Pictures...finally

Wow, I can't believe how fast time has flown since Gavin was born. I've been meaning to post pictures for the last 2 weeks, but somehow I seem to run out of time every day. I feel like he has changed so much in the last 2 and a half weeks...I think you can tell from the pictures above. Michael and I are starting to get to know him better, but it's still a constant learning experience. Some days, I feel like we are getting into a good routine with naps, nursing and "play". Other days, our schedules are off and I'm exhausted because he sleeps during the day and is up all night. Michael has been gone a lot lately because all of his call days were clustered together since he was on vacation the first week of this month and then he has Christmas off. It's tough on him to be away from Gavin and it's tiring for me not to have any help at night. Fortunately, my parents have been over every day to give me a little relief. All in all, Gavin really is a good baby and I'm loving being a mom. I love seeing him grow and can't wait to see what his personality is like.

Random thoughts on random topics:

Nursing--Gavin latched on really well from the beginning, but holy crap it hurt for the first week! I was also really nervous that he wasn't getting what he needed and that I wouldn't know if my milk came in or not. I definitely knew when it came in! I'm still figuring out when he is crying because he's hungry vs. wanting to nurse for comfort.

Poop--I never imagined that I would be so excited about poop. As I mentioned, I was really worried about my milk coming in and Gavin getting enough nutrition. When he had his first breast milk poop (textbook yellow, seedy), I almost cried because I was so relieved. That might have been when I realized that I was definitely a mom.

Sleep--I'm not nearly as exhausted as everyone says a new parent should be. Honestly, I think it's because I'm so used to sleep deprivation from these last months of being a pregnant intern. It is tough, though, when he has those nights where he wants to nurse and be held all night...and every time I put him down, he wakes up and cries...so I spend the entire night in that endless cycle. Hopefully we'll figure this out.

Gavin Miles Reader

Well, clearly the contractions I was having in that last post were the real thing...Gavin Miles Reader was born at 10:40 pm that night--7lbs 5 oz, 19 3/4 in long. After that post, I continued having contractions for the next 13 hours...they varied from 2-12 minutes apart and when they got to the point where they were pretty painful, my parents and Nancy and I headed in to the hospital (around 2 in the afternoon). We had been talking to Larry (who had flown back to Houston the day before) to decide if he should fly back or not and Michael was at the hospital working. By the time I was on the monitor in L&D triage, the contractions were even more painful. When they checked me, I was 90% effaced and 5 cm dilated. My OB said, "Yup, you'll be staying and having a baby today". It took about an hour to move me over to the L&D room where I would be delivering and a little more time to get me on the monitor and all set up. When the nurse came back to check me again, I was 6-7 cm. Everyone was surprised that I was progressing so quickly, so they got the OB to come check. At that point, I felt a small fluid leak and she was feeling the amniotic sac bulging, so she ruptured it (with my permission). I had been debating about getting an epidural, but was leaning towards it and was just waiting for anesthesia to come consent me. Tt turned out that they were in a c-section, so I had no choice but to wait. About an hour later, I was checked again and was complete and 8-9 cm. By this point, the contractions were incredibly painful and intense. Anesthesia still wasn't there and Michael was getting pretty nervous that they would be too late. They eventually came and I pretty much barely made the window for getting the epidural. As soon as they checked me after that, I was fully dilated and ready to push. Unfortunately, I had some trouble pushing because of the epidural and we had to wait for anesthesia to come back in to turn it down. At that point I was really frustrated because I just wanted to be able to push and meet my little boy! When he did turn it down, I felt my left leg and the contractions on the left, but was still really numb on the right side. Part of me wonders if I should have just held out on getting the epidural...I had already gone through most of the labor without meds and I wonder if I had just gotten through the "transition" phase of labor, which is supposedly the most intense pain, whether I would have been fine. As it was, I felt quite a bit of the delivery itself because we turned down the epidural. However, having the epidural probably relaxed me and helped get him out. After about 40 minutes of pushing, his head was out. The OB told me to stop pushing, which I thought was weird, and then I heard her say "nuchal", which means a cord around the neck. Michael told me later that the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. The nuchal cord might explain why there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, because that usually happens when the fetus is stressed and we weren't sure why he'd be stressed since his heart rate looked great throughout the whole labor. Because of the meconium, the pediatricians took him over to the warmer right after birth to suction him. Once they were done with their assessment, they gave him to Michael, who gave him to me to try to breastfeed. After all of that, we called the grandparents in to see him. They had about 15 minutes with him before he had to go to the nursery for his first bath and exam. The grandparents watched him the whole time in the nursery and my mom called me periodically with updates.

We are now home and doing great. He is just precious and gets cuter every day [I swear I'm not biased at all :-)]. I'll post pictures soon.

Deliver Me

I had been worried lately that I wouldn't know when I was having contractions...now I understand why people say "you'll know". I've been having contractions since yesterday, and I definitely know when I'm having them. At one point yesterday, we thought it might be the real thing, but as it turned out, there was some progress, but I'm not quite there. Then the contractions slowed down during the day. Argh. Now it's 1:30 am and I'm up again with contractions that are more painful than yesterday. Appropriately, I'm sitting here having contractions and watching "Deliver Me", a reality show on Discovery Health about....you guessed it....delivering babies. Unfortunately, I realize that I could have days of this, but we'll see.

Dixie's Destruction

Dixie is actually really good about not destroying things...despite the fact that labs are known to chew like crazy. She does destroy the bones we give her (even though we only buy the super hard ones for "heavy chewers"), and we've spent over a hundred bucks and a lot of time in Petsmart buying various chew toys that she completely demolishes within minutes...but that's fine. Fortunately, she has never chewed on furniture or shoes or clothes. However, yesterday we went outside to find a whole newspaper torn to shreds in the backyard. It was actually pretty funny. Larry kindly cleaned up her mess for us this morning. Here's a video of her surveying her work.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys family and food! We are postponing T-day until Saturday since I'll be sleeping today between shifts and Michael is on call. We did get to have Thanksgiving breakfast together this morning in the hospital cafeteria. The meals are free for all employees today...a small gesture of kindness to those who have to work on Turkey Day, I guess. I'm looking forward to Saturday...Michael's parents will be here, so we'll get to have Thanksgiving with both sets of parents. Maybe the food will even force the baby out. I've been having a lot of contractions on and off for the last 2 days, but they aren't consistent or timeable. Just when I think they are getting more frequent, they stop. Oh well...I still have lots to be thankful for!

Giant Belly

I would just like to point out that you are all very lucky to be seeing the belly unveiled. :-) I am not a fan of my bare belly shots but Michael forced me to take some. The first is last week at 37 weeks (with Dixie wondering what is going on) and the second is today at 38+. Is it just me or did he definitely grow in the last week? Or is my belly just sagging under the weight now?? I'm now officially that pregnant woman that people stare at, wondering if she'll "pop at any time". I was 5 minutes late to work the other day (because I had to pee, of course) and everyone thought that I had gone into labor...they are surprised every day I show up that I haven't had the baby yet. I have today and tomorrow off and then a string of 5 shifts in a row. It would be really nice if he came tonight/tomorrow, but apparently, he's pretty comfy in there at the moment.

Full Term

Just wanted to post to say that I am now full term! The whole pregnancy dating thing is a little confusing, so in case you are wondering....the "due date" is the 40th week of pregnancy, but "full term" is anywhere from 37-42 weeks of pregnancy. So he really can come any time now. I'm OK with him staying in a little longer, but it would be really nice if he wanted to show up so I could stop working :-)

Baby's Room

Today I am 36 weeks and 4 days. Woohoo! Michael and I painted the baby's room last weekend and I was pretty proud of the job we did. I feel secure knowing that we could drop out of residency and do manual labor instead...which would probably pay more than our residents' salaries. Everything else is pretty much set up in his room, although we still need a bookshelf. The pictures below make the paint look lighter than it really is for some reason...it's really a cornflower blue. I am huge and apparently getting bigger daily. Dixie is her same sweet self--there are few pics below of her getting a new bone, which is pretty much the highlight of her existence. She will be ecstatic when the baby arrives and I think our biggest problem will be keeping her level of excitement down around him. Nala, on the the other hand, will be extremely pissed off about the new thing invading her space. You can see her looking a little perturbed in one of the pics. My parents officially moved here about a week ago and are busy setting up their apartment. Everything is going well around here...just waiting on Baby Reader to make his debut.

34 weeks and counting

Somehow I don't think I'm going to make it until my actual due date. I could be completely wrong, but my gut tells me otherwise. I've thought all along that this might be a November baby, but lately I've also been getting tons of comments from other people corroborating my theory :-) Either people act very surprised when they find out that I am not due until December, or they flat out tell me that they don't think I'll make it until then. Even my OB agrees. She also told me that that after 35 weeks, they won't stop me if I go into labor. That means that a week from today, it's really "any time now". In light of this, I asked Michael to install the carseat yesterday on his day off, while I was on call. I feel completely unprepared and still have so many things to do, but I figure that as long as we have the carseat ready and a place for him to sleep when he comes home, the rest will come together. I'm not sure how we'll get everything else done since we have no days off or even post-call days together for the rest of the month, though.

On another note, I walked out of the hospital in my usual post-call stupor this morning and was very excited to notice that the weather has changed and really feels like fall. I love fall...the crisp air, Halloween and Thanksgiving, hot apple cider, leaves changing color. When I was a kid, we used to go to Oak Glen (in the San Bernardino mountains) to pick apples and then to Julian for the most delicious apple pie. Since Florida is as flat as a pancake, I doubt I'll be apple-picking in the mountains, but I'll still enjoy the weather.

Baby Shower

My wonderful friends Sandy and Kim threw me a fabulous baby shower last weekend. I don't know how they managed to put it together since Sandy lives in Atlanta and Kim lives in D.C.! I can't believe that people came in from around the country to help celebrate Baby Reader and that he got so many gifts from all of his friends and family! Thanks to everyone for spoiling him rotten! Don't worry--I've already told him that he is s very lucky little guy :-) I also got pampered before the shower by my parents with a pregnancy massage and mani/pedi. The massage was amazing...the masseuse must have really worked some fluid out of my knees because I could actually bend them for the first time in months. I look really pale, swollen and tired in these pictures, but don't let that fool you---I was having a blast!

Belly Pictures

Since I finally charged the camera and found the cable to connect the camera to the computer, I can actually post a few belly pictures from the last few months:

About 16 weeks

About 20 weeks

25 weeks

26 weeks

I'm starting to feel really big, which is not surprising considering the giant belly in the above picture. It's also sad that I'm looking back at the 16 week picturing and thinking that I look skinny. I keep telling myself it's just water weight :-) Clearly the baby is growing, though. I feel him move all the time now and he's got some strong kicks/punches!

Nursery

After many hours of online research and a few trips to furniture stores, I think we have finally picked out the nursery furniture and bedding. We haven't actually ordered it yet, but I've set tomorrow as our deadline! I have spent every evening (as in the 2-3 hrs between when I get home and when I go to bed) researching online and reading my trusty "Baby Bargains" book for the last few weeks. We just need to take one last look (I swear, I'll make a decision tomorrow) because we are ordering online and I want to be sure of the crib color--it's really hard to tell what it looks like on the computer. Last weekend we had a day off together and went crib-shopping. What a PITA. The problem is that I'm picky and there aren't a whole lot of cribs that have exactly what I want. Of course it didn't help that it apparently takes 10-12 weeks for the furniture to come in when you order it at a regular baby furniture store. Seriously?! Are they growing the tree first? The baby will be here in 12 weeks. I realize that he won't need a crib and dresser immediately, but I'd really like to have everything here and set up before I'm sleep-deprived and carrying a newborn around. Fortunately, there are several reputable online sites where you can order furniture and it ships in about a week (they must order it from the company and keep it in stock). Anyway, here are some pictures:

Crib

Dresser ("combo unit" in baby furniture language, which refers to the fact that the dresser doubles as a changing table.)

Bedding

OB appointments and hurricanes

So I had an OB appointment today and Baby Reader seems to be doing great. The whole appointment was about 10 minutes long and 5 minutes of that were spent peeing in a cup, but I guess there's not a whole lot to do at a 24 week appointment. The OB listened to the fetal heart tones with the doppler and his heart rate was right where it should be. She also measured my fundal (uterine) height and I'm measuring right between 24 and 25 weeks, as I should be. Which makes me feel much better since I have had several people at the hospital lately tell me "Oh, you're so small" when they find out how far along I am. People have just started noticing that I'm pregnant in the last 2 weeks or so...apparently scrubs hide baby bumps well. Unfortunately, I think people just thought I was fat. I wore "real" clothes one day last week and suddenly everyone noticed that I was pregnant, including the other intern on my team who then told me "I just noticed that you were pregnant. Before, I just thought you were fat". Yes, he actually said that. Fortunately, he's really nice and there's a bit of a language barrier so I wasn't offended at all...in fact it was pretty funny. Speaking of baby bellies, I have pictures to post but the camera died....sorry.

The OB also asked if I had thought about my "labor plan" (whether I want an epidural, etc) and whether we wanted the baby circumcised or not. Valid questions, and things that I've already thought about, but for some reason it really freaked me out that she was asking these questions already. Unlike Michael, who gets so busy that he apparently forgets that I'm pregnant, I have constant reminders that I'm pregnant (getting kicked/elbowed/head-butted in the bladder/ribs/liver and the fact that it's getting difficult to put my socks on/get out of bed/tell where my ankles are). Despite these reminders, I think it still hasn't completely sunk in for me that there will be a baby here in a few months. And by the way, I'm not complaining about the karate moves going on in my uterus---I love feeling him move...it's my favorite part of pregnancy so far.

OK, now about hurricanes. So supposedly Tropical Storm Fay is heading toward the Florida Keys right now, although you'd think there's a Category 5 heading straight for Shands hospital by the way people at work have been talking. I keep assuring everyone that there will be no hurricanes in Jacksonville for the next 5 years because Michael and I are here, and that would be like lightening striking twice, since we already dealt with Katrina. Right??

Oh, and here's what's going on with Baby Reader at the moment (more or less): What Baby Reader probably looks like in utero.

House Pictures

So I actually took some pictures of the house about 2 months ago and never got around to sending/posting them. We've changed some decorative things since then, but not much. There are so many things I'd love to do--put real tile in the kitchen, have an island installed, add curtains/window treatments to all the rooms, touch-up some of the paint, paint our bedroom (I really don't like the plain white), paint the baby's room (which we will do before he comes). We still have no wedding photos, dining room table or patio furniture. And of course the baby's room is not furnished yet. Speaking of that, I'm getting a little nervous that we haven't even begun to think about what baby items to get. My friend Carina lent me her Lila Guide and my friend Sandy wrote up a whole set of recommendations for baby products...both of those things will help a lot. But there's just so much to think about...crib, changing table, bedding, clothes, diapers, diaper genie, boppy, bottles, car seat, stroller, etc, etc... And by the way, it's only because of my friends with babies that I know about things like diaper genies and boppies. Anyway, here are some pictures of our house (it's a 4 bed 2 bath, although I didn't post pics of the other two extra rooms, guest bath or laundry room):

Outside Front

Kitchen

Living Room

Nook in entryway--needs shelves so we can display stuff

Empty Dining Room

Our bedroom (really needs to be painted and needs pictures)


Office

Back covered patio and part of the yard
Master Bath