Meeting Pops

My dad arrived on Friday night (shortly after we arrived home) for the weekend  to meet his grandson for the first time! 

Seeing him for the first time :)

We're Coming Home!

We were released from the hospital on Friday, Jan 13th. Yep... Friday the 13th... thankfully our homecoming proved to not be any scary event.

time to go home little buddy!

Dad is excited to use that carseat he installed properly

Here's a little video from our car ride home (listen to what dad put on the radio)....

When we arrived back at our house, my mom and sister had a Welcome Home "Fiesta" lunch waiting for us complete with delish tortilla soup made by Dede and a cake! Thanks mom and Em for making our homecoming so special!

Birth Story

Well it's been a little over 2 weeks now since Baby Ian made his appearance into the real world and solidified the fact that our lives would be forever changed, and we can also have a "native" Colorado bumper sticker. And for the first time in over 2 weeks I'm finally finding a spare minute to write the "birth story." 


Monday, Jan 9th was a busy day in "operation make baby come."  That morning I got up and walked a few miles around the park, drank raspberry leaf tea, had the "scraping of the membranes" procedure at my 10am doc appointment, and then had some spicy Indian food (with curry) for dinner. Oh, and did I mention it was a full moon... yep...I never really thought any of this would get things moving, but shockingly it did! That night at around midnight - shortly after going to bed - I woke up to some contractions. I headed downstairs to lay on the couch as I was tossing and turning. I was monitoring my contractions with an iphone app (welcome to 2012) and they were still like 10 minutes apart but were lasting for like a minute. They went consistently through the night, and when my alarm on my phone went off at 6:45am telling me it was time to get up for work (no, I hadn't actually slept) I wondered what to do... Was this the real thing?  The rule for going to the hospital is for them to be 5 minutes apart for a minute long for one hour.... so should I go to work? (Yes, I really considered this) And with that thought I sat up and felt like I peed my pants and went running off to the bathroom. After further inspection I determined I had not peed myself but was pretty convinced my water had broken. I ran up to tell John who was still sound asleep. After a call to the doctor  it was official I was going to the hospital. I fired off an email to my boss letting her know that I wouldn't be in, called my mom and told her to get on the next flight, and took a quick shower - who wants give birth without a shower, shaved legs, and some make-up? By 9:30 (after a Starbucks stop) we were on our way to the hospital with a car full of things - our bags, a boppy pillow, Ian's diaper bag, etc. Shortly after getting checked in and set up in our room they confirmed that my water had in fact broken which mean I would be having this baby within the next 24 hours max (whew, it wasn't just a false alarm). 

They  hooked me up to an IV of fluids and pitocin to really kick it into high-gear because my contractions had slowed after my water had broken. Once they got my contractions going  again we were just hanging out... John was playing on his iPad... I was still emailing & texting people (I'm a little insane). After laboring for a few hours the nurse came in and asked if I was ready for my epidural. My first response was "No, I'm good still" and she said she'd check back after they administered one to the girl in the room next to me. John pointed out that I would be better to get it sooner than later because by the time I say "give it to me" it's going to be like an hour before the pain subsides by the time the anesthesiologist comes in, administers it, and it starts taking action. I was determined to wait till I was 4-5 cm's. Of course within the next 30 minutes the pain was become really, really, really intense. I tried the whole sitting/rocking on a birth ball with no relief and it got to the point where I had to stand up, hunch over, and heavy breath when a contraction came. It was pretty bad. Once the nurse confirmed I had hit about 5 cm's there was no doubt in my mind... Yep, it's drugs time! 

After I flagged down the nurse to tell her to bring on the drugs it was about another 20 minutes until the very sexy anesthesiologist (who john called "a real looker") popped into my room. Now a lot of people are REALLY worried about the pain of the epidural. My opinion... this is NOT bad. I was in pain, and a prick of a needle and a little "zing" in my back was much better than hunching over heavy breathing feeling like I was dying a slow death. Truthfully it was over in seconds. I was more concerned about the fact that they put you on a catheter - sick - but this was much less eventful than I had imagined as well. As for the epidural, it took about 20 minutes for it to fully kick-in and the only issue I had was that the right side of my body felt much for numb than the left, so they had to keep tinkering with how was laying and adjust me to get things to even out which took awhile but eventually we got things pretty close to even. You know when you have a cavity and they use the Novocaine to numb you and you feel like you had a huge bologna lip? Well after getting the epidural my legs felt like they were the size of Queen Latifia's, but hey I couldn't feel pain so I could handle some Latifia thighs. 

Once the epidural was in place we started watching tv and chatting and around 4pm my sister came to visit and kill sometime. I have to say I was pretty comfortable. The biggest part that sucks is that you're chained to the bed once you get the drugs. So I relied on John and Emily to entertain me while I was hopefully dilating.  At 6pm our friend, Katie Jones (Uncle Bacon's sister), came on board as our nurse! When I went into labor that morning we were able to request her as our nurse when her shift started. I'm sure some people would be on the fence about having a friend as their delivery nurse... sure, she will probably never be able to look at me the same after seeing my kooka and everything else that came with it, but for John and I it was comforting to have Katie on board. She was AWESOME. She walked us through everything happening and we were able to ask her any questions without feeling strange about it. It's funny but when you're about to have a baby you could really care less who is looking at your privates at that moment nothing is private. 

So, with Katie on board I was comfortably hanging out and had dilated to 7cm by 7pm.  being in labor is sort of like being in Las Vegas...you totally lose track of time and have no perception of how much time has passed it could be 2am or 2pm and you just keep on going. Truthfully it felt like time was going pretty quickly. Around 9:30pm my mom made in town! And shortly after Katie came in to check how far dilated I was... she said "hope for a big number!" And a big number it was, I was 10cm and fully effaced... aka ready to go! But before we got to pushing, Katie likes to let "gravity do some work" for first time moms, so she had me sit pretty vertically in the bed to allow the baby to drop further naturally so I wouldn't wear myself out pushing. after sitting for an hour it was time to start pushing...

My mom and Emily left the room and it was just John, Katie, and I for the pushing part. We cranked the Country Mix on my ipod and were ready to go. Now, the biggest challenge was that I had to get my 500 lb Queen Latifia thighs up in the air (with the assitance of Katie and John... they each took a leg) and push. Pushing was going well... every once and awhile we'd hear my mom and Em standing outside the door yelling "Go Sarah, go! You can do it!" Oh lordy. I told them to just come in because I was pretty over caring who was in the room at that point but they refused and just cheered from the doorway for the first hour. 

To explain how the pushing works it wasn't like I was continually pushing, screaming and holding onto the bed rails. Instead you do a series of 3 short pushes in a row when a contraction starts and then hang for a bit until another contraction starts and you push again. In between I would munch on ice chips and we'd chat (I was illegitimately really hungry at this point since I hadn't been able to eat since I got the epidural and it was now after 10). After like an hour of pushing Sugarland's "Stuck Like Glue" song came on the Country Mix while I love this song I told John we had to change the music... there was no time for anything to be stuck like glue right now. So, we stepped it up to my favorite mix on my ipod entitled "Jam Out With Your Clam Out" (many of you have had late night dance parties to this mix and are fond of it as well, don't deny it)... Given the circumstances (ahem, "clam out") this mix had never felt more appropriate or maybe inappropriately perfect. With John on one leg and Katie on the other we were now rocking to my friends Rihanna, J-lo, & Lady Gaga... this is how I always envisioned pushing to be... a dance party. Things were progressing perfectly and as midnight was on the horizon it was looking like baby McG could make his appearance on the 10th or the 11th! At this point Katie could see the little guy's head and of course told me he had a cone-head with red hair. John who swore he was staying from the waist up started peeking! Katie asked if I wanted a mirror to see his head. My first reaction was "Hell no." But then I got curious and decided I would look for just one push... so she rolled the mirror up for me to take a peek and that was all I needed... take it away... and his hair was NOT red. 

Doctor Johnson (the doctor on-call) had arrived and several other nurses had joined the "party" at this point because it was getting close. I had been pushing for close to 2 hours when the doctor got herself "suited up" and got in the position to deliver. Dr. Johnson and Katie coached me through a few more pushes and then Dr. Johnson said, "just 1 or 2 more pushes and this baby is coming out!!" John then decided this was a good time to check things out again - and was able to see the birth of Ian.

It was 12:28am...*push*

I have to admit from this point on was a total blur. The next thing I knew I was holding my baby on my chest as a swarm of people were cleaning him up. I remember looking up at John who was at my side in total disbelief. I was totally stunned. Here was my baby laying on my chest, and he was absolutely perfect. It was an out of body experience to say the least. A miracle. It was everything people describe it as and more. 

Shortly after Ian was born, John cut the cord. Then another 30 minutes or so passed before they had me all cleaned up and Ian's APGAR test, weight, length, etc done. Around 1am my mom and Em came back in to meet the little guy. She said that both John and I looked like we were in a state of shock and I think we were. It was such a surreal  and indescribable moment in my life... I have to say I feel pretty darn lucky and very, very, VERY blessed. I had an uncomplicated pregnancy and birth and a healthy baby boy... I don't think I could ask for anything more. I am so thankful for this! So very thankful! Thank you God for blessing our family.

What a perfect birthday party for Ian - there truly was so much to celebrate that very early morning on Jan 11th!

We love you Ian! Welcome to the world!

More Ian! More Ian!

There have been a few requests for.... More photos! More photos! More photos! So, we are going to upload photos to a Picasa site where you'll be able to see more Ian photos than just what's here on the blog.  That way if you want to see more you can, but we aren't bombarding you with them unwillingly.

Click here for the Ian Patrick Picasa album.

And here's a little video just for fun....

Ian's Nursery

As promised here are some photos of Ian's "finished" room... I still have a few little things to do here and there, but it's minor details at this point.

Photo By: Michelle Hart Photography - www.michelehartphotography.com

 

 

Photo By: Michelle Hart Photography - www.michelehartphotography.com

"Wendell" the Owl Lamp
Photo By: Michelle Hart Photography - www.michelehartphotography.com

Photo By: Michelle Hart Photography - www.michelehartphotography.com

Branch Mobile and Burlap Flags (kudos to Meggie O for making the flags)

Nursery Details:

Wall Color: Benjamin Moore - Coventry Grey HC-169

Crib & Dresser: Ray by Muu 

Glider: Big Daddy by Jennifer Delonge

Side Table: Viva Terra 

"Wendall" the owl lamp: West Elm 

Wall Decals: Etsy 

Custom Prints: SugarFresh from Etsy

Owl Pillow: Dwell Studio

Bookcase: Ikea 

Draperies: Custom made by yours truly

Drapery Hardware: West Elm

Burlap Flags: Custom made by Meggie Dougovito

Owls with flags: Crate and Barrel

Ian's first few days

Ian Patrick McGarry

Born on 1.11.12

8lbs 7oz

21 1/2" long

Well as you now know from the previous post... he arrived (one week ahead of his due date)!!

 I'll give you the deets of his birth in a later post, but here's the story behind his name and how John and I agreed on it. As many of you know John is the 3rd John McGarry, but is truly a second because only him and his grandfather share the same middle name Daniel. John's dad was named John Patrick. That being said there was definitely the debate of carrying on the family name for this little guy. When John was going through my list of names Ian was on there and turned out to be a name that we both really liked.  John looked up the meaning and come to find out Ian is the Scottish Gaelic version of the name John. So Ian was the perfect modern twist to carrying on the family name!  

Here's a few more photos from our time at the hospital. We were so lucky to have lots of visitors and support! Thanks to everyone who called, stopped by, sent flowers, texted, etc. We truly have the most incredible friends and family.  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture with everyone who came to visit, but here are some of the photos from our hospital stay...

Just moments after giving birth

Hanging out with dad

Auntie Meggie and Auntie Em visiting

I'm fresh and new!

Just one of the beautiful bouquets we got in the hospital

Hanging out with Meggie

Dede is in love

Check out that head of hair

Mama and her boy

Em so excited to see the baby

He loves his sleepy time :)

Todd and the wee one

Auntie Em & Baby Ian

Meggie, Me, and the baby!

Sleeping with daddy at the hospital. Couldn't this just melt your heart?!?

Welcome to the world Ian Patrick!

Here's some preliminary pics of Ian's Birthday Party. Be patient, I'll try to get more up soon.

Fear Not, It's Only a Name, Right?

I know a lot of you have been super concerned about baby McG's name or lack there of.  Both my mom and John's mom have expressed their extreme concern at the idea that their grandson is going to be named Wendall (don't worry mom's I wouldn't let that happen). And I get asked daily by someone if we are any closer on names, of course I always reply with "Nope." The closer it's getting I have been feeling a bit more pressure to get serious about it, but John... not so much... A few weeks ago we were out to lunch and I told him we needed to get a list of 3-4 names we liked and  then we could wait to make the final call at the hospital. Despite my effort to just get a shortlist he still told me he wasn't ready to have "this conversation." Over Christmas my mom tried to get John to talk the name game with her and he wasn't budging it was the typical "I like the name Wendall" or "Ubaldo" response.  I have to admit the humor of these "joke names" has long worn off since we have gotten so close, but shockingly,  my type A, planner of a self has not started freaking out about it.  I guess I have been taking the "we will figure it out when we have to" road.  I just assume that once he arrives we will have no choice but to make a choice. Plus, I'm not going to lie I created a back-up plan - I made a list of some names I like on my iPad weeks ago  - you know so that we'd have something to fall back on at the hospital if all else failed and we never discussed it prior to the baby's arrival. I'd hate to be sitting in a hospital bed after giving birth, 100% exhausted trying to Google names from scratch. Lord knows that would never work. At that point I would probably agree to Wendell if it meant I didn't have to make a decision or use my brain.

Well John found out about my little list, and on Tuesday night  he decided that he wanted to get serious and have "this" conversation.

John: "Let's see your list."
Me: "What list?" (insert me doing my best to pretend that no list exists because I feared it would become a massacre of my names, and I didn't know if I wanted to share my ideas first)
John: "You know what list... your name list on your iPad. I'm going to pick the name now."
Me: "Oh no no, you're not just going to pick it..."
With that he grabbed my iPad that was sitting by me and found my said list. Crap, here we go.

I had a handful of both first and middle names which upon looking at the list he immediately started rearranging and deleting names (only after calling them terrible or douchy). I will say, none of the names he omitted were "my favorites" so  I was actually feeling good that we were making progress as the list was getting shorter! Clearly I had the names he actually liked (no, not Wendell or Ubaldo) already on my list because he didn't want to add anything. Shocking. Before long he had my list paired down to 4 first name options plus a handful of middle name combos. Woohoo we have what we need to get the job done at the hospital now! Time for bed.

Then, the following morning  at work I got an email from John titled "names" it included a google doc of an excel spreadsheet with all the names options we had settled on from the night before . Of course he sent me a spreadsheet. He puts together a damn spreadsheet for everything  (vacation budgets, household spending, gas mileage, etc) because everything in life can have a system, right? Even selecting your child's name. Ugh, this Aquarian lady thinks otherwise.  His spreadsheet also included tabs where each of us was supposed to rank our names from our #1 to our least favorite (while there were only 4 first names there were 12 names total when he listed all the combos with the middle names). John had already ranked his but somehow was able to lock his ranking tab so I couldn't peek or know his ranking ahead of time. I'll tell ya these people who deal with spreadsheets all day and their "locked cells" think they are soooo cool. Anyway, to appease my left-brained husband this right-brained girl decided to fill out his little spreadsheet later last night. Then after "voting" was complete we sat in bed with our iPads lined up and  John "unlocked" his rankings so we were able to compare.

Now, what are the chances that we agreed? You people know us... we challenge each other on everything. Everything. I say black so he will say white... it's how we roll...  it keeps us on our toes at all times (truthfully we'd be bored  stiff otherwise). So of course there was no way this next part would be easy... I mean it had only taken us 9 months to even start to seriously discuss any names.

Well pick your jaws up off the floor because we both ranked the same name as our number 1 choice. Yep, you read that correctly. We picked the same freaking name! Can you even believe it?!? Now, true to form once John realized that he told me he had picked that name 12 hours prior and was thinking he might prefer his number #2 selection now. There you go...making it more difficult...now that's the McGarry's I know and love. This is also the reason that we have waited this long to make any sort of list... John couldn't even make it 12 hours without second guessing his selection. That being said, John's # 2 selection was my #3 pick, so it was still high on my list and for sure a name combo that I like. Therefore, we have ultimately shortlisted to 2 names and will pick "the one" when we meet the little guy on d-day.  Big progress for us! So fear not, baby McG is VERY close to having a name now.

And no, I'm not sharing those 2 names... you'll have to wait. Plus you never know we could totally change our minds again.... I wouldn't put it past us.

Can you feel that?

The other night John had his had on my stomach and the little guy got active. He kicked and John would take his hand and press on my stomach where he can kicked and then the baby would kick back. It was like they were playing some sort of knock knock game. It went on for quite awhile, and then in all seriousness John looked at me and asked "Hey, can you feel that?" Um... yeah.. I can feel it, it's ME he's kicking.  Oh, too funny.

38 Week Doctor Appt Update

Well for those of you waiting to hear that I'm completely dialated and ready to go, I hate to dissapoint, but we're holding steady at that 1cm and 70%. I know, slow tear. I think any pregnant lady at this point is hoping that the doctor will take one look and say "Oh wow, it's time to get you into labor and delivery." This was not the case with me today. See what happens when you get all nervous that things might happen quickly...it comes to a hault. He is still sitting super low, (which makes it pretty uncomfortable for me), but he's holding on! 


Next Monday puts me at 39 weeks and if nothing happens before then my doctor wants to do a procedure called "scraping the membranes" (uh, ouch!). It's not inducing per se, but rather her going in and "scraping things up" by separating the amniotic sac from the walls of the uterus. The hope is that it triggers labor because it releases prostaglandins which can cause contractions. She said some women start contracting within hours, others it takes days, and some it has no affect on. It's a gamble, but hey, I’m willing to try it. I mean it sounds completely horrible - I don’t know who in their right mind would want to have anything down there scraped - but I’m guessing it beats feeling like I’m going to pee my pants 24 hours a day. Since he’s measuring almost a week ahead she wants to get this going next week rather than waiting until I am at a true 40 weeks because then it would likely be the induction talk versus this first measure. 


So that's the latest. My focus this week will be to get the baby moving out on his own... bring on the walks, spicy food, chocolate, hot showers, etc. Gretchen sent me this recipe awhile back to hang onto for January, and I'm thinking maybe I should make it this weekend? Eggplant Parm anyone? 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and onto 2012!

Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas and you are now onto a Happy New Year! I realized that we were a terrible family this year who didn't take so much as one photo on Christmas. FAIL. Next year we will be better... John did get me a video camera for Christmas so maybe we will have some live footage too... get excited!

As I mentioned earlier, my family was in town for the holiday. Despite me getting over the food poisoning and then everyone else (my mom, John, and Emily) getting a sore throat, cold, and/or sinus infection we troopered through and made the most of the holiday. We went to mass on Christmas Eve  night and then opened up all the gifts afterwards... we have gotten really bad at waiting the older we've gotten, guess this will change next year. Christmas day was filled with some cooking and quality time hanging out with the family.  Meggie and Ryan were able to join us for Christmas dinner and we had ourselves a Merry Little Christmas filled with family, friends,  beef tenderloin, roasted potatoes, cauliflower gratin, and asparagus - yum!

I was lucky enough to have the week between Christmas and New Year's off, and my parents were in town until Wednesday. We were able to get a lot of to-do's checked off my list... my parents helped get the decals up on the nursery walls, we did lots of little errands, and even got ALL of the Christmas decorations down!! Yep, that's right the tree is GONE, the dickens village is put away, and my evergreen candle has been burned for the last time this season. What a great feeling  (one more thing we won't have to worry about dealing with once the babe makes his appearance)! Thank you mom and dad - first time I got all the Christmas stuff put away before the New Year - Ahhh [insert sigh of relief].

On Tuesday I had my 37 week appointment while my parents were still in town. They actually waited in the car while I went to my appointment -  thankfully my mom is beyond addicted to angry birds and dad had a new book to read so they had entertainment while they waited. Anyway, my doctor was out on vacation for the holiday so I saw another doc in the practice. I didn't like her. Not only was she not friendly, but she was also running late. Since she was the doc on call for the week between Christmas and New Year's I told myself that the baby must stay in until "my" Dr. Offerdahl returns because this doctor was not for me. Regardless of my feelings for this doc  I still had to show her my who-ha, awkward, right? Good news (since I decided I didn't want her delivering my baby) there had been little progress since the previous week - still just 1 cm and 70% effaced. So, my parents headed back to Omaha on Wednesday and are on stand-by until I get new news or "something happens."

The rest of the holiday "break" has really been spent getting ready and nesting. I'm happy to report that my very expensive and not-so-sexy breast pump has arrived on Wednesday night.  I unpacked it, check it all out... you can't really test it it until the baby comes so I guess it's ready.  I also got my bags packed for the hospital (sans the staples I'm still using daily). We ordered the video monitor (many of you recommended) it also came from Amazon and is now set up and ready to go. Just yesterday John installed the car -seat in my car. I think we're pretty darn close to ready! Now we just wait, and maybe pick a name for this guy while I get increasingly more uncomfortable. I realized at my yoga class yesterday just how difficult moving is getting... Prior to pregnancy when taking a yoga class I'd love when we would sit in child's pose just relaxing and stretching for a few minutes. However yesterday I would have paid a large sum of money to do Cat/Cow or hell even Warrior One, anything to not have to crouch down and fold over in child's pose - NOT COMFORTABLE - and for some reason the teacher made us do a lot of it.

We had a very low key New Year's Eve; we had planned to go down to our fav local brewery, Great Divide, but we ended up not even leaving our house. Instead our friends Krystal and Gretchen, my sister, and Todd  came over and we ate, drank (not me), and played games. It actually turned out to be the perfect low-key New Years Eve, and I highly recommend playing The Game of Things if you want some good laughs.

No arrival of "Wendell" yesterday, so he will officially be a 2012 baby!! Holla, year of the dragon! Now we just keep on keeping on. I go back to work on Tuesday and plan to work up until something happens. I've promised my co-workers I won't let my water break at my desk, while I have no guarantees I am banking on the fact that only 10% of women have their water break prior to labor starting, so here's to hoping I'm in the 90%. I have my 38 week appointment on Tuesday so hopefully I'll get some news that things have progressed, especially since Dr. Offerdahl will be back! Happy 2012, now let's have this baby.