Liam is now cocked and loaded!

Yesterday, Kristina and I were ready to deliver Liam. We had prepared ourselves for a C section, mentally and physically. It wasn't ideal, but honestly we were ready to meet our son. We woke up early, dressed, left a couple bags by the front door for my mom to bring to the hospital with her in the next couple hours. Then we marched off to the hospital. Yep, that's right, we walked to the hospital. It's about a 20 minute pregnant walk. We took pictures. We talked like this was it. This was how delivering babies should be. Relaxed, happy, no painful drive to the hospital, none of that. We'll be done in 2 hours. How exciting!

We arrived at the the 5th floor and told the nurse we there for a scheduled C-Section. She looked in the scheduled folder but couldn't find our file. She then looked in the "possible C-section" folder and there we were. She announced, "Oh you're not schedule, just possible C-section." We responded, "oh he's been breeched for the last month, and he was head up in our appointment yesterday, we're here for a C-section." She then walked us to our room. She said, "This will be room you'll deliver your son!" Kristen said, "Not for a C-section, right?" Nurse, "Well no, but we'll do an ultrasound first."

2 minutes later we were looking at an ultrasound of Liam's head, inside K's pelvis. K and I looked at each other as if we both said, "oh no! Now what!??!" We thought about inducing. Beside the fact that it's against hospital policy to induce before 39 weeks, (we were 38 weeks and 6 days) being our first, it may be in upward of 48 hours of labor. We couldn't do any labor at home, and as long as she's at the hospital, she can't eat. None of that sounds fun.

So we walked home, heads down and little nervous. We've since been preparing ourselves for a vaginal birth. I think we're ready, but seriously, we don't know what to do with our time. We'd cleared our schedules for this little dude. What do we do now?

Are we really ready for this?

Liam is still sitting in a breeched position. At the last ultrasound, he looked like he was stretching his quadriceps. So, if nothing changes between now and Friday, Liam will be born February 6th! Still, as excited as we are, Kristen is incredibly uncomfortable and constantly complaining about pains in various parts of her body. She has occasional contractions. They usually happen when she's pretty active.

A question that keeps replaying in my mind (and more so in Kristen's) is, "are we ready for this?" I think we're as ready as anyone ever is. I keep hearing that no matter how prepared you think you are, the first months are an incredible shock to the system. No one is more aware of this fact than Kristen. She's constantly nesting: cleaning, making lists, shopping, tell me to do lift, make and paint stuff. But really, I think we're ready. For about 2 months now, we've been in a position where we could bring him home to a house that's ready. His room has been in some state of ready, we have all of the necessities (or at least prepared to send the grandmas to Babies R Us with a credit card), house has been scrubbed clean a dozen times this month, etc... But still the question haunts us. I think being "ready" so soon is somewhat hindering, because in these last weeks, we're kinda stir crazy. We're probably wasting money on stuff we don't need, and most of all, the days are passing so so slowly. Any suggestions on how to spend the next 4 days?

So, today, while waiting on Liam to make his move, we took Lita to the park. Between the last month being quite cold and snowy, and K being barefoot and pregnant, we haven't given Lita and QT. So Lita got to run around off-leash, followed by a trip to Petsmart. I'm hoping a little extra attention this week will make next a little easier on Lita. Now what are we gonna do to make it easier on us?

Welcome to the World, Simone!

Our good friend, Melody, recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Simone Adelle Layne was born January 18th. Congrats Mel! I'm so happy for you. Simone, welcome to the world, little one. You are lucky to be born to such a wonderful mother. We'll see you soon!

New Photos of Liam's Room

We've finally finished with Liam's room. It's looking fantastic!

From Liam's Room

From Liam's Room

From Liam's Room

Pictures to go with previous updates

Liam's Lair


Decorating Liam's room was more fun that I thought it would be. Still need to frame and hang our paintings, find a chair, and hang some mobiles. I'm digging it!

Platform Bed

I promised Kristen I'd finish this bed in September, but I didn't want to sacrifice quality. ;-)

1st Anniversary



Beautiful Tennessee was the location for our first anniversary. Early November is a gorgeous time of year. Here's proof of my sympathy weight.

Want more pictures? Go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/petuniahero/

Several Quick Updates

Liam Clinton Wilson
He's still growing! at an alarming rate now days. His muscles are clearly developing. He's kicking K's bladder, pelvis, spin, vagina... You name it, he's beating on it. On Monday, we had a little scare when K called the doc to ask about these Braxton Hicks contractions. After describing them to the doc, the doc told her to rush to the OB Triage. They hooked her up to all of the heart monitors, ultrasound, doppler... everything looked normal. They thought maybe she had been over-exerting herself or perhaps not getting enough water. We're tracking them now, anymore than three in one hour is bad. Right now, it's been pretty rare. We'll be keeping a close watch on things.

New Doc
The great news is that we recently changed our OBGYN. Probably the best decision we've made. Our old doctor, while totally competent and very nice, had terrible bedside manner. She was always on her way to the next patient. From the time she entered the exam room, to the time she left, her hand was on the door, and she never even asks the most obvious of questions, "how are you feeling?". New doc is heads above the old. Energetic, engaged, informative, nice, friendly nurses, receptionists... And to top it off, she called K the next morning to see how the OB triage trip went. K is way happy, and that makes me happy.

Nashville/Gatlinburg/Smokey Mountiains
Kristina and I spent our first anniversary in Tennessee. We had an amazing time, saw unbelievable views (pictures to come soon), heard great music, hiked the Appalachian Trail (ten minutes of it anyway), ate, walked around Gatlinburg... Great time, really.

iPhone
I never knew how much time I could waste playing with my phone. Seriously, every minute I get (even while sitting on the toilet), I'm browsing apps, updating my facebook page, emailing, etc...

Nursery
We setup Liam's nursery on Sunday. It's looking great. We decided to buy a crib and changing table from Target. So far, we're totally satisfied with that decision. In total, we saved $600 over the ones we liked at Babies R Us and only lost a little bit quality. Fair trade in my opinion.

Sympathy???
And finally. I (Matt) have gained 15 pounds in the last couple months. Could be some sympathy weight gain. Or the beer I've been drinking. Or all of the tv I've been watching. Or that I'm forced to eat K's leftovers. Or that I'm just finally getting old. Whatever the reason, I think I'm gonna have to start running again...

Firemen are hot?

So one excellent thing about my job is that I work in a small skyscraper in St. Louis. There are of course parking garages, larger buildings and smaller buildings surrounding me. I would call it a Fireman's playground. The trials for firemen are held in Westport Plaza!!! Seriously, they repel down our building and run up the stairs outside of my window. There have actually been times when they are leaning on my glass! Do I sound excited...? Well, a little, but only because I think it is cute when Matt drops me off at work and sees the firetrucks there and gives me the "you are going to have a great day" look. I really admire firemen. I can't even imagine doing what they do. I can't imagine when all of a sudden at around 7:50 at night on a Monday when Football is getting ready to start the alarm goes off and... they are deployed to a house where there is a little smoke because the wife was making dinner, heated up the pans a little too hot, and when she put the butter in the pan it started smoking so the alarm goes off...the security company calls 15 seconds later after calling them and they arrive in full gear including masks and tanks!

Brinks Home Security is fantastic and so are St. Louis Firemen! They arrived in 6 min!