This sunflower was almost bigger than him!

It’s funny because 3 weeks ago if you’d have told me to enjoy each moment because time goes by so quickly, I probably would have laughed and said yeah right.  I was 39 weeks pregnant and so anxious to meet our son that I couldn’t stand it.  Time felt like it was standing still, for me, but moving forward for everyone else around me.  Now, here we are almost 3 weeks later and I can’t believe how quickly the time is going by.  It’s crazy to me that on Friday, it will be 3 weeks since we welcomed our sweet baby into the world, honestly, it’s almost hard to remember what it was like without him.  He is the sweetest, cutest most precious little person I have ever seen, and although it doesn’t seem possible to fall more and more in love with him every single day….I do.

We took a little family outing to a Sunflower patch last weekend so we could attempt to get some family pictures and so I could practice my photography skills : ) It was super hot, and the baby slept the whole time, but we did manage to get a few pictures of our family and some of the landscape as well.

After we finished our outing, we grabbed a milkshake, came home and had some friends up to the house to meet Garrett and have a little dinner.  Surprisingly Garrett was wide awake for a good period of time while they were here so we had some photo opps and I love how different each picture of him looks. 

Just waking up

Contemplative

Curious

Just plain sweet

A little annoyed maybe?

The Thinker : )

Really??

 I know….lots of pictures but I can’t help it, he’s just so handsome : ) I sometimes feel like I could stare at him for hours and still be amazed.


❤ My little Angel ❤

This weekend Garrett gets to meet his Uncle Randy and Uncle Jace and his Aunt Mandy, and next week he gets to meet Uncle Tim!  I’m really excited for our siblings to visit and to get to meet him!  I’m sure I’ll have more to update you on next week! 


First Holiday Family Photo!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July Holiday! Ours was slightly different than previous ones but still very memorable because it was our first holiday as a family : )
Instead of spending the weekend on the boat participating in all the LKN festivities, we spent our weekend running errands, visiting friends, and cooking out.
Dan has been off work since Garrett was born which has been so nice especially because I’m not supposed to drive anywhere for a few more days and most people know that if I were stuck at my house with no way of getting out, I would go pretty crazy.  I’m finally feeling like I’m able to get back into somewhat of a routine, though I’m still figuring out what that routine will consist of.  Garrett is a great baby so far.  He spends most of his time sleeping, in fact he sleeps so much that we have to wake him up every couple of hours to change and feed him, both during the day and at night!  I’m sure this phase won’t last long, and I’m actually pretty excited or when it passes at least a little bit, so we can interact more. 

Visiting with friends!

We’ve had a few Dr.’s appointments since we were released from the hospital, and at only 4 days old, Garrett was back up to his original birth weight.  I’m lucky that my milk came in so quickly and that he’s taken to nursing so well, and at this rate, we’ll have no problem putting a little bit of meat on his tiny little bones.  Garrett, like all babies, was born with a slight heart murmur (due to the valves in his heart not being fully closed off right away because I was breathing for him for so long), and although the Nurse Practitioner told us it was probably nothing to be worried about, she said she could still hear it slightly and referred us to a Pediatric Cardiologist for an echo, just to be sure.  So we packed up and went down to the city for our Dr.’s appointment last week and after a thorough echo (just like an ultrasound) the Dr. came in, checked over all of his pictures, and assured us that he was indeed “perfect” and that we had absolutely nothing to worry about.  You can imagine how much better that made us feel. 

Since we were down in the city we decided to visit our friends Ryan and Catherine and their new daughter Leia.  Ryan and Dan grew up together and Ryan and Catherine welcomed Leia into the world on June 11, so they are not too far apart in age.

Both just snoozin away!  

I know I’ve said it before, but Dan is a great Dad!  He’s the master burper, and incredibly patient when it comes to soothing the baby.  Sometimes Garrett will get overstimulated and need to just cry it out, and Dan will hold him and switch positions, and take him outside, and not give up until he’s calmed the baby.  We all know, he’s not one to let a problem just fix itself, and he is no different as a Dad.  Here are some pictures of Daddy and Garrett : )

Last Friday we had an appointment with the Nursing Mother’s Place to make sure Garrett was getting enough to eat.  They ask you to bring the baby hungry and weigh him before and after you feed him to see how much milk he is taking in.  Like I said, he took to nursing right away, and luckily we’ve had no problems since he was born, so I wasn’t surprised when they weighed him after he ate and we found out that he was getting exactly what he needed, and that I actually had even more had he wanted to feed for longer.  He was up to 7lbs 12oz when they weighed him there, and today when we took him back to the pediatrician for another check-up, we found out that he’s now 8lbs 2oz!!!  So he is doing really well in the weight department, and we are very happy to report that we have such a handsome, and healthy baby boy!!!!

He’s notorious for his furrowed brow, one eye scrunched and cute little smirk.  I have a feeling he’s going to have quite the personality : )

  He’s Finally Here!!!!!
Hey there, I think most everyone knows that Sweet Baby Garrett graced us with his presence last Friday June 24th and we are over the moon and in love with our little man. He was born at 5:30 am and weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. We are home and doing well and figuring out the whole parenting thing : )  It’s been a whirl wind of a week, that’s why this post is a little late in coming. Several people have asked me if I’m going to continue my blogging now that Garrett is here, and I think that I will.

As you can see, I’ve changed the name of the blog, because I no longer have a pea in the pod, he’s here, for real, I can touch him and smell him, and kiss him whenever I want to and when he hiccups, I can actually hear and see them, rather than just feel them : ) Having him here is the very best feeling in the whole entire world!  Dan and I are thrilled to finally be able to have our son home with us, and we are learning how to parent and becoming more and more of a family every single day.  I can’t think of any other word to describe it, but…Amazing.

So sweet : )

 I’ve had some people ask me about my labor and delivery experience, and while I’ll spare you some of the details, I can give you a quick run down of how everything happened.  If you’d like to hear more, feel free to ask and I’d be happy to share.

Dan and I checked into the hospital on Wednesday, June 22nd at 5:30 p.m.  They immediately took me into the room where we would remain throughout the entire labor and delivery (which was nice because we didn’t have to move around at all) and gave me my awesome hospital gown.  Dan went down to the car and got all of our stuff and the Dr. came in to talk to me about the induction process.  He checked me for progress and I was still only about 1cm dilated and about 50% effaced, but the baby’s head was not engaged at all (in fact, “still floating” is exactly how the Dr. put it)  He told me about the medication he was going to give me to try and get my body to start the laboring process before administering the pitocin on Thursday.  It was painless and easy, and our wait began.  Nothing happened on Wednesday evening, just a few Dr. and nurse visits, followed by a restless night of sleep for both Dan and I.  On Thursday morning the new On Call Dr. came in to check me and talk to me about the pitocin, and believe it or not, it was the only Dr. in my entire practice that I didn’t get to see a single time throughout my pregnancy, but I got to know her very quickly and was  happy she was the one who would be taking care of us.  I was only about 1.5 cm dilated in the morning but I was about 70% effaced so the medication worked a little bit.  I was told to eat a good hearty breakfast because that would be the last full meal I would be able to have before Garrett was born.  So, I ate and then by about 9:30 the pitocin was administered through my IV.  It started my labor a little bit, I was having consistent contractions about 3 to 4 minutes apart but they were not painful so we waited some more.  At 1:30 I was slightly more dilated and Dr. Clark decided to break my water which was painless, but weird, and then my contractions began to get a little more intense and closer together.  I held off on any type of pain medicine for a few more hours, then asked for a local pain medicine to take the edge off of the contractions. 

Both my parents and Dan’s parents left Thursday morning to drive to us and I got to see my parents just as my contractions were getting pretty unbearable.  By about 4:30 My contractions were extremely painful and I was having a hard time breathing through them so I decided to ask for my epidural.  The anesthesiologist came in and gave it to me, which was pretty painless as well, and as soon as it was in place, all of my pain and discomfort just seemed to disappear.  The nurse asked me if I could feel when the monitor showed I was having a contraction and I just smiled and said, not at all.  Throughout this process, my blood pressure remained a little unstable, it was slightly higher in the beginning and then after I was given the epidural, it started to drop, so I had people in and out of the room constantly because every time the machine would take my BP and get a reading the alarm would go off signaling for a nurse to come in and check on me.  Needless to say it was a very long and uncomfortable night’s sleep (or lack there of) and I was just about over the whole labor thing.  Being confined to your hospital bed with no food other than jello, Popsicles, and nasty chicken broth allowed and having to switch positions and wear an oxygen mask and listen to a machine beep every 15 minutes was really annoying.  I was dilating slowly throughout the night and so ready for Garrett to be born.  At this point, I wasn’t sure if they would let me labor through the night because I had been laboring for 12 + hours already and thought that if I didn’t progress soon, they would have to take him by section which I wasn’t thrilled about at all, but again, I just wanted him to be born healthy.  Dr. Clark didn’t want to jump the gun so she let me labor it out a little bit longer.

Finally at 5:00 the next morning, I asked Dan to get my stuff so I could brush my teeth and they checked me for progress and…Yay!!!!! I was at 10 cm dilated and feeling my contractions again so the Dr. came in and told me I had the OK to begin pushing on my next contraction if I was ready.  Of course, I was more than ready so we were given instructions on what to do, and I began to push at my next contraction (but not before I got another click of the epidural medication : )  Anything to calm me down and take the edge off of the contraction pains. 

So…when you have a contraction, they tell you to push for 10 seconds..take a quick breath, push 10 more, take another quick breath, and push for 10 more before your contraction is finished, so essentially you’re pushing for 30 seconds every contraction.  After 2 pushing sequences, the nurses called the Dr. and all of the nurses back into our room because Garrett was coming fast and furiously.  The Dr. was impressed that as a first time Mom, I wasn’t going to have to push for an extended period of time, but she, just like me, was very happy because I had labored for so long, and she thought I deserved a quick delivery.  After about 5 or 6 pushes, and about 20 minutes, our  Baby was born.  7lbs, 8 oz, and 20 inches long.  His cord was wrapped around his neck so his color a very pale bluish color, and I was a little bit freaked out because he didn’t start crying very hard right away, but the Dr. assured me he was fine and after they placed him on my chest for a few seconds they took him to clean him and do all the things they do to babies when they’re born.  I’m sure it was only about 10 minutes or so but it felt like forever until they brought him to me and let Dan and I hold him and kiss him, and marvel at the life that we created.  It was truly an experience like none other. 

Our parents and my brother Jeff were at the hospital by about 6:30 or 7 and everyone got to meet our little man!

It was great to be home with our families…..and spend some time together before my Dad, Lynn, and Rich left on Monday.  My Mom stayed for the week to help us around the house and I am so glad she did!  Our laundry was finished, the house was kept clean and any errands that we needed were run by her.  I’m so lucky she was able to be around for as long as she was and I can’t wait to get her back down here again!

So here we are…..8 days later and 23 lbs lighter (on my end : )
We are happy and healthy and loving our little man. 

I’ll post an update about our first week with Garrett and more pictures soon!