Hiking in Placerita Canyon

Jake and I decided we all needed some fresh air so we decided to take the whole family hiking in Placerita Canyon. Panzer was so glad to get out and run around and Tom didn't seem to notice we had left the house. He slept the whole time in the baby carrier!

Tom's first bath

Once his umbilical cord stump fell off, we were able to give Tom a bath in his tub. Just like when we change his diaper or change his clothes, Tom did not care for a bath either.





"Is it over yet, Dad?"

Tom's first few weeks at home

Finally, we're all home!!



First visit to the doctor



Tom loves his daddy!



Daddy and Cousin Steven are so silly!



Shhhhhhhhhhh, he's sleeping. He loves the basket Gram recovered for him.



Auntie Katrina came over to visit and Tom got to meet Kenton, his future best friend, for the first time. Shawna came to visit too and brought us all some yummy dinner.



Aunt Molly and cousin Naomi came out from Vegas to meet Tom. Naomi did a great job holding him and making sure he was comfortable. Yes, Molly, babies ARE really that small.

Thomas Steven Chase

Around 3:30 Friday afternoon, July 9th, I started having contractions and by 4:30, it seemed like this was really it. Baby was pushing right up against my spine causing awful back labor. I called Jake who was on his way home from work and told him it was probably time. Jake got home a little after 5 and jumped right into action packing up the car, timing contractions and pushing on my back to counterpressure the back labor. Around 5:30 the contractions had progressed extremely quickly. They were longer than a minute and around 2 minutes 30 seconds apart. By six we were on our way to the hospital, admitted and brought into triage. Jake took this of me right before we left for the hospital, at 39 1/2 weeks pregnant and 2 hours into labor.
At 6:45, they checked me and said I was 5, almost 6 cm dilated and would I like an epidural? Three more contractions and more awful back labor and I replied "Yes, I would." In order to get the epidural, I had to have 2 full bags of IV in my system so they hooked me up right away and opened it up wide. I was halfway through the second bag at 8pm when they moved me into delivery and checked me again.
Imagine my surprise when, at 9 cm dilated, the nurse said, "Well, you can forget the epidural." Definitely not words I wanted to hear right then but I had progressed too quickly and it was too late to get an epidural. I had to have the baby naturally. They'd called in my doctor but he was about 30 minutes from getting there. Jake asked the nurses, "Is there a back-up doctor in case he doesn't get here in time?" "uhhhh...[looks around nervously] Yeah, me and her," was the nurse's reply.
I felt like I had to push when Dr. Peress came in and checked me. At 10 cm dilated and with a bulging bag of waters, he explained that he was going to artificially rupture my water, we were going to start pushing and what I would need to do to meet our baby. After a half hour of pushing, out came Tom for a total of 6 hours of labor. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces, 20 1/4 inches long, born at 9:33pm with a full head of hair, and looking exactly like his Daddy. Hardly seems fair for a first time mom to have such a fast labor and delivery, but I can assure you it was intense the way it progressed so rapidly!



Jake was awesome! He stayed with me the whole time, kept me focused and kept me calm, even when the doctor almost didn't make it. He did everything he needed to do, exactly how he needed to do it for us to have a healthy and safe delivery. We also had a team of two really awesome nurses who said all the right things to help me through labor and delivery and a wonderful doctor who has been taking really good care of Tom and me throughout the pregnancy.






After Tom and I were cleaned up, they allowed the grandparents in for a peek at their new grandbaby.
Jake went with Tom into the nursery for his first bath, immunizations and tests they have to run on newborns. Then they took us to our new room in recovery where we stayed until Sunday morning.

Recovery

Tom has had so many visitors already. Not pictured are Aunt Katie and cousin Steven, who were both not feeling 100% and didn't want to get Tom sick, Auntie Katrina and the Sanchez family. But besides visitors we got so many wonderful calls and texts congratulating us on Tom's arrival. All the support was wonderful!

We got discharged Sunday morning and here's Tom in the carseat, anxious to get a move on.

Baby's Room

We painted a lot of furniture, cleaned, organized, and spent lots of time in there. Now Baby Boy's room is all ready for him. Thank you to everyone for blessing us with furniture, clothes, blankets, diapers, almost everything from our registry and everything we will need once he arrives! Enjoy the pictures!!

In non-baby-related news...

Panzer loves his squeaky toys. He has a deer and a squirrel that he carries around like his babies. But he doesn't chew them up. He bites down, enjoying the sound of the squeaking. The more we laugh, the faster he squeaks. It's awesome! Enjoy!

7 Weeks to go!

So by 33 weeks, I've had a number of colds, food aversions followed by eating everything in sight, two separate cases of pink eye and sore ribs and belly from Baby Boy kicking and elbowing me. But things could have been so much worse and I'm grateful that these were my only complaints. We've got the baby's room painted and almost all set up (pictures to follow) and tons of clothes, decorations and baby stuff already from my SCV shower (Thank you so much, Kim!) We've taken the Lamaze class and gone on the tour of the maternity ward at the hospital where we're already pre-registered. Today is my last day taking care of the kids. I've been taking care of them for 4 years and it's been really hard for me to say goodbye for so many months but I know they'll be in good hands until Baby Boy is born. So I guess you could say we're just about ready for this baby, but ask me again in a few weeks and I might have a different answer for you.

It's a boy!!!

We had another ultrasound today and it's definitely a boy! Everything looked good, he's right where he should be at 19 weeks and we're still on track to welcome him around July 13th.
Here in this picture you can see his profile on the left hand side, his spine running along the bottom and the tops of his knees on the right. He's also waving his left hand and saying, "Hi" which amused Jake, me and our ultrasound technician.
We are so excited to know what we're having and now we can decide on a name, stuff for his room and all that fun stuff.

February Prenatal Visit

I had my latest prenatal visit today. Everything still looks good, baby's heartbeat is strong. I'm at 17 weeks now, almost halfway there. The next prenatal appointment is in four weeks and our ultrasound is two weeks from now. We'll be able to check out all the baby's organs and, if the baby's not too modest, find out the gender. Although, Charlie (age 4) suggested looking to see if the baby's wearing a dress because then it's a girl. Once we know the gender, we can start making more plans for the baby's room and start narrowing down a name. But don't bother asking, we're not sharing the name we pick until after the baby's born! Check back in two weeks for the baby's gender!