My Monkey

Ok so for "Halloween" Matthew was a monkey, of course! Technically though we didn't do anything on Halloween because I was exhausted from work and it wasn't the most ideal weather outside. Not to mention the fact that he can't quite walk yet or even eat the candy nor would he remember if we went or not!

But, it was his first Halloween so we HAD to have a costume and to make use of it and get some super cute pictures my friend Patricia and I took him to the pumpkin patch and tortured him with the camera. We grabbed a wheelbarrow and a plump pumpkin and plopped him and the pumpkin in it and started snapping photos. For the most part he cooperated but by the end of it he was a little cranky and ended up falling asleep while Patricia and I indulged our taste buds with some delicious roasted corn! :)

All in all I'd say it was a success! I was pretty pleased with the pictures and think they'll make a great scrapbook page if I ever get around to making that happen. :)

So....

....apparently I'm not as good as I'd like to be at keeping up on this! Matthew Paul will be 5 months old tomorrow! My oh my how the time has flown by! He's growing so much so fast! He laughs outloud now and talks up a storm! He's about 14lbs and 24 1/4 inches (well at least he was a month ago) He's growing like a weed! And I love him more and more with each passing day! Everytime I see his adorable little smiling face my heart melts!

2 week check-up

Ok, so technically he's 2 and a half weeks, but who's counting?! Oh wait, Mommy is! We took Matthew to the doctors today to make sure that everything is going well. And sure enough it is. I think they are going to let us keep him for a while longer. He weighed in today at 6lbs 12oz and measured 19 and 3/4' inches. He is a growing boy! The doctor couldn't believe that he had gained so much weight, he thought that maybe the scale was wrong or something. But I assured him, he is a very good eater! He may have started out little but I don't think he'll stay that way for long.

June 1st, 2008

Sunday June 1st, was a big day of firsts for Matthew. At only 2 and a half weeks Matthew attended his first sporting events. First we went to the Mariners game, our friend Mr. Foote was gracious enough to share his extra ticket with us since his wife Patricia was down in Oregon taking care of her Mom. We had a blast! The Mariners didn't end up winning but we had a great time nonetheless. Then after a great afternoon at Safeco Field we went and met Heidi and Yvonne at Seattle Center and had some dinner then headed off to Key Arena to watch the Seattle Storm play. What a day!

My adorable boy...

So far in Matthew's 2 1/2 weeks of life these are my all time favorite pictures of him! The first one, I do believe he was only a day or two old. He had fallen asleep on my lap after eating and just looked so precious! And the second one I took the other day. I laid him down on the couch, again after feeding him, it seems that's all he does is eat, sleep, oh and mess his diapers, but he just looked so precious laying there I kept taking picture after picture because I wanted to capture every moment of just how precious he was. And to my delight, I was able to capture this adorable picture. He had been dreaming, and often when he dreams he makes funny faces and smiles. Oh how I wish I knew what he dreams about. Must be something pretty good though! The last picture was daddy and Matthew just relaxing on the couch. So precious! And he looks so tiny on daddy's tummy!

Photo therapy

On Monday May 19th we had to be admitted to the hospital and stay overnight because Matthew had jaundice. It was a tough night for me as Matthew did not like laying under that light. I was only able to hold him every 3 hours when I fed him and he was only allowed to be out from under the light for 20 minutes at a time. He was pretty fussy most of the night which kept me awake. I couldn't stand to see him upset so every time he fussed I would get up out of bed and try and comfort him. Eric had to tell me a couple of times that it was ok if he fussed. Thank goodness though the photo therapy did it's job and brought down his bilirubin levels dramatically and we were able to go home the next afternoon.

Welcome to the world....

Matthew Paul Gepner

arrived

on May 15, 2008

at 4:51 in the afternoon.

He weighed in at 5lbs 14oz

and measured 18 inches long.





The story:

The evening of the 14th I wasn't feeling well. I had a couple contractions but nothing too bad. I let Eric know that I wasn't feeling great and after what I described to him he thought it might be the real thing. But I didn't think so because the doctor had told me that if you think your in labor you probably aren't, she said you will know! Even though I wasn't feeling well, I still proceeded to cook myself dinner because I was hungry and I had already taken the chicken out to thaw and by golly I wasn't going to let it go to waste. After I finished cooking dinner and I sat down and just rested for awhile the pain went away so I thought maybe I had just over done it a bit. I had a crazy feeling Matthew would be here sooner rather than later, but for some reason I thought he would arrive on Monday. The next morning Eric and I went in for a routine doctors visit. The nurse took my blood pressure and it was quite a bit higher than it had been. The nurse then set me up on the machine to do the Non Stress Test to monitor me and baby. This was something we had become accustomed to as we were having to do it every time we visited the doctors due to my blood pressure. When the doctor came in to check on us she had decided that we were going to have the baby that day. Apparently my blood pressure was too high and I was showing signs of Preeclampsia. When she said that to me my first reaction was "She's kidding right? She can't be serious. I'm not ready for this!" My heart was beating so fast in my chest, I really don't think it helped my blood pressure any. She told us that we may not get in right away depending on how much room there was over at the Birth Center. We thought we'd probably have the afternoon and would be admitted later that evening. Well, the doctor called over to the Birth Center and sure enough there was room. We didn't get any time to process it all. They brought a wheel chair and a nurse took us over to the Birth Center. They gave me a gown to change into and told me to hop in bed. Then the nurses came in and stuck me 3 times trying to get the stint in my arm for the IV (I think that was the most painful part of the whole process). Not long after they got the IV in I started having contractions, after about an hour or so of that I decided I'd go ahead and get the epidural. The contractions weren't unbearable but I I didn't want to know what unbearable felt like. Once I got the epidural they checked me and I was dilated to 10cm, Matthew was ready to go! The nurse called the doctor in and two pushes later I was holding my baby in my arms! The nurses and doctors were amazed at how quickly it all went and how good of a pusher I was. Normally I guess it takes longer when they have to induce you and often times it can be harder to push when you have an epidural because you can't feel anything. I certainly couldn't feel anything, I just did what the nurse told me to do! Apparently she said I'm made to have babies! I know that Eric was thrilled that it was so quick. He was having nightmares of having to spend 24-48 hours in the hospital before I even gave birth! I told him it wouldn't take that long, but I had no idea that it would be as quick as it was!

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be a mommy! I never knew how amazing it could really be and that you could love something SO much! Pretty much I think he is the most adorable thing on earth now and I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world!