One Month Old

Yesterday London turned one month old. He is starting to look a little bigger each day. His skinny bird legs have acquired tiny rolls of fat and it looks like his face and neck have also gained some weight. I love fat babies and wouldn't mind if he becomes one. He is so cute. A few times a day, he will be very alert and fairly interactive. He loves being sung to and will give us big wide-mouthed smiles when we sing to him and also smiles sometimes when I laugh. He loves my attention. The other day, I cradled him in my arms while I made pancake batter and explained the whole process to him. He loved it and looked at me with genuine interest and gave me a few big smiles. I love this little guy.

One of his newborn pics taken a couple weeks ago. See, he is chubbier now.

Due Date

Today is London's due date and yet here's already been with us for over three weeks. He has already grown  from 6 lbs 11.5 oz to 7 lbs 4 oz. It's weird to think that he could have still been growing inside me all this time. I don't know if I could have handled being pregnant much longer than I was, plus I am grateful that I didn't have to push out a seven pounder. Scott and I love having this sweet little guy in our home now and I don't mind that he came a little early.

First Bath. He didn't know what to think about it.
Despite his concerned face, he didn't really cry
and I actually think he kind of enjoyed it.

Hangin' with Dad. We love it when Dad is home. London looks just like his dad did when he was a baby.

He loves the passy.

3 Weeks Old

He's Here

London Craig Cardon was born on April 14th, 2013, at 10:14 pm, 6 lbs. 11.5 oz, 20 inches long.  Though slightly premature, he was healthy except for a mild case of jaundice.  Labor was great! Recovery sucks. Someday I may get around to blogging about it all, but right now I am still trying to heal + get the hang of this mom thing, which leaves little time for much else.  But a midst the struggles of postpartum, I love the sweet moments I get to experience with baby London everyday and enjoy the time we get to spend together as a growing little family.

  

 

No Baby Yet.

Still waiting...(I know it's only been a couple days, but I am the worst at waiting). These days are filled with shopping trips (trying to walk this baby out) and anxiety wondering when he will get here. This phase is definitely not the most comfortable and sometimes hurts quite a bit, plus I am getting excited to meet the little guy, so I am kind of impatient.  Nevertheless, I am glad that he is taking his time so that he is healthy when he's born.

Shopping with Jake

Getting bigger everyday.
I am done wearing pants and
I got my first pregnant belly
stretch marks this week.
It was a sad day.

The Waiting Begins.

Yesterday was my last day of taking the meds and couch arrest.  Now I am allowed to resume normal activities (though walking and other normal activities aren't so do-able with this kid's head pushing down there) and "let nature take its course." So far, no baby yet. I've had a few contractions and cramps, but nothing too regular or overly intense.

Last night I had a dream that our baby was this crazy, wild man. Every second he was just running somewhere else and I couldn't keep up with him. I am excited to see what he will really be like in real life.

I am finally starting to feel ready to have a baby. The room is ready, clothes are washed, house is tidy, bags are packed. I even went into work today for a few hours and was able to tie up some loose ends there. So, if he decides to come this week, it's fine with me...

Wild Thing.

Well, this wild baby is just begging to come out even though he is not due for another 5 weeks. On Saturday morning I started getting contractions.  A lot of them. And they were pretty painful.  I started timing them around 1 pm.  From 1-4 pm I had contractions every 3-4 minutes. I didn't want to call the doctor right away because I didn't want to make a big deal out of it if it was nothing and because Scott and I had plans to take someone to the Joseph Smith movie at the visitor's center.  I tried to remain calm during the movie and stay quiet even though the contractions were so rhythmic and uncomfortable. Finally, on our way home from the movie, I decided to call the doctor on call who instructed me to head to the hospital. We went home, packed a hospital bag and headed straight to the hospital.

They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me (checks = not comfortable, at all).  I was already dilated to a 3, 80% effaced. They hooked me up to an IV of water and gave me three shots of Tributalene (sp?) which made my arm burn, heart race and body shake.  Not fun.

Scott was the best to have with me through all of it. He was coaching me and crackin' jokes and acting like a 5-year old. While I was laying in the hospital bed, miserable, he pulled out a huge blue sucker for himself. Within minutes, his teeth and lips were bright blue.  He tried to wash them off, but the bluish tint remained. He went to grab a paper towel from the automated dispenser, but instead of just one paper towel, it kept giving him more. Pretty soon, he couldn't keep up with the rolls of paper shooting out of the paper towel dispenser.

Wild baby. Child husband. Love them.

My parents showed up and Scott and my dad gave me a blessing.  I am so grateful for it. I have my own plans about how I want things to go, but this blessing told me to have faith in God's will. That is hard to do, but I am trying.

After the third shot of Trib. the contractions had slowed down and they let me go home on bedrest.

On Sunday, the contractions started up again.  They were pretty intense, but they weren't as rhythmic, so I waited to call the on call doctor until 7 pm. He told me to head back to the hospital, where they gave me more fluids and another shot of Trib. I love the nurses that have helped me so far. This nurse was awesome because she brought Scott the remote to the TV. Blessed saint keeping my child husband entertained.

Monday, I had an appointment with my doctor. He gave me a prescription to keep my uterus relaxed and instructed me to be a "couch potato" for the week. He is trying to get me to make it to at least 36 weeks. Once I hit 36 weeks, he said that I will stop taking the meds and return to some normal activities and let nature take its course. So, we will just wait and see...

32 Weeks. Moving and Miracles.

I took an awkward prego pic to document the belly at 32 weeks and when I uploaded it to my computer and saw it on the big screen, I looked so huge and puffy that I couldn't bear to share it.  Luckily, I haven't gained a lot of weight for a pregnant woman, but I feel like I've got the puffy-face baggy-eye humongo-belly thing goin' on, and it's just not working for me.

Anyways, "Junior", as Scott's dad likes to call him, is definitely growing big and strong. He is very active in here. A future "triple-jump Olympian", says Scott. Feeling this kid moving around and hiccuping is one of the coolest/weirdest/most uncomfortable/best things ever. Sometimes I can feel the actual little limbs poking out and it reminds me that I have a real-live human in me. It kind of freaks me out. It's like a Sci-Fi film or something, but I love that I get to experience this. I know that not every woman in this life has an opportunity to experience having a baby inside them and so even though I am constantly complaining about how uncomfortable it is, I am so grateful for this experience.  It is way cool.

Along with lots of bodily changes, many other changes are happening/coming up in our lives.  The first of many changes was the big move to a townhouse across the parking lot from our old townhouse. The landlord of our previous residence decided to put the house on the market. A couple weeks later, on a Monday, the "For Sale" sign went up and people started coming by to check out our place. By Friday, that same week, the house sold. Luckily, we had already found this new place to live, which was more expensive but considerably bigger.  So, we tried to be excited. Unfortunately, instead of being an exciting move like we had hoped for, it was more of a nightmare...

Upon moving in, in addition to the sub-par cleaning job (there were cobwebs, dead bugs covering the dining room ceiling, gross orangish grime slimed on some of the walls/doors, and lots of filth everywhere) we found that the toilet had leaked to the downstairs ceiling causing a discolored bulge complete with mold, a broken garbage disposal that sprayed water under the sink when turned on-more mold/water damage, a leak under the bathroom sink upstairs, the clothes dryer wouldn't turn on, the right knob on the sink downstairs wouldn't work, and to top it all off, we had no hot water. The culmination of finding one broken or gross thing after another led to multiple breakdowns that weekend. So much for the two inspections that the management company said the place had-what were they inspecting?! I wanted to move back to our other house.

But a midst the horrors, tender mercies and living angels saved me. We had generous friends and family that came and helped us move in. Scott was supportive and consoling and stayed up super late (even though he had a track meet the next morning) moving things and washing our bedding, while I slept on the floor in my misery. My sister and mother-in law came the next day and helped me unpack.  My mother-in-law literally stayed all day. I would have lost my mind without her. I found a long-lost Sees Candy gift certificate that we received when we were married and haven't been able to find since (I looked everywhere for that-literally everywhere, finding it that day was a miracle, I'm convinced).  My mom brought over all my siblings and they helped us scrub down our other place. There is no way that we could have done it without them. And when I did a final walk-through of the place and saw how nice a job they all did, I cried. Then, my gracious in-laws let us stay with them for a few days until we got hot water.

Miracles. I am so so so grateful to our families and friends that were literally our angels that week.

A couple weeks later, and the house is almost all fixed and finally feeling live-able, thankfully.