parker the porker

we finally got some kind of insurance arranged with parker here in colorado and were able to take him in today for his first appointment. he has gained 2 pounds and grown 3 inches since his last appointment at 3 days old. he now weighs in at 8lbs 1oz and is 21 inches long. everyone told me they grow fast, but holy hannah i cant believe how big he is getting.

jared started calling him parker the porker when he was first born because when he gets hungry he makes this cute piggy noise. but now that he has gained 2 pounds in 4 weeks, he really is a porker! he eats like his daddy, and sleeps like his mommy. we have been really lucky with his night time sleeping. we usually put him down between 10:30pm and 11:00pm and he will sleep until 4:30am or 5:00am and has even gone until 6:00am. then he will eat and go right back to sleep until 8:30am.

we took parker to church for the first time last sunday but we only went for sacrament meeting and he stayed in his car seat the whole time so he wouldnt be passed around and be exposed to too many germs. he looked too cute in his mr. rogers sweater, which was huge on him.

last week he had started to become VERY fussy EVERY time he was awake. it has been so frustrating having this new baby cry for hours and they cant tell you whats wrong. we finally discovered he had a very bad diaper rash and after putting some aquaphor on him, it cleared it right up, and he has been a happy camper ever since.... and so have i!

we are still in love with this little dude, and love his sweet little spirit.

growing and changing

when parker was just 11 days old, we set him in his car seat and took off for colorado. he has been to idaho, utah, wyoming, and colorado in the first 2 weeks of his life. he was an awesome traveler and slept the whole way, besides waking up twice to eat.

its still so surreal to me that i now have this cute boy here in my arms. i thought for sure i was going to be pregnant forever. its amazing to me how much he has grown and changed in just 2 short weeks. he really is a good baby and only cries when he is hungry, or has an air bubble in his tummy that wont come out. he usually sleeps 5 hours at night before he wakes up and realizes he is hungry again. when he gets really hungry and mad, he makes this cute little piggy noise. he loves to cuddle and have anyone hold him. but he does not love the sponge baths we have to give him. and he is very good and eating, sleeping, and pooping :)he loves to sleep with his hands up by his facedriving across country. (dont worry, we were stopped to feed him)our party animal on new years eve. looking spiffy in his tux.these jeans my mom wore when she was a baby, then i wore them when i was a baby, and now parker gets to wear them.we think he is one cute little guy!

he's here!

Parker Daniel Rucks.
December 24, 2010.
6 pounds 7 ounces 18 inches long.
Perfect.

here's his story:

Friday December 24 we had a doctors appointment in the morning. i was feeling really bummed out that he still wasnt here when three other girls i knew who were all due around the same time as me had each already had their babies. i was keeping my fingers crossed that we had made some progress and would be heading to the hospital but, no such luck. we hadnt progressed any. we scheduled an appointment to be induced monday, the 27th at 7:30 am, went over to the hospital to pre-register and home we went.

we decided to go out to lunch around 11:30am as kind of a last-date-just-the-two-of-us kind of thing. my contractions had started to feel very different, but were still coming 15, 20 and 30 minutes apart. after we got home i laid down in bed and turned the tv on. my contractions started to come closer and closer together and were getting strong... nothing too horrible though.

i remember texting my mom "im not sure if we are going to make it to monday..." then at 1:45 i got a VERY strong contraction... 5 minutes later, another one.... i decided to take a bath and when i got into the tub they seemed to come stronger and faster.... jared had gone to help his brother move a few things so when he got home i told him to call the hospital... they told him to have me lay on my left side and drink 2 cold glasses of water and see what happens... i was too uncomfortable and they were coming so fast i couldnt drink any water... i debated back and forth about going to the hospital cause i didnt want to get turned away....

but i couldnt take the pain any longer... and i told jared if this is "false labor" i dont want to know what "real labor is." that drive from idaho falls to rexburg was LONG! every time i had a contraction i would get really hot so we would turn the AC on, then after it passed i would freeze so we would turn it back to hot. we go to the hospital around 4:00 pm the nurse checked me, and i was already dilated 5 cm and 100% effaced... things went WAY fast from there as they began hooking up iv's and monitors... i begged and pleaded for them to get me an epidural and when that man came in and put something wonderful in me all was okay in the world again. i dont know why or how any woman would not want to have one, but props to them... i couldnt do it.

my doctor showed up and immediately told me things werent looking good for the baby and he was 90% sure were going to have to have a c-section... i remember just crying.

finally things seemed to calm down a little and they had me lying flat on my back with a pillow propping me up on one side... they kept coming in every now and then and having me switch sides to see if that would help calm baby down. i kept asking how he was looking and my nurse would say, better but still not great.

at 10:00pm my nurse sadie, who was awesome, checked and said "looks like you're complete! let's start pushing!" i was SO relieved not to have a c-section. we got set up and started pushing at 10:10pm, my doctor showed up at 11:00 and by 11:15pm Parker made his debut into the world!

he is perfect and we love him. he has been the center of attention with my sisters and mom and jared's mom since we've been hom. he gets held constantly by one of them during the day, but i dont think he minds :)

ready, set, GO?

okay so maybe i was a little off thinking "any day now." here we are 38 weeks and still pregnant. i know pregnancy is 40 weeks (or maybe even longer) but im ready to be done. this whole pregnancy has really flown by but now that im not working anymore, these last few weeks are going SO SLOW. from the beginning we kind of just assumed he would come "early" and now that "early" is here and he is not, im kind of bummed out. i wouldnt be so stressed out about having him come early if we werent packing up and moving to colorado at the end of the month.

we went to the doctor on friday. i really hate the doctors but these last few months havent been bad... its the same thing every time, weight, blood pressure, urine sample, listen for the heart beat, measure belly, questions, call it good. this time i thought they were going to be checking under the hood for dilation so of course i was nervous all morning. when they checked my blood pressure it was a little high so they checked it again... still high. i told them i was nervous for them to check me and they told me they werent going to be checking this appointment which made me calm way down so they check my blood pressure again and it was back to normal. i cant help but get nervous when it comes to things like this... im not sure how im going to get through labor and delivery and keep my blood pressure down.

my doctor told me im measuring small, but ive been consistent every time so we're just going to have a small baby. he is predicting he will be in the 6 pound range, (but probably no bigger than 7.5 pounds) which is okay with me! he did tell me though that he has seen girls as small as me deliver 10 pounders! YIKES!

we go back in on friday to see if i have started making any progress. i dont wanna get my hopes up too high though for good news. everyone keeps telling me to just enjoy this time right now cause he is going to be here before we know it.... which is true, but im finding it hard to enjoy my time when all i constantly think about is going into labor.

if i could send my little dude a message, id tell him "ready.... set.... GO!"
here's hoping my next post will be of pictures of our new bundle of joy!