It's only been a month?!!!?

Pics from this week:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Aubreyslye/HarrisonWeekFour#
(the projectile poop pics are graphic, so beware!)

Wow! I feel like Harrison should be turning two! I guess when you spend so much time with just one person, you feel like you've known them forever. Yep, 24/7 with my little man and I'm more in love than ever.

At one month, Harrison is weighing a little more than 9 lbs. and looks like he's grown an inch or so... he's outgrown his newborn clothes, and has a defined double chin now. With most babies, this will obviously go away when they hit a certain age, but I'm afraid with Harrison that it's here to stay - the Smith genes have proven their domination in this child! :)

What a week! Mom came into town Wednesday and was supposed to leave Sunday morning, but I begged her to stay just one more night, changed her flight, and took her to the airport just yesterday! I'm not sure if I would have made it through my days without her. With the help of our awesome pediatrician and a lactation consultant, David and I finally pinpointed the "colic" issue and we've been working very hard to correct it for both our sanity and his health! Bottom line is that Harrison wasn't getting enough food at night b/c my milk supply was so low by that point. Yes, I felt like a horrible mother for "starving" him, but he gained 10 ounces in a week to make up for it thank goodness! Unfortunately, I might not have the supply that a baby needs, but we're doing what we can (I'm pooped!) and will supplement in the future when we have to. Harrison is a lot happier with a top-off from pumped milk, that's for sure! The poor guy has been through a lot of trial and error this week, but at least his tummy has been full for the most part! :) (NOTE if you are pregnant - have a lactation consultant come to your house when you get home from the hospital - they are SO helpful and I wish I would have done it sooner.)

I'm looking forward to month 2 - I'm hoping to really get into a routine and eventually get him sleeping in his crib and out of our bedroom. I don't know - maybe that would be worse... I'm not sure I'll be able to do it... at least now I can just lean over and feel if he's still breathing! I guess it's true that every mother does this with their newborn! We're also looking forward to being less house bound by the end of the month - David and I are really ready to hit up our favorite restaurants again! And, we're headed to GA for Thanksgiving - I'll be staying a week and a half - and cannot wait! So much has changed in our lives this month and I look forward to seeing what this month two has to offer!

I HATED posing for these pictures for my Grandma, but at least my acne is clearing up!

Harrison welcomed Grandma with a projectile poop - 3 feet across the changing table onto the floor and all down his back, and legs! He was about to get his bum washed here!

When Harrison is red in the face, he's usually pooping. Here, he is pooping while doing his best Austin Powers pose.

Finally - a night away! We only lasted until 1030, but it was so much fun to be with friends at Sherri and DJ's wedding!

The terrible two's, I mean three's.... Harrison is Three Weeks Old!

More PICS:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Aubreyslye/HarrisonWeekThree#

Well, I spoke too soon. It was obviously too good to be true - never again will I write about a huge milestone like sleeping 5 1/2 hours!!! We are back to square one, sleeping when we can, as Mr. Harrison is waking me up just about every 3 hours during the night to feed. This means I get about 2 hours of sleep, in 2-3 different intervals... Yeah, it may sound like enough sleep BUT IT ISN'T! If you're reading this and you lived with me in college, you know what I'm talking about. Remember, Tara, Megan, Katie, Tiff, Stacy, and MB?? - remember yall fighting over who had to wake me up from my naps??!!!?? EXACTLY. Now you know how sleep deprived I am right now!!! :)

On a positive note, Harrison is growing everyday. He's weighing in at 8 1/2 lbs, and considering our lowest post-hospital weight of 6 lbs 14 oz., we are pumped about this! His umbilical cord FINALLY fell off and now we're just waiting on it to look like a regular belly button! He's started to smile, which ofcourse just melts our hearts. We just stare at him all the time and laugh at his funny faces - I've got to get them posted on video at some point!

Unfortunately, starting about Wednesday night, we hit a little colic phase. David and I both are about to poke our eyes out between the hours of 6pm and 1am every night! You can see in the pictures taken later in the week and this weekend, that Mr. Man has developed BABY ACNE because he's been stressing himself out so much! I'm talking not just crying, but SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER! We went to the doctor yesterday and we've got a few things we're trying to help get us through this little stage. Keep us in your prayers!!! :)

My Mom arrives tomorrow. I've literally been counting down the hours, and now the minutes! David and I have our good friends', Sherri and DJ, wedding to go to Saturday night, so we'll see how that works out. I'm really looking forward to getting out. It's been feeding, changing, bathing, cleaning everyday for 3 weeks!

My sweet boy!

Mom PLEASE unbutton my top button. I look like such a gatech.edu dork!

That's better Mom.. you're so crazy! I'm going to get you back starting tonight!

A kodak moment - Grandpa calming Harrison from his blood curdling scream. Thank you Grandpa!

Why are you making me do this, MOM and DAD?

Seriously people. I'm so over this. Peace OUT!

Even though I am so B-A-D at night and I've got acne from stressing myself out, I still know how to melt my Mommy and Daddy's heart!

Harrison is Two Weeks Old!

Today marks Harrison's 2nd week! It also marks the day that David went back to work from paternity leave. :( I miss him so much - 4 hands are better than 2! Neither of us can fathom having twins after taking care of Harrison for just two weeks!

We've accomplished some milestones this past week - On Sunday, Harrison smiled at both of us for the first time. Granted, it was probably gas, but hey, it was a smile! We've also been introduced to the "tucking" of the pee pee to help prevent wee wee from leaking out of his diaper. It's not 100% fool proof because the umbilical cord still has not fallen off, so we are still having to fold the diaper down, but it's helping.... thank you Rebecca H and Kristin for introducing me to this! As of Sunday, we were going through about 16-20 diapers a day and changing about 5-6 outfits because of diaper leaks. Yes, we are using Swaddlers, but now that the "tuck" is in effect, we are not changing as many clothes - thank goodness! David is planning on investing in diapers.

Probably our biggest milestone of the week (for David and me, at least) was sleeping 5 1/2 hours straight through the night!!! Harrison probably could sleep longer (yay!), but I still want to feed him at least 8 times a day, so I wake him up at 6am to feed. We are sooo lucky to get a stretch of sleep this long and hope it lasts... keep your fingers crossed for us!

We are having so much fun being new parents and watching him change is amazing - everyday there is something a little different in how he looks or how he acts! Stay tuned....

Please see more pics at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Aubreyslye/HarrisonWeekTwo#

Harrison's been a huge help with the household chores!


Getting ready for my bath after Mom finishes pancakes in bed - another plus of having Dad at home!
























Watching the UT - OU game with Daddy... I peed my pants about 10 minutes after this was taken. :( And then again an hour later. And, a few hours after that, and so on...

The Wee Wee Diaries

I have experienced today what I never wanted to experience... I was changing Harrison's diaper, and was talking to him while bending down to put vaseline on his little circumcised pee pee to keep it from sticking to the diaper, when suddenly he decided to LET IT FLY! HE PEED IN MY MOUTH!!! I jumped back, moving his positioning, and then it went all over the wall! The power of this little guy's bladder is RIDICULOUS!

And to top it off, I SWEAR he was smiling after he finished! No boob for him!

1 week doctor's appointment!

Yesterday, Harrison had his first check up and passed with flying colors! He's surpassed his birthweight - YAY! And, he is measuring close to 21 inches long. David was watching the assistant in the hospital measure him and commented that she didn't pull his little leg all the way down, so he felt Harrison was shorted a few centimeters on his birthday!! Well, from 19.5 to almost 21 inches means he was shorted over an INCH! Now we're really banking on a Heisman Trophy Winner!!!

The heel prick was traumatic for me, but now i'm cozy in my blanket, with my wubba nub. My Dad is the KING of swaddling!

He's Here!

2 days old

2 days old

We are so in love. David and I just can't get enough of this little guy. This is what life is all about!

The past week has been wonderful. Hard, but wonderful. My delivery was very fast for a first time delivery, but very difficult.

We checked in to St. Luke's at 830pm on Monday evening with hopes of starting the process by 9pm. The were putting a balloon in to start things before the pitossin was introduced the next morning. Unfortunately, the residents were backed up with emergencies, so I was not seen until around midnight. By this time, I had taken an Ambien to sleep through the night. Because of the late start, I took the Ambien a lot later than I wanted... probably not the best idea! By the time they were ready to start the pitossin at 5am, I was in REM sleep and opening my eyes was the hardest thing to do! But, low and behold... an hour later I was screaming for an epidural as David helped me through each contraction. They were getting closer and closer, and my water broke around 630am, gushing on the floor - what a crazy sight! Think "The Exorcist" and you can imagine the screaming that ensued! The nurses had not thought that I was ready for the epidural because the "balloon" had not fallen out (it falls out at 3-4cm), but by the time they checked me, I was already 6-7 cm dilated! They were dumbfounded and embarrassed... APPARENTLY the balloon does not "fall out" with everyone!!! I was literally about to kill everyone but David that walked through that door without an epidural! Finally the epidural came - at 7cm dilation!!!! Within an hour after that, I was 9-10cm (I think this was around 8am), and David was on the phone with our parents urging them to get to the hospital asap.

We were hoping it would only take an hour of pushing, but as we all knew, Harrison DID NOT want to come out!!! Three hours of pushing later and Harrison Philip emerged with big cheeks and ready to eat!

The days we spent in the hospital were great - St. Luke's is an exceptional hospital. We loved our L&D nurse, Carrie, and our postpartem nurse, Felishia. Not to mention that our OB is like family to us. She was absolutely amazing, coming to check on us multiple times a day, with her last stop being at 1130pm.... she is truly devoted to her work. We love her so much!

When we arrived home, Mom had a fabulous meal for us and continued to cook, clean, and babysit for 4 days straight. It has been amazing because I am on a pain cocktail for a few weeks and have been ordered to take care of the baby only, in addition to only lounging around and letting things heal! The past three nights, she's been the "nursery" for Harrison just to give us a break before we're totally on our own. We tried being our own "nursery" for the first night home, but that was an absolute disaster and we were both train wrecks the entire day that followed!

So, now that we're slowly settling into a routine and Harrison is sleeping better, we're on our own!!! I cried for an hour this morning before David and Mom left for the airport, but she left me with so much strength and love that I have no doubt David and I will be able to get through our first weeks of parenting together. And don't worry - she'll be back in 3 weeks to visit, I'm sure going through withdrawals from Harrison at that point!

First Days/Homecoming:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Aubreyslye/HarrisonPhilipSlyeSFirst3Days#

More Pics from Week One

http://picasaweb.google.com/Aubreyslye/HarrisonWeekOne#

5 days old - I love my Wubba Nub - Thank you Miss Taylor!

It's HERE!

I can't believe that tonight is the night when David and I will check in to St. Luke's to begin our induction! We're taking the day to do some last minute things and to greet my parents when they fly in later in the afternoon. We'll head to the hospital around 730pm, and the "prep" process begins.

Around 5 or 6am tomorrow morning, I will be given Pitossin and a big, fat epidural. My mom delivered Andy and me in 6 hours, so I'm hoping for a short delivery, but expecting at least 12 hours!

Finally, we will be this mystery man! YAY!

The Last Days

Only a day before we head to the hospital to begin our induction process! It's hard to believe the time is finally here!

Last night David took me to dinner at Cafe Annie - one of my favorite restaurants in Houston - for my birthday. We met a couple there, with 2 kids at home, who expressed the importance in still going out and having "date night" even after kids enter the picture! With that said, we've seen 4 movies in the past weeks and a half, and have visited several of our favorite restaurants one last time before having to pay for a sitter!

BIRTH Day and Healthy Babies

We're sitting here watching football on this beautiful fall day - David is obsessed, as you know. And in addition to being just generally obsessed, the Texas/Arkansas game is on today. I've learned a lot about the Big 12 the past few years - and feel somewhat disloyal to the ACC, but count on my Dad to keep me informed about everything going on with the Ramblin' Wreck. Having never cared about football other than the tailgating, I've found myself being a little more interested since I'm going to have a little boy in just 3 days!


This morning, I woke up a year older, but feeling the same as I did yesterday. I had always "planned" on having a baby at the age of 28(that's how old my Mom was), but a mere 3 days will separate me from following my little joke of a "plan" called LIFE! HA - serves me right! And, this is actually very typical... it seems that when I try to plan the most, God steps in just to say, "I'm the one in control, Aubrey... hold your horses and let me do my work."


I was reminded of this again this morning when I headed over to Texas Children's Hospital to volunteer. For Jr. League, we are required to complete 36 hours at TCH, and my rotation is doing puppetry for the cancer patients. Today, we had a good crowd of children - all hooked to IVs , most bald and swollen from steroids, and some in greatest pain you could imagine. They wear little booties on their swollen feet, because chemotherapy causes tender hands and feet, and they have bruises from being poked and prodded during treatments. Unless they are wearing blue or pink, it's always hard to tell the little boys from the girls, as they are all so swollen, bald, and in hospital gowns.


As soon as our music starts, and our puppets begin their show, the clapping and smiling begin. Sometimes it takes these children a few songs of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" and "Celebrate" before they will let a smile peak through, but most of the time we are lucky enough to have everyone clapping and smiling by the time the CD finishes. Even though I have been pregnant the entire time I've been putting on these puppet shows, today it became clearer than ever that there is nothing keeping David and me from sitting in that same playroom on the 16th floor at TCH in years to come. Yes, we all want our children to be "healthy," but when you see the pain and sadness on these children's faces, there is nothing more that you want than to protect your child from ever having to feel what these children are feeling. With only 3 days until my sweet child arrives, I will be blowing out my 29 birthday candles tonight, praying for a LIFE of health for my baby.


Once again, God has subtly reminded me of who is in control.

Very Little Progress - almost 39 weeks

Just got back from seeing the OB and I have not dilated ANY in the past week! We scheduled the induction for next Tuesday the 30th. I'll arrive at the hospital on Monday evening, and will be induced early Tuesday morning. We're still hoping by some miracle that my cervix of steel allows us to deliver this baby without having to induce~!




39 weeks

Eggplant Parmesan DOES NOT WORK.

Whatever. I am SO OVER trying all these stupid old wives' tales on how to bring on labor. Last night I ate the nastified - Eggplant Parmesan. Imagine a slimy mushroom with seeds... exactly. I force-fed myself, as it was officially the last resort, and NOTHING HAPPENED besides 7 trips to the bathroom throughout the night.

I have 7 days until we induce - I want him to come before then, but I just have a feeling that he won't, so September 30th it is. Bah, humbug.

Sausage and False Alarms

Friday afternoon, a few neighbors and I went to see The Women - cute movie without a SINGLE MALE ACTOR SHOWN! The first 1/2 of the movie I honestly thought I was in labor, and was waiting on my water to break - how exciting that would have been! But, to no avail, I walked out of the theater 2 hours later with a baby still in tact in my larger than life belly.

Friday evening, there were a few gatherings at different homes in the neighborhood. At the final house we went to, I received the BEST PREGNANCY COMMENT YET! Seriously - this is called going out with a BANG!

Drunken uncle of the birthday girl says to me:
"I told your husband that it looks like you were having twins in there, but I don't know... It might even be a SMALL CALF!!!!!!!!"

Seriously - ARE YOU RETARDED or just SOCIALLY STUPID? WHO SAYS THAT???!!!!??? Blood rushed to my face and I could see David eyeing me, hoping I didn't go complete bonkers on this guys. He slowly put his arm around me and got me out of that situation very quickly!!! I knew one of us was about to punch this guys lights out, and i was READY for action!

Saturday was filled with clean-up and getting our bedroom somewhat back to normal. We had the carpet cleaners come Saturday morning to clean the entire upstairs, in addition to the spot that had water damage. Never in my life have I met 2 guys who were the epitomy of PCB or Bust (Panama City Beach or Bust)!!! After dirtying our carpet more (yes, they wore black soled boots on our carpet), we watched them like hawks then sent them packing!

Sat. afternoon, I headed to Sears to pick up David's pushing present....

He's enamored with it, let me tell you! ;)

Despite my 3 mile walks, spicy food, Raspbery Leaf Tea, squats, and prayers, Harrison is still tucked away. Saturday night I met some gals out to shower my girlfriend Sherri with lingere and to celebrate her last days of being somewhat single... we celebrated at a Mexican restaurant and I even loaded up on jalapenos (eewwww!). I started contracting a lot during dinner, so when I got home, I gave David two options - we clean the entire upstairs or go walking.... gotta keep these contractions growing.... STILL NOTHING! :0

So, after Mexican, jalapenos, and another long walk this morning, my fingers and toes resemble

Hopefully with a little lemon water we'll be back to normal tonight.... keep your fingers crossed for labor pains tonight!

The Aftermath of IKE

A few pics from the evening of the hurricane:

The Zorns with Nathan - 6 days old! (They stayed with us b/c they live on a flood plane, near a bayou...)

The skyline before the hurricane hit

Ryan savoring the power that we were about to lose

The Best Sport I know - Lisa definitely has been through a lot the past two weeks and they STILL DONT HAVE POWER so are now staying in their 4th bed since IKE.

David catching up on ESPN before having to go days without a fix!

Nathan trying out Harrison's swing!

Our house before... David cleaned off all my plants from the the front veranda, but that was all the outside preparation we could do. We were just praying the pine trees across the street didn't fall on us!

The morning after:

After: only 1 tree down!

So tired, with Nathan

David and Ryan went to check out their house. This is Brays Bayou, which you can usually see the bottom of.

Flooding

Lisa and Ryan's front yard - The tree limb was 2 feet from the baby's room!

Near our neighborhood

Close call near out neighborhood

The clean up begins..... I was able to put 3 big pieces of salmon that my dad brought me from Alaska in a neighbor's freezer who had a generator. Other than that, we pretty much lost eveything we couldn't fit in our two coolers.... eggs, turkey, milk, OJ - just the essentials!

Houston, we have a leak!
When we arrived home from Brenham on Tuesday, we found a leak that had soaked through the sheetrock and into the carpet. I was always scared of the huge window in our bedroom. We don't have a house built behind us yet to shield us, so strong winds are scary. This was the main reason I slept in the closet last Friday night!

Our bedroom before:

I took pictures of every room in our house before the hurricane for insurance purposes, in the event of major damage. You can see the window is huge and definitely creaks with high wind. Our builder said this was normal and they make big windows to "give" a little, but WHATEVER! I was not taking the chance!

The repair process - small in comparison to so many people, but still frustrating. We are sleeping in the guest bedroom to stay away from the mold, and hope to be back into our bedroom by the time Harrison comes... (who knows when that will be). They sheetrocked today and are painting and finishing up tomorrow. David has lined up carpet cleaners to come on Saturday, then we'll be back to normal in the Slye household.

As for power, last night (Wednesday), it was restored in our neighborhood!!! YAY! David and I were packed and head for his parents' house, but were able to come home and clean and do laundry instead. We had watched the crew work on the lines all day... many of them were from out of town and one that we spoke to was in from Kansas and had slept in his truck the night before. I fixed them goodie bags of snacks and stuck out my belly a little further (not that there is much room to do this) in hopes getting our power turned back on through pure sympathy and guilt!!!!! ;) The crews are really working so hard - there are trees down everywhere and traffic is a bear due to the lack of street lights working. Many of my friends do not have power, as we are definitely lucky.

My friend Sherri sent me this link that has some good footage from the storm - you can really see how devestating this was for Galveston and Houston.

http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html

Baby Update:

Yesterday I went to my OB for a checkup and was contracting very strongly. Ofcourse, they are intermittent, but we know we are getting very close. I have begun to dilate and Damla is thinking within the next week we'll be meeting Harrison. Sometimes I think I have the cervix of steel because he still hasn't come, and if that is the case, we will be inducing on September 30th! So, there is some finality to this process and it's12 days away.

I'll be 38 weeks tomorrow, so he's a big healthy boy right now and we're ready to meet him!

I made it through my first hurricane!

Friday night was pretty scary, with winds close to 100 mph and sheets of rain pelting our windows like bullets. I moved into the closet a little after midnight and slept on some cushions David set up for me. Around 1am we lost power, and around 3am the worst part of the storm came through. David was up the majority of the night checking on the house and the pine trees surrounding the house. We were incredibly lucky to find no immediate damage to our house Saturday morning. Our friends, The Zorns, and their week old baby came to stay with us Friday night. Saturday morning, David and Ryan drove to check on their house, which thankfully had no damage except for several trees down in the road, driveway, and near the house. Saturday afternoon, we got our hopes up and booked a hotel room in Katy. As soon as we arrived, we were told that the booking agents should not have booked the room b/c they had no power or a/c. ahhh! PLAN C: go back home, shower in cold water and try to get through the night! On Sunday, David suggested that we call the B&B near Brenham TX (about and hour away) to see if they had rooms - thankfully they did and we came out here Sunday afternoon. It's been so pleasant - AC and cooked meals, lots of sleep last night! Right now we're in Starbucks and are just taking everyday as it comes. They are predicting weeks before we get power, but we are still very hopeful everyday. Harrison is nuzzled in, keeping warm and hopefully will not come for a few weeks - it would be miserable to bring him home to a hot and humid house.

All in all, we are safe and lucky that no one was hurt and that we had no damage. I have a few pictures and will post those when we get home to power. Thank you for your calls and text messages!

Here's a pic of David's building:http://www.click2houston.com/slideshow/17465520/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=27&taf=hou This picture and the several that follow are all of downtown - it was destroyed!
He works in JP Morgan Chase Tower, which is the tallest tower downtown. Fortunately, the top windows are in tact, but the bottom windows were blown - a wind tunnel was created through downtown by the hurricane and wiped out so many buildings. David's on the 65th floor, out of 75, so I think he might be headed back to work on Wednesday or Thursday.

Back to Elementary School

Remember learning about barometric pressure a few 10 years ago? The lowest barometric pressure occurs at the center of a hurricane, and that's exactly what's coming our way!!! I've researched a little on the dropping in barometric pressure as it relates to going in to labor, and have found several people who swear that a pregnant woman's water will break more easily during this time.

We're stocked with necessities and prepared as best as we can be! Since we're on the "dirty" side of the storm, we're going to have 115+mph winds, with a lot of rain and flooding. As David says, "TRUUUUUCK!" He's counting on his 4 wheel drive to get us to the hospital if we need!


Nice - right to HOUSTON!

Here's an article I found about hurricanes:

Title Association between significant decrease in barometric pressure and onset of labor: Author King EA; Fleschler RG; Cohen SM Address St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Source J Nurse Midwifery, 1997 Jan-Feb, 42:1, 32-4 OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to determine whether there is a relationship between changes in atmospheric pressure and spontaneous onset of labor in term pregnancy. STUDY DESIGN: All women admitted to Medical Center of Central Massachusetts-Memorial Hospital with spontaneous onset of labor at term and who were delivered on the service during a 12-month period represent the cohort for this study. Each maternal chart was abstracted to ensure that each member of the cohort met the inclusion criteria. Hourly recordings of atmospheric pressure made at the Worcester Station of the National Weather Service, Department of Commerce, were used as the meteorologic data points of interest. RESULTS: Three-hour periods of falling atmospheric pressure were less often followed by initiation of labor than were the periods with other types of pressure sequences. No association was observed between the onset of labor and days of low mean pressure. CONCLUSION: Although there was an observed statistically significant association between falling barometric pressure and onset of labor, the magnitude of the difference is not of clinical significance. This was a cut and paste article from the below article: http://pregnancy.a-bout.com/library/blweather.htm-

Ironically, they say the same thing about barometric pressure and full moons, and there is a full moon on the 15th! I promise I'm not superstitious, but it will be fun to see what happens. Harrison has proven to not like change in environment, as seen from our CA and Whistler trips, so this might not be any different!

The Waiting Game

Late this afternoon, I had an appointment with my OB and was able to determine a little more about what our near future holds for the Slye Fam! I am about 80% effaced and still having sporadic contractions that don't hurt, but I haven't dialted yet. On one hand, I was disappointed because I'm ready to meet Mr. Harrison, but on the other hand, I want him to gain as much weight in my belly, for as long as possible. Damla said that she would induce me if I really wanted, but not until closer to 39 weeks. She feels that it would not be risky at all for me to go full term, so why should we mess with nature and possibly deprive him of an extra week or two of development in the womb. David and I met for dinner and discussed our options and ultimately decided that we are waiting this out! Damla and her hubby are going on vaca on October 2nd, so if Harrison doesn't come by then we will induce before she leaves. But, right now we're waiting for labor to set in naturally.

I would love for him to be here for selfish reasons, but when I think about what is absolutely best for the baby, I know it's to keep him gaining weight and developing for as long as possible!

Perinatologist's Appt/ Lisa and Ryan's new babe!

On Monday, we went to our final visit with our high risk OB, who released us with a clean bill of health! He measured Harrison at 6lbs. 7 oz. (give or take a few), and confirmed all fingers, toes and mature lungs. YAY! Dr. Kirshon also informed us that, from the ultrasound, I'm over 60% effaced and 1 cm dilated. There's no telling when Harrison is going to decide to come - it could be this week or 3 weeks from now! He did recommend inducing me at 38 weeks (next Friday) because the longer I go and the bigger the baby gets, the more risky it becomes for a subsequent bleed. I will see my OB on Friday and she will be the one to make the final call on when and if I should be induced.

With the hurricane coming and a full moon on the 15th, I'm hoping that my body will respond naturally and I'll go right on into labor! We will see!

Lisa, Ryan, and Nathan

I've been so lucky to have 2 of my good friends pregnant with me at the same time. Everyday, I found myself talking to one (or both) of them for the past 9 months! Megan's delivered Sloane and on Saturday, Lisa had her baby boy, Nathan, by C Section! Lisa and I were 2 weeks apart, so Nathan came a little bit early (38 weeks), but is a healthy 6lb 6oz baby boy!

I guess this means that I'm next - and hopefully that will happen next week!

The Zorns! Nathan scared us on Saturday morning... Lisa noticed that he wasn't moving after her morning OJ, so she was instructed to go to L&D for an ultrasound and monitoring. The heartbeat was fine, and she could see him on the ultrasound, but a few minutes later was told that they were going to have to do an emergency C Section. Her amniotic fluid was a dangerous 1.5, where normal is between 8-20. At 2:30 that afternoon, she was on the table and her little boy was welcomed to the world!

Introducing the boys! Wait - that's what's inside me right now!!!!

Yes, David, we are REALLY going to have one of these pretty soon!