The Baby Daddy Writes

IT'S A BOY!

For all of you that haven't heard we have a baby. He was born 3 July 2008 at exactly 8:41pm. This sounds inauspiscious but we are super duper excited about that date. First off it was the 3rd, which is the date both mommy and daddy were born, and secondly our anniversary is the 3rd of July as well which is really cool. The only problem with the anniversary thing is that we never get to celebrate by ourselves again, but now we get to celebrate something better, our babies birthday. So along with Fireworks we now get birthday cake every year on our anniversary. Well I guess I better get down to the real deal with this posting.

On Monday 30 June Lisa went into the OB's office and we found out that we are still pregnant and baby was still super healthy. We had an Ultrasound and fetal heart rate monitor which the baby took at the exact wrong time. For the heart rate monitor the baby is supposed to be calm and still but he kept moving and it was hard to get a very definite answer. Its not bad that he was moving, movement is a very good sign, but they we never able to tell if the heart rate was responding to movement, so they scheduled an Ultrasound for the same evening. We went back for the ultrasound and the baby is supposed to move, but as if on cue the baby took his first nap of the afternoon and he hardly moved. So we waited and waited and finally he moved just a little but that was good enough. During the waiting time we saw him breathe and his eyes were blinking, which was cool. At this point still unsure of his sex, we both thought we might have seen a wee willie winkie, but the tech assured us it could still be either or so we were still uncertain.

After hearing the baby was doing well the doctor suggested getting induced on the 1st, well that was a little too fast for us so we decided to push it back to getting induced on the 2nd. 24 hours is a big deal when dealing with the life of your first child. So we waited another couple days and then we started calling the hospital. The 2nd was crazy with birhting mothers so the induction got pushed to the morning of the 3rd, the day we always wanted and hoped for. We went for it.

Lisa came in bright eyed and ready for baby and holy cow was she. The labor was really fast for a first time mother, she was only in labor for 11 hours total and only had to puch for 1 hour and 40 minutes to get the little baby out. We first found out he was a little baby boy when the nurse exclaimed "Oh, I think I see testicles!" The real test came later that night and the next day when we had to choose a name. Wow, we were so surprised to see him we couldn't decide on a name.

We had thought for 41 weeks about names but now it was real. How could we possibly name a little person. This is the name he will have forever (read like the little boy in Sandlot...Forever, forevvvveeerrr, foreveeerrrr). So we came up with two choices and let the world decide for us. We were undecided between Harrison and Landon. Harrison had been on "the list" for a while, but Landon wasn't even an option until we were flipping through the baby name book in the delivery room. It was down to the wire when we learned that the birth certificate lady was leaving in an hour and if we wanted a birth certificate, he needed a name. We ended up taking a poll. We called family and some of our closests friends. Even a few nurses got a vote, and in the end we chose Landon James Clark.

The stats are Landon James, 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 in. Landon is healthy and a wonderful baby, Momma Lisa is doing great, and Dad is over the moon. Well my verbosity is at its end. Enjoy the pictures...

Hello World

Daddy Time

Hello Auntie!!!

Happy 1 Week Birthday, Landon!

Meet Uncle Ben

The Due Date

Just an update...

My due date has come and gone and still no baby.

It is fun to watch people's reactions when they ask when I'm due and I say, "Two days ago." I get the, "Are you serious?" look which quickly evolves into the "I don't know how to deliver a baby!!!" look of terror when they realize I am.

We'll keep you posted.

As requested by my mom, here's a picture of me on my due date.


As Gracie would say, "Holy cow, big belly!"

What happened to May???

Life has been so busy lately I've missed updating our blog for basically all of May. Here's a quick recap...

In mid-May Brian and Tammy threw us (and Derek and Gina) a baby shower brunch. They made awesome breakfast foods and we all had fun watching the kids tear into all the presents because that's what kids do (even if the gift inside turns out to be nursing pads).

Getting some help from Gracie

A great excuse to wear my maternity dress again

A few weeks later Andy's dad, Gary, and his friend, Debbie, paid us a weekend visit. It was fun to show them the nursery in real life and to force them to eat several consecutive meals of Mexican food since that's what the baby likes...

Two days after Gary and Debbie left, Andy's sister, Laura, arrived with her family. Andy spent two days on his own with his nephews, Trevor and Tyler. They visited the Battle Ship New Jersey, played at the park, spent time at the library, and played several rounds of Candy Land. Saturday we all went to Ocean City so the boys could see the Atlantic Ocean.

The boys at the Battleship

Trevor getting a haircut on board

Tyler playing in the freezing ocean

Andy and Laura watching the boys

Andy and me

The day Laura and her family left, our Illinois friends April and Rusty arrived to stay with us for the night. It was so great to see them and catch up, and we finally got to meet their son, Easton, who was born in December.

Rusty, Easton, and April

Other than enteraining lots of visitors, Andy and I have been busy preparing for the baby. We've also been trying to spend a lot time together as a couple before the baby joins our family of two.

I'm now visiting the doctor weekly. The heartbeat continues to sound great. The head is down. The baby has dropped. We still don't have names picked out.

2 1/2 weeks to go...

The Nursey

Here are a couple pictures of the baby's room. There's not much to it yet other than the beautiful furniture that all of the baby's grandparents helped to buy. I want to wait on other decorations until I can make it more personal (and gender specific).

Sizing Us Up

Last week I had a doctor's appointment, and the doctor said everything was looking good, but she wanted me to have another ultrasound since my belly was measuring a little small. Because she was so unconcerned, we were mostly excited by this news. Andy was deployed for the last ultrasound, and he'd be able to be there for this one.

I went for the ultrasound yesterday. It turns out I'm the only one measuring small. My thoughts of a little tiny baby were quickly put to rest as the technician informed us that the baby is actually measuring a week ahead at 34 weeks. According to my due date, I'm only 33 weeks along. Hooray for our strong, healthy baby! The heart rate was 147 and the estimated weight of the baby is 4 pounds 5 ounces, which is in the 62nd percentile.

Here's the latest picture of our already advanced little one...

Showering Baby

Last weekend I took my two personal days off of work and, after securing an aisle seat on the airplane to ensure easy access to bathrooms, headed to Colorado for a much too short long weekend. I never imagined I'd be so far away from my family during my pregnancy, so it was nice to have at least one weekend that resembled what I used to picture. My sister and mom planned an awesome baby shower where we played all the cheesy games, ate lots of food (yummy guacamole!), opened a mountain of gifts, and most importantly, where I was able to see and talk with so many people who I haven't seen in far too long. Julie (Auntie) and Me
Julie bought the sash and necklace...aren't they pretty?

The cake was topped with Cabbage Patch figurines that my grandma bought in 1987

The onsie says it all

Exhausted after opening so many wonderful gifts.

My grandma with all 61/2 of her great-grandkids

(Grant's kindly pointing out what I'm doing in this picture)

The grandkids were a little more cooperative for the picture

After the shower I got to come home and relive all the excitement as I shared all the cool new baby gear we received with Andy. And now that there's actually something in it, nursery pictures will be coming soon...

He's My Baby Daddy

One of the coolest things aside from feeling the baby move for myself is noticing the way our little tyke responds to Andy's voice. I know that not being able to talk to the baby for himself was something that really bothered him while he was deployed, and now that he's home, he's made it a point to make up for his absence. He talks to the baby, reads to the baby, kisses the baby (well, the belly anyway), and pushes on the baby every chance he gets. The crazy part is, the baby responds. When Andy talks, the baby wiggles all around. Sometimes Andy puts his mouth right up to my belly when he' s talking and more than once he's received a little hello kick (or punch, or elbow???) right in the kisser. It's the funnest thing ever. I love my baby daddy, and I love to see that the baby loves the daddy, too.