Graham Lee-Wen Pridgen is here!!!

Our baby finally arrived just over a week ago. Everything has been so hectic that I haven't been able to update my blog. Any extra time we have has gone to taking naps! Bobby and I did not sleep very much earlier in the week once we returned from the 2-night stay at the hospital, but thankfully we are slowly but surely getting the hang of feeding time and sleep time for our little Graham.

So here he is!
Little Graham was born on May 22, 2010 at 5:50pm. He measured at 21" long and weighed in at 9 lbs 2 oz. So yeah, perhaps not so little! We knew he was going to be a big boy since the last ultrasound estimated Graham at 9 lbs 4 oz (95th percentile), so I'm glad we opted for the epidural.
My water broke at 6:30am that Saturday and we checked into the hospital by 9am, since my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and were about 30-45 seconds long. I was about 4cm dilated starting out and by about 3pm-ish, I was dilated to 9cm and that's when the nurse decided that we start pushing. We pushed for over 2 hours and since baby Graham's head just did not want to progress very much, the nurse called for the doctor. And with the help of forceps and a few good pushes, he was out! What a feeling that was!
Recovery has been slow but despite the pain and discomfort, looking at our little angel has been so worth it. Bobby and I still can't believe we have a baby in the house!
And he makes the funniest faces! This one is my favorite (for now :-)
We are so glad and thankful that Bobby's mom and Bob are here to help us out. Grandma has been really good at putting little Graham to sleep - almost too good that Bobby and I struggle to do the same thing in the middle of the night! We have also been taking advantage of Bob's presence here to help out with some yard work!

We celebrated Graham's one-week birthday yesterday with some cupcakes. Yes, Graham loves cake (if you can recall the leftover cake from the baby shower thrown by Bobby's office)!

So within this past week, I've witness the "pee projectile", been peed on twice - the first when we were giving Graham a wipe-down and the second during a feeding session when Daddy didn't put on his diaper properly! I guess I should be lucky it was just pee and not poop!
Parenthood definitely has its challenges but I think we are doing a little bit better as each day progresses. The consultation with the lactation nurse during Graham's first visit to the pediatrician last Wednesday was a god-send. The feeding sessions are so much better and manageable.
Ahhh... the joys of being a mom. I still can't believe I'm a mom!

Our first tornado warning!

Last night, there were a line of storms coming through. And just as I put dinner on the table around 7:30pm or so, the sirens came on! I had sent a text message to our neighbor earlier yesterday saying that if the sirens do come on, Bobby and I would be over in a jiffy. They have some crawling space beneath the foundation of their house. They did find a tiny snake in there the first time they discovered the space - but snake vs. tornado, I guess I'd go with the snake too! :-)
So anyhow, I quickly woofed down my chicken dinner and of course, Bobby is struggling with his because it's one of the only times I decided to braise chicken thighs (i.e. BONES!!!!). I head up stairs to quickly change and just as we were about leave, the sirens stopped. Bobby looks out the front door and there are a bunch of the neighborhood kids wandering out front at the other neighbor's house, taking pictures! Mom/Barbara... if you're reading this - no, there weren't taking pictures of the tornado touching down. There were just really dark clouds :-)
After chatting with this other neighbor for a bit, we went back into the house as it started to drizzle. We continued to watch the radar on the local tv station. At about 8:30pm, just as I was about to scoop out some ice-cream (and you wonder why the baby is over 9lbs!), the sirens went off again! Arghh! By this time, the rain is coming down really hard outside and Bobby is convinced that we can just stay put. Thankfully the sirens were only on for a brief moment.
While watching the 10 o'clock news, the question came up about putting the kids to bed despite the continued tornado warning. And the answer was yes, go ahead,... the worse is over. So with that, we decided to call it a night as well. But phew! What a night! I'm glad our lil' Graham didn't decide to come out last night!

Pregnancy update - 39 1/2 weeks!!!

This is the home stretch! Had our doctor's appointment today and he said that 9 lbs 4 oz puts our little Graham in the 95th percentile! Must have been all that sugar craving that I've been having these past couple of weeks! YIKES! Guess it doesn't help either when Bobby is constantly asking me "What's for dessert???"
Well... hopefully our baby won't get too much bigger. His head is just under 10cm... so there is still hope for a vaginal birth. Guess we're playing it by ear. The game plan is if there's difficulty pushing him out, we will opt for a C-section.
In the meantime, it's just a waiting game right now. We have scheduled our next doctor's appointment for the following Monday. If lil' Graham is not out by then, we will most probably have him induced. In any case, I'm just happy that our doctor will be on-call this weekend.

This past weekend, we did finally install the baby carseat. We used a seat-saver for the bottom of the carseat but it was still a bit wobbly, so we opted for a towel and non-slip shelf liner, which did work a little bit better. However, I did exchange the seat-saver for another one, so perhaps that might work even better. We'll see! So complicated! What happened to the good ol' days when kids sat up front and didn't even have to buckle up! Haha!

Baby estimated at 9 lbs 4 oz ??!!?!

My jaw dropped when the ultrasound technician told me little Graham's estimated weight. YIKES!!! How on earth did he get so big! Must have been all that leftover cake from the baby shower that was thrown by Bobby's department/office a couple of weeks ago. I had a piece of cake almost every day for a week! What can I say,... there was a lot of cake left... and little Graham LOVES cake! ;-)
Well, I must have over-reacted when the technician said 9 lbs 4 oz because she was quick to say that the estimate is +/- 10%. She tried to clarify that when the baby is born, he could only weigh in at 8 1/2 lbs. Still a big baby if you ask me! It will be interesting to hear what our doctor will say at our next appointment in regards to our birthing plan.
We couldn't get a lot of good pictures, but here's one of little Graham's fist.
We took a couple of pics of his feet too, but it didn't come out very well. Little Graham had his one little foot propped up against my belly (as usual) with the other foot rubbing beneath it. I guess he's so comfortable in my belly that he doesn't want to come out! Only 6 more days to the baby's due date. It could be any day now when my water breaks. The wait continues...!

More updates on Pregnancy!

38-weeks 5 days and counting...! We had another doctor's appointment yesterday (Monday) and the doc said that I'm doing really well. He is still amazed at how much my cervix has thinned out and at now 2cm dilated, I really should be in labor! It's a typical scenario of someone who is in labor, but somehow, I'm not... so the wait continues. Must be some crazy Asian genes!
Since little Graham was in the 80th percentile the last time we checked, we have scheduled for another ultrasound this Thursday to see how much more he has grown. That will help us determine/confirm our birthing plan. Doc said that if we continue with vaginal birth, it should be a quicker than normal one since all conditions are in our favor. I hope he is right! :-) In any case, only 9 more days until the baby's due date of May 20th! YIKES!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I guess it counts as a Mother-to-be to celebrate "Mother's Day"... although it did seem a little weird since there is no baby yet. Nonetheless, I did get a nice card from Bobby and his mom. Bobby got me some chocolates too - dark chocolate of course! YUM!
We really didn't do too much on Sunday. We went to the local fair called "Rooster Day". It was rather small and there weren't that many people. Perhaps it was the last day of the fair and the weather was not very nice. And we missed the Arts and Craft section. We only saw the sign on a building while we were driving away! Oh well... probably best as I probably would have convinced Bobby to buy me something that I really didn't need :-)
We went to the golf course from there. It was windy and cold and I was under-dressed! So instead of playing, I just drove Bobby around in the cart. Thankfully we had a blanket in the car so I was able to bundle myself up like a "mummy" all throughout the 18 holes! Now that's a Mother's Day to remember! Ha ha!

Driver's license expired!

I've been so busy being pregnant that I didn't even realized that my driver's license had expired! It expired back in March! YIKES!!! I only realized it yesterday when I had to show the receptionist at the hospital my license for pre-admin labor & delivery paperwork.
Well, my license is all renewed now. Thankfully the DMV here is never really quite busy so it didn't take too long (unlike Houston, which took forever!). And with my new license, it's nice not having the big red word "TEMPORARY" straight across my driver's license! That was necessary the last time because I was still under a visa vs. having my greencard now. Also, the pic is much better! No spikey hair since my hair buzz last June! :-)
And look! My little car is now over 214K miles! Bobby is trying to convince me to get rid of it. We did see a car that I really liked the other day - the VW station wagon in Diesel. We'll see what happens after the baby is born!

Pregnancy update - 37 1/2 weeks

Just had another doctor's appointment yesterday and all is well! My cervix is about 90% thinned out and only about 1cm dilated. The doc is still amazed at how low the baby's head is sitting! He said that this doesn't normally occur for women who are having their first-born. Guess I'm just lucky! Although, I did have to assure Bobby that I didn't have another child somewhere else in this world. Haha!
And yes, looking at the sign on that door - the toilet is now fixed! :-)

We have this little thing on the fridge where we write little messages. Here was Bobby's message this past week. I thought it was really cute!