Three Months

Dear Ryan,

Three months! How is it possible? Three months ago you were just being born – all slimy and screamy and then wide eyed and taking it all in, and now you are here and happy and just the coolest thing ever. Your dad and I frequently turn to each other and ask what we used to do for entertainment because you are just too great.

You are still a boob man. You are so funny when it is time to eat. You burrow your head and start eating at your hands (another topic below) and just crack us up. When you are not given your food in a minute or two you start with this great sad face and pouty lip. We love the pouty lip and maybe even try to get you to do it on occasion because it’s so funny.


You are still a good sleeper. You fall asleep around 7:30, wake up around 2 or 3, and fall back asleep until 7 or so. You take a few naps during the day, nothing over an hour unless we are in the car or out and about, but you will sleep at night, which we appreciate greatly! You love your books, your activity mats and taking walks.


You love to look around, to take it all in. You smile at almost everyone and when you get really excited you smile so much and then turn your head away. It’s almost like the excitement gets to be too much for you and your heart gets so full you have to look away because it’s overwhelming. I understand completely because I feel that way every time I look at you.

Love,
Mama

Two Months!

Dear Ryan,

Congratulations! You are two months old. These two months have been some of the hardest of my life, but by far, the best months ever.



You are still a really calm baby. You love to look around and have recently discovered both your voice and your tongue. You stick your tongue out all the time, and it never fails to crack your dad or me up. You still love to nurse, but you will take a bottle occasionally if I am not around. You are still working on the sleeping at night thing, but we are getting better. Usually you go 5-6 hours, then wake up and eat and have a diaper change and then go back down for another 4. At this stage, we will take it!


You love to lie in your activity gym and bat at your toys. You will sit and read books with me for 15-20 minutes at a time. At night, we read Goodnight Moon and The Going to Bed Book before we swaddle you up and put you in your crib. You like me to sing to you (well, at least you don’t complain yet!) and you smile when we play peek-a-boo. We go on walks almost daily, and you will look around for about half of the 2 mile route, and then pass out the rest of the time. You love the Bjorn, and love to be in it – either front facing or backwards facing! When we go grocery shopping and you are in it, you get lots of compliments and comments and you love to smile at everyone and everything. You are still okay in the car, but definitely prefer long drives to short ones. Unfortunately, we live off a very popular road, so we spend a lot of time in stop and go traffic! However, you calm down pretty quickly for the most part.



At your appointment today you weighed 13 pounds, 2 ounces and were 24 inches long, putting you in the 85% for both. The doctor complimented your strong neck muscles (odd, since I am always forgetting to put you on your stomach to play) and declared you perfect, which we already knew. You are such a delight to us. You have given me more of a purpose than I ever could have expected, and I love being your mom.



Love,
Mama

Gobble! Gobble!

Gobble! Gobble! from Jessica Blanton on Vimeo.

Seven Great Things at Seven Weeks

I was reading a blog recently where the author listed things she could and could not live without in parenthood, and I thought I would talk about some of our favorites at seven weeks of life:

Burp Rags – cheap and great for spitup, diaper leaks and spilled beer. We have some beautiful fancy ones from showers, but the first day home we went through them and my mom ran out and got us a 12 pack and we use them all the time. I take the nice ones out with us, but at home I use the cheap ones and they are great.

Boppy – we were lucky enough to get two of these from showers and since our house is two stories, we decided to keep both. I am so glad we did. We use them for EVERYTHING. We brought one to the hospital, and I used it to learn to nurse and I still use it for nursing. It’s great for us. In the mornings, I prop Ryan up on it after he eats and talk to him and when other people are holding him, they will ask to use it. On Saturday mornings when we sleep in, I will bring him in bed with us and put him between us on the boppy because he can look around, and Jeff and I can snooze a little longer. We love the Boppy. I have two covers for each and wash them fairly often.

Angel Care Monitor – without this, I am certain I would spent 99% of my time making sure Ryan is still breathing. It’s not foolproof, but it allows me a sense of security that I appreciate. We have some static on ours (no clue why), but it is still worth it.

Stroller – I never wanted to be a family with three strollers, and yet… we have three. We have a Snap and Go for our carseat (the Baby Trend carseat, which I give a HUGE thumbs up to), a big awesome jogging stroller (BOB Revolution) and a nice umbrella stroller for later on. So far, I love both the Snap and Go and the BOB so very much (no opinion on the umbrella yet). The Snap and Go stays in my car and I use it for shopping and errands. It’s easy to use and easy to push. The cupholders are nice, but for tall drinks are tippy (like water bottles). But, I usually have the diaper bag attached, so I’ll just keep my drink in there. The BOB is amazing. It pushes like a dream and we have the carseat adapter and the “parent console” and we love both. This stroller has allowed me to take a walk almost daily with Ryan and Lola and, superficially, I love the way it looks. We get a lot of comments on it and I’m happy we went with this and not with the Phil & Ted’s.

Glider Rocker – we have two of these as well; one in Ryan’s bedroom and one in our living room and both are FANTASTIC. Ryan loves being cuddled and rocked, so we use this every day. We nurse in it in the middle of the night, we read books during the day and cuddle all the time. I love having these.

Activity Gym – we put this out when Ryan was first born and he uses it every day. He will sit and stare (baby lazer light show!) at the lights and the mirror and is even starting to try to grab for the toys (or just bat at them). It keeps him entertained, lets him stretch out and I know we will get a lot of use out of this in the future. Since we have hardwoods, I put a throw blanket underneath it to better pad it. This toy is one of his favorite things when he is awake, which is nice because I can put him down and check email, unload the dishwasher or just lay on the couch for a while and know he is entertained and happy (he is starting to “talk” to things on it which is adorable).

This Book – for whatever reason, Ryan loves this book. When he was like 2 weeks old I was at Marshalls and grabbed it because it reminded me of a book from my childhood. The first time I read it to him, he was mesmerized. Figuring it was a fluke, I tried again later and had the same results. It is a go-to book for calming a fussy baby (especially when combined with the glider!) and it’s amazing to watch. It must have some sort of cadence that Ryan likes, and we read it so often, we have already started to memorize it.

Happy Halloween!

While Ryan is not exactly trick or treating this year, he can still dress up and look adorable!

Seven

Jeff and I are celebrating seven years of marriage today. The traditional wedding gift is copper and wool for this year, but I can think of a better one...

Dear Ryan,

I never thought I would fall in love instantly. I thought I would be one of those mothers who needed time with her baby to learn him, and then would fall in love. But I was so wrong. I loved you from the second I saw you. I knew you were mine, and I was yours and I was done.

You are such an easy baby. You rarely cry, and if you do, we can usually figure out what is bothering you. You love being held, being rocked and being read to, and you hate diaper changes, being wet or dirty and bath time. We spend a lot of time with you on our chest, sleeping and snuggling. You are a great snuggler. So far, you tolerate the bouncy seat and the swing for a few minutes in each unless you are sleeping. You like your activity mat a lot when you are awake. You will turn towards the light and music to watch, which is fun to see you do. You love looking around during diaper changes, even if you hate the process of it. You fall asleep on walks, but rarely in the car. I have no idea if you have a schedule yet.

You eat every 3 hours, around the clock, for the most part. Sometimes 2, sometimes 4, but on average 3. I don’t mind it at all – it’s my definite time to cuddle you and stroke your cheeks and head. When the house is full of your admiring visitors, I can snatch you away for some eating time and get in my “mama love” time with you. You were born weighing 8 pounds, 2 ounces. When we left the hospital you were down to 7 pounds, 10 ounces. At one week you were back to 8 pounds, 6 ounces, at two weeks you were 9 pounds, 4 ounces and at three weeks you were 10 pounds even. Today you weighed 10 pounds, 10 ounces. You like your food!

You were not planned. You were a surprise to all of us, but I have never wanted a surprise as much as I wanted you. I love being your mom. You have already made me a better person – more calm, more patient and more loving. This last month has been a whirlwind of activity and has gone by faster than any month in my life. I hope we slow down soon.

Love,
Mama

Birth Story

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st

6:00 – Jeff leaves for work to get everything ready to be out for a week. I sleep.

9:00 – I get up and eat breakfast. I shower and think about how weird this whole induction thing is.

10:30 – Jeff comes home. We eat lunch, run errands and hang out the rest of the day until 3:30 when we are told to call for induction directions.

3:30 – we call to get directions for the time to come in and start induction. We are told they are full, and to call back later. We run errands and go to the grocery store.

5:30 – we call back. They are still full. We go to Outback and eat a ton of food. I have a sip of Jeff’s beer and got excited about being able to have a drink again (ironically, it has taken me a month postpartum to even THINK about alcohol). We talk about the whole thing on the way home in the pouring rain.

7:30 – we call and they said they will call us when they are ready. I am having pretty measurable contractions, but they are not as consistent as I had hoped. I decide it would be funny if I was denied an induction but went into labor on my own.

8:45 – we get “The Call” saying they had a room ready for us and we looked at each other in shock. This is it. We are gone. We had packed the bags earlier in the day and the house was spotless, so we turn off lamps, the AC and a few other things and grab our stuff and head out. We are oddly silent in the car on the way to the hospital.

9:00 – we check in and I change into my gown. I agonize over wearing underwear until I realize what we are about to do and make the correct decision to not wear them. We take videos and pictures of our room and some “interviews” with me. My IV is inserted and I squirt blood all over the nurse and the bed.

10:00 – they insert the cervidil and begin two hours of constant monitoring. We watch TV, play cards and talk.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd

12:00 – the monitoring is over. The nurse tells me I can have a sleeping pill, but I deny it, thinking I would sleep on my own and also because I had never taken one and was scared of the side effects. In hindsight, I wish I had taken it. Once the monitor was off, we are told we can sleep until 5:30, when they will wake me up to shower and get ready for Delivery Day. I sleep horribly. The IV hurts, the bed is uncomfortable and I am nervous and excited all in one. 5:30 rolled around really quickly.

5:30 – the nurse comes in to wake me, but I am already awake. I hop in the shower and think, “the next time I do this I will be a mother.” I put on the hospital gown and a contraband bra and pull my hair into a ponytail and put on some makeup (HAHAHAHAH). We hear the woman in the room next to us making awful noises. Come to find out, it was Jeff’s coworker who was having her baby naturally.

5:55 - The cervidil is removed and pitocin is started. My contractions are already showing up on the monitor.

7:00-8:30 - We watch the Today Show and Jeff takes a shower.

8:30-9:30 - Dr. Bradley comes in and checks me. I am 2 cm and 50% effaced, not much of a difference from before the cervidil. We watch the other monitors and can see when Jeff’s coworker has her baby. We cheer for her.

9:30- I am feeling the contractions, but they are not unmanageable yet. I had planned on trying to avoid pain medication for as long as possible, but I also planned on being able to walk around and work through the pain. I get a little frustrated. We play some cards and watched more TV.

10:00 - Dr. Bradley checks me again. I am barely 3 cm, 100% effaced. We are making progress! We watch more TV.

11:30 – I am in serious pain. The contractions are all in my back, signaling that the baby is facing the wrong direction. Dr. Bradley checks me again and I am still at 3 cm. He suggests we get the epidural to help me dilate and relax. I agree because I cannot imagine going another 7 cm feeling this bad. I request the epidural and am told it will come quickly.

12:00 – no epidural, contractions three minutes apart for a minute each time

12:30 – no epidural, contractions two minutes apart for a minute each time

1:00 – the anesthesiologist arrives for the epidural. I offer to kiss him. Dr. Bradley checks me quickly before he starts, to make sure I have not gone from 3-10 in a matter of minutes and I am still barely 3 cm. I hope the epidural works. The shot to numb the area stings, but the epidural works perfectly the first time. Jeff and I watch in amazement as contractions pass and I don’t feel anything.

1:30-3:30 – We play cards, watch TV and sleep. I am having some monster contractions but can’t feel them. I hope I am at least 5 cm when Dr. Bradley checks me again.

3:30 – Dr. Bradley checks me. To the surprise of everyone, I am 9.5 cm and ready to start pushing. He tells me he is happy the epidural relaxed me because we were going to have to have a “c-section talk” if it had not.

4:00 – I start pushing. I am awful at it. I cannot feel what I am doing and all the suggestions are not helping me.

4:30 – still pushing. The epidural is turned off so I can feel what I am doing.

5:00 – still pushing. Dr. Bradley comes in, works through a few contractions with me and leaves to help another lady deliver her baby. I am determined to deliver before 5:30. I fail. All I can think about is food, and pretty soon, the delivery staff is telling me to push for food, not to meet my baby. It has been almost 24 hours since I have eaten.

6:00 – still pushing, but making progress as the head is “right there.” I am told I will not be able to push for more than three hours. I am so exhausted I fall asleep between contractions.

6:05 – Dr. Bradley tells me if I can push through one more contraction he will get the vacuum out to help Ryan make his entrance. Sounds good to me, so I do. After the contraction he says, “that was great! Let’s do that once or twice again and we will see what happens.” I point my finger at him and yell out, “YOU LIE!”

6:15 – the head is close. I’m feeling a lot and am pushing like I know what I am doing. Jeff has been holding one leg and the nurse is holding the other this entire time. I feel bad for them because my legs are so swollen they must weigh a TON. The room is broken down and it suddenly occurs to me that this is it. We are having a baby.

6:22 – the room fills with people. Later, we will learn we signed the paperwork to agree that nursing students could watch the delivery. At the time, I think nothing of it.

6:27 – The head comes out, but goes back in during a contraction.

6:29 – The head is out. Dr. Bradley suctions Ryan’s mouth and he starts to breathe. Sure enough, he is turned the wrong way. Jeff’s eyes are wide with amazement and he tells me he is right there. I look down and see him.

6:31 – Ryan is out. He cries instantly and they put him in the warmer and start cleaning him up. Jeff keeps saying, “hey buddy!” and I am crying. My son is born.

6:35-6:50 – while they fix me up, they weigh Ryan and wrap him up and hand him to me. NOTHING has prepared me for this moment and I just stare at him. Jeff informs me he has all of his fingers and toes. I make a joke about keeping the placenta and nobody laughs. Bad timing or bad crowd? We will never know.

6:50-8:00– they finish doing whatever they do to me, Dr. Bradley says goodbye and we try nursing. Ryan is a natural and latches on instantly. He is good at it. We send text messages to everyone announcing his arrival. We stare at him and take turns holding him.

8:00 – my brother and his girlfriend, my mom and stepdad arrive bearing gifts and food. I eat like I have not eaten in days as Ryan is passed around.

9:30 – everyone leaves, we nurse again and I go to the bathroom for the first time. The nurse shows me how to use the ice packs and says I can take a shower. I am too tired to think about it at the time.

9:30-11:00 – Jeff and I just hold him and look at each other and back at him.

11:00 – Jeff’s mom arrives from being out of town

11:50 – the nurse offers to take Ryan to the nursery for the night, bringing him back to me at 2:30 to nurse. We accept and send him away. Only 5 hours old and already getting rid of him!

The next few days in the hospital are a blur. I shower the next morning and don’t realize how smelly I was until I am clean – in my hormonal state I forget that I went through LABOR and while I kept the room at a chilly 65 degrees, I still sweated and smell like it. Every shower feels so good.

We have more visitors and we keep nursing every 3 hours. My milk starts to come in before we leave the hospital, but only because we stay an extra day because of my high blood pressure. We send Ryan to the nursery every night so we can sleep and I am glad we did. When we leave on Friday, Ryan weighs 7 pounds 10 ounces. By the time we go to the doctor on Tuesday for his one-week appointment he weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces.

We enjoy the hospital’s cafeteria system, which allows Jeff to order a meal along with me for only $5. We eat well and Ryan continues to thrive. We learn what he likes (swaddling and chest sleeping) and what he does not like (diaper changes, being naked). We watch TV but only turn on the computer once. We hold him and stare at him a lot. I feel pretty good by the time we leave on Friday and by the following Friday, feel very good. It amazes me the body can go through that and get back to a state of normal so quickly.

We decide he was worth every single pain.

Ryan

Ryan William was born on September 22, 2009 at 6:31 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. We think he is perfect.

Playing the Odds

Now that our induction date is set, we are just waltzing towards it at even intervals, one day at a time. We have the bags packed and the car seat installed. We have the fridge stocked, the cameras charged and plans for Lola (going to Grandma’s house!) for while we are in the hospital. We have our bills on autopay and a list of people to call once Ryan arrives. We are set. And yet, we play the odds.

I have not filled up the car in a long time, and it has been running on a quarter of a tank for a week or so now. Never mind the fact that we live ten minutes from the hospital, all of six miles, it is just the idea that not everything is ready that I like. I am wearing some of the clothes I want to take to the hospital right now, and I use the camera to take pictures every day.

I do this to try to trick him into coming early. So far, it’s not working, and yet I drive around with a yellow gas light on in my car, with my hospital bag almost packed, with a three-quarters charged camera, in the hopes that one of those insignificant things will trick Ryan into arriving in his own time.

Waiting

It’s an odd time, waiting for the birth of your first child. In theory, we have been waiting for nine months, or really, since we got married, for this to happen, but now that it is here it is almost surreal. Jeff and I act like we are dating again – going to dinner at fancy, “kid free” restaurants, going to movies, for long walks through our neighborhood, to get ice cream late at night, playing board games and walking through the streets of downtown. We do things that we will not be able to do for a long time, and that when we finally do, we will have another person with us.

I want to capture these moments on film, so we bring our camera, taking pictures of what we were doing in the days before our life will be changed forever, for the better. Before we became three.

Ryan's Nursery!

I thought I would finally take - and post! - pictures of Ryan's nursery. I bought the bedding back in February (I was barely pregnant!) at Target on a whim because I liked that it was gender neutral.

The pictures above the crib came from Target, the letters Rebecca painted for us, the blanket on the wall Olympia made for us from scraps that our family and friends sent in at one of the showers, the french memo board I made and I painted the poem above the bookshelf (it's a Shel Silverstein) and we used Wall Pops for the red stripe and the dots.

I am really happy with how it came out overall. It think it is cute and something he can grow into.

It's working!!!

Bed rest is working! It’s working!

I went to the doctor on Friday for a nonstress test and another ultrasound to check fluid levels. Everything is looking great. Bed rest appears to be working because I had lost SEVEN POUNDS since Tuesday (best diet ever!) in water weight and my blood pressure was within normal range. Ryan passed the nonstress test with flying colors and looked very cute on the ultrasound. He was practicing his cute breathing and we even saw him in 3D! The tech switched on the 3D for a few pictures and it was very neat.

So, I go back to the doctor on Tuesday for ANOTHER ultrasound (number eight in this pregnancy so far) and we meet with the doctor to discuss options. I’m hoping for another week of bed rest, but we will see what he says.

Today is a full day of college football (Go Clemson!) and Jeff is doing house stuff (closing the pool, painting some closet doors) over the weekend. I’m glad to have him home for three days – it helps the time go faster when he is around!

Change of Plans

Yesterday I went to the doctor. It was the standard 36 week appointment, which marks the time where I will start going every week instead of every two. My appointment was at 3:30. After an ultrasound, blood work and some resting time, I left the doctor at 5:30 with a cease and desist order to stop working immediately because of gestational hypertension (high blood pressure), which was quickly turning into preeclampsia. Since preeclampsia is dangerous to both me and to Ryan, I am now on bedrest for the next week, but likely the remainder of my pregnancy.

My symptoms were pretty textbook: severe swelling (pitting, where you can leave indentations) all up my legs, constant headache, rapid weight gain (10 pounds in a little over a week!), heart palpitations and high blood pressure (145/92). I knew something was not completely right, but I did not expect this.

I will be monitored closely over the next week. I am collecting urine samples today (ew!) and will drop them off tomorrow and do more blood work. Friday we will do a nonstress test to see how Ryan is doing (the ultrasound yesterday was great and he is estimated to be about 7 pounds), and then on Tuesday we will do another ultrasound and meet with the doctor to talk about whether I will remain on bedrest, be allowed to work or discuss induction. The doctor wants to get to 38 weeks, at least, to give Ryan another week of “plumping up” and I’d like to make it to 39, if possible.

After resting all day today (just getting up to go to the bathroom, to shower and to eat), my swelling is almost completely gone in my ankles and feet and my legs are slowly going back to normal. My heart is not skipping beats, my headache is gone and I feel a lot better overall. I’m hopeful that we can control this through bedrest and that Ryan can stay put for another two weeks.

So, for now, Lola and I are spending our days on the couch. I have a list of books on reserve at the library that Jeff is going to pick up for me tomorrow, and I am trying to make sure all my loose ends at work are tied up. After the past month of going going going, it’s kind of nice to just lay around and read and nap all day long!

Goodbye, August!

August was just slammed packed with stuff and it was absolutely wonderful, but absolutely exhausting. We closed out the month yesterday by hitting IHOP at 8:00, coming home and taking showers and going on our hospital tour at 10:00, then going to Babies R Us, Target, out to lunch, to see Jeff’s grandma in the hospital, to the car cleaners and then we installed the car seats and had my mom and stepdad and sisters over to grill out. Needless to say, that is only a small example of what this whole month has been like.

We had three amazing baby showers in August, and we are humbled and touched by our family and friends who showed up (sometimes to all three!), who gave us amazing and great presents and who, if they could not make it, sent gifts through the mail. After yesterday’s run to Target and Babies R Us, we are set for Ryan’s arrival. I am washing clothes and packing our hospital bags today. We are exactly 36 weeks, so it could technically be anytime from now until 5 weeks from now (let’s aim for oh, 38 weeks, kid!).

I’m feeling okay in this final month. I’m swelling a lot, and not just in my feet and ankles. My calves are huge and I can push on them and make indentions. I can’t feel my shin bones anymore. My hands are swollen some, to the point that I can’t wear my wedding bands or even the fake one I bought in two sizes bigger when my band was getting too tight. I am a baby mama apparently! I’m having some joint issues, which is something I read about but never thought would happen to me. My knees and fingers and jaw are so sore at times. I found out that I am severely anemic, so I’m having to take iron pills in addition to eating iron rich food (I never knew you could get tired of steak…). However, even with all of those complaints, I have never felt better. I love the feeling of Ryan moving around, and I know that we only have a few weeks left of this amazing time. So while my feet hurt at all times of the day now, the miracle of this whole experience has never ceased to amaze me.

Selfish

I am fiercely selfish with this baby’s belly kicks with anyone other than Jeff. When people ask if he is kicking, I shake my head and look kind of sad. “No,” I tell them, “He must be napping.” The truth? He is moving and shaking at almost any given point in the day.

Sometimes, I do let them feel. I let them feel his movements, his little hands and feet moving around in me, pushing out and changing the shape of my belly. But more often than not, especially lately as we get closer to the end, I savor these feelings for myself.

I realize I am being selfish, that this baby is a welcomed gift from God, and I should want to share him with everyone, but there is something so special about being the only one who can feel him. I know once he gets here I will sometimes have to wait my place in line to hold him, to cuddle him and coo at him, and that his movements will be there for everyone to see. And I am enjoying that right now, he is as close to me as he will ever be, because once he is born, he begins moving towards independence and away from me, and for now I will selfishly hold on to him for as long as I can.

Injured Reserve

Well, I am on the injured reserve list.

This past week, Jeff got home early one day and decided to mow the grass. I thought I would be helpful and pull weeds in our pine straw beds while he did this because the weeds are taking over our "natural areas" (AKA: areas that have no flowering shrubs or anything).

At some point in this house's life, previous owners installed a very amazing array of bricks and railroad ties and pathways through the backyard. We kept it all, because it is truly beautiful, but some of the railroad ties have seen better days. Our plan is to update them next spring, because we have some that have rotted from a few years of neglect. Well, bees also live in (some of) them. And apparently when I was pulling weeds, I angered some of the bees and was attacked! In my efforts to run away, I ended up falling. I scraped up my leg on a brick step, and smacked my hand against our deck post while trying to avoid falling on the belly. I was also stung five or six times as well. THANKFULLY the baby is fine, but my hand is not. I ended up spraining the hand part, and I will have to wear a brace for a while. One of my bee bites has swelled up and bruised pretty badly, but it seems to getting better. "

So, the good news is that I am off any real work for the next nine weeks, or until the baby gets here. Today Jeff is removing the storm windows and screens from the house so it can be pressure washed, and then working on the bathrooms and I am spending the day in a float by the pool. Maybe this injury wasn't such a bad thing at all...

Busy!

I looked at our calendar today and realized that we are BUSY in the next few weeks. As in, very busy. I’m excited, but kind of overwhelmed. On our schedule are the following events:

Saturday, July 18 – Jeff’s summer work party
Friday, July 24 – Wedding in Charlotte
Tuesday, July 28 – Pediatrician interviews
Saturday, August 1 – Niece’s 5th birthday party
Sunday, August 2 – Friend’s baby’s christening
Friday, August 7 – Mother-in-law’s retirement party that we are co-hosting
Saturday, August 8 –Shower for friends & family in Greenville
Friday, August 14 – Sister’s 12th birthday
Saturday, August 15 – Shower for work friends in Anderson
Thursday, August 20 – CPR class for Jeff and I
Saturday, August 22 – Shower for family & friends in North Carolina
Saturday, August 29 – Hospital Tour
Monday, August 31 – Nephew’s 8th birthday
Thursday, September 3 – Breastfeeding class for me
Saturday, September 5 – Childbirth class (both of us) (and first Clemson game!)

We are BUSY. I like being busy, and I am still in shock that we have so many amazing friends and family who have offered to throw us THREE showers, but after we get through all of these awesome activities, we will officially be on a major countdown to Delivery Day (whenever that will be…). And I think that is what scares me the most.

This Old House

We are still finishing up renovations on our house. We have pretty much changed every single thing in this house, with the exception of one bathroom and the kitchen cabinets (we just painted them). But, the floors are new, we moved walls and added walls and painted every single wall. We have been finishing up projects for the past few weeks, and just this past weekend were able to start on the last major things we have to complete: the master bathroom and the upstairs guest bathroom.

Both bathrooms were in really bad condition when we bought the house. We thought we would be able to salvage the guest bath, but we were wrong. The wall between the two bathrooms was covered in mold because the shower port sprayed water INTO the wall instead of INTO the tub (you would think this would have been fixed, but no.). So, we tore out both bathrooms, and a closet to give the master bath more room and add a separate tub and shower and a separate toilet room. We did sacrifice some closet room, but we both feel like it was worth it.

So, this weekend Jeff put up the crown molding in both bathrooms, sanded the walls down, we painted the walls (light brownish-cream in the master and pale yellow in the guest bath) and he grouted the tile in the master. He ran out of time on grouting the guest bath, as we had friends over to grill out and swim last night, but he says he will knock that out tonight. It's exciting to see it all come together. We still have so much work to do (well, Jeff does) in both bathrooms, including installing the toilet, shower, sinks, bathtubs... but it is extremely exciting to see our last major project take shape.

And, I'm not going to lie... I'm really excited about having a toilet upstairs for the four or five trips I make to the bathroom in the middle of the night now!

Filling Up

We got our very first major baby present this week… the BOB stroller from my dad and Rose! It is awesome and we love it and well, so does Lola.

Our house is slowly filling up with baby stuff… we have a crib, and this past weekend we got the changing table and dresser to match it. We have an old bouncy seat and swing from my dad and Rose and my friend Lisa gave us her highchair (and crib, incidentally!). My friend Martha is letting us use her bassinette for the first few weeks as well, and that is in the baby’s bedroom for now. The highchair is sitting in the dining room, and the stroller is in our den. I unpacked some bottles we got from someone and they are sitting in a cabinet with some pacifiers and a bunch of bibs.

Our house is slowly filling up with baby stuff! It’s kind of scary, but really is so exciting!

Third!

We are in the third trimester! It seems unreal, but it’s true. We will celebrate with fireworks and hot dogs, and oh, wait… that’s the FOURTH of July, not just a celebration for us! We will definitely celebrate at home though.

It’s hard to believe that we are in the final stretch. I vividly recall taking the pregnancy test in January (on Martin Luther King Day) and finding out how quickly our life was going to change, but it seemed so very far away and almost impossible that we would even make it to this point. But, here we are, and part of me wants to stop time because it doesn’t seem possible that we are almost ready to become parents.

We are registered for all our classes (childbirth, breastfeeding, infant/child CPR), have signed up for our hospital tour in late August and have started going to the doctor every two weeks. We have some amazing friends and family who have offered to throw us our baby showers, which will all take place in August, so that will be really nice. I am really excited to celebrate our little man’s arrival with our wonderful family and friends, and I am even more excited to meet him in late September.

Change

The days pass in small errands, in things I want to get done… going to the library, walking the dog, doing laundry, getting blueberries at the grocery store because they are on sale, dropping off dry cleaning, meeting friends for lunch, reading all day in a raft in the pool, and napping in the afternoons.

I make a list every morning but none of the things on my list are things I have to do, but they are all things I want to do.

I know this is my last summer of this. I know that next summer will be filled with story time and swim lessons, and will be measured by yards crawled and bottles drank. I know that everything will change.

And I can’t wait.

Well, beer does help me...

It has been miserably hot here the past few days. Like 100 degrees hot. And humid. And while there is a nice breeze, 100 is just hot. So, we have been using our pool quite a lot.


Lola was not a fan of the pool. She was scared of the rafts, hated the statue (our lovely lady) but if you could catch her and get her into the pool, she would technically swim, but you know, fight or flight mentality and all that I guess.

Until today.

Jeff gave Lola a little liquid courage to calm her fears and then stuck her on a raft while we were cooling off this afternoon. She. Loved. It. She swam like crazy, and would climb BACK into the pool after we put her out! I am so excited to have a swimming dog.

We are grilling out tonight (chicken, corn and zucchini) and watching a movie. I love these kinds of nights and look forward to doing this next year with our little boy :)

Long Time

I guess if I'm actually going to blog stuff I should do it regularly, you know? I think my goal should be once a week, so we will see if I can hold myself to that.

All is going smoothly with our little boy! We are right at 25 weeks, about to enter the 3rd trimester, which is hard to believe! We have been busy registering and finishing up house projects to begin preparing for our newest arrival.

We have decided on a name for the baby. He will be Ryan William, and we will call him Ryan. We took his name from Jeff's middle name (Ryan) and from my grandfather's name (William). We are excited that we could have both names be so meaningful to us!

Other than that we are enjoying having our own pool and the hot South Carolina summer weather that comes along with it (it's been in the upper 90's for a few days now!) more than ever now that I am so far along! We do not have any big vacations planned this summer and are planning on staying close to home to get ready for Ryan's arrival in late September.

It's a...

It's a BOY! We are thrilled and excited and shocked. I was convinced - CONVINCED - this baby was a girl, but wow. I was definitely wrong. I am so excited to meet our little man in 24 short weeks! (HA!)

Pregnancy Update

My God, pregnancy is boring. I know it’s a miracle and there is life growing in me, but for day-to-day stuff? BORING.

I’ve been lucky in that I never once got sick, or even really queasy. I have not craved anything, and I tend to want protein and fruit more than anything (am I annoying you yet, because DAMN I AM). I have not even been that worried about everything that is about to happen to us, likely due to the fact that we are in the middle of this house renovation (getting close to finishing!). And half the time I even forget I am pregnant.

However, when we went for our 13 week ultrasound, I began to get super excited about this babe because it looked so Real!

47 gallons – ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

Lola is tired of the renovations too.

The finish line is near.

We are ending the last few weeks of house renovations (at least on the inside… the outside is a different story). We have some painting to do, two bathrooms to complete (sanding the sheetrock and installing some of the fixtures) and of course the hardwood floors have to be installed and sanded and finished (we are contracting out the sanding and finishing!). We have not painted any doors or cabinet doors yet, but are waiting for a warm weekend so we can take them outside and knock it out. Same with the baseboards. But the major renovations – the carpet and floor removal, the walls we tore down, the countertop installation (recycled glass in concrete), the complete kitchen overhaul and the sheer amount of paint we have bought (we are at 47 gallons and counting!) is coming to a close. We can see the finish line.

Our original move-in date was April 6th. I think we are going to make that date. Both Jeff and I are in a wedding on April 4th, and as nice as it would be to be able to move on April 5th, I’m not seeing Jeff being in ANY kind of state to do that after a night of partying at our good friends’ wedding. But that’s my spring break, and in a weird turn of events, Jeff has it off too (love his company! They follow the school calendar AND give him vacation time!) and so we would like to have that week to get organized after we move in.

But, we are almost there. We started this process on December 23rd. The end is in sight. It’s almost overwhelming that we have made it this far, but it is so very exciting.

Big Plans!

On Tuesday of this week I told my principal I was going to use one of my furlough days on Friday. I had BIG! PLANS! to get lots of stuff done… I even made up a list! I was planning on getting up early, going to visit daycares for next year, then coming home and working! All day! I was going to paint cabinets, trim and even a room! All by myself!

Well, that changed.

So far, I went to the daycares this morning (not early). Then, I went to Babies R Us to look at cribs, then I came home and met the hardwood guy so he could measure our floors, then I went and got my eyebrows waxed, went to Office Depot to fax something, then to PetSmart for treats for the dog (who was with me), then to Panera for lunch. Then, I came home and played online, then took a little nap and finally decided to paint the bathroom cabinets (I’ve been avoiding this since we bought this house!). That is it! And I’ve sent approximately 10584359583049 text messages to people to waste time.

Then I ate some grapes and decided it was important to check facebook and email to make sure nothing MAJOR has happened (nothing has. Darn.)

I’m thinking it was a productive day.

And so it begins...

I have determined that oranges might be the greatest fruit ever.

I'm thinking this blog can only get better, right?