It's a Boy!!!!!!!

Hayden Curtis Peever was born on December 5, 2010 at 9:49am. He weighed 6lbs 10ozs and was 20 inches long.

Here is his story:

On December 4th, 2010, Curtis, Mom and I went shopping to a local mall. We were going to "shop til I dropped" since I was 2 days overdue, and I somewhat did. We walked around the mall for quite some time. Some time during our shopping my bag of water had ruptured but Hayden's head prevented it from gushing so it became a slow leak. I didn't really notice anything different while walking around. We came home and decorated our Christmas tree and watched fireworks in the park that kick off the Festival of Lights in the town we live in. Again still really not noticing anything. It wasn't until I had to go to the bathroom that I noticed the crotch of my underwear was soaked. Because I hadn't felt a gush of fluid or anything I was a little concerned so we called HealthLink and spoke to a nurse. She suggested we go to the hospital since I was Group B strep positive (which is normal) and would need to be put on Penicillin as soon as possible.

We got to the hospital around 9:00pm and checked in. Curtis and I went into Triage and I was assessed. The doctor said my water had broken, I was 3cm dilated, and we were admitted to the hospital. Around 9:30 they started my IV and penicillin. The doctor said that because they weren't sure what time my water had broken and because it was only a leak, they were going to use Oxytocin to induce my labour and get things started. I was only having mild contractions at this point and they were very sporatic. They wheeled me into my labour/delivery room around 10:00pm and started my Oxytocin around 10:30pm.

The Oxytocin didn't do anything at first. It gradually brought labour on and my contractions started to get worse and closer together. When the doctor came to examine me at 12:00am I was still only 3cm dilated, even though my contractions were worsening. The doctor explained to me that my water hadn't fully broken. There was still a bag of water behind Hayden's head that hadn't ruptured yet, called forewater. He broke this bag and man things went bad quickly. Within 5 minutes of him breaking that bag, I had intense contractions that didn't ease up. My mom was watching the monitor and said on the scale from 0-200 my contractions were close to 160. Also they were right on top of one another. I would start having a contraction and before I could finish that one I was already starting another one. This went on for about an hour. It was 1:10am when the doctor came to examine me again and recommended that they stop the Oxytocin since my contractions were so intense. However, with all of those contractions I was still only 3cm dilated. That was frustrating!!!!!

Up to this point I had no medication whatsoever, but the intensity of the contractions, the fact that I had no break between them, and I was still only 3cm dilated, I made the decision to have an epidural. I didn't want morphine or laughing gas or anything like that, so the epidural was really my only choice. I was a little upset with myself for getting it because I really wanted to have a natural birth, but it was for the best in the end. The anaesthiologist came to see me around 1:45am and started my epidural at 2am. However, the epidural didn't work!!!!! It only froze from the middle of my thigh to my toes. I could still feel all the contractions, but now couldn't get up and move to ease them. This was incredibly frustrating. They can only top up the epidural every so many hours, so I had to deal with it until almost 5am when they came back and adjusted the dosage. Finally I had a little bit of a break. I was able to sleep a little bit and relax.

Usually epidurals slow labour down, but actually my labour progressed quickly once my epidural started. By 8:30am I was fully dilated and they were going to let me start pushing. The only problem was Hayden was still not fully descended into my pelvis, so they told me pushing could take upwards of 2-3 hours. The doctor also discussed the possibility of a C-section with me because he was transverse (laying sideways instead of head down) and wouldn't move. She manually tried to turn him and he kept turning back. I was terrified of a C-section, so I was determined to push as best I could to prove her wrong.... and I did. They had me start pushing at 9am and by the time the doctor came back to examine me again at 9:30am he was already crowning. She said afterwards she couldn't believe it and would've bet her paycheque I was going to end up having a C-section. That made me feel better!!!! Anyways I must have pushed well because I only ended up pushing for 49 minutes and he was born at 9:49am.

Only one more complication faced us at this time. Hayden had pooped while labour was progressing and that is dangerous because he can ingest it after birth. So they had to bring in a special team of nurses that clean him up and extract all the meconium (poop) from his mouth, nose, eyes etc. Around 9:45am the doctor told me that I would have to put all of my strength into the next push because this might be the last one. I closed my eyes and beared down with all of my strength. Nobody told me not to stop pushing and because I was frozen from my epidural I couldn't feel them put Hayden on my chest. I was still pushing and he was already out and on my chest. Because of the meconium they put him face down, quickly patted him dry, and then took him away to the special team of nurses. When I opened my eyes from finishing pushing they were already taking him away. I looked at Curtis and asked him what the baby was, and he told me he didn't know. We both looked at the doctor and she said she didn't know. They were too busy getting him cleaned up and since he was face down on me nobody could see his gender. Curtis immediately ran over to the incubator and proudly announced it was a boy!!

They cleaned him up and extracted all of the meconium while I delivered the placenta and the doctor cleaned me up. I am proud to say I only had a minor internal tear that required 2 stitches... that was it! It might gross people out to read that, but I was quite proud LOL! Once they had cleaned him up they brought him back to me and I got to hold him for the first time. It was an amazing feeling and I immediately was overwhelmed with tears of joy. Curtis had spent his time making sure Hayden was being cleaned properly, and finally got to relax a little. We announced officially that his name was Hayden Curtis and Curtis began phoning relatives. They were very excited to hear that everything had gone well and Hayden was finally here.

They kept me in the labour/delivery room until 12:00pm and then transfered me to post-partum. I felt so proud to be wheeled down the hall holding my little man. We spent 24 hours in post-partum and were released on December 6th, 2010 at 3:10pm. It was very nerve wracking and exciting to pack him up and bring him home. Curtis' parents and my mom were at the house waiting for us and they had decorated the house with an "it's a boy" banner and blue ribbons. It was really cute! We were excited to be home and get settled!

We cannot thank people enough for their kind thoughts, wishes and gifts. Hayden is beautiful and a true gift to both Curtis and I. We are so blessed to have him and remind ourselves of that everyday (regardless of how much sleep we have lost lol). We want to officially invite you to follow Hayden on his own blog, which will be coming soon. Our plan is to load a picture each day of him so peope can see him growing and changing. It will track his milestones, and let you know all about him. We thank you for your love and support in following this blog. I can't believe how many hits we got. It is incredible. It was quite the journey and we cannot wait to continue it with him.

All of our love
Holly, Curtis & Hayden

My last pregnancy pictures!

Here I am! The last pictures of my pregnancy.... 40 weeks 3 days!

Due Date.... Come and Gone!

Hi Everyone!
So as most of you have realized by now, our due date for Baby P has come and gone.
I am a little disappointed that I wasn't earlier, but there isn't a whole lot I can do about it. Mom and I have been taking long walks with the puppies each day, now that the weather is nicer, and that has helped. After our walk yesterday I came home feeling nauseous and crampy. I laid down for a bit but that really didn't help much. I have been having mild contractions but they are so sporadic that it is hard to measure them.
Curtis and I went to the doctor this morning and I am 3cm dilated. This is exciting because I only have to be 4cm to be admitted to the hospital, but I have to wait for the contractions to be 35-40 seconds long, 2-3 mins apart, and lasting at least a half hour, OR my water breaks. I am hoping for the latter LOL so I know I can just go and not have to wait a long time. It is nice to know how far along I am though. It makes me feel excited but also a little nervous. I think the reality is finally starting to hit LOL!
The doctor also did a "sweeping" of the membranes which is supposed to bring on labour faster... so hopefully we will have a little one by the end of the weekend.
Cannot wait to finally let everyone know that things are progressing and we are on our way. Hopefully it will be sooner than later!
Talk to you again soon!
Love to you all

You know you're ready when........

Your carseat is fully lined (for the cold Calgary weather) and your "Baby on Board" sign is ready to go with it!!!!!

Your collection of bottles are sterilized, ready and waiting in your pantry in case you need them!!!!

Crib with Bedding, Valence and Curtains

Here are some pictures of the crib bedding inside the actual crib. My mom also made a matching valence and some curtains to go on Baby P's window. Getting close to being ready!!!!!

Crib Bedding

I have already put up pictures of the beautiful crib bedding my mom handmade for us.
Here are some more closer up pictures of her work and I will be posting some of the bedding in the crib later!

Rocking Chair

Curtis' grandparents generously gave us a rocking chair that they were no longer using. They brought it all the way from Ontario for us and we are so grateful for it.
The material on it was in need of repair so I put my mom to work this week while she is here and she completely reupholstered the cushions with cute fabric we found.
I absolutely LOVE it. It is incredibly comfortable and looks great. Mom even added little armrests to make the wooden arms more comfortable. Hopefully we will get TONS of use out of it

Dad Visiting

My dad and mom came out to visit me last weekend, as I have already posted.

Before Dad left he wanted a picture with us before we officially become "parents" (goodness that is SCARY). Here they are!!!!!!!!

39 WEEKS!

Here we are!!!! HOME STRETCH!!!!

39 weeks and hopefully not too many more to go!

Here is a quick update to go along with the pictures:

It has been snowing here for the past 2 weeks. It really looks like the holidays around here. Hard to believe that back home is only 12 degrees and we have had -40 degree weather here. That was only 1 day, but it sure was COLD!

Mom and Dad were here and we had a great time visiting with them. We went to the Christmas Craft sale which really got us into the Christmas spirit.

It has been nice to have Mom here and helping me to finish some of the last minute things I wanted to get done before Baby P makes their appearance. She brought all of the bedding out, so I will be putting up photos of our nearly completed nursery soon. She has also been working hard to transform my rocking chair by creating new cushions for it. They look great and I will be posting pictures of it soon as well!!

As for me, I have been having lots of cramping and back pain lately, so hopefully things progress nicely from here. Last night was difficult to sleep and I ended up spending most of my time awake and downstairs on the couch so I wouldn't keep Curtis awake with my constant tossing and turning. I hope tonight goes better and I will definitely be napping this afternoon.

Thanks to all of you who have made your predictions about Baby P's arrival date. If you want to send me your date please send me an e-mail or let me know on Facebook.

Hope all is well with everyone and I hope that I can be delivering exciting news soon!

Love and best wishes

FIRST DAY OFF!!!!

So last Friday (November 12) was my last official day of work, even though I have spent all weekend and most of this morning finishing up editing report cards and getting some marking done!!!!

Today was my first official day of "sick leave" before my maternity leave starts on Baby P's birthday! Again it wasn't a super relaxing day as I was finishing up school stuff, but it was a big change to be home and not at school. I have to slowly ease my way into not working I think LOL! My type A control freak personality is coming out I guess! And I am really sad to be giving up my teacher Mac laptop. I feel like I am losing part of my arm!!! It was just so handy (once I figured it out) and I could take it anywhere with me. Oh well.... maybe I will get a new one down the road!

Now that I am home more frequently, I am going to be on here updating. I will try (cross your fingers) to give an update on how I am feeling and other things daily. My parents are flying out on Saturday and I am definitely looking forward to spending time with them.

Everyone is predicting different dates for Baby P's arrival, but at this point I am in no hurry. I am not super uncomfortable, and have loved being pregnant. While I want to meet Baby P, he/she can stay in there a little while longer I think!

Anyways that is all from me at this point. Sorry for the mass post of everything. Like I said I now have some free time, so can update more frequently!

Hope all is well with everyone and hopefully the next time you are hearing from me we will finally know who Baby P is!

Lots of love

37 WEEKS!!!!!

Here you go everyone!

Updated belly pictures!

As you can probably notice I have dropped a little bit. Doctor says baby has descended and is head down, all good signs at this point. I tried to take a good bare belly picture, but it was hard to take with just the timer. I need Curtis to be home to take the picture for me and he wasn't home at the moment of taking the picture!

At this point I have put on 25 lbs, and my belly is measuring only slightly bigger than the amount of weeks I am at 37.5 cm.

I have been having some Braxton Hicks contractions and lots of pressure lately. At my last doctor visit, the doctor said the baby is sitting on my right sciatic nerve, and I have been experiencing little spasms down my right leg here and there. Nothing major, and nothing about what is to come in the next couple of weeks I am sure!

Hope you enjoy the updated pictures and I will try to be on here more regularly to give updates. Soon Baby P will be here. IT IS SO HARD TO BELIEVE!!!

Bassinet

As you have seen before, Curtis' dad is a master handyman with wood. When he found out we were expecting, he immediately began making us a bassinet that we could bring Baby P home to.

We picked it up last weekend in Edmonton and spent the day shopping with them. Curtis' mom made the beautiful bedding to go with the bassinet.

It is absolutely beautiful and glides instead of rocks. They both did an AMAZING job and we cannot wait to bring Baby P home to it!!!

BIRTHDAY!

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me lovely Happy Birthday wishes! It truly was appreciated!

I had a great birthday and enjoyed lots of relaxing gifts. Curtis' parents got me a spa day so I was able to go and get a mani/pedi. My parents got me a Cricut cartridge (which I cannot wait to use!!!) and also gave me some money to treat myself, so I booked myself a special pregnancy massage! It was FABULOUS! Curtis got me a pair of Lululemon pants! They are so comfy... I can't wait to wear them everyday!!! Plus I got to do some shopping at the West Edmonton Mall. I think I may have overdone it though, cause my body and baby were not happy that night!!!! My grandmother gave me a Walmart gift card which I used to pick up some last minute essentials for my hospital bag. I also got a Dairy Queen cake from Matt and Erin (which is still being picked away at in my freezer YUM!!!), and a Boston Pizza gift card from my Godmother.... that has already been put to good use LOL!!!!

I also got a lovely surprise from my Aunt Teresa, Uncle Bill and O'Sullivan cousins! Lovely flowers that are still thriving and beautiful today on my kitchen counter. I have included a picture of them below so everyone can see how AMAZING they were!

Again thanks to everyone who helped to make my birthday INCREDIBLE and very special!

Halloween!!!

Curtis and I didn't do a lot to celebrate Halloween this year unfortunately. We aren't big fans of the holiday to begin with, and I was smack dab in the middle of completing report cards, and too large to fit into most Halloween costumes so we decided we would spend it quietly with the puppies at home.

To get a little into the spirit we put on some old costumes we had gotten for Maggie in previous years. Marley had to be inducted as this was his first Halloween.

So here are pictures of our little ones

right now. We dubbed Maggie "Sherlock Holmes" and Marley really brought out his "develish" side. He wouldn't look at the camera though, it was funny watching Curtis trying to take their picture LOL! The outfits didn't last long as neither one wanted them on for long and started tugging away at them.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!!

Crib Bedding

My mom has generously offered to make the crib bedding, and she is almost finished.

Here is a sneak preview of the comforter, bumper pads, and window valence to go in Baby P's room!

I love it and she has done a great job!!!!

Thanks MOM!

Updated Nursery Pictures

Since we needed to fit the bookshelf into the room we had to do a little rearranging.

Here is the updated pictures since we have added some new features including curtains, some baskets for storage, a change pad and obviously the bookshelf and all the books and things we have put onto it.

Curtis' dad enjoys making wooden toys and has passed quite a few onto Curtis. Now Curtis wants to pass them onto his little one, so he is proudly displaying them. Also as a teacher, you can tell I own a lot of books. This child will be well read... you can make sure of it! My last project is to re-upholster the cushions of my rocker. After I finish report cards they will get done. I also thought about maybe adding some paper lanterns above the glider, and maybe a canopy above the crib..... let me know what you think!!!! Hope you enjoy!

New Bookshelf

The last piece of furniture we needed for the nursery was some sort of bookshelf for storage. We don't have a lot of room to put a large bookshelf in the nursery since it is a little bit of a weird layout, but we thought this would be a good solution. Just a small 3x3 bookshelf, so later down the road we could possibly also fit in a toy chest or something else to hold Baby P's things.

Here are some pictures of Curtis putting it together and his little helpers!!!! It's been awhile since I put up some pictures of our little babies so here they are!

New Playpen

One of the last things on our list of baby things to get was a playpen. We have been looking at them for awhile now, but they always seems to be missing one component that we like/need.

Our search came to an end yesterday when we found the PERFECT travel playpen. It is Eddie Bauer and has everything we need. Plus WE GOT IN ON SALE!!!!!! How much better does it get?

As you can see, the playpen comes complete with a bassinet attachment, change table attachment, sun/mosquito shade, the sides roll down to make the playpen completely sunproof, and best of all it is INCREDIBLY easy to set up! We practiced quite a few times today!

We are very happy with it and if there is anyone who needs a playpen we would HIGHLY recommend this one. Can't wait to use it!!

Maternity Photos

Curtis and I had some Maternity Photos taken last Saturday!

The photographer was great and we had a good time.

She was able to get the photos back to us today which is great and incredibly fast!!!!

I love the photos soooo much. We wanted them to capture us before we change our carefree single lives to involve a baby LOL! I think the photographer did an AWESOME job and we got quite a few good photos!

I feel like I look a lot bigger in some of them than I feel in person, but I am sticking with the adage that "the camera adds 10lbs"!!!

Anyways to see them go to this website: http://kgammel.photobiz.com/cart/

and here is the password: 47Peef1027.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do and feel free to leave some comments about them if you want!

Lots of love and hope all is well with all of you!

Thanksgiving!!!!!

It has been quite the year! We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Another puppy to add to our family and a baby on the way, we definitely have our hands full.
We had a large family Thanksgiving dinner with Curtis' family a couple of weeks ago so it was just the two of us for dinner this year. We bought an 8 lb turkey, and did stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, cranberries and gravy to go along with it. Although I have made a few turkeys each time I get nervous that I will botch it somehow. However, this turkey was easy and came out beautifully. We both had our fill and tons of leftovers. I also made pumpkin cheesecake tarts instead of the regular pumpkin pie. They were DELICIOUS! We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are now full of turkey and deliciousness!!

32 WEEKS!!!!!!

Hi Everyone!
Thank you to everyone for being so patient in my lack of putting up pictures. Things have been super duper busy around here. School is in full force and we are busy with baby classes and getting last minute things ready.
It is hard to believe that 32 weeks is here already. I know I can't believe it!!!! Soon we will be getting to meet our little one. That is both exciting and terrifying!
I have more pictures to put up. I have a picture at 30 weeks and some of the recent Calgary Flames game Curtis and I went to. I will have some time to put them up this weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We wish we could be there to spend it with you all, but we hope you have a good long weekend and eat lots of turkey!
P.S This is the first picture I have taken with my shirt up. I have always felt too self conscious. But I am big now and wanted to show it off LOL!