It's a boy!!!

Join with me in welcoming Jayden Lee Minnis into our world. After Mom went through a long excruciating 27 hours of labor (40 minutes of which were pushing), Jayden was born on August 29th at 3:51 PM. Jayden was a hefty 7 lbs 8 oz (which is quite big for how Kim looked) and was 19.5 inches long. Kim started labor at around 2 on Saturday when we were painting the picnic table. Kim knew it was happening, but she decided that we should go and get some ice cream...after all it might be our "last meal". So we went and had ice cream and came back to our place. Around 5:30 the contractions really picked up. The minutes between and lengths of contractions were such that we called the Doc. She informed us to go to the hospital to so they could check out Kim and the baby. We got to the hospital around 6 and they hooked her up to all the machines. Unfortunately, she was only dilated to 2 cm so they decided to send us home. We stayed at home till around 11:59:59 PM on Saturday. We called the doc up again because at this point the contractions were really coming on and Kim had the shakes bad.

So we got the hospital for the second time and this time they kept us as Kim had dilated to 3 cm. And that's pretty much were she stayed until around 8:00 AM, Sunday. Kim couldn't hardly take the pain any longer so she decided to get an epidural. They broke the water at around 8:30. Then I think it was around 9:30 they started administrating Pitosin to see if they could get the contractions to be more frequent and harder as Kim had still not dilated that much...probably around 4 cm at that point. The Pitosin was working so by 12:00 Kim was having major contractions (probably a minute apart) and she could feel her right leg and the contractions again so they had to up her epidural and gave her another shot of some other miracle drug. She was feeling more comfortable by 12:30 and had dilated to 6 cm. Then she dilated by 2 cm for each hour so by 3:15 she was fully dilated (10 cm) and the nurse gave her the go ahead to start pushing. Kim was a true sport and pushed like she was pissed. I'd coach her along and tell her to just get pissed and it apparently helped as by 3:40 or so, the Doctors and the ICU were on site ready to prep the Jayden as he came out. He had a bowl movement while inside Kim so they had to be sure to suck everything out of his lungs and stomach. After Kim had Jayden they moved him over to the warming bed to clean him off and check his vitals. He was having some difficulty breathing so they had him on oxygen for a little while, then gave him to Kim to hold. After about a minute Jayden started breathing hard again so they took him back to the oxygen. They took him back to the nursery for the rest of the time until 1:00 PM yesterday (the 30th). He had been on oxygen until 3:00 AM yesterday morning. We weren't sure if he was going to have to go to the ICU to get more diagnostics done. It was a very trying time and we were so elated when we finally got him back yesterday. We could visit him in the nursery, but it just wasn't the same.

About a half an hour ago we got to step into our home for the first time as Mom and Dad. It's pretty cool having Jayden here and to hear him cry a little bit...at least for now. I'm sure we'll have those nights that we would like him to not cry. :)

Thanks for all your visits and prayers along the way. It's been a true miracle of God to watch everything that's happened and the gift of life. I could see God had his hands right around Jayden as he was transitioning into breathing on his own. But, it was still hard to watch Jayden fighting to breath on his own.

As for all you guys out there who haven't experienced birth...Women are tough!!! They deserve every bouquet of flowers that you get them! :)

Visit the gallery to see Jayden's Photos.

Start The Clock

Start the countdown!!!

And We Wait

Well, we went to the doctor today for our weekly visit and we didn't get to stay in the hospital to have that baby. Kim was, to say the least, a little upset in the whole thing. She even had her bags packed just in case they decide to induce her. But, no luck. Kim had the non-stress test done to find out the stats on the baby and the results of that were in good order. The clinic also setup an ultrasound to make sure everything was still okay and from what we gathered, the insides look great and are normal. So, the doctor said that we can come back on Monday for another checkup and then if all goes as planned and we haven't had the baby by then we'll be in on Wednesday to get things actually started. Hopefully things will happen before Wednesday and we won't even have to worry about kick starting things.

Almost Here

Well, It's been a while since I've given a baby update. The counter at the top of the page indicates that the baby's supposed to be here already, but so far, noth'n. We visited the Doc yesterday and things are starting to take shape, if you will. It looked promising that things will start to happen here within the next week (Maybe even this weekend???). We've been doing a walk every night in hopes that things will happen faster, but I think the baby is being stubborn. :) Following the Doctor's orders, we went to the Fair on Sunday. But, that didn't seem to help any as Kim felt horrible on Monday and went home from work early. Kim's ready to have it. She's getting sick of parents at work coming in to pick up their kids and asking/telling her, "You still haven't had it yet?" Well, she wouldn't be there if she did now would she. At any rate, Kim's doing pretty well. She hasn't been on bed rest. She's been able to continue working. She hasn't thrown up once during pregnancy (but, felt like it at times). She's gained the right amount of weight. And, she really likes ice cream so I get to treat myself too. :)

Clueless Stew Hansen's Dodge

I usually don't like to complain about things but this is just something I have to get off my chest. Tuesday Kim and I went to test drive vehicles at Stew Hansen's Dodge City in West Des Moines. After our sales rep, Michael, finally let us drive the vehicles (it seemed like we were living that commercial where the sales rep didn't even let the potential buyers drive the vehicle), we test drove a Ford Escape and then a Dodge minivan (you know in preparations for that new little one that's due any time now). We thought we were interested in seeing what they would offer for our 2002 Dodge Dakota and how much they would move on the minivan. They first had to appraise the truck before they could give us any numbers. So, Mike finally makes it to us with some numbers. The minivan they didn't change any on price and the truck they valued at $2000 under the Kelly Blue Book trade in value. I about laughed when he told us the prices. So, I told him what I was thinking on prices. After a bit he came back and they thought they could offer $305 under the Kelly Blue Book trade in value and they didn't move on the price for the minivan. Kim was tired, hot, and hungry and I knew the way things were going with Mike that we weren't ever going to get anywhere so Kim and I left. I did receive a call yesterday (2 days later) and a letter in the mail from him. As far as I'm concerned it's too late. You lost the sale.

So, listen up Mike at Stew Hansen's here are a few tips in sales techniques to better improve your chances of me even coming to look at another vehicle at your dealership:

1. Give potential drivers the first opportunity to drive the vehicle. If they wanted someone else to drive they would have gotten a taxi.


2. Don't waste my time coming up with numbers that aren't realistic. A truck the same year with 15,000 miles less is worth more than a minivan. Oh, and the truck was actually worth more than the minivan new.


3. When a salesperson does drive please drive like you're driving your 80 year old mother around. There were a few times that I thought Kim was going to either upchuck her lunch on the back of Mike or back hand him to let him know he was driving like a mad man.

There I feel much better now. I've been to Stew Hansen's before this episode and they've done a great job. The usual sales rep was busy with another set of customers so I got pawned off to Mike. Mike's a good person from what I could tell, but was a little to greedy the day we visited (although, it probably wasn't his fault for the numbers that he came back with).