the big reveal: a few more photos

Just a few more photos that I’d share from our journey last week… without the need for any words to explain them…
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the big reveal: may I present to you… Baby M

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I thought would formally introduce Miss Lena Marie, tell a condensed version of our birth story and then let the photos speak for themselves. I’d share the longer version today as well, but sadly I don’t think I even know exactly everything that happened and need Mr. M and others to fill me on some of the details.
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Lena’s birth story – the condensed version:
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Wednesday, February 24th was a normal day by any measure. The only “special” thing that was going on was a after-work visit by my good friend Michelle, who stayed around late as usual, chatting it up with me. Mr. M gave us some girl time and took a visit to Costco, and had just arrived home around 7:30 to unload his purchases.  I was just taking care of dinner (hello lucky labor chili), when BAM… I felt what I thought was first pregnancy “accident.” Mr. jumped over to the laptop and put his googling skills to work and helped us determine that indeed we did have something to drive to the hospital for, so we packed up all the gear and were checked into the hospital by 10:15pm. When I arrived I was only 1 cm dilated, and they informed me that I was in for quite a long haul. I was allowed to sleep and walk around without the monitors after our initial evaluation, but was put on Pitocin starting at 3:30am by my Dr. to start things moving along. Since my water had broken naturally, I was on the 24-hour clock and needed to try and deliver before I hit 8pm on Wednesday.
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At 4:30am I opted to try some IV pain meds to calm the impending storm, but 2 doses generated a whole lot of sickness and dementia (this is the part I allegedly don’t remember) and I made the decision to go with an epidural. I owe my sanity to my amazing epidural and anesthesiologist, as the rest of my experience was only lovely because of the work that he did. I regained my ability to talk and see stratight around 11am, and enjoyed the rest of the day watching the Olympics on my TV. Mr. M kept wanting me to watch a movie, but I didn’t want to watch anything with a fixed amount of time. Sports were perfect for keeping my mind off the impending event. We also sat there chatting with my parents, and hanging out with DH, who forbade me from making hourly updates on Twitter or Facebook via my Iphone. By 1pm, I was 4 cm dilated and progressed to 8 cm by my next check at 3pm.
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Then, at 4:30pm, I hit 10 cm and just needed to wait around for my Dr. to arrive from the other hospital to begin pushing. The nurses and baby team were excited for our delivery, as we were the only surprise of the day (everyone else knew the gender) and they were all hoping for a girl as 7 boys had been born that day. I started my pushing at 4:55 pm (I’m allegedly an excellent pusher… or else they were really really good cheerleaders) and pushed with each contraction for the next hour. When the head of blonde hair was crowning, I was asked if it was ok to use suction to help her out. With a final series of 7 pushes in a row (instead of the normal 3 per contraction), a little body popped right out at 5:57pm and Mr. M made his declaration! Our unnamed little girl was put directly on my chest for the next hour, and they cleaned us both up while letting us do our amazing skin-to-skin bonding time. I, of course, was bawling during this and Mr. M was just gleaming with happiness and pride. We settled upon a name in the next few minutes between our two choices, and Lena Marie was then bestowed upon our bundle of joy.
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We stayed in the hospital through noon on Saturday and all tests came out clear with flying colors. Our nurses and Dr’s were fabulous, and we even got to enjoy a celebration meal together on Friday night with lots of sparkling cider and cheesecake! And Mr. M even got to play around with a new toy that he went out and purchased just for the occasion… a fancy new video camera. In all, it seemed like forever ago, but the experience was something we’ll never forget. I’ll share a few photos with you just to brag, but my oh my do we have a pretty little girl in our lives.
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Thank you again for all of the well wishes and love along the journey. We all benefited from them over the 9 month journey and can’t wait to share our joy with you when you’ll let us.
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Love, the M family
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the first big baby reveal… the nursery

Sure there are some more finishing touches to add… but I figured it wasn’t fair not to share all the hard work that Mr. M put into Baby M’s new room. Sadly the photos are still not as nice as I wanted them… but I think they can make do for now! I will fully admit that outside of holding a couple of things for him, he did this all on his own from concept to design… and he did a darn good job on everything! So without further adieu… I present Baby M’s new room:

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sneak peek of the nursery

I’ve heard of nesting for the house…but nesting for the hospital?

I must’ve missed the memo… I must’ve missed the Facebook update… I must’ve missed the Tweet. Something to let me know that we had won the election, bought tickets, and were now on our way to becoming the governing couple of Crazytown. Before I go further, let me say that Kim is feigning displeasure but keeps smiling and giggling to herself at the notion that the baby has stolen all sanity from her and stored it in her belly.
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Let me lay out the scene for you from this Saturday. Kim has just woken me up from my spot on the couch to tell me that she’s getting desperate to get on the road to the Walt Disney Museum in San Francisco. To my left, I have the bunny in his enclosure doing his best meerkat impersonation and saying “Feed Me!” in bunny speak. To my right, I have a dog with a squeak toy, mentally screaming “Play with me, bitches!” And front and center is my pregopotamus… ears wiggling and all (Kim’s really not that big, but since she’s a huge fan of the Disneyland jungle cruise, this name just kinda stuck).
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So, I get up, only to be pulled by the wrist into the craft room to judge Kim’s latest craftiness. I see a folded piece of fabric on the table. Kim reaches for it. As it unfolds in front of my eyes, it appears to have two sleaves and a neckline. “What is it?” I ask, fully cognizant that my morning breath is still in effect and I’d better get to the bathroom quickly before I gas the animals beyond repair. “Guess!” she says as she starts to give me the front-back display. “A mumu?”… but then it hits me. This thing has an open back. Oh good lord, no. Say it isn’t so. Kim has made… dun dun DUN!… her own hospital gown. To be fair, it looks to be pretty good, but I have never heard of someone making their own hospital gown before or even talking about it, unless they were wrapped in a very snug jacket with straps to prevent you from scratching yourself. But, she found the pattern on the web, so maybe she’s not the only one. It did however plunge me into about a 15 minute episode of singing my own cover of a popular funk song…”Won’t you take me to… Crazytown?”
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In case you’d like to join her in crazytown… you can find the FREE printable pattern that she used at LazyGirlDesigns. Oh — and that fabric — that’d be from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern line.
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– Mr. M

BoBs (Best of the Blogs): Feb 13 – 19, 2010

It’s time once again to feature an “interactive” blog entry for everyone to play with!
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Every Friday, I’ll run this post which will ask readers to submit their favorite blog entry of the week from ANYWHERE in the blogosphere! It could be an awesome recipe, a pretty picture, a great story, a silly joke, etc… just something you loved this week and want to share with others!
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Here’s how to participate:
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1) Click on the link below that looks like this:
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2) Enter the information for the link and click on “next step”

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3) Select a thumbnail photo that best suits the link from the options given
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4) keep coming back and seeing more and more links that have been added… keeping the blog hopping going throughout your day/weekend!