3 Months

What a fun month is was pretty girl!  We enjoyed some great family time and loved having you here for your First Christmas and our first Christmas as a family of 3.  Check out your third month.

Let's begin with a week's worth of wake ups.  You are such a happy girl when you wake up.  You talk to yourself for a little while and then we go in there to get you up.  I decided to capture you waking up each morning for a week.  Here is a glimpse of the beautiful girl I see each morning:

Your smile lights up your whole face just like it lights up our lives.

You first found your hands enough to put them in your mouth around Thanksgiving, but I remember the specific moment you reached out to touch a toy.  Your Granny and I were eating lunch at Bear Rock on Dec. 2nd and I looked over to you in your carseat.  You were reaching out to touch the giraffe that hangs on the handle.  It may seem like such a small thing to note but it was a big deal to me.  It was one of the first memorable things you did that showed you actually growing and developing.  Maybe I was a bit overexcited but then again you're my daughter and every new thing you do will be exciting to me. 

Gram and Grandpa came to visit us, but really they were here to see you.  They love you as though you were their first grandchild, not 5th.

A few pictures we took when trying to get the perfect one to double as our Christmas card and your Birth Announcement.  You were a good sport considering we were trying to get you to sit up at just a little over 2 months old.  Cute, cute, cute.

We went to Aunt Rose's one day to bake Christmas goodies.  This is how you spent much of your time while I made the likes of peanut butter balls and lady fingers.

I'm sad that you had already fallen asleep or you would have been in this picture for sure.  All 4 of us love you dearly. 

What's a Christmas without visiting Santa?  We knew we had to take you while you would still be okay with him because who knows what next year will hold.  We had a 30ish minute wait and you gladly took that opportunity to take a little snooze.  You woke up when it was almost your time, like you were excited to meet him or something.  This picture was from a further distance away, we do have a professional one that is fantastic.  You took a few good looks at him, but didn't seem to mind the jolly old man dressed in that bright red suit. 

Christmas Eve morning at Uncle Chris' and Aunt Kim's.  Grandpa poses as Santa to give out all the gifts.  Here you are with your cousins Anna, Lily, Ryan, and Isaiah.  You 5 are such a fun bunch!

The before and after of your gifts from us.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say you were more excited than these pictures show.

Our family Christmas picture!

Even though a little late, our complete family picture.  We can't forget about your buddy Lily!

Sock monkey picture.

We love you more and more baby girl!

Loving the sun!

2 Months

Your second month we were all 3 working on more cyclinders.  We were a little more used to getting up during the night and you really began showing us your sweet little personality.  After many middle of the night feedings you decided you wanted to sleep all night on Nov. 18th.  And, I'm talking like 9pm to 8am, glorious!  Many fun things happened during your second month but here is a snippet.

Your first Halloween!  This was your costume.  I know exciting huh?  You were such a little girl that even the newborn onsie was too big for you.  Next year your costume will be much more fun, we promise.

Your first real smile came on Oct. 29, just over a month old.  Oh, how exciting that was!  It was so nice to see that you were happy.  This picture was one of your first sweet smiles. 

You attended your first NC State function and sported your cheerleading outfit with style.  We shutout UNC so we will say you are our good luck charm, in more ways than you will ever know. 

A try at tummy time, definitely not your favorite but you were a trooper.

Your first time in the Bumbo.  It may have been kinda early but you would never have guessed, just look at that head support.

Cute pose.

Spending time with your cousin Haydyn.  She loves you so much and is such a good big cousin to you.  I can't wait to see your friendship blossom over the years.

Catnap together after spending the day at the museum.

On your playmat.  Love, love, love the playmat.  We all love the playmat.  It has at times saved your Mama's sanity.  Did I mention I love the playmat?!

Sorry this picture is so small but this is your First Thanksgiving.  Love our striped family photo?

It humored me to give you things and watch you hold them only because of your grasping reflex.  I pretended that you were advanced and were purposefully doing it.  You didn't seem to mind and I thought it was great fun.

Beside the girlie sock monkey to keep track of your growth each month.

Oh my, 2 months!  What a cute little baby girl!  We love you so much, Adelaide.

1 Month

Here's a 1 Month posting for Adelaide. Those first few days at home were at times beautifully rough. She lost down to 6 lbs 10 oz the Friday after she was born so we had to make sure she ate frequently. She ate every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night until Sunday. She had gained weight at her appointment and we were told we could go every 5 hours at night. You would have thought we won the lottery, amazing! At her 2 week appointment she had surpassed her birth weight and we could let her wake us up at night, awesome! She started going around 5 hours and often a little better. She was the baby that you thought was completely asleep only to put her down and her eyes pop open. We had a few nights where we would be up for 3-4 hours at a time trying to get her back to sleep. Those were some interesting days. At times, we were so exhausted that we would get delirious, laughing at everything. We learned to deal with it patiently and gradually she got better. The night before she turned 3 weeks it took her from 8pm-12am to get her to sleep. The next night Brandon completely took the reigns (something I needed) and she was asleep much quicker. That was the night I think things turned around for the better. We started a bedtime routine of bath, eating, then bed. We still do this routine and she has come to expect it. She slept from around 9pm-5:30am on Oct. 21, not even a month old yet! We were blown away and when we woke up we immediately looked at our monitor to make sure she was OK. She is a good sleeper and we are so thankful.

I should take a whole post to thank my Mama for all that she did to help us adjust to parenthood. She stayed with us the first few days and nights and I'm not sure we could have done it without her help. She provided us with everything we needed, when we weren't even sure what it was that we needed. She would take a shift in the middle of the night rocking her trying to get her back to sleep. She helped out with the household things and kept our lives looking normal. We are so, so thankful for her love and willingness to help us. Adelaide sure does love her Granny!

We also want to give a shout out to our LIFE class members from church and various other friends for bringing us dinners for the first month. Those meals were such a blessing and words cannot truly express how thankful we were for those wonderful dinners. Friends are the best!

Her first month also marked her first and second trips to the fair. She went Oct. 14 and 17th. We were a little worried about getting her out and about with so many people but we didn't want to miss the fair and needed to get out so it was the perfect outing, both times. She was a good girl and hopefully this year she will love it even more.

She went to both of our works to meet our co-workers. It was fun having her "on the outside" so everyone could finally meet her. Our co-workers were wonderful through the whole pregnancy and were so excited to see her.

Gram came to stay with us Oct. 26-28. It was so nice having her around to love on Adelaide and help us out. She even gave her a bottle on the 27th and we had our first date night, at Ruth's Chris and then Yogurt Mountain. We joked that maybe we should just go to a mattress store to check out their products. It was only the 2nd time she had been given a bottle and at this point she drank it with no problem. This changed later but was awesome this night.

Adelaide, our first month with you was unbelievable. We loved you so much, yet we had just met you. We had to learn who you were, your unique personality. You taught us so much about ourselves and we realized just how lucky and blessed we were to have you in our lives.

The Beginning

Shall we start with The Birth Story? There is much to say about the pregnancy but we will just start with how our sweet Adelaide came into the world.



Her due date was Monday, September 19th and due to her small measurements on ultrasound Dr. Anya decided to induce me a week later, Monday, September 26th, if she had not come on her own yet. Needless to say she was cozy in there so I had to be induced. September 25 was kind of a surreal day for us. We knew that she was coming the next day, no matter what. We enjoyed the last bit of time together as a family of 2 (plus Lily) and enjoyed a late lunch at Cracker Barrel. The rest of the afternoon we just stayed around home and relaxed.


When you are induced they have you come into the hospital the night before to have blood taken, an IV placed, and Cervidil administered. The nurse was to call us to come in sometime after 7. I felt like it couldn't come fast enough. Sure enough at around 7:15 she called to let us know they were ready for us and we could go in anytime. Even though we knew what was coming, that phone call made it even more real. So we finished up some last minute things and I grabbed a sandwich to eat on the way. We headed to the hospital, arriving around 8:30. They immediately told me to go up the elevator to a little waiting room. After about 5 minutes the nurse came to take us to our labor and delivery room. She asked us some questions, drew my blood, put the IV in my arm to start me on fluids, and attached monitors to my stomach. Later Dr. Anya came in to administer the Cervidil. All that took probably less than 2 hours, pretty speedy I thought. We tried to relax a little and wind down for bed, much easier said than done at this point. My IV line was attached along with 2 monitors to measure contractions and Adelaide's heartbeat so I couldn't get that comfy in the hospital bed. The nurse offered to bring me some meds to help me sleep. I tried for a while without it and then just decided that a good night's rest was what I needed so I took the meds. They worked great and I woke up the next morning around 7 to get ready for the induction to begin.


The induction itself was pretty unexciting. The new nurse, Sonja, came in and started the Pitocin drip around 7:30 or so. Here we go! Earlier I had asked for a box of dry Cheerios from the night nurse even though I had heard from friends they usually don't give you food until after the baby is born... good thing I had the sandwich on the way to the hospital. She said she could probably get me something since. However, Sonja came in saying she knew the night nurse said I could have something but that I really wasn't supposed to have anything other than ice, water, and popsicles. Maybe she could tell I was a little disappointed and said that she would check with the doctor though. Now it was Dr. Gunter, and he agreed to let me have Cheerios. I was so thankful and savored each one not knowing when I would get to eat again.


At the start of the Pitocin I was only dilated 1-2 cm. What a long way to go! Most of the morning we just talked and relaxed some more. My mom and Haydyn came up to visit and chat a while. My dad was having a procedure done at Wake Med while I was at Rex, too bad we weren't at the same hospital. Sonja came in periodically to check and get a pain score from me. I didn't like to have to rate the pain because since this was the first time I had ever been in labor I didn't know how bad it could get. I didn't want to say the pain was a 5 out of 10 if it really wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. She talked with me a bit and said that she would say a 5 was where I couldn't talk through the contraction and could only breath through it. To her, a 10 was a C-section without any anesthesia, yikes. The later it got I could feel the contractions a little more, but definitely nothing I couldn't handle at this point, I told Sonja around a 2 pain score based on her descriptions.


Brandon's parents arrived around 11 or 11:30 and they came up to visit as well. I remember his mom saying that I was still talking and smiling through the contractions and to enjoy it. Oh boy, what was coming?! Around noon Sonja checked me again and I had progressed to 4 cm or so. I had asked her earlier how long it would take to get an epidural if I decided to get it. She said it would take about 30 minutes so I kept that in mind as the time passed on. Around 12:45 or so she said that she thought if Dr. Gunter were to break my water I would progress a little faster. I agreed and around 1:00 he came in to break it. From then on progress definitely occurred.


My pain during contractions got much worse. They were already coming fairly regularly every 1-2 minutes but the pain intensified to a definite 5, if not more. I didn't want to speak, look at anything, or think about anything else other than getting to the end of each contraction. It must be noted that during these intense contractions a guy had to come into the room and work on the computer system. He said it would only take about 5 minutes so there was no way that I wouldn't have a contraction. Brandon asked if he could wait, but for whatever reason he couldn't. Also, a lady with a menu came by and talked with me about food. While I was in the middle of intense labor she was trying to show me the menu and I couldn't even have anything to eat. I wanted to grab that menu and hit her over the head with it... craziness! Back to the contractions, Brandon was such a huge part of me getting through the labor. He would look at the contraction monitor and tell me when the contraction was ending. That was so helpful, except for when we were tricked and it would peak again without completely stopping. He was there on the side of my bed letting me squeeze his hand to my little heart's content. His poor hand and the bed rail took the brunt of things. It was during this time of not knowing how long this would last (would it be a few hours or many hours?) that I decided to get an epidural. After all, I wasn't trying to win a medal I just wanted to have a baby. Around 2:30, after intense contractions every minute or so for an hour and a half, I asked Sonja to prep things for an epidural. She called the anesthesiologist and, sure enough, Dr. Hansen came in to do the epidural around 3:00. They made Brandon sit in a chair off to the side where he couldn't see the needle. Sonja stood in front of me and let me squeeze her during contractions. The epidural itself didn't hurt, but the Lidocaine block beforehand felt like a bee sting. It took about 10 minutes for me to feel pretty good relief from the contractions. They say it affects one side more than the other and with me it was my left side because I could feel the numbing sensation more on that side and I had a hard time moving my left leg. Dr. Hansen did a wonderful job and I was so thankful to have some relief.


So with the epidural going I got some much appreciated quiet time and rested a little. The whole labor I liked the lights dim and didn't care one thing about turning on the TV, which I am a little surprised about since there wasn't a whole lot else I could do because of my IV and monitors. Anyway, around 5:45 or so I started feeling pain again. This really worried me because of all the crazy stories I had heard about where the epidural stops working. I immediately got anxious because I had been 2.5 hours with little to no pain. When Sonja came back in to check on me I told her about the pain. She asked if I thought it was pressure because you still feel pressure with epidurals. Again, I had never felt all of this before so I wasn't sure how to gauge what this was that I was feeling. She checked me and I was around 5 cm or so. She left out and came back a few minutes later and I knew at this point it was pain not pressure. She then drew up some extra meds Dr. Hansen left and put it into my fluid bag for my epidural. After 5 minutes or so I was still feeling the same pain so she hurriedly broke open another vial and pulled it up into a syringe to bolus it straight into my line, not even worrying with the bag this time. Ah, finally relief!

By this time it was probably 6:15 or so and she decided to check me again. I had progressed to 9.5 cm, almost ready to push! We were all floored, but I guess that's what happens when you feel pain through your epidural. She was hurrying around getting things ready telling me I was going to push soon! So we went from "could be a long while still" to "pushing soon". Talk about a swing of emotions. I remember just lying there in the bed crying with my hands over my face. I really had no specific reason to cry, other than we were about to meet our daughter. Sonja was worried that I was in pain again, but nope just very emotional. She checked me once more and sure enough I was at 10 cm. She mentioned that if we had family in the waiting room that we could call them and tell them I was beginning to push but that it could still be atleast 2 hours. So, Brandon called down to his parents, Mama, and Haydyn to tell them the exciting progress.

Now comes the pushing, something else I'd never done before and wasn't really sure how to do. Friends had told me I would know when to push so I took their word for it. And, they were right. I felt the urge to push and just went with it. After about 10 minutes of hard pushing with Brandon's encourgment Sonja said "just give a half push this time!". What in the world is a half push? Half the time or half the push? Oh well, I did both. She said she had to get Dr. Gunter because the baby was coming!! What?! That quickly? She said it could be 2 hours and it had only been a few minutes! Dr. Gunter came in fast and after pushing with him for about 5 more minutes Adelaide Grace Pearson was born at 7:07 pm. The most amazing experience in this world.

She was perfect. She looked like a little baby girl version of Brandon, it was unreal. They placed her on my stomach immediately after Brandon cut the cord and it hit me, our daughter was here. She had gotten here safely and she was healthy. After I held her for a few seconds they took her to get her weight/length and clean her up a bit. She was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 3/4 in. They wrapped her up and gave her back to us and we took our first family pictures. It was amazing to see her react to our voices. She would stare at Brandon with amazement when he was holding her and talking to her. We had heard babies are usually very alert when they are born and she definitely was taking it all in. Brandon went down to get our families and bring them up to meet her. He still didn't tell them her name until they all got into the room and then I spilled the beans. It was so much fun for them to finally hear our sweet girl's name. Shortly after, they took her again to give her a good bath and soon we headed out of the labor and delivery room into our post-partum room. Whew what an amazing day it was!

866 Days

Or 2 years, 4 months, 14 days
74,822,400 seconds
1,247,040 minutes
20,784 hours

What has happened since our last real post...

We lost the football game...got a job...went to Disney World...went to Boston...went to Niagara Falls...quit the job...got a new job...quit a job...got an awesome job...installed hardwoods...got new furniture...went to Dunn...went to Asheville...went to Myrtle Beach...went to Gatlinburg...ate a lot...lost more football games...went to Clemson, lost...never should have punted...got a new bball coach...went to a few races...got a new tv...grew a lot of weeds...raked a lot of leaves...got a new car...painted the house...made new friends...had a few friends move away...went to Dunn...went to Asheville...3 Christmases...got older...got swine flu...tulips grew again...deer ate them...grew a garden...squirrels ate it...went on a cruise...regis retired...went to fair, alot...went to a concert...ohh and.... fell in love with


Adelaide Grace Pearson! Obviously the best and biggest thing to happen to us is the birth of our daughter. We are completely smitten. September 26, 2011 was a day that changed our lives forever, the day we became a family of 3. It has been a whirlwind at times, not knowing how in the world to take care of a baby, but each day we are learning more and more. The joy she brings to our lives is immeasurable and we are so thankful for her! We have become those parents that will do anything just to see that sweet smile or hear that precious giggle. She is a wonderful baby and, from what we hear, is taking it pretty easy on us. We are pretty crazy about little Miss Adelaide so of course we have much more to say, so stay tuned.

So I guess we need to change our blog title!!!!

If a blog posts in the woods and no one is around does it make a noise?

ummm.... were alive. we think. were going to try this again...
wish us luck