Finally finished my mouse pad and an update to the Poe files

I finally after having bought the stuff for this project a year ago and having started it several months, was able to make a point this past week of sitting down and finishing my mouse pad.  Poe weighed in at 19lbs 7.5 oz and 28" long as of Monday at the doctor's office too.  He's gettting too big too fast and is wearing 9 month old clothes too at only 6 1/2 months.  I had my appt today and so far at 11 weeks 3 days all is well.  We almost didn't find the heartbeat though.  Maybe this maybe doesn't like heart monitors either?  We'll see.  And best of all, me and my DF will be married tomorrow!

A lot of changes happening here....

Okay, I know it's been quite a while since I last posted something. My great uncle passed away yesterday morning due to multiple conditions he had over the past several years and he will be missed greatly. I just wish I could be up in Washington state to help my aunt out through such a tough time.



My DBF and I are engaged as of a couple weeks ago. We are getting married on April 30th, 2010. We aren't doing a big show, just heading down to the courthouse to get married. We'll do our big show later sometime when we can afford to have the wedding we would like to have.

And we found out yesterday baby number 2 is on the way. I am due November 16th, but if this child takes after big brother, he or she will be here about 3 weeks before that.

My lil sis is also pregnant and due in September, congrats sis!!! She thinks maybe this one is a girl, but we will see when she's far enough along. I've already started buying a few things for the new baby she's having and so far it's all froggy stuff.



My son is also 5 months old as of yesterday. Time has been flying by for us with him. He laughs at us for having to change a poopy diaper and has learned how to scream and thinks thats funny too. He already has selective hearing and loves tv as well. He's looking to be a natural flirt also. He had all the girls playing with him a few weeks ago at my job. He is already 26" long and weighing in at over 16 lbs. which is bigger than his dad was at his age. We think he's going to be a tall kid when he gets older.

Heidi and her DH finally are back state side also. They got here in December and spent Christmas with all of us. It was the first time in 5 years we had everyone together for the holidays which was really nice.

My first month as a new mother

Poe Byron Jones was born October 13, 2009 at 9:19 pm after 22 hours of active labor and one week of inactive labor. He was 6 lbs 8.7 oz and 20.75 inches long. He now weighs in at 7 lbs 7 oz as of one week ago today and is already 4 weeks old. We spent the first week of his life at the hospital with him on antibiotics since he was born with a fever and higher than normal white blood cell count. I think this was due mostly to the cold I had caught a week earlier but wasn't quite over yet. The docs even informed me while I was in labor that I had a fever although I didn't notice it or feel sick from it. All his blood work and cultures came back negative so the docs are feeling bewildered as to why this happened in the first place. We got to bring him though once he was 7 days old and had received what the docs felt was enough antibiotics to be safe to bring him home and not have him become sick. He has been growing like a weed and gaining weight fast, and eating us already out of house and home. So much so, we've had to resolve to supplementing with formula just to keep up with him. He eats twice as much as what the docs say a kid his age should be eating on average. So much for waiting for him to be a teenager first, huh?

We have found he sleeps through anything, and I mean ANYTHING, from TV and the vacuum cleaner, to a video game war zone. Not even the sirens of an ambulance have woken this kid up. But if I set him down for a second lately, instant crying. Hence, I have been up all night with my little one attempting fruitlessly to try and put him to bed. But to no avail. If I'm not holding him, he isn't sleeping tonight. And yes, the pic above is how my son sleeps on a regular basis: head back, mouth open, hands behind head even. He sleeps like his daddy, eats like his daddy, and sleeps through most anything like his daddy. However, he is acting like me so I'm told, by getting upset every time someone sets him down. This kid is good so long as he is being held. My DBF and I are finding ourselves having to take shifts so that each of us can acquire that mystical thing commonly referred to others as 'sleep'.

My nephew is finding himself facing competition for attention at my mom's house for the first time as well. Life is tough as a 6 year old. He got upset for being told not to do something that could result in broken elephants and became more upset that my son was not yelled at alongside him. Well, my son being only 4 weeks old, can't very well start getting into stuff yet so naturally he wasn't in trouble. But then we got the sob story of a lifetime on how we loved the new baby more than him as a result. So we spent the next hour trying to explain to a 6 year old boy about newborn babies and why he got yelled at. This worked out well... sort of. He continued to cry at the dinner table even after we figured this was over. Apparently, we forgot the melodramatic side of the family is also genetic. We had to send him to his room until he was ready to eat dinner with us. And then the wails started. We thought we had a banshee in the house. So we couldn't help but quietly laugh at the attempts for pity all the while trying to make sure he couldn't hear us. He would only have wailed louder I'm sure. After a while of seeing this wasn't working for him, he decided he was ready to eat dinner. Never a dull moment with kids around...

And as for the pets in our house, we have yet to have a single problem with any of them. My cat thinks she can curl up in my son's lap despite the fact that she is bigger than him, and the dog thinks she is still the baby too. Remy checks on our son regularly, gives him lots of kisses, comes to get us if he's crying, and has even cuddled at his feet on the couch to nap with him. So much for Pitbulls being vicious, huh? So far she is only more protective of the house now that we have a baby around. I think she is going to be just fine.

A little bit longer....

Apparently, I'm one of those people other women are disgusted with. I've been in labor I found out since Wednesday afternoon or evening. And I misread things just a little bit as to when the baby is coming yesterday. I had my doctor's appointment like clockwork and was told I had started to dilate and efface and was at 1 cm.

Ironically, I had called my mom when we left the doc's office to give her the update since she had asked me to do so and told me they were expecting 3-8 inches of snow tonight and when she saw the weather report, she thought, yep, she's going to go into labor tonight. And such would be my luck afterall. Leave it to me to go into labor on the first big snow of the season.

Then, not more than 90 minutes after my doctor's appointment, I stood up off the couch and felt something wet on my leg. So I went to the bathroom to check it out and see what was going on. A tiny piece of mucous and an almost clear fluid with a pale brown tint was to blame. Because it seemed to be a slow and steady trickle, I thought, 'Yes! Finally! My water broke!"

So, thinking that it was finally time to go to the hospital and have my son, we rushed to target to pick up a few last minute items we knew we would need since my DBF had just gotten paid. We picked up an infant carrier while we were there since the two car seats we were given are more upright and would require the baby to be able to at least be able to support his head, along with some extra diapers, wipes, nursing pads, and a nursing bra for me.

We then proceeded straight to the hospital from there, while I'm making phone calls telling everyone it's 'time' since our family list can be a bit lengthy and they have all been waiting for this to happen. When we arrived, we parked in the long term patient parking area and got checked in. They gave me a room, hooked me up to a fetal monitor which again Poe repeatedly tried to dodge the whole time we were there and a monitor to check my contractions. My cervix was checked multiple times and they even took samples of the fluids leaking from me to verify if it was in fact amniotic fluid. I began losing my mucous plug we found out, along with 'bloody show' starting to appear.

In an effort to see if things would progress, they had me walking around the maternity floor for about thirty or so minutes and then checked everything again. I had barely gained half a centimeter at this point. I was then left on the monitors for quite a while longer and they even did an ultrasound to check the fluid levels around the baby, which turned out to be at a healthy level, and any fluid leaking my doctor said was from my cervix, not the amniotic sac like I had hoped. Naturally, I was a bit disappointed to find out the baby was not coming just yet.

I was having contractions, but none of them were strong enough to get things going and proceed into active labor. My mother had arrived shortly after we got checked in and kept looking at the graph printing out and kept asking me, "Can you feel anything right now?" And, for whatever reason, I told her I couldn't, it wasn't strong enough to be felt or cause any pain that would register on my radar. Naturally, she was disgusted with me since she felt every one of her contractions when she had my sisters and I. Knowing this, I commented how she was going to be jumping for joy when I finally did feel something. However, the whole time, the most I felt was a slight (and I mean very slight) achiness to my lower back and maybe occasionally an indication of soreness or a muscle tightening somewhere. But otherwise, absolutely no pain.

After being there for a good 4 hours or so, they decided to release me since both baby and myself were doing fine, but full on labor was not in the cards just yet. I was sent home much to my delight and disappointment. Delighted, because I was hungry and if it was labor, they were not allowing me to eat anything just in case. Disappointed because I would love to have this baby already. I was told if my water breaks or I start experiencing painful contractions, to come back to the hospital then. So now I'm at home, waiting for these contractions to actually progress, but unable to go walking around the neighborhood to try to speed things up due to the cold weather and unable to drive out to the mall to walk around either. I'm still hopefully actual active labor will set in before the weekend is out.

We spent last weekend working on getting things setup and put away in Poe's room. We have it done save for a few minor details that will be addressed in time. Anyway, here's a few pics of his room in progress, decor is on the way to brighten things up further, so no worries he'll be getting wall decor along with other items to make his room more fun.

Also, due to the amount of soreness I've been experiencing in the tissues around the hips (perineal, thighs, etc...), the doc said on Friday that I could go into labor within 1-2 weeks. I can't wait either, I'm very much ready to squeeze this kid outta me and be able to reach and see my feet again. I've had BH contractions that come and go since Wednesday night this week and seem to be subsiding for now, we'll see if they start up again tomorrow or middle of the night.. It seems as though my body is somehow teasing me about whether I'm starting real labor or just more practice. A co-worker was shocked I haven't gone to the hospital to get checked out over this, but what is the point if they aren't consistent and aren't intensifying? I don't see why I should sit in a hospital bed for up to 3 or 4 days assuming they would bother to wait that long, if it is the real deal, when I can be more comfy at home until I'm certain we've got actual labor going? I've had so many instances that could be mistaken for the real deal that I could be in and out of the hospital needlessly for weeks or days. They would prolly get sick of me if I went every time I started to wonder if this time was it. Besides, I see the doc again tomorrow afternoon and I'll find out at this appointment if I have effaced or dilated at all. I doubt at the rate things are going right now, that I'm in actual labor just yet. We'll see what the doc says about it...

Carpet Update

Just a quick update on the carpet this time. Our order for whatever reason is taking longer than expected, but we were told it should come in by October 1st and we already have an appointment to have it installed on October 2nd. Not as soon as I had hoped, but at least it's getting done so we can start putting Poe's room together by next weekend and I can update everyone with more pics :D

Nursery

Here's a few pics of the nursery under construction and in progress. I am hopeful to have the carpet installed by the end of the week. However, we are waiting for them to call and schedule the installation with us. I'll be updating these pics once we start getting more of it together. My DBF had to rip out all of the old carpet since it was coming up at the seams and the padding with it. We found old tile and the original wood floors underneath. Unfortunately, the wood floors cannot be saved and returned to their original glory days.