Drumroll Please....

I know this is long overdue, but PARKER HAS ARRIVED!!! He was born Friday, February 26th at 6:35 pm - 7 lb., 20 in. Now that you have the vital stats, here is a quick recap of the day:

We checked in the hospital at 7:30 am. They gave us our room and I got my awesome hospital gown. They hooked me up to an IV (which they burst the first vein they tried and I still have a gnarly bruise to show for it!). My doctor was ready to break my water and get the show on the road, but we had to wait on the anesthesiologist for my epidural... there were 2 unexpected c-sections that he was tied up with. So we started the pitocin without him at about 10am. By 10:30 he came to administer the epidural (I only felt about 1 or 2 contractions!). Quickly after that, my doctor broke my water, then it was just a waiting game.

Things started slowly and the contractions weren't very strong. It probably took an hour or 2 to dilate another cm to 4. My nurse, Claudine, was a great French lady and she was motivated to get this baby out before her shift ended at 7pm. So, she kept coming in and increasing the pitocin to get things moving! Eventually I started making some quicker progress, meanwhile I wasn't feeling a thing! I could tell I was having a contraction only because my stomach would get really tight. Kyle and my Mom would watch the monitor and we saw how the intensity increased throughout the day. They started at about a level 7-8, then by the end of the day I was having level 15+ contractions and few that were off the charts!

We just watched movies all day and had a few visitors. Muffy, Marge and my Aunt Cindy came by to visit. Then my friends Allison and Whitney each came by to hang out for awhile. It was great to have a distraction and someone to keep me occupied!

Finally around 5pm they said I was at 8 cm and would probably push within the hour. At that point I could feel the pressure to push coming on and I knew I was getting ready! Sure enough, I moved along just as they thought and I was pushing by around 6pm. Overall, I pushed a maximum of about 30 minutes and Parker was born! Luckily it was a very easy delivery and he was a happy, healthy little boy! All the nurses said I was made to have babies considering how easy the delivery went! It was a really special experience for Kyle and I to share.

We got to spend about an hour with him and have a few visitors before they whisked him away to the nursery for a couple hours. The rest of our stay at the hospital was great! Well, except for the student nurse who put our embroidered pillowcases in with the rest of the hospital laundry!! What a mess, and we still haven't gotten them back...

We went home that Sunday and things have been going great! He had his first car ride to his 2 day checkup, and he had already gained weight from leaving the hospital! He also gave the doctor a little golden shower!!! We quickly realized that a spare onesie was a must for the diaper bag...

He has had a few colicky episodes, but it's not a daily occurrence. We are hoping his digestive system is just going through an adjustment period... Gripe water is our new best friend though! That stuff works magic. At his 2 wk checkup, he was over his birth weight as he should be. This now means we are allowed to let him sleep as long as he is willing during the night and only wake up when he is ready to feed. Unfortunately he is still on the every 3 hr schedule, so we are still getting up regularly throughout the night. We are lucky though that he usually sleeps straight through between feedings! He usually just falls right asleep in a food coma after a feeding, no matter what time of day...His umbilical cord finally fell off, so he got his first real bath today (full water instead of a sponge bath)!

Now that we are all caught up, I promise I will post on a regular basis to keep everyone updated on the latest happenings and pics! One last picture - Parker and his Daddy...

The Last Day

Well, today was the last day Kyle and I have alone before welcoming Parker into this world! We go to the hospital tomorrow morning at 7:30 to begin the induction. We're really excited, but I can't lie - I'm nervous about the actual delivery. I'm hoping everything goes smoothly and that labor isn't too excruciatingly long. As of my doctor appointment Wednesday, I was just about 3 cm dilated, which should make the induction a alot easier than if I wasn't dilated at this point. So everyone keep their fingers crossed!!!

As promised, I have pictures of the nursery. We are still lacking a few things on the wall and are waiting for pictures of Parker to put in the frames. It was really fun working on this project. We had the bedding custom made (thanks Mom!), then used the fabrics throughout the room where we could. I did lots of crafting - I made the drapes, painted his initials over the crib, painted the sign over the closet door and I still need to line some baskets with fabric! Pictures really don't do it justice, so that just means that you will have to come visit Parker and see his room in person ;) Enjoy and we will post updates tomorrow!

The Final Countdown...

First and foremost, the shower this past weekend was amazing! I want to thank everyone for traveling to make the event. It was great to see everyone from Houston and was nice to have the whole Austin gang in town for the weekend. We had quite a full house last Saturday night and cooked in. It was so much fun!

I think we are almost all set for Parker now... just a few things left to get. We went to Babies R Us today and exchanged a few items to get the remaining things we must have when he arrives. We also just have a few small details to take care of in the nursery, then I promise I will post pictures!

Well, I am officially 38 weeks now! At my appointment on Wednesday I was 2.5 cm dilated and 75% effaced - moving right along! I have experienced a few Braxton Hicks contractions over the last week as well.

Kyle and I have decided we are going to induce this coming Friday, February 26th! Don't worry, nothing is wrong - this just provides Kyle the opportunity to plan to have the store covered so he can stay home with us a bit longer. This also makes it easier for his family to come as well. It will be exactly one week early, and things should hopefully go smoothly considering the progress I have already made.

There is of course always a chance that he could come sooner... in fact, I went through a couple hours of false contractions last night from about 12-3am. That certainly did not feel good, but I guess he just wasn't quite ready to join us! We will go in very early Friday morning and I promise we will post pictures once he arrives! That's all I have for now - Have a great week!

Trying to get ready...

Well, I will be 37 weeks on Saturday - only 3 more weeks to go! So much has happened over the past few weeks, sorry I haven't updated anything!

We have been doing everything we can to prepare for Parker's arrival... The nursery furniture is in. We have the bedding (minus a mattress - we need to get that this weekend!). Working on all the decorations for the room (drapes, rug, pictures, nik-naks, etc). 

We had a lovely shower in Austin a couple weeks ago. It was great to see all the ladies and we really appreciated everyone making the time to come! Thanks so much to Caron, Kathy, Sis, Jenn and Kim for putting that together for us! And thanks to Jill for making the precious baby cookies and cupcakes - they were just adorable!

Last weekend we had a co-ed shower with all of our close friends and some of their parents. It was so much fun and everything looked so cute (western themed)! Ivy, Whitney, Kerrie and Dee did a great job! The boys didn't really understand why they were there, so we tried to zip through the baby stuff quickly for them. Kyle and I were opening presents simultaneously, and the funniest part was that he got the gift back with all of the breastfeeding items! It was hilarious!

 

 We have another shower at my office today and then the last one is this weekend with all of our family and friends in Dallas. We are so blessed that so many people want to celebrate our new bundle of joy with us! Thank you to everyone!

Well, as of my doctor's appointment yesterday, I am 2 cm dilated already and about 50% effaced! So I'm moving right along. We don't know if that means he will come early or not, it's still just a waiting game.  The doctor also thinks he is pretty big (close to 7 lbs right now), so there is a chance we could need to induce a little early. We will see after next week's appointment though if that is the case. We will definitely keep everyone updated though as things progress! I will also post pictures of the nursery once we have it all put together!

Picture Update

So here is the latest picture of me... Still growing! I can't imagine that he is going to double in weight in the next month and a half. I could be HUGE by the end of all this! Oh well, it's all for the little one!

Kyle is so sweet - I came home yesterday and he had put together some of the baby furniture while I was at work! It sounds like it was quite a process and I really appreciate him doing that. He is such a great husband and is going to be an amazing dad!

Wordle Fun

Hello all! Well, we are on the downhill slope now to Parker's arrival - less than 2 months! I'm feeling pretty good for the most part. After a long day I get a pretty bad back ache, but nothing a Tylenol can't take care of! We are going to work on assembling the nursery furniture tonight and are excited about seeing it come together.

Today I found this great site - Wordle. You can enter in a bunch of words and it will spit out this great collage for you. You can then edit the color, font and layout before you print or copy and paste! See the example I made below:

It's such a fun thing to play around with! You can keep changing it and mixing it up. You can also enter a URL address and it will create a Wordle based on the words found on the site. Just wanted to share my new find - hope you all enjoy!

2010 Here We Come!

Happy New Year! I have several things to update on! First of all, we had a great Holiday season. We did Christmas with my family here in Dallas a couple nights before hand then headed down south to Austin to spend Christmas day with Kyle's family. We were certainly past due on a visit to Austin - no one had seen us since I had gotten so big! Both families got us some really great things for Parker (and us too!). We put together the stroller/car seat and the pack n play. I can proudly say I put them together all by myself! Not too bad...We also got a new video camera for capturing all those precious moments with Parker, so here is a video of the finished result of the new baby gear!

We also had a great New Year's Eve with our friends here in Dallas! I didn't get to partake in the champagne fun, but I still had a great time visiting with everyone. And of course, we had no worries getting home because I was a lock in for the designated driver position ;)

Today we received our first baby shower invitations in the mail! Two of my oldest BFF's, Ivy and Whitney, are throwing us a shower with their Moms... we are so excited and thankful for their generosity! The invitations are too cute and it should be a fun time.

I am now 31 weeks along and have just 9 more to go! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, but it should just be a regular check up, nothing too exciting. I am going every 2 wks now and then in February I should move to weekly visits. We are getting exciting as we get closer but there is still so much to do! We hope you all had a great start to the year and wish everyone the best in 2010!