The Sling!

I LOVE baby slings! And I'm thrilled that two very good friends each gave me one as a gift - each for different times, in my opinion. Here Beau is trying out the one from Miss Nikki! I just love the color and print and can't wait to wear it this holiday weekend when we are running around with family!

Week One Progress

We are now into our second week of Grayson's life and I'm really feeling like he knows that I'm his mom. I was really wondering in the beginning, you know with him sleeping 22 hours a day and all. How could he know who was taking care of him?! He is beginning to smile more, stay awake more often and his grip around my finger seems to get stronger every day. And I'm not so bad at all this! I have surprised myself. And, of course, Beau is perfect at it all but no surprises there. I'm still mastering the boy parts. If I could just learn that an upward facing boy part = soaked baby, I'd be good. And Grayson would be dry [sigh]...

Some updates:

Our first trip out of the house was perfect - no one bothered us! Where can I guarantee that no one, and I mean no one, will want to touch my 6 day old cuteness and spread their nasty stranger danger germs to him? Lowe's on a Monday! The people that are shopping in Lowe's during the work week could care less about a baby - ha!! It was fun, quick and a good test for me. I'm still nervous though. His next trip will be to his first doctor's appointment tomorrow.

Naked tummy time - how else would you do it? Kidding - we are treating a case of diaper rash the old fashioned way....air drying the bum! Isn't it a cute wrinkly thing? It's almost cleared up.:)

Wonder who he gets this face from? His Mama.

Look at this AMAZING cookie bouquet?! Aunt Linda, Uncle David and Kathryn sent it and I assure you a) they are no longer in this house and b) they are even better tasting than they are pretty! This is the Thank You email we sent them :-) Grayson is wearing is Bevo bib that they gave him for the shower. Bevo's ears are a washcloth - CUTE! What's even cuter is that the bib is bigger than this little boy right now. Ha!

We are home!

Our trip home was pretty uneventful, which is good! Beau and I were admittedly a little scared to get on the road with all those CRAZY drivers out there. You know, the exact same drivers that were out there before we had a baby but seem 100x worse and more of a threat now that we have this tiny little cargo with us. I'm becoming the exact person I never thought I'd be! :-)

The drive home consisted of 2 drive thrus - Walgreen's and Whataburger - all while I barked orders at Beau from the back seat. Again, I'm THAT person choosing to sit in the back with the baby instead of in the passenger seat next to my husband where normal, non-stressed new moms sit. Sheesh. I'm like 0 for 5 in the calm, cool and collected department.

I will miss our AMAZING hospital, the wonderful staff and the GREAT food (seriously, my mother and I have discussed dining there next week - ha!) but we are happy to be home. Grayson is warming up to the place quite nicely and Shelby is so sweet and gentle with him although I don't think she quite understands WHAT he is yet!

I will never forget my days in the hospital and what a special experience it was. I will also NEVER forget looking down in my hospital bed at THIS face...please don't grow up.....

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the most amazing man in my life and now in Grayson's life! Beau, you are my best friend and the most loyal, thoughtful, gracious man I have ever met. I always knew you would be an amazing father but you have blown me away these past 5 days!! So, no dirty diapers for you today (this ends promptly at bedtime)!

Love you with all my heart!

Grayson Luke is here!!

Grayson made his dramatic entrance into the world on Tuesday, June 15th at 1:43pm! He weighed 7lbs 7 ounces and was 20 inches - a recipe for perfection :) We were scheduled for a Wednesday morning c-section but he just either couldn't wait or wanted a 6/15 birth date b/c it was a rather eventful day before of delivery! Beau and I woke up Tuesday morning and had a HUGE breakfast with my parents. I was taking in all the activities of Tuesday as my "last" before baby arrived. So I went for my "last" pedicure around noon with my mom before I headed for my "last" prenatal massage before the big day! I began having intense gas pains during my pedicure and fortunately made it out of there in time for a perfectly set of painted toes because the next hour involved increasingly intense "gas pains", Beau rushing me to the hospital, nurses confirming that my now-shouting-out-in-pain "gas pains" were indeed contractions and that I was 3 centimeters dilated. Wait, what?! I thought I couldn't go into labor with a breech, cord around the neck, pregnancy. Apparently you can and thus an emergency C-section is in order with a flurry of nurses, a doctor who was on the scene in 5 minutes (but his office is15 minutes away - how did he do that?!) and being rushed through the halls on a wheeled hospital bed just like on TV. 


And that brings us to 1:40-ish on Tuesday when I was laying on the c-section table and heard the doctor and nurses buzzing, talking about nuchal x4 and how none of them had seen anything like it before. Poor Grayson had that cord around his neck FOUR times, not 3 like we thought, and it was tight. Really tight. In fact, they had to cut it before they could get his poor little head out of my stomach (and while the rest of his body was out). We are BLESSED that he is safe and healthy and everything happened the way that it did. Talking to the nurses later, it all could have gone terribly different if my water had broken and if he had tried to descend. I can't even think about it.


So, Happy Birthday Baby Grayson and happy day every day after and I can't wait to spend them with you from here on out! 

38 Weeks (and Absolutely Miserable!)

I should really be more positive! However, I'm now having sleepless nights, don't even look forward to crawling into bed anymore b/c it just means a long night of tossing and turning and it's painful to generally sit or lay. Of course, what makes it bad is gas! Speaking of...wanna know 2 things that don't mix? Pregnancy gas and prenatal massages! Moving on....

I'm feeling pretty good in the mornings to mid-afternoon so that is when I run my errands and do things around the house. Afternoons and evenings are spent on the couch where I get bored and watch TV. That said, the past 2 afternoons Beau and I have enjoyed being with friends! Yesterday, we went to downtown McKinney (So cool!) for our friend Michael's bicycle race. Wish we could have stayed longer but of course Miss Party Pooper (me) had to get super uncomfortable and had to go home. Bah. Then today, we went to the Seemans' crawfish boil! What a set up - margarita machine, Jello shots, Robert Earl Keen tunes and tons of food - it was fun! Again, had to go earlier than we would have liked to but it was good to see our friends that we don't get to see enough.

How your baby's growing:



Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

 Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)
  

Last day at work/First day of maternity leave

Yesterday was my last day at RAZOR before my maternity leave - what a bittersweet day! It was much tougher than I thought it would be. It made me realize that my work is a really big part of me and so are the people that I work with. I will really miss them! :-( It's difficult to unplug today and I even stayed until about 6 o'clock yesterday. That said, I'm sure once Grayson arrives, the office will be the furthest thing from my mind! :)

Everyone gave me a wonderful send off - the client was SO sweet on our weekly call. They, and everyone else, wished Beau and me the very best. Our COO, who if anyone could make my cry it's him, wrote me the most wonderful letter and gifted me a very generous amount of North Park gold to spend on myself - no one else! I think I can manage that!

I miss my peeps already!!

So, how did my first night and morning of maternity leave go? Well, the TV doesn't work so I spent time watching Sex and the City DVDs, took a shower because I was so bored, had a bad dream that Shelby was hit by a car, which led to insomnia so I planned my To Do List and woke up at 6:30 this morning on my own. NOT how I had planned! I'm sure I'll get used to not having work emails blowing up my phone or having the routine that I have had for years. I REALLY want to enjoy these last days/weeks before the baby is here.

Here are some random items that I came up with for my To Do List....don't laugh! I already have everything else completed!

• Dry cleaning
• Find a recipe to cook tonight for Beau (it's never too late/too early to try to be Betty Crocker for my hubby, right?)
• Clean garbage bin handles (seriously, they are gross)
• Pack Beau's hospital bag (maybe he should do this...)
• Make arrangements for Shelby while we are in the hospital
• Finish Thank You Notes
• Contemplate a bikini wax (I can't be the first woman who recognizes that there will be like 6 people looking at me under bright lights....but then I don't want to look like I tried too hard for them either...decisions, decisions...)
• 1/2 Priced Books
• Target

I won't bore you with the rest of the list - it's a full page!!

I think I get some kind of fetal monitor from my doctor today - I'll be in touch on that one... :-) Happy first day of maternity leave to me!

Thoughts for the day

I have a million thoughts running through my head these days!

First. Why, if I've been carrying around 20 - 35 lbs. of extra weight every day for months, are my legs and butt not rock hard?? If anyone worked out carrying the kind of weight that a prego girl does for as long as she does, that person would be ripped. Sooo, where are my tight buns?? It's just not right.

Second. Beau informed his company and project manager that we are scheduling a c-section and he told them that he won't be traveling to Arkansas that week. Their response? "Well do you think you can still log 40 hours that week?" Whaaaaat?! Check your lack of consideration at the door! People are funny (and thoughtless).

Third. I met with my HR ladies today to finalize my maternity leave and short term disability (STD - hehe - gets me every time)...they asked me, since my last day at RAZOR is this Wednesday, what I will be doing during the business days leading up to the delivery (i.e. why I'm taking extra time off beforehand)...what will I be doing?? Ummm, NOT working 60 hours a week. NOT stressing about that place so much that I don't have time to think about myself or getting ready for our new arrival. That's what I won't be doing. But thanks for asking! :-)

Fourth. I have made incredible progress on my 2-page To Do List! I'm really quite proud of myself! I can be so organized and on top of things when I want to be. Very surprising. But I have 6 things left on the list before the baby comes. All manageable. And I add items daily so rest assured Human Resources, I have plenty to do while I'm NOT at the office! hehe :)

37 Week Update (and Cankles!!)

We are officially full-term! Woo hoo - feels good to be this far along ;) In the meantime, take a gander at this CANKLE! I've heard of swollen ankles but had NO idea that I wouldn't recognize my own feet. Wowza! This was taken on my 30th Birthday - now that's hot...

And actually, this picture doesn't even capture how bad it was (I say "it" b/c I've only had one swollen ankle during pregnancy. So random)...Beau and I were kind of scared of how big it became!

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Really? Swiss chard? Okay....

Silly Confessions

I have confessions. I'm only telling because I think they are funny ridiculous. First, I look at 3 different calendars every day during my countdown to Grayson's arrival. And I don't just look. I stare at them. As though days will be shed by going from one calendar to the other. Or, if I look hard enough, I will figure a different solution to get there faster - like a complicated math problem... I think I'm nuts! I'm just so excited (and tired and hot and uncomfortable) and I can't wait to meet him. Not to mention, I'm slightly stressed about my high risk situation (i.e. that darn cord around his neck) - I just hope he's okay. :-)

Are you ready for my second confession? When I wake up each morning and make my way to the mirror, I lift up my shirt over my belly to investigate stretch marks. And I'm very fortunate that I don't see any visible ones just yet (not to say they won't rear their ugly head when my skin goes down). But EVERY morning I have a mini-freak out when I see what I think is them only to realize they are sheet marks. You think I would learn?! Day after day I have this huge sinking feeling first thing in the morning seeing the SAME thing! And only on one side of my tummy (I sleep primarily on one side). As though these deep indentioned stretch marks developed over night and only on one side! My head needs to get right and I need to chill!

Happy Weekend! 37 week update to come later....

My 30th Birthday

I am now realizing that I don't have one picture of my 30th Birthday...you will just have to take my word that it was simply the best! I'll be quick....

My 30th was yesterday and while I worked that day, it was a day full of a doc appt and sono in the morning with VERY good news! Which I can't divulge. Then, I went straight to Manny's TexMex where my co-workers and friends threw me a Birthday Lunch/Baby Shower! They are so sweet and so special to me! They are some of the most generous people I know and I'm really going to miss them while I'm out on maternity leave. :(

I had an afternoon full of meetings and tying up some loose ends then I headed for home. Beau had flowers and the sweetest card waiting for me! And a new kitchen sink head. Just kidding, he was going to do that anyway and that just happened to be what he was working on when I got home (works great btw!). He took me to The Cheesecake Factory where we had (are you ready for this?)...fried macaroni and cheese balls (yes, they were delicious), stuffed mushrooms, potstickers, the Sonoma Burger and topped it off with Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake (I only know the entire name b/c they are my client - promise!). Everything was to die for! We brought the cheesecake home b/c I started feeling REALLY uncomfortable at the table - I swear it wasn't all the carbs. ;-) It's just how I am these days. Topped it off with a movie and a GREAT foot rub from the hubs (you would NOT believe these cankles!!)....and I took today off work, loving it!

Overall, it was a fantastic Birthday and now we look ahead to tomorrow where my parents are having a non-Birthday non-party at their new house where many of our friends and family will gather to not wish me a happy birthday - can't wait!! :-)