Where have you been, Baby?

I know, it's been AGES since the last post (and even then we didn't actually write anything). We're all terribly sorry but are sure that you understand. Daddy's been super busy with school (which he still doesn't love) and Mommy's been super busy with the Stinker. The Stinker just can't be bothered writing anything. Things are going well. Jude will be two months old on Monday. He's slept through the night a few times but it's by no means a regular occurrence. He's generally the best baby in the whole world but he has his moments of insanity. He sometimes has trouble staying asleep and then gets overly tired and super cranky (SUPER cranky). Today has been one of those days. Thankfully Daddy has been here to help settle the Stink. He's asleep in the swing just now and hopefully he'll feel better after a good few hours of rest.

He started smiling a few weeks ago and now he doesn't let a day go by without giving us some big grins. He's also engaging more with faces (although he still really loves high contrast things like shadows and black and white toys). He's around 9.5 pounds now so he's growing out of his 0-3 month clothes. We think he might have another week or two until they don't fit his long legs anymore. Mommy is still crazy tired pretty much all of the time and is looking forward to the day when she can get more than a few hours of sleep in a row. Somehow even when he does sleep for good stretches she always wakes up after a couple of hours in anticipation of Jude waking up. Someday she's sure she'll sleep again.

We didn't do anything for Thanksgiving. Daddy had to work and it was the day Jude had to get his first round of immunizations. He did really well with them (Mommy cried as much as he did). We're already looking forward to next year. We'll count 2011 as Jude's first Thanksgiving (when we're all in New Orleans and he can enjoy it with his nola friends and family). We're also looking forward to Jude's first Christmas. He's already really good with his head and we're pretty sure that he'll be holding it up by then (or very close to it). We're excited about putting him in his Bumbo and helping him open some nice presents. We'll post pics of Christmas tree shopping, etc with him. We miss and love all of you and promise that we'll at least try to write more often. You can always go to youtube and look up the NICONOLA504 channel for Jude videos. There are 4 now and I have a couple more that are ready to upload (I'll get to it soon!).

For those of you who asked about what he might still need or what to get for Christmas, there's still stuff on the Amazon UK wishlist. Here's the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/wishlist/2FKSR96SP8HH9

We're going to try to get some sleep now and hopefully it'll snow so much tonight that Daddy won't have to go to work on Monday.

Snow for everyone!

Love,

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky Jude

How are you feeling, Baby?

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. I'm sure that you understand that we've been a little bit busy. We do enjoy the fact that we are so busy with fun stuff like sleeping, eating and making sure to go out for walks. If only busy always consisted of finding time to nap! Stinky Jude is doing very well, he's 13 days old today. He's such a good little boy and is sitting here right now watching me type (as I talk to him and make super animated faces). Daddy just left for work and we already miss him. He only has this week left before his October holidays. He has the last two weeks of the month off and we're all super excited to have him around all of the time for a while. We have an appointment next week to apply for Stinker's American passport. After we do that we'll be sending in the paperwork to apply for Daddy's visa so that we can move back to New Orleans next year. We talk about it all of the time and can't wait to bring Stinker home to meet friends and family (and eat good food and go to the zoo and feed the ducks in the park...). Today is Mommy and Stinker's first day totally alone. We're actually going to take a nap here in a minute. We're sorry that we've been slacking on uploading pics but we'll post a ton more soon. We'd also like to thank everyone for the lovely messages and things. We love all of you and can't wait for you to meet the Stink (who has been happily living up to his nickname).

Here's the wish list link again for those of you who asked about it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/wishlist/2FKSR96SP8HH9

We don't really have much to report other than the fact that the Stinker is sleeping well, eating well and putting on weight. We're starting to get into a rhythm (finally). It's stressful but beautiful. Mommy and Daddy are both so in love with Mr. the Stink. We know that you all will be, too. We'll post more soon. For now, it's food and nap time.

Snacks and naps for everyone!!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinker Jude

Welcome Home, Baby!

Mr. The Stink is finally here. Although we will probably always call him Stinky (or Stinker) we had to decide on an 'acceptable' name so we went with Jude Gavin DeAbate Fraser. He was born on the 29th of September 2010 at almost 5pm. He weighed 7 pounds on the nose. As you can see from the picture, he has a mop of bright red hair. We were all surprised that he is a ginger baby and not dark like Mommy but we couldn't be more pleased. We love our little ginger Stinker sOoOOOOo much!

As it's been a long time since our 'I'm in labor' post and I know that it was nerve wracking for all our friends and family, I'll let you know what it was that happened on the Stinker's birthday. As we wrote that day, I was in labor for what seemed like 1,000 years (I suppose that happens to most people though). At about 4am we were finally ready to go to the hospital. When we got there I was assessed and was only 3cm. It took me 2+hours in some weird holding room to progress to 6 and be moved upstairs to the labor ward. This is the part that I will always remember as the easy bit. The room was lovely and calm, I was in the pool and only using the gas and air occasionally (I was trying to make it without any real pain relief). Everything was manageable and quite serene. After a couple of hours in there I got out and my water broke. There was meconium in it so I had to move from my lovely room and pool onto a bed in the high risk ward to be put on continuous fetal heart monitoring. I labored there for I don't know how long. It was rough as the monitors were really uncomfortable and I was anxious about the baby's health. We finally moved to the second stage but Stinky's heart rate kept dropping at the height of the contractions. He was even more tired than I was so they went and got the doctor to come and talk to me about getting him out right away. Of course, I told them that all that mattered was that our Stinker was ok and that I wanted them to do whatever they had to. Because we had come so far they decided just to use forceps. They told us about risks and we signed some informed consent stuff. Daddy was taken to put on scrubs and I was wheeled into the operating theater. I was given the non-epidural spinal (the one that acts extremely quickly) injection. It took no time for me to feel nothing. The rest is pretty much a blur. There was lots of activity but I just remember looking over to Daddy for reassurance a lot as I waited to hear something that gave me some indication of what was happening with Stinky. After what seemed like forever they brought him out. I heard a bit of a wail and they held him out to me for long enough for me to just graze his head with my fingers. Daddy went with Stinky as they took him out to see if he was ok. They finished sewing and tugging and whatever, put me on another table and took me into recovery. Soon after they brought in the Stink and Daddy. I was dazed and so was he (they, really). I was so amazed at his hair and in love straight away. They told me that he had been a little limp but that he came around quickly. We had some skin to skin time and were carted up to a ward after about an hour. The ward was another nightmare altogether. The short of it was that there were 4 women and babies in the room, Daddy wasn't allowed to be there after 9pm and Mommy was confined to a bed for two nights. The Stinker was with her the whole time though so that was something. They wanted to keep an eye on Stinky for a couple of nights since he had been in shock when delivered and Mommy needed observed recovery time. The good news is that he's been perfect and Mommy feels ok, too. Daddy was extremely excited to get to bring us home yesterday. We love that we're finally here and together. This is our second night home.

The Stinker is more than we ever could have hoped. He's such an amazing baby. We love him so much and wish that all of you could be here to see his amazing little red faux hawk in person. We promise to keep updating weekly and we're sorry about the lapse while we were in hospital. We're sure that you all understand. Stinky says hello and sends out some sweet Stinky kisses.

Stinky kisses for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

Now you're REALLY hurting Mommy

I'm in labor. We're still at home trying to get the contractions to about 5 minutes apart. I've been at around 6-7 mins apart since 7am (been contracting since 7am yesterday-- we did think that they were just braxton hicks for quite a while though). This is really no fun (no fun at all) but we can't wait until Stinky's here. I guess the name mystery will be solved soon (will be stuck with it once they write it on that piece of paper in the hospital. We're still not sure what it'll be). We'll update when there's more news.

Contractions for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

Really though, Baby?

We don't have much to report yet. We're due and tired. We want Stinky to come already so that we can worry about him in all new and interesting ways. We haven't had any real labor signs and other than the fact that he's engaged (which we've known for 2 weeks now) there's really nothing to indicate that he is coming soon. We'll be induced soon if he decides not to come on his own (we were told that 12 days is standard waiting time). We have an appointment with the midwife tomorrow and we'll be sure to update everyone as to what is happening once we know.

Nothing else has been going on really. We went for a lovely walk today and found a bunch of almost adult baby swans in the stream near the house. We had a good time feeding them bread and taking photos. We'll post pictures of us and the town soon (I know, we keep promising to post pics and haven't. I will someday!). Daddy still doesn't love school and Mommy is super ready for Stinky to come out. Will post again tomorrow after our appointment. For now, we're going to watch the second half of the Saints game. We wish that we were in New Orleans to watch it with all of our friends! Daddy really, really wishes that he had an Amber in his hand.

Amber for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

You ready, Baby?

We're sorry that it's been so long since we've updated but it's been a relatively slow news week over here. We had our 38 week appointment on Monday. We are well and Stinky is engaged. We know that this doesn't actually mean that he's coming right away but we're opting to see it as a good sign. He's still head down and all of that good stuff (and his heart sounds good and our blood pressure isn't going crazy...). Mommy is a ball of out of control symptoms though. We haven't had any swelling all this time but now Mommy's hands are holding onto so much water that she can't grip things and they hurt all of the time. We're still not sleeping so well but we make up for that by trying to sleep for as much of the day as is possible. 'Resting' all day also helps Mommy (almost) forget that Daddy is at work all day (Mommy and Stinky really miss Daddy while he's gone).

On Sunday we did our practice run to the hospital in Edinburgh. It was even easier than we could have hoped. It took an hour and 5 minutes door to door and was super easy to find. Mommy is a lot less stressed about it now that she knows that it's not going to be difficult to get there. We're all packed and ready to go for the hospital. Mommy never feels as if we're totally ready for the Stinky but Daddy suspects that she never will. We have the essentials and everything is clean and folded and neat (ready to be utterly messed up by a crazy Stinky baby). Now we just wait...

The weather has been really nice here in Scotland. It's been sunny most days but it's progressing strongly towards winter. The air feels clean and crisp and it makes us think of beautiful October/November days in Nola. Mommy and Daddy both wish that we could be sitting at the Fly with some friends and this cool breeze (we're sure that there are a lot of people in Nola who would love it if we could bring this breeze to them!).

Daddy isn't loving work so much but he loves being home with Mommy and we're both looking so forward to Stinky coming that it makes up for work being yucky or being lonely through the day.

That's about all we have for today but we'll write again soon. Hopefully the next post will read something like, 'we're in labor' and will be posted very soon (Mommy can dream!). We hope that the weather is nice no matter where you are and that you're all sitting outside in a nice breeze right under a sunbeam.

Cool breezes and sunbeams for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky

Time to come out now, Baby!

It's official-- we're full term. This last Sunday we were 37 weeks. If Stinky wants to come out now it would be fine with us. We can't wait to meet him and Mommy feels like she is about to burst. We're almost all ready for his debut. We have a few odds and ends left to get and Mommy still has a few things that she needs to pack in her hospital bag (she would also like to spend some more time practicing getting that car seat in and out of the car) but for the most part we're ready. Mommy's been doing what she can to encourage Stinky to get on out of there. There's raspberry leaf tea and walks and spicy food (nothing crazy spicy, Mommy doesn't want to chance worse heartburn than she's been having). Other than running around planning and packing and cleaning there hasn't been all that much happening. Daddy is busy working and Mommy is busy trying to get 3 consecutive hours of sleep. We didn't end up going to Glasgow last weekend. Daddy's parents came in town instead. They're coming in again this Saturday so we might not get there before the Stinky comes. We'll see... we'll work bubble tea into our future somehow (also, Mommy would love to see her friend Eileen). On Sunday we're going to do a practice run to the hospital. It's fairly far away (should be about 45 minutes, we'll see...) so we want to know the very best route in case Stinky is in a hurry. We have a checkup this coming Monday and hopefully everything is on track (he's still in a good position, etc). We will, of course, let everyone know how it goes. We hope that everyone had a good labor day and that everyone is well. We also hope that everyone is getting more sleep than Mommy (which she is about to go attempt again).

Sleep for everyone!

Mommy, Daddy and Stinky