Boston's First Photo Shoot

(This post is a little out of order, but oh well. enjoy anyway)

Poor kid, he better get used to the sound of a shutter! He wasn't even 24 hours old before he had his first mini photo shoot, right there in the hospital room.




All packed up and ready to go home!

One Week Old

Dear Boston,

You turned one week old last Friday. I would have written this then, but you have given your sleep-deprived mama and daddy an exciting week! Even though it has been an adjustment, we love everything about you. From your thick dark hair to your curly little toes, we love sitting and watching and marveling at you. You have had lots of visitors this week. So many friends and family have stopped by to see you and help us out.



We were sure you were going to be a big baby. (hello, have you seen your daddy?) When you were a tiny 6 pounds, we had to send grandma to the store to buy a new outfit to bring you home in! The newborn size we bought was way too big, you ended up in premie clothing. We had to go buy more clothes for you because nothing we bought was going to fit for a few weeks.



Because you decided to arrive a few weeks early, you had a little bit of jaundice. Your doctor decided to put you on Bili lights when you were 3 days old. You weren't a fan at first, but you quickly got used to it and slept like a champ every time we put you in there. As long as you were dry and fed, no problems! I think it was a lot harder for us to put you in than it was for you to be in there. You ended up needing to stay in all week, and we are now so excited to hold and cuddle with you anytime we want. (Even though you made an adorable little glow worm)






(you were also a very brave little boy when you had to get your heels pricked over and over.)

You have given your mama quite the time with breastfeeding. You fought and fought with me all week, and FINALLY started to get it on your one week birthday. Once you got it, you were all, hey, no big! Check me out, breastfeeding and all!
I tried to tell you all week it wasn't hard. Is this the early showings of a stubborn streak, perhaps?



Little Miss Mollie has had to adjust having you home too. She growled at you when we walked in the door. She moped for a few days. She seemed just as frustrated as we were when you screamed your way through an hour and a half feeding at 4 am. She is doing much better now, and I'm sure you two will become fast friends once you get a little bigger. For now, we are concentrating on not allowing her to eat your face when you have a little lunch leftover on your chin.



Aunt Sammy and I broke the bili lights rule and took you out to take some photos of you at 5 days old. You behaved perfectly, allowing us to squish you into all sorts of positions. You stayed asleep through the whole thing! I hope this is a trend, cuz mama has some big plans for this week. You need some photos with our fire gear, and I ordered a sweet little hat in the same green that seems to represent YOU all over the house. Plan on having a camera lens in your face for a good portion of your life, baby.



One of my favorite things about you so far is your Warning Squawk. Before you cry, you send out an ear-piercing, shrill, baby-bird squawk. You might do it once, you might do it twice, but it always means that something needs to be fixed or else you will cry. Overall you are a very happy baby and even your cry usually is very mild, so we don't mind much. It sure is adorable though.

We love you, baby. We love getting to know you. We love everything about you. Happy first week, we can't wait for the rest!



Love,
Mama

Happy Birth Day

Last Thursday night I was sitting at Anne's looking through her ever-expanding collection of Every Day Food Magazine. After an impromptu deep freezer purchase, we had decided to make a bunch of freezer meals to use after I had the baby, and just throughout the upcoming weeks. I had felt great all day, but I had an instant feeling of nausea. It came on really suddenly and I ended up going home about 10 minutes later because I felt so sick.

Once I got home, I was still really sick and started throwing up. I threw up a few times, tried to eat a few things to settle my stomach, and threw up more. We decided to just go to bed and hope that I felt better in the morning.

I didn't sleep well from about 11:30 till 2 am. I was awake enough to know that I didn't feel good and that I was having contractions, but I was too sleepy to get up or do anything. (plus, I had been having pretty strong contractions for a good week so that part didn't really phase me.)

At about 2 am I decided to get up and walk around a little. I went out to the living room, walked around, facebooked, read blogs....you name it. The contractions seemed to be more frequent than what I was used to, so I decided to start timing them. I found a cool contraction timer online and sat on the couch timing them for about an hour and a half. They were about 3 minutes apart.

At 4 am I decided to go wake Jason up to time the contractions with me. I walked around for another hour and by this point the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and stronger. We decided to go to the hospital to get checked. I showered, Jason packed bags (despite all of your awesome advice, I had yet to pack a single thing...) and we were on our way!

We got to the hospital about 6 am. After visiting with my dad in the ER for a few minutes, we made our way up to L&D. they checked me and said I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. (I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced on Tues at my doctors appointment.) They said they would watch me for an hour and if I made any more progress they would admit me.



They checked me again at 7:15 and said I had made a little progress. I was now a 3+ and still 90% effaced. They called my doctor who said to go ahead and admit me (woot!)
After checking in, we called and started letting people know where we were. Jason's parents (along with his brother and family, who just happened to be in town from South Carolina) started the drive up from St. George, with strict instructions that the baby MUST wait until they arrived around noon.

Lots of family and a few close friends hung out with us all day in the hospital.




They hung out. They ate. I ate popcicles and drank water.


Anne showed up with these aahhhhhhmazing donuts from Beyond Glaze. I got to look at them, and know they were just as tasty as they looked. (and eventually got to eat one many hours later)


I texted, blogged, facebooked, and really just tried to pass the time!


I had 2 nurses in L&D. One was awesome, fun, helpful and overall a great nurse. The other was from a hospital in Richfield. Apparently they don't get much OB action in Richfield, so their nurses come here to brush up on their skills. The trainee girl I got was horrible!! She gave me possibly the worst IV ever (Jason and I had to actually talk her through how to hook it up and draw my blood. Seriously?!) Then, I was given Penicillin because my strep-B test hasn't come back from the doctor a few days before. The Good Nurse warned me it stings a little in the IV, so they kept the dose pretty low. The Incompetent Nurse came in a little later and didn't know how to adjust the dosage and ended up opening the line up ALL THE WAY. I had searing pain shooting up my arm, it was like battery acid flowing through my veins. I yelled that she needed to turn it down, which she finally did once she figured out how. GAH!

By 9:30 I still had not made any more progress and the contractions had started to die down a lot. The doctor said I couldn't have an epidural until I hit a 4 and threatened to send me home if I didn't make progress sometime soon. (um yeah, I was SO NOT going home at this point.) I asked to be unhooked so I could walk around a little. By "walk around" I actually meant that once all hospital staff was out of my room, I jogged in place, did lunges, and stair-stepped on the back of my hospital bed for a good hour. It started the contractions up a little, but they still weren't as strong as they had been that morning...but it was okay!! The doctor checked again and I was now dilated to a 4 and ready for an epidural, yay!






The epidural was not near as bad as I thought it would be. A little sting from the local anesthetic, a tiny bit of pressure and cold, and done! I could still move my legs (this becomes a key point in the story later) but I had no contraction pain and generally felt great.

I was dilated to a 4 for.ev.ver.

forever.

really really long time.

no progress made.

2 hours later? yup, still a 4.

2 hours after that. 4. still. no. changes.

They ended up breaking my water around 1:15. The only I will say about my catheter is that Incompetent Nurse did it and was really, well, incompetent about the whole thing. And it hurt later when my epidural wore off.

Yeah, it wore off. Remember how I could move my legs the entire time? Apparently that can either mean The Perfect Epidural or, 'oh wait its not in right and we have to do it again.' Mine was obviously the latter. I started feeling everything below my hip bones (still numb to contractions though. Thank goodness for small miracles) so they called a second anesthetist in to re-do the epi. He did a great job and ten minutes later I couldn't have wiggled my pinkie toe if you paid me.

Oh, and during all this? Yeah, still a 4.


FINALLY around 4:20 they gave me Pitocin to hurry things along, and hurry they did. I went from a 4 to an 8 in 20 minutes! After that it was smooth sailing. I was a 10 at 6:30. the doctor wanted me to rest at a 10 for thirty minutes and said I could start pushing at 7.



The nurse came in and had me start pushing with each contraction. She told me to rest in between because it usually take an hour or two for a first time mom. After about 2 pushes there was no way I could do that for 2 hours, so Boston and I decided we were going to do things a little quicker. 10 minutes later he was ready to say hello, so the nurse went to get to doctor.

Oh, wait. He went home. So, stop pushing till he gets back, k?

I wanted to kill the nurse. And the doctor. WHO GOES HOME?! Also, about not pushing? Not possible. It's just not. It took him a few minutes to get back but we soon saw him sprinting into the building. Once he got to my room it was like a pit crew at a Nascar race. GOWN! HAT! GLOVES! BED! GO!

About 30 seconds later, the best thing that ever happened to Jason and I arrived!!!







He was a little early so they had to check his lungs and everything before I could see him. Everything checked out great, he was a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and 18 inches long.


I absolutely love this photo...the proud daddy!

Welcome to the world, baby Boston! We love you so much!!

Introducing...

Boston Kai Robison

April 17, 2009
6 lbs 9 oz
18 inches long
7:14 pm

We are doing great at home! Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes, meals, support and love.


I'll post more about the big debut later. For now I have some serious cuddling to do with a seriously cute boy.

We had a little photo session with him today. Editing still needs to happen, but in the meantime...

I think I'm in love.

Ready or Not...

...here he comes!


We're checked in, registered, and waiting! Contractions started about 2 am, we came to the hospital at 6, admitted at 7:30. We'll update as much as possible....

Full Term

Well, we have made it to 37 weeks, full term! I'm feeling huge, uncomfortable, clumsy and it is really hard to move effectively! Despite the uncomfortables, I am so excited and amazed at how everything has gone. Other than a few painful bumps along the way (very few, really) this has been a great pregnancy and I really don't have a lot to complain about!

I went to the doctor yesterday, I am 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. He said chances are highly unlikely I will make it to my due date (!!!), especially because of all the contractions I am having, all day long. This was great news to me....I'm ready for this kid to come out as long as he is healthy and ready to go! My guess is I will have him by next Saturday, the 25th. Anyone else want to venture a guess? Date, weight, etc? (If you say 13 pounds I might delete your comment, fair warning.)

Even though I am super excited he might be coming so soon, it has been a little bit of a reality check. Sort of like, um, crap. We are going to have a kid soon. What now?! I'm feeling excited, overwhelmed, nervous, happy, prepared and yet so completely not prepared. Its like I spent so much time preparing for and reading about the pregnancy part that the actual RAISING A BABY part...and the fact that our lives are about to make a huge change forever...got a little back-burnered. I think (hope) it comes with the territory.

Anyway, in an attempt to take baby steps into feeling more prepared for the next part, I wanted to ask all your advice on hospital prep/packing. What did you take with you that you totally didn't use/need? What did you send your husband home to get? Anything that would have made the stay easier/more convenient/more pleasant? Anything you would (or did) completely change the second time around? As long as your advice has nothing to do with me getting as much sleep as I can these last few weeks, I'm open to anything!

Definitions

Self Control:
-When your co-worker brings in strawberry pie for everyone, and despite all your wants and wishes, you don't put the whipped cream can to your mouth and go to town.

Less Self Control:
-When an entire sleeve of thin mints is polished off by you and a friend before 7 am.

How's your morning shaping up so far?

Help me, internets!

I need a little help/advice from everyone.

Samantha and I have a wedding coming up at the beginning of May. Due to the possibility that one of us may be in labor around the same time (and the couple purchased a wedding package that includes 2 photographers), we are bringing in a photographer from Virginia to shoot the wedding with Sam. (She rocks too. Check her out here) She is a friend we met at a photog convention last year, and we are so excited for her to come!

She will be staying a little extra time* to take in all the sights, sounds and smells that Utah has to offer. She has never been to Utah or anywhere near here really. We want to show her a good time, but we are drawing a few blanks about where to go/what to do.

Here's where you come in.

Leave a comment with your favorite Utah 'thing'. It can be a pastime, restaurant, shopping, tourist attraction, etc. Something that is home in Utah, that someone staying here a few days would find interesting. We want as MANY ideas as we can get, so even if you're a crazy blog stalker who has never commented before, do it now!

So far, we have on our list that she needs to try fry sauce, she will learn the correct usage for "heck", and if she is reeeaaalllly lucky, maybe we'll swing by the BYU bookstore or something.

help!

*It's not a lot of extra time, so it's probably best to keep ideas centered around Utah-Salt Lake counties. Something like a week-long hike in Zions probably won't work. Aaaaaand we wouldn't do it anyway.

Me too, little buddy

I have never claimed to be much of a history buff. I don't pride myself in being able to recite the constitution by heart, I can't name a single Civil War general, and who exactly did we or did we not get along with during WWI?

Well, whatever. What I do know is I now know exactly what a certain Dr. MLK was talkin' about when he proclaimed, "I HAVE A DREAM!"

I'm guessing he was 9 months pregnant, and had been suffering from a super crappy cold for over a week. He had coughed both lungs up, had a splitting headache, runny/stuffy nose, sneezing, the works. I also bet he was suffering various pains from pregnancy, including (but not limited to) a pelvic bone that was all but splitting in two. Oh and also? He had an eye infection and has been stuck without contacts for the last two days.

I'm guessing all of this lead our good friend Martin to get verrrry little sleep as of late. Tossing and turning, waking up to rollover from one achy hip to the other, to blow his nose, to cough, only to lie awake for hours after. He was probably so sick of not sleeping that he had resorted to huffily storming out to the couch to try and sleep there, if not only for the change of scenery.

Then, one night, something miraculous happened. Though he still coughed occasionally, his hips didn't ache as bad. The headache was gone. The eyedrops started to work, and lo and behond, there was air flowing through his nostrils once again. He slept so good, in fact, that he was finally able to once again achieve deep enough sleep that HE ACTUALLY DREAMED.


I totally get it, man.

Post Secret

Last week Jason, Sam and I all took a nice little road trip to Logan to see the PostSecret event. It was held at Sam's old stomping grounds, USU.

We got dinner beforehand at a deeeeelish little place called Cafe Sabor. It was awesome mexican food...some of the best I have had in a while.

The salsa was soooo good. It was all warm and roasted-y and delicious. Jason didn't like it, but he is kind of a salsa snob.

As delicious as our food was, the service was a little strange. We ordered our meals, and the waitress brought out our drinks and salsa. She then immediately brought over 3 wrapped up fresh, warm tortillas. She quickly explained that they were to go with Jason's meal. We figured that meant we were getting FAST service, woo hoo!!

or, not.

It took 15-20 more minutes for our food to arrive, all the while the fresh tortillas just sat there. She seemed so rushed to get them to us, with no food.

All of us posing with the really random tortillas.

AAAND the food. Huge burritos, steak tacos, yummmmm.

This photo for size-reference on burrito.

After dinner, we made our way to USU. We got awesome parking right next to the building, and front row seats!

One of Jason's (several) failed attempts to catch a photo of Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret.

If you have never read Post Secret before, you should! Frank started it as more of an art project a few years ago, when he sent out blank postcards and asked people to mail their secrets back. It has since gone worldwide, with hundreds of secrets sent every day.

Frank posts secrets every Sunday on the blog. Some are depressing, some are funny, some are eye-opening. He has also published hundreds of secrets in several different books. If you ever get a chance to go to one of these events, you should. (Provided it is close. 2 hours was a long drive, and while I don't regret going, I don't think that I would drive that far to see it again.)
Frank talks about how Post Secret got started, some of his own secrets, the impact it has made, etc. The mindset behind it is if you keep your secrets, you can never move past them, and never grow from them. You need to tell your secrets to someone, even if it is completely anonymous.