Pippy's Here!

Georgia arrived on 11/18/11 at 9:02. She was 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long. Earlier that day I went in for a doctors appointment and discovered that my fluid was low. It was time to have a baby. The hospital was completely full, so we had to wait until 6:30 to get a bed. At around 7:30 I had my IV in and was getting ready for pitocin. My contractions were about 10 minutes apart, not very strong at that point, but once the pitocin kicked in they quickly went from fairly easy to totally unbearable. Around 8:15 I told the nurse that I was pretty sure that my water broke and she decided that she should maybe check my cervix. The contractions were getting really strong so she brought in a birthing ball but I only sat on it a few minutes and then told her that I was ready to push. She checked me and all I remember is her saying, "I need nurses in here now, where is the doctor? We are having a baby." Waiting for the doctor felt impossible. When she finally got there she threw on her scrubs and two pushes later we had a baby. The doctor looked at me and said, "Hi, I'm Dr. Bennet. It's nice to meet you." :)
So far Georgia has been very sweet. She is awake an hour or two in the morning and in the evening and the rest of the time she naps. She wakes up about every 3 hours to nurse. She started nursing about 20 minutes after she was born and has been doing great ever since.
Henry is doing pretty well with the change. He is a little more sensitive and makes comparisons about how we treat him verses G, but for the most part he seems to be doing well. Having his 6th birthday on Wednesday really helped. He felt very special.
Wade is working from home this coming week and Henry is back in school, so things should be a little more normal for us: whatever that is now,I guess we have to redefine normal. Have a great week.

Weekly update: 11.13.11

Not going to be a long one today folks, we have had a pretty slow week. Although we did have a bit of super exciting news on Friday when my nephew was born! I have to wait until Christmas to snuggle him but for now I'm just soaking up being an aunt for the first time. He has a ton of hair and super chubby cheeks...pretty much newborn perfection.
Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday. We took a peek at Pippy and found that all is well. We couldn't get a good look at her face because she is now facing my back but we saw toes and fingers and a full bladder.....everything looked like it should. My doctor put me at 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. She said my cervix is ripe and ready to roll, which I thought was kind of gross but I guess ripe is the actual term they use to describe a cervix that is ready for delivery, so I got over it. She jokingly gave me 3 days. Today is day 3, so we'll see. I am not having regular contractions yet.
Henry is doing great. He has been sleeping with me for the past couple of weeks because poor Papa cannot handle my snoring/need for 18 pillows that take up 80% of our king size bed. I have to admit I love having him in the bed with me. When I wake up every 2 or 3 hours I can just reach over and grab his little hand or snuggle up in his curly hair. I keep thinking that in a few days he won't be able to sleep in the bed next to me, so I am trying to really soak it in. Plus, an added bonus is that we both go to sleep at 8:30 every night. :) The weather has been crazy so we have had some fun afternoons at the park and a few boring afternoons stuck inside. But he's taking it all in stride. He has been carrying around a bear he got at the school open house last week and pretending that it is a baby and he has been incorporating the baby into his artwork lately, which is super sweet.
Wade picked up a laptop so he can work from home for a while after the baby is born. Which is such a relief because I was panicking a little about taking care of a newborn and a 5 year old a the same time. At least this way I'll have a few weeks to get in to the swing of things before I am on my own.
Well that's about all I've got for this week. We'll be sure to keep you posted on all things baby as the week goes on. I've got an appointment on Tuesday, fingers crossed for a good progress report. Take care.

Final countdown....3 weeks to go

We are officially full term but I get a sense that this little Pipp of ours isn't making plans to move out any time soon. We had a sonogram and doctors appointment on Tuesday and found out that she is 6 1/2 lbs, has a full head of hair (it's amazing that you can see that on a sonogram), is definitely a girl, and that her head is down low in my pelvis, so low in fact, that all the pictures the sonogram technician attempted to take looked like a kid smooshing her face against a pane of glass. We saw her making kissy faces and practicing breathing. She looked squished in there and not very comfortable. Her movements are becoming less frequent and are usually her whole body moving from my left side to my right side. She seems to prefer my left side and stays over there most of the time. She seems to sleep a lot. Let's hope that continues for years to come.
My cervix is 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. We go in next Thursday for another sonogram and check up. I'm having some contractions but nothing regular or notable. I was thinking last night, as I lie in bed awake for hours, that it would be really wonderful if she came on November 16th. That was my Aunt Cindy's birthday, she was one of my favorite people.
But we've had a ton of other stuff going on the past two weeks. I'm sure that I will forget some of it. Another reason to make these "weekly" updates actual weekly updates.
The last week of October we had parent teacher conferences. Henry's teacher greeted us at the door by saying, "Thank you so much for bringing your child to me." I don't know if she was telling all the parents that, but boy it felt nice to hear it. She described Henry as sensitive and positive and helpful and upbeat. She told us this story,
"Last week I was feeling under the weather and I told the kids that I wasn't feeling very well. We decided that it was a good time to work on math worksheets. Henry has finished all the single digit math worksheets so I decided to introduce him to double digit math. I showed him how to do it and he completed his worksheet, brought it to the front of the classroom, came over to me, put his hand on my arm and said, "Look at that Ms. Fewins. You didn't feel well and you still taught me something new. Good job. " It made me feel so good. "
She mentioned that sometimes Henry's friend Julia gets her feelings hurt when he wants to play with other kids. "It happened a couple times last week" she said, "and Henry came over to me with Julia and said, Ms. Fewins Julia is upset, can you help us talk it out?""
He also got his first report card. He got all S's (satisfactory). They do not start handing out letter grades until 2nd grade and we found out from a friend with a third grader that the grading scale they use is more difficult than the public schools. An A is 94% or higher. I'm sure glad they don't have those standards at KU. :)
Over the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins. I promised patch pictures and didn't deliver. We actually went straight from work and I forgot my camera. Sorry. But I did get a pic of the boys carving their pumpkins. Henry and I made lots of Halloween cookies. His favorites, of course, were the ones that came over from Gigi's house. He loves Gigi's cooking. He had to work the candy corn in on the side of his mouth though because on October 28th he lost his first tooth! The tooth coming in is a big one, it looks like he might have Wade's teeth, but it's hard to tell just yet. The tooth next door is getting wiggly too, so we might have 2 missing teeth here pretty soon. When he lost his tooth I ran into the guest room and threw together a tooth fairy pillow. Henry did not use it though, he is feeling a little shy about giving his tooth to the tooth fairy and is sentimental about giving away his first tooth.
Henry had a Halloween party at school. He had a great time! He got to wear his costume to school, which was a big deal considering that every other day he has to wear his uniform. They decorated cookies and Papa got to come to school and party with him. He did not wear a costume. Here he is with his "girlfriend" Elsa. We also attended family fun night at school. Henry had a great time doing the book scavenger hunt and playing the games. It's fun to see the difference in how he feels about his school now. They had a family fun night orientation in August and he held our hands the whole time and wouldn't talk to anyone. This time he was roaming the halls like he owned the place.
Then, of course, there was Halloween. We got started a little late because we had several very cute visitors before we left for trick or treating but that was actually okay because Henry got the feel of trick or treating with out the gigantic bag of candy. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of candy, but much less than last year. The first two houses he really wanted me to be up on the porch with him, but by the third house he ran back and yelled, "This is fun. I am feeling super confident." He even did a "trick" for one of the houses, his attempt that the thumb trick. It was pretty funny. Henry was Optimus Prime.
Yesterday he had his first birthday party with his school friends and his first birthday party where Mama and Papa got to leave him there by himself. I could handle one of those every weekend. He played at the Gymnasium, ate cake and ran around like a maniac. He slept well last night. Today we are going to do some cleaning and try to finish up the million pre-baby projects we have left to do. We cleaned the car yesterday and put in the baby seat. I've also done 5 loads of laundry. My sweet friend Amanda gave us 3 huge trash bags full of baby clothes. This little girl has more clothes than Wade and I combined. It's a good thing that they are all so small, otherwise I think we would have run out of closet space. Well, I think I'll close this one out. We've got some coupons for breakfast bagels and free coffee (for Papa) so we're going to walk to the bagel shop on this beautiful, sunshine-filled morning. Have a great week friends.

Weekly Update 10.16.11

It's been a month, not a week. Sorry about that. We've been super busy with things like: Pretending to be pumpkins Golfing Go-karts Bumper cars Getting lost in giant haunted mazes

Napping
Sewing
Feeling fall breezesAnd getting ready for our baby girl to arrive But all that fun stuff aside, it has been a challenging few weeks. Gigi and Grandpa were in Europe for two weeks which gave Wade and I a taste of what it would be like to be a split shift family. It was hard. Upon returning from his trip, Grandpa came down with a stubborn case of pneumonia. Send prayer and good thoughts his way, please. And while you're at it throw in a few for Nana who is also recovering from surgery.
Okay, let's break it down:

Papa: Papa is currently napping in the other room. He continues to be super busy at work, staying late and working on the weekend occasionally. He is still playing music and working hard to do all the things that I can't do (the list is long) to get our house ready for the baby.

Henry: Henry is doing great at school. He was in a play last week: Noah's Arc. He was the dove and did a very nice job! His school is right across the street from a park, so we like to go to the park everyday after school for a little while. (Henry just entered the room, and has some things to say) - Also, I was in parade 2 weeks ago and I got lots of candy. I liked it a lot. It was fun. I have been building a super mega bionical, or some people might say a Lego robot. He has intelligence of a 10, very smart, very tough because he is the leader, very strong, he has awesome weapons and that's it. Grandpa has ammonia. But I think he's starting to feel better because he set his oxygen to a 2. I can't wait for Halloween. Who0Oo0Ooooo..... (that's a ghost sound, scary!) I am going to be Optimus Prime and I'll have tons of candy that I will cut in half with my battle sword. I mean, it's not real, I'm just pretending that it is a real battle sword. I am reading a book about how my body works. It's 330 pages long. I've read 23 pages to my Mama. We have learned about eyeballs and hair follicles. I'm excited to learn about the bones, muscles and the body parts. That's all I have to say.

Mama & Baby: Mama and the Pipp (that's what we call her for now) are doing fine. I'm feeling those last month of pregnancy pains. By the end of the day my ankles are swollen and I'm asleep by 9 every night and up every few hours to use the bathroom, but we are healthy and happy so I really shouldn't complain. I start going to the doctor every week next Tuesday. So far we're measuring right on track, so I doubt that we'll get to have another sonogram before she's born, which is kind of a bummer, but that's okay. She's kicking like crazy and I spend far too much time watching my belly roll from side to side or feeling her hiccups. I can't wait to see her and get to know her even more.

THE END OF THE STORY. TO BE CONTINUED.....*

* Said by Henry. Have a great week. I promise to be back next week pumpkin patch photos. : )

Weekly Update 9.19.11

The boys are on a bike ride which means that I can type this post without a tiny person hanging on my arm. I do still have the tiniest person kicking me in the bladder, but that cannot be helped for another 9 weeks. That's right, we are in the single digit weeks now. I am feeling okay. Not as good as a month ago, but not as bad as 5 months ago. The baby's kicks are getting pretty serious. When I feel a kick I can't help but give her a few taps back and she usually kicks me again in the same spot. The heartburn and sleeplessness is back and now that it is getting cooler outside I am really feeling sorry for myself that I can't have a nice warm cup of coffee in the morning. But I can't really complain.
The baby is almost 16 inches now and about 3 lbs. She is going to be gaining about a half a pound a week from now on so I imagine that those kicks will lessen as she fills out and there is less room for her karate style antics.
This week has been nice. We've had amazing weather again. In fact, it's actually kind of cold. I'm wearing a sweater today and on Thursday and Friday I had to send Henry to school in pants and a long sleeved shirt. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten him any winter school clothes yet, so I guess it's already time for another round of uniform shopping.
Picking up Henry has become one of my favorite parts of the day. Imagine it, a group of 5 and 6 year old kids, all perfectly lined up by the door waiting to come out and all their parents standing outside, happy see their kiddos. Little girls walking out in their navy blue skirts or khaki jumpers and little boys with their flat front khaki pants and polo shirts nicely tucked in, all with their backpacks on their backs, excitedly walking out the door in search of their parents. And then, imagine a tall blond boy, a full 6 inches taller than any other kid in the line. His polo is untucked and covered in yellow and blue marker spots, as are his hands and you can barely make out where marker spots have transfered over on to his face. One of his backpack straps is pulled over his forehead, the other is wrapped around the top of one of his arms and all of the papers that should be in his backpack are in a wad in his hand. He runs over when he sees me and we stop for a second so that he can show me all the artwork, schoolwork, handouts and the library books from the day. Then we walk across the park as he tells me about school, usually starting with whatever game he played in PE. Friday it was cops and robbers. He liked being a robber (of course).
My coworkers threw a shower for me on Thursday. It was short and pretty low key, just like I like a shower to be. People brought some yummy food and gave me some lovely gifts. It was fun to celebrate with old and new friends.
The cool breeze last week reminded us that we wanted to put a screen door on our front door. Wade went out on Sunday and found a basic one and he and Henry put it on this morning. Henry LOVES helping with projects. He loves to use the tape measure and the tools. The door looks good and the breeze this morning was wonderful. The cat likes it too. Today Henry and I are going to start sanding down his bedframe, bake some pumpkin bread and plant some mums. I'm looking forward to the house smelling like fresh air and pumpkin bread.

Have a great week friends.

Weekly update 9.11.11

Hello people. I need to apologize right up front, I am going on 3 hours of sleep and just worked a 9 1/2 hour day, so there is a strong possibility that this post may be rambling, thank goodness for spell check or you might not be able to read it at all. Last week was great. The weather was perfect, it was box fan in the window kinda weather.
Saturday we headed out to Mass St for the band day parade. I was super excited that I remembered my camera until I realized that Henry was making this face for every photograph. I'm not sure what that's about. The first band was the KU band, they played the fight song and got everyone pumped up. Henry says that the KU band was his favorite because they had a girl in front throwing a baton. It was pretty amazing. Then we headed over to our favorite burger place for some veggie burgers and chili dogs. I had to beg him to make a normal face for this picture. So I guess this is his "appeasing his mother" face. I'm sure I'll see a lot of it in the years to come. And then it was back home for a quick shower to get ready for a wedding in KC. Henry had a good time at the wedding but he refused to go up on the dance floor to dance, he claimed to be too shy. Instead, when the music hit him just right, he would dance on his chair, which caused sort of the opposite response he was looking for as more and more people came over to watch his dance moves. He ate 3 pieces of cake and still managed to fall asleep 20 minutes after we got home. Sunday was a slow day. We went to breakfast our our favorite breakfast place and then Henry headed over to Aunt Kelly's to play for an hour while I went to the store. We brought a very late birthday gift over to Gigi and Grandpa's and visited with them for a while. We blew some bubbles and cleaned the house a little....standard weekend stuff. So here's what's up with the fam:

Henry:
School is going great. Maybe a little too great. When I came to pick him up today he walked over with a smile that I haven't seen before. I quickly found out that Elsa gave him two kisses on his cheek today and that he was feeling VERY romantic. Oh dear. He is walking around the house spelling words and speaking in Spanish and singing silly kid songs that all of us sang in grade school (trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat). He has been making mazes for Wade and I and I have to admit, they are pretty tough.

Wade:
Work has been crazy for Wade so he has been working a TON. That's about all I have to say about it. Nobody likes it when Papa isn't home.

Laura + Baby:
We are doing pretty well. I had my 29 week appointment last week and everything checked out great. The baby's heart rate was 140 and I'm measuring right on track. The doctor gave me the paperwork to register at the hospital which threw me for a loop. Time is just going so fast with this pregnancy. I guess we are almost to week 30, counting down to single digit weeks. The baby is kicking a lot. Big kicks and little tickles. She likes to get going around 3 am and keeps going on and off until my alarm goes off at 5 (hence my lack of sleep last night). But I'm not complaining, I love those little wiggles. Well, maybe not the ones that involve her using my bladder as a trampoline, but all the other ones.

Well, I guess that's all I have for this week. Henry is hanging on my arm asking me every 2 minutes if I am done yet and it's driving me bonkers, plus he keeps wiping his nose on my arm. Little boys are gross (oh great he just read that now he is licking my arm. Seriously.)

Have a great week.

Weekly Update 9.5.11

We have been pretty much out of commission this weekend. Henry brought the sore throat/sniffles home from school this week and shared it with the whole family, even Grandpa. Fortunately, Henry started feeling better on Saturday, right about the time that Mama started feeling bad. It has been a challenge for two under-the-weather parents to keep up with him, but we've managed. And I can't complain too much because we got to have the windows open all weekend and had some of the nicest weather we have seen in months. We did venture outside long enough to check out the monarch larvae that has been chewing up our geraniums. We had 14 caterpillars in the yard on Saturday, today we have 4 and lots of brand new monarchs hanging from our peonies bushes. Tonight I made a big pot of lentil soup and homemade biscuits for dinner; I am attempting to raise my iron level without having to take those nasty iron supplements...and plus it's just good get-better food. Hope you guys had a great weekend. We'll have a better update next weekend, I promise.

Gigi and Henry

Laurie,
Henry and I were just battling and after we were done he told me I had to build a new man (note: Henry is in to Lego Hero guys right now and he likes to make them battle whenever he can find someone to battle with). I asked him to do it for me--he said no, that I had to do it. And then with a straight face he asked me if I needed to watch a tutorial--I asked if it was long and he said no, and then he proceeded to give me the tutorial.
Love,
Mom

Weekly Update 8.28.11

An interview with a Kindergartener.
M: Henry how was your first week of school?
H: Awesome (two thumbs up)
M: What was your favorite class?
H: P.E. with Mr. Kennedy
M: What your favorite game?
H: Crash cars
M: How did you feel the first day?
H: Scared but had a great time.
M: Did you learn anything new?
H: I learned how to play crash cars and a couple new other games.
M: Did you make any new friends?
H: About 7.
M: Did you get in any trouble?
H: Really? Really? No. But that was a good question.
M: What's different about being a Kindergartener vs. being a preschooler?
H: Duh. It's funner.
M: Anything else you'd like to say about Kindergarten?
H: Yeah. Hmmmm. There is nothing else really.

Update 8.21.11

Once again I have been busted in the back bedroom at 7 am by the little bean. I swear he sleeps until 9 during the week, I really just don't know how he knows that I'm up on the weekends. At any rate, he is snuggled in watching cartoons for now, so I have a few minutes to give you a very overdue update. The past few weeks have been crazy! We have had something going on every weekend and a lot of weekdays. Which is saying a lot for self-described homebodies. We've had a friend stay for the weekend, going away parties, registration at Henry's school, Mama's birthday, a baby shower, family in town and a whole lot of other stuff going on that I can't think of at the moment. Here's the shake down:

Henry: It's been hot lately. So hot that even a busy 5 year old doesn't want to have anything to do with it. So Gigi has had to get creative with her daytime activities. Two weeks ago they headed to the Lego exhibit in Topeka. Henry loves everything Lego and had a great time. This pic was one of my favorites. Gigi said that they spent most of their time in a gift shop reading a 200 page book about the history of Legos. They stopped for ice cream on the way home and popped to campus for one last photo at the tree sculpture (they tore it down this weekend). Henry has also just recently completed his first session of swimming lessons. It's amazing how far he has come in just two weeks. He is floating and "pushing and pulling" (I'm not sure what that means but he is very proud of it), and sticks his head underwater every chance he gets (even in the bathtub). The teacher said that he caught on very quickly and that she felt he only needed to take level 1 one more time, which is quite an accomplishment. I think most kids do it at least 3 times. He really loves to swim and it is so fun to watch him find activities that he enjoys and is good at. He has gone to the pool with Gigi since swimming lessons ended and all he wants to do is practice. No slides, no walking across the lily pads, just practice. I hope he is that diligent when it comes to school. Here are some pics from swimming lessons. I love this one, even though he's blurry, because I remember standing on the side of the pool, listening to my teacher and doing that same "I'm freezing" dance. And here he is after just sticking his head under water. A major milestone. Kindergarten starts tomorrow so I thought it would be a good idea for us to have a special day that is all about Henry. We called it "Henry Day" and let him pick his activities (with some guidance from Mama, of course). He chose to go to a place in KC called Kaleidoscope. It's a place for kids to explore and be creative. I remember going there as a kid and having a great time and I think Henry did as well.
The entrance to Kaleidoscope: A submarine with tons of buttons that make funny sounds and play music: Outer-space. A room lit by black lights that had two of Henry's favorite activities. Painting space glasses with glow in the dark wax: And a camera that would let him take multiple pictures of himself and project them on the wall. At one point we had a crowd of about 6 people watching to see what crazy photo he would come up with next. My favorite was one of him making a shush face looking one direction and a screaming face looking back at himself. Then he made a puzzle. After he was done drawing his picture he got to send it through the puzzle machine. Very cool. Everything in Kaleidoscope is larger than life, sparkling and colorful. After we left Henry asked if he could redecorate his room to look like it. But I don't think our house is big enough. Our next stop was the fountains outside of Crown Center. He ran around and pretended to be a ninja battling the water for at least 90 minutes. He fell asleep in 2 minutes that night. We are planning to make Henry Day a monthly activity.

We are all set for Kindergarten to start tomorrow. We've filled out 35 different forms, purchased $100 worth of khaki pants and red and navy polos, we have a backpack full of school supplies and even went to the school on Friday to find Henry's cubbie and say hello to the teacher. Henry has two friends from preschool that will be in his class. Both of them are girls and both of them liked to play princess with Henry back in his preschool days. While he seems happy to have people he'll know in his class, he has asked me several times if there will be boys to play with also, because he really gets tired of playing princess games. ;) My hope is that he finds at least one good buddy early on and that he doesn't get bored with school like he did in preschool and that I don't start crying in his classroom when I drop him off. The Bean is a grade school age kid....I can't believe it.

Papa: Wade had a big show a couple of weeks ago in Omaha. It was a success and an adventure. Since then he has been writing songs, doing research on grad school, skateboarding, and taking Henry to see the cats at the Human Society (I have a sneaking suspicion that I am going to come home one day to find a third feline in the house).

Mama + baby girl: We are doing fine. She'll have her wiggly moments and then be quiet for hours, especially when I am busy walking around or talking. She is 14 inches now and almost 2 lbs. My only complaint is that my hips are super sore and rolling over in bed can result in a charlie horse or just a major side cramp. We are about to enter our 3rd trimester which means she'll be putting on the lbs quickly and I'll probably start to feel even more tired and hungry (if that's even possible) and want to clean my entire house but not have the energy to do it so I'll convince my husband to do it. We have a lot still to do before the baby gets here. Painting the room, buying a mattress and crib, finding a way to fit another person's things in to a room full of toys for a 5 year old boy. I think Wade is going to build shelves on the North wall of the room so that we can get rid of the toy chest, dressers and art shelves. Henry wants to paint his bed frame red, which should look pretty neat and will be a job for when it cools off a little this fall. Any of you blog friends that like to paint let me know, we'll have a painting party.
My sisters and Mom threw a baby shower for my sister Susie and I last weekend. I was amazed by the generosity of my extended family and friends. Kelly put a lot of time and effort in to the decorations and Annie and Mom made some fantastic food, including 3 kinds of homemade cupcakes. I sampled all three.
I took my glucose test yesterday and am anxiously awaiting the results. If I fail the test and have gestational diabetes we will be delivering this baby about 3 weeks early, so the first week in November. If I pass it then we could have another Thanksgiving baby. Even though I am not a fan of the turkey dinner in the hospital, I can't think of a anything more appropriate then having a baby on Thanksgiving.

I’ll leave you with a couple of our favorite Henry quotes from the week:

Last night I told Henry that it felt like the baby was dancing in my belly. He said, “Yeah, I put up a disco ball when I was in there. She probably just figured out how to work the lights.”

Thursday morning I gave him a kiss before I left for work. He said, “Goodnight Mama. Don’t let the bed bugs bite.” “Okay,” I whispered. Then he said, “Wait, it’s morning? I mean don’t let the work bugs bite.”

Have a great week (or month) blog friends.