Day 2 is winding down

It has been a busy day of eating, burping, pooping, prodding, cutting, and hopefully now some sleeping. He was circumcised today (ouch), met with his pediatrician, and had a hearing test. All went according to plan and he passed all.

He has taken well to breastfeeding and the bonding with mom has gone very well. Val is a natural for sure at this stuff -- she has great patience to work with him and let him take each meal as if it was a $200 five course meal at a top flight restaurant. The boy loves his momma for sure.

He also got to visit with Grandma (Val's mom) for most of the afternoon. Liam was on best behavior and sat nicely with her for quite a while. Grandma heads back to Ohio in the morning and Liam is looking forward to seeing her on his big trip to Buckeye country in October.

While he spent most of last night in the nursery, we are going to try and keep him in our room tonight (or at least for the start of it). Liam has been great -- and we are doing our best to learn from the nurses about changing, swaddling, and just about everything. We have been so pleased with all the staff we have encountered here at Lowell General -- too bad we couldn't steal one them to come home with us. Oh well.. we will head home tomorrow and Nana Pat is going to stay with us for a couple days while we get our act together.

Flickr Photo Album

Good Morning

Liam had a great night and the pediatrician just checked him out. All is looking great. Momma took good caare of him throughout the night - dad was a weakling and needed to sleep. Today is a new day and we are so happy to have him here with us. A perfect Labor Day Weekend.

Resting Comfortably

Wow. What a crazy last 36 hours, but it all seems worth it (and YES Val says that too). We are now resting in our room for the next few nights. Liam just had his bath and has been trying to feed a bit too. He is in momma's arms now and it is just the most beautiful sight. Hopefully we can get some pictures online soon for all to see.

Grandparents Conley

Liam is adjusting to life and checking out the world. He is visiting with his grandparents.

Baby and mom both are well.

Mom and Son

Opening eyes to world

They are fixin mom up.

LTC

Liam Thomas Conley

21 inches

8 lbs 10oz

2:27pm

Welcome liam

Born 2:27

Sorry for pix...new info

I can not see pix from pda phone so i didnt think it was working.

Doctor is here now and they want to start pushing again. If he remains as he is they may need a c section.

Take 2.. Picture should post

Val is still napping. There are a few other labors going on right now that are more critical for doctor. We will wait.

Mom and Mom-to-be

This is Val's mom Jenny. She is sitting bedside while Val rests up for the next round of pushing.

Taking a break

Val was pushing for an hour with good movement but now they are taking a break. They are giving more meds for pain. Her mom and my parents are here at hospital waiting to meet their grandchild. We thank all of you for your support and well wishes.

Breaking Water

8-9cm dilation and they just broke her water. She is 'laboring down'

Good Morning

We are all just waking up. Val is doing great and feels good with a few hours sleep (i feel much better too..and the new dunkin donuts in the lobby is calling my name). Nurse Shelly is now on the clock and just checked in on us. The doctor is coming in after 8am. More to come...no turning back now.

Now to Sleep ... if we can

Drugs are good. Val is much more comfortable. Dilation is at 4cm. Nurse told us to try and sleep a couple hours so that is our plan. Doctor will likely see us around 7 to see where everything stands. Not sure pitocin will be needed but we will see later.

If Liam cooperates he could be here for kickoff. Ohio State plays at noon and he already has a bunch of outfits.

Active Labor

Val is moving into active labor and is about to get an epidoral.

It is so hard to see her in pain. Hopefully the drugs ease this for her.

Cervidile Out

The nurse just came in and pulled the cervidile (sp? Aka medicine to open cervix). She also checked it out and there is about 50% effacement. She said they would stay like this for a couple more hours. They will then decide if Val needs more cevidille or something else or just move on to pitocin. Nurse wants to hold off on epidural for while.

Still Nurse Time

Nurse Laura has just left and confirmed Val is starting to have some real contractions. She gave Val some drug to ease the pain - it makes Val feel drunk which is supposedly normal. There is no plan to call in doctor yet so this will be a while. Val has actually just dozed off.

Contractions Beginning

Val has started cursing. So much for sleep. We each got a little more than an hour of zzzs. Nurse wants to monitor for a little bit before she calls doctor.

Food and Sleep

Nothing to report from The Birthplace at Lowell General. Our first nurse Shelly was very nice and our night nurse Laura has been great too. No compaints on the hospitality.

Val ate just a snack - crackers, cheese, peanutbutter, and a banana. They are giving her a sleeping pill and will let her get some rest as tomorrow will be a big day and I'm sure a lot of work.

I brought her mom back to the house but I am back at hospital and will spend the night.

Maybe tomorrow we will have our boy to hold.

Start of Long Process

Well there is zero dialation so they are applying a medicine to soften the cervix. This happened at 3:45 and Dr. Fortune said it will work for about 12 hours. Then they will check tomorrow morning to see if progress is being made. At that time they will assess and see if they will induce or schedule a c-section. She indicated it could be another day or three before baby actually arrives. In the mean time Val, her mom, and I will hang out in he room watching TV. The doctor thought we should go home tonight and get some sleep and they are even going to give Val a sleeping pill. I am not sure if we will listen or not.

Nurse is Taking Blood

Val hates needles but just survived the inital check-in. They are prepping her and asking all the admittance questions. The doctor is here now explaining what is going on. Basically the fluid is low and it is best to get it out. Dr. Fortune is checking her out now.

Val is Admitted

We had tests this morning. All baby vitals are good. There is low amniotic fluid so they decided to keep her and get baby out now. I am running home to get some stuff.. More to come..yippeee

Ps... Ultrasound confirmed a boy

Start of School for Liam's Cousins

Well there is nothing new to report on Liam. He remains content where he is, but we are trying to focus in on fact that the end of pregnancy is coming soon. Today is actually my last full day at work for a few weeks --- seems weird to know that.

Here is a picture of our nieces Mollie and Summer - via my sister Shawna and her husband Seth. Seeing them at the bus stop on the first day of school is such a neat thing. Shawna has these pictures every year and it is amazing to see how much they grow up year to year. Both of the girls are looking forward to becoming cousins for the first time and they can't wait for Liam's arrival. They will be wonderful friends and family to him and I'm sure will get to do plenty of babysitting over the years too.

Update on Baby Liam

So we have been confirmed for a sonogram and what they call a stress test on Friday at the hospital. This is to ensure that Baby Liam is just being stubborn by not arriving vs. a sign of any other issues that should be dealt with. Should be routine and will be great to see our little boy in the sonogram if we can't see him in person quite yet! We have also received word that we are confirmed for an induction on Tuesday as suspected but now we have an actual appt to show up at 7am! So either way we will be welcoming Liam to the "real world" within the next week!!!

It has been a rough couple of days - just getting more and more uncomfortable with each passing day. Difficult to sleep comfortalbly, etc. but we are hanging in there as we know it is all worth it when we finally get to meet our precioud little boy.

Inducing moved to Tuesday

Due to scheduling on the holiday, they have moved us to next Tuesday for inducing. Of course Liam has a week to decide if he wants to join us on his own terms. Guess we will continue eating out and watching baby TV. (Although with Yanks/Red Sox and DNC this week there is at least other TV to watch)

Doctor Says

We just finished our appointment with the doctor and he said all was fine. Unfortunately the baby is showing no signs of arriving. They tentatively scheduled Val for a test on Friday and then induction for Monday -new meaning for "Labor Day".

We are disappointed they aren't scheduling us until next week. Val's mom is arriving today for the week. Maybe he will come on his own before then - at least we can hope.

Did you know?

You're 14 percent more likely to give birth on a Tuesday than on any other day of the week — and least likely to deliver on the weekend.

Maybe Tuesday will be our day!

Due Today, but...

Good morning. Well today is supposed to be the day Liam arrives -- it is day number 280 and the start of week #40. Only 5% of all babies are actually born on their due date. We've had a relatively low key weekend with just more dining out and shopping. Val did some 'nesting' scrapbooking and I did a few house projects. Overall just killing time while we wait for him to arrive. Today we are heading up to Seabrook Beach for the afternoon and hope a day of sun and fun will coax him to come out and play.

We will keep you posted.

Another Day....

Well....As Rich has already posted it is another day and no baby Liam yet. I think Rich is right, he is quite comfy right where he is - he as been very active all week just kicking and moving all around. I have been monitoring the baby guesses and so far 7 of us (yes that includes Rich and I's wishful thinking) have been wrong so far on guessing the day for Liam's arrival. So much for a mother's intuition! And no one picked today as the day! There are several entries for the weekend and Rich had a dream last night that he was born on 8/23 so I guess we will see. Either way it is projected to be nice weather here so if we don't get to be distracted with Liam then we plan to take advantage and do date night tonight with a movie and dinner and then head to the beach later in the weekend.

TV Babies Only

We watched some more TV baby shows, but that is just starting to frustrate us. We just want our own baby and in the words of Veruca Salt --- "I want it now!!!" (Charlie and Chocolate Factory)

We did some more walking in hopes that gravity would help, but still nothing for movement. Little guy must be awfully happy and content in there.

Oh well.. another day closer.

And we wait...

Last night we went out to dinner and plan to do that most of the week. We figure it gets us out of the house and it helps pass the time as we wait for Liam's arrival. Afterwards we walked for a while then watched about 3 hours worth of TLC shows on babies that we had TiVo'd. Parts were scary, but mostly just exciting to see a new baby in the arms of the parents. It was the first time I've seen someone cutting the cord and it didn't look too hard, so I may change my position on that and give it a cut. (Do you think they have those art class lefty scissors with the green handles? Anyone know what I'm talking about?)

On another note, the most important appliance in our house right now is the refrigerator with automatic ice maker and ice crusher --- Val is living on glasses of crushed ice, so I suspect that will be a big requirement at the hospital.

Stay tuned...

The end is in sight...

So I returned for my weekly appt at the doctor's office today not expecting to learn anything too new since we have not experienced any new signs of Liam arriving and are still just about a week away from our due date. But we did get some new news - we were asked to schedule another appt for next Monday and if Liam has not arrived before then we will spend time at next week's appt discussing a date for induction. Of course we would like Liam to arrive on his own but should he decide he is too comfy where he is we now know that the doctor's will be looking to help him along. They said today they do not like to let the baby go over 41 weeks so that means we potentially could be looking at induction next week if our long awaited guest does not arrive this week!!! Yippee!!! We will keep you updated as the week progresses.

I'm Ready!!

So here are Hallee and I in Liam's room. I am now 39 weeks and definitely anxious for Liam to come out and visit us. Hallee was a huge help in getting all of his things clean and organized. Not sure I would have gotten through all of it on my own. Now that the work is finished we are heading for a few more hours at the Beach today so she can relax and enjoy!

From Hallee: We finally got all of Liam's clothes washed. I had a good time helping prepare for Liam and now I am ready for him to arrive!

Preparing for Liam

So this week my niece Hallee came to visit. She has been a big help in preparing for Liam - washing his clothes, blankets, bibs, etc. We are certainly getting organized!! We have also tried to have a little girl fun by going to get manicure/pedicures and spending a couple hours the other day at the beach. We've also tried to spoil Rich a little by making some home cooked meals - figuring that after Liam's arrival those might be few and far between.

Well, we are just over a week away from our due date and still no sign of Liam arriving early. But he continues to move and kick several times a day so we know he is healthy and just taking his time. Continue to keep us in your thoughts during these last days/weeks. We will continue to keep you updated on any developments!

38 Weeks

 
Here is Val at 38 weeks. She is still doing ok, but certainly slowing down a bit. Thankfully she is now home and off the road so we aren't usually too far apart. Doctor today said all was well -- nothing major one way or another. I guess that is good.. but I'm pretty sure Val was hoping they would induce her today. We are lucky the weather has been good (which means somewhat bad for those of you on vacation) -- but for a pregnant person the cooler temps have been a welcome surprise to summer 2008.

Baby is Full Term

Liam has progressed to a stage where the doctors say he would be OK if born any day. His time in the womb has been productive and at yesterday's appointment they said he was normal size. He now needs to decide when he is going to see us, but I'm guessing he is pretty content for at least a couple more weeks. Last Friday we thought something was happening and upon a call to the Doctor, they had us go to the hospital. All turned out to be just a false alarm, but it was a good excuse to see him via an ultrasound. They confirmed he was fine and there is plenty of fluid there to keep him secure.

Val is working from home now as she is done with her travel to NYC. It is nice to know she is close to our hospital and doctors as they will be needed shortly.