Happy New Year!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MAY 2010 BRING YOU JOY, LOVE, & LAUGHTER!

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL IN THE NEW YEAR.

Claire's Due Date is Here!

Today is the day that was Claire's estimated due date! We have been blessed to have her arrive early so that we were able to spend the holidays with her. Luckily Claire was added to Santa's list of stops - here are a few photos from her first Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Claire is Two Weeks Old

Today Claire turned 2 weeks old!

Some of the highlights this week include:

• We are happy to report that she is finally gaining weight and at her weigh-in with our home nurse Nicole on Wednesday she weighed in at 5 lbs 12.5 oz! Our new weight goal is to be back at her birth weight of 6 lbs by her two week appointment with her doctor which is on Monday. With the way that she has been eating this weekend we are very hopefully that she will make this goal (maybe even surpass it!)
• Also on Wednesday - her umbilical cord fell off! She can now enjoy bath time in her "whale of a tub".
• Dave was lucky enough to be able to work from home this week and only had to go into the office on Monday. It was great to have him home as it allowed him to spend extra time with Claire. Over the next two weeks the holidays will allow Dave to work for three days and then have four days off. We are all excited to have this extra time together as a family over the holidays.
• Claire went to her first book club this week! Melissa, the avid reader, was very excited that one of her first outings was to a book event- we are starting her out young to develop a love of reading.

Quick Update (Monday the 21st)- Claire met her peditrician today and weighed in at 6 lbs 3.5 oz! A gain of 7 ounces in 5 days- GO CLAIRE GO!

Update 2: (Wednesday the 23rd)- Weighed in at 6 lbs and 6 oz!

Claire is One Week Old!

It is hard to believe that Claire is already one week old. It seems like we just went into the hospital to start this adventure. On Thursday night Claire was finally able to live outside of the bilibed and on Friday she was visited by the home nurse and had her bilirubin levels tested. We are happy to report that her levels are now in the non-treatment range so she does need to return to the box. She still has her orange/tan color, but that should continue to fade as she continues to grow. Here is my favorite picture from her time in the box:

(Cuddling with the bear rattle that the Muscle Team gave Claire on Friday)

One of the other challenges that Claire has because of her age is her weight. As you know babies lose weight after birth. When we brought Claire home she was down to 5 lbs 11 oz. At her weigh in on Wednesday she was at 5 lbs 8 oz and she weighed in the same this morning during her nurse's visit. Below is a picture of Claire in an outfit our friends the Stantons brought us- clothes have been a problem as Claire is to small for newborn clothes.

Today Claire was visited by Shannon, David and Grant. It was great to hang out with them and see what is coming up for us (Grant is 5 months old). Here is a picture of Grant and Claire together. The picture is a little misleading as it makes them appear to be close in size which is not the case.

Just a little video of Claire making her cute faces and having a case of the hiccups!

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes and support for Claire over the last few days! We have appreciated reading everyone's comments, and receiving phone and text messages. We are sorry that we have not been able to respond to everyone directly and hopefully these updates will keep everyone in the loop until we transition into this new lifestyle.

Love you all,

The Proud Parents of Claire

Here is a summary of the last few days (warning it is a little long, grab a snack)

Sunday- Claire's arrival! After waiting for about 36 hours we were finally introduced to Claire at 2:21 pm. We will spare all the details here, but it was harder than anticipated and Claire needed some help to make her grand entrance. Because of Claire's gestational age we had a team of nurses on hand who took care of Claire initially. Dave was able to watch and record on video and photo all of the events so that we would have them to watch in the years to come.



Dave and Claire were able to enjoy some father/daughter bonding time for the first few hours after her birth. They shared a bottle, some cuddling, and their first dance to Jack Johnson's "Hope" as they got to know each other. Claire was introduced to Uncle John, Stacie, and the Grandparents Gibbons. Melissa was able to join the family a little later on and was happy to see how well Dave and Claire had already connected- maybe even a little jealous. We remained in our labor and delivery suite until 1 am that night when we were switched over to the Mother Baby Unit. We were not a fan of the late night switch, but we did love our new room with the queen bed that was adjustable. We settled into our room as best as we could considering people were in and out throughout the night to provide care to Melissa and Claire.

Monday: We spent most of the first day getting to meet various doctors and nurses and I am sure a few random people. We also were able to spend a great deal of time just hanging out with Claire and providing skin to skin (kangaroo care).

(Kangaroo Care with Daddy)

Claire also received a visit from Kat and Phil who stopped by to meet her on their way to work. It was also a big day for Claire as she passed her newborn hearing test and her car seat test. She was one step closer to being discharged.

Tuesday: The day started out nice and quiet with a visit from Natalia, Barry and their little girl to be Alba. For those that do not know Natalia and Melissa were basically due at the same time so we have shared a lot of the pregnancy experiences and classes together. Now we are just waiting to see if the two little girls who were due at the same time are even born in the same year. From there we began to prepare for the trip home, assuming that we were going to be discharged later that day. It is amazing how much stuff we had brought into that hospital room in just a few short days! As we were packing we realized that Claire was starting to become a little orange in the face- yep you guessed it she has jaundice. So we were delayed a little as they repeated her blood work so we used the time to have Claire's first professional photo shoot. We are totally biased, but we think she was absolutely adorable!! You can check out her photos at: www.our365.com -- click on web nursery and you may be asked to enter our last name (or part of it) and the password 68231284336724.

Right before we left we learned that Claire would not be spending her first night at home in her lovely crib, but in a bilibox. For those of you that have not had the chance to see a bilibox- picture a white suitcase with extremely bright lights. This was now going to be Claire's home for a few days. It was quite dreadful for her to be placed in this box in nothing but a diaper and eye coverings, as she is a baby that likes to be bundled tightly. Luckily Uncle John hung out at Claire's side throughout the evening helping to provide comfort to her until she adjusted to the box. It was extremely hard to have Claire here and to not be able to pick her up and give her physical love her with the exception of feeding her every three hours.

Wednesday: We started the morning with a visit from a nurse, who assessed Melissa and Claire to see how they were progressing. It was great to have that kind of support without having to take her to the doctor's office, especially since the temperature outside is in the single digits. The nurse repeated the bilirubin test and we just learned that Claire will be under the lights until tomorrow night at 7 pm- 27 more hours of this torture!!

All and all we are slowly adjusting to our new lifestyle and we hope that in the near future we will be able to introduce Claire to everyone!

One last closing photo for you!

(If you ever wondered how a baby fit into mommy- this is the position that Claire put herself into on her own. I am only making sure that she does not fall over)

She's Here!!

Born 2:21pm December 6th

18.5 inches in length

13 inches head circumference

6 lbs weight

Apgars 9 /9

Progression!!

After 24 hours without much progress things have been moving since midnight. With more aggressive induction Melissa began to have more productive and painful contractions. Fortunately she got an epidural to ease pain and has even been able to sleep some (she hadn't gotten any real sleep because of contractions since we arrived at St. Joe's). There's still a lot of progress to be made, but we feel confident that the Doctor's have her on a path to make this happen today.

Still Waiting

After 18 hours of trying to induce gently the Docs decided to allow Melissa to take a break for 5 hours to rest and to eat. Melissa was very grateful for the opportunity to eat after 24 hours with no solids. The Docs will reassess at the end of the rest period to decide the next steps in the induction, but we're expecting something a little bit more aggressive when they start back up. Now for some rest...

Looks like it could be a long day...

After waiting a little while for things to start naturally the doctors decided to help things along and begin inducing labor. However, they don't want to get things going too quickly either, so they're starting slow to see if things pick up on their own with just a little help. To us it sounds like we could be settling in for a long day, the most exciting of our lives!

Just a little update for you all- it's noon and we are still waiting around for something to happen. We should be having a "check up" from the doctor in the near future to get some type of information about how we are progressing. To pass the time Melissa has been trying to wrap up some work things (nothing like prepping cases during labor) and Dave has met with the car seat specialist and confirmed that Claire will be safe in the car. Dave took a little video of our room to share with you all.

So it is now approaching 4pm and there is no news to report. We are still in a holding pattern and hope to have something to report eventually.

At 1:15 am on December 5th, Melissa's water broke and we headed to St. Joseph's. Fortunately at this time of the night it was a smooth drive with no blizzards and no traffic. We weren't expecting such an early arrival but we are learning that things will be on Claire's schedule and not ours, and we can't wait for her arrival!!!

We took a quick picture before leaving the house and of Melissa in the observation room. Check back for updates, it's go time.

Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe that it is already the holiday season- it seems like this year is going by extremely fast! We spent Thanksgiving Day with Dave's family and friends enjoying good company, food, and a Broncos' victory. Thanksgiving is always a time for us to reflect and give thanks. This year we are thankful for our upcoming bundle of joy and the ability to enjoy the holiday season with family and friends.
(Thanksgiving Day - 35 weeks)

Each year we have a tradition of decorating our house for the holiday season the weekend of Thanksgiving and this year was no exception. On Friday we took advantage of the beautiful weather (we were back in the 60's) and went Christmas tree shopping. It was Dave's year to pick out a tree and he picked out a native Colorado Pine. We spent Saturday night decorating the tree and here is our family photo in front of the tree.

Sparky & Snowballs

We received another foot of snow this weekend creating a winter wonderland here in Colorado. We were grateful that the snow held off until after our "Baby Safe" class in which Dave, Melissa, John, Stacie, Chris, and Byron learned about infant safety and practiced CPR. This week we will complete our baby class marathon with a breast feeding class on Wednesday night. If this pattern of weather continues we will have a good chance of being able to tell Claire stories about how she was born in the middle of a snowstorm.

Sparky loves the snow & one of his favorite winter activites is to catch snowballs. We caught a little of the action this morning during our walk.

Bikes, Beer & Baby Showers

Today we celebrated Claire's upcoming arrival with our friends and family! Dave and the boys headed out to the moutain bike trails (70 degree days this week have made all the snow disappear!) before heading to the local Pub. Melissa celebrated with the ladies at a baby shower thrown by Jessica & Amy.

Thank you for all the well wishes, advice, and gifts for Claire! We cannot wait to use them with her in the very near future.

This little one loves to move!!

Here is a little video of Claire moving around today while we were relaxing. (Your looking at a purple shirt not purple skin!)

Snow Day- take 2

It started to snow late Tuesday night and as of 10 pm Wednesday it has not really stopped. From our measurements we have at least 12 inches. The snow is supposed to continue into tomorrow with another 5-10 inches expected before it stops. Here are some pictures that we took tonight of the front porch.

It is now Thursday evening and the snow has still not stopped- we are now up to at least 20 inches. We enjoyed another snow day at home -relaxing and getting some projects done around the house to prepare for Claire. Here are the updated pictures from the porch taken around 8pm tonight.

30 Weeks

30 has been a big number for us this year since we both turned 30 this Spring. It's no surprise that when we hit 30 weeks with Claire that we felt it was a big milestone. We celebrated with classes...first a Prepared Childbirth class and then a Babies, Baths, and Bundles class.

We were lucky enough to have the option of a private childbirth class with Nikki. It was great to have a class tailored to our questions and concerns. We learned a lot about the process- when to go to the hospital, what to expect when we are there etc- and we both feel more comfortable now.

The Babies, Baths, and Bundles class was enjoyed with our friends Natalia & Barry who are also having a baby girl in December! This class focused on the basics for when you bring the baby home. Making use of a doll we learned to change a diaper (Dave had a leg up on this as he changed the diaper of a real baby girl in his Daddy Boot Camp class), give a sponge bath, and swaddle a baby. It all seemed pretty easy on a doll that does not cry or move- somehow we think that Claire is going to be a bit more of a challenge!

Baby Business

Tonight we attended the baby business class at St. Joseph Hospital where Claire is scheduled to be born. We learned about the policies and procedures of our hospital and filled out lots of paperwork including a birth certificate form! Then we were taken on a tour of the maternity ward and were able to see everything from where we park upon arrival, the triage (early labor) rooms, the labor and delivery rooms, the postpartum rooms, and the NICU. The hospital is designed beautifully and with one of the top NICUs around it seems to be the best place to welcome Claire into the world. Completing the paperwork and taking the tour definitely made Claire's due date seem very close. It is hard to believe that we are only 11 weeks away from getting to meet her.



Check out St Joes Baby Place at: www.exempla.org/body.cfm?id=535

The Glucose Test

On Wednesday I had the displeasure of experiencing the 3 hour glucose test. It starts with 12 hours of fasting followed by a blood draw, chugging a horrible glucose drink and then hanging out at Kaiser for 3 hours and getting 3 more blood draws. The previous 2 glucose test had been a breeze so I was not expecting this one to be all that different. However, the fasting along with the glucose drink made for the worst day of my pregnancy thus far. I thought I would be able to hang out and read a book for the 3 hours, but about 30 minutes in I felt very ill and took them up on the offer of a bed where I proceeded to sleep in between the blood draws. The long morning and the feeling ill was worth it as we received the results today and I am within the normal range so we will not have to be worried about gestational diabetes and the impact that it could have had on Claire's health before and after birth.

Congratulations to the Borish Family!

Kelly, Tom, and Alexis Borish welcomed Brandon Karl Borish on October 10, 2009 at 10:23 pm. He arrived a little early at 35 weeks and 4 days but weighed in at 4 lbs 3 oz and at a length of 16 3/4 inches. Both Mom and baby had an eventful first night but as of Sunday night are doing well (Kelly would probably be better if the Patriots had not lost to the Broncos in OT). We are looking forward to introducing Claire to Brandon next summer..

What a Month!

We're a little behind on the postings because we have been enjoying time with friends and family over the last few weeks. In September we enjoyed a fun weekend in Chicago where we were able to spend time with Allison and Ross and attend the wedding of Steve and Raegan.
Pictures: (1) The DKEs (2) In front of Cloud Gate aka "the bean"

The next weekend we headed to New England for 9 days of fun with Melissa's family and friends. Our first stop was to meet Baby Grace Fagan and hang out with the Simmons Ladies. Then it was on to New Hampshire where we caught up with the group at Dover Marina (Melissa's Dad's work) before heading to dinner with Kelly, Tom, Alexis, Amy, Sam, and Abby. On Sunday we had a lobster dinner and watched the Patriots game with the family before heading to dinner with Pete, Theresa, Pascal and Martha. We spent the rest of the week with the family and with the Borish family before heading to Nantucket for the wedding of Shane and Erin. It was the first time to Nantucket for the three of us and we enjoyed seeing the beautiful island, attending the wedding, and seeing the MIT DKEs.

Pictures: (1) Dave, Melissa, Emily, Madison, and Owen at the Deb Tone Farm (2) Enjoying a walk on Marginal Way in Maine (3) Erin & Shane taking their first dance as husband and wife.

Since completing our coast to coast travels we have been enjoying putting some finishing touches on Claire's room and starting to really plan for her arrival. The baby classes begin this week and Claire has been maintaining her active level in utero, letting us know that she is planning on being a handful when she arrives. We are looking forward to the challenge!

We were able to catch some of her movements on video and have posted one of them here. Pay attention to the lower right by the belly button but please ignore the ugly scars on Melissa's abdomen!

Welcome Baby Grace

Congratulations to Kerry & James Fagan who welcomed daughter Grace Elizabeth into the world today at 9 lbs and 4 oz. We can not wait to meet her in a few weeks and are looking forward to Grace and Claire being lifelong friends (maybe even future Simmons Classmates, just think a new generation of Dix Chics!!!)

Lynne and Colin's Wedding

After three days in Napa we headed to Berkeley to celebrate the marriage of Lynne and Colin. On Friday night we joined friends and family at Spenger's Fish Grotto for the Rehearsal Dinner. At dinner Dave was able to catch up with some childhood friends that he had not seen in years and we were able to meet the great Morrish family.

On Saturday night the wedding ceremony was held outdoors with the groom looking handsome and the bride radiant. The ceremony was beautiful and included a touching reading by the groom's sister, Dana. We had a great time celebrating with the couple on the dance floor and hanging out at the cigar bar (don't worry, Melissa and Claire stayed inside). Here is a picture from their ceremony:

Churchill Manor

On Wednesday we returned to Napa for a few days of wine tasting (Dave), touring around the countryside and some relaxation at our favorite B&B- Churchill Manor. It has been fun to remember the time that we spent here last year with our friends and family during the wedding weekend. During these few days we made a trip to Muir Woods (home of the beautiful and large coastal redwoods), visited Stinson Beach, enjoyed a drive along the coast, toured a castle, Dave has sipped and purchased wines, and had dinner at the Culinary Institute of America. Today we will be off on another tour before making our way back to Oakland to enjoy a weekend of fun with family and friends at Lynne and Colin's wedding. Here are some pictures from the trip so far. (Dave at the Castle, Melissa & Claire at CIA, the three of us at Churchill Manor)

Kicks, Punches, Headbutts

About three weeks ago Melissa had the pleasure of feeling the first "real movement". Up until then there had been some "possible movements", but as a first time mother there is never a way of knowing if the movement is baby or body function. At 19 weeks Lil'P let it be known that she was moving with a definite kick, punch, or headbutt that was easily felt. Since then she has been active and letting her presence be known on a regular basis throughout the day. This weekend on Friday night Lil'P let Dave in on the fun by using enough force that he was also able to feel it. Since then he has been around to feel a few more movements. On Sunday evening we were hanging out after a fun weekend with Jen and Bill and Lil'P moved enough that you could actually see the movement from the outside. It was an amazing and slightly freakish thing to watch. The movement has helped to ease some of Melissa's worries as movement in utero is a good sign that things are progressing and that there is not a significant muscle or neurological problem.

Maybe at some of the upcoming weddings Lil'P will offer up some of her own dance moves at the reception.

The 21 week appointment

Today we had an appointment with our NP Joan. It was supposed to be a quick check of the heartbeat, but it was decided that I also needed to have an early glucose test. For those of you without the pregnancy knowledge, they have you drink "Glucola" which is basically orange soda with a large amount of sugar in it. They then have you wait an hour and get your blood drawn. It is a screen for gestational diabetes that normally occurs a little later in pregnancy. Since I was a borderline diabetic before pregnancy I get the pleasure of having this test a few times throughout this trimester. The drink was not as bad as people have described, I took Shannon's advice and did it in shots, that did make it go down a lot easier. While we were waiting we did get the treat of listening to Lil' P's heartbeat once again. Since I had just downed sugar I had little hopes of her holding still long enough for us to get to hear it, but she did. Dave was allowed to tape the sound, but not the picture so the video is of the floor, but listen carefully and you can hear the strong heartbeat .
If all goes well with the glucose test we are not due back to the doctor's office until October when I will repeat the test, get my RhoGAM shot (because I am A negative) and we will have the pleasure of watching the preterm labor and postpartum depression videos.

Where in the World is Lil'P

Lil'P has had quite a few adventures recently, starting with a trip to Atlanta in June. While Melissa and Lil'P were there they attended a great conference, took in a Red Sox Game and had dinner with Andy and Lisa.

More recently Lil'P attended a bridal shower and a wild and crazy bachelorette party (sober of course) for Jessica and the wedding celebration of Heather and Cory.

This weekend she was a "very junior bridesmaid" in Jessica and James' wedding. We had a great time celebrating the long-awaited wedding of our good friends. Dave was the best man and Melissa was a bridesmaid (and yes, the dress fit). We like to think that Lil'P had a great time hitting the dance floor and learning her future moves at a very young age. Some say that you should play the baby music, not sure they meant Baby Got Back and YMCA, but she seemed to enjoy it. For Melissa it was a different experience being pregnant and dancing.

Over the next month Lil'P will be heading to Napa for a few days before attending Colin and Lynne's wedding in Oakland. Two weeks later we will be heading to Chicago for Steve and Raegan's wedding and a visit to Allison and Ross. Finally, we will round out our jetsetting with a trip back home to the Deb-Tone Farm and the wedding of Shane and Erin on Nantucket in October.

Men at Work

We have had a very productive and exciting weekend in the Gibbons House. This weekend we were able to completely finish painting the nursery. We had decided on colors and bought the paint last weekend with the goal of getting everything but the chair rail in place this weekend. Lucky for us Dave's Dad, Byron, came over to help out for most of the weekend. We would never have finished without him, especially since we decided that the bathroom could not be a proper kids bathroom if it was white, and so we added on a 2nd room to complete. We picked a very bright blue to go along with the frog theme we already had. But one small room sure added a lot of work for Dave and Byron. I helped out where I could by taping both rooms and cooking the BBQ, but for the most part I was sidelined to prevent Lil'P from being overwhelmed by paint fumes. We hope that you enjoy the pictures of the Men at Work and the final product!

It's a....

This week we had the anticipation and pleasure of an ultrasound at the Franklin Kaiser Office Downtown, right next to Saint Joseph's Hospital (where we will be delivering). At almost the half-way point we would be having our most exciting Doctor's visit remaining in the entire pregnancy. Everything went great, though we were amazed at what the Perinatologist can see in the grainy black and white images. We are still on track for a December 29th delivery of a beautiful baby... girl! Melissa made strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting, we bought pink onesies at the store, and celebrated with Briden, Amy and their one-year old daughter Olivia who provided a preview of what we have to look forward to. However, the Perinatologist said, "Probably a girl" and when I pressed said he had 95% confidence in that, so there's always a chance for a surprise in December.

Naming Lil' P

One of our ongoing conversations that we have been having since before we were pregnant was what to name our future children. Dave and I both clearly remember that on one trip to visit Jessica and James we agreed on a boy name- however we can not remember the name! So when we found out that we were pregnant we started from scratch all over again.

We debated whether or not to share the baby names, but we want to be able to use the name during the pregnancy so here they are:

The Girl Name: As many of you know Dave had a little sister who passed away at a young age. We both wanted to honor her memory by using a part of her name if we had a girl. We have decided to use her middle name Claire as our first name. The middle name came about after a conversation with Jaime, who suggested Elizabeth. Once Dave spent some time researching names he found Elsbeth, which is the German (Melissa's heritage) version of Elizabeth. So there you have it if we have a girl she will be named Claire Elsbeth Gibbons.

The Boy Name: Since we can not remember the boy name that we thought up on that car ride, we had to start from scratch. We found that we had a long list of boys names, but we were grouping our favorites on the C's. After a few days we had narrowed down the list to the final three and after considering all of our criteria we settled on the Irish (Dave's heritage) name Cormac. We are still hammering out a middle name for Cormac so for now it is just Cormac Gibbons.

Sparky

In early June we went to a class to learn more about what we could do to help Sparky adjust to a new baby. As most of you know Sparky has been our baby for 3 years now and since he has a nipping problem we were worried about how he would react. The class was actually quite helpful as it gave us some pointers on what we could do now to prepare him for December. The goal is to make the changes now so that he does not associate all the changes with the baby.
After the class we acknowledged Sparky's biggest problems and how we could start to work on them:
1. When Sparky is in the car with the windows up he HATES trucks, runners, bikers, walkers, etc...and will immediately jump into the window and bark his head off. He lets nothing get in his way (including people) so we figured that this would be a BIG problem when there was a car seat in his way. One of the things that was suggested at the class was a harness for Sparky. I thought that this was a good option because it allowed him to stay up front in the car, but would limit his movement. We went to PetSmart and tried on a few harnesses before finding one that would fit Sparky. We immediately installed it and tried it out. On the way home it seemed to work well as it keep Sparky on his side of the car. However, when we got home we went to the backseat to release Sparky and found that he had already managed to get out of the harness. I didn't know whether to feel defeated with the harness or proud of our dog for figuring how to escape his trap. We're still working on what to do now...
2. Crawling babies = playmate for Sparky. We learned that Sparky likes to play with kids through several encounters with children. He loves that they like to throw him the ball over and over again. However, we did not know that when a child crawls he thinks he should get down and be in the child's face to play until our friends Barb and Andy came over with Donovan and Nellie. While he does not hurt the child it does freak them out (and us!) to have him suddenly in their face. One of the suggestions that they made during the class was to make use of a doll so Dave and I are now playing with dolls. We bought one at Target that crawls and cries and we are trying to play with it on a regular basis so that Sparky gets use it and we can work on redirection. At first he wasn't so sure, but this weekend when we had friends over and they wanted to see how he did we pulled out the doll and Sparky brought the baby doll his ball so that the doll would play with him. As silly as it sounds this seems to be working.
3. If it is a toy - it must be Sparky's. We have learned over time that Sparky thinks all toys are his. We had a baby gift at our house prior to a shower and we caught Sparky trying to remove the cute toy attached to it. He is especially drawn to anything that makes noise (squeaking toys are his favorite!!). One of the tips that they gave us in the class was to get some baby toys and to sprinkle with baby powder or rub with baby lotion. You then place them on the floor and teach him that toys that smell like baby are the baby toys and he should not play with them. Last weekend we bought a toy that was soft, played music, and squeaked. After apply baby powder to the toy we placed it on the floor and taught him (through redirection) that it was the baby's toy. Now whenever we put it down he may smell it, but ignores it.
4. The Nipping- we are suppose to be using time out to help out with this problem. However, in order to practice time outs we have to have him nip someone. Not something that we encourage so this one is going to be hard. I am hoping that if we use some of the "bringing home baby" tips that we learned that Sparky will be take ownership of the baby and protect him as he does me.

Heartbeat

Today we had our second appointment and the main purpose was to check the heart beat. So after some brief time discussing lovely things like pinched nerves we moved on to the good stuff. Dr. Gibson was able to find the heart beat quickly and it was at a steady 150. However, Lil'P had no intentions of staying still and made Dr. Gibson work for the heartbeat. If you believe in old wives' tales the heartbeat would be telling us that this was a girl. We will have to wait until August 4th for our ultrasound to confirm the gender (if Lil'P cooperates!).

To make the day even better- when we got home we had a package from the Borish Family that contained Lil'P's first Red Sox outfit!!!!! He/She is now officially ready to become part of Red Sox Nation.

The Nursery

About a month ago we set out to look at a crib that we thought we liked based on reviews and the look. When we arrived at the store we had a lovely yet slightly overbearing woman assist us in finding the crib, looking at the colors available, etc. We both loved it so when we were told that there was a sale and that the cribs were taking 14 weeks to arrive we jumped on the deal. Apparently we are suckers because the crib arrived in just 4 short weeks. On Monday we made the mistake of listening to our messages (which we never do in a timely manner) and heard Lou from the store calling to tell us come on down! Well for those that know me I need to go rightthen because I need instant gratification. We made arrangements for Dave's Father to go with us since they have the van and spent the next hour moving all of the office furniture into the master retreat room. I am still impressed with all that we got done in that time and for how many times Dave moved furniture around the room until it was where we both wanted it.Then it was off to the furniture store with 2 cars as Lou said it would NOT fit in one. He was right. The man who packed our car was a FABULOUS packer and made everything fit when it truly looked as if it shouldn't without breaking a thing.

We then ventured home and with the assistance of John managed to get all of the pieces into the house (I did help by carrying in the extremely light weight foam mattress that feels as comfortable as a rock).

John and Dave then spent the next few hours setting up the crib and taking it apart when we realized that when they said RIGHT and LEFT they meant the other right and left. But, we managed to get it all together and I only requested that we move the furniture around once.

We also added in the bookcase that my grandfather made for my room in Dix Hall and will add in a comfy chair to complete the room....well and maybe some paint. We thought we had 10 more weeks so we have paint samples on the wall, but are still debating between subtle hues of yellow.

December 29, 2009

Our first doctor's appointment seemed to take forever to come. Since I was being monitored for an ectopic pregnancy we had regular contact with my doctor's office throughout the first few weeks of the pregnancy which was nice and reassuring, but we were counting down the days to the first ultrasound. I wanted the proof that there really was a baby and that it was where it was supposed to be. Mostly I needed the reassurance so that I could sleep, because my mind refused to turn off at night as I went through the list of things that could be going wrong at any minute.

At 8 weeks 2 days we headed into Kaiser to meet with Joan, our NP. She was great and answered all of our questions without making us feel stupid. I particularly liked her because she took my side in the caffeine debate that I was having with Dave. It is the one habit that I cannot kick, but I have cut down to a bare minimum. Once all the talking was over we were able to move onto the ultrasound and see Lil' P (our gender neutral name for the baby at this point). I cannot begin to describe how it felt to see a baby moving around on the screen. I thought that it would be old hat for me since I have witnessed so many for work, but it was completely different. I think that it is fair to say that it was one of the more emotional times for both of us. The ultrasound was also able to confirm that our due date was in fact December 29, 2009. We left with reassurance, a due date and some great pictures.

We're Pregnant!

We're Pregnant!!

Even with a planned pregnancy I think those might be the two scariest and exciting words there are for any couple. We found out that we were pregnant in April. Melissa and Sparky had a whole day to adjust to the news before surprising Dave with the news when he returned from a weekend of mountain biking in Moab. It was hard to believe the news so we double checked the next day and then had the "official testing" done at the doctor's office a couple of times the next week to rule out an ectopic pregnancy. We were bursting with the news, but weren't ready to share it with others quite yet. I think that we were both surprised with how hard it was to keep it a secret, when you have something so exciting you normally want to share it right away. We broke down earlier than expected and shared the news with Dave's family over Memorial Day and sent my family a Mother's/Father's gift announcement. Both of the families are quite excited and are eagerly awaiting a little grandbaby!