Shaking his little tush on the catwalk

Ok, he's not really shaking his little tush on the catwalk (I think he needs to learn to crawl before he can do that), but James has been modeling a bit.  I'm attempting to do a little "photo shoot" for each monthly birthday.  I had great ambitions to do something super cute like this or this, or use something like this.  But A) I didn't want to spend any money and B) I didn't plan ahead of time so I ended up just writing his age on an index card.  Not very exciting, but it works.  I'm also taking his picture each month with his teddy bear so you have an idea how big he's getting from month to month.

Before he was born, I had no idea how hard it would be to photograph a newborn.  I don't like to use the flash (doesn't look natural in my opinion), but he moves so much that most of my pictures end up either out of focus or blurry.  I might need to do some research before the 3 month shoot.

As you can tell from the ingenious 1 month index card, these are from when he was a month old.  I'm currently going through the 2 month shots and will post those soon.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Emily Leidolf who made green/blue/red/orange quilt and to Katie Wright who made the blue/brown receiving blanket.  He loves them both (and so do I!)

A lot to do!

As you can see from our to do list above, we have quite a bit going on right now!  However, one of our "to-do's" is to update the blog.    But first, I wanted to check and see if anyone is still reading it...I promise to do a better job of updating, but only if it's actually being read!  So leave a comment or shoot me an email if you want more updates, and I will oblige!

It's a Boy!

Sorry this post is so late - we've been a little pre-occupied lately :)

Both Matthew & I have started this post a couple of times, and had intended to give some detail about James's birth, but in order to actual publish something, I'll keep it short & sweet!

James Hardin Nett was born on 3/12/2011 at 2:22pm (one week ago today!).  He weighed in at 7lbs 2.5oz, and was 20.5" tall.

My water broke the day before at a doctor's appointment, so we were admitted to the hospital right away (around 5pm).  I was in labor for 21 hours (although the first 5 were a piece of cake!), followed by 35 minutes of pushing.  Apparently, I'm a very good pusher :)

We had a couple of scares during labor.  When my water broke, we noticed that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.  Meconium is the baby's first poop (which usually comes after the baby is born).  When mecoium is present, there's a risk that the baby will breathe it in during delivery, which can cause serious respiratory issues.  As a result, we had to have a team from the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) present when he was born.  You can tell if the baby aspirated the meconium if he doesn't cry right away.  I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful sound than his cry (it seemed to me that it took forever for him to belt out that first cry, but Matthew said it happened right away).

I also developed a fever around 10am, and since my water had broken several hours prior, there was a concern that I may have contracted an infection in the placenta (chorioamnionitis - Medical name provided by Matthew).  I had to be given antiobiotics before we could deliver.  After the birth, a blood culture was taken to see if an infection was passed on to James.  He and I were put on antibiotics for 48hrs.  If his culture was positive he may have been in the hospital for 10 days, but luckily they were negative so we got to leave the hospital Monday evening.

We're so thankful that everything turned okay, and we feel incredibly blessed to be James's parents.  Thanks to everyone for thinking of and praying for us during this time.  We can't wait for you all to meet him.

So who do you think he looks like?  Leave us a comment.

Baby Shower Pics

Here are some pictures from work baby shower #2:

Check out the look of surprise as I walked into my "meeting".  And check out the belly!

Carolyn, along with the cake she baked for the shower

Cake closeup

Little Nikes

Thanks, Avtech!

Nursery

The room's all ready!  Now all we need is a little baby :)

Before the big reveal, here is what the room and furniture used to look like:

And here's what it looks like now:

Work Baby Shower #2

On Friday, I thought I was walking into a meeting, but instead, about 20 co-workers of mine threw me a surprise baby shower.  They said that the last one, which was combined with two other people, wasn't good enough.  I was completely shocked!

The lady who made the diaper cake for the last shower made a gorgeous cake that was shaped like a baby buggy (I unfortunately don't have any pictures, but if I do get some, I'll be sure to share).  We also received a ton of gifts for JBird.  Some of my favorites are below:

Anti-Monkey Butt Diaper Rash Powder

Boogie Wipes

Receiving Blankets handmade by my co-worker Katie

Knitted Bibs

A bear suit and monkey outfits

Nike Air Force Ones

36 Weeks - in Due Time

I'm a bit hesitant to post these, as they are very unflattering, but why stop now?  I feel like I'm getting bigger every day (which I probably am).  I thought about taking weekly pictures from here on out, but after seeing these, I'm not in a hurry to take more any time soon :)  Without further ado, the week 36 pictures:

We entered the 37th week on Monday (JBird is now the length of swiss chard!), which is what my yoga teacher calls "Due Time".  In other words, the baby is considered full term and can come any day now.  I didn't know this before, but there is actually a 5 week window from the 37th week to the 42nd where the baby can be born (the due date is the beginning of week 40), and only 2% of babies are delivered on their due date.  Good thing I like surprises!

Everyone keeps asking if I'm ready, and I really think that I am (and not just because I now frequently get kicked in the ribs and punched in the bladder at the same time!).  The room is pretty much ready to go, the car seat is installed in the car, the diaper bag is packed, and we have a freezer full of pre-made dinners for when we come home.  Tonight, we're taking a tour of the hospital so we'll know were to park, register, etc.  Surprisingly, I'm not even that worried about the delivery (even after hearing about my co-worker's wife going through 17 hours of labor followed by a C-Section a couple of weeks ago!).  I'm just ready.