Photos of Champ

Hi all! So, today was Champ's due date-that is a little crazy to realize since it already seems like he has been here forever and has gotten so big already since leaving the hospital (he is already at 7lb 10 oz, and had dropped to 6lb 15 oz) Since it has been SO LONG since I put anything on here, I thought I would share some photos!

Here is me on the 23rd, the very last belly shot we got. Champ came 3 days later and you can check out all the adorable photos below. I sorta miss being pregnant; but at the same time, it is very fun to sleep on my stomach again!

So far, Champ is an amazing baby-all calm until time to eat or poop, which is just AWESOME. Last night and the night before he actually when 5 hours at one stretch; a nice break from the around-the-clock 2 hour feedings he was demanding. I'm hoping this nice trend continues; we will find out tonight!

Little Dude and JR are in love with him and very proud to help out; so far we have had quite a nice adjustment to becoming a family of 5-and partly because we have such amazing friends and family that have brought us dinners and helped us out so very much over the last two weeks.

OK, now for cute photos:

Here is Champ on his birthday, 3-26-11. He was born at 5:55am  at 7lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long. (my contractions started at 4am; I am very glad he didn't come in the truck)

Here is Bill and Champ, with Bill being silly and staging his pose to act like Champ's and predict our future for the coming weeks. Even though it is staged, I love this photo :)

Here are our three boys! To get Champ's jaundice numbers down quickly we had to do formula and breastfeeding, so Little Dude and JR got to help feed when they came to see us Sat. night.

Here is one very proud Papa and  his cute namesake, Champ.

So, that is all the news around here-I will work hard to get on here more often now that we are kinda getting a new normal going on around here. Now I need to hurry and clean before Bill gets home so it looks like I did "something" today.

Surely you guys all do that too, right? Right?

The Champ Is Here

Our little Champ was born on 3-26 at 5:55am-after having a few contractions on and off throughout the day Friday, labor started around 4am with regular contractions at about 5 minutes apart, and we got checked in at the hospital at 5am-10 minutes after my water broke our Champ was here.

I have to say, I am a huge fan of fast deliveries, especially after being able to get into a nice hospital bed with my doctor, sweet hubby and some awesome nurses there to help. Hurray for not giving birth in the car!

All is well and we are settling in quite nicely as a family of five, thanks to the amazing help from my mother in law and all our friends.

AND I will eventually get one of the hundred cute photos of Champ on here, I just keep forgetting to bring the camera downstairs to download them all to the computer; thus, no photos for you guys yet.

He is super cute though, with a head full of blonde blonde hair and deep blue eyes that are already starting to turn lighter blue. Ohhhhhh cuteness!

Talk to you soon (and hopefully I'll have some photos on here next time).

20 Days!

The countdown is on-there are only 20 days to my due date, and going on my previous history, it should be less, since both the other boys were early.

SQUEAL!

I went to the dr. today and found out I'm not 4 cm dilated, though no contractions of any kind yet. That makes me nervous, since I'm obviously not feeling whatever contractions are causing the dilation, so when they DO really start I'm really crossing my fingers (and legs) that I make it to the hospital....I REALLY don't want to end up on the news as the subject of "Baby Born on Highway!"

SO, when will Champ get here?

I can't wait, I really can't. I'm so anxious and just want to meet him and start our routine as a family of 5. Right now I am just cleaning like crazy, spending time playing super heroes with Little Dude and JR, and finding ways to avoid work, like updating my blog before finally getting back to the tasks at hand. That is actually pretty fun, since I am always able to find something else to do, like put my feet up. (Don't tell Bill I could put them up as my desk; I prefer the recliner, which is faaarrr away from my desk).

Anyways, not much to report, just playing the waiting game.

Now, back to some actual work that pays me....

Contractions

So, apparently with the more preganancies you have, the better your body jumps into gear to "get ready for baby".

Meaning that I have all kinds of fun "practice contractions" or Braxton Hicks going on-and at times I start to think they are real ones, only have them go away or stop.

Sigh.

Well, we are ready, and currently I am 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced, and the baby has dropped to station 0 (whatever that means, I keep trying to find station info in my pregnancy books and haven't yet, so I might just google it when I am done here) according to my latest dr. check up. Now that I am well into 36 weeks, the dr. has also declared that if labor starts now they won't try to stop it, since our little Champ is measuring a week ahead anyway AND we have crossed into the more full term time period of the third trimester.

Very exciting to be so close to having him here with us-and I am so hoping he does come in March because I just love March. Don't know why, just do.

Also a bit scary, as I really do want to make it to the hospital, so the more dilated and effaced I get BEFORE any contractions really start, the more nervous I am about how quickly this labor might go....

But then, this pregnancy has been so different, that I feel I might be jinxing myself-he will probably go 2 weeks past my due date and then have a hard 24 hour labor.

Or be scary fast and I'll have him in the driveway.

Oh my. I'm ready to be done with labor already....

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2011

I LOVE St. Patrick's Day. Most of my family's heritage is Irish, wish some Native American, Mexican, and British heritage for good measure. Everyone in my family though has naturally dark DARK hair, and my sisters both got the brown/black eyes, along with the natural tendency to tan easily without burning.

Me? I'm super pale white even if I DO try to tan, super short to the point that I may or may not be borderline needed a booster seat according to the new child car seat laws height requirements and I'm way shorter than both my little sisters. I have auburn red hair that gets redder in the sun and had super strawberry red hair when I was really young). While most members of my family have no trouble keeping weight off their more slender frames, I have the hips of a cow, which have come in super handy when having children, but don't work well with skinny jeans. Fashion icon I can not be. I also have blue green eyes and my face turns red when I drink.

Sigh.

But you know what? On St. Patrick's Day, all those features are cool! So, I love St. Patrick's Day.

Yesterday, the kids and I colored shamrocks and taped them all over the dinning room. Then we baked banana bread and made green cream cheese icing with green sprinkles for it, AND we made our own St. Patty's Day necklaces (the boys did a super great job getting the beads on their strings!)

It was SO FUN. We talked about who St. Patrick was, and why we celebrate a day for him, and how he was important to everyone. I may have not actually DONE anything, but just sitting at the table, doing crafts with the kids and talking was FANTASTIC. I need to set aside days to do just that way more often.

I'm thinking that with dinner I might have green milk for the kids, though our traditional corned beef dinner will be held on Saturday when my in laws and sister in law can all come over to share.

I'll have to see what else I can make green today.

Little Dude is at preschool, JR went to my awesome friend Teresa's house to play while I go to a Dr. apt for Champ, then it will be on to see what other Irish stuff we can do today! Yippie!

Hospitals, Nurses, and Shots, Oh My!

Well, I think I jinxed myself with my huge to do list-I started having super strong contractions during dinner, and each one got closer in time, until around the 10 minute time space we called up my awesome neighbor to stay with the boys until my sister in law could get here, and then Bill and I bolted for the hospital.

By the time we got to the hospital, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and getting really strong.

So, I was admitted, and checked, and luckily, I had not dilated or effaced any further along from that morning, so I was given a shot to try to stop the contractions. My doctor really REALLY wants Champ to stay in at least another week, and I would really like to get two, but we will have to see what happens.

Eventually I got enough meds to stop the contractions, though I did dilate a little bit more, but after some more watching everything finally stopped. I'm on Motrin now to help stop or block the production of something that would induce contractions again-I can't remember what it is supposed to be stopping-but at any case, it is working.

Today I am being super lazy, sitting at the computer finishing up a little work, the kids are playing with play-doh. Awesomeness.

2 CM Dilated

OMG. For real.

I went to the doctor today for my start of week 36 check up and found out that I'm 2 cm dilated, 50 % effaced, and Champ is at station 1. I still haven't stopped to look up what that means, but he is also head down and ready to go, according to my doctor.

SOOOOO, can I tell you that I'm a little freaked? If he came to day, he would be early, but not as early as JR, and the doctor assured me that since everything is starting on its own, then chanced are he is just really ready to come. With JR I had to be induced and it took forever for contractions or dilation to start (though when it did, it happened fast).

Previous stats:

Little Dude-3 hours from the time my water broke to delivery
JR-Got induced around 1pm, contractions didn't start til around 8pm and he was born at 11.

So what will Champ's stats be? I'm really nervous about not making it to the hospital.

So, I have butterflies all in my belly and a suddenly HUGE, GINORMOUS list of things I MUST do before Champ can come (ha, that means he's coming in a few hours, right? ) Anyways, I finally got the laundry put away (Bill will be so proud) and I actually finished going through JR's clothes and getting the outgrown stuff out of his drawers. Little Dude I still haven't tackled; I figured it was better to just put everything away than to have numerous, half crazy sorted/unsorted piles of 4t and 5t cloths all over the place when Grandma got here to take over...

And now, I am trying really hard to get all my small tasks I have left for Dakno done asap so I don't have to worry about handing anything off.

Oh I have butterflies. And I know, I know, it could still be weeks of walking around at 2 cm, BUT I can't help but worry because for the last half hour the light braxton hicks I've been having on and off for the last few months have actually started to get stronger, though I'm not sure if they are regular yet or not. I'm going to start timing them now and see if I need to call Bill.

I'd be a little embarrassed to be sent home, but at the same time, I'd hate it more to have Champ in the car....