Sprung

Today I left the house for the first time since Friday. I actually had REAL clothes on, my hair was (sort of) done and I had a bit of make-up on. It actually felt pretty nice. It's weird to think that life continues on while we're held up at home.

By the way... near the end of the pregnancy I found it hard to find anything to post about that wasn't baby-related. I'm finding it even MORE difficult now -sorry!

PS- Thanks for all of the well-wishes, gifts, and meals from everyone! Here's a few more pictures.

Best of both worlds

Well... I ended up getting cute toes AND a new baby by Thanksgiving this year.

To answer the basic questions...

It's a BOY.

He was born on November 22nd (11/22) at 2:09 am.

7 lb 7 oz.

19 inches long.

And, yes, no epidural.

Justin and I went in for our regular appointment Friday afternoon and I was showing more signs of preeclampsia, and they weren't on the border any more. My blood pressure was still slightly elevated, but I had WAY too much protein in my urine and I gained 5 lbs that week. So... the doctor said, you'll be heading to the hospital following this appointment and I'll meet you there.

All of my attempts to induce labor myself now seemed a) a little silly, and b) maybe NOT what I really wanted.

However, it was too late to turn back at this point.

Once my water was broken, contractions started within the hour, but I didn't think they were very strong. I made a little bit of progress, and they started me on the lowest dose of pitosin. Contractions stepped up a notch, dialated another centimeter, and they went to the next dose of pitosin.

Contractions started to get more intense, it was taking some real concentration to relax and breathe through them, but I let Justin sleep for an hour or so, because I thought we'd be at this for a while, and the next step up would require more of his help.

Well, at 1am (6 hours after breaking my water) I got up to go to the bathroom and switched sides I was laying on. The nurse checked me, I was a 7. She walked out of the room, with her warning that if I felt an urge to push, to come and get her.

3 contractions later (about 5 minutes) Justin ran out to get her. I was complete... and they were short doctors. A short period of frenzy followed as our nurses called my doctor, tried to find a substitute -just in case, and prepared to possibly deliver baby on their own.

My doctor made it after I was in position and had actually pushed during a couple of contractions. Probably about 20-25 minutes later, maybe 10 or so pushing contractions, and we had our baby boy.

Pretty intense, but pretty short time period. I guess that's the way to go!

We're still in the hospital at the moment, but we're hoping to leave later this evening. Once we're home, I'll hopefully post more pics. For now, mom and baby are doing well. I know I'm pretty bias, but he's pretty dang cute. I love his hair -not sure HOW he ended coming out with so much of it. He's a pretty content baby, which makes feeding a little difficult, but we'll get the hang of it soon.

By the way... I won't be using his name on this blog... so if anyone has any nickname suggestions, let us know... maybe that'll be our next blog poll.

One or the other

Well... if I don't have a baby on Thanksgiving... I'll at least have cute toes.

And really bad breath.

(This is the Cafe Trio pizza rumored to induce labor. Yes, those are mushrooms and whole garlic cloves. Neither are my favorite, but I'm trying anything and everything at this point).

An early christmas

I'm debating on whether or not I should get my Christmas decorations out this week. I really enjoy Christmas and Christmas decorations, but I'm also a firm believer in ONE HOLIDAY AT A TIME. Which means, you don't start decorating for the next holiday until the previous one is finished (I know I'm not the only one who feels strongly about this). By ALL means, put up your outside lights before it snows, but I think there should be some city ordinance against turning them on before Thanksgiving.

Back to MY dilemma. I've been looking forward to decorating for Christmas since we moved into our home in May (that might be because it will actually look like I've done some decorating in general, I'm apparently the complete opposite of my sister-in-law who moved in 2 weeks ago and her house looks like a picture out of a magazine -that's a compliment Jes -just in case that wasn't clear). I'm afraid that if I wait until after Thanksgiving, that I'll be a little preoccupied with trying to figure out a baby, and the decorating won't happen. Okay... to tell you the truth, I'm actually MORE afraid that I'll find myself STILL pregnant after Thanksgiving, but that's another story.

I brought it up with Justin last night, and he didn't think it was such a great idea. I'm almost done with Christmas shopping (I need about 3 or 4 more gifts, and a couple of those are actually birthday presents) but he wasn't too excited about early decorating. I tried to convince him that all of the going up and down the stairs and putting up decorations may actually induce labor. I don't think he's convinced, but he did tell me that his 'book' said I would want to clean all of the time, and THAT'S not happening.

He's right, the nesting stage either missed me, or didn't include an obsession to clean. I'm not sure if I ever feel that absolute need to clean. Too bad for us, and our house. Luckily I have a willing husband who gives in, and has been doing far more than his fair share of cleaning.

Either way, don't judge me if I have a Christmas Tree up at my house soon. I promise I won't turn the lights on.

Still here

I haven't had a lot to write about lately. I'm still here. The baby is still here. We're just hanging out waiting. I hate waiting.
The good news is my blood pressure has been pretty low lately, so we're not too concerned this week. I went on a walk on Thursday (almost 2.5 miles roundtrip) and one of Justin's friends called him asking why his pregnant wife was walking by herself up a busy road. Just trying to encourage this baby (and my body) that it's okay to go into labor.
I honestly can't think of anything else that's going on right now.
Pretty sad, I guess.

"Her children will arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."

I feel impressed upon to inform the blogosphere about someone very special, my wife Melanie.
As anyone who reads this blog would know by now, she is pregnant. Not just a little pregnant, but fully ready to not be pregnant any more (anyone who has been pregnant can understand that point I'm sure). And though it has been a challenge and there have been hard times during the course of the past nine months, Melanie is an incredible woman who has endured it all well. She still manages to do many of the household chores, share the cooking with me (or the chefs at Su Casa), and work sometimes more than forty hours a week (at least until recently). I love her, and we are both anxious to meet our newcomer - hopefully sooner than later!

Tag

I was tagged twice... one takes too much time for right now. So, I'll do the 4-4-4. (This tag is where you go to the 4th file on your computer, you select the 4th picture, then you tag 4 people). Mine will be the 4-4. I'm not tagging, but you can do it if you want to.

This is Justin at Disneyland (toontown) during a work trip we went on in 2006.