A Birth Story

Now that Ian is one week old, I suppose it's about time that I update with details about his birth.

I guess things really started Saturday night.  Ryan, Janet and I were playing Scattergories; having a good ol' time.  I was having some cramps, but nothing unusual. However, when I stood up to get ready to go to bed, I found I couldn't bend over at all.  I finally made it into bed, but it seemed like as soon as I laid down, I started getting contractions.  They seemed regular enough, so I had Ryan start timing them. It was just after 11 pm.
We went into the hospital at 1:30 am after contractions were consistently 5-6 minutes apart.  Unfortunately, all those contractions weren't really doing anything. After several hours at the hospital, they sent me home until I got into more active labor.  So at 5:30 we went home to try to get some sleep.  Unfortunately for Ryan, he had to get up to be at church, so he went the rest of this adventure with practically no sleep.

I was able to sleep a couple of hours without waking up from the contractions.  Then at 9:30 my water broke, and we knew we were in active labor.  This was it.  Back to the hospital we went.
Honestly, I can't really give too many details as to what happened the rest of the day. It was pretty much a blur.  I got checked in, had lots of contractions, tried to sleep in between them, and the day just sort of went on.
I do remember having lots of back labor because Ian was a little booger and was turned face forward.  He finally turned around before making his appearance, but it wasn't until almost the very end of labor.  I did ask for some pain medication for my back, but other than that Ian came all naturally.

I have to say though, there was no way I could have done it without Ryan and Janet.  Poor Ryan went all day with no sleep, and Janet didn't have much either. But there was never a time when at least one of them wasn't with me.  They were both my heroes though and I was so thankful for them for sticking with me through 8 hours of active labor.

But yes, finally, at 5:29 pm, Ian Gabriel was born and I got to hold him for the very first time. It was sweet relief to finally be done, but even sweeter to see my boy.

Now he is a week old, and I have loved every single day we've had with him so far. I really have not minded getting up in the middle of the night several times for feedings or diaper changes. I love being a mom. I love just watching my son.  I love to see Ryan with him. I love that this little boy is so loved. He is a miracle and a joy in our lives.  We are truly blessed.

I'll leave you with a few pictures. There are much more between Ryan's and my facebook pages. You can also look at the grandma's pages (Becky Traxler and Jayme Barry) for other pictures.  Enjoy them!

He's Here!!!

I don't have pictures at the moment, but they are coming soon.  But...

Ian Gabriel Klein is here!
We welcomed him at 5:29 pm on Sunday, May 23rd.   He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long.

He's a beautiful little boy and I can't wait to show you all pictures.  Be looking for some soon. :-D

Nursery!

So the nursery is 99% ready, and I have pictures to post!

The only reason I say 99% is that we got the letters in Mooner's real name to hang and put right above the crib, but we can't put those up until he's here, lest we spoil the surprise.

So, without further ado...  Mooner's nursery.

View from the doorway

 

This wall is Ryan's pride and joy. Lots of baseball stuff. :)

Sitting space. The futon also makes this our guest bedroom. (Don't worry though, we have a play pen so our guests won't have to stay up with a crying baby. So please come visit.) :)

The crib.  His name will go between those two pieces of wall art, and it's going to be super cute. 

If you want to see more pictures, and a few from different angles, you can check out Ryan's facebook page. He's getting pretty excited about having Mooner here too, as you can tell by the fact that he's much better about getting the pictures up than I am.  

A quick update on me and Mooner:

All is going well. We're having weekly dr. visits now, and so far everything has been pretty much routine. He's still getting bigger, and though he's not doing the flips in the womb like before, he's still pretty active.  

I know he's not due for another couple of weeks, but I keep telling him that especially since I'm done working and the nursery is ready, Mommy and Daddy really wouldn't mind if he came any day now. :)  Soon enough, I suppose. We're just really close and I can't wait!

I will try to get at least one more belly bump shot for you all.  If not though, be tuned in here because he's coming in the near future. So hopefully soon you'll get to see some photos of Mooner himself. :)

Showered

Admittedly, I've been pretty bad at updating this lately.  So sorry, but hopefully this post will make up for it. There's quite a few pictures to share, and a few exciting things to tell.

Since I haven't posted one for almost a month, here are the most recent belly bump shots.

This is what I see every time I look down.  No feet and a growing belly bump. I know it's not the typical profile shot, but I thought at least one from a different perspective would be fun. This was at 34 weeks and 3 days.

Here is your profile shot at 35 weeks.  Mooner is getting bigger and bigger all the time. Just so you know, that belly of mine is 11 squares of toilet paper all the way around. (I know because of one of the shower games, to be discussed later)

On to the nursery! It's a work in progress, but I do have pictures of our crib and changing table at least.  As we get sheets and things put on, I will post more pictures of what the room as a whole looks like, but for now you can admire the furniture. :)

Fortunately, our birth coach noticed that the mattress we borrowed was not quite big enough for the crib. Honestly, I hadn't taken too much time to look at it closely, so I'm glad she did. We now have a new mattress (with the correct measurements) on the way. We do have sheets to put on the mattress to, but we figured we should wait for the mattress to put them on.  Anyway, more nursery stuff will be coming soon, as Mooner is only 5 weeks away from arriving!  

Ryan and I have been doing birthing classes for a couple weeks now. We have a great lady from our church helping us out. It's nice that it's a more personalized experience and we can move at our own pace since we're not in one of the hospital classes.  

Anyway, I've now got some breathing techniques down (well, I'm practicing anyway) and some other coping mechanisms. It's helped take a little of the edge off as far as me being nervous about this whole labor thing goes.  

On a different note, here is the latest update from our midwife. *Fresh off the press, I just got back from the appointment about 20 minutes ago*

Baby is healthy. He is currently in the head down position which is a good thing. We got a really strong heart beat at about 141 beats per minute.  I'm measuring well, at 36 cm. I also asked her about a weight estimate, and she is guessing that right now he's just under 5 pounds.  He'll probably gain 2 to 2.5 pounds over the next month, so it sounds like he'll be a pretty average size baby (at least from all I've heard).

I had my first baby shower this past Saturday. Although the turnout was somewhat small, we really had a blast.  Kelley throws a great shower. Here are a few pictures and tales from that day.

Minus Conee's daughter, Ashlee, here are the people who were in attendance. Kelley (the hostess) is on the far left. I'm the one with the big belly and the "Mom to Be" pin. Beside me are Conee and Kathy.

First game - Memorize the 20 baby items in the tray. Write down as many as you can after looking at them for 1 minute.  I did pretty good with 16. Kathy took the prize though, remembering 17. It's harder than it sounds people. 

Next was "Baby Ailment Pictionary." Fun game, and also helped create a handy resource book of sorts for my future use. Isn't that clever? (P.S. - I won this game.)  

Guess my belly size. (Ok, I already told you above)  I came in at 11 t.p. squares around. Not too bad. Especially since I sometimes feel more like double that. 

Guess What Baby Ate Game.  6 diapers - 6 different candy bars melted into the diapers. Whoever guesses the most right wins. I may or may not have tasted one of the chocolates in this game trying to get a firm conclusion. However, Ashlee didn't even want to look at the diapers. Between me and her, I'm pretty sure we were all crying from laughing so hard.

End with a bottle chugging contest. 4 ounces through what I'm pretty sure is the smallest nipple in existence. Conee won this one, but I was a close second. However, my lips felt indented by the bottle for the rest of the day. Very weird.

It was a good time though. Probably one of the most fun baby showers I've ever been to. So kudos to Kelley for being awesome and helping us all have a really fun time.

Sorry they're sideways. I couldn't get them to rotate. However, these were the super cute cookies Kelley had made for the shower.  Little baby hands and feet. Loved em. And they were really delicious too. So if you want to know where to get good cookies in Albuquerque, go to the ABC Cake Shop. 

I think that's it as far as this post goes. I hope the length of it made up for the long time in between posts.  

Overall, I'm feeling good. Just a little more uncomfortable than usual, but it's only for a few more weeks. I can't believe how close we are.  Unbelievable.  

Stay tuned. May is sure to be a whirlwind month, and hopefully we'll still have plenty to post before Mooner arrives.

What to Say?

Sorry it's been a couple weeks. I feel like we're sort of getting to the point where there isn't much to report. We've been going in for our bi-weekly appointments, and everything is right on track and healthy.  Next time I'm going to ask and see if our midwife has a rough weight estimate for us.  According to measurements, my uterus is on the large side of normal at 35 cm at 33 weeks.

I feel like Mooner is getting bigger every single day. I see this week, it's entirely possible that he's grown a whole inch!  And he's supposedly gaining 1/2 lb each week from here on out.
Unfortunately, I still have no outie to show for any of this growth, but I feel like my stretch marks have stretch marks.  I'd rather have a popped belly button, but oh well.

I have to get some pictures taken. Sorry I'm a little behind on that lately.  Hopefully the next post will come with and updated belly bump and some nursery pictures.  We will at least have the furniture up.
I'm excited because next weekend I get my first baby shower! I'm pretty pumped to start getting stuff to fill Mooner's room.

Personally, I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to be done being pregnant. It's harder to move, sleep, breathe, etc...  Don't get me wrong. I have loved this experience, but I'm ready to carry my son in my arms. So, for my sake, please be praying this little one doesn't come late!