The first week

Chris went back to work today. Vance and I were able to sleep untill about 9. Our morning is going pretty good. First off, Vance was hungry. After he ate, I gave him a bath. It's his 3rd bath since he's been home. This was the first bath he didn't cry through. I guess he's getting used to it. He's been such a good baby. We don't have too many fussy fits. If he's hungry he cries but as soon as he eats, he's very content. He's sleeps well in his crib. For the most part, that's where he sleeps at night. There have been a few times we'll fall asleep in the recliner together after a feeding.

Vance is a very healthy baby. The home nurse visited last week. He weighed 8lbs 15oz when he was born, 8lbs 7oz when we left the hospital on Tuesday. The nurse weighed him on Thursday, he was already back up to 8lbs 10oz. I'm blessed to have such a thriving baby. Everything else with the homecheck turned out great. She even checked over his car seat and helped us set it up for Vance. He has his first Dr. appt on the 28th. I'll be sure include the outcome of that appt. :)

We had plenty of visitors last week. I'm glad Vance has family around. And I'm sure the family loves having Vance around too, lol. I'm so happy with all the support we've got from our family and friends. I want to thank everyone that's been around for us! It's made all the difference. Thank You!

I love having Vance home with us. It's given me a sense of completion. I love being a mommy. Chris and I are very happy with our new family. He's been my little snuggle buddy. I find myself just staring at him while he's sleeping. I couldn't imagine life without him, now that's he's here. He's the cutest baby I've ever seen.

We all had a big weekend. Vance had his first Wal-Mart trip. It was nice, he slept the whole time, hahaha. Sunday we went to church, then to Aunt Jamie and Uncle 'PP's, then to Great Grandma Graces house. He was very tired by the end of the day. It was time to get him home and back to a normal schedule. Yesterday was our last day home all together. Chris and I took it easy and just relaxed. It's nice being a FAMILY!

I have a few more pics I'll leave on here...

We're home!

Last night was our first night home with Vance. Things went pretty smooth in the evening. Overnight he was a bit cranky. We were up about every 3 hours. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, I know. We were up about 3am and Chris realized the furnace wasn't working. It was getting pretty cold in the house. We have a space heater that we plugged in for the nursery. It stayed very warm in there. The landlord had a furnace repair man come by this morning and he had to replace a switch. We didn't get heat back in the house till about 1:30. Vance and I sent our time together in the nursery till then. It was pretty relaxing. Overall, he's been a very good baby.

I love having Vance here with us! It's been a feeling of completion. Our family is whole.

He's Here!!!!

Vance Keaton Beaty arrived tonight (Jan. 6) at 10:10pm. We've been at the hospital since 1pm. I was dilated to a 2. But my contractions were coming so hard, they knew we were staying for the day. Just as they got us into the labor room my water broke. That was about 2pm. Labor progressed pretty quickly on it's own from there. I never had to have pitocin. About 2:20 the anesthesiologist came in and I got an epidural. LOVED IT! It was pretty smooth sailing from there. We had "normal labor" till about 9pm and then they started having me push a little. Once I felt it was time, we started PUSHING. They all told me I was a good pusher and boy! did he come fast. He's 8lbs 15oz and 21 inches long. BIG baby! I have one picture so far. Penny went home this evening and put it on facebook. I'll have more when I get them from people. :) Luckily Heartland has WiFi and I am able to send this out! YAY! I'll keep you posted if and when we get to go home and stuff.

39 weeks

Well I am officially on 'vacation'. And it's killing me. I am not the type to sit around doing nothing. I try to relax, but watching the same TV shows over and over gets kinda boring, lol. If it was a little warmer outside, I would take a walk. But it's been very cold this week. This weekend it's suppose to be in the 50's. So maybe I can take advantage of that. It's been very uncomfortable lately too. He's going to be a BIG baby. My belly looks like something could explode out of it any day. Next Saturday marks my true "due date". I'm sure I'll make it till then. I have a Dr. appt on Tuesday. It won't really mean anything. The last 2 appts haven't shown anything new. They just keep an eye on my blood pressure and other vitals. I am still sitting at a 1 and thinned about half way. It's been that way for 2 weeks. I don't expect much change before Tuesday. :)

Akira has been y little buddy the last few days. She's become very clingy. It's been kinda funny to watch her. If I lay in bed she has to be right up against me. She's even tried to lay on me. I think she's going to be very protective of Vance when he's born. We've had problems keeping the cat out of the nursery, until lately. Akira will see him walk in and off she goes, to run him out of there. It's pretty funny to watch. She's got such a but personality. As for the other 4-legged kids, they have been acting differently too. The whole house is anxiously awaiting Vance's arrival.

Well here are those Maternity pictures I've promised you all. These were done by a local photographer. I have others on the way by another photographer. I'll post them when I get them. For those of you that don't know, I don't have Internet access at home. So I may be a bit behind on updates. :)

37 weeks, tomorrow :)

Well, my Dr. appt was yesterday. Things are going good. There isn't much to report. She did check to see if I was dilated. I'm about at a 1 and I'm 50% thinned out (for those of you that knows what that means...) Also, tomorrow marks 37 weeks! That means Vance will no longer be considered premature if he is born from here on out. YAY!

The good news is, I found my camera! It was in the nursery, go figure. Chris and I put the bouncer together for Vance. To be more specific, Chris put it together and I watched. hahaha But I had the camera with me and laid it down in a pile of blankets and it "disappeared".

25 days to go!

Well, the camera must have legs. It's missing again. I have plenty to update on though. It's been a busy week. I had a sonogram appt last Monday. The baby looks good and healthy. He was about 6 1/2 pounds. The Dr. told me to plan on him gaining about 1/2 pound every week until he's born. Now of course, this is all an estimate. But we are looking at having a 8-9 pound baby at 40 weeks. It was fun to see how much he's changed since our first sonogram. We were given a few sonogram printouts. He's so much bigger in these pics. Only his head fits on the screen, when before it was his whole body, lol. I have another appt this Thursday. Nothing special going on, they are going to do a strep test. They will, of course, measure me again to see how thing are progressing. This Saturday is a big day for us! Vance will be considered "full term". I'm not expecting anything, but if he's born early, he should have any health issues. YAY!

We had a big ice storm hit St. Joe last week. We didn't loose power at the house till about noon on Tuesday. We got it back on Thursday night. Thanks so much to Chris's Grandma, Grace, we had a warm roof over our heads. Power stayed on at the shop. But I wasn't able to work all week. There were so many power outages around town, I didn't have any appointments. Chris and I worked Saturday and only had 4 dogs show up. It made for a very short day at the shop.

Sunday, Chris and I had maternity pictures taken. I like what we ordered. I was a bit nervous about having pictures taken. But, I wanted to make sure I had something to remember all this by. I've taken my own belly pictures along the way, but these look much better, lol. The photographer said we should have the pics back by Christmas. I'll post them as soon as I get them.

Today I am back at the shop working full day, with a very full week ahead of me. I only have 12 days left of work left. Christmas is a week from today. I'm not ready at all. I haven't done any shopping. My evenings consist of me laying down or relaxing in the recliner. I am so tired by the time I get home form work, I don't feel like shopping much. I've had a hard time controlling my heartburn. I am going to ask about it this Thursday when I go to the Dr. If I had anything negative to say about this pregnancy, I'd say it was the heartburn. That about the only thing I have struggled with. It's been a wonderful pregnancy. I've had fun with all the little (and big) changes. I'm so excited about being a parent. I can't wait!

35 weeks!!

We had a slight scare yesterday. I had to leave work early and go to the hospital. I wasn't feeling very much movement from the baby. They wanted me to come in to be monitored for a while. I haven't been feeling very well the last couple days anyways. After about 25 minutes on the monitor, they sent us home. Everything is fine. They asked me to come in after eating lunch. Apparently after eating, the baby is much more active. And he was. But I am much more aware of how often he's moving. I need to make sure he is moving at least 10 times within a 2 hour period.

Everything else has been going pretty good. Work is starting to take a toll on me. I fine myself having to sit more often. Lets hope I can hold out till the 5th. Only 18 days of work left! Say a prayer for me. ;)


I'll leave you with a nice FAT picture of myself, taken this morning.