Back to birth weight and then some!

Today was Landon's second weight check visit. Last week he was just an ounce shy of being back at birth weight. He is so heavy now that I was excited to see what he would weigh today. Well, he was born at 7lbs and today he weighed in at 7.6lbs! Taking after his daddy already!

His cute outfit was a gift from our friend Mayra. It says CUSTOM BUILT and she thought it was appropriate since Landon is an IVF baby. He fills it out great! He is growing so fast I am kinda sad, but so excited to see him turn into a little boy.

Memorial Day at Wegmans

My Dad flew in for Memorial Day weekend. So, we decided that the one thing we wanted to do with him here, besides spending time with Landon, was to drive up to the Wegmans in Woodbridge and show them what Wegmans is all about. So we went and all I have to say is WOW! I am now super excited to have the Wegmans open up in a month here in Fredericksburg! There prices are great on the "normal people" food, and then of course, they have everything else you could ever want! I only got to see a third of the store, but it was amazing! And then we ate in their very nice/fancy food court. Very impressed. These pics are of us at our table.

While I was waiting at the table with Landon for everyone to bring the food up to the second level, I met a girl who had her baby just two days before me that was at the same hospital. It was really fun to chat with her. Small world, huh?

Then, last night, I found out that I might have to be careful with eating my favorite homemade food... Burritos. For those of you that have shared our famous burritos with us, I know you can see how sad this is... Oh well, I might try again with some of the baby gas drops, but I can't have another night like last night again for a while. I just wish I knew what was wrong with him last night. I would have driven to the store to get the gas drops then, if I had known...

Oh well, I guess new mothers have to learn all of these things the hard way, huh?

What else happened this weekend??? Well, when my Mom and I drove to pick up my Dad from the airport, there was a ton of new construction and some new signs on the freeway and we missed the exit for the airport... No big thing, right? Well, not if you live in TEXAS, where the freeways are built ingeniously! But out here in "lets build the freeways to be stupid- land" we got lost on another beltway for about two and a half hours. And that is after pulling off and asking directions right away! Of course, it was Memorial Day Weekend traffic that we were stuck in. So, I have to say, I am so glad that my little boy likes his car seat!

Successful Night!

So, last night, we googled how to get a baby to sleep more at night, it said to keep the lighting low and not interact with baby when he is awake at night. Interact with him tons when he is awake during the day so that he learns it is more fun to be awake during the daytime. Well... it worked last night, not sure if it was a one time thing or not, but we shall see tonight. My mom was surprised to wake up to the sunlight at 8am! I even changed 3 poopey diapers within a 45 minute time period and he didn't freak out. Good stuff. I feel so energized today!
Thanks for the advice, you both seemed to say the same thing!

I totally asked for it...

Last night was quite the night, Landon was awake with me from 1:30am to 4am, and then Grandma took him for the rest of the morning because he was a little fussy/awake. So today, he slept pretty much all day and I have had a pretty hard time waking him up to eat. My desperation to feed him turned into me undressing him completely this evening and hoping that he would be cold enough to wake up and feed. Well, that worked for a bit, but then the next thing you know, I felt a gush of warmth on my leg (and Landon was asleep on his back on my legs). James took him to help me out, which was a good thing because I had to scoot off the couch to prevent it from getting peed on and it dripped onto the floor. James told me that the diaper was completely saturated on top of what got on me... Well, at least I know that if he isn't eating that much during the day, he isn't dehydrated!

Does anyone have any advice as to how to get him sleeping more at night and less during the day time... please....

A week ago today....

A week ago today you were born, after a long, long wait for you to be a part of our family. Now that you have been here just seven days, it seems as though you were never missing. Love you so much!

Our little monkey is finally here!

I am still not over the part where she said, "Well, you are at an eight."

Can you tell by the look on my face? : )
Our first family picture.

Mommy's version of Landon's birth (the more accurate one)

I had gone to see the Dr. that Monday and the dilation had not changed from 1.5 at all. I had tried walking, but with Landon so low, he was pushing on my nerves to the point where it was hard just to walk around the house, let around the neighborhood. So, I hadn't done much of that. Friday night I had some labor contractions during the night and knew that these were different from the contractions that I have experienced since the fifth month of pregnancy. I called Heather Saturday morning to ask her what she thought about them and she said that she was pretty sure that I was having real labor contractions. Then I became concerned because my mom was in Utah with my brother Jason and his family because they just had my nephew Daniel and I didn't want to tell her that I was having contractions and have her get on a plane to come out here and not have the baby for another several days and have taken her away from her other new grandson... What a dilemma. I finally spoke with her and she said that in her opinion, I wasn't having labor contractions because they lasted too long. Labor contractions are more consistent and don't last very long... So, in her mind I wasn't in labor, but to go to the hospital if I thought that I needed to, there is nothing wrong with that. Feeling better having notified my mom of what is going on, I cleaned the bathrooms and did some house chores to get ready for my mom to arrive on Wednesday (my girlfriend Emily told me she went into labor cleaning, so that was a plus) and then got in the shower to get ready for Tara's baby shower. Went to the shower and parked way too far away and ate a ton of pineapple, (might possibly have eaten it all myself) and then walked with my sister-in-law Janice back to our cars (she parked far away too). Once I got to the car, Candy called me and within a few minutes of our conversation, I had a labor contraction. Luckily, the house the shower was at isn't too far away from mine and it is country roads, where the speed limit is 55mph and not much traffic at that time of day on a Saturday afternoon. I miraculously made the light to turn onto the main road and just popped on the cruise control while I endured the contraction. Candy told me that she new that this was the real deal (she has talked to me through several non-labor contractions before and knew this one was different).
James came home shortly after I got home and nothing else happened. We just kinda hung out, James played XBOX while I talked to my brother Bryan and his wife Amy and they gave me advice on labor contractions and so forth. We decided to get Burger King for dinner. So we went and got dinner came home, I pigged out, we watched some boring t.v.
Around 9:30 I started having contractions. I just laid in bed through them and they started about every 3 to 4 minutes. I called Heather at 9:30 and asked her what I should do. She said to wait another 30 minutes and if they are the same, page the Dr. So I did. Then I told James what was going on. He started to pack a bag. The Dr. called me right back and asked if I was uncomfortable. I said yes and he said to go on into the hospital and they would check me out and let him know my status.
So, we got ready to go, and the whole time, I just kept waiting for the contractions to ease up and completely expected to be sent home for false labor symptoms. We had to go in through the ER entrance and everyone just smiled at me like, there is no way she is in labor. Then we got taken upstairs to the monitoring area and they were not alarmed in the least. They had me change into a gown, give a urine sample and then settle into the bed. Jean did my intake forever it seemed and then took my blood pressure which seemed to be elevated. I asked her when we would know if I am in labor and she said, I am going to examine you right now. So she did the pelvic exam and says, "Well, you are at an eight," and seemed to become a little more business like. I said, " I'm sorry, did you say an eight????" She said yes, and I said, "Are you sure?????"
So then everything seemed a lot more crazy! James and I discussed how mom wasn't going to make it and the Nurse said," Oh she has plenty of time to get here," and then we told her that mom was in Utah and she said, "oh, nope, she won't be here in time."
Then James called mom and told her and she said, " Are you serious?!"
Then we called Heather to tell her and James's mom and realized that it was almost 12pm. Oops.
From there they did the IV and blood work and took us to our labor room. They asked me about whether or not I wanted the epidural and I couldn't decide. I thought, hey, if I got to an eight without even knowing it and the contractions weren't all that bad, maybe I can do this... But in the end, the Dr. really wanted me to have it because of my elevated blood pressure. So, we did that. I have to say, the most pain I had that night was from the cervical exam and the epidural needles, oh and the catheter insertion wasn't fun. Other than that, no pain.
So, they got me all set up with the epidural and then they told us to sleep and rest. At this point, my contractions started slowing down so we had lots of time for rest. About 3am, the nurse came in and I told her that I could feel my right side and was feeling pressure in my right hip, so she said," well, you have been laying on your left side this whole time so maybe the epidural isn't getting the right side very well. I will check you and then have you switch sides." She then told me that I was at a nine. The Dr. came in soon after and they broke my water. That was an interesting feeling. Then the nurse told me to rest and they left. At 5am, she came back in and I was at a 10 and she said that we were ready to start pushing. So, we did. We pushed through a few contractions and then she told me to rest for 15 minutes and she would come back and we would push some more. We did this for a while and she said that since I couldn't really feel where to push, that she was just going to let me labor down (let the contractions push the baby down instead of tiring myself out) because that was working really well. So she would come in and out periodically, have me push and then go for a while and come back. At 7am they had a shift change and we got a new nurse, Jen, and she came in at 7:20 and stayed with us until the birth. By this time, I had started to have feeling back in my left side as well, so I could feel where to push better. So, I pretty much pushed from 7:20 to 8:51 when Landon was born. She was a great coach and James was awesome as well. During this time period our cell phones started ringing constantly with family and friends wondering why we hadn't called yet. Once James told them that we were still in labor and pushing they were quick to let us get back to work. The Dr. came in about 8am and put on his gown and we pushed for a long time and then he said that they were going to use suction to help get the baby out. He had me push and James said," Look Kista!" I of course couldn't see a thing and then pushed one more time (all of this happened in a matter of seconds) and he was out! I started bawling immediately and loved to hear his tiny cry and James cried (which for those of you that don't know him, he isn't a crier and I told him that he'd better cry when our baby was born) which made me cry more! It was a blissful moment for sure. And then one of the nurses, April, asked where our camera was and we both realized that we left it in the car with our bags because we didn't think we were staying. : )

Daddy's version of Landon's birth...

A Tale of a Pineapple

It is amazing the trouble that can unfold from a single pineapple. It all started with a young girl named Kista in the land of Spotsyltucky. It was in the spring time when the trees and flowers were coming out and the signs of the summer heat were just starting to manifest itself. The birds were chirping and spring clouds were dumping their showers on the land. Outside you could hear the laughter of children as they enjoyed the escape of winter’s grasp.
The sound of laughter could be heard everywhere except for the home of Kista. This was because Kista was 38 weeks pregnant and very, very tired of being pregnant. Now Kista’s pregnancy was not an everyday event. She and her husband James had been trying to become pregnant for about the first seven years of their marriage with no baby. This is when they turned to help from some experts and decided to try the IVF procedure to try and help with having a baby. So nine months before the present the procedure was performed and a successful outcome was achieved. Kista and James finally realized their greatest dream, becoming parents of a new baby.
So for nine months Kista went through the normal effects of the pregnancy. There was the growing belly, the growing excitement, and then towards the end, the growing desire for it all to be over with. Kista’s due date was the 19th of May 2009. Kista’s sister-in-law, Kaisie, was actually due about two weeks before Kista. And because she had problems with going into labor naturally they set a date that Kaise would be induced. That was decided to be May 7th. So because of the closeness of the two births Kista’s mom was going to fly out to Utah for Kaisie’s baby, stay about a week, and then fly out here to Virginia and stay here for about two and a half weeks.
Because if Kista’s growing desire to be done with the pregnancy, she started looking into ways that could possibly induce labor faster. She started trying to do walks as much as possible. She started eating foods that can result in starting labor. And that is where the story of the pineapple begins.
It was the 10th of May, a sunny and warm day that was a relief to the almost constant rain we had been experiencing for two weeks previous. James went to work that morning at nine o’clock. After he got up and left, Kista got up and decided she felt good enough to finish preparing the house for her mom’s arrival. After finishing the cleanup, she felt like she had enough energy to go and attend a close friend’s baby shower. Tara Smith was a childhood friend of James that Kista had become good friends with. The shower was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and located at Matt and Julianne Smith’s house, Tara’s in-laws. The drive to the shower was about seven minutes from Kista’s home. And at the shower is where the pineapple comes into the story.
One of the foods that is said to induce labor is fresh pineapple. And guess what they had at Tara’s shower. And guess what Kista ate all of but one piece. Yes you have guessed it, Pineapple. That sour and sweet fruit that is so good when it is ripe. All Kista had on her mind was if I eat enough maybe I will go into labor sooner. And in fact it might of as soon as she left and on the way home that she had a big contraction. At the time she was on the phone with Candy Thompson. This was a really intense and long one and kind of a precursor to the real stuff.
After James came home from work around 5:30, Kista was back to her normal self, a little tired from her cleaning and running around but no more contractions. So it was back to life as normal, or so they thought. Around 10:00, James was downstairs playing the XBOX while Kista was upstairs in the bedroom resting. Kista then called downstairs for James. Upon entering the bedroom Kista informed James that she thought she was in labor. She explained that her contractions had started around 9:30 and they were about every five minutes. She informed James that she had contacted her good friend Heather Kite and she had said that Kista should wait one hour, and then if the contractions were still occurring to contact her doctor. At this point James started packing his hospital bag and loading the car in anticipation of the mad dash to the hospital. So about 10:30, with the contractions still occurring regularly, she called Dr. Hamilton. While on the phone Kista informed the doctor that she thought she was in labor and he asked if she was uncomfortable. Kista answered yes, and so he said to go to the hospital.
So while James had visions of a 100 mph dash through traffic with a police man trailing behind, Kista assured him that there was no rush and to not get a ticket. To say the least the trip was uneventful. They drove up to the Emergency Room and were then whisked away to a pre-labor room to see if Kista was truly in labor or if she just ate something bad. This is where they met their nurse Jean. She was a very good nurse who apparently had been doing this since 1978. She said she had been receiving graduation announcements for babies that she has helped deliver in earlier years. At this point it was verified about the frequency of the contractions and if this was Kista’s first baby and all other pertinent information. Now due to the fact that it was Kista’s first pregnancy and she wasn’t due for another week and a half there was an air of calm and complacency in the room with everyone. After taking Kista’s vitals it was discovered that her blood pressure was a little high. They then ordered a bunch of blood work to insure everything was fine.
So after all this took about a half hour Kista had a very important question for Jean, "So when are we going to find out if I am in labor?" Jean did checked and told Kista that she was at an eight. For those who don't know at a ten you are delivering the baby. Well Kista's reaction to this statement was "Did you just say an eight?" From this point everything turned into full speed ahead. The baby was on his way.
At about 12:00 the two soon to be parents were moved into the delivery room. Here all of the final preparations were made for the impending delivery. When asked about the possibility of an epidural Kista said she was still at a maybe. But then Dr. Hamilton called and said that due to Kista’s high blood pressure that it was probably a good idea to go ahead and get her on the epidural. So the next hour or so was spent with the process of getting everything set. But Kista was still dilated to an eight. So everyone left the room to let James and Kista try and get a little rest. This lasted a few hours until three o’clock in the morning. This is when the fun started.
At the time James was in a semi conscience state when Dr Hamilton entered the room and asked the nurse for the “hook”. Now James had never had the chance to be in a delivery room and see the process so he started thinking that maybe this was a way to pull the baby out or something. But instead of a screaming wife or a crying baby, the only sound that he heard was the gushing of water. It sounded like they had turned on a faucet. He asked the nurse and was informed that they had just broken Kista’s water. So for the next hour they checked in on Kista regularly to see how she was progressing. And finally at about five in the morning the nurse stated that Kista was now dilated to a ten and ready to start pushing.
The next two hours, from four to six, set into a pattern. Nurse Jean said that because of the epidural that Kista wouldn’t be able to feel a lot as far as the contractions. So in order not to tire her out too much, she would have Kista push through a few sets of contractions and then turn onto her side to let the baby labor down and not have Kista Do all of the work. They would then let Kista rest for about fifteen minutes and then the nurse would come back in and do the pushing through more contractions. Through these two hours we saw the doctor very briefly once or twice. I now know that the nurse does most of the prep work and the doctor is just there to catch the baby as they are being delivered.
The whole time that Kista was pushing James’s and Kista’s cell phones kept ringing as family members and friends wanted to find out about the baby. When James would inform then that Kista was still pushing a voice of surprise was heard on the other end and then a quick “I will let you get back to Kista” was the returned. The epidural definitely slowed down the process due to the fact that Kista couldn’t feel anything below her waist.
Then at around seven there was the shift change for the nurses and we then met our new nurse Jen who would be with us till the end. Jen was much younger then Jean but more involved with Kista. She never left the room from the time she got there until the baby was born. She told James and Kista that this was the second day in a row that when she arrived for her shift that she was immediately give a patient that was about to give birth. She said it was great to see the baby but she said she also like to get to know the moms and dads.
So for the next two hours the pushing continued for Kista and the baby’s head could be seen. But that was as far as it got. About eight Dr Hamilton and a second nurse April, arrived and started putting on the official delivery gowns. Just before the doctor put on his gowns, Kista asked Jen if the baby was ever going to come. Jen stated that when the doctor puts his gowns on then it is time to deliver the baby. Kista continued to push but the baby just didn’t seem to want to come out. This is when the doctor called for the vacuum and some extra nurses. Now when the doctor asked for the vacuum visions of his big shop vac in the garage popped into James’s head. He was wondering if this was a good thing to go around and using a shop vac to suck the babies out. But as it turned out it was a large suction cup that attached to the babies head. Once attached and with one big push by Kista and Landon James Marker was born.

Maybe soon...

Last night I got to experience my first real contractions... Yeah... cramps is not a good comparison, who came up with that???
They stopped of course. Now I have a ton of pressure in my pelvis. Don't know what to think...

Crazy insomnia thoughts...

Okay, so last night, I had a little bought of insomnia and while I was trying to fall asleep (and not bother James), I had this horrible thought.
What if they mixed up our embryo with someone else's and we give birth to a baby that isn't ours?!?! Holy cow, my thoughts then proceeded to go through all the crazy scenarios that would happen right after birth if that were to happen... I had to make myself stop and think about other things. Holy cow, just a moment of panic/terror/horror.
Does anyone watch Private Practice? Yeah, I think the season finale affected me more than I thought it would... : )

Nursery pics

These are just a few things in the nursery. Doesn't that make you want to come and play little baby? Ready whenever you are! Love, Mommy.

Awesome Cake just for Baby!

Okay, so this is the quilt from my nursery... and below on the right is the cake that Heather made (freehand) from it for my baby shower! What talent!

Below is the top shot. Above I just wanted to show off her leaves and the water for the alligator.

I love this cake so much, I had to have someone else cut it, if it were up to me, I would somehow find a way to frame it! And the best part was, it tasted good too!

Little Nephew is here, Welcome Daniel!

12:55am, 5/7/09, Daniel Jason was born. He is 7.08 pounds, 18.5 inches. Enjoy your elephant blanket! Love you!

38 week update

Okay, so I had my appointment today and no, there were no changes with my cervix, BUT, the baby is now 2 inches LOWER!!! My uterus is literally 3 inches above my belly button where as two weeks ago, it was up in my sternum.... I am so uncomfortable! He is now kicking and punching areas that I never thought he could get access to... So, how much longer do you think it will be??? Hopefully soon, not just for my comfort, but I am so ready for him to be here in my arms, not my belly (anymore). : )
I asked the Dr. why the top of my stomach seemed to be so mushy, he just smiled and said, "Well, that is where the baby used to be. Now it is all you." (Big grin followed that comment) I said, "No wonder I feel so crammed!"
Okay, so James spoke with his manager and starting next week, he is going to work from our local office so that he can be near by when the baby is ready to be born. I am so grateful for that! Now I just have to make it until at least Friday...
My mom called me last week and told me that my dad is coming out for a couple days over Memorial Day weekend! I am so excited about this! I was sad that he wouldn't be here right after the baby will be born. He calls and always asks how his little one is doing. I can't wait for them to meet. James and my Dad are my two special guys, and now there will be a third special guy in my life... I like the thought of that.
Okay, so does anyone have any ideas of what to pack for the hospital that you don't think of off the top of your head?