Finally Home

We made it! Although it was hard to leave the hospital, we finally came home. They put me in the "Princess" suite at the hospital. The room was AMAZING!! Besides being huge, it was extremely nice. Not to mention, I didn't have to share with anybody. One of the walls was solid windows so we had the most beautiful view. The staff was great and I loved getting waited on hand and foot. There is something about being home that makes this whole thing all real. I thought once I had the baby I would stop worrying about all the little things pregnant women worry about. HOWEVER, now it is a thousand times worse. I swear my child is yellow, I'm worried his belly button is infected, and his poor little wiener has been mutilated! I started bawling when I saw it right after the circumcision, I couldn't help it, it looks so bad. Besides all the drama I've conjured in my head everything is going well. Thank you everyone for your comments and support!

Since Im convinced my baby is "yellow" we've been laying him in the sun until we see the dr on friday, just in case... (yes, I am the worst ever paranoind new mom). Sam is going to teach Landon spanish eventually, so for now he just reads him books in spanish, it's cute!

BABY!

On Friday July 20th 2007 our little boy was born,

meet Landon Stewart Shumway!!

It was quite the experience bringing this fella into the world. For those interested, let me give you the details... WARNING some parts may be graphic read at your own risk.

Sam and I arrived at University of Utah Hospital around 8am on Friday the 20th. I had been having semi regular contractions and cramping so they put me into the delivery room and started the Pitocin IV. I was dilated 2cm. This is a "learning hospital" so many residents and med students had the pleasure of "helping out". Anyway, an hour after the IV was started the Dr decided to break my water to speed things up, so in went the hook. Sam swears there was over 3 gallons of water, he didn't like this part. Immediately after that, the contractions became HORRIBLY painful. They let and encourage you to get the epidural as soon as you feel any discomfort at this hospital, this is a good thing. So after the 1st REAL contraction, I of course requested the lovely epidural. This was not a good experience, however. The needle went in fine, but as he was threading the catheter up my spine it brushed many nerves along the way, causing "zingers" (like hitting your funny bone) up my entire leg. These "zingers" lasted a long time and felt like I was being electrocuted. I was crying and shaking. After all that drama, the epidural kicked in and I felt great! I quickly went from 2cm to 5cm then stopped progressing. After 4 hours at 5cm the Dr announced I would have to get a C- section. Within 2 min I was in the O.R on the operating table. I was freaking out because the epidural was weak on my right side and I was very afraid I would feel the surgery. Nobody else seemed worried about this, which made me even more afraid. The surgery went well, and although I didn't feel any pain, I could feel major tugging, pushing, pulling and stretching. Sam watched the whole thing. I lost a lot of blood so they gave me some crazy medicine that put me out of it as soon as the baby was delivered. A couple hours later I was finally holding my baby! I remember during the surgery hearing the nurses and doctors saying "he's huge!" as the baby was being pulled out. He seems so tiny to me, but next to the other newborns in the nursery he is pretty big! This earned him the nickname "The Hulk" from Sam's parents. Landon weighed 9lb 8oz, and was 21.5 inches at birth. We are so excited to finally have him here! Now I just need to heal so I can really enjoy him.

Oh the nerve!

I'M NERVOUS!!!! We found out today that I will be induced tomorrow morning. What the?? Am I really ready for this? I don't know what to expect and the whole thing is kinda freaking me out. I know, I'm a wuss. It sounds so bad, but at times I find myself thinking I've changed my mind about the whole thing. Oops! There's no turning back now. Can't they just knock me out for the whole thing and wake me up when it's over? I'm gonna ask. It's funny how desperately I wanted this day to come and now that its here I want to hide. Wish me luck! We'll update soon!

Ruth's

We love waking up early and going to get breakfast on Saturday mornings. Well, not so much the waking up early part but when there's food on the line I can do anything! Anyways, we have found many great little diners and cafes throughout the years. One of our favorites was introduced to us a while back, and it is truly AMAZING! It's called Ruth's Diner. It's a few miles up Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake. I'll admit it is a little "po-dunk" what with the shoeless country singers and such. However, the food is simply delicious, and the patio is beautiful! If you're ever in town this place is a MUST try!

View

I decided to take Sam dinner on Saturday night, I'm the best wife!!! JK-- I had a craving for Betos (Filibertos equivalent) and thought it'd be more fun to eat with Sam than alone in our apt. I noticed this lovely view of the city as I was driving home and wanted to take a picture. That is all.

Baby Shower... part 2

The staff from Sam's unit threw him a "Surprise" baby shower. It's always fun to get together with friends from work, but It was tricky to get him there without spoiling the secret. It was nice to get a break from the spotlight and let Sam do the awkward opening of the shower gifts! We had tons of really good food and some really nice stuff! We have been so lucky to have such great people around.

Oh, we also had a recent dr appointment where we found out our child is ABOVE the 90th percentile for size. Getting a C- section is a big possibility, but as for now we just get to wait.

Our boy is BIG!!

So I've been measuring pretty close to right on for this whole pregnancy. In fact, I've been very lucky through this whole thing, but I think its all about to catch up with me. At my last dr visit I measured "big" meaning I was 34 weeks preg but measuring as if I was 37 weeks. So my dr sent me to have an ultra sound to see what the deal was. Today we went and had our lil guy checked out to see how far along I measured. The astonished tech told us that our baby's foot is about the size of your index finger (not your pinky). Also, this kid already weighs 7.5 lbs! Are you kidding?! He still has over a month to grow! At this stage the baby will grow about 1/2 lb a week, so you do the math... that makes this at least a 10 lb baby!!!! There's no way. If anyone has any grand ideas on how to induce labor send them my way! (these pictures are not from the above mentioned ultra sound, they are from week 24. The pictures I received today are a blurry mess and you wouldn't be able to tell what anything is because the baby is so large one finger fills up the ENTIRE screen. The tech says that at this stage and due to the size, the pictures are usually undefined.)