Watch Me Grow

1 Week

2 Weeks

3 Weeks

4 weeks/1 month

Sweet Feet!

Visitors!

Thomas was lucky enough to get to meet two of his aunts in the first week of life! His Aunt AE (Ashley) was in Houston for a work training the week after he was born, so she drove up to Fort Worth when it was over and stayed the weekend with us. His Aunt Nicole came out to visit her cousin and her new baby, and she stopped by Sunday afternoon to visit! Thomas will meet his Aunt Tiffany during Spring Break, and Uncle Jason will be the first uncle he gets to meet!

Thomas and Aunt Nicole (and baby Joseph ETA April 2011!)

Thomas and Aunt AE

Another visitor was the preschool/infant room lady for church. Funny story. She comes to visit of course at the moment that Thomas is hungry (which isn't difficult because he was pretty much hungry all the time in those early days!) She assures me that its perfectly fine for me to nurse while she is there. She nursed all three of hers and it doesn't bother her a bit. So I put on my nursing cover and start nursing. Its our first time to use this nursing cover and Thomas really doesn't like it. He's hot natured and it just made him even hotter. Anyways, he nurses just enough to go to sleep and then I feel a sudden warmth running down my right side. The nice lady from church is just talking away, and I'm trying to discreetly use the nursing cover to wipe the pee off my side. I'm thinking, surely they can smell this!!! Nope! She just continues chatting. When she left, I jumped up and hollered "Mom! He peed on me!!" Then I realized it wasn't just pee but poop. No wonder it stunk! Welcome to motherhood.

Thomas Comes Home

Since Thomas was born at 9:35 p.m., we had to stay in the hospital two nights because they want to monitor the baby for at least 24 hours. They assured us we could be discharged first thing Sunday morning. I think we left the hospital at 2!

All dressed up and ready to go home!

All three of us at home!

Hello people!

Another family shot with everyone looking at the camera (sort of)!

The cutest "bouquet" of goodies from Alyson, Rebecca, and Courtney! precious! We didn't want to take it apart!

Meeting Family and Friends

The first family photo!

Thomas and Nana

Thomas and Grammy

Thomas and Pops

Thomas and Poppa

The Ketchum side

Mommy and Thomas

The Burks side

Alyson and Jonathan (I did not do a very good job of taking pictures with visitors! We missed getting a pic with Heath and Rebecca and Kristy, Daniella, and Deanna!)

He's Here!!

Thomas Edward Ketchum

February 11, 2011

7 pounds 15.5 ounces

22 inches long

9:35 p.m.

Welcome to our world little man!

Meeting my baby for the first time!

Proud Daddy!

Exhausted Mommy!

Hello!!

As planned, I was admitted to the hospital Thursday evening for Cervadil over night. By morning I was dilated barely 1 cm. The doctor on call actually told my nurse that he didn't think I would progress with the Pitocin and we may have to redo the Cervadil that night! Luckily, they did not tell me that until after the fact and he was WRONG! My water broke on its own about 12:45. I got the most amazing epidural ever at 3:30 (after waiting for an hour for that crazy doctor!). Dilated from 5 cm to 10 cm in one hour from 6:30-7:30. Pushed for 2 hours and then he was born at 9:35 p.m. just in the knick of time. He was turned side-ways and the doctor told me around 9:15 if he wasn't born in the next 30 minutes, they were doing a C-section. Boy was I determined to get him out! With the next push, the nurse was like "don't worry about the C-section, he turned and is coming!" It was a LONG day, but well worth it to see his little face (looking JUST like his daddy!)

D Day

Well, it looks as if Thomas is going to need some encouragement to come out. I FINALLY made it to the doctor Monday. I had a sonogram which revealed that my fluid levels were on the borderline of low and Thomas weighs between 8 and 8.5 lbs. Also, the technician did not observe the sorts of movements they would like to see. (Personally, I think Thomas is not a morning person and was just not very active because that afternoon he was going nuts!) But, I'm not going to argue with the professional. Then my blood pressure was high (which I blame on laying on my back for 30 minutes while they did they sono) and I was STILL only 1/2 cm.

SO, the doctor decided we needed to induce before the end of the week. I will be admitted to the hospital Thursday at 4 pm and receive a Cervadil treatment over night. Then Friday morning at 4 am, they will start Pitocin. I'm still holding out that he will come on his own before then. But seeing as there are only 36 hours left before this process starts, I guess I need to check in with reality. I will officially be 41 weeks and 2 days when we induce. She told me she'd only let me go as far as 41 weeks 6 days from the beginning, so I suppose this is a nice compromise.

So, that's where we are today. We appreciate your prayers. We will update the blog as soon as we can with pictures! I'm not sure if we will have internet access at the hospital, so it may have to wait until we get home probably Sunday.

Snow Week but No Baby

Hello friends.
Since I do not yet have a baby out of the womb to show you pictures of, I will grace you with a picture of my ever enlarging belly. This is at 40 weeks and 3 days.

 We have had a fairly eventful yet uneventful week around here. It started Monday with my doctor's appt. in which I was STILL 1/2 cm. I was supposed to return Tuesday for a sonogram to assess Thomas' weight, but when we woke up to this:

 and a phone call from the doctor's office informing us they were closed for the day. I cried. Thankfully, Michael stayed home so I wasn't left to wallow in my misery alone. Then one day at home turned into two and two turned into three and three turned into four. I never got my sonogram and Michael never made it to work. We did take these pretty pictures though and enjoy our last few days together without a baby.

Today is Saturday and Michael worked all day to try to make up some of the time he missed. I spent the day being absolutely unproductive. We go back to the doctor on Monday....hopefully. I've learned not to count on anything. IF I make it to the doc on Monday (if meaning no snow/ice or no baby beforehand), then she will do a sono to determine his weight. Based on that we will decide when to set an induction date. At the earliest, it could be Wednesday the 9th. At the latest, Tuesday the 15th. As I really want to go into spontaneous labor, I'm hoping he weighs less than 8 lbs so we can wait it out. Only time will tell.

That is all for now.