Adventure

Off on an adventure in his favorite car!! I know his hat looks silly but he put it on and kept it on so I didn't want to risk fixing it!

A sign...

...that dinner was gooooood!!!!

Next week...

....he will be doing his own laundry!!

Little climber!!

Derrick is our little climber. He pushes his toys over to the coffee table to climb on top of...and he is quick!! I happened to have the ladder in our living room and naturally he thought it was a brand new toy just for him!! So I snapped a picture...and don't worry, he was safe. I wasn't as far away as it seems in the picture!

Palm Springs...

Well, me and the nugget weren't tortured enough by the hot weather we were having that we decided to go spend a couple days in Palm Springs with family! It was hot, hot, hot out there...I'm talking 110-115* temps!! We had a blast. Derrick did great in the pool and loved being with his cousins. I even took him on the water slide which he loved. He laughed and giggled the whole way down.

Playing in the water

Love my little munchkin

So proud of himself, and happy!

Having a blast with his cousins

Going down the water slide...so brave!

Hanging in one of the pools

So the funniest thing happened. Derrick was so ready for his nap and I decided to change him and walk back to our room so he could get a couple hour nap in. On the walk back to our room, it was quiet and I look down and see his head start bobbing. I take a peak at him and he is fighting so hard to keep his eyes open...but he is losing the battle. He ended up falling asleep before we made it back to our room and was our for over 2 hours!!

Vacation is so rough!

Passed out

Napping in a king size bed....life is rough for him!

My Oh My.

Daddy...its rough here. Mommy makes me swim and play all day long. Hurry home. Save me from her boring madness!

My little Frankenstein

Derrick is now walking but because he still is working on gaining his balance, he tends to do what I like to call the Frankenstein walk. He walks his arms out and takes very deliberate steps. It is the cutest thing because he gets this huge smile on his face and is so proud of himself!! Here are pictures for daddy to see:

I'm going to get you

Wooooaaaahhh!

Easily distracted!

Everything in the mouth! :-)

14 Weeks

Today I am officially 14 weeks along (3.5 months)!!! Woohooo!!

Our little one is now the size of a lemon (about 3 inches long, and 1.5 ounces). Our little one is now moving, kick, moving its arms and legs and doing gymnastics although I wont feel it for awhile. The ears are now positioned on the side of the head (from on the neck..weird how they start there huh??) and the eyes are moving from the side of the head to the front of the face...crazy how little ones develop!

Here is a picture from today...I am showing more and more although like I said before, some days I show more than others!

The Stats

Derrick had his 1 year well baby check up today. All is great and the doctor was very happy to see him happy and healthy!! Here are his 1-year stats:

Weight : 20lbs, 6oz (15th percentile)

Height: 29 inches (20th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.7 inches (78th percentile)

You all think I am crazy when I say he is top heavy??! LOL He really is. I tell you, he can thank his daddy's for his shaped head!! :-) He needs a big head to hold all those smarty pants brains of his!! No concern though...all is well!! Just to give you a comparison, here are his BIRTH stats:

Weight : 5lbs, 14oz (5th percentile)

Height: 19 inches (20th percentile)

Head Circumference: 14.2 inches (70th percentile)

As you can see that even though he is low percentiles on the charts (except his head!) that he has stayed consistent which is what the doctor was happy to see. I mean cmon, he has quadrupled his weight!! And grown 10 inches!!! OOOH and we got the ok to turn his car seat around...FINALLY!!! Honey, add that to your to-do list when you get home! :-)

As Requested...

...pictures for daddy!! Doug emailed and asked me to post more pictures on the blog. So here you go honey!! :-)

Out to lunch with mommy

I'm on my way to see daddy!!

Sleepy baby during bath time!!

Sweetie!

I will take more pictures tomorrow and get them posted!! :-)

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Doug is far far away in the middle of the ocean floating and working away on his ship! Sadly, he is away for his birthday :-( We wish he was here so we could celebrate his BIG birthday but that celebration will just have to wait until he gets home. I just wanted to put up some pictures of Doug's birthday last year...our little nugget was a mere 3 days old but that didn't stop us from an amazing lunch at Maria Maria in Walnut Creek. Yummm...hoping to sneak down to the San Diego one this year when Doug gets home!! Happy Birthday Daddy!! We miss you and are counting down the days until you are home!!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!!

Happy Birthday!!!

Best birthday present...proud daddy!!

My true love!!

Silly boy..

Derrick was playing with his toys and found it super funny when we started shaking his tunnel. It is hard to hear him but he was laughing so much! :-) And yes my son likes to crawl around with the corner protector from the table in his mouth

It's official...

...Derrick took his first (major) steps today!! He is walking. He still gets wobbly (he walks like a drunk person hehehehe) but I got it on video!! He gets so excited and so proud of himself!! And be prepared for a blog next week of me complaining that he is everywhere and wont sit still for a minute ;-)

Walking again...he loves his cousin Alyssa (aka Sissy)

One more video for daddy to see how far he has come!

One Year Ago!!

I CANNOT believe it has already been a year since my little nugget made his entrance into this world. It was such an incredible experience and I wanted to document my birth story to read and refresh my mind on the small details that I may forget. Luckily, I wrote it a week after he was born...so I wanted to share it with all of you.

WARNING: Stop reading here if birth and labor stuff make you queasy!!

Here you go...(pictures at the end!)

On Monday, July 6, 2009 I went to my scheduled doctor appointment. My official due date was July 4^th so I was officially “over-due.” My doctor checked me and I was still only 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. I had not made any progress since my appointment the week before. Due to my gestational diabetes my doctor did not want me going more than 1 week past my due date, so we discussed options for inducing and decided I would go into the hospital that evening and begin the induction process. As I liked to say…the eviction process would officially begin.

We arrived at the hospital on July 6^th at 8:00 pm and got checked in. I was started on Cervadil to help my cervix soften and luckily was able to get a somewhat of a good night of sleep.

The following morning at 6:30 am I was started on Pitocin. The contractions started right away but they were not strong at all. I laid in bed as Doug got a lesson in reading all the machines. Time ticked by and the contractions got stronger and I started feeling them in my back a little but did not think much of it. Around 8:30, Dr. D came in and checked me and I was only 3 cm dilated. We decided to break my water in the hope that would help me progress. It was a strange feeling to say the least. I felt the “pop” of the bag and then the rush of water that just kept coming and coming…imagine feeling like you are peeing your pants but cant stop.

This really kicked things into gear. I continued to labor and my contractions kept getting stronger. I quickly realized that I was only feeling the contractions in my lower back. I was no longer able to get comfortable in the hospital bed and moved to the birthing ball. It was nice to be able to move around and stretch out my lower back as it contracted. I quickly realized that whenever a contraction hit, I didn’t care who was closest to me but they better have their hands on my lower back. Just simply putting pressure there helped me get through the contraction.

At noon the nurse checked me again and I was only 4 cm. It was so frustrating to hear I was progressing slowly but I kept positive knowing that being induced can lead to long labor. The contractions were strong but I was still able to breathe through them. Also, Doug and I started doing laps around the labor and delivery floor. I told the nurses I was working my way to marathon so I had a lot of laps to do!! We had to stop every so often so I could breath through my contractions but I was happy to be making it without drugs and tears. J

On a side note: The one thing that sticks out most from my labor, aside from the unexplainable feeling of contractions, is the Michael Jackson memorial. It happened to be going on that day and it was the ONLY thing that was on tv and everyone was talking about it! It was on live broadcast, then news and on and on. Luckily towards the afternoon labor was so intense that I tuned out what was going on around me.

The day continued and so did the intense back labor. (The best way I can think to describe back labor is to imagine getting a cramp in your calf or any muscle. Now imagine your whole lower half of your back cramping (like your calf does) and not being able to stretch it out in anyway. And the second it relaxes, you take a minute or so to breathe and then you feel it cramping again).

Around 5:15pm, I couldn’t take it anymore. The pain was so intense that I broke and tears started streaming down my face and I could barely breath let alone get any words out. ALL of my contractions (which were super strong at this point) were in my back, I truly felt NOTHING on my belly. At this point the pain was from my mid back all the way to my lower back during a contraction. It was such excruciating pain. My contractions were so intense that I could not even relax between contractions because they were what I call “double-spiking”, one contraction would start then begin to subside but not completely go away and it would spike up again giving me no chance to relax. I was in essence preventing my body from progressing. This reality hit me when the nurse was checking me during a contraction and said I actually went from 6 cm to 5 cm (not something you want to hear when you should be counting up!). I broke down and started crying….I knew I was done. I fought all I could fight and knew that I would truly have no energy to push if I kept going like I was going (if I didn’t end in C-section). I had made it about 12 hours of intense back labor and I really wanted to make it through the birth process all natural but it just wasn’t in the cards for me this time. I knew once the tears started flowing they wouldn’t stop (I had been fighting them back for a long, long time). I was actually crying so hard I couldn’t catch my breath and could not relax and had to get oxygen. I said the words I had hoped to not have to say, “I want an epidural!” To me, it was more important to birth my son vaginally than to have a c-section and if getting an epidural meant that would happen then I was perfectly okay with it.

The anesthesiologist came and by 6:00 pm I was finally able to calm down and relax. After he left, I was smiling again and progressing. Also, by being able to finally relax (an breath!) I was able to get into a regular contraction rhythm which helped immensely.

I kept laboring except I didn’t know it unless I looked at the machines. The nurses kept an eye on me and then the frustration hit because I got stuck at 7.5 cm. When they gave me the epidural, they had to stop the pitocin and then gradually start it again. This affected my progression. Around 10:00pm my doctor came to talk to me about a c-section because it had been over 12 hours since she broke my water. I was adamant that I did NOT want a c-section and I knew if my doctor just gave me time I would make it to 10cm. I told my doctor I wanted to wait at least one more hour to see if I progressed anymore. My doctor thankfully agreed! I had the best nurses, and since my doctor went home, my nurse agreed to stretch it past an hour as long as she could before checking me again. My doctor finally called about an hour and a half later and the nurse let her know that she was just about to check my progress. I was at 8 cm. Small progress….but progress nonetheless!!! She called my doctor and let her know. Right around this time another mom came in for an emergency c-section of twins, so that bought me the time I needed! (Wherever you are out there, thank you twins for wanting to come out at that time!!)

By 11:45 pm (17 hours since labor began!!) I was finally dilated to 9cm. I started to feel the urge to push and along with feeling some pain in my lower back again. Time ticked by so slowly but when the nurse checked me again I was fully effaced and dilated!! Hooray!! I was sooo ready to push…but I started to spike a fever and get the chills. My whole body was shaking and all I kept thinking was how I was going to push if I couldn’t stop shivering. They had to give me antibiotics and pumped me full of fluid (which makes for great pictures let me tell you…I look like a balloon!). The chills went away and I got ready to push my little man into the world!!

I felt pain in my lower back and tons and tons of pressure to push. We never knew of the little button you could push that would give you an extra boost in your epidural. Because I was feeling pain again, the nurses and Doug were pushing it as often as it would let them. I thinking it started to kick in half way through pushing and really hit after I had him! I started pushing about 1:55 am (on July 8^th) and around 2:15 am my doctor came in. His head was already crowning and I was ready to get him out!! A few pushes later at 2:29 am on 7/8/09 Derrick Jeffrey came into this world. He was 19 inches long and weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces. He was sooo handsome and perfect!! My little man put up a good fight but after 20 hours of labor he made his debut…it was worth every minute!! (Can I just say that when you are pushing and everyone around you is counting to 10…they seem to be counting sooooo slow!! It is tough to use all the energy you can muster up for 10 seconds, rest for 5 seconds then push for another 10, rest for 5 then one more set of 10 seconds of pushing!! It is truly exhausting!!!!!!)

The doctor put him on my chest and I could finally see my handsome little man (through the tears of course). My doctor was amazing in respecting my birth plan of wanting immediate skin-to-skin contact with my son, waiting to cut the cord (although we didn’t wait as long as I wanted because of my fever the pediatrician needed to check our little man out) and immediate breast feeding. Doug cut the cord and the on-call pediatrician was in the delivery room and took him to check all his vitals. He checked out perfect and after a quick cleaning Doug brought him over to me and placed him on my chest. I could not help but stare at him … I was in love!! I could already tell that he looked like a mini-me version of Doug (with my chin and dimples of course!!).

Both me and my doctor were surprised at how little he was. Generally, having gestational diabetes means you have a baby on the bigger side. My doctor said that because I was very diligent and my sugars were super controlled that the excess sugar did not pass to him. They checked his sugars and they all checked out perfect!

Dr. D was also surprised that Derrick came out face down. All of my back labor was due to the fact that he was face up and his skull was pressing on my lower back. But right before he came out, he turned. Surprise, surprise!!!

It was such a long day (or couple of days) that it seems like the days just blur together. It was worth every minute of waiting and every second of pain to have that little man in my arms!!

I have to also say that during this whole process, Doug was so amazing!! He was there to support, and help me as much as he could. He was so strong and supportive. One of my favorite pictures from Derrick's birth is of Doug with Derrick...he had this look of extreme pride yet fear in his eyes. It shows how amazing he is and I so luckily to have him by my side as my husband and an amazing father!!!

Seconds old...just perfect!!

First family picture (see what I mean about them pumping me full of fluids and being like a balloon!!)

So alert...love my little nugget

He was soo tiny!!

A day old!

13 Weeks

I missed my 12 Week update so I figured I better get my 13 Week one done!

Our little pistachio is now about 3 inches long (the size of a peach). It's intestines are moving into the abdomen. Also, our baby's vocal chords are beginning to develop so he/she will be able to perfect that newborn cry. :-)

Here is a belly picture of me at 13 Weeks...some days I seem to show more than others.