Cameron's Hustle

Today Cameron completed the annual "Hustle up the Hancock". This race takes 4,000 people up the stairs of the Hancock Building of Chicago all for the great cause of raising awareness and funds for respiratory disease. Cameron raced up the 94 flights of stairs in 17 minutes and 43 seconds.

A Comparison....

Don't have a lot of pictures that are similar of these 2 boys yet, but I see features peaking out in both and I think they look a bit alike. Cameron disagrees...The biggest difference is that within the first week, Dane was very swollen and puffy and Kale wasn't. Anyway...you can make your own decision!

Dane:Kale:Dane:Kale:
All the rest are Kale this first week....

One week old!

Here we are...a week after the birth of our 2nd son and it feels like he's always been here. The first 3 nights were very rough...Kale wanted nothing to do with his crib and was fussing about 15 minutes after we put him in it. Wednesday and Thursday I tried my luck with him and probably got about 3 hours of sleep each night. Friday night was split shifts between Cameron and my mom so I got some sleep. On Saturday Cameron downloaded white noise for baby - the noise of the womb - and Kale has been sleeping like a champ for the last 2 nights (not sure if it's the noise of the womb or he's just getting used to his crib). I am very hopeful our night time luck will continue but I am a bit skeptical. He has been eating around 10 or 10:30 and then going until 3:30 or 4am for the next. Then he goes back down and is up at 7am. I will take it for as long as he wants to be on a pattern like that! Dane seems to be okay with him being here...only one mega meltdown at bedtime on Saturday night...aside from that he wants to kiss and rock the baby. We have a bunch of pictures that I will try to upload and post later.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Dane!

Dane,
After waiting for you for 3 years, you're already turning 2! The last 2 years have brought us more joy than we could have ever imagined and we love you more than you'll ever know, but we'll make sure we tell you every chance we get. We thank God for you everyday and know that you truly are a miracle! You have made us do things we used to make fun of people for...all the mushy, gooshy, baby talk kind of things. But...we're not embarassed about it and we'll do it again with your little brother. Speaking of...we know that your life is going to change in a big way now that your little brother has arrived. We know that you'll be an amazing big brother and we promise to make special time for you alone so you never forget how important you are! As our family continues to grow, just know that we're so very proud of you and we look forward to seeing you grow into an amazing boy, teenager and eventually husband and father. Always reach for your dreams....nothing is too big for you to accomplish and we'll always be your biggest supporters! Happy 2nd birthday Little Man - we love you!

Kale Emerson Hatten

We are so proud to welcome Kale Emerson Hatten into our family! Kale arrived this afternoon at 2:36pm weighing 7 lbs and 19.5 inches. We're all doing great! We will have a lot more to share in the upcoming weeks, but we first wanted to get the word out that he has arrived! Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes!

NURSERY RHYME JUST IN TIME

Eric came over and helped us once again make something special out of the baby's room. This time he really outdid himself and created an incredible mural with a rock and roll theme. He and Cameron started at 10 am on Sunday...and after working ALL day and into the night, Cameron came to bed at 1 am. Eric proceeded to stay and finish up. THANK YOU ERIC!!! You did way TOO much!!!!

Get this party started

We are in the hospital...and the process of smoking this little man out has begun. Don't worry, Jen is still updating Facebook from the hospital bed with her phone.

39 Weeks!!!

Well, here we are...at the end of this pregnancy. I am so excited to meet the little man tomorrow!! I have progressed quite a bit so I'm hoping that labor will be pretty quick..."a good 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced" as of Thursday's appointment! With Dane, I went from 3cm to pushing in about 2.5 hours and my doctor says that most of the time the 2nd labor goes even quicker! We do not have a name yet although we have 4 we're leaning towards...I think we need to meet him first! The nursery is almost complete and I will post pictures of it when we finally finish it...nothing like waiting until the last minute! :) The furniture is all together and up but our friend Eric is painting another mural for us like he did in Dane's room. That is happening today. So excited to get to the hospital tomorrow and meet the newest Hatten! We will update on the blog as soon as we can!

And here it is...the last picture of me pregnant. Ever. @ 39 weeksCompare to pregnant with Dane at 41 weeks:

Valentine's Day Celebration

We figured our Valentine's day wouldn't be all that romantic, although we know we're getting an amazing gift! So..we decided to celebrate V day with great friends at one of our favorite restaurants while our neighbors so unselfishly offered to watch Dane! They have 3 kiddos that Dane loves so I know he had a great time! So...Happy Valentine's Day a little early from the Hattens.

Reflections of Motherhood

Dane's Birthday Party

We celebrated Dane's 2nd birthday yesterday even though he doesn't turn 2 until Feb 16. We thought it would be smarter to do it early just in case his baby brother decided to make an appearance early...I didn't want to be kicking the party out because my water broke or something like that. For the same reason, we decided to make it a small family affair. We had a pizza and cake lunch at Keylime Cove Resort - an indoor water park that is about 10 minutes from our house. Too bad that both Dane and Presley were suffering from ear infections because we didn't get to take advantage of the actual water park! They did get to take advantage of lots of tokens at the arcade. Thank you Zehrings and mom for making the trip in and for the great gifts and thank you Tim & Teresa for celebrating with us and for the gifts as well! Dane got a Thomas the Train drum that quickly became a favorite but got broken already this morning, a little toy wagon to pull his toys around in, a laptop that he loves, clothes and a tricycle from Cameron and I....he seems to really like all of it!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Valentine's Day Baby!!

We now know that if I don't go into labor between now and Feb. 14th...we will be having our baby boy on the 14th! An induction has been scheduled because my labor with Dane progressed so quickly that my doctor thought it would be smart to be induced with this little guy because on average the 2nd labor and delivery goes quicker than the first. So...as much as I would love to go into labor the old fashioned way, it's kind of nice to have it actually scheduled so we can have everything taken care of and just be ready for baby!

Blizzard 2011

Snowprah...Blizznasty...Snowmaggedon....Snowpocalypse....all terms that Chicago has lovingly bestowed on this blizzard that just hit. As of 7am this morning, the news said that we had gotten 18 inches and our county was in a civil state of emergency. It continued to snow pretty hard until about 9:30am so I'm not sure what the total snowfall was after 7am. Our patio set on the deck blew over and the amount of snow that is piled up around our house is pretty incredible. We have the following pictures, however they don't really do a good job of portraying what it really looks like out our front door!

Neighbors' cars:Our Mailbox:Neighbor shoveling (he is between 5'10 and 6 ft tall):Our front walkway:Patio set blown over: