Introducing Samuel

Samuel was born at 4:46 pm on Wednesday, June 23, at Stafford Hospital Center in Virginia. He weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches long. Our trip home was delayed by a day due to Sammy's high bilirubin levels thanks to our blood type incompatibility, but he's doing very well these days. If you're itching for some more photos of Sammy, click here. Ok, I'm off to feed the baby!

Unsolicited Uterus Update

Sorry, no bebehs-only kittehs

First things first; No, I have not had the baby yet (but I did start my maternity leave today). As of right now, I am officially four days overdue, but with due dates being nothing more than an educated guess, it's really not that big of a deal. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself. Captain Husband came home for a quick weekend visit, mostly because he could tell that I was reaching my breaking point after last week's disappointing doctor's visit in which I was informed that I was neither dilated nor effaced at all. LAME. We both hoped that his visit home would help me relax a bit (plus give my dad a break from all of the action-packed adventures that happen around here on a regular basis, ha). I think we were both secretly hoping that by some strange twist of fate, I would go into labor while he was home and then everything would be fine and dandy. Well, he got on a plane back to Oklahoma this afternoon so that didn't quite happen, but not all is for naught...

Since I'm officially overdue, I now have to go in to the hospital for fetal monitoring, in addition to my usual doctor's appointment, to ensure that my placenta is still doing well and that there's enough amniotic fluid surrounding the baby and so on and so forth. Today I had such a visit, which worked out well because CH was able to go with me. I was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and left to recline while a little machine recorded my heart rate, the baby's heart rate, and contractions, if I was in fact having any. Well, it turns out that I was having contractions, but I was just completely unaware of them. Ok, not totally unaware: I will spare you kind readers the details, but suffice it to say, they did not feel how I expected them to feel nor where I expected to feel them. The doctor did a quick internal and discovered that I was 1 1/2 centimeters dilated and about 25% effaced. Finally, some progress!

As the evening has progressed, my contractions have become more regular, so here's hoping that this little bambino will finally be making his debut some time in the near future (I've been monitoring them on my iPhone thanks to Labor Mate--of course there's an app for that). However, there is one small, minor problem--just where exactly I will be giving birth. Dewitt is no longer an option due to a freak gnat infestation in their surgical department; as a result, they are not admitting laboring patients due to the slim chance that they might need a c-section, which they wouldn't be able to do due the whole gnat situation. They expect it will take several days, or possibly a week, to get everything cleaned and sterilized and ready for use. This leaves me in a bit of lurch, but fortunately I live in Northern Virginia, where there are hospitals seemingly everywhere. Unfortunately the closest one is also the one with the worst reputation in the area, so obviously that's a no go. As of right now, Dad and I will probably head on down to Stafford Hospital, which is about a thirty-minute drive south of where I live; it's a small, brand-new hospital with great reviews, so I think it will be a good fit. Plus one of the nurses who was monitoring me this afternoon also works there, and she made a good case for delivering at Stafford now that Dewitt was no longer an option.

So that's all for now; thank you in advance for the well wishes and words of encouragement--I'll try to update as much as possible as things progress!

The waiting game

This weekend was delightfully lazy; I had finally completed the Fuzzi Bunz sizing and pre-washing and had put them away earlier in the week. My dad built the base for the co-sleeper and stained it, so it's sitting in the garage, waiting to be called into use. For the first time in a while, there were no weekend projects waiting for us. We decided to take advantage of the lull (and the lack of baby) and check out the Virginia Bazaar, a combination flea market and antique mall. Located about twenty minutes south of Fredericksburg, Captain Husband and I had driven past it numbers of times, but we were never in the area during the hours it was open. Dad and I got up early on Saturday, grabbed some breakfast, and were on our way. Now, I don't want to say that I had high expectations for the Bazaar, but I was hopeful that it would at least be worth the drive; well, let's just say that we were there for an hour and that's about it. I'm sure there are more outdoor vendors on Sundays, but the pickings were pretty poor yesterday. The indoor part started out promising, with a great booth of antiques/found objects right at the entrance, but it turns out that was basically the best of the entire place. Oh well, at least I now I know!

We decided to head up to Fredericksburg to check out the shops up there since we were in the area. We had a great time walking around and looking at the various antiques; one place had a lot of antique tools that caught my dad's interest and it was nice having him there to tell me what they all did. After a while, the heat and humidity caught up with us, so we went and grabbed lunch and relaxed in the a/c for a bit (pregnancy + humidity=giant, swollen hands for me). Then we opted to take Route 1 back home rather than chance 95, which turned out to be a wise decision. Along the way back, we stopped off at a little shop near Quantico where I found a bag of thirty vintage alphabet blocks for $5 (my only purchase of the entire day), so I didn't go home completely empty-handed.

Today I spent the morning tidying up a bit, vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen. My friend, Kate, came over for a while and we hung out and watched How to Marry a Millionaire. I think I may finally be having some Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I can't be sure. Overall, I feel pretty good and am hopeful that my forty-week appointment this Wednesday will reveal a happy cervix doing what it's supposed to do, but for the time being I wait. And wait.

Sad, sad news

A rare glimpse of the Trish-monster in the wild

As many of you know from numerous blog posts and conversations, my cat, Tricia, has been dealing with some medical issues lately. She's always bounced back from her various ailments, but this time is different. She hasn't eaten in over a week and Dr. Neff has exhausted his bag of tricks trying to discover what is wrong with her; she's wasting away and listless, a shadow of her former spunky and talkative self. Trish has been a part of my life now for nearly ten years and I just can't let her suffer; I owe her so much more than that. So I have made the very difficult decision to do what's best for her and will have her put to sleep tomorrow. This breaks my heart in ways I never thought possible, but I know it's the right thing to do. I will hold her and love her and hopefully hear her distinctive purr one last time...

The Final Countdown

Today I am a full thirty-eight weeks pregnant. I feel huge and cumbersome, and frankly, the heat and humidity of the past week have not helped things at all. My hands and feet are swollen all of the time and my joints are getting stiff. But other than that stuff, I'm feeling pretty good and can still walk around without too much discomfort as long as I'm wearing good shoes and keep things within reason (no more marathon trips to the outlet mall).

Captain Husband was able to make it home for the Memorial Day weekend, so we worked on a couple of baby-related tasks even though I had managed to get a lot of stuff done on my own, like washing and sorting all of the baby clothing. I figured that the weekend was really more for us to spend time together as a couple so I didn't want to make his visit home all about "honey do" lists. My brother, Ben, is letting us borrow my great-grandmother's antique cradle, so I had CH bring it up from the garage and help me clean it up. Here's Sandy testing it out--she doesn't seem to mind that there's no mattress:

Once that was taken care of, we moved on to the next project, which was installing the car seat. My dad gave CH a hand with that one while I "supervised." Fortunately, the whole process was pretty simple and straight-forward; I will admit that it's a little weird driving around with that thing in the back seat, though, knowing that soon enough it will actually have a little person in it.

We also managed to get the new-to-us crib set up in the office on the second floor; I pre-washed all of the sheets and various other accessories and had even managed to make a crib skirt out of a queen size bed skirt that I scored at Ikea for $4.99 with the help of some scissors and velcro. I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered:

So what's left to do (besides actually having the baby)? I have yet to tackle pre-washing and then sizing the Fuzzi Bunz, but I have high hopes that I will start that process this evening and finish it over the weekend (it also helps that my dad magically got the hot water working in the washing machine again). I should probably pack an overnight bag to have at the ready, but I'll probably wait a bit more before doing that. My dad will hopefully be able to build a base for the co-sleeper to sit on to even it out with the height of our bed, which is super high, so that's on his list for next week. Other than those things, everything is pretty much under control. I guess this is sort of the calm before the storm, right?

Hello, baby!

Lillian DuFour was born at 11:45 pm on June 1st; she weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 1/2" in length after TWENTY-FIVE hours of labor (dear unborn son--please do not do this to me). Her proud (and tired) mama is my good friend, Julianne. I'm hoping to make the trek up to Frederick, Maryland, this Saturday to visit mama, papa, and baby with flowers and a vegetarian casserole in tow.

I am still having trouble believing that I too will soon have a baby in real life; my due date is now a mere two weeks away. My dad flew in on Saturday last weekend and is now ensconced in the guest room, where he plans to stay until I go into labor. It's been great having someone else in the house, especially someone who likes to cook!