Four Generations

On Sunday, we visited Brian’s grandpa Thomas in the nursing home for his 90th birthday. It was very nice– we got a very nice photos of all 4 Thomas’s! Brian’s dad was excited to get everyone in one photo.

It was nice to have an opportunity to see Brian’s cousin Gabrielle, her son Griffin, and his uncle Mike. There were also two cousins of Brian’s dad, Bob and Carol, who I got to meet. Jameson’s great grandpa enjoyed having everyone there! Jameson was very well behaved and took his bottle so well!

This week Jameson and I went to the grocery store for the first time! It was our first errand out alone. It was uneventful save that I had to go to the bathroom myself and was at a loss as to what to do when you have a full cart of groceries plus a baby and need to use the restroom. I barely made it home to the bathroom, haha!

We have also been doing tummy time more this week, and I have taken a few videos of him, one where he looks like he’s trying to eat the mat, it’s hilarious.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODsKhSK6FYU]

Today Jameson turns 4 weeks old, but I am not taking 4 week pictures, because I will be taking one month picture this Sunday. I can’t believe he’s already almost one month old. He is such a good baby, I can’t believe how lucky we are. Most of the time, he only gets up once in the night, though last night he got up twice. I’ve been watching Battlestar Galactica on Netflix to occupy the night feedings, I am on season 3 already. I can tell he’s getting a little bigger too, I think he is fuller in the face and hands. I finally got the cute naked baby photos I’ve been wanting to get for some time yesterday. It’s difficult with a little boy but I was able to get nice ones yesterday after his bath.

That’s all for now since he’s getting a little fussy!

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Happy Birthday Jameson Charles Thomas!

Jameson was born on Dec. 16, 2010 at 10:06 pm, weighing 5 lb 13.5 oz and 19 3/4″ long.

On Tuesday, we went in for our follow up appointment with ultrasound to check the fluid levels. We were at a 5.8 fluid level, which is borderline being too low. The doctor recommended induction, and scheduled it for the very next day at 4pm! I finished up work for my last day and Brian and I both tried to relax a bit on Wednesday morning, though I did have Brian do a little housework in preparation for baby’s arrival.

We didn’t really know what to expect for induction; I had read that induction can mean many things, including using hormones and pitocin to start contractions. On Tuesday, I was about 1 cm dilated, which was better than the previous week with no activity, but apparently that is still not enough to start right on pitocin, so when we arrived I was allowed to have dinner and then the hormone was inserted for 12 hours. Brian and I were not expecting such a long wait! The next morning I was only at 2 cm but I was allowed to have cheerios, and then they started me on the pitocin. I began having mild cramping contractions, but really didn’t feel anything until they finally broke my water at 4 cm. Less than a minute after that, I had severe painful contractions. I did attempt for a little bit to go natural, and used pain killers and breathing for about an hour and a half to manage the pain. Then I decided to go ahead and get the epidural, for which I am very thankful!

After that, things moved very quickly. I went from 5 cm to 9 cm in an hour. Brian came back with his dinner, expecting we would have a long wait still ahead of us, and the nurse told him he better get my dinner ready too! Then it was time to push, and Brian helped hold my legs; it was great to be able to have him involved and helping during my labor! After about 1 1/2 hours of pushing, baby boy Thomas was born and Brian got to cut the cord!

Brian and I were torn between Brendan and Jameson as the first name for our son. However, after seeing him we both decided that Jameson was definitely his name. His middle name is Charles after Brian’s grandfather. They took his blood sugar level, which was a great 77, and his apgar score was also good, about an 8. I shook for a little while after his birth, which was interesting. I enjoyed dinner and then we went to the recovery room.

Thankfully, we did not have to have a roommate during our stay. Since I had already been in the hospital so long, I was ready to come home right away. The nurses were very kind and helpful, giving tips for breastfeeding and swaddling. The hospital food was great for me, though Brian did not enjoy his cafeteria food as much!

I went home on Saturday and Brian’s parents brought over lasagna dinner! The proud grandparents waited in the hospital for his birth and are so excited about their first grandchild!

Tomorrow night, Jameson will be one week old! The past week has been amazing (and tiring). I am pretty sure I must still have some great hormones running through my system because I am running on little sleep. Brian has been great staying up with me almost all the time while we got through nursing together and my milk coming in. Everything has been a learning experience, and it’s been great having my mom around since we got home from the hospital. She has helped us keep up on our laundry and vacuuming and of course helping watch Jameson, and enjoying holding him.

We did get Jameson circumcised, and today finally we stopping putting Vaseline on it, it is healing well. The past few days have been difficult changing him with just one person while we keep his legs away from his body and use warm washcloths around the circumcision. The belly button has been tough to work around too as we have to be careful while diapering him!

His first outing was to the doctor’s office on Monday, 12/20. He was 5 lb 9 oz, which is what he was when leaving the hospital, so we stopped his losing weight fairly quickly. When we went again today, he was back up to his birth weight already! He gained weight twice as fast as the doctor usually expects. We had been on a fairly strict schedule of feeding him every 3 hours, with no more than a single 5 hour stretch between feedings. While he usually stuck to the schedule himself, we did have to wake him up sometimes. After this most recent visit, we are going on an “on demand” feeding schedule. It will be interesting to see what kind of routine he has. So far today he has been awake a lot because we had visitors!

First bath (sponge bath anyway), 12/20

We had visitors on Sunday from my family; my dad, Tyler and Holly came to visit with Jameson for a day. Today, my Aunt Carol stopped by to see him.

Jameson has so many facial expressions. He does smile some, a reflex right now, but hopefully soon it will be because he’s looking at his parents! So far he seems pretty content with sleeping, eating and peeing a lot! I am excited to watch him grow. See more pictures of Jameson!

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Weekend

This weekend has been lonelier for me because Brian is mini-vacationing with his friends. This Thursday-Sunday, he has spent touring distilleries of whiskey in Tennessee and Kentucky. Meanwhile, I have been working and visiting my grandma.

I kept myself busy in Thursday and had dinner with a friend, Teresa, who I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, I RedBoxed a couple movies that were on my list (but not Brian’s, haha!). I saw Prince of Persia, and The Backup Plan. I thought both were pretty good, and entertaining. Sasha has been very good with Brian away, though I am sure she misses having him home too!

The weather was hot enough to turn the air on those two days, I was happy to see it cool off today. I went to visit grandma today and was telling her about it, she didn’t realize it was close to 90 on Thursday and Friday because she hasn’t been out of the house since her surgery on her broken wrist from the last fall. The pins in her arm don’t look as bad as expected, because the arm was bandaged up. She certainly isn’t young anymore, but she has two very nice almost-nurse ladies taking good care of her.

Brian should be back tomorrow evening which is good. He will be coming with me to my glucose test Tuesday morning for part of the time. This past Tuesday, I took a glucose level (and anemia) screening test which was to test for gestational diabetes. I failed the screening, so I now I have to take the 3 hours test at the hospital. Doctor said that about 10% of women fail the screening test, and only 10% of that 10% actually have a problem. So odds are in my favor! I read up on the test, and it sounds like they will be drawing my blood four times. I also have to fast for 12 hours in advance, so I will undoubtedly be starving by the time it’s over! Hopefully, there will be no passing out. I’ve taken the morning off work entirely, so since it’s at 7 am I should have some time afterwards to walk around the mall before going to work the afternoon.

Baby is moving a lot more noticeably now, and occasionally uncomfortable. At my last appointment, the doctor said I had only gained 2 pounds, which seems really low! I swear I have grown twice the size I was in the past month! I finally put up my tree wall decal, which is super cute. Next doctor’s appointment is in three weeks, then I will be on the two week appointment schedule!

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Room Layouts and Colds

Last week was a bit hectic and not so much fun; I worked late on Wednesday night, until almost 8:30, which is quite a bit more than my usual 7:30-4:30 days. I think also consequently my little cold developed into a bigger cold, and I was pretty miserable by Friday/Saturday.

Brian and Melissa and the my in-laws went to see his grandma (and some extended family) on Saturday without me. His grandma is doing very well, which is nice to hear after the ups and downs this year! Becky made a fantastic lasagna, which they were nice enough to give me leftovers 🙂

While he was gone, I attempted to put up my yellow & green owl & bird decal, which is pretty much the reason why I didn’t feel like we have to paint, and which was the base around the entire nursery theme (it was the very first thing I purchased, during a big sale). Of course, nothing goes quite as planned. I purchased it in June and so when the edges kept unpeeling and not sticking correctly, I got upset since we’re well past the return policy time period! However, on Sunday they emailed me back and since June, they have switched their decal material; they believe the new material will stick to my walls no problem. They have a long shipping period, so it will be a while before I get it. In another 2-3 weeks I will be able to try the new decal. They are allowing me to keep the old one though, so I am thinking of things we could do with it. Brian suggested we could spray on a better adhesive, so I might fill a couple picture frames with some pieces of it. As a last resort, if the new one doesn’t work, I’ll be using it to trace and paint a similar picture instead.

Sunday I started to feel better, and I’m pretty much good to go now, except for the awful sounding cough I have, which is pretty much snot drainage in my lungs. And if that’s TMI then you’ve never had a proper cold!

We did end up keeping the changing table which pretty closely matches the crib! It is made out of real wood (except for the shelves) and even has the nice curves that make it look as if it were made to go with our crib! So recently I spent some time on layouts in the room. I went back and forth, we tried a couple different ones.

Baby Room Layouts First Time

Baby Room Layouts Second Time

Last nice, I decided to try one of Brian’s original suggestions (hopefully he won’t rub it in too much), to put the crib along the wall near the closet. Initially I was against this, because the crib sticks out pretty far and will partially block one of the closet doors. However when we actually did it, I found that I wasn’t that bothered by it at all, the closet is still very easily accessible. The room is much more opened up by this move, so I think this is how it will stay!

Baby Room Layout Final

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Baby and Sasha Updates

Sasha is doing well! She got her cone off and the toe is finally looking healed or nearly so. We had a small scare because we had to get the bandage off early, her toe was staying too moist which was concerning obviously if it had continued so. So the first time we saw the toe it was not has healed as I would’ve liked it to be and looked very raw. Sasha did not like her cone either. It took her a day or so to get used to lying down in it and not running into things as much. Brian bought car door protector things which we put on the raw plastic on the outside of the cone as a bumper because she was scratching things up!

It was very nice visiting with Tyler, he stayed an extra day so I took that day off and we watched movies. I had a lot of fun, it was nice to take a day off for once. I don’t have a lot of spare days now at this point, I am trying to save them for maternity leave. I can use 5 PTO days on maternity leave, which I intend on trying to do so that is one less week I have to take unpaid.

Tuesday we had our ultrasound, which would’ve been the gender one had we decided to find out. But we didn’t! The technician even made us look away when she examined the legs, so we never got a hint. It’ll be a big suprise! It may have been our last ultrasound, I don’t know if they’ll do another one. Everything is good with Peapod, it has a four chamber heart that is functioning properly, and kidneys and bladder that look good. 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 hands and 2 feet! I have a really cute picture of a foot. We got to see the spine and other bones, and the head of course. I have a creeper photo of the face looking at us, but it looks like an alien. I told Brian it looked like him hahahaha. We had the ultrasound at 18 weeks and 5 days, and I measured exactly 18 weeks and 5 days, so the due date will remain at Dec. 23, which is mildly disappointing for my anti-Christmas complaints.

Brian likes the fact that I have a little belly now and he rubs it, but no kicking yet! There have been a couple times where I thought maybe I felt something, but it did not repeat often enough for me to be confident that that was it. The doctors said by next appointment I should be feeling it, but even then it won’t be all the time because it’s still really small. I am almost to the halfway point though, which is bizarre! Really just bizarre all the way around that by December we will have a little family.

We toured the two options we had for hospitals last week. The practice said I can go with either Akron General or Akron City; both take the same amount of time to get to (about 40-45 minutes). We chose Akron City because they had bathrooms in every post partum room. Akron General had different post partum rooms (we only saw one of them, but the ladies description said that some had bathrooms in the hall!). Otherwise the hospitals were about the same. Akron General is supposed to be getting new rooms soon, but can’t guarantee when or even if I would get a new room when I deliver, so Akron City it is! I think the buildings are around the same age, but City looks newer also.

The way it works is that I will go into a labor/delivery/recovery room and then to a post partum room after I’ve recovered initially from the birth. As far as care goes, they seem to offer the same level of care. Akron General is directly connected to Akron Children’s for any serious issues, but Akron City takes care of everything except a couple long term care type of things, and then they send them to Akron Children’s too. So that’s not an issue either.

I, like usual, am impatient to be planning and doing things. I am trying not to buy much. I bought my bedding set, because it was not something I could register for, but I keep second guessing myself cause bedding is so expensive. Brian’s mom is looking at planning a baby shower in October, I am shooting for later October so my mom and Holly can spend  more time here. Holly runs until later in October. That’s all for now… cheerio.

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Peapod

So after weeks of waiting for my parents to come up and see the house, we are finally able to share the good news! Brian and I are having a baby. We are at nearly 14 weeks and are due Dec. 23, 2010. Hopefully it won’t be a Christmas baby… haha. My mom is excited since it is due the day after her birthday. Wouldn’t it be neat if Peapod was born on the same day?

We aren’t sure yet if we’re going to find out the gender yet. Brian and I keep switching – first I didn’t want to find out, and he did, then it was the other way around! We’ll see, we have a couple months yet to figure out what we want to do. That ultrasound is week 20. We already had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. I think there’s a lot of cute clothes out there though that are gender specific…

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Waiting

Just playing the waiting game now! So I will write about other stuff:

We spent Easter at my parents in Centerville, which was very nice. Everyone was home, and (maybe because I can’t let childhood go), I had my mom hide eggs and our baskets still. I love that part of Easter, it’s entertaining, and fun to have Brian do it too haha. My mom started writing poems for clues to hiding places back when we first move to the house on Sentinel Oak (what was that, some 10 years ago now?). Anyway, it is a firmly planted tradition now even though it only started after we were all older.

My brother is spending the fall in Florida doing the Disney program in his major, Industrial Engineering. We are all supremely proud of him, and I am excited he will get to spend some time away from school which I think is a very good thing. Not because he’s not doing well, but because I am a firm believer in studying abroad (or elsewhere in the US as the case may be). It’s awesome to gain new experiences like that.

My lightbox which I was using to photograph my jewelry was taken apart with some of our last showings (as we were starting to get desperate to make our house look big and inviting). Anyway, I have thus not taken any new pictures of jewelry that I’ve created, though I have done a few. The most recent one combines chain, which is a new thing for me. I am going to do another chain one soon that I think will be good enough to sell. I am still enjoying the hobby!

This upcoming weekend I am headed to Columbus for a (mini) reunion with old friends, and to see Jamie’s new house which will surely make me jealous! I am impatient and have noticed this month to be harder than before to try and stay motivated and positive. I am ready for this all to be over. We started packing in the house last weekend (Brian started packing the garage earlier); I put away all the rest of the books and started in the office closet which currently houses all my crafting items. This week I want to finish the office and take things off the walls. I hate wrapping stuff in bubble wrap, so I don’t want to wait til the last minute and get sloppy on those types of items.

I will post pictures of the new place once we are settled! My parents are giving us some furniture of theirs that we aren’t picking up til end of May, so chances are there won’t be pictures until then. They are giving us their old couches, my old day bed (less the mattresses), a gliding chair, elliptical and some other stuff. I am super pumped about it, it will be so nice to have like-new furniture!

Anyway, that is all that’s new on this end. Til next time.

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28 Days to Go

Less than a month to go, it’s a little scary (not because I’m scared but because of all the STUFF there is left to go). Here’s a short list:

Write thank yous for work bridal shower
Rehearsal dinner (this is almost done I think, Brian’s taking care of it)
Thank you tags attached to favors
Pick up altered dress (should be soon, call to follow up next week)
Finish guest book table numbers Still need to write something to put up at the main entrance to explain this
Centerpieces! Clean mirrors for centerpieces
Finalize DJ stuff (we picked the song we’re going to dance to, but nothing else)
Finalize cake details (I need a topper, I think I’ll just use some teddy bears I got from work, and buy ribbon)
Finalize flower details
Finalize ceremony details
Finalize food
Finalize photographer details (must take photos, etc. and just touch base)
Create day-of timeline
Schedule make up and hair and other salon stuffs
Create ceremony programs
Finalize ceremony music (I need to call an old lady which is not on my list of fun things)
Seating arrangement (can’t do this until everyone or most have RSVPed which should be very soon)
Create placecards for seating
Buy gifts for parents, both sets
Buy gift for Brian
Brian get gift for Hilary (let’s just assume this will get done ;))
Finish bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts
Pay for all the shit (payment due dates are all coming up)

I put some stuff in that we finished because I wanted to feel good haha. I bought myself a pair of nice gold/pearl earrings for the wedding. My grandma is letting me borrow a real pearl necklace which will be my something borrowed. The earrings can be the something new–I didn’t want to wear fake pearls with real ones. I found some really pretty at a good price. My engagement ring and band are white gold and the rest of the jewelry for the wedding is yellow gold, but I don’t really think that matters.

Here’s what the guest book table numbers look like, I realized I didn’t have any pictures of them posted here. I’m pretty proud of them 🙂 I don’t know yet how many more I need to do so I’m holding off a little bit. I have 15 done. They’ll go on each of the tables with “prompts” and they replace a traditional guestbook.

The registry is still pretty well stocked, but I’m going to watch it closely as the day approaches. I can’t believe how much stuff I got for the shower, everyone was really generous! Brian’s sister coordinated it all, I really thought it turned out really nice. We had it at Boston Township Hall in Peninsula. There was a little kitchen and bathroom attached and the day was beautiful so we had all the huge windows open. Table cloths and confetti. It was just great. Various people brought food–Lisa’s husband JP made pasta salad she brought, Giant Eagle made the sandwiches, mom brought cake and little cream cheese roll things, people brought chips and pretzels, Brian’s mom had jello and jello shots! and brownies were made… oh my goodness. We didn’t really play any games except a bingo for what gifts I would get–it lasted a lot longer than I thought. It was supposed to start at 1, I think we got started at 1:30 and it went til 4:30-5. Hollie’s kids (the ones we go to the zoo with each year) had a blast with the balloons and a lot more of my friends showed up than I thought would. My mom and sister and grandma came, and my Aunt Carol. Friends from school, old Centerville friends, new friends, and Brian’s family. I helped clean up and then I got Brian and we drove to his parents house to hang with his grandma and Aunt Terry. It was so nice of them to come all that way, I know how tough it was to get his grandma here!!!

Then I had a surprise work shower, and that was a total surprise. I had absolutely no idea. They had it all decorated with table cloths and confetti and banner and balloons. (Banner is still hanging up outside my cube and one of the balloons is still inside my cube). April made a nice summer salad with lettuce, strawberries, walnut pieces and sweet dressing. We had pizza, brownies by Jill and cupcakes made by Leigh-Anne, of course. Joni and Leigh-Anne I think planned most of it, but everyone contributed; they got me a nice sewing machine!! So I took the one off my registry, this one is much nicer, I’m really excited. I bought a pattern for curtains yesterday since they were on sale for $1. I also bought some fabric to practice straight stitching on first. I took a class recently so I can do the basics, with a different machine, haha. I don’t know when I’ll be able to break mine out of the box since we’re doing all kinds of housework and wedding stuff still, but after that I’m planning on doing this. Oh so crafty!!!

All in all, things have been really good. I feel a little overwhelmed with wedding stuff and house work right now, so I’m avoiding what I can. Don’t worry, just like school it will all get done in time… 🙂

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

The Family HIstory book was a hit! My grandma absolutely LOVED hers and spent hours pouring through it. Said it was the best gift she’s ever received! My parents liked theirs as well. I got a new white-light lamp which I like to use for crafting, because my old one was from Big Lots and dying. I also got the little box die cut templates I want to use to make favors, so that’ll be nice, as well as some random geeky stuff from dad, like a little plasma ball that plugs into the USB port of the computer. I brought that in to work, haha 🙂

It was a nice Christmas visit, aside from the long driving time (from picking up Grandma, adds almost 2 hours onto the trip that’s already 3.5 hours). I think my mom enjoyed it more than she thought, because she was upset earlier that I wasn’t coming down for Christmas and didn’t come down for Thanksgiving and missed Christmas last year… she was feeling neglected. But Brian and I spent quality time with them, we played some board games and watched movies and stayed up late.

I worked today, wrapped gifts tonight and had a wonderful roast meal cooked by Brian (since he didn’t work today, he made a nice dinner and did a lot of house work). Oh! We finally got our bathtub refinished, it looks like a brand new tub, it’s amazingly white!! So the bathroom is finally done being remodeled… now just to keep it clean.. haha.

And, for the wedding update: So the bridesmaid dresses will be from Forever Yours, http://www.foreverbridals.com/gownpix.asp?Style=77201. The color is coral with an ivory sash. The coral color isn’t really like the one they have on the site, it’s actually closer to this which is ginger on another brand. They sent me a swatch so now Brian and I need to go around and find tuxes that come close to that color since this brand doesn’t have a tux line.

So far, we’re on a tight deadline for getting the dresses in in time. If we order by beginning of January, they’ll come in late March/early April which should be enough time for any alternations needed for the girls. It feels like time is just flying and Brian and I are really behind! But I think we are actually okay, and pacing ourselves okay.

I’m researching florists right now so I can see how much it would cost to have them do something. I’m actually leaning towards a square vase now with lemons and/or limes lining it with some short flowers. But I’m flexible, all depends on cost. Other next steps are the DJ and cake person, and then we get started on detail work.

I began working on invitations. I have 20 pocket folds done (the inserts will come later, after we finalize all information). I’m pacing myself at around 15 per week so I’ll be done in January and will be able to do the inserts and get them all out in a timely manner. I’m afraid I may be over 1 ounce though which means extra stamps.. but since we’re having most people RSVP online it might be okay.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

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