Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a collection of pictures from Amery's first Thanksgiving (and he just turned two months old!) hanging out with mama, papa, and his cousins Jax and Jade.

Eight Weeks

My favorite time of the day is right after he wakes up. That's when I get a good half hour of solid smiles and laughs.

Seven Weeks

These are a week old already, but they are too cute not to post so I'm playing catch-up.




Amery has this toy cell phone that he thinks is hilarious.


Once in a while, mama gets a nap too.

Call me crazy

Who wants to weigh in on what these little white bumps look like?

There's an old wive's tale that says early teething is a sign of intelligence. Something tells me when those bad boys start poking through we're going to wish for a very dumb baby.

Lazy Sunday

Amery is going through his 4-6 week growth spurt right now, which means he wants to eat all.the.time. Apparently yesterday it also meant he needed a lot more sleep, because he spent most of the day right here (why this doesn't happen for mama on the weekdays, I don't know):



A cute close-up:



He woke up long enough for a picture with papa:



And this morning I was finally able to get him back into his baptismal outfit and get a picture since we forgot to take one the day of:

And just so there's no question

My favorite part of this picture - the baby arm chub that you can barely see on his right arm (thanks crappy Blogger for randomly cutting all my pictures off lately). This chunky monkey was up to 8 lbs 8 oz at his last appointment and that was one week ago yesterday.

Amery's First Halloween

Amery spent his first Halloween at his cousin Jax and Jade's house. We cruised the neighborhood with the big kids for a while, but Amery's lack of teeth left him uninterested in the candy treats.

Meet the Grandparents and Amery's Baptism

Amery had a big week! My parents came to town on Tuesday to meet their first grandson for the first time. Sorry for the quick captions. I'll try and post more baptism photos if I get time.

Hanging out with grandpa. He even babysat a couple of times!

Grandma was a huge help. We miss her around here!


Amery also met his godfather, Drew.

Jon's favorite picture from the baptism. We like to call it the Reservoir Dogs shot.

I'm trying to update, I really am

I have a bunch of cute pictures from my parents' visit but blogger will not let me upload them for some reason. Keep checking back and hopefully I will get it figured out soon!

The Rest of the Pro Pics

Here is a slideshow with a bunch more newborn pics plus some family photos. I love them all, especially the ones of Jon and Amery together.

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/slideshows/amery/

POST UPDATE!

Huge congratulations to our photographer, Lyndsay Stradtner, for being named Critic's Pick for the Best Kids Photographer for 2008 by the Austin Chronicle!! What a huge and well-deserved honor.

First bath and snuggling with papa

These pictures are already a week old, but I just now had a few minutes to upload them.



Amery's first bath at home.

My two boys.

A few more

These are from Lynday's Flickr photostream. Bask in the cuteness.

Sneak Peek: Professional Newborn Pics

Amery had his own personal paparazzi yesterday morning. After a fabulous photo shoot with Lyndsay Stradtner of Life in Motion Photography and my good friend M.C. Urban, I think his head may be a little big for his britches. We may need to take away his platinum card and the BMW for a weekend to bring him back down to Earth.

Lyndsay posted a couple of teaser pics on her blog last night. Click here to see them (scroll to the bottom of the post).

Here's one that M.C. took and sent me last night. She's on her way out of town this morning, but you can bet I will be hounding her for the rest when she gets back!

One Week Old

Amery was born one week ago today!

Papa's log on the blog

What a great blessing from God.... My son Amery is beautiful and healthy. Mama did so awesome. I love you both..... The best day of my life.... - Papa

38w4d - Well, now I know what they feel like.

Contractions that is. Real ones, not the phony Braxton Hicks contractions that I've been getting for a couple of months. To those readers with ovaries, they feel like really bad cramps that all kind of run together and finally start to break in between. To those of you without, they feel like someone squeezing your gut while simultaneously twisting your organs around.

Things have calmed down now, but yesterday was a long day. I woke up feeling very very crampy. The crampiness started to have little breaks in between so Jon came home. When he got home I took my BP and it was 150/98 (higher than it was last week at the doctor's office). That was what actually worried me the most. I called and they told me to come in. Got to the OB's office and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and the BP monitor. My BP was still pretty high so the nurse said that alone was reason for me to come in. My contractions were three minutes apart - three! They tell you to call or come in anytime they are five minutes apart for a full hour. After about an hour, the nurse checked my progress I was still only 1 cm. She wanted us to go to labor & delivery across the street at the hospital for labs, but when she couldn't get a hold of my doc (in surgery) or the other doc on call (in a birth) she changed her mind and told us to go get a light lunch and come back. When we went back I was still having contractions but my BP was lower and still no progress.

Sooo...here we are. She told I could walk a little bit around the neighborhood but not too much because of my BP thing. Jon went out and got me a yoga ball last night so I've been sitting and bouncing on that to see if it gets us anywhere. She also told me to take something to help me sleep at night. Tylenol PM, I would marry you if it were legal in Texas. We weren't surprised we got sent home and I'm actually glad the contractions are farther apart now. I either wanted them to STOP or GO, because hanging out in labor limbo is no fun.

Update from Monday

Sorry for not posting sooner. Lots of people have emailed me for an update on my Monday check up. Good news. My blood pressure was down to 108/68 which is super awesome. So, no more talk of inductions for a while I hope. I have an appointment with my doctor on Friday so we'll see where we are then. All I have to do now is get through this last week of work before I can start my leave.

38 Weeks - Modified Bedrest

Well, it looks like I haven't been lounging around eating enough bon-bons lately. I went in for my regular appointment yesterday and my blood pressure was a bit high (130/93 vs my normal 120/80). My feet and legs have been a bit swollen as well, but this was the first time the swelling was combined with high BP. This is a common concern near the end of pregnancy and there is no way to tell who will get it and who won't. I went back in this morning and, while it wasn't exactly stellar at 136/81, it was really no worse. That as well as my bloodwork coming back normal was enough to ward off any talk of inducing in the next few days. I go back on Monday for another BP check so we'll see how it goes then.

In the meantime, my doctor has put me on modified bedrest. I can still work my last week next week, but I need to work from home where I can recline. I guess sitting upright at a desk can cause fluid to pool in my legs and feet even if I try to keep them up. Oh yeah, when I was weighed at my appointment this morning I was 2 pounds lighter than I was yesterday afternoon. So basically I lost 2 pounds of water weight (swelling) overnight just by laying down more. Stay tuned for an update on Monday, but I suspect if I follow her advice all will continue to be well.

Ahem. (points to ticker)

We are in the "teens" today! Crazy.

37 Weeks and Progress

I just got back from my 37 week appointment today and got some good news from my doctor. I am 1 cm dilated, 30% effaced, and baby boy is head-down (that's the direction he should be facing in case you passed notes through sex ed class). Her exact words were "he's pretty far down there" meaning he is what they call "engaged." In other words, he's in position to bail out first chance he gets. The dilation/effacement thing doesn't mean a whole lot by itself since one can sit at 1 cm for weeks. The fact that his head is down low hopefully means that I have a better chance of being more dilated when I see her next week.

p.s. I'm messing around with some different blog backgrounds, so it might change a few times before I find one I like best.