Our First Family Picture

Mommy & Daddy with Dane Harrison

Born 3.22.11 @ 7:23pm

9 lbs, 4 oz, 21 inches

He's Here :)

Our wonderful, perfect, precious baby boy arrived Tuesday, March 22, 2011 @ 7:23pm. He is albs 4 oz and 21 inches long. We love him so much! Pics & details to follow soon!

Baby Update

I thought the 'super moon' may bring him on out, but no such luck. I did have some contractions last night for about 6 hours or so. They ranged from 4 - 14 minutes and by around 2am they had slowed to a stop.  I've tried spicy food, pineapple, walking, etc and he hasn't even dropped so...

At the doctor this morning we decided/found out I'll be induced in the morning!  I was 2cm and 60% today and the doctor is worried he is getting big.  She feels he is already 8-9 pounds and tomorrow I'll be 5 days overdue. So... while she didn't want to push me into it or anything, she offered tomorrow or Friday for induction.  We decided to go ahead with tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm nervous about how all of this is going to play out tomorrow.  I'm mostly scared to death about the pain.  I've heard the pitocin stories.  Yikes. ... hopefully he'll be ready to come out tomorrow!  We are certainly ready to meet him!

Nursery Pictures

So there are tons of pics but here are just 10 of them but I think you can get the 'feel' of the room from them.  We had SUCH FUN creating this room for our baby boy.  Everything from online shopping, multiple Pott.ery Bar.n Outlet trips, and homemade items from loving friends and family went into completing the room.  We love it and hope he does too!

View from door

This piggy bank was the 'guest book' from our first baby shower

Closer view of his bookcase complete with cool alphabet blocks, books,  toys (in the candy jars), and blankets down on the bottom.  The white frame holds an et.sy find and the red magnet board is also a chalkboard.

This alphabet was one of my husbands finds.  We wanted a 'vintage' alphabet and he found these with the tools on them and had to have them!  Also, this glider was a gift from my mom and stepdad and it is simply amazing!  So comfy!

Close up of one of the bookshelves (I can't seem to get blogger to let me reorder these pics!).  Anyway, there is Sophie driving the bulldozer to knock down the alphabet letter/ word/ picture blocks. :)

A favorite stuffed animal of mine already.  SO SOFT!  And he's holding a camera (Dane's first of many cameras we're sure since my husband is a photographer!)

These number hooks are on his closet door.  I want to hang something in the panel above.. maybe his birth announcement...

The 'rocket' art work was one of the first things we found for the nursery.  It says at the top "Conquer the Moon".  I loved that.  Oh, and, yes, there's a fireplace in his room (we have 4 in our house) but this one is a non-working one and it's sealed off.  Its an old coal burning fireplace (our house was built in 1927)

Little piggy banks and other knick-knacks. :)  I like his name hanging on the twine...each letter is a different pattern & color (plaid, stripe, etc)

One last one of his crib.  To the left is one of his 3D ultrasound pics and a maternity pic under it.  On the floor over there is the 'bop.py collection' and his toy bucket.

Hope you enjoyed the nursery tour!  It makes me happy every time I walk by his room :)

Due Date but no Baby Dane yet!

Happy Due Date and St. Patrick's Day to my baby Dane still cozy in my belly!                                                                   Hope everyone has had a great day!  I'm feeling good and just eagerly anticipating the arrival of my little guy.  :)  I slept a bunch today and it felt good.  I know I should have been out walking and probably doing other stuff to help move things along, but I've been doing that since Saturday and today I just felt like I needed a break.  :)                                                    The picture is not great, but Z was at work and I wanted to make sure I had a picture of what 40 weeks looks like!  haha!  Just be glad I didn't show you my belly stretch marks!                              So here goes the 'stats' and whatnot for 40 weeks... hopefully this will be the last time I do one of these!  fingers crossed! :)

WEIGHT: +25 pounds.  hopefully that's as high as I go!

SLEEP: not too bad (especially since I'm not getting up early for work anymore!!!).  I definitely get up all night and take tums around the 2am mark.  I had a L&D dream the other night.  Dane had light brown hair and blue-gray eyes.  He was perfect.  :)

CRAVINGS: not much of anything actually.  Not much room for food I suppose!  I always want milk in the morning and yesterday I got some yummy strawberry/cream cheese crossiants from the Farmer's Market.  That made for a sweet breakfast today!

MATERNITY CLOTHES: well, technically, yes of course!  However, most of my maternity stuff was more for work and not sitting around my house so I've kinda gone back to my gym shorts and Z's t-shirts (b/c I'm busting out of mine as you can see in the picture!)

MOOD: I'm really feeling pretty good!  I am getting frustrated with the amount of effort it takes to climb stairs and get in and out of the bed/car/couch/etc.  haha!  I also find myself accidentally bumping into stuff- my balance is definitely off!  I do better during the day when I'm busy and distracted.  Nighttime has proven to be harder (and more emotional) for me.  I'm scared of my water breaking, contractions, and a middle of the night hospital admittance.  I don't know why.  Everything just seems more 'safe' and 'happy' during the light of day.

GENDER: Boy!  Dane Harrison

BABY: baby.center says he is the size of a small pumpkin.  the way my belly looks I'm going with watermelon!

MOVEMENT: yep!  he certainly has his favorite times of the day but he still moves alot considering how tight he is packed in there!  There have been some times when I cry out when he kicks my ribs!  haha!  And when he's kicking AND punching- watch out!

NURSERY: done!  Z is taking pictures as I type this.  I'll post them tomorrow!  I love his room :)

MILESTONES: 40 weeks!!!  We made it ALL THE WAY to the due date!  I'm kinda sad we won't have a St. Patrick's Day baby, but it's ok!  I have been blessed with a great pregnancy and I'm happy to keep carrying him around until he's ready (or next week when the doctor induces me!)

OTHER: I brought our hospital bag back in tonight.  The weather has done a 360 on me! It was 75 today and will get up to 82 this weekend!  I have velour sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt in there to wear home at the moment and thought I better re-think that!

How 'late' were you?  Any suggestions for 'moving things along'?  (and even if it works, I've already decided I can not drink Castrol Oil.  It makes me want to gag thinking about it!)

Progress

Ok, so here we are at 39 weeks 5 days.  I'm still 1cm but now 60% effaced!  Dr. says things are happening perfectly.  He says that I want to efface before contractions start the dilation process.

Of course I naively ask, "so no contractions before I'm 100% effaced?!?" and he laughs and says I won't make it to 100% before contractions start.  But that it's good this way- more comfortable for me.  So then I look over at Z and we ask "so no baby today?" and Dr says well maybe tonight!

TONIGHT!

What!?!?  My water may break today and we can start this show tonight!?!  WHOA!  It's getting real!!!

Maybe we'll have baby Dane by St. Patrick's Day after all!

Just Waiting

So work is officially behind me and now I want nothing more than for Baby Dane to make his appearance (though I'm still a bit scared about how all that's gonna go down!!!).

My last day at school was Friday; and while it was hectic with last minute stuff (esp parent emails and grades b/c they were due Friday also) the day was good and the kids were sweet.  My parapro had a surprise 'baby party' for me complete with a gift and pettifors for the kids.  They loved it.  They also asked a lot of questions- which I did my best to answer!  (you can imagine!)  It felt oddly refreshing to close my classroom door and leave school.  Such a mixture of emotions.  But overall glad that it worked out the way I had 'planned'.

Saturday we had a busy day.  We started with breakfast at one of our local haunts followed by a playdate for our Sadie pup and then I accompanied Z on a 2 year old baby photo shoot for some of our friends at Stone Mtn. Park. It was beautiful weather outside and we ended up making a whole afternoon of it!  Photos, playground, lunch, and a sweet treat from the yogurt shop before going home.

YUMMY!  Patrick ate his plus some of his mommy's!  :)

After saying bye to our friends, we headed home, freshened up, gathered up Sadie, and headed up to my sister and her husbands house for their 2nd Annual St. Patty's Beer Fest.  As usual, my awesome hostess of a sister had a yummy spread of food, fun games, and (for the drinkers) a great selection of beer.  It was fun to hang out with all the girls.  Dane was in major kicking form and my feet were mega swollen so I had to sit most of the time, but it was fun regardless.  2 other pregnant friends were there and we swapped stories and the latest dr appt news, too.

All boys!  Preston will be here late April/ Early May; Brady will be here in 2 weeks; and Dane (should!) be here any day now!  :)

Teresa, Mary, my sis Kelly with me & Dane.  Love these girls!!!

I had to have picture proof that I was at a party 39.5 weeks pregnant!  hahaha!  :)

Sunday we were mega lazy.  And it was pretty great!  haha!  We laid around and watched movies, hung out, did laundry, and enjoyed (and spicy!) thai dinner.  I heart low-key Sundays!  I'm going to spend some time with my mom today so I don't go crazy sitting here home alone wondering if my water is going to break!  My next dr appt is tomorrow morning.  I still can't believe how close we are to the due date!

The Hospital Bag

So there it sits.  My Ver.a Brad.ley large duffel bag.  It sits empty in the corner of the closet where it has sat for the past month.  I know it should be packed by now.  All the books and websites say so- and the many threads on Baby.center about what to pack and all that.  

But I can't seem to pack the bag.  It's freaking me out!  Z keeps telling me (reminding me, really) to do it and it's not a big deal- just extra clothes, toiletries, etc... and he's right.  The items that go in it aren't a big deal- neither is the act of packing it-  it's the reason for packing it that is freaking me out. It makes it all SO real, I guess.  I've been doing ok.  Not too nervous about how it's all going to happen and getting excited about holding Dane for the first time.  But packing this bag is so hard for me.   Silly, huh?  

And funny how getting the car seat installed yesterday didn't make me panic at all!  I couldn't WAIT to get it in the car and it's been fun riding around with it in the backseat!  :)

Almost 38 Weeks!

weight: +24

sleep: definitely harder these days!  I must sleep with the humidifier next to the bed to help with congestion and I wake up sweaty and having to use the bathroom every 2 hours on the dot!  I miss tummy sleeping!

cravings: milk, girl scout cookies, fruit cups

maternity clothes: yep!  My kindergartners keep telling me how big the baby is getting and that he is 'busting out of my shirts!" And my poor swollen feet are making shoes difficult!  I actually wore my rainbow flip flops today- thank goodness the weather has gotten a bit warmer (even though 65 degrees is not quite flip flop weather!)

mood: feeling pretty good.  Stressed and kinda irritable at work b/c I feel like I have so much to do to wrap up my classroom and testing and paperwork etc before I leave for the rest of the year!  (My last day is March 11)

gender: BOY!  Dane Harrison

baby: size of a watermelon!   He is head down and ready to go!  Oh, and as of today, I am 1cm dilated and that is all.  I think we might make it to the due date after all!   

movement: Yes and it's awesome!  I love feeling him move and I love even more how he responds to Z's voice.  It's so cute!  He seems to really like car rides- I feel him move tons when I'm driving and a lot after dinner and again around bedtime.  And it seems that I feel him moving when I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night but maybe I'm imagining that one!

nursery:  Pretty much ready to go!!!  We picked up the glider Saturday (it is SO COMFY!) and hung up most of the art work.  Now it's really just putting some things away.  

milestones: 1 cm dilated and we picked a pediatrician!  We ended up going to 3 open houses and we decided on the last one (that we met last night).  The doctors and staff are super friendly and 'non-threatening' (if that makes sense).  The office is clean and organized and has an overall comfortable feeling about it.  And, best of all, its in our neighborhood!  It's like a mile or two away.  We could literally put Dane in the stroller and walk over!  woohoo!

other:  We've been busy on the weekends hanging out with friends and family and it's been lots of fun.  We took the above pics this past weekend and I'm so glad we did!  It had been on my list of things I wanted to do but it's hard when your husband is the photographer and the daddy-to-be!  :)  I am so glad we were able to capture some pictures of this belly before Dane gets here!  We still need to get the car seat installed and plan to do that this weekend.  We just need to call around to find a fire station that does it / is certified.  I also still need to pack our hospital bags.  I've been terrible about procrastinating on that one.  I've got Dane's clothes washed and ready but I am so confused about which nursing bras to buy/keep/wear that, of all things, nursing bras are holding up the whole packing process!  Ridiculous!  :)

So what's in your hospital bag?  And did you pack a separate bag for baby?