Baby Adventures

Charlie Thomas Heywood
Born: December 28, 2009
9 lbs, 21 Inches

I may at a later date give a better labor story, but for now I'll just say: It actually went VERY fast, and everyone keeps asking me in amazement if I delivered this guy vaginally.

Because of a lot of stupid red tape and beaurecratic type crap our doctor offered to keep us, by inducement if necessary from going into 2010 with the pregnancy. We were officially due December 31st. We got scheduled for a 'do it or else' date of December the 28th at the hospital. We arrived that morning, got started with pitocin around 10... it wasn't pushing me very quickly. By noon I hadn't changed, and she'd pushed the medicine up 3-4 doses and my pain was still at about a 1, maybe 2 if I stretched it. Then because I was very well efaced (90% before my last check up even) and had been far along (about 4 cm) for weeks, the Dr. showed up and broke my water. Well that is evidently the push my body needed. That happened about 1pm, and by 1:05 pm I was hit with a ton of bricks. Contractions that made my whole body shake with pain, going from a 1 to an 8 on the 'pain scale' over the course of a single contraction. So they quite quickly (but of course no where quickly enough) gave me an epidural (thanks to heaven) and when it started to take the edge off the nurse said, 'maybe I better check you to see how fast you are moving after all that pain'. She did, and she said, 'uh, you're at a 9 1/2, we'll be able to push soon'. No wonder those pains hurt so bad! I was sitting there thinking they were inching me from a 4 to a 5, and thinking, 'how will i survive a 9 to a 10 if I can't handle THIS centimeter! So we pushed, little (big) Charlie was good about not sliding back, so we had him within about an hour! He came out all pink and not gooey at all... weirdest thing ever! :) All I said was, 'woah, he's big'. And it's what i've been saying since!

Cute Crib

I had to post a picture of my beautiful crib. This crib was actually handmade by my brother in law (John's sister's husband). Cool, no? So I just got the mattress in and bedding washed and in and I thought it was cute and wanted to share.


Also, it pains me to have to explain this, but evidently there are quite a few who have serious concerns for me as far as any parenting skills I may have. So for their peace of mind I will add this: YES I KNOW STUFFED ANIMALS AND PILLOWS SHOULD NOT BE IN A CRIB WITH AN INFANT. They're just place holding people, cuz they're cute. I have read up on SIDS and have educated myself accordingly. You can now go back to wondering if I think it's appropriate to leave my baby unattended outdoors or if I have managed to remain unaware in my 28 years on this planet that babies poop, a lot. Thanks!

A Weekend of Adventures.

It started Friday night here:

(Camp Chef tailgating with John and Dallon - COLD!)

Then we went here:

(The poor Ags lost, we knew they would, they were playing Boise - but we were proud that they made a decent run at first of making it interesting, having it tied up 14-14 w/ just a few minutes left in the first half. Some silly mistakes and pressure from a good team, and they just couldn't keep it up. GO AGGIES!)

Saturday afternoon I went here:

(My good friend Amie threw me a baby shower. How fat and uncomfortable do I look?)

(Lots of family made quite the drive to come... very sweet!)

(This is me with the present girls... They made a little assembly line.)


(We took lots of pictures for my mom, who is in Hungary. This was her gift for the shower.)

(The little girls were given the camera to take pictures, and so a great deal of the pictures look like this. CUTE!)

Sunday night we finished up here:

(I threw this sweet party including shades and necklaces.)


(Because this little girl turned 21!)


(Because she's so old and her lungs are compromised,
she needed some youthful help with the candles.)


(This was the requested red velvet cake...
although I should have spiked it... all the children
and pregnant ladies... would have been awesome.)



(Happy Birthday Emily!!!)

And then I spent the subsequent week recuperating. :)

Coconut, You Made My Day Complete!

My birthday this year was pretty low key. Which is shocking if you know me because for the last many years I've all but insisted that my birthday be celebrated in week long format rather than day long. However, this year I didn't have the energy to celebrate for a week so I allowed everyone to take a break, hehe. I did however, get a sweet MyTouch 3g in honor of my b-day, so now when you email me, I can be answering you from the Dr's office, where I always am. Ha.

I also did make a cake. Yes, I make cake for my own birthday. But I honestly don't mind doing it, and the part that is the most fun is I get to choose the treat that I think sounds the very best with no other considerations... That either means coconut, chocolate or both. :)

For this year - Pineapple Coconut Cake via this book. (PS. I purchased that book because there is an entire chapter dedicated to coconut cake.)



The cake has coconut milk in it, the filling is very easy, basically a reduced, thickened and even more 'sugarized' version of a can of crushed pinapple, and the frosting is a cooked pineapple meringue frosting. I've never made a meringue frosting before, I found it was less daunting that it sounded from the instructions, but definitely more complicated than butter cream. Creates kind of a light fluffy result, which I found really cool... but if you LOVE butter cream, it may not be your thing.

Despite what the author of that book would like I'd happily share the recipe, if you're actually interested. :)

Spoiler Alert!

If for unknown reasons it's very important to you to be completely surprised about what our unborn looks like, you may not want to read on. However, to most of you this will simply look like randomness anyway, so even if you want to you may still have no idea.

This morning John and I went in for a 'growth ultrasound'... the Dr. offered us this service so we could see how things were progressing if we'd like (i.e. you guys have good insurance, wanna rack up the bill for them a bit?.... and yes, we always, always do). It was not due to any indication that anything is wrong - nor was I worried there was, but I just wanted to see him, cuz it's been awhile.

What we learned: The baby has assumed good laboring position (head down), and though he has time to change that, he most likely won't.

Also, according to their calculations, which admittedly have widely varying accuracy, he's just over 5lbs, which is a little bit big, but nothing huge. If it happened their "calculations" were on the nose and he put on the average weight from here to my delivery he'd be in the 8 lb range. So we're not talking anything real big. *Phew* To me he feels huge in there though, so I'm not sure how I'll survive.

And - he's definitely still a boy.

The following image of our baby's face is of their fancy 3-d type... Take from that what you will... they still look a lot like black and gray blobs... I actually thought this one was okay as far as being able to see him - from my experience with these types of pictures anyway. See what you think.

(Baby Heywood - 33 Wks)

Still not able to see him in there?? I have provided some help, which may help you decipher the code and break the mental wall like those pictures where it looks like one thing, but it's really something else - and you can't tell it until someone points it out to you... See if this clears anything up... (it's the same pic, but w/ arrows.)


Other than that, no, we still don't know what we're naming him, even if we decide we probably won't say for sure, so don't bother to ask. Although, tonight at dinner John did suggest the names Cannon and Exxon and Augustus... he was joking... thankfully.

Halloween Observance

John and I didn't do a lot this year for Halloween... it's not really John's favorite as he does not like scary stuff or dressing up, so all he's left with is candy. Ha. I like having parties, but am too fat to be up for that much either. I did think we should do something however, so we made some cupcakes from my aforementioned book. Had to take a picture, cuz they're all so super cute.

Trippin'

Ok, and now for a few trip photos and not just long rants exposing how much of an old iritated woman I am.

First of all, as far as pictures go, no they are not THAT beautiful... it's a beautiful place, but it's hot and wet and sandy and we were relaxing so there was no hauling around of the Canon... plus which the Canon desperatley needs to be cleaned. Instead you are subjected to crappy fuji point and shoot pictures... but since no one really loves to see all that many vacation photos of others, somehow i'm sure you'll survive.

This is the beach directly outside (about 30 feet outside)
our room... soooo beautiful. And yes, a Corona commerical
in the making.

John at Smuggler's Cove on our first day. Pretty
Good snorkeling.... ridiculously clear water.

John enjoying a pina colada from a beach
vendor at Smuggler's Cove.

Our 'three' shadows on Cane Garden Bay Beach.

The view on our drive - this is Cane Garden Bay
Beach on Tortola.

Hard to have tension just looking at this pic...

We took a day sail charter and went out to a
couple different islands, did some snorkeling,
saw 'the baths' and hung out on the boat.

Snorkeling by Cooper Island.

From the beach at Cooper Island... our boat is just beyond
that palm leaf.

From the boat looking looking out on Virgin Gorda.

"The Baths" - Virgin Gorda

Going for the water... gotta keep hydrated.

Always the most flattering pic you can take.

Eating some lunch on our balcony... Rough Life.

On our sail...