Liam Kevin Huneke - July 28th, 2010 at 6:46pm
8 pounds and 3 ounces - 21 inches long

As you all know, this is the little guy we've all been waiting for - and anticipating for the last near 15 months! One of the first things that comes to my mind when someone comments about having a long last 9 months is that the last 9 was the rewarding part and now seem to have gone by fast, the 6 months prior of anticipating, planning, appointments, messages, calls, more appointments, lab draws, life-changing discussions, shots and meds......those were the long months. These past 9 kind of feel like they've flown, now that they're gone! I do know that the friendship that Roz and I started out with 15 months ago is not even close to the same as it is now! Our lives (clearly her's and Dan's much more than ours) have been remarkably changed forever and I have to say that I wouldn't change the course of this by a bit. What a crazy and truly amazing experience to share with a friend. I know from the bottom of my heart that there is no doubt if this was the right decision to make, along with my husband, 15 months ago.

As far as last week goes, by Wednesday, I was 8 days overdue so I went in that morning at 7:30 am for an induction. Quite disappointed that it came down to being induced, I was happy that the day was here! By 8:30 we were under way and spent all day feeling like not much was happening. It was about 5:45 when that clearly was not the case anymore and labor became pretty intense. By 6:35 I was complete and able to push, Liam was born 3 contractions later. We had an AMAZING midwife and nurse who never left my side for that last hour along with my soon to be sister-in-law who sat at my side the entire day. Roz and Dan were always close by checking in and Liam's Aunt Tanya (who's my close friend and cousin) was also in and out throughout the day. When Liam was born, Sue (our midwife) literally helped him out and passed him straight into Roz's arms. I remember breathing a sigh of relief (as I had managed to pull this entire day off completely unmedicated) when he was born and looked up at Roz as she looked down holding her son for the first time.....absolutely amazing! I've been delivering babies for nearly 5 years and this was by far the most amazing moment ever! It's almost hard to talk about that moment as it's still nearly impossible to not get choked up or tears in my eyes but it's all emotions of an amazing experience that makes it difficult - how blessed we were!!

That evening ended with Lydia, Brennan and Flotty, along with my Mom and Dad and Aidan along with Roz's Mom and Dad all coming in for a visit. The kids all got to see us and Liam - Lydia LOVED holding him - and they all spent a good couple of hours visiting before heading home. I know I myself had a hard time getting to sleep with all of the day's activities replaying through my mind. Tanya (who was on-call that night) came up for a visit when everyone else had left and we chatted about the day. Got to bed late and up early so I enjoyed a peaceful bubble bath that morning and then down to Labor an Delivery for coffee with the ladies. We were home by 2:30 Thursday in time for a good nap and then had a BBQ at our house that evening with family and friends to celebrate my brother being home for the first time in nearly 2 years. I've kept remarkably busy this past week (managed to get in a golf tournament with my Dad and Brother on Sunday even) so have to say that things are going quite well.

I think today marks the last official day of this entire process as Flotty and I along with Dan, Roz and the attorney all presented and testified in court over the legal concerns with Liam. Thinking that it was going to be a walk in, tell the story and walk out kind of a case, I actually had sweaty hands and felt remarkably intimidated during it. Regardless, as we left the courthouse, Dan pointed out to me that I now have a 'record' on file and that I just had all rights of a child terminated today.....the nice part was that I was happy and relieved! I told them that I was already thinking of a way to tell the judge that if he didn't sign our documents and terminate my rights, I was still going to refuse to take Liam home :)

As far as the little man of the year goes, Roz and Dan tell me he's mellow as ever and doing great! Aidan sounds like he's adjusting like a normal almost 3-year old and doing well and now that we've been able to finalize things in court, Roz and Dan can finally go home and get back into a normal routine....as a family of 4!!!

We're all doing great here, the kids comment every so-often about me not having a baby in my tummy anymore and then talk about Baby Liam getting to go back home to his Mommy and Daddy. Not once have they asked about having a baby here or talked about us taking the baby home so I am very thankful that they are really continuing to grasp all what is going on - and are completely fine with it. I could only hope and pray that they would really be fine with this and I am really quite thankful that they've continued to let this be as simple as it is. They have loved meeting Liam and have loved being able to hold him and see him and I think it's been a wonderful way for them to put it all together as this journey ends. I know they've also made a good friend out of this whole process too.....Aidan. It will be fun to see how our kids grow up and to see how the relationship between them continues. Right before going to bed tonight, Lydia was looking at at card Roz had given me and she was pretending to read it. I quickly typed out some of what she said. It makes me so thankful to hear her talk like this as I know that she, along with the rest of us, can walk away from this experience learning a little something.

Her 'reading' the card (this is what Lydia thought Roz had written) -- word for word:
"Thank you for helping our dreams come true and thank you for taking such good care of our baby when it was in your tummy and thank you Jesus for taking such good care of us and thank you for doing this nice thing for us, this was so special"

Makes me realize and see that I've truly been blessed, not that I needed to see it as I already know but it confirms it once more. As I played with my kids tonight thinking about this all, I felt nothing more than thanking God for my family and kids and thanking him for helping me with the gift to help Roz and Dan be able to add to their family as well. This was an amazing process and I have no regrets - only amazing memories. I'm thankful for the blessing this has given us, both my family and theirs, in 2 completely different ways, little Liam is such a Gift!!!




Roz and I, shortly after delivery. This picture is crazy to me!! I look at it and think, wow, I just had her baby! How amazing!!! Still hard to believe....


Lydia holding Liam, not even 2 hours old. She was really excited to see the little baby that she'd been keeping such close watch over for so long. She keeps saying how he surprised her (as she thought for sure he was a girl!!). I think her expression shows how we all really felt!


Roz and Dan with Liam, not quite an hour old.


The kids - Brennan holding Liam and Lydia keeping a close watch that he's doing it right :)

Dear Baby Huneke,

Yesterday was the day....and you're still here. It's not that we don't like having you around, it's just that we had a deal. Our deal was that you could come stay with us for 40 weeks but your time is up and your parents want you back. If you would be so kind to pack your things and move back home - it would make a lot of people very happy.

Love, Jes

Here we are.....exactly 1 week from the due date and no baby yet. I never really thought that I'd go early but I know the Huneke's and myself and family wouldn't complain a bit if it happened at any moment!! :) The weather has been a little more pleasant this week so far to be 9 months pregnant so I'm quite appreciative of that!!! Tonight is golf league and then I'm free until Friday. Friday brings an 8 hour day of chart auditing and my OB appointment so I really hope that that will be my last one, if I make it to that point!! Flotty's working 12 hour days this week, Monday thru Friday and possibly Saturday so I figure unplanned things usually happen when it's least convenient.....if that's the case here, this is the week :)

Not much to report on. Since last month's entry, Roz, I and the kids were all able to get together to visit and see each other while Dan and Flotty spent a day together golfing, bowling and throwing horseshoes. That was the last weekend in June and we were all hopeful that we would have been seeing each other by now. Oh well!! Good things come to those who wait, right? Here's a picture before the day was over....baby was 36 1/2 weeks along.

That's about all for now, the next time I post will quite likely be after baby's born so stay tuned.....we're all anxiously awaiting that day!!!!

I sat down yesterday to post, then I thought that posting today would be just a little more exciting.....we can officially say, as of today, "Less than a month away!!!" With the July 20th due date rapidly approaching, the count is on. Baby Huneke will be 36 weeks tomorrow with 4 to go - I can't believe it! Looking back right now, it seems like the time has flown!! Everything is still going quite smoothly, I can't think of a thing to report off of except that all is good!! This baby has some bony knees and feet as every so often, it catches me just right and I wonder if it's trying to escape. Last week, in a 7 day stretch, I managed to get in 72 holes of golf so when I say that I feel great, I really do!! We had 2 tournaments, one of which we won, the other we missed the prize money by one place, we had the first round of our match play and we won that as well!! I missed my first hole-in-one by 3 1/2 inches so that was also exciting!! Flotty and Dan have the triathlon this upcoming Saturday so as long as the weather cooperates, they'll be getting in some golf, horse-shoes and bowling. Besides singing in a wedding that afternoon, our hope is to get together with Roz and Aidan for a nice visit. Crazy part is that it might be our last one before the baby's born - that's odd to say! Besides work, golf, gardening, landscaping, fishing and a little up north time.....trying to 'fit in time' to plan the rest of the summer once I'll be a little more free to go where we'd like. I know the top of the list for August is planning a day of riding horse with Lydia and Ellen as she's lined up an outing for us after seeing that it was something Lydia wanted to do!! We're excited about that one and it's Lydia's new thing to talk about when someone asks her about the baby.

That reminds me of one story from this past week. We were talking with an older lady while picking up strawberries and she asks Lydia if she's excited to have a new little brother or sister. Plain as day, she looked at the lady and said, "nope, we're not having another brother or sister, I already have a little brother and that's enough. We don't want another baby right now - this baby is Roz and Dan's." The lady looked at me mortified like I've been filling her full of nonsense - I gave her the brief rundown and it seemed to sit a little better with her than Lydia's explanation.

Looking briefly at the last entry, I can't believe over a month and a 1/2 has passed since the last appointment we had together! I have to say that once again, no news is good news and all is going wonderful!! There's nothing to complain about and with just 8 more weeks to go, I'm sure it will sneak up on us all!! A few weeks ago, (when I had good intentions on getting an update on here) we went out to the Thomforde farm to check out the new baby chicks. While we were there, we had to scope out the baby calves and mommy cows. The kids

Here's Lydia and the chicks.....

Roz trying to talk Lydia into letting the calf lick her hand.....that of which she wanted nothing to do with!

Lydia and Brennan, loving the calves, as long as they stayed in their hut.

Aidan showing Brennan more calves.

The crew.....Brennan, Myself, Lydia, Roz, Aidan and Dan.

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On a completely different line of fun, Dad and I were lucky to be drawn for the same turkey season this year and on day 2 of hunting, had some very fun success! Roz seems to think that this baby may be the only member in their family to turkey hunt.....ever.


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We've been staying super busy the last month or two working out in the yard and gardening. Flotty has been working long weeks at Prairie Island and we've enjoyed him being home now for a couple weeks off. Hoping that our house sells sooner than later, we're also constantly working on little things around here that will 'help' sell it.

Officially less than 2 months away, we're all getting super excited to meet baby! Lydia is planning our summer with things we can do after baby 'pops' out - I think the top two on the list have been camping up north and horseback riding (even though we don't own horses or really know anyone who does.....she's pretty set on that one). Sunday she wanted to know how the baby will actually get out of my tummy (until now, she's just talked about it popping out). I told her that when baby's ready to be born, I'll just have to push really really hard. Her response was "kind of like when we have a really hard poopy and we have to push really hard to get it out?" I just told her yes, and thankfully, we were able to leave it as that.

With the weather being as nice as it has, I'm a little disappointed that I've only been out on the golf course 3 times this season. Golf league starts next Tuesday so that's going to help change things quickly and I'm excited for that! We went out today with a couple of friends and Lydia....I'm also quite thankful that baby doesn't mind me golfing either. Lord knows, this kiddo wouldn't expect much less for as much activity we do around here :) Hoping that baby and I can keep getting along so well for the next couple of months as I really have nothing to complain about. Things are going great, they really are!! I know Roz and Dan are getting excited to bring their baby home and the thought of that is so exciting to me!!!

So far so good!!

Friday's appointment went well! As of tomorrow, baby will be 25 weeks old - that means only 15 weeks to go!!! That's crazy to us all when we talk about how soon that will really be! Looking at this picture, I feel like it's a little deceiving - I had worked Wednesday and Thursday nights so when we took this, I had gotten off of a 12 hour shift at 7:30 and the picture was taken about 10:00....I always feel like I grow a few weeks over my night shifts. :) Either way, baby was measuring right and we all got to hear baby's heart beat. No problems to report, all is well and was great to see Dan and Roz again. We met with the social worker after the OB appointment and discussed some legal issues that will need to be taken care of prior to delivery and then talked a little bit about plans for delivery and the hospital stay. I think it's discussions like this make things feel so real (and the fact that I need to start wearing maternity clothes or pants with elastic....).

Saturday was a fun day for us at home, we celebrated Brennan's 2nd birthday - he still talks about his baseball cake and basketball hoop - the two highlights of the day. Then Sunday was wonderful! We started our morning off with church and then to my Aunt and Uncle's for an Easter egg hunt with our 2 and their cousin, Eli (who will also be turning 2 on Friday). We had a great lunch and then Lydia and I went out to Thomforde's for a visit while Brennan was napping. Lydia and Aidan spent time on the swingset enjoying the weather while we were able to visit for a while. Roz made an attempt to explain to Aidan that his baby brother or sister was growing in my tummy....Roz said that even though he brought it up again later, she's not convinced he's on board with the idea yet. Aidan gave us a nice tour of the cows, Lydia was really excited about that....however, it led us to quite an interesting discussion on the way back to Goodhue. Lydia wondered why the girl cows stay together and that led us to her wondering where the milk from cows comes from (as she's known for quite some time that milk in the fridge is from cows). Regardless, she was pretty interested about the system of farmers milking cows twice a day, that milk goes to a factory and bottled in jugs for us to buy and drink. Then of course, the comparison....what's the difference between cows milk and milk from mommy's? After the discussion, she thinks if we moved to the country, we should just have our own cows so we wouldn't have to buy our milk anymore. Amused me, to say the least. Here's a couple more pictures from out at Thomforde's.



For now, enjoy your week and we hope you had as wonderful of an Easter as we did!!

Not really sure where March just went but realizing it was the end of February since I've last checked in, I thought I better stop slacking and get writing! We're ALL loving the beautiful spring weather we've been fortunate to have so far and are ahead of yard work from most years by a good month!! As far as baby goes, things are great! I have my glucose tolerance test (to determine gestational diabetes - which was a non-issue with both of my kiddos) tomorrow and then our routine OB appointment Friday with Dan and Roz! Baby is growing and I have no doubts that he/she is doing good! Baby is big enough for me to wake up in the morning and be able to see and feel right where it's laying, big enough to kick a full bladder and just big enough to see my tummy move around when it's doing aerobics. The daily conversations with Lydia are slowly advancing and the latest and greatest was her wondering if we could name the baby and hoping that maybe we'll be able to babysit someday. I told her that when we had her and Brennan, we got to pick their names out and that since this is Roz and Dan's baby, it would be more fun for them to pick their baby's name out. She thought that made sense.....after a bit of pondering (and her still thinking it's a girl) she said she thinks they were going to pick out a really pretty name. She thought they'd name this baby Lydia! :)

Since it's kind of becoming obvious that I'm pregnant now, I feel like I've been getting "the look" when I'm out in public with the kids. Hypothetically speaking, if I was pregnant with my own child right now, after baby's born, I'd have 3 kids, all 3 and under - a GREAT reminder that this was good timing for Roz and Dan and not for us :) I had a friend recommend getting a shirt to wear out that says "Don't worry, it's not mine" so people don't think I'm crazy!! NOT that there's anything wrong with being 3 for 3 in years with kids, it just seems a little crazy for me :)

Better stop rambling and take advantage of nap time. With that, hope you're all able to get out and enjoy some of this beautifully predicted weather for our Easter week!!