We're home!

We made it home! What an incredible last few days. We are pooped but in a good way. : ) I don't even know where to being. I still can't believe that we are finally parents. I could sit and stare at Aaron for hours on end and never get tired of him. He is the most beautiful, perfect, baby. Words can never express the amount of love that one can instantly have for someone.

Daddy is fitting in well into his new role. He is so cute with Aaron. He takes such good care of him. We have a system right now where after Aaron nurses, John gets to burp him. He has changed him more times that mommy and loves to hold him. They are so cute together. I love seeing Aaron respond to daddy's voice.

I am loving motherhood. I go between walking around with a silly grin on my face all the time to crying in utter awe of the beautiful creation. I love nursing him - there is nothing like that quality mommy time. It so wonderful.

We had little to no sleep the first two nights at the hospital. The first night was fine because we were running on adrenaline but the second night was rough. Last night was our first night at home and it was great. We both slept peacefully in two hour spurts which I thought would be horrible but has worked out just fine. It's so good to be home. It's too bad that time is going to fly by so fast! Aaron is 3 days old today!

We are so thankful for every one's prayers and support. We have an amazing family and group of friends and we sincerely appreciate all the love that we have received.

We are picture taking fools so we'll keep you posted!

More Pics

These are some pictures that our friends the Heintzelmans but up on their blog.

Kristin and I are still in the hospital today but they are planning on discharging us sater in the afternoon. Baby Aaron is doing well and we'll have more to share later on today once we get home.

Aaron Michael Farnsworth

Well the boy has arrived. Aaron Michael named from my brother's middle name and mine was born yesterday at 3:10 in the afternoon, weighing in at a good 7lbs and 7oz. He was 19 and one quarter inches long and for all the medical professionals out there his Apgar was 8.99 (which is great).

Kristin and I arrived at the hospital at 5pm on Sunday to get checked in; at 7am on the 22nd the nurses came in and started the Pitocin which is the hormone that causes the uteri us to contract and help move the baby down with contractions. Our doctor Dr. Swartzman came in to see us at 8:30 and decided that it would be best to break her water in order to help move things along. During this time our doula Vanessa Flood was stretching herself between us and another patient that was in labor at the same time! Fortunately she brought in one of her other fellow doula in order to help; Tara Wallingford was awesome! When things got rough without those two women right there helping out I don’t know what would have happened (to Kristin or me). So Kristin had been following her plan to have this baby as naturally as possible up to being dilated to a 3 and effaced 80%, however, her blood pressure had been continuing to rise along with the intensity of her contraction and the doctor and doula were all becoming nervous. (But not me...) After Venessa and Dr. Swartzman discussed the possibilities and risks vs. benefits of continuing on everyone decided that the epidural would be the best route. Kristin did not want this but when she was giving the talk about how it was mostly going to be the greatest beneficial factor for her against having a c-section she decided to get one. By the time the doctor came in her contraction were coming regularly and getting really intense. Her blood pressure was the highest it had ever been. The epidural was tough but Kristin handled it well and after about 20 minutes her blood pressure returned to normal and she was actually able to take a small nap.

The real fun began around 2:30pm as Kristin began to tell Tera that she was really getting urges to push and was starting to feel more and more uncomfortable. The nurse came in and checked her and she was dilated to a 10 and completely effaced. They decided to start letting her push and see how she did. Well turns out that my wife is a Rock star pusher she was doing so well that they actually had to tell her to stop so that the doctor could get here in time for baby. So the official start time for pushing was 2:45pm and she pushed until 3:10pm which is apparently quite awesome for a first time mom. She did really well and brought our son into the world in the way that she wanted regardless of the circumstances.

I cannot describe in words an accurate feeling of what it means or how I feel when I look at my son. The miracle is amazing, as far as I'm concerned God was right there in that room with us to give us Aaron. (Who came out with his eyes open and staring up at everyone!)

There will be much more to come as to how he is doing and all the fun things that we have experienced so far.

To the family and friends: Thank you for carrying us this far the three of us will always be grateful for what you have done for us and we love you all.

More pictures to come when we get home....

Last Post Before Baby Farns' Arrival!

So last week my blood pressure continued to increase slowly throughout the week, peeking at 175ish/105ish. So...my doctor wants me to check into the hospital tomorrow evening at 5:00 to be induced. At first I was really scared and bummed about this. It's not so much the induction, but the possibility of a C-section that worries me. I found out yesterday and as the day went on and I slept on it, I have awaken this morning to an excitement about getting to meet our little one!

Here's the plan as I know it... We check in at 5:00 and they start the Cervidil which I get to marinate in overnight (pardon my bluntness!) Then in the morning around 6:00am-ish they will start the Pitocin through IV (yuck!) which will start my contractions and continue throughout the whole labor process. At some point if my water does not break on it's own, the doctor will come in and break it for me. Basically the whole thing is nudging my body into doing what it's supposed to do anyway. But if for some reason it doesn't cooperate... I'm not even going there. John, our Doula, and the doctor are all optimistic that this is the best thing and that everything will go smoothly.

Hopefully we'll have a baby by the afternoon! How weird to know the birthday in advance! Uncle Mike - you'll have to share your birthday now - I hope you don't mind! : )

We are going to update this blog from the hospital so keep checking it and we'll send out another reminder!

Love you all!

Pictures

Before I get to pictures, I thought I'd share the latest news from the doctor. We saw the doctor yesterday and she was so pleased with my progress that she doesn't see a need to induce next week! She said the bed rest has been good for me and as long as I'm resting my blood pressure looks great. It hasn't shown any signs of getting any worse. She knows my concerns about being induced and wanting a natural birth and thinks that having the extra week will be better for both the baby and I. Hopefully I'll go into labor on my own but if not than at least I'll be that much closer at 40 weeks. So baby Farns has another two weeks to come on his own before we need to schedule an induction. This of course is based on my continued good BP and no signs of pre-ecclampsia. I'm so happy - now I just need to relax and hope that my body is ready for labor soon! : )

Now for the pictures. Katie came over yesterday and took some maternity pics for me. Some of them turned out really neat and I wanted to share them with you. I wasn't really that excited at first because I don't really feel all that cute, but I really like how they turned out.

***Update***

So most of you know this already but I thought I'd update the blog and keep everyone in the loop. I plan to utilize this more as we get closer and closer. We'll also be hospital pics and stories when baby Farns comes!

Last Wednesday was my first weekly checkup. Everything was going great - I had only gained a pound (yay!), baby's heart rate was great and strong...then we got to the blood pressure. The nurse took my BP looked at me funny then left to get a different cuff. No big deal - she's done that before. She tried to make light of it by saying that I have muscluar arms. That's code for, your arms have grown a bit husky. She took it with the new cuff and then told me to lay down on my left side. I'm sure John knew what was going on but by this time she still hadn't told me what was going on. I don't remember the exact number but my BP was somewhere in the 150's over 90's. Not good. Especially since it's been perfect at every appointment up until then.

She had me lay there for about 10 minutes to take it again while I of course tried to hold myself together and not stress. Yeah right! I know that high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia run in my family and I've been terrified of it since I first found this out. The doctor came in and said she didn't like how high it was, that I should monitor it through Friday and then call her and let her know my results. When they checked it again it had come back down into the safe zone so I went back to work and just monitored it. When I got home it would consistantly be high and then take all night to get it back to normal. On Friday she sent me to SMMC to get a Non-Stress test done. The baby looked great but my BP was 158/103ish. It was enough to cause concern and I was sent home on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. The unknown is the scariest thing for me. I didn't get to talk to my doctor directly so I just got info from the nurse at the hospital who gave me the bed rest lecture (what it is and isn't) and said my little one needed to stay put for at least 15 days. I was to schedule a NST (non-stress test) twice a week on Monday and Thrusday. This is in addition to my weekly doctor visits. Luckily I was able to move the doc visits to Mondays so I only have to go into the office twice weekly, not three times weekly. So far I am considered to have Gestational Hypertension NOT pre-eclampsia.

We had a big weekend with Chelsee's Bridal shower and my baby shower. It was sooo much fun! Thank you everyone for everything. Baby Farns is truly blessed to have so many people who love him. Needless to say, it was not a very restful weekend but as much as it could be. That brings me to today's news.

We had a sonogram, a NST, and a weekly doctor visit. It all went VERY well. At least I am very pleased with the results. Here's what we found out:

~Baby is doing great. He has plenty of fluid (a concern if I were pre-eclamptic), has a healthy placenta, heart rate is good, blood pressure is good, and is adequately active.

~He is head down as he should be but currently "sunny side up." He needs to turn to face the back between now and delivery hopefully.

~He weighs approximatly 7 lbs, 2 oz. according to the sonogram. (Which could be off a little but fairly close.) He'll probably gain another pound before delivery. I think that's an excellent weight.

~My BP is still high when up and around but good when resting. As long as my resting BP stays below the 140's/90's than I will carry as long as I can until 39 weeks. Hopefully my body will go into labor on it's own but if it doesn't then I will be induced a week early.

~I am dialated to one centimeter. Yay for progress even if it's only one centimeter! She said she could feel his head. : )

That's about all for now. I'll keep you updated as I have PLENTY of time to do so now. Right now my BP is up again and John is begging me to lay down so I must comply. : ) He is taking great care of me. I love him so much.