boy. This next picture is mostly for my sister Sarah; I seem to remember similar pictures from our childhood (though we were much older than Graham is now).


In other news, we start school again tomorrow. Alex and I will both be taking fifteen credits, so it will be a busy enough semester. But it will be worth the work. I will be able to graduate this semester and I can hardly believe that my college career will be ending in just a few short months. But it is just in time. My only qualm about graduating in December is that I will be eight months pregnant at the ceremony. That's right, baby number two is on the way, coming January 2010. We have our five months ultrasound tomorrow, so if it goes as planned we'll find out if we're going to have two rambunctious little boys, or if we need to stock up on the pink. We are quite excited either way.

Summertime and the living's easy . . .

Today is my last day of class until August. I have been taking classes not stop since I met Alex. And now, I get a little bit of a break. Yay. I took a couple of writing classes the last two weeks that were just wonderful, really helped me to expand my writing. On the down side, they were all day, every day. I feel like I've hardly been able to see my family. Thanks to Colleen for taking such good care of us these last two weeks, though.
Graham is getting so big. He is crawling and standing, and he thinks that he can walk too. He'll get up to the couch or the chair, stand there, then turn to make a run for it. Sometimes he falls; sometimes he catches onto one of us. That boy is active. We can hardly keep him still long enough to change his diaper.
Alex is working at the Water Lab again this summer, doing some research. He will also be taking class starting in June. He's done a great job taking care of our garden, which looks fab.
So, just a quick update to let you know we're still kickin'. I've included a picture of the dude. Look at that face!

April Fools'

This is how Alex woke me up this morning,

Alex (incredibly serious face): "Laura, a car just slid down the hill and hit into our car."

Laura (nearly jumping out of bed): "Are you serious?"

Alex (jovially): "April Fools'!"

Needless to say, April Fools' is less than my favorite day of the year. I unknowingly played an April Fool's joke on Graham, though. This is what he wore to bed last night (plus some more pictures; it's for fun); he's grown out of nearly everything else. Merry Christmas!




Also, I thought I'd share a recipe. We had this for dinner last night. It was an experiment that turned out to be delicious. Enjoy.

Green Chile Soup

Rice (3/4 c dry rice + 1 1/2 c water)
1 large chicken breast, shredded
1 can chicken broth
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 can diced green chiles (3-4 oz.)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
garlic salt
crushed red pepper flakes

Cook rice.
Cook chicken in microwave, shred.
Mix everything else in big pot. Cook.
Add shredded chicken. Simmer.
Add rice. Stir.
When it starts to smell yummy, it's probably ready.
Good with cornbread, tortillas, or plain.