Other great news

- Yesterday, our benevolent managers gave us a brand new stove!! It replaced the most horrendous, cream colored 1970's stove you've ever seen. This one has a light on the inside, a glass door, working burners, a clock on it, and digital buttons! Yeah for putting in maintenance requests!!

-Gabriels cord came off today! It was actually pretty gross looking but that meant that I could give him a proper bath! He actually really liked it until he had to get out into the cold air.

I put a towel down in the water for him to lay on

Clean and happy baby!

Ode To A Caring Spouse

Yesterday was a bad day.

It was the first time in the past 2 weeks and 2 days that I have felt overwhelmed with this whole motherhood thing. Gabe and I had been in the car for a while and it was a warm day. The A/C needs to be charged in our car and the sun was on him the whole time. He was screaming and crying when we finally got home. I had to run to the bathroom or I was going to wet my pants, so I took the car seat right into the bathroom with me. (Mothers- how do you juggle bathroom time with baby?? I find myself taking a shower when he's napping and having the monitor volume on high and I think I usually hold it in until Nate gets home from work!) He kept screaming so I'm trying to rock his car seat with my foot but he's not buying it. And there is a ring of sweat around his headrest now. So I finish up, pull him out to comfort him but realize I can't wash my hands while holding him so I lay him down on our bed and run to wash my hands. He freaked out. I've never heard him scream like that before! I wash my hands and finally get him semi calmed down. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time Nate got home. He cried during dinner so I didn't get to eat very much. He cried during the movie we were watching. Nate could tell I had had just about enough so my husband, who for as long as I have known him swore up and down he would NEVER change a diaper, jumped up and changed one very poopy diaper. Knowing Gabriels diapers, I was so shocked that he said it wasn't as bad as he had thought it would be. That little act of changing a diaper really meant a lot to one frazzled mom. Nate is a really tender dad and loves to hold Gabe and calm him down. This morning before running to work he said "I wish he was awake so I could hold him before I leave..." I'm so appreciative of all the things Nate does for us. 

We love you daddy!

Gabriel

Leaving the hospital

Grandma and Gabe

My favorite picture

First "bath"- he hated it

Thank heaven for little boys

My sleeping boys

Quick Update

Hi everyone! Gabe's down for a nap so I thought I'd do a very nutshell version of "The Birth".

We went in Tuesday the 3rd for a NST (Non Stress Test). Apparently whenever I had a contraction his heartbeat would drop, so they sent me over to the Women's Center. They hooked me up at triage, sat there for a while, then they sent me back to my room. My body wasn't quite ready yet so they gave me medication to move that process along. They gave that to me at 4pm and then I had to have another dose at 8pm. After that, contractions started coming pretty hard and non stop one on top of the others. Finally at midnight, they gave me pitocin to induce me. The contractions were even worse then but still no progress at all! Finally at 2:30, after about 5 hours of hard nonstop contractions, I had an epidural and was able to sleep. I woke up at 4:30 to nurses and doctors in my room hooking me up to things, giving me shots of this and that. What a wake up call! It was very unnerving. I was being hooked up to a fetal monitoring system, an oxygen mask and was getting a shot to stop my contractions. At one point, I was hooked up to 6 different things! My doctor explained that my contractions were stressing the baby. Every contraction, his heart would drop from 160 to about 80. Emergency C section! Very scary. They cut me open and pulled him out and found that the cord was wrapped around his neck. He was born Wednesday the 4th at 6:02 am after I had been up for almost 24 hours!

Not a very pleasant experience but I'm so glad he's here and he is the sweetest baby!! More pictures to come!

TA-DA!!!!

Just a quick post, putting some pictures up.  First off though: Gabriel Drew Allen, born at 6:02 am on March 4th, 2009.  He was 8 lbs, 20 1/2 inches.  Mother and baby are resting well.