March 17th 2015

Dear Dexter,

Happy Birthday! Your daddy & I are so happy to meet you! We are also glad that we got to meet you on a Tuesday, this March has been so busy this was a good day so that daddy could be here with us. Also it's St. Patrick's Day!

You got me up early to meet you little man. Dad & I went to bed at seven am. Dad had decided it was time to start inducing labor so that he could be there for your birth and not working a wedding.  The night before I had gone for a long walk, ate some pineapple (because that's supposed to do something,) used the breast pump for a little bit & we had sex to get things going. Things did start going too.

At eight am contractions started coming. At first it just felt like I had to poop. So I was stuck in the bathroom, and the contractions really did clear out my bowels, while your dad was fast asleep. I couldn't leave the bathroom because of the pain and moving bowels for what felt like forever. There was a small wall next to the toilet I was slapping and banging against trying to make enough noise to wake your dad up. I yelled a few times too with no luck.

When I made it out to wake your dad I was having contractions two or three minutes apart. The doctors had told us to go to the hospital when they were five minutes apart. Dad helped me down the stairs of our condo and into the car then ran back in to grab our bags.

The hospital was about fifteen minutes away. We got there at nine am. Time was moving so slowly for me and the contractions were so painful. They felt like a really bad charlie horses in my abdomen, knowing the impending return of the pain made it worse too. Your dad and I tried to keep my humor up as we checked into the hospital. The nurse said that I was eight centimeters dilated and needed to get into a labor room immediately.

The rest of delivery was a bit of a blur for me (lucky for you, your dad recorded it.) I remember screaming lots and the doctor getting frustrated with me because I wasn't pushing right. I figured it out though. I pushed you out of me. You came out so fast there was no time for the small hole you were coming out of to stretch and allow your head through. I had to have an episiotomy, the doctor cut me. That, according to your dad, was the worst part. He hated seeing me go through that pain. It was painful.

I remember your dad trying to hold my hand several times too. I wouldn't let him. I was afraid of hurting him. Dad spread his fingers apart at one point and I tried to match my hand up with his... It helped a lot to get my mind off the pain. The nurses moved him over to my other side though and had him hold my leg while I pushed.

They had my legs pulled back toward my chest, I was laying on my back, they told me to stick my butt toward the ceiling and push. You came so fast there was no time for an epidural either. I'm so thankful your dad had them get me nitrous oxide, laughing gas, to calm me down. Your dad laughed at how quickly it calmed me too.

At ten thirty-nine am you were born. They placed you on my chest as soon as you came out. Umbilical cord still attached, a little bloody, and covered in vernix. My dirty baby. I was so happy to be able to kiss your head, I think that's all I did the first few minutes after meeting you. That's what I focused on while the doctor stitched up the cut too.

You were so little! At birth you were six pounds eleven ounces and eighteen and a half inches long. You we're born healthy and strong with all ten fingers and toes. Adorable! You were so alert, big bright eyes looking everywhere at everything. So much to see!

Dexter, I am so in love with you! You've become my whole world. Your dad and I were so excited for this day to come, to finally meet you, and now we're excited to watch you grow. To see who you become, to help you, to guide you, to teach you, to show you everything we can.

Welcome to life outside the womb little man.

Photos by Timothy Capp

Hospital Visit!!!

(Perhaps a TMI post...)

Happy new year Dexter!

This is the year that you're going to be born, we started the new year in a new trimester - the last - at twenty-eight weeks into pregnancy. Your dad and I are incredibly excited to meet you! Since you're not here yet... your dad & I wanted to bring the new year in with a bang! (Or six or seven bangs!) After all, when you get here we anticipate you taking most if not all of our time, energy, and willingness to do much of anything else but coo and awe over you while we take care of your adorable baby needs.

Come to find out: there is such a thing as too much banging.

We went to the hospital at midnight on the third day of the new year, after calling the doctor & asking for advice from other parents. I started bleeding. We got worried that the placenta had moved to the wrong place, that the mucous plug had started coming out, or perhaps labor was starting early! When I called the doctor the bleeding seemed to be stopping. She said to just rest and keep an eye on it, but to go to the hospital if it started up again. So midnight hospital adventure it was!

Your dad and I had been to the doctor's office a dozen times by now and the hospital shared a parking lot, but we had never gone into the hospital before now. It was so late most of the entrances were closed, we had to walk all the way around the building to find an open door. We went up to the fifth floor - the labor and delivery area. We had to fill out paperwork before we could see anyone, then the nurse brought us back to an exam room. Another nurse came in and asked all the questions that were on the paperwork and when the emergency doctor came in she went over them again! The are very through I suppose.

The nurse strapped a heart monitor to my belly to monitor your heart rate and another piece of equipment to catch any contractions I might be having. We got to listen to your heart beat away and we could hear all your wiggles and squirms while we waited for the doctor. When the doctor came in she told us she ordered an ultra sound, some blood work, and some other testing to make sure everything was okay.

A nurse came in with a wheelchair and pushed me to the ultra sound room - first time I was pushed around in a wheel chair at a hospital!  (And because it was so late or early in the morning, hardly anyone was in the hospital and half of the lights were turned off. It made me feel like your dad and I were just dropped into a zombie movie!) The ultra sound technician put warm goopie stuff all over my belly: we got to see you and how much you had grown since the last ultra sound (that we thought was going to be our last.) She took some measurements, we got to see your bones, your newly added chubbiness, and at one point your face! You were breech - your head in my ribs - when we peeked in on you. She said that everything looked okay, the placenta was in the right spot, there was a good amount of amniotic fluid, and you have plenty of time to turn around before labor.

Back up in the exam room a nurse came in to draw my blood and the doctor came in to look at my cervix - that's always uncomfortable. She came to the conclusion that everything was fine though! When she looked at my cervix she had your dad look too.  She pointed out where you would come out and what was causing the bleeding. Apparently I have a vascular cervix and we had broken a vein which caused it to look like I was starting my period. She wanted us to wait for the blood & other tests to come back just to make sure everything else was okay, which everything was, and then we were free to go!

Doctors orders: no more banging till the next doctor visit - four days away - so that my body would have time to heal.

South Carolina

Dear Baby,

We're at week 24!!! This pregnancy with you has been going by so fast looking back and thinking I was so excited to reach the half way mark at 20 weeks. It's also been so slow at times with the anticipation of meeting you boiling up and causing butterflies in my tummy. I suppose it's like we've climbed a mountain to the half way point and now that we've reached the summit going down is going to go by so much faster!

The last couple of weeks have really flown by! We went to the Dr.'s for a check-up, I got to hear your heart beat loud & strong and we're both healthy, right where we should be. Then you had your first taste of Thanksgiving. Your first holidays in existence is in my womb, your dad and I are really looking forward to spending the holidays with you! You're going to bring so much more joy and excitement to events than we can experience now as 'boring' adults. We went to your grandparent's place and visited with your great grandparents too. Just a small gathering with your father's side of the family, it was fun!

Photo by Timothy Capp

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to South Carolina to document your daddy's high school friend proposing!  This has been your second road trip up the east coast in my womb, the first being a North Carolina trip for a wedding your daddy photographed.  This trip was short and only lasted a couple of days - but it was so much fun!  We got to experience new restaurants. (Cookout is an awesome inexpensive fast food place - we got two burgers, two sides and a shake for just twelve dollars & it tasted great!) We went to a restaurant we found last time we were up here & just had to get some of their signature berry biscuits (Bojangles.)

Photo by Timothy Capp

We got to the meeting place where the proposal was planed to occur a bit early so we had time to look around and play, since it was at the beach! Your dad pointed out that this was my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean. I collected some shells of course and your dad got some fun pictures.  We were right outside the hotel that your dad's friend was staying in with his sweetheart.  It was a big beautiful beach themed hotel, there were two weddings there that day as well. The proposal was supposed to take place under the pier, but they got really nervous and he ended up proposing on the balcony. We convinced them to get some really sweet photos before we headed out though.

Photo by Timothy Capp

The day after we got back from South Carolina your dad had a meeting to sell a camera and close to where we were meeting there was a build-a-bear shop! Since we've decided on your first name, we stopped in to make you a bear and leave a message for you - it was your dad's idea.  It was so hard deciding which bear to get you... there was a cute monkey, an alligator that is special for Florida shops only, there were different colored bears, and a puppy that we liked.  We wanted to get you the perfect one that would last you a while.  After we chose the perfect one we left you a message that we put in it's paw & stuffed the bear. We put two hearts in it, one filled with love from dad and one filled with love from mom - we sealed the love in with a kiss before we placed them in your bear.

Photo by Timothy Capp

We are so excited to meet you!  I feel you move more often now. Sometimes it's just small movements and other times it's big kicks!  I think I watched you hiccup today, you were making my whole belly jump in little rhythmic jumps! I've seen you kick and push my belly skin too. I was reading that your skin is growing faster than your fat cells at this point. So you're a wrinkly skinny little one right now about the size of a standard letter, but you weigh just over one and a half pounds by now. You may also have some hair growing on your tiny little head, though it doesn't have any color yet.

You're sucking up all my energy too.  I've been so sleepy and achy.  I took a nap for the first time since your first trimester in my womb yesterday. You are growing so much that my belly is cramping and stretching to make room for your last four months in there. Four months!  I'm so excited to meet you (and yet so scared of what I will go through to do so.)

I'm happy we've decided on a name for you! Now instead of calling you baby when I talk to you at various points of the day, I can call you by your name: Dexter.  We just have to figure out your middle name now...

Eight Weeks Five Days!

Today was a big day!

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In the car, on the way to the Dr's

Baby,

Today Daddy and I got to see you for the first time!!!  We were very excited.  Monday was the eight week mark, the last week of the second month.  Today I am eight weeks and five days into this pregnancy and I still can't wrap my mind around it being real, about you being there.

When we woke up this morning the first thing your dad said to me was "We get to see our baby today!"  In that high, squeely voice he does when he's excited.

We couldn't wait to get to the doctor's office. (Yet, we really didn't want to go out either.  It's been raining and thundering all day.  When the time came for us to get out the door it was absolutely poring!  Right now your dad and I live in a condo, second floor.  We had to run down the stairs in the rain to the parking lot where the car is.)

Once we got into the doctor's office we did the routine check ups: urine sample, blood pressure, and weight.  Of course you know your dad and I, very impatiently waiting for the doctor to come in and do the ultra sound. Last thing to do on the list.  The machine was in the room the whole time, on, just staring at us, mocking our wait time.

Nurse checking my blood pressure

Finally, the doctor came in! It was awkward at first, I was half naked and really done with talking and asking or answering questions (that your dad had more of than me.)  I was really ready to see you for the first time!  (... With the slight fear in the back of my head that you weren't really there, that there was something wrong with me...)  Then the doctor grabbed the ultra sound "wand," it already had a condom on it and she put cold, goopy lube on it.  She put the "wand" inside me and we all turned to the screen.

Dr looking at the ultra sound screen
Baby, you look like a jelly bean!

Your dad and I were mesmerized by what she was showing us.  We saw your little heart beating, it was a quick flickering on the screen.  She poked around to see if you were the only one in there: yup, only you!  Then you were measured: you were 19.9 mm long.  She printed a screen shot for us and it was over.  It didn't last long enough, I loved that I could see your little heart beating!

(no sound)

The ultra sound was over.  The appointment finished.  Just needed to get my pants back on and make the next appointment.  Only, I couldn't stop crying.  It started when we first saw you on the screen, the tears swelled up and started falling in big droplets.  I didn't stop crying until we were in the grocery store, half way done with our errands.

Mama's so happy to see you!

Your dad thought this made me very photogenic.

I made your dad set up the next appointment because I couldn't talk.  Baby, this has been the most amazing day!  To see you growing, healthy in my belly, there's not words for how amazing this is.  And no words to tell you how terrifying this is, all the changes we will make for you, everything we will go through together.  Baby, you are going to change my life, your dad's life, your grandparent's lives, everyone that has the pleasure of meeting you will have their life changed in some way from meeting you.

 Though your dad's and my life will be impacted the most.  You are going to be the very most important person in our lives for years to come.  We love you already and we only have an ultra sound picture of you.  We haven't even met you yet.  Yet you are the drive behind our decisions and choices today.  We are so excited to bring you into our life, welcome you to our world!  (Hey, it's the only one we've got.)

We love you baby!  I can't wait to see you again during the next ultra sound and I'm sure your daddy feels the same way.

I love you, Baby!
~ Your Mama

Baby's first picture!
You look like a jelly bean.

(Photos & video by Timothy Capp)

Cover Me in Chocolate

Yesterday, I needed chocolate.  Everything sounded good with chocolate: chocolate covered cucumbers, chocolate covered oranges, chocolate covered bananas, chocolate covered carrots, orange juice in a chocolate cup, chocolate covered cereal, chocolate covered mashed potatoes, anything covered in chocolate!  (Mostly cucumbers and oranges though mmmm)

I didn't want to go to the store and get any of these things though.  So I settled for Almond & oats cereal with chocolate almond milk instead.


My husband put together a rather nice birthday dinner for me tonight with his parents and us at a fancy Japanese hibachi restaurant.  It's so adorably cute how excited he is, and to give me the present he got me too!

Dinner tonight will double as an announcement dinner because Hubby's Parents have been actively avoiding this announcement without even knowing it for the past month.  We called them and invited them over when we found out, but they have had an excuse not to come over every weekend.  Finally the other grandparents will find out tonight!


Dear Baby,

While you only look like this right now:

You will be introduced to some of your grandparents tonight.  You're not even showing yet, but will be in about 7 more weeks.  I'm not sure how they will react.  When I told your other grandmother over skype all she could say was wow.  Your aunt was with her, and I'm not sure she quite understood what I was telling them.   We expect your daddy's parents to react.... well, your dad expects them to be a little disappointed, they wanted us to wait longer (three years longer to be exact.)

I assure you baby, you were planed.  Despite what anyone may tell you in the future, your daddy and I planned for you.  We want you very much.  We are very impatient to meet you now.

With love,
Your Mommy <3


(GAH!  That's so weird!)