Mom Cam 2

Here's a few more random shots -

1) He likes to sleep in the crook of Mom's elbow - here he is smiling in his sleep :)


2) Here's the little eager beaver looking up at his dad while he gets a bottle!


3) Spending some quality time with Dad in the middle of the night... so cute!


We also did a little photo shoot this morning while he was awake and alert, to try and get a good photo for the birth announcement! The little guy is waking up now so I'll have to come back and post those in a little while!

Splish, Splash...

Ok so we tag-teamed Mark's first bath on Monday. It was traumatic, for me and for Mark, so I hear that it was just about normal. Of course I had to hold him and snuggle him immediately following :)
Here are a few photos from that experience!

The Hiccups

And so here is the first video of Mark being posted to the internet. His mom took this video of his hiccups which he gets at least once a day. Hopefully that will lessen as time goes on. Enjoy.

The verdict is in...

As you know, the great name debate did not end for us when our son was born. We chose names that we both loved, but had not (as of today) determined 100% what we wanted our son to be called. We know it could be sometimes confusing to share a name with someone, and also confusing to go by your middle name. So, with everything else going on this week, we hadn't really discussed it further, and we - along with just about everyone else - defaulted to calling him David. Today we decided would be the day we chose something definite. So we actually changed his name entirely. JUST KIDDING! Haha. Here on out, however, we'll be calling him - **drumroll please** - Mark!

And of course, here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment -




In other news, today Mark slept in his crib for the first time! He's been sleeping in the bassinet part of the pack'n'play in our room because while recovering, I wasn't able to get out of bed and move around as much - or as quickly - as I wanted. Here's a picture of the little guy enjoying the crib -


Coming soon - "The Hiccups" - a special video selection for Aunt Nini :)

Mom Cam

So this morning I was greeted by a super-cute sight that inspired me to pull my own camera out again. I'd been snapping a few snapshots on the Nikon, and it seemed like the whole world had their cameras out, and I'd been too much in a daze to participate very much. However, my mom said she could tell I was starting to feel like myself again when I pulled out my camera to capture this sweet little moment :) I'm just bummed that it took me all week, because even though my hubby took some on our other camera, I don't have any on my own camera of anyone with baby David at the hospital, or coming home, etc. So fam - email me all photos that you have so I can have copies! :)


Here's mom, David and I -


Here's a fabulous image of David and Grandma - I love it!


David in a little onesie that his Aunt Nini sent him -


David in his "Little Racer" outfit (compliments of Joy Drake!), striking his touchdown pose, which he does often in his sleep.


Aunt Leslie with David in Blowing Rock


Aunt Leslie, David, and a spot for Aunt Nini (Lindsey) in Blowing Rock


Don't worry... there will be plenty more to come! :)

Baby's First Road Trip!

Today we took mom (grandma) to meet Leslie in Blowing Rock, NC. We got little David all decked out in a special outfit that Aunt Leslie would appreciate (although the bib was a gift from his other favorite aunt Lindsey, AKA Aunt Nini). We met Les at Kojay's in Blowing Rock and visited for a little over an hour. Then mom went home with Leslie and the Davids and I headed back to Johnson City.

We were so glad to have family around immediately following, for their company, their help and their encouragement. Everyone's left in stages - first Leslie, then Jeff, then Dad then Mom. Now we're on our own and feeling good! Thank you guys for everything! Can't wait to see you again. And Linds, can't wait till you can get down here!!

The rest of the first week!

So to give everyone an update on the rest of the first week home with little David...Every day has gotten progressively better. Our second and third nights have been a lot better. We are trying to preemptively feed him so that he doesn't have to cry. This means getting up every 3-4 hours but at least we know he is getting enough food and sleep. We are also managing to get enough sleep each night but only in smaller increments. So hopefully tonight will continue in the current trend of everyone sleeping.
Wednesday, Jeff and I golfed, which was the one splurge that I had wanted to do during the first week of my son's life. I thoroughly enjoyed it although I didn't end up with a better score. I am beginning to further understand and improve certain aspects of my game.
Thursday, Ali, David and I went back to the pediatrician's office. We remembered the diaper bag this time so we were off to a better start than Tuesday. The purpose of the visit was to follow up on the weight gain and jaundice. The nurse weighed David and he had gained 4 oz. The doctor said that we get an A+ with bonus points. Normal weight gain is around an ounce a day and we did two oz. in two days. The little guy is growing fast. The doctor also said that his jaundice was looking better(an assessment made across the exam room). And so David is doing great.
We are loving the time spent with him this week. He is making us laugh in ways we never expected. It truly is a miracle and a undeserved gift to be able to bring new life into this world. I only hope that we can be the best parents we possibly can.

More pictures will be on the way but I need to get some sleep before David wakes us up again.

Mama's little man!

Hospital Nursery Photo available now!

Hey friends,
Today baby David's nursery photo became available for viewing online.
For anyone interested, visit www.msha.com/webnursery
The Guest Login is GIBB7987-0573.
Feel free to check it out and sign the guestbook!

Coming home and the 1st night

So on Monday morning, the doctor told us that we can be discharged from the hospital. So we went through the discharge process and packed up what we had brought with us. We had the hospital take some photos of David Mark and then we cleaned out the drawer under his bassinet. We dressed little David in the clothes we had picked out for him to come home in, which was the first clothes other than his hospital shirts. And so with Ali's brother, Jeffrey, with us Ali and I walked out of the hospital and to the car.

So we made the drive home and Ali's parent were waiting for us as we pulled in the driveway and took our little son into his first house. It was really great to be able to be home and know that we don't have to go anywhere. But we do kinda miss the hospital staff who were such a big help to us while we were there. So we got the first real taste of what it will be like to be home with a newborn. We also realized that at the hospital we could get more rest than here. It was a really good day regardless.

So onto the first night in our house with no nursery staff to help us. It was long. For one thing, I kept hearing little David's noises and couldn't let myself sleep. Ali slept some but she was just so tired and achy that I couldn't let her get up. So I proceeded to stay awake laying in bed for quite a while. Little David slept for a while and then he woke up hungry. Now at this point being new parents, we didn't realize that this is what he wanted. So we spent the better part of a few hours, trying to console him and get him to sleep. Now we know what to do. So I got around 3 hours of sleep that night and Ali got a little more.

Tuesday morning, we had to go to the pediatrician's office. So miraculously Ali, David and I along with Ali's mom make it out the door and to the office almost on time. The problem...we forgot the diaper bag at home. So I had to make a quick run home to get it. The appointment went well. Little David has stopped losing weight. And his jaundice is not bad and getting better. After the he saw the doctor, Ali, David and I saw the lactation consultant. In a word, David has bad technique. But never the less, we are now making strides to resolve the issue. After the appointments, Ali and I took a nap and prepared for David's next event, a photo shoot for the Johnson City Press. As it turns out, David is going to be more of a celebrity than both of his parents. He will be on the cover of the next issue of Thrive, a local health magazine. And so while we were excited to have him get his picture taken, David cried through half of it. No big surprise. And so that brings us to the second night at home which is tonight. Hopefully it will go a bit better than the last.

Here is a picture of Jeffrey with Nikon and David. So far Nikon has been really good around David. Although David's crying does scare Nikon some. It is really quite cute.

Pictures of the newest addition

So now that I have a few minutes to spare I can post some picture of the little guy








Hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

Annoucing David Mark Gibbons

It is my pleasure to announce to the world that David Mark Gibbons was born on July 18, 2008 at 10:38 pm. He weighed 9 lbs. 0 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. He is the cutest little guy I have ever seen.
To sum up yesterday, Ali went into labor around 8 am and was awesome during it. She handle to pain amazingly well. In the early afternoon she did have an epidural placed because the pictocin was causing the contractions to severe and her back was hurting so much that it was a losing battle. This was at 5 cm dialated and 5 hours into labor. Then the rest of labor was a breeze. Next came the pushing. Ali pushed for a little over 2 hours and then came the complication. Ali's cervix started to swell and we had to have a c-section. The surgery went well and we had a son. There was a whole host of people waiting to catch a glimpse of the newest addition. We will be posting pictures when we have time. I just can't believe that we are actually here. It is truly amazing. I never thought I would love someone else as much as I love my wonderful and beautiful wife!

Photo-Op :)

Here's a fabulous photo of us at 6:15 AM. My hair is looking foxy. I fixed it before I came in last night, not knowing I"d get to shower this morning! Linds, I should've brought my shower cap! Needless to say there's no hair dryer either so this is what my hair looks like until Leslie shows up. :) And in the meantime, its time to dig up some makeup...

Good morning from the Johnson City Specialty Hospital! I have no doubt that this will sound more cheery than either of us feel at the moment, but oh well :) We have managed to find an unsecured wireless network to use to update this thing so we'll try and do it as often as we can while we stay here!
So last night, we got admitted, we consented to everything, and then we found out that someone should have told us to eat a good meal before coming in. Surprise surprise. Because after they gave the Cervidil apparently, I can't get out of the bed or eat for a few hours to make sure it didn't throw me into labor. Thanks to LeAnne and Stacie for coming by, it was nice to have visitors to help keep me distracted, because they didn't even START the Cervidil until 8:30 pm. Leslie also got into town at the same time so she stayed will until 11:30 or so hanging out laughing and eating and making a plan for the day. Well, so at 10 pm they declared it safe for me to eat and my fantastic husband ran out and got food. At that point it was more fun, but I started losing it around 11. They gave me an Ambien at midnight but between then and 5 am I slept maybe 2-3 full hours.
I am having contractions, or so the machine says... I'm not really feeling any pain or contracting so I'm fine with that! So now we're both up and just waiting for the next thing. We're exhausted and may sleep till the doctor comes at 7ish. Jules, the doctor coming today is Dr. Talley-Horne - yay!

That's the scoop so far! Pray for my labor coach. He's such a great sport, but I need him to get plenty of rest.

Lots of love - David & Ali

Update!

Alright gang, there's no possible way for us to call all of you so here's the scoop -

No big progression toward labor, and so we are going in on Thursday night at 5 pm to go ahead and get things started. The actual induction will start on Friday morning. So if all goes according to plan, and let's pray that it does, our little man will making his debut on Friday!

That's all for now, just wanted to let you all know how things went this morning. If I think of anything else I'll be back to add it soon, there's just alot going on in my brain right now :)

This one's for you, Mom...

Check out the belly! Here's me today, July 13, in my 39th week.
No, I'm not having twins... but thanks for asking.

Richmond shower photo

Ok so here's one photo from the Richmond shower -
Leslie, Aunt Denise, me, Linds, Mom and Mum - all of the girls on Mom's side of the family!

Hair!

We uploaded the ultrasound photo where they pointed out and labeled the hair. I never knew you'd be able to see hair on an ultrasound, but here it is sure enough! Now we can't wait to find out what color it is. The other ultrasound photos were a bit blurry, as he was moving around quite a bit which made it hard to capture a good image. But here's our favorite - enjoy! :)

Also, we go back to the doctor tomorrow (Monday) morning. We'll update here once we know what's happening!
P.S. - If anyone has photos from my Richmond baby shower that they can email me the images as attachments, I would love to have those! I'd rather not view an "album" because there's less I can do with it, digitally, such as upload and share it. Thanks!

Homestretch

Well, we're in the homestretch now! We're checking things off of our list left and right, and spending the rest of our time relaxing and spending time together. Yesterday David took me out for breakfast at Atlanta Bread Company which was a fun treat. This weekend we're planning to hit up the Farmer's Market and a scenic trip to Unicoi to see Beauty Spot - somewhere I have never been! Sunday is our Sunday School class picnic, and then Monday morning its back to the doctor's office again! If we make it that far, I hope we get good news!
Last night we had an unexpected treat, which ranks up there with some of the nicest things people have done for us recently. Our friends Ryan and Tara are going to be moving away, and we've all been so busy we haven't seen them much since May. Ryan called to say he was going to stop by with something for the baby around 5:30. Then around 5:30 he called and said to scratch that, he'd be coming at 6:30, with Tara, and that they were bringing dinner! Not only did they bring dinner, they came here and cooked it at our house so we could have longer to hang out together. They made fantastic pork kabobs on the grill with zucchini, squash, peppers and onions and two side dishes, followed by ice cream! It was really nice to get to spend time with them, and we sat around the table talking until 9 or so. They also brought us a gift for baby - a cute little outfit and then an 88-pack of diapers and a box of wipes! We're so grateful for that. We were sad to see them go, not only back to their house but for them to move back to West Virginia. We're going to miss them!
Well that's the update for now. Better get back to work! :)

38 Weeks and Counting

This morning we had our 38 week ultrasound to determine the size of Baby Gibbons. The technician measured the baby's body, head and femur lenght to estimate the weight. The estimate was 8 lbs 3 oz. During the ultrasound, Ali and I were able to see the arms and legs and overall body of the newest addition to our family. We caught a little look at the profile of his face and Ali says he has my nose. I am waiting to decide until he makes his entrance into the world. We were also be able to see that he has hair! This ultrasound was scheduled at the perfect time. We were able to get a reminder that he is doing well and still growing. It also helped to remind us that there is a life there and not just some unexplainable movement in Ali's belly. After seeing him, I can't wait for him to come out so we can get to know each other.
The visit with Dr. Lewis went kind of as expected. There was no significant progression towards labor that the doctor could find and the estimate of the baby's weight and size didn't concern the doctor too much. He said that if nothing happens before next Monday then we will most likely induce by the end of next week. This would be for both Ali's and the baby's safety. I happen to agree that we need to do everything to keep both of them safe. So next week we will see Dr. May and hopefully things will be progressing a little farther by then.
And so this week is the week for getting everything finalized for the imminent arrival. We have very little to finish in the nursery. But we have other work things to get done so we won't be distracted after he gets here.
So if you feel like you need more details, you can call us but don't be surprised if we don't answer. We are trying to enjoy some alone time together. Also we will send out a mass email after the birth to let everyone know so make sure we have email addresses if you want the update.