Baby Jay's First Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Meeting his new family

Jay has had a very busy week meeting his new family:

Grandma & Gip 

Grammy & Poppy

Cousins Daniel & Brandon

Cousin Ryan

Jays First Bath

22 Hours of Fun!!!

We did it!!!!!

Here is a picture of my pregnant belly right before we left for the hospital...

Jay Thomas Raber was officially introduced Thursday February 19th at 10:05pm.  He weighed 7lbs 13 oz and was 21" long.  We are so in love.  Ok so how was it?  Everyone says "oh you forget about labor as soon as its over", I have not, I remember everything!  BUT I will say it was not as bad as I thought and after the epidural it got a lot easier.

Here's his first picture...

Once we got to our recovery room we decided to take the advice of so many and put Jay in the nursery for a few hours so we could sleep.  I told the nurse to bring him back in as soon as he needed to eat.  I felt like an absolute mess, swollen face (pushed for 2 hrs), back ache and legs wobbly from epidural and most of all down there was really hurting.  We went to sleep about 2:00am after grandma and grandpa left.  I woke up suddenly at 5:00am and thought my baby needs to eat, why is he not back here? It had been 3 hrs and he needs to eat!  I took things in to my own hands and went out to find my baby.  

I had not been out of the room so I had no idea where the nursery was - I figured I would follow the baby cries... so I pulled my sore body out of bed, tried to straighten out my hospital gown and limped down the halls in search of my baby.  I get to the nursery, somehow I had taken the back way and was not able to get in the door so I started knocking on the window.  A nurse came out and I told her I needed to feed my baby!  She looked at my wrist band and went to go get Jay.  She came back about 2 minutes later and double checked my band and asked if I was sure that was my room #.  What?  You lost my baby? I was panicked!  Then out of no where my nurse came flying around the corner and said Erin I have jay, I just brought him to your room for a feeding.  Ahhh relief!  So I wobbled back to my room, and happened to notice a big band-aid hanging half way off my arm, (thought i had gotten rid of it) with a giant bleeding cotton ball from my IV.  I can only imagine what the nursery nurses were thinking.

We spent the next 2 days in the hospital getting used to Jay and his many noises and movements.  I kept the nurse button close and used it often as I always felt like he was choking. Saturday came and we packed up (we brought way to much!)  Our next adventure was getting him home, but before that we needed to get him ready.  After about 1/2 we were set!  

         

We took Lake Shore Drive home and drove very slowly.  As we all know the north side of Chicago is very crowded and busy and on a Saturday afternoon.  As we headed to our house we noticed people going about their normal life, getting coffee, meeting friends, going shopping, talking on their cell phones etc - as we drove thru this,  Loren and I kept saying to each other, none of these people out there know what we have in this car right now! It was just so cool!!!

As soon as we got home we gave Jay a tour of his house and introduced him to Mystery the kitten.  Jay loves his room and is excited to call it home. 

 

11:30pm TONIGHT!!!

Loren and I went to the doctor yesterday and she has decided to induce me, when you may ask? TONIGHT!!!!!!!  So if everything goes as planned we will be holding our little baby boy tomorrow evening! I am so excited and scared and nervous all at the same time!

So today will officially be our last day to not be parents! I must say getting induced and having it planned when we go in is nice because I can be sure my gorilla legs are shaved and my sausage toes are painted!  I went and got a manicure/pedicure yesterday with Katie and when I was all done Katie looked at my feet and her eyes fell out of her head, she said my big toe was bigger than my entire foot!  What?  Hasn't anyone ever seen a little water weight?  A hahahah! So all of this fun will unfortunately come to an end and then I can start going back to normal, whatever that is???

The Dr. said the induction process is quite long. We go in at 11:30pm, so think of us when you are going to sleep tonight!  Loren has the luxury of a 3 night stay on the pull-out futon in the room that's made for a midget!! Poor guy.  They will hook me up to the IV around 12:30am and she said I will be able to sleep for about 3-4 hours before the contractions start (honestly, I do not know how you are supposed to sleep with a needle in your arm) then once the contractions begin and the pain gets bad enough I will be getting the epidural, (sooner rather than later).

From there on we are not sure what to expect, it is ultimately  up to him when he wants to come out.  The Dr says the whole process should take about 12-15 hours so we will see!!!!

Stay tuned.....

The week?

The day I told my sister Katie I was pregnant, was the day she told me from here on out everything will change.  Now in the final days of pregnancy I am starting to understand what she meant.  I have been thinking a lot about how I have felt and changed over the past 9 1/2 months (for those of you not familiar, pregnancy is actually 10 months, not 9) and its true things are definitely different.  I find myself worrying over different things, the shift has gone from me to now mostly the health and safety of our new baby.  Its kind of like when something is going on in your life you are hyper aware of it, for example:  When I got my Jeep Liberty  a while back i felt like everybody had a Jeep Liberty, I got pregnant i felt like everybody was pregnant etc.  Now that I am about to become a mom I feel like everyone has stories about their kids and issues they are going thru with them.  So I listen to those stories and I regularly bring them home to discuss with Loren.  It has been interesting to see how we work things out and agree on how we will parent.  

We have also been spending a lot of time sitting in the nursery, there is something very calming about reclining in the rocker in the evening with just the light of the lamp.   I know this is the time to do it because as soon as baby comes we will never look at the nursery the same.  

So we are resting up for what I feel is going to be "The Week".  Yesterday we went out for a friends 30th birthday celebration, we have not taken many pictures of the 2 of us since I have been pregnant but here was one that was snapped... (look at that belly - 6 days to go!!!)

We had a great time hanging out with friends we have not seen in a while.  Today we are just hanging low, I made a great big waffle & fruit breakfast for us this morning. I figure this may be the last official weekend to indulge, because as soon as baby is here the "eat whatever you want" motto is OVER!!!  I am relaxing today, catching up on email, wash etc and Loren is out running errands.  #1 on his list today was to get fire extinguishers for the house before baby gets here, how cute!

Tomorrow, Presidents Day, Loren has the day off which will be nice for him to relax a little however, I have to go to work for an 8:00am meeting.  No fun I wish I could spend the day with him, considering it is also my birthday but ya gotta do what ya gotta do right.  The on Tuesday we go in for what we hope will be our last prenatal Dr.'s appt.  This appointment will determine if we will be able to get induced on Thursday.  Her decision will be based on the progress my body has made since last weeks appointment.  Last week she said my cervix has opened but still not dilated, hopefully things have indeed progressed and I will be ready to go!

Look at those Paws!

Things are definitely starting to slow down, in terms of my body and my energy.  Although anxiety and excitement is still in the fast lane.  Last Wednesday I had my first set of contractions.  I did not know that's what they were as I suddenly just felt really sick and my stomach started to tighten and cramp up.  I thought it may have been due to the English muffins and syrup I just ingested, but sure enough, just like my books described they were stereo typical contractions.  I had a total of 3 that lasted about 1 minute each and returned every 20 minutes.  I started to think this was it!  I am ready!!! So I quickly jumped into the shower and began to rack my brain on what I needed to pack for the hospital.  Unfortunately, by the time I got out of the shower they were over and I felt normal again.  I told Loren about it and he was excited because we know the end is near and soon enough we will meet our baby!

I went to the doctor Wednesday afternoon to see if I was dilated, no, nothing :( I go in on Tuesday to be checked again.  If I am dilated we can schedule an induction for Feb 19th, if I am not we will check again on the 11th.  If on the 11th I am still not showing any signs of dilation I will probably go past our due date of February 20th.  I am really hoping I will be dilated but we have waited this long and we will continue to be patient until the little guys makes his decision to come out.

My mom has already agreed to come in on the 20th regardless if we have the baby by then or not.  I am sure it will be soon after and by that time I will officially be on maternity leave. Lately all I have been doing is eating, sleeping and getting puffy.  Seriously!  I no longer have hands, I have paws!  My wedding ring is long gone, it barely fits on my pinky :( .  Also, the couch has been pretty dangerous for me on the weekends, as soon as i sit on it i fall asleep for like 3 hours at a time.  This same sort of thing happened around 30 weeks so I am assuming my body is needing the rest.  And as I have heard from every single mom, I should take full advantage of getting this sleep now as it will be hard to get it in the next few weeks.  So that is what I am doing taking it all in and continuing to day dream about life with our new little boy!