Update between Thursday, April 30 and Monday, May 5th

Well, Mitchell surprised me and came home from 29 Palms on Saturday. The weekend went by with a few contractions that came on Saturday night at about 6 minutes apart but then subsided. It was the same Sunday night. We decided to go out to dinner at Olive Garden. I chose to eat 3 jalepeno peppers while we were there (just to see if it did anything). Monday was another day, we went to the commissary and stocked up on food for everyone's upcoming visits. Deciding to keep trying the spicy "old wives tale" we had buffalo wings for dinner. Right about dinner time (7:45ish) I began to get strong contractions. They began at 6 minutes apart and stayed there until 9. After calling the hospital at 9 and asking when I was supposed to come in, we were told that the contractions needed to be 2-3 minutes apart. Thinking about how much pain I was already in, I wasn't sure I'd make it that far. By 9:30 they started coming about every 4-5 minutes. We left for the hospital at 10:30 with contractions coming 2, 3 and 4 minutes apart and very strong. When I got checked at the hospital I was told I was 4 cm. The doctor came in about 5 minutes later and checked me again and said, "Oh no, she's more than 4 cm. She's 5 cm."
We got checked into a room and were getting settled. All this time, I was waiting for my epidural. Within 40 minutes of checking in, I had dialated to 7 cm. The doc said he could break my water and this baby would be here very soon. I chose to wait for the epidural....which came an hour and 45 minutes after we got checked in!! I was NOT a happy camper until that time. Acccording to Mitchell, I was like night and day from the time I got to the hospital to the time after my epidural :) Unfortunately, the epidural slowed my contractions down. By about 3:30 a.m. I started pushing. After 3 hours of pushing the baby was still far up and hadn't made much progress. I got a reboost on my epidural and also got a narcotic. I was very worked up and anxious after pushing for 3 hours and not making much progress. In the end, I wound up pushing for 4 hours and they had to use the vacuum extractor to get Gentry out. And that brings us to....

Guess who's here!??!

Gentry Mitchell arrived Tuesday, May 5th at 7:38 a.m. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and was 18 inches long. He has a little bit of hair/peach fuzz that is dark blonde. He's such a cutie and has been a very good baby so far.

Happy family of 3 :)

Proud but TIRED Mommy with Gentry.

Proud Daddy with his son.

Who does he look like?? (I think Daddy)

Our little baby burrito :)

Making SOME progress...

I went to the doctor again today for my 39 week check-up and...I'm 1 cm dialated! However, I could progress quickly OR be at this stage for another week. Guess we'll have to see! I just hope Mitchell returns in time for the birth of this little boy...

Ready and Waiting...

Well, I'm now 38 weeks and 4 days along. I went to the doctor last week for my 38 week check-up. NO NEWS! Looks like this little guy won't be coming any time soon. Which, I suppose is good since Mitchell is still out in the field. I'm being told he will be sent home this weekend to wait around with me. They just want to make sure he is here in case I DO go into labor early/on-time. With him being away at 29 Palms for the last week things have been pretty boring and lonely around here. I'm staying active by taking the dogs for walks in the evening. Hopefully, that will help bring on labor in the next week or two. Dad will be coming May 8th and Mom soon after on May 10th. Dad will only be able to stay a few days, but Mom is going to stay 2 weeks. I'm sure their help will be much appreciated :)
That's about it for now, if there are any changes I will let everyone know. Hopefully this little guy will be here within the next 10 days!

New Car for Baby!!!

Mitchell and I bought a new car yesterday! We went out to test drive a few and fell in love with this one. It's a 2009 Ford Edge. We were looking for something with more cargo room than the Intrepid, and something without so many miles on it. I really liked the way this one drove. It's considered a "Cross-over." Not an SUV, but not a car. The color is called Sterling Gray Metallic.

We decided to splurge and get leather interior. I just think it will be easier to clean with the baby; just wipe up the dirt. The car is also equipped with Sync. This is a program that is voice activated and is used with bluetooth compatible phones. The law in California, as well as on any Marine Corps base, is that you can only use your phone with a hands-free device. Neither one of us has the bluetooth ear piece, but with the Sync prgoram we don't need it! We just talk to the car and tell it who we want it to call and Viola! it follows the command. So now I can talk while driving and keep both hands on the wheel! We were really excited to try it out on our way home from the dealership and called Michael. It worked really well.

The car also has panoramic sunroofs. One for the front of the car and one for the backseat, too! Mitchell really liked that feature.

We're both so excited to have gotten this car. Neither one of us has owned a BRAND NEW car before and especially not one with all the luxury items :)

Gentry's Room: FINISHED!!

Gentry's room is ready and waiting! I just finished washing his last load of laundry and packed my hospital bags for myself and for him. These are some wood letters that I painted and hung on his bedroom door.

These are two hand-made picture frames from my dear friend Kristen. She gave them to me for my baby shower. Soon enough we'll have pictures of our lil man to put in them!

Here's a look at one side of the room. The little shelf on the wall has a Black Angus cow and calf. The nightstand has a red lamp and his cd player. And of course, his bouncy seat and the glider/ottoman.

Here's a better picture of that side of the room.

Here's the opposite side of the room. On the little wooden shelf on this side, we put Mitchell's red Farmall tractor and a Holstein cow and calf. The changing table is stocked (at least for the first week or two).

Now all we need is our little man to arrive and then everything will be complete. However, we plan on keeping him in our room in his bassinet for the first month or two. We'll just see how it goes.

April with the Guard's

I know it's been a while since I've updated the site. Quite a bit has been happening with us. First off, here I am at 35 weeks.

I'm trying to be comfortable, though I feel like a whale! This is from today (Easter) and I'm 36 weeks and 3 days. I had my 36 week check-up on Friday and the doctor confirmed that Gentry is in the "head down" position and is ready to go. She said any time now within the next 3-4 weeks. I'm hoping for at least 3 weeks, just want to make sure he's "cooked" long enough :)

Here's Mitchell and I after the Easter church service. We've been going to the church on base and like it quite a bit.