2 Months

Dear Andrew,

You're officially two months old.  Merry Christmas, handsome guy.  This year we didn't really do much for Christmas since you're still so little.  We had breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Gill then went over to Grandma and Grandpa Shafer's house.
 
Along with this being your first Christmas you also got to go on your first boat ride.  You had to wear a life jacket, which you didn't seem to like so much, but we made it work!

You're still so perfect.  You're learning new things every single day and it amazes us.  You're smiling a ton and finding even more of your voice!

I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Love you, forever and always,

Mama

Weight: 16 pounds / Length: about 24 inches long

Daddy, You and Me after seeing Santa.

That smile melts my heart.

You didn't seem to mind Santa one bit.

Andrew's Birth Story Told By My Doula

 

The Birth Story of Andrew Jackson Shafer
By Doula Diana Petersen

            On October 24 at around 5:00pm, I got a call from doula Dianne Hamre asking me if I could attend the birth of a wonderful couple named Kaitlin and Rob who were about to have their first baby.  I quickly and happily agreed, and an hour later I met you and Rob at Babymoon Inn, along with midwife Wendi Cleckner.  I was immediately struck by how calm you both were.  Wendi checked you soon after your arrival, and you were at 5cm.  You were calm and focused during your contractions – something that never changed even as you pushed your baby into this world 25 hours later.  At this point, you and Rob decided to labor at home a while longer, and we would all meet back at Babymoon at 10:00pm.

            When you returned to the birth center, Wendi checked you and found you were dilated to 7cm.  By 10:30pm, we were filling the tub and you were ready to labor in water.  For the next few hours, you labored in the tub, with Rob by your side and your family surrounding you.  You closed your eyes and breathed through your contractions, and as each one ended, you would open your eyes, look up, and smile.  Your blood pressure had been high, so an IV was started at 11:40.  At 2:00am, you felt like you needed to use the restroom so Micah, the birth assistant, helped move you to the bathroom where you labored on the toilet.  Rob sat behind you, rubbing your shoulders and applying pressure to your lower back, where you had been feeling your contractions. 

            By this point, you had been in labor for about two days.  We moved you to the bed to lay down with a peanut ball between your knees, hoping your body could rest.  At first you and Rob conversed quietly.  Then Rob fell asleep, and you also were able to drift off slightly in between contractions.  By this point the contractions were becoming less frequent, so after a little while in bed, we got up and went for a walk, then got on the birthing ball to try to get labor to pick up.

            At 5:30am, Wendi checked you and you were still at 7cm.  You had been working so hard for so many hours, and you continued to work for another seven hours when you ultimately made the difficult decision to go to the hospital after subsequent cervical checks showed no change.  I knew how hard that decision was, but I also knew that you had done everything possible to get your labor moving.  Your and Rob’s strength, will, and resolve during those long hours at Babymoon were truly inspiring.  

            You arrived at St. Joe’s hospital at 1:45pm and checked into a room at 3:15.  You started the lowest dose of Pitocin at 4:10, and it was increased every 30 minutes.  By 5:00, your contractions were three minutes apart and increasing in intensity.  Dianne had come to the hospital with us, and she and I took turns putting pressure on your back and hips while you sat on the birthing ball facing Rob, who was looking in your eyes, talking quietly to you, and rubbing your shoulders.  He was a perfect birth partner.  Even as the Pitocin increased and the contractions became much stronger, you never lost focus.  You never panicked.  You never mentioned pain medication.  Instead, you rocked, breathed, and softly moaned through your contractions with a strength I wish I could describe in words.

            Sometime after 6:30pm, Dianne asked you if you were feeling at all like you wanted to push, and you replied yes.  A cervical check revealed that you were complete, and a cheer went up from your family in the room.  You began pushing eight minutes later, and 10 minutes after that, beautiful Andrew Jackson arrived in this world.

            Kaitlin, your birth was beautiful and you were simply inspiring.  Your son is so fortunate to have been born to two parents who love each other the way you and Rob do, and who have the strength and perseverance to continue on and thrive even when plans change.  Thank you for letting me be a part of your birth.  Your family will always hold a special place in my heart.


Andrew Jackson Shafer
Born October 25, 2012 at 6:59 p.m.
At St. Joseph’s Hospital
9 pounds, 2.8 ounces, 20.75 inches

1 Month

Dear Andrew,

As I write this you are asleep on my chest, which is my favorite place for you to be.  I am so in love with you it hard for me to put it in words.  There are times I find myself staring at you in absolute disbelief that we could make something so perfect.

I am absolutely baffled that you are are already a month old.  It feels like just yesterday your dad and I brought you home from the hospital.

Since you've been home you've been sleeping in bed with us.  It definitely makes your night feedings and diaper changes a lot easier to handle. You're such a fabulous sleeper.  Sometimes you go to sleep a little late, but you'll give us anywhere from 3-6 hours of sleep before you wake up.

You love lights.  From any source, the sun, a lamp or a sunlight, you don't care as long as it's bright. You aren't so much interested in toys yet.  Recently you found your voice and have been a lot more vocal.  You make so many fun sounds.

Also recently you've started smiling and holding eye contact.  You have the cutest dimples!  You can thank me for those when you're in high school.  ;)

Your hair has been getting a little darker since you were born, but it's still light brown.  In the sun it actually looks like you may have some red in there.  Your eyes haven't changed one bit though, they are still a fabulous blue.  Your daddy and I are hoping they'll stay.  Which you'll also thank me for if they do. Also, you have beautiful eyelashes.

I am so excited to watch you grow.

Andrew, your daddy and I love you very much.  Forever and always,

Mama

Weight: 13 pounds / Length: about 23 inches

Welcome To The World

Andrew Jackson Shafer




I'm a little late in posting these considering everyone on Twitter has already seen a million pictures of Andrew, but here is my little man.

I plan on posting his birth story, eventually.  I just need to get all the details down and in order! Everything became a blur!

Baby Shower / Birthday Party


On September 1st we had our baby shower which also happened to be my birthday.  I knew my birthday would be overshadowed by the baby shower and that was perfectly alright with me!  I'd rather celebrate Andrew!

The balloon baby! My MIL had him made with brown hair and blue eyes.
The husband and I with our diaper cake!
We surprisingly had a lot of people show up.  The people that showed were mainly friends of Rob's mom. The people that didn't show were actual friends of ours that I thought were going to be coming.  Luckily, I was able to see a few friends that I haven't seen in awhile and that was awesome.

I love presents like this! Some people are so creative!
We got quite a few things, but honestly, I'm not sure how many of them are going to be useful.  Since this is my MIL's first grand baby she went a little overboard buying stuff.  She did get us a brand new car seat which I am super thankful for!

The present haul! The furniture was also given to us but not at the shower.
I'm also having a work shower on Thursday.  Exciting! :)

I'm not sure what else we need besides a stroller, but we won't be using one right away so I'm not freaking out about not having that yet.  I'm not sure how many clothes we'll actually need, so I guess we'll see when we get to that point.

I think we're as ready as we're going to be.  I think...

Belly Updates

Well you've got to love Instagram! I love posting them there, then grabbing them to put on my blog or Facebook.  I used to use Picnik to edit photos, but they shut down.  :(  Is there a site that you like to use to edit photos?

It's really interesting seeing how much my belly has grown.  I can't tell the growth week by week.  Also, these are obviously not each week.  I kind of failed at doing that.  I wish I could go back and take pictures each week.

18 weeks 1 day
22 weeks 1 day
24 weeks
25 weeks 6 days
25 weeks 6 days
30 weeks 4 days
31 weeks
34 weeks 1 day
As you'll notice, I'm wearing a cardigan in almost all my photos.  You can thank my work for that.  Since I have tattoos I must cover them up.  Boo!

I cannot believe that I am mere weeks away from full term.

I cannot believe that in mere weeks I will have a baby.

I am excited and terrified.  I'm extremely nervous.  He'll rely on me.  I feel like I know nothing about babies.  I'm scared that I'm going to fuck it up.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way when they're about to have a baby.  I'm seriously not the only one, right? Ha!

Wow!

It's been a long time.  I'm a big failure.

BUT I plan on fixing that this weekend.

I want to overload you with pictures of the baby's room.

And some of the pictures of my belly that I've been Instagraming.

I really hope you're prepared for this! :)

Birthday Party Preggers

So today was the birthday party for my nephews. They were born 2 years and a week apart so they get to share birthday parties. It works out! Grayson is now 3 (well his birthday is really on the 30th) and Noah just turned 1 today!

Anyways, that wasn't the point of this post.

The point was that I'm pregnant.  You all knew that.  But what I mean is that I was pregnant at a family gathering and that's a completely new experience.

I spent so many family gatherings being the only woman that wasn't pregnant or didn't already have a child.  And I was envious of all the other women so being on the other side of things is just so new.

I actually had people come up to me and ask how I'm doing. And ask how Andrew is doing. And ask if we have a name picked.

These parties aren't huge, by any means, but it's so awesome to be able to join in on the baby excitement.  I'm very thankful!

Now we can't wait until Andrew is actually here so he can come with us to the family gatherings.

eShakti Giveaway Winner!

I want to apologize for this taking me so long to post!

The winner is...


So congratulations go to Gina!  I'll be emailing you shortly.



Gina has 48 hours to respond or I will pick a new winner.

Congrats again!

Wordless Wednesday

I updated the baby photo at my desk today! :)

It's a...

BOY!


Hi, baby boy. <3
I could have posted this on Friday, but I was busy this weekend.

I did inform Twitter, though!

So, on Saturday I wanted to had to get some clothes for the baby. I mean, we finally know the sex! I just had to!


The "Most Eligible Bachelor" onesie is my favorite!
My parents also bought some clothes for the baby!


After the ultrasound, my MIL and SIL gave us a bag full of all this stuff!


More later. I just wanted to share these fun pictures! :)

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is THE day!

Tomorrow is the anatomy scan.

Tomorrow we find out if our baby is a little boy or girl.

Tomorrow! I can't believe it!

Taken last week at 18 weeks 1 day.
Today I am 19 weeks pregnant.

I still can't believe I'm going to be a mom!

eShakti Giveaway!


The fabulous people at eShakti are offering a fabulous giveaway for my readers!  One lucky winner will get a product of their choice (which can be custom-sized/custom-styled)!

Check out some of my favorite items! Their dresses are just to die for!

embroidered dot print sundress
owl print corset style dress
bow ties are cool dress

Mandatory Entries (worth 1 entry point):

1. You must visit the eShakti website and let me know which item you would pick if you won. (Please post the link!)

2. Follow eShakti on Facebook and Pinterest.

Optional Entries (each with 1 entry point):

1. Follow Ah... My Married Life on GFC.

2. Follow @ahmymarriedlife on Twitter.

This giveaway will run from May 21st until May 31st.  I'll post the winner on June 1st!  This giveaway is open to the United States and Canada!

Let me know in your comment which ones you did. You don't have to leave a separate comment for each.

Also, if you're feeling nice, you can add them up for me!

Good luck and enjoy!

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

Well, this was my first Mother's Day.  Which is just such a weird concept for me to grasp.  I still can't believe that in less than 5 months I'm going to be a mom to a tiny little human.

My fabulous husband bought me a necklace and wrote me a cute note. :)  He even sat with me to watch Fifteen and Pregnant.  Such an awful movie, by the way. But he stuck it out with me! I also got to pick whatever we ate, which wasn't much different than normal.  He's started to ask, "what does baby want to eat?"

I finally decided to splurge and buy a Doppler.  I found one on Craigslist for only $35 so I went for it.  We were able to pick it up on Sunday so on my first Mother's Day I was able to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time.

It turned out to be a nice day. :) I hope everyone else had a great day too. Regardless of your situation.

Also, in NINE short (or long and excruciating, but trying to look on the bright side) we get to find out the gender of our baby! Absolute insanity!

17 Weeks!

Holy freakin' cow.  17 weeks!


On Monday I have an appointment with my midwife.  This time we should hear the heartbeat.  Last time it was still a little early, but we got to see the heartbeat the next day when we got an ultrasound.

In 15 days we find out the gender, hopefully!

I will admit going a bit crazy worrying that something is wrong, but that's just because I haven't seen the baby in over a month.  And in the beginning we got to see the baby three times very close together.

Anyways, I'll update more later. I should get to work!

Hi there!

I have a bad habit of popping in and posting then disappearing again.  I'd really like to fix that.  But things have been busy with us lately.

We recently moved in with my parents.  They've given us two rooms; one for us and one for the baby.  They even created a doorway to combine them.  We just got tile done in the baby's room yesterday.


Speaking of the baby, yesterday I hit 16 weeks!  I have an appointment with the birthing center on Monday.  They have an early pregnancy group where I'll get to meet with other pregnant ladies.  I plan on scheduling my gender ultrasound then too, which I know we are both super excited for!

Well that's it for right now. I'll try to get better about updating! Promise! :)

Surprise!

Well, I've been gone for a long time, haven't I?

There have been so many times I thought about coming by to write something, but then I'd forget. Or I'd just not know what to write.  Then somehow almost three months has passed.  HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?  Life gets in the way.

I have some big news blogger friends.  Some of you may know already, but some of you who don't frequent my Twitter often may not know.

I'M PREGNANT!

Front.

Profile.

Today I am 11 weeks and I still can't believe it!

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