A Son is Born!

Well, so much for having two weeks! The morning of May 9th, James and I decided to go back to Stacks for breakfast. As he was putting our names on the waiting list, I felt something strange. Since my legs/feet were really swollen, I thought I had just suffered from another third trimester possibilty albeit not a pretty one - loss of bladder control - but as it didn't dissipate over time, and actually got worse, we agreed it was time to call the doctor. He directed us to make our way to the hospital.


Luckily, James had already started packing the bag after my fall, so off to Sequoia we went! I was admitted immediately (just after 4pm) as my water had indeed broken at 10am that morning outside of Stacks (mental note: refrain from eating at Stacks in Menlo Park for a while). Baby boy Stafford was on his way just in time for Mother's Day! Or not... It took a while for things to start moving. I was "stuck" at 2cm from 7pm Saturday until 3pm Sunday.

The pitocin drip was started at 11pm Saturday night, and we all thought he'd come some time during the night. The anesthesiologist had to start my IV as my veins weren't cooperating and, since we thought it would only be hours, I agreed to have him start the line for the epidural. This would make it easier and faster to get the epidural when the time came. Well, the time came at 4pm Sunday afternoon when I was 2.9cm dilated. (After three shots of fentanyl which stopped working quickly.)


Everyone hoped the epidural would speed things along. I was 4cm at 6pm. Then 7cm (!) at 9pm. The baby was head down but was posterior (facing up towards my belly rather than my back). The doctor hoped I would progress at the same rate (1 cm/hour) and called for another check at 11pm at which point he would try to turn the baby. 11pm rolled around and voilà! I was finally 10cm dilated and the baby had turned himself. Okay, the hard part's over, right? Now it's time to start pushing. There was a chance he could still be a Mother's Day baby.

Well, it was not easier and it took two additional hours, but with the help of the vacuum, little Peyton August was born at 1:10am on Monday, May 11th! he was a healthy 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19.25 inches long. He was born with a full head of hair and was alert and beautiful from the beginning!








James was an absolute champ during delivery. He had planned to "focus on my face" throughout the delivery, but when the time came he was right there holding my legs, counting my push lengths, and he cut the cord! He was just amazing. I'm a very lucky woman.






We agreed on the name later that morning. We had already picked his middle name, August, after my maternal grandmother, Agustina. We had decided to "meet" the little guy before picking his first name. We had a list of 8 names (another thing I was supposed to do during those two weeks off - narrow the list down to three or four names), but it didn't take long. Peyton was a long time favorite, and yes, he's named after our favorite quarterback.







He was early but right on time, really, as we can't imagine not having him with us over the past almost four weeks!

The Pregnancy

Note: Pictures are missing from this post as our scanner is broken, but I'll add them in as soon as we buy a new printer/copier/scanner.

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The pregnancy was relatively uneventful. My first trimester was a breeze - no morning sickness, just fatigue.

We got our first look at the baby and a video of the heartbeat at just 6 weeks, 4 days:

At 12 weeks, 4 days, we went to Stanford for our nuchal translucency ultrasound and got our first look at the baby. The tests came back completely normal.

My second trimester was even easier! And, at 20 weeks, we found out we were having a boy! James filmed the entire ultrasound and we got more snapshots of our little guy.

And, then my third trimester came - the home stretch. No more ultrasounds :-( as it was a healthy pregnancy, for which I was thankful. And, while I had been good for the first 8 months in keeping my clumsiness in check, I became a little more clumsy towards the end. At 34 weeks, 5 days, I took a pretty scary tumble (belly first) which sent me to the hospital. That was the day of my shower. My friend Karen had flown up from sunny San Diego and we went to brunch at Stacks in Menlo Park. Instead of my shower, Karen accompanied me and James to the hospital - bless her! Thankfully, everything was normal so they let me leave. But, by that time, it was time for Karen to fly home. :-(. I made it to my shower two hours late, just in time to open presents, have dessert (mmm, cupcakes), and say goodbye to all my wonderful friends that came to celebrate with me.

The next three weeks, I threw myself into work, training my maternity leave replacement with 5 years of knowledge, in three weeks! When May 8th rolled around, I was ready for two weeks off to write my thank you notes, finish the nursery, finish the rest of the work we were doing to the house, and prepare for our son, who at that time remained nameless.

Twelve Years

No one thought James and I would last. I don't blame them because who goes to Cancun for spring break and comes back with a soulmate? We did. :-) We were married two years later and just celebrated our Tenth anniversary! My, how time flies when you're having fun.

We were so young when we got married - just 23! But we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, so why wait? We did, however, decide to wait on having children. Instead, we traveled the world, bought a house (okay, a townhouse), and chose to advance ourselves in our respective careers.

Then, in 2007, we decided it was time to start thinking about a family. (We're big planners if you haven't noticed by now). We thought about where we wanted to go as a last hurrah as a couple. Being huge history buffs, we agreed that Italy and Paris were calling our names. We spent three glorious weeks in Rome, Florence/Tuscany, and Paris and spared no expense. We ate magnificent food, toured museums and Churches, attended the weekly Papal audience, and drank fantastic wines. It was the trip of a lifetime! We can't wait for Peyton to be old enough so that we can go back.

Ah yes, that brings us to the whole reason for this blog! Fast forward one year to early September, 2008, something felt different and, lo and behold, I was pregnant! We were thrilled!