Shopping!

I have to admit since Mary came, I have been doing some shopping. There were some last minute things I wanted that I didn't get to buy before she came.

First, I wanted a Mother necklace. I looked all over for one and couldn't find one that I loved. Then a fellow mom recommended the Vintage Pearl to me. I fell in love with every necklace they had. It took me quite awhile to pick one but I finally did and it came this past weekend.

Simple and perfect for me!

The next thing I looked for were blocks for Mary's room. I searched Etsy and found a great seller that was so easy to work with. Her name is Mandi and her Etsy store is Birds and Blossoms. Here are the blocks that she custom made for Mary.

They could not match her room any better! She did an amazing job and I already have her making some more for another mom friend.

I also joined Shutterfly and got 50 prints for free! What new mom doesn't want 50 pictures for free! I was able to order photos for her brag book and start her photo album. I also found out from a fellow mom about a $20 off coupon and I used that to create Thank you notes and address labels for Mary. I think I ended up saving close to $35 on everything. Here are the Thank you notes and the address labels have the same little bird on them.

I think I am done shopping for a little bit. I need to start writing on those pretty Thank you notes. We have gotten so many fun gifts for Mary. Our friends and family are so thoughtful and generous!

Maybe Just a Little?

When Mary was born, you know two weeks ago, I swore she looked like me. Some people agreed others didn't see it. When we got home from the hospital, I searched the house for my baby book, but I couldn't find it.

Today, my Dad comes out of the basement and goes why do you have this book with all your baby pictures in it? I was squealing in delight because I knew I would find the picture of me as a baby that looks like Mary.

So, now you be the judge. Does she look like me or am I just imagining that I have a child that resembles me in some way.

Me:

Mary:

Just Born - Sweetness

How sweet is this?

I'm hoping to take a picture of her each month with these stickers and then write up what she is doing in the month. I tried this with Henry but did not make it past four or five months. I hope I can keep this up!

I also just realized this is Mary's blog debut! I'm sure you will be seeing a lot more of her from now on.

The Perfect Recipe

You know when you find the perfect recipe and you want to eat it all the time because you just can't get enough? Well, that is how I feel about our new family, I just can't get enough.

First you add an amazing husband who honestly blows my mind with how he handles everything. Last night, Mary was up at 4:30am for her feeding and when I woke he told me to go back to sleep because he would take care of her. Yes, reason 8,356 why I love him. He has been home with us this week and I am loving every minute of it.

Then you add some dashes of Henry. Henry is so in love with Mary that you just want to die. He is always kissing her and patting her on her feet. We don't allow him to touch her head so we say her feet for now. When he comes in our room in the morning, he loves that she is in there and always says Good Morning to her. When he comes home from school he runs in the door looking for her. He really wants her to play with him but we keep reminding him that she is too small. He likes to put things in her pack and play and swing so she can have them and look at them.

After Henry you sprinkle in Mary. She is perfect, yes perfect. She eats every three hours, sleeps like a champ and poops like the best of them ;) I know she is only a week old and this can all change and I'm ready for that but for now we are enjoying the sweet bliss. She is already moving her head around to look at things and keeping her eyes open more and more every day.

Finally you add in generous amounts of support from our families and our friends. My parents are here, Charlie's mom was here last weekend and his Dad and Gayle are coming up to help us next week. Our friends have come to see her along with sending support through text messages and phone calls.

You put all that together and you get the perfect recipe for happiness.

Careful what you say....Mary's story

So Monday night we are sitting at the kitchen table and I look to Charlie and say "Are you excited?" He says "Yes, but you take all the excitement out of things." I said "What does that mean"...Well he says, "You have everything planned out and have everything done so it's hard to be super excited, but of course I'm still excited."

He really should have watched what he said because 24 hours later, I was asking him in the middle of my c-section if this was enough excitement for him.

So, let's back up a little. Tuesday morning, I wake up and Mary is not her active little self. Monday she was super active so I thought maybe she was just tired. We do our normal morning routine and off to work and school we all go. Sitting at my desk all morning, I notice she is still kind of sluggish but I just keep going. I had a meeting at 11am going over all my duties and who needs to do what while I am out. After the meeting, I'm still not really feeling her and I debate calling the doctor.

Before I call the doctor I check in with my go to girls for all my questions, both my sister in laws. They both tell me to call the doctor for peace of mind. I then call Charlie and he tells me to call too. Of course I call while the office is closed and hesitate to leave a message but I do. The doc on call calls back and tells me to go directly to the office. I run out of my office telling everyone I will see them on Thursday and no worries, I will be back.

Charlie meets me at the Doctor's office and we go into to see the doc. No protein, my blood pressure is good and Mary's heartbeat sounds beautiful but they want me to head to labor and delivery to have a non stress test and an ultrasound. She just kept saying just in case there is something we can't see and I am sure everything is fine.

Off to L&D we go. We register and they put me into a room, but not just any room, the same room I delivered Henry in, lucky #13. They hook me up to the non stress test and Charlie and I just sit and joke about how crazy it would be if we delivered again in that room in Feb. Everything looks good with her heart rate and I am taking for the ultra sound.

I had the tech check to make sure Mary was still a "Mary" and sure enough she was. After the ultra sound we are sent back to room #13. A nurse comes in and says I'm not sure if we are suppose to hook you back up but I guess I will. Then something weird happened and she kind of just stared at the machine. She left and then my doc came in. Apparently, Mary's rate fell into the 60's and was taking too long to go back up but that everything else looked great but we needed to go and have another ultrasound because now they want to check the cord and the placenta.

Back downstairs to see the ultrasound tech and then back upstairs to the room to wait for more results. At this time it is getting late and we had to make plans for Henry. Thank goodness Melissa was able to help us out. At this point I was told there was a chance I would stay the night but maybe not. My doctor was leaving and walked out with Charlie telling him, I'm sure everything will be ok but we just need to keep watching her because what they saw they didn't like.

Another 30/45 minutes pass and the doctor on call comes in. About five minutes earlier a nurse comes in and starts asking me some questions. I look at Charlie and say to him - I don't think I'm leaving, those questions she was asking are not leaving questions. The doc looks at us and says everything looks great BUT the radiologist said her cord ratio is 4:5 and it should be 1:2. This means Mary is not getting enough oxygen and there is a chance the cord is wrapped around her neck. She tells us that it was a divine intervention that the nurse put the monitor back on when she did because we might not have caught this. I could have been sent home and come back and the outcome could have have been a still birth.

Well, now I think Charlie and I look like ghosts and are in complete shock. She then tells us, we have two options, they can start to induce me or we can do a c-section. The induction would start and probably give birth the next day but there is a chance that would put too much stress on her and I would probably still need to have the c-section. Charlie and I discussed and decided with the c-section option because we didn't want anymore stress put on her.

Charlie asked if he could go home and the doctor said "No, we are delivering this baby in the next hour." I'm pretty sure I started to cry and almost fell off the bed. The next 30 mins are a blur. I had nurses hooking me hoop, doctors coming in, iv's being put in and Charlie was getting dressed into his scrubs. We were trying to contact family as quickly as we could because we were having Mary soon.

My mind is racing...a c section, this is happening to someone who has never been in the hospital except to give birth to Henry. I had no clue what was going on. The room was ice cold but the doctors and nurses were the best. They were calm and that made me calm and before we knew it Mary was here.

The doctor came over, brushed my head and said you two made the right decision. She then talked to Charlie and told him, me being so aware that she was not moving saved her life. She thinks that Mary was tiny because she was already feeling the effects of not getting enough oxygen and that this all could have had a bad ending if we did not call that morning.

So, that is the story of Mary and how she came into our lives three weeks and two days early. We are in love and our family is complete, not much more we could ask for.

Place your Bets - Place your Bets!

It's time to place your bets on Baby Mary! We are three weeks out and counting down so I have created a little Baby Poll for your gambling pleasure. Just click on the link below and it will take you to where you need to guess.


Baby Mary's Pool - click this


Winner will receive a Starbucks gift card, because well, that is what Charlie and I will be living off of when Mary arrives.


Here are the Rules and Regulations:



Birth Date
1 point for each day of the week before or after actual (for instance, off by two weeks means 14 points).


Birth Time
A value ranging roughly between 0 – 3 points for time of day (approximately 0.12 points per hour difference. For instance, plus or minus 4 hours is approximately a half point; birth date is not part of the calculation, so clock time is relative and not calculated across the midnight boundary).



Length
1 point for every inch (or 0.3937 points per cm) greater or less than actual (technically, if the actual is 20 inches and the guess is of 19.999, then 1/1000 of a point is added, for example).


Weight
1 point for every lb (or 2.2 points per kg) greater or less than actual (technically, if the actual is 7 lbs and the guess is of 7.001, then 1/1000 of a point is added, for example).


Hair
1 point if guess is wrong.


Eyes
1 point if guess is wrong.




Now start guessing and Good Luck to everyone!

Mickey Party!

This past Saturday we had Henry's Mickey Party. The kid was so off the wall excited it made my heart melt. We waited until Friday to put out and up the decorations just so he wouldn't be bonkers all week. When he saw the Mickey's around the house he wanted to show everyone.

The balloon guy showed up first to set up and I think Henry talked the poor guys ear off. The balloon guy was great and all the kids seemed to enjoy him. Not only did he do balloons he also did face painting. Henry wanted nothing to do with getting his face painted but all the other guests loved it.

The whole party went pretty smoothly. I had a craft table set up so the kids could make door hangers, of course we had the play room open for them to destroy and we served pizza, cake and ice cream. I don't know if it was proper etiquette but we opened gifts too. I'm pretty sure that was Henry's favorite part along with eating cake and ice cream.

Here are some pictures from the party.

I have to talk about this ice cream idea because everyone loved it. I found it on Pinterest. I prescooped the ice cream before the party, put it in muffin/cupcake papers and tins and then placed it in the freezer. When it was time to serve the cake, I just pulled them out and put them on everyone's plate. It was a great idea - Thank you, Pinterest!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Henry!

2011 in Review

January 2011 - Moved into our house

February 2011 - apparently all we did was paint and celebrate Valentine's Day

March 2011 - First Haircut

April 2011 - Easter with the Bakers

May 2011 - Let's just say "Not everything that happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" and Henry's first baseball game

June 2011 - A Day out With Thomas

July 2011 - The annual 4th of July picnic and a trip to Myrtle Beach

August 2011 - Henry went golfing with Daddy

September 2011 - Found out we were having GIRL!

October 2011 - Trick or Treat

November 2011 - Disney World

December 2011 - We lost our Ellie dog and Started the Elf on the Shelf tradition and Henry turned 3!