the searbys

Evan slept for five hours last night. You better believe we loved that. He's still eating well and doing great. Jen is feeling better every day too.

Here's a few more pictures. Read the captions for stories.

Many of you have asked us for our new address. We'll be sending it out along with the birth announcement but here it is just in case you can't wait 'til then.

1609 NW 29th Road #R231
Gainesville, FL 32605

Have a great day!

Here I am again, proud papa. I took some of our pics and turned them into black and white. And Amanda, we finally got some feet pics so here you go.

He's eating great and doing really well. He slept for four and a half hours last night. Grandpa Raymer is fixing up our chairs for us which is a huge help. I'm hoping to get the house slowly put back together. Jen and I really like things in order so its a bit unnerving to have clutter everywhere. But, we'll get it done in good time I suppose.

In other news, Jack the cat seems to be adjusting well. He doesn't like the crying but seems genuinely concerned when Evan cries. At night, since Jack sleeps next to me in the bed, when he hears Evan crying on the baby monitor he stands up and nudges me and gets restless. It's almost like he knows that something's wrong. He's sniffed Evan a few times and seems interested but not at all hostile or upset, so that's good.

Finally this morning, thanks to all of you for your interest, love, prayers and care. Our Gainesville friends have been amazing in helping us with stuff and offering their support. Our distant friends have been great about staying in touch and sending their prayers. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Mark are pretty anxious to get their hands on this little boy I think and they'll get their chance this weekend. Can't wait to see them. Here's some more pics. Love to all.

-joel

Well, we made it home. The floors in the house are NOT finished. Everything except for one bit of the pantry and the half bath in the hallway is though. So our great friends from Harvest (our church) mobilized and came over to move all our furniture back in. We have our living room put back together and can relax downstairs now, including watching TV which we haven't done for three weeks. It's kind of a nice diversion.

There hasn't been much sleep for Jen and I, as expected. But we're keeping pretty good spirits I think. Feeding was a bit of a challenge for a while but let's just say the buffet is now served and he's eating well. If you don't get it, don't worry. If you get it, no further comment necessary. So Evan is a happy camper now too.

Last night I actually left the house. I went to get Jen's pain prescription filled and pick up pizza for supper. We enjoyed the pizza and Jen enjoyed the medication. I came in and said, "I'm home and I've got pizza and drugs." She thought that was pretty funny. This morning we slept until about 10:30 since Evan was sleeping too, of course we had gone to sleep at 6:30 after being up every two hours. I went to run some more errands around the middle of the day today and stopped by the office for a few minutes. They were having a meeting and using the projector so I made them pull up the blog and showed off our son. I'm taking the week off and will get back to work next week.

Here's some pictures of the first couple days at home and the stories that go with them. Enjoy!

Everyone I've talked to today has asked for more pictures. So you'll get a bunch below. Grandpa Raymer surprised us and made it by 8:15 tonight. That was the big story of the day. But we've had lots of visitors. Our very first were our dear friends Jimmy and Katie. I couldn't go any longer without caffeine. For a guy who drinks about five cups of coffee a day, I'd only had one. So I had a headache. Of course I didn't complain since it couldn't be anything compared to what Jen had gone through. But I called and asked them to bring me some Dr. Pepper and a bag of barbeque chips. They came right over.

Today, Dr. Joel, as he's affectionately known at church, was the first at around 11am. Then came our good friends Chris and Renae. They hung out for quite a while which was great. Then came Charlie and Lorie Crowe, our minister and his wife, with their kids. Then Katie again...she couldn't stay away. Then Kevin and Kelly Birkett along with their beautiful girl, Megan. Kevin says he's already got a restraining order on Evan. We'll see. Then Grandpa Raymer.

Alright, so now its calmed down a bit. We're still at the hospital and now transferred to the other wing for "recovery." Which it definitely is. Everyone is doing well. There's someone in our room running some test or another about every ten minutes it seems. I know they're just doing their job but its a bit annoying sometimes.

So here's the details. We came in to the hospital around 5am yesterday morning after two hours of steady contractions at home. So yes, we woke up at 3am at home. They admitted us and we began the fun. Contractions were regular but not progressing a lot. About noon they decided to break Jen's water. That helped the contractions to intensify but they weren't getting closer together so we decided to add pitocin, which speeds up labor. For the whole labor, Jen only had one and one half doses of a painkiller. She was absolutely amazing. We worked hard together to breathe and stay under control and the nurses were amazed at how well she did. I guess hardly anybody goes without an epideral anymore. There were plenty of loud screams but she never lost composure or stopped her breathing. I am so proud of her.

She had to push for an hour and a half, which was rough. And at the end, it got a little dicey. The cord was wrapped around his neck and he was turned the wrong way. His head actually came out with his body turned sideways and the doctor said, with some degree of worry in her voice, "Jen, you have got to push this baby out RIGHT NOW!" Grandma Raymer was pretty nervous at that point but I knew I had to help Jen get one more big push. So we took a deep breath and we did it and out he came.

Speaking of Grandma Raymer, we couldn't have done it without her. She was with us the whole time and took on mostly the massaging role. All of Jen's labor was in her back which we're told is the most painful kind. So Deena tried her best to keep the pain down in her back. I played the breathing coach and moral support role. It's an amazing experience, as all of you parents know and the rest of you will probably sometime experience.

Here's some more pictures, since I know that's what you all want anyways. Send us your messages and come see us in Florida if you don't live here!







p.s.-they're laying our floors as I post this, so we might get to go home to a somewhat put-together home.

We would like to announce the birth of our son, Evan Jacob Searby. He was born at 6:17pm at North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida. He is 7 lbs. and 13ozs. and 21 in. long. He is healthy and handsome (see for yourself below.) Mom had a rough time and is a little beat up but did it all without an epideral...she's amazing. It was truly a sight to see. Here's some pictures for now. Lots more to follow.

It's 10:52pm and we're having pretty regular contractions now. They've been anywhere from 3 to 11 minutes apart for the last four hours or so. We went for a walk earlier and that really got the contractions going. Then we sat and played cards and that slowed them down. We played phase 10. Jen won. Kicked our butts actually. See the funny picture below of Jen's "shelf."

So we're getting ready to go to bed and we'll see what happens overnight. We'll definitely post as soon as we can if we have a baby boy tonight!


Here's some pics.

Joel staining our table and chairs after Deena stripped them all.

Jen in her "I'm two days overdue" pose.

I am officially over due. Here is my one-day-over-due-picture with my cool green wall:

My sister text messaged me today and said "Happy Due Date Day!" Do you wish people happy due dates?

But yes, today is the due date. I don't think Evan realizes it though because nothing seems to be happening. I did tell him that he couldn't come until after my living room was put back together. So far he is obeying his mother....we still do not have a living room. (Unless you count the concrete slab that has turned into a woodworking shop for my mom who is refinishing our kitchen table.) There is a chance they will lay the wood floors tomorrow. We are still waiting to see if the moisture level in the concrete is low enough.

On the pregnant side of things...I'm exhausted today. Mom and I ran a bunch of errands in the horrible heat and humidity. You would think that would be enough to put me into labor. No, it only made me do silly things like try to return something to Target to which I had clearly attached a Wal-Mart gift receipt.

I think at least 5 people asked me "how much longer do you have?" The expression on their faces were priceless when my response was...well my due date is today. Its like they think I should be sitting at home with my feet up waiting for the kid to come. I think I would go crazy sitting at home doing nothing.

So, when will Evan come? Who knows. Sorry Grandpa Mark...I don't think its happening on your birthday (today) unless things happen pretty quickly!

And Jack had to say hello too...

The manager of the flooring place arrived promptly at 8am this morning with 2 of his crew members. These two men are the ones that actually layed the floor and they were the ones to have to tear it up. I'm sure they were dissapointed to see what happend to all of their work. They went to work right away and said they would be done by 6pm. Its only a little after 4 now and they are just about finished. We will have a concrete slab downstairs for 2 to 3 days while the drainage problems are addressed and the floors dry out completely. The contractor will also come once per day to test the moisture level in the walls to see if any of the drywall will need to be removed. What a mess. I still look at Joel, laugh, and ask, "is this really happening?"

I spent most of the afternoon over at my friend Renae's house. It was nice and quiet there as opposed to my machinery-filled living room. We are going to another friend's house tonight for dinner so everyone is taking care of us! I feel like we've handled the situation quite well and all parties involved are willing to give us whatever we need to make up for the inconvenience.

Last night at about 9:30 Jen went downstairs in our new house to discover that our living and dining room were flooding. It had been raining about an hour, pretty hard. But of course you don't think of rain as something to worry that much about when you have a roof. Not so much. The rain was coming into our house by overflowing the porch and then literally flowing through the sliding doors. When I ran downstairs it was moving fast toward the kitchen. We got towels and began moving stuff around and trying to slow the flow down. We called our contractor, not knowing who else to call, and he came right away. Then we called our friends Chris and Renae. They came right over and brought a shop-vac. By 10:45 or so we had most of the water sopped or sucked up. The rain had stopped too. But we had a much bigger problem...our wood floors.

We sent everyone home around midnight as there wasn't much else we could do besides put fans on it and wait. Then this morning we had our "disaster response team" meeting. That involved the site foreman, his supervisor, the flooring guy and us. It was decided pretty much immediately that we had to get the floor up to reduce the risk of mold forming. And that we had a major drainage problem in the back of the building that needed to be addressed. So, they went to work on both.

Under our warranty, the builder is still responsible for everything. Of course, it's not great that it happened in the first place but I have to say, thus far they've treated us very well and have done everything they can to make it right. I hope and pray they'll continue down that path. Tonight we had Outback Steakhouse dinner on them. So we aren't completely miserable.

Long story short, it'll probably be at least a week before they get us back to normal. We're hoping that Evan will wait to join the world until after we get the new floor in and get things settled again. We'll see. Here's some pics to prove that we really did have a flood. If only I'd had a toy ship, I would have put it out there for fun.

-joel

Here it is...

Our great friend Chris to the rescue

The Army of Towels

They started tearing up the floor already...here's Jen...looks pregnant finally

Picture this: I'm exactly 2 weeks from my due date. I ran a couple errands this morning but it was SO stinking hot outside that I came home and decided to sit in the air conditioning the rest of the day. I got some things done around the house and tried to make a few phone calls. Joel was working hard all day today and then had to go straight to the Christian Campus House where he is teaching a class on Tuesday nights. I was going stir crazy! I couldn't sit in my house by myself any longer. I heard a rumor that there was internet down at the clubhouse near our pool. I packed my computer up and lugged it down (not too far!) to the clubhouse. It was still too hot to sit outside so I thought I'd try out my new key to the clubhouse. It seriously took me 10 minutes to get the silly key to turn in the keyhole. I'm sure anyone watching was wondering, what is that pregnant girl doing carrying a laptop case and trying to break in! You can imagine my sigh of relief when the key finally turned. I entered the building to find that the clubhouse part is locked up and has an alarm system because they are still using it for the sales office. My only other choice was to sit on the floor in the fitness center to use the internet. So, here I am sitting on the hard floor, quite uncomfortable, just so I can check my email and write this silly blog. I'll be so glad when I actually have access again in my own home.

Yeah - We are officially moved in to our first home! And...our camera works again so hopefully I will be better about putting pictures up for everyone to see.




Oh Yea... and I'm still pregnant. I only have about 2 weeks to go! We are trying our hardest to get everything put away before Evan makes his entrance into the world.