Some of Gray's firsts

First ride in my car seat (leaving the hospital)

First trip to the doctor

 First time in my swing

 First walk in my stroller

 First bath (at home)

 First time meeting my sister

First tummy time

 It's been a busy first two weeks of life!

Gray Christopher

Our sweet boy was born on Sunday, June 10 at 7:42 pm. He was 8 pounds 1 ounce and 22 inches long. No wonder Mama was uncomfortable with that long boy in my short tummy!

My water broke about 2:30 in the morning that Sunday. Paul and I took our time getting our things together and even straightened the house a little before we left for the hospital. Within a half hour after my water broke I was having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. We got to the hospital around 3:45 and I was in a bed within the next 20 minutes. I was still at one and a half centimeters when they first checked me. Soon after we got to the hospital we found out my favorite doctor was on call and would be the one to deliver Gray. She came in a little while later to check me and I had gotten to 3 centimeters and she told me I could go ahead and have my epidural. The contractions were a lot closer together and I did not want to talk through them but they were still somewhat tolerable so I decided I'd wait a little while longer. Soon after that I was already at 4 centimeters. We waited until about 7:30 to call our family because we knew it would be a long day and there was no point in waking them up too early. After calling them Paul and I decided to try to take a walk since I knew I wouldn't be able to get up after getting my epidural. My good friend Renna is in the hospital with pre-term labor and I wanted to walk down to her room to surprise her that I was there in labor. The antepartum unit where she is staying is a hike from labor and delivery but we hadn't even made it half way there and I had to go back the pain was so bad. I told them to get the anesthesiologist in there asap and within five minutes he was there hooking up the juice. I didn't think the epidural was bad at all-the worst part to me was the position you have to be in to get it and the fact that the whole process took about 15 minutes long. Within a few minutes I was completely pain free! Right about that time my family got to the hospital and since I was feeling so good they came in and hung out for several hours. I got stuck at 4 centimeters for a while so they gave me pitocin to intensify the contractions and get things moving. With in just a few hours I had gone from a 4 to an 8! Paul's parents got there about 3:00 and came in and hung out for a while too. I was feeling great and was just so excited that the day had finally arrived that we'd get to meet our little boy. About 5:00 I started feeling a lot of pressure and knew it wouldn't be long before it was go time. I wasn't necessarily in pain but the pressure was so uncomfortable that I was ready for people to leave the room. I started pushing about 6:30 and our little Gray was out at 7:42. The whole pushing process was so much more intense than I thought it would be, especially since I hadn't been in pain most of the day. There were times that I remember saying "I can't do this anymore" but with an awesome husband/labor coach and my wonderful doctor and nurses, I was encouraged to keep going. I'll skip the rest of labor details but let's just say it was the hardest thing I have EVER done!

When I first laid eyes on our son though, it was immediately all so worth it. Even the last 6-8 weeks of "misery" I had endured with pregnancy. The emotions and joy that I felt the first moment I saw him are indescribable, and all you moms out there know exactly what I mean. Paul and I have never felt more blessed. These are a few pictures that were taken right after he was born.

I had a rough time recovering from labor. Every muscle in my body was sore, not to mention all the other pain that comes with pushing a person out of yourself. We were about ready to go home on Tuesday and I noticed my bleeding had really picked up. We called the nurses in there and they came right in to check me. They pushed on my stomach and the next thing I knew it felt like I was delivering another baby. I had several blood clots the size of grape fruits. It was one of the scariest thing I have ever experienced. The nurses got everything cleaned up and wanted to check me one more time before they would let us go. Unfortunately when they pushed on my belly again, out came two more grape fruit size blood clots. At that point they determined I would have to stay another night. As much as we were looking forward to going home, it was so scary that we wanted to be monitored closely that night. They gave me a shot to control the bleeding and did some blood work to check for other complications. I was fine all night and the next day we were able to go home. We didn't get home until about 5:30 and within a few hours I started feeling sick. For the rest of the night and all day Thursday, I was sick as a dog. Paul had to take care of me and Gray. I slept all day and it was all I could do to wake up and nurse Gray. We called the doctor thinking I was having a reaction to the shot but as it turns out I think I had a 24 hour bug. It was so rough y'all. I woke up Friday feeling like a new person and have felt great since then. I am still a little sore and of course tired (although I am getting far more sleep now than I was the last 6 weeks of pregnancy) but we are loving being at home and are enjoying time with our sweet, sweet son.

We have a lot of pictures and things to blog about so hopefully I will get caught up soon.

38 weeks

Still here. Still pregnant. So all those people who swore I wouldn't make it til June were clearly mistaken. Dang-it!

Gray could be almost 20 inches long by now and over six and a half pounds. My blood pressure got really high again on Tuesday of last week so I called the doctor and they wanted to get some more lab work done so they could check again for protein to rule out preeclampsia. So I had to collect every bit of my urine for 24 hours. Needless to say, I didn't leave the house that day because since I am peeing about every half hour, I didn't want to carry around a plastic pee bowl and bright orange pee bucket with me. And I'm sure y'all will all be so glad I told you this, but I filled up a gallon and a half of those pee buckets in 24 hours. That's a lot of pee! And thankfully all that pee plus four tubes of blood indicated that all of my levels are perfectly normal. Although it would be totally safe for Gray to come at any time now, we are thankful that I do not have preeclampsia.

I went back to the doctor on Friday for my weekly check-up. My blood pressure was back down a little and I had dilated another half of a centimeter. The doctor told me she would be surprised if I made it until my due date, which is exactly two weeks from today. I sure hope she's right but I don't want to get my hopes up. I've been having stronger contractions, some even to the point of almost taking my breath away at first but unfortunately they are not persistent enough to get excited about yet. The doctor I saw Friday made a very similar "bless your heart" comment as last week's doctor when she felt how low he was. She told me not to be surprised if started peeing myself because the pressure of him on my bladder could get even worse. Nice! I've had a cold for about a week now and I think I am going to start an antibiotic tomorrow because it seems like it could be headed in the direction of a sinus infection. I sure don't want to be sick when I go into labor so I am hoping it clears up soon.

Holding out a little bit of hope that tonight's full moon puts me into labor. If not, I guess I'll be back next week for week 39.

37 weeks

It feels like I've been pregnant way longer than 37 weeks! Actually, I can barely even remember what it was like to not be pregnant. It went by so fast until about ten weeks ago or so, and now it is c-r-e-e-p-i-n-g by! And it's especially hard for me to remember looking like this...

But as I've said a million times, I loved the majority of pregnancy and am still so humbled to have been able to even experience it. So never mind that this is what I am looking like these days...

Because even though it will take some time to get rid of this massive bump, very soon I will be looking our son in the face and will immediately forget all about the miserableness!

Now on to week 37. We now have a FULL TERM baby! Praise the Lord for that!! This week Gray is estimated to weigh around six and a third pounds and is a little over 19 inches long. Although he will continue to gain weight, he is fully developed and ready for life outside of the womb at any time now. Did you hear that Gray? You are ready to come out and play now. And mama is really ready for you to come out. Just so you know.

I went to the doctor on Friday and had a little bit of a scare. My blood pressure was high for the first time. The nurse seemed so surprised that she checked it 4 times before taking record of it. Of course they immediately suspected preeclampsia but no protein was showing up in my urine. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor for a while to make sure everything was ok with Gray. It scared me y'all. Everything has been perfect for so many appointments and I went in being so excited to get checked for the first time and next thing I know, I'm being hooked up to all of this stuff. I had to push a button every time I felt Gray move so they could see if his heart rate was going up like it should. The monitor indicated that his heart beat and movement were perfect, which was such a relief. They took an additional urine sample to send off to check for other issues but I never heard anything back that afternoon so I am assuming it was all fine. I have to monitor my blood pressure very closely and if it goes up at all, I have to call the doctor immediately. It's been very inconsistent over the past few days but has not been any higher at all, so that's been comforting. It could still be an early sign of me developing preeclampsia, in which case they will probably either have to schedule an induction or c-section. I don't want either, but most of all I want our baby boy here safe and am willing to do whatever that takes. I'll be pretty anxious to get back to the doctor on Friday.

On a lighter note, I am dilated one centimeter. It's definitely not much to get excited about but at least it's something! When she checked me her exact words were "Bless your heart, he is really giving you pressure and pushing on your bladder!" When I asked her if his head was down she said, "Oh honey, it's definitely down." I knew he was really low and I was pretty certain his head has been down for a while, but it was good to hear for sure. When I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, it showed that I was having some contractions. The nurse had to ask me if I knew I was even having them. When they told me when a contraction was starting, I was able to associate it with what I was feeling. I've thought I was having them here and there, but they haven't been very painful yet and I just didn't know for sure if that's what it was. Now that I am certain, I've been feeling them off and on all weekend. I am to the point of being willing to do anything to get this boy out, so I wanted to walk yesterday. The heat makes my swelling worse so we went to the mall and walked for about an hour. I definitely felt the contractions get stronger and more frequent with walking but it still wasn't anything to get excited about yet. I literally had to stop at every department store to pee and we got several stares, laughs and comments by more obnoxious people, but don't think that's going to stop me from trying to walk this baby out!

I'm not going to hold my breath, but it would be really exciting if my next post was about Gray's birth instead of week 38 ;)

36 Weeks

Another week of waddling down, only 4-ish more to go. Maybe less if we're lucky. Did I say that last week? ;)

Gray weighs about 6 pounds this week and will continue to gain about an ounce everyday from here on out. He is about 18 and a half inches long. It's hard to tell if he is really big or if mama's so short that he just really doesn't have much room in there. Either way, I can feel his sweet little body parts from one side of me to the other. His movements continue to get more and more uncomfortable, although I still LOVE it every time I feel him. He is big enough though that his movements can be seen by someone sitting across the room. I love to just sit and watch my belly and imagine what that little booger is doing in there. Sometimes my entire belly is completely lop-sided and it looks so weird.

I am almost to the point of being "over" pregnancy. It's been such an amazing experience and I have loved it but am just so big, so uncomfortable and so, so ready to meet our little guy. At this point it is very likely that I will get more rest when Gray is born than I am now. I am not sleeping more than an hour and a half at a time, between bathroom breaks and trying to get comfortable. I'd much rather be up nursing or changing diapers every other hour than peeing and fighting getting this huge belly back in bed. The swelling has still been bad but is somewhat off and on. Usually I can get it to go down some by elevating my legs but I am starting to see it stick around more and more. Pretty soon I'll have no choice but to wear my slippers out in public because none of my shoes fit these fat feet.

All of Gray's clothes and all of the nursery items have been washed in sweet smelling baby detergent and are good to go. We went to the fire department and got our car seat installed this weekend. The only thing left to do is decide on a pediatrician. Paul is going to try to take a day off next week so we can visit some pediatrician's offices and make a decision. We can wait until we're in the hospital to make the decision but I'd rather know before then.

We had our last birthing class last night. We learned all about the postpartum joys; the pain, the bleeding, the swelling, the hormones going crazy, I could go on and on. Surprisingly though, it didn't freak me out one bit. I think I am just so ready for Gray to come out that I am up for anything at this point (not that I have a choice, but you know what I mean). We also got a tour of the labor and delivery and mother/baby floors and learned how and where to check in when it's go time. They are having a very slow baby week and had a lot of open rooms and y'all, I was willing to pay big money to just check right on in last night. But instead I'll just work on  my patience and wait on our sweet little man to come when he is ready.

35 weeks!

Only about five more weeks to go! Maybe a little less if we're lucky ;)

This week our boy weighs about five and a quarter pounds and is a little over 18 inches long. He only has two more weeks until he'll be considered a full term baby! His kidneys are fully developed at this point and his lungs and brain are close to being done too. Mostly he is just working on packing on pounds for the last few weeks.

I went to the doctor on Friday and everything checked out great. I'd only gained two pounds in the last two weeks which was good news to me. It was my first time seeing this particular doctor and I really liked him a lot. It helped that he told me everything was "perfect", including my weight and belly measurement. For some reason he didn't say that my belly was measuring as if there were two in there. I wish I could take him everywhere I go so he could answer to all of the obnoxious people I seem to run in to. Like the one at Target today who said, "When are you due-today?" When I told her it was more like five weeks she said "Must be twins." My friend Meredith was with me so it made it a little easier to laugh it off this time.

Apparently this is what one looks like at 35 weeks when pregnant with twins...

I've started packing Gray's hospital bag and plan on getting mine going this week too. Each week gets harder and harder to move around and do things and with the swelling getting worse too, I really want to try to have everything done in the next week or so. Paul and I have starting getting things we still need from our registry and we plan on getting the car seat installed this weekend.

I go back to the doctor next week and they will check things out down there for the first time to see if I have effaced and/or dilated yet. From then I will go weekly until baby boy decides to make his grand entrance.

I'm going to be a mommy real soon y'all. Crazy, but oh so exciting!

Weekend Recap

Most of the weekend was spent celebrating the wedding of my good friend Meredith, and her now husband Chad Tucker. If that names sounds familiar to you, it's probably because you've seen him reporting on Fox 8 news. Chad is a great guy and they really couldn't be more suited for each other. Meredith and I went to high school together but she was a year behind me and we never knew each other well then. We became good friends about 5 years or so ago and have even been to Africa together twice. She has shared in so many of her friends joy as they/we have gotten married and we've been praying and waiting for her husband for a long time. It was so exciting finally getting to celebrate her wedding.

The wedding festivities started with a bridal brunch on Friday downtown at the Screaming Rooster. I'd never been there before and it was a super cute place. Meredith is a hair stylist and is always super fashionable. She's one of those people that looks gorgeous in anything. She loves hats so in honor of that, we all wore one at the brunch. She brought a bunch extra for people like me who don't own a funky hat, because we look ridiculous in them. It may be hard to believe with as silly as I look in this hat, but Meredith can totally pull it off. And it definitely belongs on her and not me!

The brunch was a lot of fun and we even got to meet some movie producers that are here filming the new movie with Owen Wilson. Did y'all hear he was hanging at Mozelle's last weekend? The producers were fun to talk to and they told us how much they are loving Winston and all the southern-ness (pretty sure that is not a word) of good 'ol NC. 

After the brunch everybody headed out to the wedding venue to help with decorations. This big mama went home to put my swollen feet up before the rehearsal dinner. I guess I shouldn't even say "venue"; the wedding was at the home of a couple that Chad knows. Their beautiful home and farm is about an hour away in the mountains and was one of the most stunning places I have ever seen in my life. We had a delicious southern rehearsal dinner consisting of two of my favorite foods,  BBQ and mac and cheese.

Saturday we got there several hours before the wedding to take pictures and whatnot. Meredith and Chad technically only had one bridesmaid and one groomsmen and the rest of us were considered "honorary". We still walked down the ailse and did everything a wedding party would do, but Meredith didn't want us to all have to buy a dress we'd never wear again and have to worry about all the other stuff that comes along with being a bridesmaid. It was really laid back and I loved that she did things that way. We got to wear whatever we wanted, as long as it at least somewhat went with the royal blue and green wedding colors. It's obvious how much Meredith loves pregnant bellies when she insisted I be a part of her wedding, even though I told her months ago I'd be huge by her big day.

The wedding could not have been more perfect.

Sunday was baby dedication day at church. They have two a year-one every Mother's Day and one in November right around Thanksgiving, which is when we'll be dedicating Gray. We knew several couples who were dedicating their babies and it was such a sweet time. Then our pastor delivered an awesome sermon on women and mothers. Although much of it will not be easy, Paul and I are so excited to become parents soon and plan on trying our very best every day to do life, marriage and parenthood God's way.

I guess you can say I celebrated my first Mother's Day yesterday. Although I don't feel 100% like a mommy yet, it was still a very special day. Paul got me the sweetest card and a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores. My family all got together last night to celebrate all of the mothers. My brother grilled salmon and KING CRAB legs!!! It was so delicious and we all had a great night. We are blessed with wonderful family. It's crazy to think that next Mother's Day we'll have an almost one year old!

Y'all have a good week!