Week 1

I LOVE this pic... thought I'd share it. Mr Grady was having some 'Grandma time' while James and I slept. When I came down the sun was shining in the living room and we were starting to slowly wake him up to feed.

Tomorrow morning will mark a week since Grady's arrival and I can no longer imagine life without him. I knew life would change when he was born... but I never comprehended how much and how fast! Everything we do takes 3 times longer than expected if we even get it done at all.

We have made a few trips over to Nana and Grandpa R's in the past week and Grady seems to feel right at home there as he always shows them what a good little baby he is!

We have had visitors over at the house and also met lots of Nana and Grandpa's friends. We even attended a BBQ for one of James' friends birthdays on Saturday. We have had many opportunities to show off our little man!

Everyone comments on how much he looks like James. Marla pulled out a picture of what James looked like when he was a baby and I must admit that he looks a lot like his Daddy. I looked long and hard for a trait that he got from me and finally found one... he has my big toe! If you have seen my feet you will know what that means - a big stumpy small nailed big toe. That is it! We are still hoping that he will get my eyes but as of now they aren't open a whole lot and are still the dark blue that most babies have.

That is it for now... hope everyone has had a great long weekend enjoying the weather while our little family has spent it indoors admiring our new family addition!

Pictures of Grady!

I have created a Flickr account to post pictures of Grady. The link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/christy_lee/. It is also available to the left of the posts. I will update the pics on the site periodically so you can watch Mr. Grady grow.

Please let me know if you have problems accessing the link.

Enjoy!!

Grady's Baby Pool

Congratulations Kristi! You are the official winner of the baby pool after 2 disqualifications for using insider information!! You can check out how you did by going back to the baby pool. It is the lowest amount of points that wins. Note that James came in 17th I came in 20th....

Although Kristi guessed the wrong sex.... she had the earliest date of Jun 23. The next closest date was Jun 29. Good Work Kristi!

Thanks to everyone who took part as I really enjoyed reading the guesses!

Grady has Arrived!

Our precious baby boy Grady arrived June 24th, 2008 at 6:24am and at that moment our lives changes for the better. He weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and is 48cm.

I ended up being induced after my water broke on Saturday night. After a trip to labor and delivery on Saturday they told us that it was not my water. James encouraged (aka forced) me to go and get checked out again on Monday... and sure enough - it had in fact ruptured. So off to the hospital it was!

We arrived shortly after 630pm and finally got induced at 130am. As you can tell from the time of birth - it was quick. A mere 5 hours later Grady was born.

James was absolutely phenomenal in the delivery room and I couldn't have asked for a better support person. It was unreal to go through this together and to welcome our son in the world. No one could have prepared me for the rush of emotion and the amount of love you can have for your child and husband at that second. I feel absolutely blessed.

My mom was also with us in the delivery room and is staying with us for the time being until we have this parent thing a little more under control. Thanks Mom!

Here are a few pics to tide you over until Grady pulls away from feeding long enough to give me some computer time :)

Maternity Leave - Day 1

Today is not going quite as I had expected... James has been suffering from a toothahce since late Friday night so today's first line of business was getting him into the dentist to get checked out. He has been popping T3s and penicillin to manage the pain and sometime yesterday they seemed to stop being as effective. His regular dentist is not open on Mondays so we got him in to see a different dentist down the street. He took x-rays and didn't see anything so did nothing. We are not really sure how to proceed from here. Likely he will go in and get it checked by his regular dentist tomorrow. My biggst fear is going into labor before he gets this taken care of so I am going to be on his case until this is resolved.

So I am working around him as I try to get things in order for baby Dill's arrival. Not really how I expected the day to go, but I guess I am getting to spend some extra 'quality time' with my husband before baby arrives... which is what everyone keeps telling me to do!

Maternity Leave Begins!

Today was my last day at FCP before beginning my 1 year maternity leave. What I thought was going to be a great day was much harder than I ever imagined. I have been counting down the days of work left for weeks now and telling anyone who would listen how excited I was to be done. In reality... it was kinda sad. I have become friends with my co-workers and am accustomed to seeing them everyday. They really have experienced this pregnancy with me. So it felt strange to walk out at the end of the day and say 'I'll be in touch' rather than 'See you tomorrow'.

I figure once I wake up tomorrow I will have forgotten all about work and will be really excited that one more milestone has passed that brings us closer to becoming parents.

Week 38

Last night James and I attended baby class #5 on breastfeeding. I expected it to be more mom orientated - but I thought they did a good job of incorporating the Dad's and what they can do support a mom that breast feeds. I would practice the position with a fake (creepy) baby and James would burp it and change the baby's clothes. We got some handouts that will likely be useful in the first couple weeks after baby.

One interesting fact we learned is that the maternity leave was extended to 1 year to promote breast feeding for longer periods. They figure if women had more time off work - they would breastfeed longer, have healthier babies and in turn reduce health care costs in the long run. Interesting tidbit for a Wednesday morning....

The most exciting part of the class is that the first baby arrived! As I have mentioned before - these classes are until July 29th so everyone will have their babies during this time and the intent is for you to bring them to class with you and tell your birth story. This woman had the best labor ever - her water broke at 730am and she had the baby before 2pm! The only question I had was how do I get myself one of those labors??

The baby was 8 days old and so tiny. Both James and I noticed how the parents would look at the baby and just grin ear to ear. Come on Dill... let's get going so James and I can be the proud, grinning parents!

One other thing they stressed is to try and limit the visitors in the first week and really focus on getting some rest and bonding with baby. However... they do recommend having helpers lined up to do the cooking, the laundry, and the cleaning. James figures this should work great as Grandma Paulette will be living with us for a few days and she can do his laundry for him. I told him this was wishful thinking. But who knows what an excited grandma will do to ensure she can stay as long as she wants....

PS - 38 week picture has been loaded to the left.

Doctor's Appointment

Friday we had a doctor's appt. where she quite frankly told us 'It is now safe for the baby to born'. Although I knew this already, hearing it from the doctor brought on a whole new meaning.... it could really be any day now. Very exciting and scary. I hope Dill can hold out until the 29th when Grandma Paulette arrives - but essentially I have no control over this. Given that I was like 3 weeks late I am not counting on having an early delivery.

James was able to join me for the appointment which was a nice treat. He thought it was boring with the exception of hearing the heart beat (146 bpm).

So, the waiting continues.....

Week 37

This week Dill is considered full term (or fully baked). That means the lungs, which are the last to develop, are complete and baby could breathe on its own if born today.

I have finally reached the point where I am ready to move on from pregnancy into motherhood. I love being pregnant... but I think I will love being a mom more. I am sick of the extra weight and especially the waiting. Now that I know it is healthy for Dill to arrive any day - the waiting game just seems that much longer. How can 8 months seem to fly by and the last month seems to take forever??

In the meantime, I am counting down the days of work left (4) and the days until EDD (19). I'm not sure what I am going to countdown if July 2nd comes and goes. Let's hope it doesn't come to that!

I also posted the 37 week pic on the side bar.

Heel 'n' Wheel-a-Thon

Sunday morning mom and I took part in the annual Heel 'n' Wheel-a-Thon to raise money for IBD (Inflamatory Bowel Disease) which includes both Crohn's and Colitis. This is the 3rd year that I have taken part and the first year for my Mom. James was off the hook as he spent the day at the office :(

Essentially it is a 5km walk/run/rollar blade/bike followed by a BBQ and entertainment. This year the location moved from the U of C to Fish Creek park. The location was great except instead of being in a loop, it was 2.5 km down a path and then turn around and walk back. Much nicer location than walking on the road and through the university...

After the walk, mom and I checked the prize board and were surprised to see that we both won! She won a very nice sleeveless pink golf shirt (it was even ladies) and I won a very ugly blue rain jacket that said 'BITE' accross the back. I figure since I won't be golfing this year that mom would get more use than me so I didn't even try to trade!

The weather held out nicely for us considering the amount of rain Calgary saw this weekend. We each brought an umbrella but thankfully neither of us needed to use it - instead we had to carry them around. Both of us were thankful to have hoods to protect us from the little bits of rain that fell here and there. Overall it was a great morning spent supporting a good cause.

I hope to make this a yearly event as it is encouraged to bring your kids and even your dogs and make it a family event.

Maternity Photos

Today my Mom and I spent a few hours playing around with the camera taking maternity shots of me and Dill (for now known as the belly). I thought about getting professional ones taken but in the end decided that i wouldn't really show anyone so it would be a waste of money. Besides, i would rather put the money towards having pictures of the baby taken instead. Those of course will be much cuter pictures :).




So... I draped a dark brown sheet in the family room and before you knew it, we had a mini photography studio right in the house. Mom took close to 150 shots! We browsed the Internet for ideas and tried to re-create some of the pictures. Considering neither of us has ever attempted something like this I figure we did pretty well.






I'd also like to point out that I squeezed my expanding butt and thighs into a pair of pre-preggo jeans. Although I will admit it is not the first pair I tried on. the first pair were not all that flattering and barely made it over the hips. But I thought pair number 2 was still pretty good. Makes me optimistic that I will in fact get back into my pre-pregnancy jeans sooner than I thought... fingers crossed.









My biggest motivation to have the pictures taken was that I have embraced all the body changes in anticipation of what pregnancy will lead to. I have wanted to be a Mom for as long as I remember and am so excited to have this moment within my grasp. My spiritual side really kicks in as pregnancy and birth is such a miracle and I feel so blessed to experience it even once. I really want to capture the beauty of it and look back at the pictures in years to come to remember what I looked like when I was pregnant. I have already been told that even months after it is hard to believe that you were ever that big. Now I will have proof!

Mom - Thank you so much for spending the afternoon taking pictures of me and my belly. You did a great job and I am so happy with how they turned out!

Pictures for Nursery

These are 2 pictures we decided to hang in Dill's nursery. I actually crossed stitched both of them for James in the first 2 years were were dating. Since then I have re-matted them and purchased matching frames. Here is the finished product.

We also have some vintage Disney pictures still in the plastic wrap from when James went to Disney World over 15 years ago. We would also like to put these up, but because of their size, framing them is proving to be a little more difficult. They are not huge, just not standard sized so we may have to have a framer do it which always means more money.....

I would also like to get large wooden letters so spell out baby's name over the crib and purchase either a light pink or blue shelf from Ikea. Both of these purchases obviously have to wait until after Dill arrives. Hopefully in about 3 weeks :)

Week 36

This week Dill is the size of a crenshaw melon shown above and weighs about 6 pounds. Who comes up with these comparisons?? There is actually a link on babycenter.com that will tell you what fruit/veggie your baby is most like for all of the 40 weeks. One exciting thing to note is that after this week that baby is full term and all major development is complete. It is a relief that if Dill were to arrive early that he/she is fully 'baked'.

I had my doctor appointment today and it wasn't as boring as usual. A few things to note:

-the heartbeat was 140ish (which is normal)

-My tummy measured 36.5 cm. I am exactly 36 weeks today... so if you remember from a previous post, your tummy should be the same size in cm as you are in weeks. So I am bang on.

-My weight gain is normal. Although I sometimes go weeks with no weight gain at all, I (Dill) am capable of catching up in just one week. This week I gained nearly 4 pounds!! Who knew that was possible??

-I also asked about being late - and she told me that they will not let you go more than 41 weeks 4 days. So the latest Dill will arrive is July 13 by my calculations.

I do not get to see my regular doctor for the next 2 weeks as she is out of the office. I think this works to my advantage for 2 reasons:

1. She will not be on holidays the first 2 weeks of July.

2. I will get the opportunity to meet 2 other doctors which increases the odds of the doctor delivering the baby will be one I have met.

So far I don't mind going to the doctor too much... but I am guessing these weekly appointments are going to get old really fast!

PS - 8 more days of work and the countdown continues!

1 month to go!

Today officially marks 1 month until Dill's approximate arrival. I know that the baby could be late and try to mentally prepare myself for this. You spend so much time counting down to a specific date that is really just a guess. Only 8% of babies are born on their due dates and 80% of babies are born within 2 weeks of the due date. so looking on the bright side... Dill could arrive early. Let's all cross our fingers on this!!

As per the blog countdown - there are 29 days until EDD (estimated dill date)! Although I am very pregnanat now - the reality that we will have a new additions to our little family has still not sunk in. You spend lots of time doing what you are suppoesd to, i.e. reading about babies, shopping for cribs, taking classes etc. etc. but the reality that we will have a baby in a month is surreal.

James and I think it will hit us when we bring the little one home, look around, and think 'this baby now lives with us - now what?'.

I just can't beleive how quickly the pregnancy has passed and how excited both James and I are for our baby to arrive.