Meet Our Baby Boy!!

*Precursor: this may be long so if you would like to skip down to the pictures, I will not be offended :)

Our little Max has finally arrived!! We are so excited and overjoyed to have him here with us, especially after what's been going on the last few days since he's been born. Well, here is our birth story:

Saturday evening around 12:30am my water broke! Oh the influx of emotions! (Mostly excitement at this point). We arrive at the hospital around 1:30am only for the nurse to tell me that there was no sign that my water had broken (she was very skeptical, no matter how much I reassured her that it indeed happened). Contractions began slowly at 2:30am and by 3:30am they were suddenly right on top of each other. I finally received an epidural by 4:30am and Bryan and I got to sleep for a few hours. Around 5:30am my water broke AGAIN! By 7:00am I was fully dilated, but since the baby and I were doing so well, they let me "labor down" to let the contractions do most of the work. By 7:40ish I started pushing and Maximus was born at 8:06am, was 8lbs 10oz and was 20in in length. What an easy and relatively short labor and delivery! 7.5 hours from start to finish and I only pushed for about 20-30 minutes :)

What happened AFTER the birth:

Bryan got to watch the nurse clean him off and test him, all the while little Max held Bryan's finger so tight and refused to let go. However, not 5-10 minutes after the birth, Max was whisked away to the special nursery because he wasn't receiving enough oxygen. We later receive the news that Max was really pale, really swollen, had fluid in his lungs, was under an oxygen tent, and was receiving an IV and antibiotics. Our poor, poor little boy! They reassured us that they believed everything would be ok, but that they wanted to rule out infection and were taking every precaution to ensure his wellness. For the first 24 hours all Bryan and I could do was visit him in the nursery and talk to and touch him only slightly so as to not overstimulate him. It wasn't too long (though it seemed like an eternity!) before they weaned him off the oxygen and I could start breastfeeding. After a full day and night of that, they removed the IV and stopped the antibiotics. By the afternoon of the second day was able to stay in our room with us while they monitored his weight and vitals every once and a bit. As long as everything went perfectly, he would be able to go home in the morning, "but no promises" added the pediatrician.

Coming home:

LUCKILY, everything DID go perfectly and on the third day, he was released from the hospital and could come home with his very proud and very happy mommy and daddy :D

The oxygen tent he was stuck in for about 7.5 hours. The nurses always made him so comfortable though, I think he didn't mind it at all.

Daddy holding little Max for the first time. He was so nervous, but loved it.

The doctor let us have a brief visit in the room for some quality family time. I had been discharged, but the hospital has a neat boarding program where they let the mothers use the room like a hotel room and they gave me free meals. Bryan could continue to stay with me, but had to pay for his own food.The hospital photographer left Max in a super cute position after the little session and so I made sure to take advantage and get a free shot for myself since the packages are SO expensive!

Ready to head home! I knew newborns were small, but I didn't know just how tiny he would look in his car seat.

For your viewing pleasure :)First family photo!!! Needless to say, we're happy to be home.

Pregnancy Photo Shoot

We had a fun little pregnancy photo shoot today and Bryan did such a wonderful job taking the pictures! I am so happy with the end results :)

Ultrasound Pictures

I am 38 weeks and was so excited to be able to have an ultrasound. Apparently in my first ultrasound at 16 weeks, the placenta was really low, so my new doctor wanted to do a follow-up one to make sure that it was out of the way. Our baby boy is measuring at 7lbs 14oz, which is pretty big for this time. The tech estimated he can get to about 8.5-9lbs if he goes to full term. I sure hope he doesn't wait that long; I don't want to pop out a big baby!!

He has five toes on each foot! (We are quite excited about this).

His arm was blocking his mouth. I think he has Bryan's nose.

Arm in front of mouth again.

Finally decided to move his arm after much prodding. If you can't tell, this is a full frontal facial shot, sideways. I think it's funny how huge everything looks since he's all smooshed inside there. We are so excited for him to come and nervous all at the same time! My Braxton Hicks contractions are so constant that I feel like it can be anytime now. Unfortunately, the doctor said I've made no progress since last week, but I think he is going to be coming pretty soon :)

Bryan's B-Day Weekend and Baby Update

With Labor Day this past weekend we made sure to take advantage of the whole weekend to celebrate Bryan's 26th birthday. It started on Saturday where we had dinner at this local hot spot called The Flying Goat. Not the most attractive name in the world, but let me tell you, the food was delicious!! We started out with some seriously yummy, seriously huge wings for an appetizer and split a pizza topped with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and arugula pesto. We will definitely be going there again, but only on special occasions because the prices were a little steep for our poor law student budget.

After dinner we stopped to get a new beta fish since sadly our old fish, Gus, passed away about a week after we moved up here. I think the drive was just too much for him. We're still deciding on a name for our new one and are thinking of the names Red or Speck (Specks?). Any suggestions or ideas?

On Sunday, Bryan's actually birthday, I'm sad to say that nothing really went on that day. It was just the two of us for the first time and so it wasn't too exciting this year. I did make him the requested Brats for dinner and added some caramelized onions to go on top and WOW did they taste good!

I also made the next requested chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that I surprisingly liked (I don't usually like that much chocolate at once). And no, Bryan did not turn 24, he is 26 years old now. We accidentally bought these candles for his last birthday and then realized he was turning 25, so we were going to use these on my birthday because I was going to be 24. Well, my birthday rolled around and I didn't get a cake or anything, so we didn't end up using them for my birthday and were forced to use them for his this time around. At least he got to blow out some candles right?

(Sorry about the long post, I'm almost done I promise!)
Monday we continued the celebration by going out to the annual Pig Out in the Park that happens every year around Labor Day here in Spokane. It was fun to go around and look at all the different food booths that they had there. We chose to share a gyro and a dessert crepe (since everything was pretty pricey). It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'll be willing to pay 7 bucks for a gyro with only to slices of meat again.



And last, but not least: Baby Update!
I'm 36.5 weeks in the picture, but 37 weeks pregnant now. I just had a doctor's appointment today and I'm already 2-3 cm dilated (I was at 0 just two weeks ago)! She said that it's possible I could remain this far along for a couple weeks, but she definitely thinks I'll be delivering before my due date of September 28th. Scary and exciting at the same time!! I guess I better finish unpacking and cleaning our apartment soon then! She estimates the baby's around 6lbs and he's head down and ready to come. I have been having regular Braxton Hicks contractions every day for a couple days and Bryan's starting to feel the anxiety now too. As much as I wanted the baby to be born in a different month as Bryan's birthday month, I'm just ready to get this baby out now. It's exhausting and extremely uncomfortable being in the last month of pregnancy!