Nursery Revealed!

M and I worked so hard on creating a special place for our little one.  We would like to share the before and after pictures for you. 

 I already had the roomed primed so we could start off with a blank slate.

 We started off with paiting the whole room a nice neutral color.

Then M's cousin painted the stripes for us!  (M was really excited that she offered to help.  He was not at all looking forward to tackeling this task.)  Then M and his Dad hung the chair rail.

 After all the painting was done, the fun part started!  Time to decorate.  We selected this bedding set the weekend after we found out little B was a boy!  M had a big part in selecting it.  He was so excited to help me pick out the theme for the room.

 We orded the furniture online, so it came with "some assembly required"...  Man, am I glad that M is good at the mechanics of things.  It took him a few nights to get all the pieces together, but I think it really turned out nice.  We opted for the silver knobs (instead of the black ones that came with the furniture) to add a little something. 

 This valence came with the set.

 I am excited to rock my baby to sleep, read him bedtime stories and simply cuddle with him in this glider.

 The changer (The pad goes where the diaper cake is, I just do not have a picture of it)...

 This was an extra, but I had to get the cute little night light to match!

 A decorative rug is soft on our feet while we change his diaper.

This is hung above the changer.  I found the safety pin online and paited a "frame" around it to add color and interest.

And, finally, we used wooden letters to spell his name above the crib.  M hung these while we were still in the hospital so they were up when we brought little B home!

(You may have noticed Brinks in a couple of these pictures.  She loves hanging out in the nursery!  I think that she will be a great older sister!)

Happy Birthday Bentley!!!

Before I forget all the details, I wanted to document Bentley's entrance into this world.

We had just spent a busy, yet, nice long weekend with friends and family for the 4th. On July 5th, M had to go to work. I had the day off, but was busy doing housework all day. When M got off work, I had dinner in the oven so M lay ed down on the couch to relax and ended up falling asleep. As I was finishing dinner, I suddenly felt this warm, wet sensation. Now, it was not like in the movies where it made a puddle on the floor that someone slips in and everyone laughs. No, it was more like I had wet my pants... still something felt different about it. When dinner was ready, I was hesitant to wake M up because I knew how exhausted he was, but decided since my water may have broke that I better. We sat down at the table and I told him what had happened. M told me to call my nurse midwife.   I explained what had happened to the midwife over the phone and she agreed that it was most likely my water breaking and I should get to the hospital right away. So we finished dinner, I cleaned up a bit, M finished packing the bag and we were off.   Again, unlike the movies, it was all very low-key; we were both very calm.

We arrived at the hospital about 7 pm and they took me to the labor and delivery floor to get checked out. The nurse did a simple test to determine if it really was my water that broke. A minute later, the test came back positive, so they started the process of admitting me to the floor. I was hooked up to monitors that showed I was having contractions 5 minutes apart, however, I was not feeling anything.  Once they had me all settled in my room, the nurse told me to walk around to help get my labor moving. M and I walked the halls for an hour or so before my contractions were coming every 3 minutes and I was starting to feel them in my back. We returned to the room and let the nurse know that my labor was picking up.   At 1 am, I told M to lay down and get some rest because I would probably need him more later.   I also went to bed and was able to sleep for a couple minutes at a time between contractions.

At 6 am the next morning, the nurse checked me to see how dilated I was.   I was only dilated to 4 centimeters, so my nurse midwife wanted to start pitocin to help my labor along.   All night long, the nurses had been keeping an eye on Bentley's heart rate.   With every contraction I would have, his heart rate would drop.   They said that some heart rate variability is normal, but Bentley was having a lot of heart rate drops.   My nurse decided to wait on starting the pitocin and watch Bentley's heart rate a little more.   Pitocin is a medication used to make my contractions stronger and more frequent.  My nurse was not sure how Bentley would handle it.   I was starting to become very uncomfortable and was afraid of how much worse it could get, so at 9 am I asked for an epidural.   As my contractions were getting stronger (even without the help of medication), Bentley's heart rate was dropping even more and taking longer to come back up.  The nurse had me switching positions to see if that would help.   Around 10:30 am, Bentley's heart rate dropped to 40bpm and did not come up for 15minutes. It was at this point, the nurse midwife decided it would be best to do a c-section and get Bentley out. The OB/GYN on-call came in to meet us and sign all the paper work, I was prepped for surgery, and they had him out all within an half hour. 

In surgery, they discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Bentley's neck twice and under his arm once, which explained his heart rate dropping.   So, although a c-section was not in my birth plan at all, it was a good thing that we went that route.   It was my first lesson in flexibility. Bentley is the one in charge now!

Happy Birthday Bentley Marcus Biedron!

Born: July 6th, 2011 at 11:28 am

5lbs, 13oz 

19 1/2 inches long

Home Town Baby Shower

My sisters had a baby shower for me in my home town. They did a monkey-themed showered to match the theme for our nursery. All three of my sisters did such a good job; I am very lucky to have them!

My sister made these chocolate monkey pops!  They are so cute, and tasty too!

 It was such a nice afternoon, they held the shower on the back porch.  I thought this vine idea was so neat.  They hung stuff monkeys from it to continue the theme outside!

M and I would like to extend a special thank you to all of our friends and family!  We are so greateful for all of your support.

Baby Shower

My friend threw a baby shower this weekend for me. It was so sweet of her! She did all the planning, decorating and cooking. I am truly grateful to her. Here are some pictures from the shower.

 The adorable diaper cake my friend made me!

 She made a very nice spread of finger foods...

 and a home made orange cake that was delicious!

 The gift table.  M and I are so grateful for all of our friends and family.

 We played a game where people had to cut a piece of string to the length that they thought would match the measurement of my belly!  It was so funny...  many of my guest guessed way too big!  My older sister ended up winning.  Her piece of string was almost exactly the size of my belly.

M and I would like to extend a special thank you to all of our family and friends.  We are so lucky to have all of your support.

Hiccups!

Last night M and I were at our child birthing class and little B got the hiccups!  It was such a strange feeling.  People told me how neat it felt when your baby got the hiccups in the womb and they were right!  It is such a fun experience. 

Third Trimester!

I can not believe that it is the third trimester already!  The time has gone by so fast.  More importantly, though, that means there is only three more months left.  I can not wait to meet him!

Not Shy Anymore...

Today a girl at my work got to feel little B move.  Up until now, M and I are the only ones that have felt him move.  However, today I had an orientee at work.  Little B started moving after lunch, as usual, he likes it when I eat :0)...  I told her that he was kicking, so she put her hand on my stomach and he gave her a strong kick!  I think felling the little movements is the most exciting part of being pregnant.  It has surprised me how attached to him I already am.  I can not imagine my life without him!   

What was That?

Today I was sitting on the couch relaxing and all of the sudden something came out from under my shirt!  It was so quick that if you blinked, you might have missed it.  But luckily M saw it too.  Little B kicked and we could actually see it from the outside!  It was so exciting.

Name Game

Many people have asked us if we have a name picked out for our little boy yet.  Well, we do, but we are one of those super annoying couples that are waiting to share the name until he is born.  No, really, all joking aside, we (I) thought it would be fun to keep the name a surprise.  It gives us something exciting to reveal when he is born and keeps something special between just M and I.  So for now we will just call him "Little B".  "Little" well, for obvious reasons and "B" because that is the first letter of our last name.

It's a Boy!

We found out today (my 27th birthday) that we are having a boy!  The Ultrasound was such a neat experience.  Before the tech even told us, i saw that it was a boy.  I was surprised at how obvious it was!

Baby's stomach is on the left, his legs and "the evidence"

Baby boy's little hand.  It looked like he was waving at us!  :0)

Baby's legs and two little feet on the right.  The tech took measurements to see how far along I was.  The head and stomach measured right at 20 weeks and 1 day, but the legs measured 20 weeks and 4 days!  I do not know where he gets his height from, because neither M or I are very tall!

These were my favorite.  I loved seeing his little profile. 

In this picture, it looks like he sucking his thumb!  On the ultrasound you could even see his little jaw moving!  How cute he is!

Rainbows and Unicorns

Before I got pregnant, I thought that being pregnant meant you were in this constant state of euphoria.  You know, rainbows and unicorns all the time.  Sure, I had heard of such things as morning sickness, but believed that the “high” of being pregnant was so great that the constant trips to the bathroom were no big deal, even enjoyable.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  Pregnancy, at least so far for me, has been plagued with such miserable experiences as hurling into a trash can nine times at work (in one day!), sleepless nights, constipation, hemorrhoids (which, even though I knew what they were from my years of working with geriatrics, was still an awful experience), and a thing called round ligament pain, which is basically sharp pains in the abdomen from the growing uterus.  There have been many times out of exhaustion that I have cried “I am so done!” (not seriously, of course)!   Honestly, it is not always bad, though.  I do have days that are uneventful and, for the most part, normal.  Still not the “high” I was expecting.  However, today marked a new day and a new opportunity to experience the miracle of life.  For the first time, I felt the baby move!

 It really started last night.  I was up at 2:30am, as usually, (thanks to that pregnancy bladder) but when I climbed back into bed I had trouble going back to sleep because I kept feeling something in my lower abdomen.  I was hopeful that it was the sweet flutters of my unborn.  However, I told myself that it was probably just gas or pressure because my dog was sleeping on my stomach.  When I got to work this morning I kept feeling it, though.  It is a small, faint flutter or pulse-like sensation.  Hello, rainbows and unicorns!  This is the part of pregnancy that makes all the negative aspects of pregnancy worth it: these small reminders that there is a precious human being growing inside of me.