Our Little Man

Andrew Gavin Penrose made his arrival on Sept 21, 2007 at 1:05pm, weighing 8lb 5oz, 21.5" long.

My Daddy is already smitten with me.
My first diaper change by Daddy.






My grandparents are so excited to meet me!

My sweet little fingers.

Time to go see where I live.



Here's where I spend a lot of time - in my Pack N Play. I do this pose often - it's the "Touchdown" pose :).

My first outting, had to visit the DR for a checkup. I like my car seat; I sleep so good in it.
I did not like the DR office. They made me get naked and lay on this cold sheet. But, at least they said I was doing good.
I'm just too cute.

Honey, It's Time...

So, here we are arriving at WakeMed hospital. Notice the smile on my face at this point. So, we went in to triage to be checked to see if I was a "keeper". The DR said I was already about 4.5 cm dilated, so I was staying. YEAH!! This was really it.
So, here I am calling my parents. It's time to start the long drive; little Drew is coming soon.





I am now admitted to the hospital, and this is our labor and delivery room. This will be our "home" for the next several hours and the place where Drew will enter the world. Still notice the smile on my face.
As you know, Tim likes to take pictures of everything, so here is his new badge, once we were admitted to L&D.






So, here is a contraction. YEAH - THEY HURT!!! Where is the anesthesiologist?? Contractions are painful at any point, but when you are almost 6cm dilated before you get an epidural, it is NOT fun! They teach you in L&D class to breathe, just breathe. Well, I'm trying my best, but it's a little difficult!
Here is a picture of the monitor. The higher the line and longer it stays high before dropping, the worse it is. This was probably one of the worst contractions that I had to feel.
AH, that one is over - for now - and we take time for a picture.
I have found a new best friend!!!! Epidurals are AMAZING!!! Absolutely NO pain after this point. It was smooth sailing. Tim and I both were able to sleep for several hours after I got this.





It was now morning on Sept 21st, and we are still waiting. I was about 10 cm at this point, but we were waiting on a DR to come by to confirm and begin the delivery process. Unfortunately, DRs make rounds in the morning and since I was feeling no pain, we got to sit around and wait for 2 more hours. It actually became quite boring. I was ready, Drew was ready, it was "GO Time", but the DR wasn't ready. So, we wait. Yeah, fun thing I learned about labor and epidurals, they tend to make some people swell. Really, would have never guessed :).


About 10:30am, we started the delivery process, but little Drew just couldn't get out. So, I ended up having to have a C-section. Hey, at least C-section babies come out with prettier shaped heads. So, after the C-section, I went to recovery for a few hours, and Drew went to have his first checkup. We were all doing fine. We were then moved into our postpartum room, where we would stay for the next several days.


Here's a picture of us in our room. I look pretty beat up, but I think Tim looks pretty cute in his scrubs from my surgery. Funny thing is right before I went into surgery, I saw Tim in his scrubs, and I kept talking about how cute he was. He said you're going into surgery, and you're talking about me being cute - too funny.

The Story Continues...

So, after having contractions for hours and then having them stop, I realized that Drew would most likely be arriving soon, so I should get busy! I never had the "nesting instinct" that you hear about, but I did try to finish as much school work as I could. Maybe me doing school work was "nesting"?? - who knows.

So, all day long, nothing. Tim and I just kept about our day. Finally around 3:00pm, I started feeling the same cramping that I had felt the entire night. This time they were right on 15 minutes apart. After about 2 hours, I started wondering "was this it?". I also quickly realized what they meant by "back labor". It felt like the worse back pain ever. But, I had just been through 6 hours of this earlier, so I kept telling myself this was more practice contractions.

Well, now it was about 7:00pm, and we realized the contractions were getting to be 5-7 minutes apart at this point. Once again, been there already today, so hard to get too excited. But, just in case, Tim started getting ready.

By this point, the pain was picking up too. I knew that I was already 3cm from my doctor appointment earlier in the week, so I didn't want to wait at home too long, just in case this was it.

So, now it's about 9:00pm, and yes, we have determined these are definitely contractions and definitely getting stronger and difficult to walk at this point. We decide to call the doctor when the contraction have been 5-7 min apart for almost 2 hours now.

Of course, the DR says "wait until 4-5 min apart, lasting 60 seconds". Well, they weren't. So, now what. They were 5-7 min, anywhere from 40-50 second long. The DR said, do what you want, come in, don't come in, up to you. Well, THAT's helpful!

So, the pain was getting worse. We decided we're going. Worst case, they say go home. But, just in case this was the real thing, I wanted to get to the hospital SOON because I needed drugs!!!

So, I took a shower, we packed the car, and off we went. I must say driving down to the hospital, I didn't really expect to stay. I figured I was in labor, but not consistent enough for the hospital to keep us.

Thursday, Sept 20, 2007

Well, we told little Drew for 10 months to the date today that Sept 20th, 20007 was his due date. He's a smart little boy and was trying his best to arrive on his due date. He almost made it :).

Wednesday night (the 19th), Tim and I watched a movie at home and then went to bed around 10:00pm. I woke up around 12:00am (on the 20th)feeling crampy. I didn't pay much attention to this crampy feeling until it kept persisting for a few hours. I finally realized around 2:00am or so that this cramping was happening routinely and started to wonder "is this labor?" Needless to say, I wasn't sleeping any. So, I kept watching the clock.

Finally around 4:00am, I woke Tim up. By this point, the contractions were around 10-15 min apart, but not lasting long at all. I told Tim something was going on and we should get up. So, around 5:00am, we were up and trying to think about what to do. We starting timing the contractions, down to 5-10 min at this point, but still not lasting more than 10-20 seconds. At this point, we were thinking, "Ok, is this it??".

Well, around 6:00am, it all stopped. Nothing. Just back to normal. So, we thought that was weird. But, oh well. I had read numerous stories of people who contract for hours or days and it's not progressive labor contractions. So, we went about our day. The one thing we did know is that Drew would arrive sooner than later, no need for an induction date.

10 days and Counting!!

So, we have 10 days left until the due date. It's anyone's guess at this point when Drew will decide to make an appearance. We are hoping to at least make it until next week, since both Tim and I have TONS of work to complete before he arrives. And, we'd really like to have one more weekend together alone before the big day!!

We've spent the past 2 weekends getting the house ready, mostly cleaning out the "junk room". So, now the junk room is clean, Drew's room is ready, and all of the baby stuff has been assembled. The only thing we have left to do is install the car seats. So, we plan to do that this next weekend, unless Drew arrives sooner.

I'm still feeling fine. Or, as "fine" as one can feel and be this pregnant. Mostly just tired and uncomfortable more than anything else. Everyone keeps asking "when do you think you'll have him". Who knows? Even the DRs don't know. In this situation, only little Drew knows :). As much as he's still squirming around, you would think at some point he would get mad because he's out of room and decide it's time. But, we'll see.

I still haven't had this "nesting instinct" I keep hearing about. But, could it have skipped me and went to Tim instead? :) So, I don't know if nesting is a pre-req to delivery or not. If so, then we are no where near a delivery as of today. All I want to do is sleep, not clean.

I'm still at work - in some capacity anyway. I can be rather productive until about 2:00 or so, then I'm just beat and ready to go home. I'm still planning on being at work for a while. I know I'll be here all week this week, and next week just depends on what the DR says and how I'm feeling. But, I don't really have plans to leave early. For one, what would I do all day? I would be bored! For two, I have too much work to finish!!! So, we'll see.

Well, just wanted to give you all an update. We are still doing good. Tim is super busy and stressed, trying to wrap up important projects quickly before Drew is born. So, hopefully he'll get those finished. Otherwise, it's just like any other week for us. We'd better enjoy it. This could be the last days of quiet in the house :).