PhD at home

I still can't believe that Preston was born at 12:42am on Wednesday 1/9/13 and we went home around 1pm on Thursday 1/10.  They gave me the option of staying until Friday.  I thought about it and initially wanted to stay longer but decided I wanted to get home so we could get things back to normal for us and most importantly, for Chase.

Chase (and we) are so lucky to have such great grandparents who have given him so much love and attention while we were in the hospital and since coming home.  As you can see from his huge smile, he seems pretty well adjusted.  Hopefully that will continue.

 

He has been the absolute sweetest big brother.  All he wants to do is kiss Preston and rub his face against the baby's.  He's so gentle and sweet.

Thank God for family and especially for grandparents.  While Matt's parents were showering Chase with love and attention, my mom was showering me (and Preston) with love and attention.  I do not know what I would have done without her support during labor and during those first few days home from the hospital.  There is nothing like a mother to take care of you.  Even when you're a mother.  In fact, that's when you need it the most.  I'm so very thankful for both my mom and Matt's.

 

Here's a picture of us leaving for Preston's first doctor's appointment.  I have one of us with Chase in the exact same place in our living room from 4 years ago.  (note to self: find that picture and compare).

The first of many of big brother showering little brother with love and kisses.

 This little guy is the sweetest ever.  It's amazing how much he's already changing.

We're still completely in love with him.

 

 

And we still can't get enough of him.

 



Pictures of our PhD (at the hospital)

Here's round 1 of pictures from before and after the arrival of Preston at the hospital.  I figured to keep your interest I'd shorten the length of this blog posting and keep this contained to just pictures from the hospital.  (Since I have about 300 pictures so far from the last 3 weeks).

Here are my 2 favorite boys playing on the ipad while I was in labor with my other favorite boy.  Chase was with Bebe and Pops for the afternoon/night but they brought him by the hospital to visit us.  He ran into the room, quickly looked all around the room and exclaimed, "Where is he?  I want to see what he looks like!"  I hated having to tell him that his little brother hadn't made his way out of my belly quite yet.  Poor thing was tired of waiting.  We all were.

And here's the proud Daddy of our sweet baby just minutes after he was born.  (I got to hold him first this time!)

And here's Mr. P sleeping comfortably in his bed in our hospital room.

Here's Chase meeting Preston for the first time.  I love that facial expression.

And here we have the first time we drove with our 2 (!) children in the backseat.

I still can't believe that he's here and it's almost been 3 weeks.  More pictures to follow...

Introducing Preston Hayes

I can't believe that it's now been almost 2 weeks since little Preston arrived.  I'm having difficulty adding pictures to this blog posting but I'll at least post the details of his birth since I've had this on my mind every day since then.

This pregnancy was definitely not as easy as my pregnancy with Chase, I think I've made that clear.  I was so uncomfortable and tired and just ready to have him.  However, something happened the week before Preston was born.  Mentally I began preparing myself for the possibility of going past my due date and having to be induced and was therefore so much more at peace with the waiting process.  I went in for my 39 1/2 week doctor's appointment on Monday, January 7th and was about 2 cm dialated and maybe 50 or 60 % effaced.  Nothing to really get excited over.  They told me that they'd scheduled the induction for the following week on January 17th.  I left feeling pretty good about everything.  I only had 2 days left of work until my maternity leave would start and I had projects, cleaning and nesting to do to occupy my time.  I was all set.

So I got home from the appointment, ate dinner and then began noticing that I was having very regular Braxton-Hicks contractions, about every 10 minutes or so.  They began to get more uncomfortable so I laid down, drank a bottle of water (to see if that would stop them) and let Matt take over bath and bedtime with Chase.  The water and rest did not stop the contractions and we started getting nervous.  That night I could not sleep much at all, between the excitement that this was the real thing and being uncomfortable with the contractions.  Around 6am I called the OB pager number to let them know what was going on.  The midwife on call told me to wait until the contractions got more intense and then call back.  So Matt got Chase up and ready for Leslie's, picked us up some coffee and breakfast and I just waited.  Around 10:30 we were ready so they told us to come on in.  We got to a room around 11:30, found out I was 4 cm dialated and my contractions were about 4 min. apart.  We were going to be admitted!  Matt and I let out a cheer (we were afraid they'd tell us to go home and come back.  again, trying to prepare for the worst case scenario) and got excited.  I could not believe that this was really happening...and happening the natural way, without an induction, BEFORE my due date!

We were moved into a labor and delivery room and began to get settled in.  We had an absolute horrible hospital experience with Chase and this was already looking better.  Our L&D room was like a penthouse suite in comparison to the one we had at Durham Regional.  Our room had huge windows overlooking the front of the hospital.

My contractions continued to intensify so I asked for an epidural a couple of hours later.  We enjoyed an afternoon and evening of our family visiting and then around midnight it was time to push.  42 minutes later, on January 9th, our sweet little Preston Hayes was born,weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces.  I got to hold him immediately (unlike with Chase's birth) and everything about him is perfect.  We are completely in-love and could not have asked for a better labor and delivery experience.

Pictures to follow...

Christmas 2012

We had a great Christmas this year.  It was so fun to experience all the excitement with Chase.  The older he gets the more fun each holiday is.  

He absolutely loves dressing up and pretend playing these days.  The police costume and workshop accessories from Santa were a hit.

...With both Chase and Matt.  :)

Apparently Santa thought Chase was extra good this year because he also made a stop at Bebe and Pop's house.

The vet costume was also a hit.

We had a great Christmas and then the day after as well.  Chase and I got to spend a day together, just the 2 of us.  It made me realize that those days are going to be more limited once the baby gets here. 

I will definitely make our 1:1 time together a priority because this little boy is pretty fun to hang out with these days.  :)

37 weeks (almost)

Technically I'm 36 weeks and 5 days, but whatever.  It kind of helps me to focus on the fact that I'm actually almost 37 weeks.  It's a technicality but it helps me.  And I'm a glass half-full kind of person.   I guess I shouldn't rush it but anyone who's gone through 41 weeks and 1 day of pregnancy before understands.  I'm  ready.  Since I was 8 days late with my pregnancy with Chase, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the same thing to happen with this one.  The hardest part of being induced was spending 40 weeks preparing for the DAY.  The DUE DATE.  And then my due date came and went.  And nothing happened.  For 7 MORE DAYS.  People suggested all the usual things: take a walk, eat spicy food, eat pineapple, have sex.  None of it is fun when you look like you're smuggling a small to medium-size watermelon under your shirt.  and none of it worked.  Looking back, I was actually lucky.  I was lucky because when I did finally go to the hospitla to begin the induction process, the cervadil got things going pretty quickly and then I never had to go through Pitocin or (God forbid) a C-section.  One of the midwives that I am now seeing at my new practice told me that meant I most likely would have gone into labor naturally.  (What, at 43 weeks???)  That's nice to know and all but I still am glad that I didn't have to go any longer than 41 weeks and 1 day before meeting Chase.

not the greatest picture but I'm not exactly volunteering for a close up these days...

I'm hanging in there, focusing on the positives, things that help me get through.  Like the fact that this is my last full week of work (thank God for Christmas and New Years).

Like I said, I know I shouldn't rush it.  I know that many people are struggling to get pregnant and I should appreciate every last second that I have where it's just me and this little guy.  But, I'm still human.  The heartburn, reflux, swollen feet, back aches, and 5 pee-breaks per hour make me very ready to move past being pregnant into being the mom of 2.  And man.  I'm ready.

I don't want to forget

I want to always remember all the funny, sweet and charming things that Chase says.  Right now, at 3 years and 9 months old, life is all about this little boy.  Things are going to change so much in 4 weeks or so (Please, God, maybe less) for us and especially for Chase.  But that's a whole other blog post.

For now, I want to document a little bit of the 'funny' that is fresh on my mind from this morning.  We were all 3 about to walk out the door.

And Chase announced, "I want to ride with Daddy.  Because we're mans.  And mans ride in man cars."

A couple of nights ago he asked me for a screw driver because he needed to 'fix' one of his toys.  After fixing the toy, he looked around the room and said, "Now what can I screw?"

This was about 30 minutes after he'd told me that his baby (this small, lovey that looks like a baby) was thirsty.  I took advantage of this teaching opportunity and grabbed one of the bottles that I'd just dug up from the garage and showed him how to feed his baby.  He asked me how you hold a baby so I demonstrated and then he practiced.  I almost teared up at this moment. Then he said that the baby was tired and needed a nap.  So we tucked his baby in under a blanket in the living room.

These are the moments that I wish I could capture and replay over and over.

Santa 2012

Chase has been making the rounds with Santa.  We saw him a few weeks ago at the mall..

And then we had storytime with Mrs. Claus

Decorated a gingerbread house 

And saw Santa again last weekend.

 

Chase has come a long way from a couple of years ago when he was terrified by the guy in the red suit with the beard. 

Now he can't get enough.  :)

Projects

 

I maybe should have entitled this posting 'Nesting' because I feel like that's the mode that I'm in now.  I'm happy to say that I'm 34 weeks pregnant today.  I'm trying to make the time go by fast but also get a lot of things done that I've wanted to do for a while.  Typically I get bored if I spend an extended amount of time at home.  Now, however, that's all I want to do.  I want to be home, get organized and finish up projects that I've had on my mind.  So this past weekend I was able to get one of those projects done.

I was excited to be able to make this both Chase's and my project since it was to hang in his room.

He was pretty happy to help as well...

In fact, he decided to start a 'project' on his own while we were waiting for the paint to dry:

 Check out the 6 markers that he insisted all be attached to his pajama shirt.  He's so funny these days.

He was very proud of the results.  And so was I.  The handprints aren't perfect but I think that adds to specialness of a project done by a 3 and a half year old.

I've been wanting to take pictures of his big boy room but wanted to get all the little things (like this) done first.  Maybe I'll post more pictures soon since it's only a matter of time before Chase isn't the only star of the show.  :)

Fire Station visit

Last weekend we visited one of the Chapel Hill fire stations for a tour.  Chase was in heaven.

He asked lots of questions about what all the gadgets were for.  I never even noticed all the compartments and things that he was asking about.

It was actually really cool to see the firetruck and fire station through his eyes.

Oh, and by the way, the outfit was 100% his doing.  On Saturday morning when I mentioned to him that we'd be going to the fire station later that day, he squealed with excitement and took off running toward his closet to get his fire chief gear.  I love that child.  :)

Family of 3

We had some pictures taken earlier this year of the 3 of us which is what I originally was going to use for Christmas cards, etc.  However, I started thinking about how much I'd like to have some pictures taken of the 3 of us while I'm still pregnant.  I love how Lynette called these "Matt, Mandy and Chase plus one".  Not too much longer before our family of 3 turns into family of 4.