He's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Garrett Edward was born on 06/24/08 at 0730 hours via c-section. He weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. He has a full head of dark brown hair, long fingers and toes, and giant feet! He and I were in the hospital until Thursday afternoon.

I will update more later, but I'm just so tired right now!!! We are still working on figuring each other out. All I know is that I never knew love like this - for my baby or for my husband. Ed is the most amazing man ever - and seeing him as a Daddy to my baby makes me love and respect him in ways I never knew were possible.

Nesting Holbert style...

Yesterday I only had to work for about 3 hours, and I got everything done that needed to get doneat work, including cleaning my fish tank so that my poor fish Finn didn't have to worry about being the stinky fish in the office. Then I came home and Ed and I got busy (no not like that Aunt Kathy - you sicko).

He is so awesome - I'd like to say he's a big help - but he does most of the work while I just watch. Since Garrett's room is downstairs by ours - his bedroom window (which is in a window well) needed cleaned bad. Ed popped out the window, vacuum'd like 10 years of dust and spiderwebs and stuff out of the window and well, and then scrubbed the windows. It looks so much better - and so much brighter!!! He wouldn't let me help much - but he let me watch anyway!

Ed's also been busy finishing up the changing table that he built, the last coat of polyurethane goes on it today. That is the last piece of furniture to go into the nursery - so I'm looking forward to putting that in there and putting diapers and wipes away. That reminds me, I need to go shopping for diapers.

So where did the nesting go wrong you ask? Well instead of cleaning my house (which is liveable but by no means clean) we cleaned the truck. I can't have Garrett coming home in a truck whose seats aren't conditioned right??? Because we have saddle leather seats we have to wash the seats (fronts and backs, and front and back) and steering wheel, etc...and then they needed to be slathered in leather conditioner. We are supposed to do that every couple of months but it hadn't been done in at least 7 or 8 months. Of course we cleaned every surface in there as well. We took it down to the car wash, cleaned and dried it (and by we I mean Ed) by hand. Then we did the windows inside. And put the car seat in again. So...now Garrett has a stylin and clean ride to come home in at the end of this week. Now....that house on the other hand....

I have been up for an hour already today. Tomorrow we have to be up super early and at the hospital at 5 am. I am no morning person (most of you know this) and so I'm wondering why I am up so early today? Even Ed is still asleep - and he's the morning person in this family! When I opened the back door for the dogs to go out all I could smell was lilacs. It's fabulous - but it sent me into a sneezing fit I wasn't ready for and I nearly pee'd my pants (ok you busted me - I sorta did pee my pants). So I think instead of sitting in here on the computer any longer I'm going to go sit on the patio and have me some Cap'n Crunch and start to enjoy my last day of freedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work

Thankfully my boss let me work half days this last week. It made for a much longer work week to get to my 40 hours for the week - but it was SO much easier on my body. I felt so much more rested all the time. Today I worked and the goal was to get just the arrests and citations done....and 8.5 hours and 1400 lines later I was done. So much for a short day. Something tells me that tomorrow might be more of the same. But then after tomorrow - I'm done! :)

I took Monday off to get ready for Tuesday. So Ed and I will get the rest of the little stuff done on our day off together on Monday. I'm hoping that we can have a date night at Red Lobster because I'm jonzing for some crap/lobster. I wonder if Monday night will be anything like the night before school, where you can't really sleep out of excitement.

I guess I'll have to wait and see. At least I have Ed here to keep me calm. Poor guy.

A quick catch up

• I had an OB appointment on Monday. Doc did not do an internal exam since baby comes out in a week anyway. I was A-OK with that. I hate those exams! I have lost weight, enough to concern the doctor - but baby still looks fine. Doc couldn't get my fundal height because Garrett was tucked too far up in my ribs (again) and so it wouldn't have been an accurate measurement anyway.
• Doc explained that we go up to L&D Recovery on Tuesday morning at 5 am to get prepped for surgery. The surgery will started at 7 am, baby will be out at about 7:30 am, then they will take him up (and Ed) up to the nursery and I will get stitched back up and rolled over to surgical recovery. Apparently as soon as I can move my legs (meaning that my spinal anesthesia wore off) I can have the baby back.
• Is it just me or does it seem like this is all happening so so so fast???
• I finally gave in and asked to work half days at work. Which means I won't have time to build up anymore overtime. But, after having worked half days the last two days, I can admit that it's much easier on my body than trying to work 10 hour days.
• Ed's been in Boise since Monday but he comes home late this afternoon. I think it makes him feel better to know that I'm at work where people can "see" me while he's gone, just in case something were to happen. It's been REALLY quiet at our house with him gone. I'm just very thankful that Garrett decided to stick it out with me and not try to come early while his Daddy was out of town. Ed said not to worry about that - since the Charger can do 140 comfortably - but I just don't want to even picture him cruising along I84/I86 at 140 mph with lights and sirens on for a couple of hours.
• Does anyone have any idea what I should do with my fish on my desk at work while I'm gone? I don't want to take him home but I don't want to have to come into work and change his water, etc... I can get someone to feed him for me - but I don't want to have to ask that person to clean his bowl or anything.
• My hospital bag essentials are packed - as are Garrett's. His bag was easy to pack - mine wasn't. I have stuff I still need to pack but since it's everyday necessitities (i.e. toothbrush, etc...) I can't pack until we go into the hospital.
• Can I tell you how much I'm looking forward to a vacation!!!!
• I ordered my Medela Pump in Style Advanced breast pump last night. It's hard to spend that much money on something like that - but in th end it will more than pay for itself. The company I ordered it from is a small company run by a stay at home mom. I am all about supporting stay at home mom's if I can! The price couldn't be beat either. She took the time to answer all of my questions and made me feel very comfortable with the pump I chose.

One last big ticket item...

I had heard from a friend that our insurance pays (100%) for us to rent a breastpump, so I hadn't looked into purchasing one since I figured I'd just get whatever the rental brand was. Come to find out that isn't true anymore, so now I'm breastpump shopping. That's worse than car shopping, worse than picking out a name, worse than deciding on a pediatrician! It's a little overwhelming. I have decided to defer to those lovely women I like to call BTDT mommies (been there, done that) and the resounding answer is "Medela!" Seems easy enough, until I start researching Medela. There are like 25 different options. The one thing I know is that it needs to be portable - since I'll be using it at work (can I just tell you how thankful I am that I work at a place that is supportive of that kind of thing?). I also need it to be electric because once the baby comes, my RA (rheumatoid arthritis) is bound to kick back in with force, so it will be very difficult (if not impossible) for me to use a manual pump. And lastly, at the start of my research I decided that I want a double pump - because it helps my supply to pump both breasts at once. So, with that decided I'm looking at the Medela Pump in Style or the Pump in Style Advanced. Simple right?

I know someone who is willing to sell me her (about 4 years old) never used Pump in Style for $150. Or another someone sent me a website for the Pump in Style Advanced for $228. Both are great prices for either piece of equipment. Now of course I need to know what the difference is between the two?

The PISA (Pump in Style Advanced):
The pump has two cycles - 2 Phase Expression. The Let-down mode simulates your baby's initial rapid suckling to initiate faster milk flow. The Expression mode simulates your baby's slower, deeper suckling for maximum milk flow in less time. The button is available for convenience to skip the short quick cycle and move to the long rhythmical mode. If you do not want to or need to wait for the first cycle to complete, just press the button and the second phase begins. After two minutes it automatically switches to the longer rhythmical suctioning just like baby. There is a dial for the intensity of the suction.

The PIS (Pump in Style) does not have the let down phase from what I have read. How do I know if I'm going to have a let down phase? Does everyone have them? I have read about let down in the shower, but other than that I know nothing about it. I hate to say I'm going to pick the PISA because it's the most expensive, but it really seems to come highly recommended and it includes all the features that (I think) I want. So now to find another $250 for a piece of baby gear....maybe I can sell some of Ed's stuff. HHHmmmm..... :)

Maternity pictures

A friend I used to work with at Vickers is a burgeoning photographer. He did some maternity photos for us. These are not touched up or edited yet - but they are some of my favorite ones! :)

1 day closer

The doctors office just called and because of a scheduling problem on the 25th Garrett's birthday has been moved to 0700 on the 24th. :) One day sooner! (and two weeks from today). They can keep moving it closer if they want - I'm tired and ready to see this little boy!

Our trial run at L&D...

Let me see if I can keep this short and simple so as not to lose y'all...

So Thursday at about 1 am, I start to feel really weird pains in the top of my belly, and just start feeling sick overall (achy, naseaus, hot/cold/hot/cold). I could not sleep at all, no matter how hard I tried. I tried everything to get rid of the pains, which then started to radiate into my back as well. When Ed woke up at about 8 am I didn't really tell him anything was up since I figured it was from being a little constipated or just being pregnant.

He tells me we're going to the doctor. We go in there and the doctor checks and of course I have a couple more of the pains for him - and he says they are definitely contractions. Next thing I know I'm being wheeled to Labor & Delivery. They hooked me up to a monitor to check baby and a monitor to register my contractions. The contractions were running every 4-5 minutes, but they tell me that they're not going to stop them since I'm over 34 weeks. Well baby's heartrate was thru the roof (180+) consistently, which they were not happy about, and my heartrate and blood pressure were high too.

I got my first internal exam - OMG did that hurt!!!!! I am not dilated, 50% effaced, and -1 station.

So they put me on IV fluids because they did a UA that came back clean except my urine was BROWN. So I got to lay around at the hospital for 9 hours yesterday, in the triage room (because all of the other rooms were full we were told). The triage room has no TV and I was on a regular hospital cot the whole time. Not a bed - a ferkin gurney. So you can guess that I was uncomfortable the whole time. After 3 bags of fluid my contractions started to space way out. His heartbeat did not come down though. They brought in an ultrasound tech from the hospital and she did a biophysical profile, basically checking key things like his heartbeat, movement, etc....He didn't cooperate with them - the ultrasound tech bounced the wand all over and he would not move his arms or legs. I think the poor guy was just so dang worn out!!! They went ahead and sent me home since my blood pressure and heartbeat went down. They gave me a shot of phenergam (for naseausness) and warned me that it would make me sleepy. They then sent me home with instructions to come back for another NST (non-stress test) this morning.

I slept quite a bit compared to the night before. I fell asleep almost as soon as we got home at 7 pm last night. I slept for about 3 hours twice in a row, getting up to pee 8 times (cuz of that lovely fluid they gave me) the rest of the night. I went back this morning and his heartrate was 40-50 points lower than it had been the day before. They fed me some breakfast (because I couldn't eat or drink in case they had to do the c-section yesterday or today) and sent me over to my doctors office for the ultrasound that was regularly scheduled (to check for evidence of fractures and to check his growth).

So went over there and did our ultrasound. He's measuring 37 weeks (I'm 36 weeks 4 days) so he's pretty much right on. They are estimating his weight right now at 7 pounds (the machine said 6 pounds 16 ounces). All of his long bones (in his arms and legs) look great but he refused to show us his left femur. That's alright. He was moving it at least. The cord is over his head, and the u/s tech couldn't tell if it was around his neck or not. I'm going to talk to the doctor about that on Monday when I see him for my regular OB checkup.

So then we come home and I took a nap for about an hour and a half (this labor crap wore me out!) and after that we went and did the maternity photos that we had planned awhile ago and weren't sure we were going to be able to do! THAT was so much fun! I can't wait to see how they turn out. But two hours of that and I'm ready for bed. I work tomorrow (doc did not recommend bed rest) so I'll go to bed early tonight and hope I can make it for 10 hours tomorrow.

The best part of the experience? Besides finding out the baby is okay....Ed never left my side. I sent him home to check on the dogs yesterday since we had left in the morning in a hurry and he had a blood draw to do this morning anyway. But getting him to go do those 2 things was hard. He didn't want to go. He's so awesome - I think I'll keep him!

I love my life!

Last night after we climbed into bed Garrett got the hiccups. He gets them at least once a day now. I love them because they don't hurt (though they are getting stronger) and they let me know he's doing okay in there, and because they are very rhythmic - kind of like a beating drum. Ed put his hand on my belly and he felt them too. I LOVE sharing moments like that with him. The Dad's get so left out of this pregnancy thing. Sometimes I wish the constipation or round ligament pain on them - but mostly I wish the little kicks and rolls and taps on them. We women are pretty lucky that we get these 9 months with our little ones that no one else will ever have with them. I love it when Ed talks to my belly/Garrett too - usually it's to tell him to settle down and go to sleep, but I will take it. I can't wait to see these two yahoos together doing what boys do.

On a side note - I think Garrett's dropping. The underside of my belly is really really achy and it doesn't feel as if he's ALWAYS pressing against my lungs! Yay for progress!

Maternity Social

Don't let the name fool you - there is no ice cream involved. Liars. They did have cookies and punch - but I wasn't in the mood for cookies and punch. You might remember reading about the Childbirth 101 classes we took in May. Well at the Maternity Social (which is free) they covered all the same stuff that they covered in the classes that I actually paid for. Brilliant job on my part if you ask me. I got to see a lot of other pregnant women though - that was pretty interesting. I got a play by play evaluation on boobs/butts/bellies from Ed after it was all over.

There was a question and answer period with a resident (doctor) where the main question seemed to be about circumcision. I think we flustered him a little - he didn't like to talk about weiners or something, even though I'm assuming that not only does he have one, but he's seen them at some point in his internship). We had a little speech given by the Admissions person (please next time just give me the paperwork and shut up), and a chat with a woman who used to a labor and delivery nurse who told us basically step by step what would happen (you come to L&D they hook you up to monitors, etc...). But me being the pain in the butt I am waited until she was done with what she had to say, and then asked her to go over all of that again - but this time for a scheduled c-section. She glossed over it really quick and the only thing that we got out of it was that she thinks we'll report to the 2nd floor (Same Day Surgery). So I wrote it down to ask my OB next week.

Both our backs hurt so bad by that time (those chairs are not comfy) that we were looking forward to wandering the hospital for the tour. We should have stayed in the uncomfy chairs. They sardined us, and about 6 other couples into one elevator and took us to the nursery and labor and delivery. The nursery made me sad - and I can guarantee that I will have Garrett in there as little as possible. It just seemed so cold and unfriendly to me. There was one little boy in a bassinet all by himself in one big room. I know they have their procedures and stuff - but I don't want my little boy to just be laying in a bed somewhere all by himself. That - and the L&D nurse that we talked to had no personality. My back and feet were hurting so bad by this time that I just wanted the heck out of that hospital. It was so hot everywhere we went that I was sweating down my back.

The recovery rooms in the maternity ward are TINY. I was claustrophobic just standing in there long enough to have the tour guide explain stuff to us. I hope they see my size and give me a nice big room - since they do have some of those as well. There is a nice big flatscreen tv in each room - so at least I won't miss my HGTV. The sad thing is - no wifi. Yes - you read that right - I'm going to be offline while at the hospital. It's a good thing I'll probably be busy with sleeping (for those two hours at a time that the nurses leave me alone) otherwise I might have to hurry up and find me some internet to take to the hospital with me. I don't see Ed staying with me at the hospital simply because - the beds for Dad's SUCK. I wouldn't want to sleep in that thing either. So we'll see. Someone has to take care of and love on Siren and Kevlar anyway. And Ed's such a light sleeper he'd be miserable staying at the hospital.

So....three weeks. Eek!

Wow! I got showered!

A friend that I used to work with (at my last job) threw me a baby shower yesterday. She did such a great job - everything was so cute! She had purple tablecloths (my favorite color) and balloons. She potted a bunch of little purple and yellow pansies for the center pieces and they were also party favors. :) Not as many people showed up as RSVP'd - but that's alright - those of us that were there had fun and some people who couldn't stay long still stopped by to say hi. The weather held out to the end of the shower too - raining after we had already being there for two hours.

Garrett got some homemade blankets (love them Tiff!) and plenty more clothes. And a nice gift card for Target from the girls at the place I used to work. Our friends Dean and Stacy got him the bathtub gear that we wanted as well, even though they had to be in Utah during the shower. One really cool surprise was that two of the girls I worked with at my first job when we moved here came. That was awesome since I was not expecting them. I haven't seen or talked to either of them for probably two years - yet they were there. It made me feel pretty special! :) My sister also sent some hella cute onsies for G so she could be a part of the shower even if she couldn't physically be here. :) I was so exhausted by the time I got home that I could barely stay awake until about 9 pm!

I have to have my final paper in for my IT class, tonight. Eek! It's still not done and I'm at work and instead of either working or working on the paper - I'm blogging. I'm a procrastinating idiot aren't I? Oh well, it will get done - I always get schoolwork done - even if it means staying up to midnight.

Back to work!