Our little boy is 1 month old!

Okay, so he's actually 5 1/2 weeks old now, but on March 9th he was 1 month old. I took the following pictures to try and capture the momentous occasion. I am uploading them all here because I think you'll get a good idea of what this little boy looks like - sometimes I think he looks like he has darker hair and a slightly darker complexion (similar to David) but most times I think his hair and complexion look lighter (similar to me).

Some interesting facts about Lawson that we've learned over the first month:

• He grunts during his sleep and Dave thinks it sounds like an elf's laugh.
• He does have an inside voice, but most of the time he uses his outside voice inside.
• He cannot do two things at once. For example, he cannot eat and poop at the same time - he stops eating to go to the bathroom and once he's done he'll start eating again. 
• He has started to grin, but we haven't gotten an all out smile yet.
• He is in love with ceiling fans.
• He is getting stronger and stronger: he holds his head up very high now when he's doing tummy time and even gets his chest off the ground sometimes.
• No matter what time in his routine/cycle it is, he will fall asleep in the baby bjorn (in fact yesterday when all else failed and he hadn't been to sleep for over 4 hours I put him in the baby bjorn and he feel asleep instantly - and I transferred him to his crib)
• He is excellent at tracking things. He follows the ceiling fan no matter where we are in the room - craning his neck to get a view. Today when we were laying down on a blanket Riggins walked into the room and Lawson watched him move from the door over to the diaper champ (Mr. R loves poop!). 
• He's started to look at us more. When I walk up to his crib he looks up at me and I love it! Today when I was changing Lawson Dave walked in the room and started talking and Lawson looked for his daddy. Very cool!
• He is always staring at the fabric I put on the wall (see pics a few posts back about the nursery). When he's on the changing table he looks up at the fabric and when he's in his crib he looks up at the fabric on the wall (he also looks at the ceiling fan!). 
• He loves to go outside. If he is getting feisty I take him outside and he just loves looking around at everything.

Anyway, here they are the pictures from his 1 month photo shoot with me....

Lawson Update

As you can imagine, I've been SUPER busy learning to be a mom and taking care of our sweet little boy. I'll share some pictures below, but before I do I want to share an update from his last pediatrician visit. Lawson weighed in at 9lbs 9oz, which is the 70th percentile. He is now 22 1/4 inches long, which is the 90th percentile. And his head circumference is 14 inches, which is the 25th percentile. So, no bobblehead baby for us just yet (Dave is disappointed)! Dr. Rauth placed Lawson on his tummy and he showed off... holding up his head for a pretty long time! She said that is something they look for by month 4, so he's very strong for his age. In fact, she said not to leave him alone on the bed or changing table because he will most likely roll over sooner rather than later. Lawson also showed off his "talking" skills while we were there and Dr. Rauth said he is a very vocal little guy. I know that for sure! And he's loud. I guess he gets that from me. :)

And now for the pictures...

Lawson is day dreaming about Alabama's next National Championship.

 Handsome boy who got tired while doing tummy time.

Dave holding Lawson in the middle of the night after a feeding but before I swaddled him back up and put him to bed. I'm glad I got a picture of this because Dave doesn't get up in the middle of the night anymore.

Lawson meeting his Great Grandpa Noble.

Such a handsome guy.

Lawson hanging out with Megan... but focused on his best friend, the fan.

He looks like a rap star here.

Lawson and Riggins are best friends.

And again (so sweet!).

Lawson and I taking a picture of ourselves.

He's not always happy (but he's always cute).



Meet Lawson Gray Gilbert!

I just love my new little boy. He is awesome!

Lawson Gray Gilbert was born on Thursday, February 9, at 5:37pm. He weighed 8lbs 10oz and is 20 inches long. He's a big boy!

We had our first pediatrician appointment yesterday. Dr. Rauth said he looks great and healthy. She gave Lawson a brief physical and checked his weight. When we left the hospital Lawson weighed 7lbs 14oz, but just two days later at this appointment he weighed in at 8lbs 6oz! The doctor, the nurse, and I were impressed. So I guess he's getting the nourishment he needs (even if it can be painful as heck! - we have some learning to do here).

Right now we are all trying to figure out a schedule. We are doing three hour increments of our routine: sleep, eat, wake. Lawson would sleep longer during the day sometimes but I wake him to make sure he's getting enough to eat. At night we do not wake him at three hours from the last feeding and he makes it to 3.5 hours most times. But right now it's all over the board. Our goal is to eventually get up at 4:30am on a regular basis. That way Dave can go to the gym before work and we would get two "decent" sleep periods in over night. So we'll be going to bed early!!! I'm sure we'll adjust several times a day.

Here are a few pics of our little dude over the last 6 days...

Dave is always giving Lawson a lesson of some sort. Here he is teaching Lawson the trick to multiplying any number by 25... :)

My first bath! 

I made this onesie (thanks Mom!) for Lawson at my baby shower. Roll Tide Roll! Please do not confuse his yawn for disinterest... he is a big Alabama fan. 

Due Date!

And lil fab is okay cooking a little longer.

Last night was my worst night so far. Those pesky contractions started up again around dinner time and were in full affect when it was time to go to bed. I decided to lay down and try to sleep. HA! I woke up about an hour after I laid down, at 12:20am. I got up, turned on the light, and tried to read in between contractions. At one point I got up and just walked around the room for 30 minutes hoping that my changing positions would either 1) pick up the activity and make it real labor, or 2) stop/slow down the activity (since that's what is supposed to happen with Braxton Hicks contractions). Neither happened. The contractions just kept on coming every 10 minutes. I finally laid back down and read again until 3:30 when I was just too tired to keep my eyes open. For the rest of the night I just woke up every 10 minutes. I think I got a grand total of 3-4 hours all put together. Guess this is good prep for when lil fab arrives.

Today I kept myself busy by running a few errands. Two nights ago my car was broken into while it was parked in our driveway. I had gone grocery shopping on Sunday and apparently forgot to lock my car after I was finished unloading the car. When Dave got in my car to drive it to work on Monday he noticed  that it smelled like cigarette smoke and there was a whistle on the floor of the drivers seat. Nothing was taken that we can tell, mostly because I don't keep anything of value in my car. I did have my (relatively) new Kate Spade sunglasses loose in the glove box from the other night when we had our dress rehearsal. But maybe because they weren't in the case or because they were surrounded by lots of CDs the guy didn't notice. Anyway, today I went to a car wash and had the outside washed but the inside detailed. It took an hour but now the dog hair and cigarette smoke are all gone and I've got a very clean car. After the car wash I went to The Container Store and picked up a small storage unit to put all the CDs from my car in so that my glove box just has insurance and registration in it (that part makes Dave very happy; I didn't mind having CDs all over in there, but it drove Dave crazy).

I also ran to the grocery store and got ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. I haven't made cookies in forever! It was kind of fun, even if I couldn't eat the dough because of the raw egg. :) These chocolate chip cookies are amazing! You would never know they are gluten free. The recipe made a ton of cookies. I plan to give all the single cookies away - to our neighbors and to the nurse and doctor tomorrow at my appointment. I did make a huge cookie with the leftover dough that was all mine. Yummy! I'll have to remember that I can use this recipe to make a cookie cake for my birthday next year.

Please send good vibes for my water to break all on it's own tonight! Or at least good vibes that the contractions stop before I go to bed so I can get some sleep.

Until tomorrow...

T-1 Day

And I'm freakin' miserable.

This morning just wrapped up another 36 hour marathon session of meaningless, painful contractions. I'm not sleeping well so I'm very tired and irritable. And I'm completely uncomfortable. Even up through last Wednesday morning I would have told you everything is great! But once these contractions started I have taken a nose dive from an emotional and physical stand point. I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday at 8:30am, and I am going to beg her to get this kid out of me that day. I'm not sure I can make it to 2/15. I hope I go on my own in the next 24 hours, but I'm not holding my breath. What I wouldn't give for my water to break now so they'd have to get him out! Enough complaining...

Per Meagan's suggestion, I'm trying to keep busy. On Saturday I decided to make burp cloths. It's an idea I got from Pinterest. I broke out my sewing machine (and got it working after a few video tutorials on how to thread the bobbin and needle!) and got to work. I used cloth diapers and fabric I bought at the local fabric store. Now lil fab will have some good Alabama burp cloths!

On Sunday I kept myself busy trying to keep sane in between contractions. That included a trip to the Foot Spa for a reflexology massage (which didn't put me into active labor). And today I was so worn out that between work, trying to nap, and walking Parker I haven't had much energy to work anything else in. I do have a gluten free cookbook out that I will look through tonight. It's from Blackbird Bakery in Austin! My mom got me a birthday cake from there for my 32nd birthday and it was great. I bought the cookbook here in Nashville when I took a gluten free cooking class in the spring. I have never baked a recipe from this book, but figure now is a good time. I'll keep myself busy tomorrow by going to the grocery store and then by baking whatever it is I select.

Dress Rehearsal

Dave and I know exactly what to do now when I go into labor, because we got to do the dress rehearsal last night. Let me start off by saying I knew it was too early to go to the hospital because I was not in active labor (but boy was I hopeful I was wrong!).

On Wednesday morning I had a doctor's appointment and I was finally dilated! I was only at 1/2 cm, but it was a start. And then late that afternoon I started having contractions. So the dilation + contractions got me excited that I might be in early labor. I ran to get a pedicure and while my nail polish was drying I decided to start timing my contractions. They were lasting only :30-:35 and were about 4.5-5 minutes apart. Promising start! I ran to Chipotle to pick up dinner and then went home for the night. By about 9:30pm the contractions had started to last longer (closer to :45 each time) but were getting further away - more like 7-8 minutes apart. So I decided I definitely wasn't going into labor anytime soon and tried to go to bed. I had a horrible night's sleep because the contractions kept waking me up.

Thursday morning the contractions were slow, so I didn't time them at all. By about 10am they were within 10 minutes of each other again so I started tracking. And I tracked them ALL DAY. On average they were lasting :55 and were 8 minutes apart. ALL DAY. And they were not the pain free variety. They started in my back and went to the front. My doctor told me to call if my contractions were 10 minutes apart for more than two hours. After talking to my mom she said it wouldn't hurt to call. I agreed, especially since it had been almost 20 hours of contractions by that point - way over the two hours my doc suggested.

My doctor suggested I go to the hospital to see if I was in labor. I knew I wasn't; I was just following her directions to call about my contractions! I called Dave and he was already on his way home. So we fed the dogs and put the car seat in the car and headed out. We didn't even call our friend, Brad, to come get the dogs because we knew we weren't actually going to stay at the hospital. We got to the hospital, checked in and they took us back to a room. I got in my own hospital gown (the one I brought - just trying to make it a little more like home) and got on the bed. The nurse came in and hooked my belly up to watch my contractions and the baby's heart rate. It was nice to actually see my contractions tracked on the screen; it confirmed I wasn't crazy! And it was great to hear lil fab's heart beat and see it tracked, too. The nurse said it was great that even with all the contractions I'd been having the baby didn't seem to mind at all. Thank goodness! She also checked to see if I had dilated anymore... and I had slightly to 1cm (hey, progress is progress!). They tracked me for an hour and then let us go home. Although we were there for two hours because it took them an hour to discharge us.

My contractions continued on until sometime in the middle of the night. I woke up for a while and then at some point they finally stopped. I haven't had a single contraction all day! And to be honest, that makes me very happy. I was fine when I thought the contractions meant something, but once I knew they didn't I wanted them to stop because they were painful. Since the contractions stopped while I was resting, I've decided to rest/relax the next few days. And then on Monday I'll pick it back up. I don't want those contractions coming back unless it's for real!

Random Thoughts by Merritt

• Pregnancy is sexy up until about week 24ish.
• The last time I peed my pants was in the fifth grade. I rushed home from the bus stop and couldn't find the key in time and peed on the back porch, melting the snow. That is no longer the last time I peed myself (see first bullet point).
• I love maternity clothes. I've never worn so many stripes and tight shirts. I'm going to miss them.
• My dogs are awesome. I love them.
• My husband has been "taking one for the team" since about mid-October. And by that I mean he's been sleeping on the couch most nights because I apparently snore like a freight train (see first bullet point). The last night he made it all the way through in the same bed as me was Christmas Eve. Poor guy has slept less than five nights on our new master bed. Once the baby comes we're looking forward to napping on that bed together in between feedings and diaper changes.
• My husband loves to cook brinner.
• After an emotional day last week (some irrational emotions, some legit) he brought home my favorite flowers and I loved it.
• Men at work don't really make nice comments about my growing belly. Are you having twins? Weren't you due last week? (and that one was asked at week 33... and his wife was pregnant at the time, too) You look big! Um... it's perfectly acceptable to not talk about my appearance. You can talk about the weather if you want.
• I am very excited to not go to work for a while. I know this will be a different kind of work, but one where I'm the CEO.
• I'm excited for Dave to change his first diaper.
• Our local wine/liquor store (you cannot buy in the grocery stores in TN) just stocked my favorite gluten free beer on my request. It's Green's Endeavor. I already bought two and have them in the fridge ready to go.
• I'm working from home from now until I go into labor. Which I am enjoying. I'm getting all caught up on HGTV.
• I love our house.
• I love my family.
• I love my friends.
• I love foot massages. I am going to get a pedicure on Saturday (Christmas gift from Dave) and a reflexology foot massage on Sunday.
• I have a fear of the unknown... I don't know what day this baby is coming, I don't know if I'll go into labor on my own or need to be induced, I don't know how I'll deliver...
• I'm pretty sure that if the girls on Sixteen and Pregnant can raise a child, Dave and I can, too.