Grayson's Big Day!

What a time the past few days have been! This could get long but I'll start from the beginning... It all began around 11am on Saturday morning when I started feeling mild and relatively inconsistent contractions. They were mild enough that I could get up, walk around and even take a nap but it certainly got frustrating that they weren't getting longer, stronger or closer together like they are supposed to if it is true labor. Saturday night was pretty restful so I didn't hold out much hope that Sunday would bring anything more than the same mild, annoying contractions- boy was I wrong!!!

Around 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon the contractions started coming in a more consistent pattern (every 6-4 minutes) and were getting longer (lasting anywhere from 45 seconds to a minute and a half). Looking back I realize that they weren't getting stronger yet, I was just getting tired and I wasn't dealing with the pain as well. We decided to go walk a few laps around the neighborhood to see if we could get things moving along and just that bit of walking definitely helped. When we got home I called Labor and Delivery to see if they thought it was time we start thinking about heading that way. They suggested that we come in and get things checked out so off we went! The monitors showed that I was having contractions but they weren't coming at regular enough intervals and I wasn't dilated enough to need to be admitted. Mildly disappointed but not surprised we headed over to my mom's for dinner. We had quite a few good laughs about what I call 'my obligatory first time mom false alarm'. More than once I mentioned how much I hoped my water would break so I wouldn't have to worry about heading into the hospital just to get sent home again. At least if your water breaks you know something is about to happen! Well, it turns out I got exactly what I asked for!

Around 7:30pm I looked at Matt and said 'we need to go home now'. We had been laughing about something and I thought 'oh no, not only did I just take us into the hospital for a false alarm but now I'm peeing my pants when I laugh'. A bit embarrassed, I didn't share this with anyone but just said I was getting tired and wanted to head home. On the ride home I had a contraction that was much much stronger than any I had felt up to the point- strong enough that I made Matt pull over and stop the car. This had me secretly hoping that something was starting. Well, by the time we got home it was very obvious that this was not just another embarassing pregnant moment. I told Matt I thought my water had broken but of course neither of us wanted to jump the gun and head back to the hospital if this wasn't the case. I walked around for a few minutes and once I was absolutely certain that something was going on I called L&D again and they said to come back in.

I don't think I've ever been quite so excited and relieved as when the nurse said that my water had definitely broken and she was going to get our admitting papers started. WOOHOO, we were here to stay!!!! Matt called my mom and she headed over and a short time later my sister Caroline arrived. Thankfully, the contractions picked up in intensity and established a regular pattern on their own and I didn't need any Pitocin to help things move along. There was about a thirty minute stretch where the time between contractions lengthened and then BOOM, three incredibly intense contractions came one right after another. This was my breaking point- it was time for some drugs! I decided to get a dose of Fentinol (sp?) which doesn't stop the pain but helps take the edge off. The first dose typically lasts about 45 minutes so I decided to get the first dose and once I felt the need for a second dose to call the anesthesiologist and have him head in and get ready for the epidural. Since it was late Sunday night the anesthesiologist wasn't in house and had to be called in so they told me to plan to have to wait about 30 minutes for him to get there. So, I worked through the first dose, got the second and then called for the epidural.

Once the epidural was in it quickly became obvious that it was only working on my right side- I still felt every little bit of the contractions on my left side. They had me lay on my left side to see if that would help the medicine naturally work down into my left side. Eventually it did but I was still left with that they call a 'window' on my left side where the epidural didn't take effect. A few hours later that also went away and the pain was much, much better.

I got the epidural around 1am and I was dilated to about 5cm and by 5am she said I was 10cm and fully effaced but the baby hadn't yet completely dropped- it was time to call the Dr.! At 6am Dr. Keith called the nurse and told her to have me start doing some practice pushes and he would be there around 6:30. At that point she checked me again and said 'no practice pushes for you, I don't feel like delivering a baby this morning!'. When Dr. Keith got their at 6:30 he was surprised to see that the baby was crowning so hurried off to change into his scrubs and while the nurses quickly got the room and bed ready for delivery apparently all I could think of to ask the nurse was if the baby had hair! At this point she could easily assure me that yes, our baby had a lot of hair! Once everyone and everything was ready, all it took was two and a half contractions to get Grayson out. Later that day the nurse told me that on average, first time moms push for around two and half hours- boy did I get lucky!!!

The three of us just got home this afternoon and have settled in nicely. We are all sleeping and resting much better than we did in the hospital. While our experience was absolutely great, there really is no place like home! The dogs and Grayson are getting along very well and Tate seems to have taken it upon himself to monitor every little sound that comes from Grayson.

Below I've posted some more pictures of our time with our little man so far.

He's started grabbing onto his ear when he sucks his thumb.

Getting ready to go home!

Tate just jumped up and curled around Grayson. I think Tate's in love too!

Home sweet home and loving his swing!

Grayson's Arrival

Grayson Matthew Gallegly was born this morning at 6:45 AM, Feb 22, 2010 at Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, CA. He weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 ounce, and measured 21" long. He is as healthy as can be, and a little cranky from his busy morning.

Some more pictures of his arrival are posted here.

So far we have spent the rest of the day today at the hospital going through the usual post-birth routine tests. Grayson has had his first bath, and his full head of hair is looking quite dapper. He has also had his first couple of tiny meals.

Stefanie began experiencing contractions around midday on Saturday, and the contractions were increasing in frequency throughout the night Saturday and into Sunday. After they were coming every 4 minutes or so, we contacted the birth center at the hospital and they recommended we go ahead and come in to check things out. As was expected, everything was fine and they sent us back home to continue labor for a few more hours or days...

Then, about 7:30 PM on Sunday evening Stefanie got quite a splash when her water broke suddenly. Although only about 15% of women's water will break on its own in such a dramatic fashion, it was a welcome signal that it was in fact time to go the hospital for real.

We arrive at the hospital around 8:00 PM and settled into our room. As the water had broken, contractions started increasing pretty steadily for the next several hours. By 1 AM the anesthesiologist had arrived and administered the epidural, at which time we all got some rest as things continued to progress. After several more hours, the nurses decided it was time to call the doctor at 5 AM. He then arrived at 6:45 AM at which time Stefanie pushed through 2 1/2 contractions and Grayson was born! All in all, labor lasted about 11 hours.

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Final Nursery Pictures!

I've finally organized all of Grayson's new stuff and have some final pictures of his room. It doesn't look too different from previous pictures but there are a few additions. At least I know, every time I walk past his room, that it's all organized and ready. I've also, finally, packed our bags! We are officially good to go whenever he decides to make his appearance.

Here is the view from the door.

The closet. Originally, we planned to use the top of the black dresser as the changing table but we've had to rethink that since the only place to hang his clothes is right above.... I don't have much experience changing babies, especially boys, but I know enough to realize that changing a baby underneath his clean clothes might not be the best idea! The changing pad is there for now but I'm sure it will end up moving to wherever we change him most often- if we really even need it.

Some of his new friends hanging out on the shelf.... far, far away from the dogs.

So there it is, hope you like it! I've definitely had a fun time getting it ready and now all we need is our baby!

Grayson's Baby Shower and New Toys

On Saturday January 30th two of my closest friends, Cynthia and Gina (both of whom were bridesmaids) threw me a baby shower at Casanova's Restaurant in Carmel. It was a GREAT time and Grayson is a very, very lucky boy to have so many wonderful people in his life. Here are some pictures from the day...

One of the shower games 'Guess the Baby'. There were some very cute babies!

The tables

Cynthia and me

Gina and me

Caroline and me

Emily, Cynthia, Gina, Sarah and Amanda

Grayson's new friends from the shower

Matt's block tower. I wonder who will have more fun with these, Matt or Grayson?

Grayson's swing- a Christmas gift from my mom. We copied Beth and Farris and got the 'My Little Lamb Swing'- it's just too cute.
Another Christmas gift from my mom- the Pack'n'Play! It's probably going to live at my mom's.

Farm Animal Activity Gym

And finally.... 37 weeks!

Needless to say, after getting so many fabulous gifts at the shower Grayson's room is a bit of a mess. It's going to take a pretty good re-organization effort to get things back in order and once they are I'll post some more pictures of his room. His room is definitely taking on more of a personality with all the stuffed animals, books and decorations he's been getting. Now all we need is a baby in the crib and we'll be set!

We are going to the Dr. once a week now and everything is still going very well. Now that I'm in my 38th week the baby is considered full term and could come any day without complications. I still can't get myself to pack our hospital bags quite yet though. While I really rather him not come late it would be fun to have a birthday baby! My mom's due date with me was actually Feb. 25th (the same as Grayson) but I wasn't born until March 1. So, Grayson very well may decide to make a fashionably late arrival and be just like mom and dad with birthdays on a 1st of the month.

That's all for now. I'll be back again soon with some pictures of his room and who knows what else. We aren't doing anything too exciting in the coming weeks except trying not to go nuts waiting for Grayson to come!

Big Belly and a Popsicle

It's about time I update the blog so here goes... this could get long!
First I'll start out with the most recent belly shot- 35 weeks! I can't believe there are only a few more to go.

My newest obsession- popsicles. As you can see, I couldn't even put this one down for 5 seconds to let Matt take a picture! Last week I couldn't stop eating these...
Skinny Cow Ice Cream Cones! This one's chocolate, obviously, but they also have vanilla with caramel sauce and mint with chocolate. I have yet to see the mint ones but my mom swears they do exist. B-E-W-A-R-E it is very hard to eat just one of these, hence the reason I had to switch to popsicles. It's a little easier to justify eating 2-3 popsicles a day than 2-3 ice cream cones. We affectionately started calling them fat cows because after 3 they aren't skinny anymore!

As you've probably heard it's been raining quite a bit around here. Matt just snapped this picture of the hail on our chairs out back. Now, I know it's not the big golf ball size hail that they get in a lot of places but hail in general really isn't common around here so it was pretty exciting!
Pregnant + lots of rain = lots of cooking. I made Ina Garten's (The Barefoot Contessa) mustard chicken salad the other day and I HIGHLY recommend it. You can find the recipe on foodnetwork.com. We didn't have any white wine so I used a little chicken stock and some champagne vinegar instead- it worked surprisingly well!
I was really craving broccoli the day I made this so I used more broccoli and tomatoes than called for but I figured you can't have too many veggies.
See the recipe for the sauce but it has some mayo, dijon mustard, whole grain mustard, tarragon, chicken stock and champage vinegar (my substitution for white wine.) The sauce is amazing- I only mixed in about half of the sauce and saved the rest. Honestly, I think it would be great on just about anything- turkey sandwiches, a dip for veggies, pasta salad, etc.
A bowl (or two...) of the final product for lunch!
This is how Tate and Riley pass the time when it rains... Tate hates the rain with a passion. I think you can see it in his eyes here- Riley is dozing off and it looks like Tate is just hatefully staring at the rain through the window above our sink. Poor guy.
While I was waiting for the chicken to cool I thought it would be funny to take a picture of the way I see my belly. I'm glad I took it, it's turned into one of my favorites.
Here's how Riley keeps me company when I'm snuggled in my chair... With all the rain we've had I've spent a pretty good amount of time here over the past week and Riley does a great job of keeping my feet warm. I mean really, how cute is she?
There isn't too much else to report. I can definitely tell my body is getting ready for the big day. The Braxton Hicks contractions have become more intense and frequent and our little man seems to have decided it's a good idea to jam his head into my spine. I'll be sure to thank him for that when he's older.

Anyways, we're pretty much ready for the big day. We have a few baby related things coming up over the next week- on Monday we have our 'pre-admission interview' at the hospital which is a chance for us to take a final tour of the Labor and Delivery area, meet some nurses, ask any final questions and go over our birth plan with the hospital so they are more prepared to meet our needs. We have our 36 week appointment on Wednesday (after this one we start going every week!!!!) and on Saturday we have our baby shower! I still think it's funny that I get so excited to go to the Dr. considering they don't do much other than the usual tests (blood pressure, urine and weight) and answer any questions we have but hey, I'm a first time mom so I have an excuse to get excited over these little things :)

That's all for now. I'll be sure to post some pictures from the baby shower as soon as I can!

Looking Back

Before I begin this post I have to say- this was a bit of a challenge! I was looking around at some other blogs a few days ago and noticed that quite a few people had a re-cap of the past year. I figured 'that sounds like a good idea, how hard can it be?!'. It's not necessarily hard to remember what we did each month (thanks to our Google calendar!), but it was tough to find pictures to go with each month. So, bear with me, some pictures are a little dull but I think it's better to have something rather than nothing! I'm not really one for making big New Year's resolutions but I have decided to make more of an effort to take more (and better!) pictures of the things we do and the places we go- this post can be my inspiration to keep the camera around!

January...
We spent plenty of fun nights at Sarah and Taylor's and the girls, once and for all, beat the boys in 'Battle of the Sexes'... somehow this is the only blog 'worthy' picture of the night.

February...
We celebrated Jay's birthday and ate too much chicken at his and Laura's house for Superbowl Sunday.

March...
We spent a fabulous weekend in Denver with Beth, Farris, Nina and Jeremy.


April...
We paid taxes... and that's about it.


May...
Nina came to visit and we had a great time! Matt took me on a Sunday Funday hike to a hidden swimming hole and we celebrated Amanda's bday with 'sombrero cupcakes'.


June...
Kyle and Sharon got married in Grand Junction, we went to the Dominican Republic with some of our closest friends and, most importantly, we found out we were EXPECTING!!!


July...
We took a roadtrip to Portland for the 4th of July... still trying to keep our news a secret!



August...
We got to meet Cooper!

September...
We started to get ready for Grayson and took Adult, Child and Infant CPR and First Aid classes at the Red Cross.

October...
We found out we're having a BOY!


November...
Matt, Jeremy, Amanda and Torun spent Matt's birthday at Festival 8 (Phish) in Indio, Ca. Janet and Jenifer came out for Thanksgiving and we took our Anniversary Road Trip!


December...
We took our 'Preparing for Childbirth' classes through the hospital and ate our way through the Holiday season!

Here's to 2010!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Years Eve. We spent the night at home with a great group of friends. I have to say, I'm pretty proud about staying up until midnight- I definitely didn't think I would be able to! This past New Year's Eve was definitely one of my favorites, spent just the way it should be- in sweats with good friends.

We don't have too much to report on the baby front. We had another doctors appointment last Wednesday and everything is still going well. I definitely feel like I'm growing by the day and I can't believe we can finally say "our baby is due next month!!!!". We have the baby shower at the end of this month to look forward to and then it's just a matter of a few weeks! Here is an update from the Babycenter website about Grayson's progress this week-

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

On the amazing husband front- Matt took all the lights and Christmas decorations down today. I ran about two errands this morning and came home feeling miserable and in need of a nap. We had planned to take all the decorations and the tree down today but I really, really couldn't get myself motivated to do anything. When I finally got the energy to get up and put the groceries away Matt had taken everything down! I think he kind of enjoyed organizing everything and re-conquering our garage which had been taken over by storage boxes so I don't feel too bad!

On a completely random note- we were woken up around 3:30 last night by the awful screeches of a cat fight or cat/racoon fight and WOW I forgot how horrible those sounds are. Of course our fierce guard dogs didn't even lift their heads and slept through the whole thing.

That's all for now- hopefully we'll find something interesting to take pictures of over the next few days so the next post will be a little more colorful!