He's here!!

After all the suspense and waiting, Graycin is finally here!! My water started leaking about about 6:35am on Thursday, January 6th 2011. We both finished our showers and packed our bag. Zeb packed our two foster children's bag and we made phone calls to the family that is taking care of the kids for a a couple weeks, and to our parents and a few friends. My Mom and Dad jumped in the car and headed to Boise, picking up my sister for a caravan along the way, with high hopes to be here before the baby was born! We got to the hospital a little before 8 am and headed to labor and delivery. Since we were pretty sure my water was about to burst they admitted us and kindly took the 'leaking' process to a full blown 'rupture.' Before we knew it, they had us walking the halls trying to let nature speed up the process while they got us a room and got all the technicalities done. We were assigned to room 2401 and that became our home for the next 10 hours. For awhile Zeb and I hung out and watched sports center (imagine that) while my contractions slowly increased on their own. At about 10am we starter Pitocin to speed up and strengthen my contractions. They got going pretty quickly after that. For most women and their first pregnancy, you dilate about a centimeter an hour on Pitocin. I, however, can do nothing normally and in about two and a half hours went from a 3 to a 10! At 9 cm dilated I got my epidural and that was FANTASTIC! Zeb's Mom got there about 11:30 or so and hung out with me while Zeb ran to get lunch before all the fun began. My Mom and Dad and sister walked in at about 12:45pm and I started pushing a little after 1:00pm. My Dad provided entertainment from the other side of the curtain for most of my labor and that kept everyone laughing and a little more relaxed. After 2.5 hours of pushing and a break, and then another half hour of pushing while the doctor tried to suction our little man out, it was decided that his head just wasn't going to make it past the iliac spine in my pelvis. So, the process and prep began for a c-section. Graycin James Rodes was born at 6:35pm (just 12 hours after all this began). He was 8lbs, 15oz and 21 inches long. His 14 inch head (which is not that big) had a pretty good size blister and bruise from the vacuum on it. His blood sugar was fairly low when he was born and we battled that for about 24 hours. Then on Friday evening he started turning a little yellow, due to the bruise and his body trying to fight all those dead red blood cells. So, he spent all of Friday night and most of Saturday under the billirubin lights. We have been free and clear since then! Welcome baby Graycin! We are SO excited that you are here!

His first picture!

Getting Weighed

Our First Family Picture

Mom's First Time Holding Him
Daddy and Graycin

So Alert!

Going Home!!

First Night Home

Welcome Baby Graycin!!

Warm Welcome Blue Birth Announcement

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8 more weeks to go...

Well, since my kidney has not felt the need to function to it's full and normal potential, we have been to the doctor, and will continue to be, much more often than most women at this point in a normal pregnancy. For the second time in the last month, I ended up in Labor and Delivery hurtin' like a mad mammajamma. They can't decide if I have a kidney stone, which is normal for me; or if little man is laying on my Ureter and impairing the function of my kidney, which is apparently very normal as well. Either way, it has not been fun - but on a more positive note, we got to have another ultrasound so we (and the doctor) could check on our little trouble maker. His heart rate is consistantly in the 140 beats per minute range... and he is a chunky 4lbs 6oz's! He is growing quickly! The doctor did tell us that it is possible that if he continues causing my kidney problems that we could potentially do an amniocentesis sometime after 36 weeks and if his lungs are mature, they can induce me the next day. Right now, we are up in the air if this is something we want to do or not. Only time will tell. We will continue to the doctor weekly for now and per the doctors request we will be having another ultra sound at 35 weeks (December 9th). We are 32 weeks on Saturday! Only 8 more weeks to go!!

Once again we have a couple pictures of Baby G's face. You might have to tilt your head to the right to see him look at you but you can see his eyes closed in the first picture and his hands tucked under his chin. The second picture his eyes are open. :)

And his extremities.....

And the growing continues...

Well, we have made it through another four weeks and we are just three days shy of the beginning of the third trimester... my how time flies! Baby boy Rodes now has a name... Graycin James! There is no significance to the name Graycin other than we just like it, as for James, both Zeb and I have some pretty important and influential men in our lives that we would like Mr. Graycin to share his name with.

If you remember from last time, we were do for another ultrasound at our visit today. We were double checking the size of Graycin's kidneys. Last time, they measured at 5mm and 6mm... this seems SO tiny, but when you consider that they are really only grow to 1-2 cm those numbers were a little high. This time, his kidneys are down to 4mm and 5mm which means that they have begun to filter and process fluid like they should! Good news!!

Since we were there, we HAD to get new pictures and it was amazing to see how much he has grown and begun to look like a little person.

The first couple of pictures are of Graycin's face. He decided to look at the ultrasound wand the entire time so we got some good pictures of his face... if you can figure out what you are looking at! You might have to tilt your head to the right to see his face! His head is tilted to the side, so the black circle at the top is his eye socket, you can see the black, empty space above his eyes which is the sinus cavities in his forehead! As you look down and to the left of his eye you can see the lines of his nasal bone as well as the nasal cavities.


You can kind of see where his lips are and then the outline of his chin! It is amazing to us to how much detail there is in a little black and white picture! I think he is going to look like his Daddy! Zeb thinks that he is going look like both of us... who knows, for right now, we think he is pretty stinkin' cute skeleton baby! But then we are a littler partial already!

Graycin played most of the time that the ultrasound tech was showing us his arms and legs. You could see him playing with all the stuff around him and him opening and closing his fist! The picture to the left is him with his hand in front of his face, the one below is his whole left arm... you can see his forearm across the center of the picture and his upper arm in a grayish haze coming from his elbow. The white lines to the right is the vertebrae in his spine and you can see a few ribs right to the right of his elbow. Since he decided to play, we could see his foot and leg fully extended. The picture of his leg shows how much fat and muscle he is starting to get! He's not just all skin and bones anymore!!

Maybe I'm trying to be too descriptive and I should just let you figure out what you see!!

Last, but not least, is his spine.... and since we were in there, we had to make sure he was still a boy! He still took a lot of coercing but he decided to play nice and verify for everyone that he was in fact a little boy.














He is growing quickly! We start week 26 on Saturday, October 9th. We will start going to the doctor every 2 weeks. At this point little man has grown to about a pound and a half and is about 11-13 inches long!

It's a.....

Well, it's been awhile. We didn't post after our last appointment since there wasn't much to tell. Last time, the baby's heart rate was still fairly high at 158. I hadn't gained a pound and everything was growing just like it should be. It was a quick, in and out, wham bam type of appointment... this time, however was different.

We will warn you before we tell you what it is, but this is what we found: Today, we are 21 weeks and 5 days... the baby's heart rate was 148 and the little one weighs a whole pound! Baby was arms up and legs out (after a little wiggling - when we first started it's legs were crossed and it took a little convincing). We could see the spine and brain, all four chambers of the heart, and femurs and all the bones in the hands and feet. The doctor says everything looks good. The baby's kidneys are showing a little on the big side (not so big that they are off the charts, and they are still showing in the normal range, just high normal), so next month we are going to have another ultrasound to check out the size progression. It is highly possible that they will be the correct size next month, but they just want to make sure that all is well. Here is baby Rodes!:





Ok... so, here is the fun part, our ultra sound tech gave a couple pictures without what this little persons sex is so.... here is the first picture without any indication as to where anything is... if you dont want to know what this little person is, that it's time to stop looking. If you think you can look and guess without specifics than here ya go:



And if you need some help as to figuring out what you are looking at:

Ok, so finally.... IT'S A BOY!! His left leg is stretched out and his right leg is tucked behind him!

Baby Update...

Well, we are a week late updating, but later is better than never. We went back to the doctor last week to check up on the "little pear." Our due date has been adjusted to January 15, 2011 due to the size of the baby during our first ultrasound. Each Saturday will begin another week in gestation. This Saturday we will be starting week 15... another 25 to go. I have lost a total of 19 pounds and after I convinced my doctor that all I do is eat, she wasn't too concerned. I might be liking this baby diet! We got to hear the heart beat and it was varying between 132 and 154 beats per minutes - a decent drop from the initial 183 beats a minute that we heard the first time. So far, so good. Our next appointment is August 10th and we made out appointment for our next Ultrasound on September 9th. By then we should have decided whether we want to know what we are having or not! Stay tuned for new updates!

Happy Birthday America!

Jen's family was here for the fourth of July. There was beer, rock band, shopping, fireworks, and lots of laughing! It was wonderful to see everyone and spend time together!