Alot of Firsts (mostly for the parents)

My sister had a jewelry party last Friday so Graham and his cousin Sam had their first overnight (well attempted overnight). We swaddled them up, laid them next to each other, had to take pictures of course, and then it all went downhill. One would cry and wake the other up and then you would hear 2 unhappy babies. Aunt Rebecca consoled the boys but they eventually just had to be separated. What do you think, should we break out these pictures when they are in high school?? Uncle Matt said it's probably not considered cool for 2 boys to be sleeping in the same bed. :)

Last week Graham's cord fell off so the new parents were excited to give him his first "submerged" bath. He HATED it! We were convinced we did something wrong because he screamed so much. Russ googled how to give a newborn a bath and we did everything right (funny that we looked that up, right!?). The next time went much smoother because we figured out how to use the infant sling so he kind of reclined in the water. More like hanging out in a jacuzzi tub.

We are trying to get this sleep thing down. We will have a few good days and then a couple of bad. I have gotten lots of good advice from more experienced mommies. just trying to figure out what works best for us and our new little man.

Some of Our First Outings

So, because I had a C-Section, I am supposed to not drive or really do much for 2 weeks. I HATE it!! I have always been a busy, on-the-go type of person and it's driving me nuts. On Halloween we ventured to Target to do a couple of returns. I rode around in the motorized cart so I didn't have to walk too far. Good thing we have a pretty mellow fellow because I was not a good driver! He never made a peep as I jerked the cart over bumps and drove too fast. Thank goodness! We then went out to dinner for the first time the other night to 75th St Brewery because once again, I needed out of the house! He never made a peep and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

On the other hand, he had recently developed being a night owl and was not wanting to go to bed at night. This started Saturday night. He didn't go to bed until 2am. The other night it took from 8:15pm till 12am for him to sleep 20 min. Yikes! Needless to say those nights were pretty rough and very tiring for the new mommy and daddy. But, last night was much improved and the little booger is sleeping right now as I write this post. So, lets hope for the best!

I am off my 2 week resting period on Friday, YAHOO!

Welcome Graham Carter Pearson.... FINALLY!!

Our sweet and beautiful baby boy joined our family on Friday 10/23 at 12:20 am via C-Section. He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long. We were shocked since our Dr told us to expect a baby in the 5 lb range. So, most of you know but we had quite the difficult labor journey and here is the story in a nut shell.....

We went in Tuesday night to begin our induction with gel similar to cervadil to soften my cervix since I was not dilated at all. We our trying to jog our memories, I might have been dilated to 1cm the next morning. It's funny... when the nurse first hooked my up to the monitor I would have an occasional contraction on my own and she would ask if I felt it. I always thought that contractions were supposed to be so awful and drop you to your knees in pain. It more was a tightening feeling that would come and pass after 30 sec to a minute. Well, those were the easy contractions anyways! We started pitocin and labored all day long with not much progress. We think I might have been at 2cm by 5-6pm. The decision was made to stop the pitocin and for me to do the gel again over night. Needless to say I was emotional after not making progress and having to do it all over again.

So, the next round of gel greatly bothered me and I was fed up with the IV for some reason. I cried quite a bit. I decided to take a sleeping pill and that helped me alot. The next morning the pitocin restarted at 4am and the Dr broke my water around 8am. Things progressed pretty quickly, well as far as pain goes anyways. Our doula, Jill was an absolute life saver! She helped with breathing techniques and positions that would help with progressing labor. I felt like I was being murdered so the epidural was put in around 11am. Oh my gosh, I felt so much better! We sent the doula home for awhile since all I could do was lie in bed.

For some reason by that evening I was feeling alot of pain again so anesthesia came back to give me a lidocaine bolus and turn up the rate on my epidural. I got the weirdest feelings after that and got pretty upset. They had to keep tweaking the epidural. Then on top of all that either my BP would drop low and or the baby's HR would drop every time I changed positions. They would push a drug called ephedrine, bolus me with saline, and turn the pitocin off. My contractions would completely stop. We would have to wait 30 min, restart the pit at half the rate and then could only increase by 1-2 every 30 min. To say the least, the was discouraging and made for a very slow process.

Since my water had been broken so early in the day they did a procedure where they put 600cc of saline behind my cervix and then ran the saline at a rate of 180ml/hr to try and float the baby into the right position. UNCOMFORTABLE! Then I was dilated to 9.5cm and 100% effaced. The Dr said if we could just work on getting that last bit of cervix thinned out we would be ready to have the baby. The nurse put me in a position called the running man's position. That's when S**T hit the fan! The baby's HR dropped dangerously low and the room quickly turned into an emergency. There was the DR, several nurses and NICU staff everywhere. I felt like I was in the middle of one of our emergencies at work! It was so scary! The Dr was screaming at me to push. They tried everything they could to get Graham out. His HR recovered and we were told that I had 30 min to show progress or I was getting a C-section. So, the latter obviously happened. I begged and BEGGED for my doula to come into the OR. They caved and she was such a big emotional support!

In the end we have a handsome, healthy baby and we are now to home as a family of 3. We love this little dude to pieces and couldn't be happier. I will try and update but life is obviously busier and I am trying to take things slow as I recover.

Welcome Baby Sam!

My sister Rebecca and her husband Matt welcomed their new son into this world on Wed 10/14 at 7:59pm. He weighed 7.12 lbs and was 21.5cm long. He is absolutely adorable! I was very impressed at how well Rebecca did and the support Matt gave her. Mom and baby are doing great. Matt is being a wonderful and helpful father already. They were discharged home Friday evening and have been adjusting well ever since. My parents, Russ and I had dinner with them that night. Here is a picture of uncy Russ holding his new nephew. Man the boppy is even convenient for men!

AND.... we are still PG! Today we are 5 days overdue. AAUUGGGH! Here are a few pics from today. I never thought I would go early but this is getting ridiculous. I feel good for the most part just mentally ready to be done. We have our next Dr's appt on Tuesday to see if I have made any progress. We most likely will be induced Wed morning if this little guy doesn't arrive before then. I am a little sad because it's not what I wanted but perhaps this is another lesson to teach me things don't always go as planned or how you wanted them to. Russ has been wonderful and we stayed busy, enjoying each other's company this weekend. No matter what, Baby P will be here by the end of next week. We are very excited!

Nearing the End

So, we are currently nearing the end of our 39th week of this pregnancy. Yahoo! It really hasn't been bad and I've been blessed as far as things that could've gone wrong. I have felt good pretty much the whole time. Not trying to brag... just feel lucky! I am including a couple of pics from the end of our 38th week.

Tomorrow (Friday) is my last day of work. I am pumped about that! I know this time off will not be a vacation or walk in the park but when else am I going to get 3 months off of work!!?? I'm a little concerned though because this little dude is not showing any signs of wanting to exit the womb. I don't want to eat up my maternity leave if he is going to be a late entrance kind of guy. We will see.... just going to take things one day at a time.

We have remained busy here at the end. Last weekend we had 3 showers to attend in one day. Isn't that insane!!?? First I attended Sara Gardner's wedding shower, a college friend, then I was off to cousin Trish's baby shower, she's due with a little boy in December (I'm hoping for a X-mas baby!) and then finally Max and Lilo's wine shower. Busy but fun times! I can't "party" like I used to though :) We headed home earlier than we would have before I was PG.

Last Sunday we had a "last supper" at my parents house with my family and in-laws, and Rebecca's in-laws. It was great getting everyone together and enjoying some good Italian food. So, far no babies have graced us with their presence! I am due Tues and Rebecca on Thurs. Come on out babies!!

Tonight we enjoyed some homemade pizzas with our good friends, the Morgesters. Kelly and I had to get one more belly shot in before Baby P arrives. Here I am at 39 weeks and Kelly at 33 weeks. I am excited for her shower this weekend!

Baby P and Cousin Sam's Church Shower

We had our last and final shower this last Sunday at my parents church. I have known many of these women since I was a little girl. One was my kindergarten church school teacher. Another was the nurse who handed my mother me as a baby for the first time. She said, "Here's your peanut." Others have been supporters through church sports and other activities. These women are so wonderful to my family.

I know, I know we had a TON of showers! Russ and I are so appreciative of everything we received and cannot thank you enough for all your generosity.

There were a couple of SUPER cute cakes, one with a monkey and one with a hippo. Plus they were super yummy! i think I got my fill of sweets that day because after that I headed down to Westport to Kyla and baby Austin's shower. Here's a pic with 3 aunts and 3 grandparents.... Aunt Sharon, Emma & Janice, Grandma and Grandpa Passman & Grandma Sue.

We got SO many wonderful presents! A few homemade blankets and burb cloths, toys, books, clothes, bottles, diapers, bath toys, picture frames, etc. Baby P is so spoiled already! Thank you!

Today marks 3 weeks until our due date. That means we are 37 weeks and officially full term. Yahoo!

Ending our 36th week

We are now officially to our weekly Dr appts until Baby P arrives. My Dr said she doesn't like to let her patients go past 41 weeks. She is predicting we will have this little guy somewhere between Oct 10-18th. Whoa, that is not very far away! Although I think babies have a way of determining their own birthday. Everyone keeps asking, are you ready? Mostly but not all the way. We still need a few things. We are having our final shower this Sunday so we were waiting until that's over to finish up the last minute shopping. Our stroller will hopefully either by here by the end of this week or beginning of next. I'm anxious to get it!

Our valance is done and now hanging up over his window. Here is a picture. I think it turned out pretty darn cute!

Presents keep trickling in which is always exciting. A friend of mine from Korea (I met both of them while doing the WSC in Seoul) and Russ grew up with Robbie in Cali. (how small of a world is that!) sent us a couple of cute outfits. Baby P officially has his first Halloween costume! So, cute.... a little lion. We also love the outfits because they are organic. Thanks Robbie and YukYung!

I think I am nesting/getting ready because I cleaned the upstairs like a mad lady today. Now I don't have the energy to do anything! We'll keep you posted on our progress!

Semi- Nursery Reveal and Update

I'll include a couple of pics of Baby P's nursery but not all of them since the name is a secret. Sorry! We can't wait to show you the name project we worked on. We also got some cool little metal letters for his initials a long time ago in St. Louis but we will not show you those at this time either. We are waiting on our valance for the window being hand sewn by our bedding lady and quilt by Russ's mom. We are so excited to add those items to the room! He has an armoir and dresser in his room but I can't show those pictures at this time. Aunt Carolyn was laughing and saying what baby has an electronic center in their nursery! Well, Baby P does since that room houses all the surround sound for the house. We got the armoir to hide all the wires and cords and just had to add a little flat screen TV for the mama. :) PS: The pictures aren't the best because they came from my I-Phone. Russ showed me how to upload them last night and decided to use them for the post. The lighting is a little funny and grainy. Oh well.

Last week we put together his swing, bouncer, and monitors. We had fun testing out the monitors by one person standing in the nursery and pretending to cry. :) A super nice co-worker of mine, Whitney let us borrow her bassinet. I washed all the bedding and pieces and we moved it into our room last night. Hard to believe that in give or take a month we will have this little guy! We have finished all of our baby preparation classes and pre-registered with the hospital. Next week we have a final meeting with our doula (birthing coach), final ultrasound before I start going to the Dr weekly and we go for our car seat fitting.

We have so many fun and exciting showers coming up to celebrate the upcoming births and weddings of other dear friends. Oh and not to mention birthday parties and baby blessings. Busy, busy times! We just hope we get to attend all of them and aren't in the hospital ourselves! I just want him to finish baking another couple of weeks minimally before making his grand arrival. Thanks for checking up on us!

2nd Wedding Anniversary

Tuesday, 8/25 was our 2nd wedding anniversary. We really didn't get to celebrate on the actual date because we had our last childbirth preparation class. Not sure that either of us thought we would be doing that on our anniversary! We just ate a home cooked meal before heading down to St Lukes. At the end of class we got to tour the Labor and Delivery unit. Wow, small rooms is all I can say! I keep reminding myself we are not going to be there long and we keep hearing that the care is good there. Good thing since the room is about the size of a closet! We came home and did our sentimental traditions such as reading each other our vows and watching our engagement and wedding videos. Can't tell you how much I love this man and can't wait for him to be the father of this little guy!

Friday we went to dinner at Fogo De Chao on the plaza. So, much yummy food! I think we both rolled out of there. Just to make the evening more romantic we went to Target to return some baby things and finally purchase our car seat. I know, we really know how to celebrate! We headed back down to the plaza and saw the movie, 500 days of Summer. Good movie.

Saturday we ran around town finishing up more "baby" errands. We got some curtains for the nursery and ordered our Bob running stroller. A lady stopped us at the running store and told us we just had to get the Bob stroller. We were sold!

Sunday we celebrated my Dad's birthday out in Indep. Russ got in some good video gaming while I made some burp clothes with my mom. I think they turned out pretty good for me not being a sewer. We had some extra fabric leftover from the bedding and I didn't want it to go to waste. So, there you have it. Just getting ready for our little man. We only have 6 weeks left!

It's raining baby showers!

This last weekend we had 2 more baby showers. Saturday was my girlfriend's shower and Sunday was a joint shower with my sister with my mom's nursing school friends.

Saturday's shower was at my dear friend Kelly Morgester's house. Of course the decorations were so cute and the spread of food AMAZING! Kelly got these delicious little cakes that had champagne in them from a place called 3 women and a bakery. They were so good, I had to have a couple of them. :) Kelly and her mom Lynn just breathe creativity. Kelly made a really cute sign and some puffy blue decorations were hanging from her ceiling over the food table. Over the mantle was a clothes line of a bunch of onsies her and her mom made. I think my favorite was the tie onsie! There was a great turn out of friends.... mostly Gracelanders. It was great seeing everyone and celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby P! We played a couple of games...... filling in the blanks on nursery rhymes and a funny relay race. The stations included diapering a baby blind folded, matching up the socks, guessing the baby foods, and who could drink from the baby bottle the fastest. Kelly always made me the winner of the games and gave me a couple of cute little gifts. The first was some sticker tags that can go in Baby P's books that say, "This belongs to________." She took the animals from our bedding and put a different one on each sticker. She also made us Babysitter sheets that would give the babysitter our cell phones, emergency contacts, feeding schedule, etc. I'm telling you guys, this girl is talented! We got a picture of me, Rebecca, and Kelly. Kelly was the lovely hostess and is expecting Little Mo on Thanksgiving Day. They are also keeping their name a secret. We didn't get Beth in the pic who is expecting her 2nd daughter just a little over a week after my sis and I. I told you, there are tons of pregnant friends!

Sunday's shower was at Cheryl's house, our mom's best friend. All of these women have been friends since they went to nursing school over 40 years ago. They always have such a great time when they are together. This shower was a joint one for Baby P and cousin Sam. We got so many great things including some BEAUTIFUL quilts that my mother-in-law is making both of us. She used the same fabric from our bumper pad. She bought one of the sheets from Sam's bedding set in order to match his room. They are still in progress but I have included a sneak peak pic. My dad couldn't stand missing out on the fun so joined the shower. I think he was jealous that Rebecca and I had "Expectant Mother" crowns so he made himself a "Grandpa" crown. Here is a picture of my sister and I at the end of our 32 week, soon to enter our 33rd week.

It was a great weekend filled with so many generous gifts, delicious foods, and more importantly great time spent with such wonderful friends and family.

32weeks and Busy, Busy

Things are finally slowing down on the house renovations and both rental houses are on the market. Both have had several showings but no offers so far. It's hard to be patient but in reality they have only been on the market for 2 weeks. I'm enclosing some pics of the Waldo house. If anyone is interested in a Waldo or Indep house for sale, send them our way! My dad was nice enough to come over and mow the lawn at the Waldo house today. I decided I should be productive too so I de-weeded and swept the sidewalk areas out front. Thanks Dad P for your help!

We've also been busy with weddings and wedding and baby showers. This pic of me is at the end of our 31st week of pregnancy. This was the day a good family friend got married and then we headed off to Max and Liliana's wedding shower. Had to get a pic since I was dressed up! I've also attended cousin Sam's baby shower and Shelley's shower for Oliver and Lucy. It's been fun sharing in all of these exciting times with friends and family.

We have completed 2 weeks of our child birthing class. Russ and I sure do giggle a lot! I thought Russ looked a little queasy when they showed the video of the live birth. Hopefully he will be fine on Baby P's big day! Russ got to practice giving me back massages at the last class. Can't say I hated that too much!

Mr. Baby P's room is really coming together. We have all of our furniture, walls painted and our bedding is almost done. We got to see a sneak peak of it last weekend and it is so cute! Once we have that, I will post some pictures. We have a couple of projects in the making for some wall decorations. Guess I won't be able to unveil the one project since we are keeping his name a secret! :) Sorry!

Is it too early to nest? I think I've been doing it. One day I told Russ we needed to organize the baby's room. We spent an hour in there and all I did was look at things and scoot them around. Absolutely nothing accomplished! Russ probably thinks I'm crazy but I made a to-do-list the other day and even categorized them by priority. I am beginning to feel like this little dude is going to be here before we know it!