Family Photos

Our friend, Anne Anderson is a fabulous photographer and the talent behind FotoWonder. We were fortunate enough to get time with her last night. She offered us - and the Internet - a sneak peek at some of the images from our session. Take a look! 

The Littlest One

Thomas was born - two and a half weeks early - on June 18, 2009. He weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. Since then, we have entertained lots of family and friends as they helped us with meals, laundry and much more. THANK YOU!

Thomas is a happy, sleepy baby who has nursed like a champ since day one. Suffice it to say, he's been growing a lot!

His sister (Maddie), Aaron and I are all completely in love. 

Here's a recap of the last three weeks:

My water broke around midnight on June 17. I was in complete denial. Finally around 1 p.m. I told Aaron that I think my water broke. He told me to get some sleep. (He was right, I would need it and I should have gone back to sleep.) I simply couldn't fall asleep. I decided to assuage my concerns and call the doctor at 2 p.m. The on-call physician told me to go to the hospital, to which I replied, "We were really planning on staying home as long as possible and I have an eight year old asleep in the other room. Can I wait?" She said she didnt really recommend it, but she would let us stay home until 6 a.m. when my doctor would call. Like clockwork, the doctor called at 6 a.m. and told us to come to the hospital. By then, I was having some contractions, but nothing really productive. 

The first thing my doctor said was, "You're still smiling." I agreed. That's when she said, we'll have to get you started on Pitocin. To someone who wanted a *natural* non-medicated child birth, that's really bad news. I managed to work through six and a half hours on Pitocin without pain relief. Then, the contractions started shooting down my legs ... Aaron and I talked at great length, asked a lot of questions and opted for an epidural. For a little while I was disappointed, but as my labor progressed I knew it was the right decision. I had only had about one and a half hours of sleep the night before and my labor lasted almost 24 hours. I dont think that I would look back on the process fondly, as I do now, had I not opted for the epidural.

Aaron and I cant say enough how impressed we were with each of our nurses and how each of them seemed like they were chosen for us at each moment in time as we needed them. The first nurse was very matter of fact and informative, but also very kind. She's the one who described *natural* childbirth as setting a concrete block on your foot. (The pain gradually becomes more intense over time.) She continued to describe childbirth with Potocin as dropping that concrete block on your foot. Our second nurse was very calm and quiet even when I reacted to the epidural with a REALLY low blood pressure. I was able to rest during that stage of my labor. Finally, my last nurse was a great cheerleader. She told me I was going to have the baby by 11 p.m. and I was up for the challenge. She encouraged me through the process. By that time, I had allowed the epidural to wear of enough that I could tell when I was contracting. Because of that, the doctor removed some of the monitors and allowed me to tell her when I was ready to push. 

My doctor was not on call that night, so another physician delivered Thomas. Because that physician was nine months pregnant, I got to have a very non-clinical birth. They never broke down the bed or pulled out the stirrups (yes, I did just put that in a blog post). I allowed my epidural to wear off quite a bit so that I could feel the contractions and better know when to push. Because of that, the doctor removed some of my monitors. Then, the doctor sat - as comfortably as she could - on the end of the bed and caught the baby there. 

Aaron was there with me supporting me the whole time ... when he wasn't giving a PLAY BY PLAY ON FACEBOOK. OMG. I can't wait to print that off! It will be very telling of this time in history. :) 

HOSPITAL STAY #2

On fathers day, a physician was sent to our home to tell us that we had to go back to the hospital because Thomas's bilirubin levels were elevated. I was totally over concerned because a doctor was on our doorstep. That must mean it's really serious ... or that ATT disconnected our phone while we were in the hospital EVEN THOUGH we had paid our bill. Short story: it's fixed, they apologized. Ridiculous! 

Anyway, to treat his jaundice, had got to tan under the bilirubin lights for 24 hours. 

HOSPITAL STAY #3

Then, to celebrate his due date, Thomas decided that he needed ANOTHER hospital stay.  So, back to the hospital we traveled on Monday, July 6. I woke up that morning and thought he felt a little warm. I just figured that I had him dressed a little to warmly. So, I removed a couple pieces of his clothing, nursed him and went back to sleep. When we woke up a couple of hours later, he still felt warm. I tried to nurse him, but he wasnt interested. I decided to take his temperature: 100.5 F. 

For an eight year old, I would prescribe some OJ and lots of rest. Maybe some Tylenol. But, I remembered the discharge orders to call with a fever over 100 F. I called. They told us to go to the emergency room. I was really irritated and confused because the story is so different for older kids. 

When we arrived at the hospital they explained that an elevated temperature in a child under two months old can mean a simple infection of a slew of really horrible things like bacterial meningitis. That's not what you want to hear when you are holding your 17 day old child!

But what you REALLY dont want to hear are the words *spinal tap*. That's when I lost it. Thank goodness that my mom was in town visiting and with me at the hospital. (Aaron came as soon as he heard what was going on.) So, on Thomas's seventeenth day of life, he had a catheter, a blood draw, an IV and a spinal tap. 

Then, we waited. We were admitted to the hospital for 48 hours ... to wait. While we were waiting on the cultures to grow, Thomas received three antibiotics and an antiviral ... just in case. I'm going to spare you the details. Basically, by Thursday afternoon the pediatricians narrowed down a lot of the big nasty illnesses and determined that a urinary tract infection was the most likely culprit. They took him off the antibiotics and antiviral and let him take one antibiotic orally. ** HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF! ** Then, we were given the choice of staying one more night or going home. Needless to say, we decided to go home! We will monitor him all weekend and have a follow up appointment on Monday morning. 

The one thing that I can take away from my delivery and these two hospital stays is this: I AM REALLY REALLY NOT IN CONTROL. I get that. Hopefully, God and the universe know that now.

And, I can also say that we have the best friends and families! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. 

Front Room

Dining Room

We finally scored a *new* dining room table. This looks a lot more like us. (We'll update the place mats, don't worry.) The table was a Craigslist find (thanks for your sleuthing, mom) and is circa 1958.  We love it!

front yard assignment

Aaron has been working hard lately. Apparently, the *boys* have been giving him a hard time because his pregnant wife has a honey-do list for him ready when he comes home from his races. 

I have to say, the list has been paying off. A couple of years ago, Aaron ripped out the yews in the front yard and got the gnarliest case of poison ivy I've ever seen. That area of the yard has been empty since then. 

Before mulch and plants:

Midpoint (doesn't he look happy?):

(Rest assured: these plants get plenty of sun. These photos were taken later in the day.)

After: It's all mulched and lovely - plus some gigantic purple coneflower from another part of our yard. 

Cravings...

I think my husband may be pregnant. He has the weirdest food cravings! 

The state road race is tomorrow, so Aaron is making his road fuel. He gave up bars some time ago for races like this and instead makes his own *delicacies* - like nutella and ham roll-ups. GROSS!

Gender Stereotyping

Several weeks ago, Aaron and I sucked it up and went to Babys R Us to create our baby registry. Aaron was lucky enough to be armed with a buzz from beer at dinner. We got most of the basics on the registry, but I know there are other things that we will need. 

There are a lot of things that I would like to have, but you just can't get them at big box stores. So, I've been putting some of those things on MyRegistry.com. 

The problem is, I would love to put bibs and clothes and other goodness on the registries too. But, I've decided I'm just not going to do it. I cannot stand the fact that I have to search for boy clothes or girl clothes! 

It's really ridiculous that before our child even enters the world, I am expected to dress them according to gender stereotypes. Why isn't there a place where I can find cute, generic, gender neutral clothes?! I know I can search the Internet for fun stuff, but it makes it really hard for people who don't have access to my alternative registry to get ideas. 

I would suggest just waiting to buy clothes until the baby gets here, but that AGAIN means that I will have to dress the baby according to cutesy gender stereotypes. 

Ridiculous!