A Peek at Life as a Natic

Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our time in the hospital for Preston here

Well, it has been a while since I have posted  – sorry about that.  We have been very busy with our awesome visitors and enjoying our time with Preston.  I’m sure you can understand LOL.

Preston is doing very well.  He has been such a great baby and is just so cuddly and sweet.  The only time you hear a peep from him is when he is hungry or he is being unwrapped to change him.  He loves to be wrapped up and warm.  As you may know, I am normally queezy and get grossed out often.  This made the first diaper change was quite interesting LOL.  With Alisha being as sore as she was I needed to jump in and be super dad for a while.  He pooped and as I was wiping him while I had his legs up and he began farting.  I was scared to death thinking that some poop cannon was aimed at my face.  It scared the heck out of me LOL.  It was really funny scary, but Alisha very quickly found out that she cannot laugh without being in some serious pain due to her c-section. 

Preston has lost a little weight since birth but we are monitoring it to make sure that he is getting enough from breastfeeding to be sure that we don’t need to supplement a little bit.  Alisha is very committed to breast feeding as we truly believe it is the best for Preston and we have the time to do so.  We have had a lactation consultant come by a few times to give us some tips as well as tell what we can do to make sure that he is getting what he needs.  We can certainly tell that her milk has not come in yet, but we just want to make sure that he is getting enough to keep him healthy until then.   

We were told about the new recommended skin-to-skin contact that is really being pushed throughout the industry.  I took the time to read quite a bit about it and it is really interesting actually.  They basically say that skin-to-skin (SSC) is extremely important for newborns and that it stabilizes heart beats, regulates body temperature, reduces stress, and does a lot for their little brains.  With the increased need to feed today, Alisha has been spending a lot of time with him to make sure that he eats whenever he wants / needs to regardless of the amount of time that has gone by.  Sometimes he is eating every hour today.  We expect this to be quite frequent until her milk comes in.  The lactation consultant really gave her kudos for sticking with this and not just jumping to formula because of the number and frequency of his feedings.  You can read about the benefits of breastfeeding and skin to skin care for yourself here:  http://www.kangaroomothercare.com/whatis01.htm .

The doctors are keeping an eye out make sure that he is not too jaundice and that he is not loosing too much weight.  They are expected to check on him again tonight to get a better idea of where we are.  Hopefully all checks out well.  He is not really at any risk, but if he continues to drop weight we will most likely need to supplement the feedings with some formula so that we are sure that he is getting enough food and nutrients to keep him healthy.  We would prefer not to formula feed at all, but we will do what we need to do so that he does  stay healthy.

While I was typing this I sent Preston to the nursery to be weighed and he did lose another ounce even with all of the feedings.  Basically he is just not getting enough from Alisha right now as her milk is not in to keep his weight stable.  We are now feeding him some formula to supplement his breastfeeding. 

Alisha is doing great as well.  She is feeling a million times better.  After the c-section she was quite sore.  It really took a toll on her.  She was in a fair amount of pain especially as she tried to get up from bed.  They removed the epidural that they had in place and began giving her percocet to help her with the pain.  The first dose they gave her two and it knocked her on her FACE!  She was totally out of it and just passed out after about 5 minutes of dozing off.  We then decided to scale that back down to one per dose and that has been doing much better for her.  She is now getting in and out of bed and has really been doing well.  We are walking around the floor making sure to keep her mildly active so that she does not get to sore and to keep her muscles from staying so tight. 

Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed, facebooked, texted, visited, and thought about us.  We are doing very well and appreciate your thoughts and care!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our pregnancy shots here

On Wednesday night Alisha and I made up a little mini shoot at the house to take some pics with some blocks and of course the belly.  When we got to Edwin and Geni’s house, on Thursday we headed straight outside to do another round of pictures with Susan.  Click the link above to check out some of our favorites from the group of pictures we took.

I cannot believe that we are getting so close…. so close to having our first child in our arms!  We are 27 days away from our due date!  Obviously he can come earlier or he can come later, but either way we are getting so close!

Alisha is doing very well and has had such a great pregnancy.  She has had no cravings, no issues, no pain, no discomfort.  Just all in all smooth (other than the sickness in the beginning).  She has gained only 17 pounds total throughout the entire pregnancy and just flat out looks great!  We went to the doctor this morning for another checkup and he was head down but the cervix is still completely closed so there is no dialation this week.  Hopefully this show will get started in the coming weeks.  I just want to be able to make it to Athens next weekend, so slow your roll Preston… you can make your appearance after next Saturday

36 Weeks 1 Day

We are so excited to hold our son for the first time.  It is going to be so great!

Well, it feels like it has been forever but we are getting close.  We are now 60 days away from our due date! 

We have most of the nursery done (just some decoration left to do), have had the family baby shower, and have the friends baby shower early next month.  We are just counting down until December to finally have our baby in our arms.

December 22nd is the due date…. lets hope that these next two months go by quickly and smoothly!

Yeah I know… i have been slacking on this blog and leaving you guys hanging… new posts coming soon.

We have just been trying to get the nursery and the house ready for the family baby shower this weekend.  To our friends, dont worry…. the friend shower is the beginning of next month.  Invitations are being done now (heck, they may be done already).

Here is the most recent belly picture that we took last night.

23 Weeks 1 Day

To see the progression click here:  Belly Pictures

My cousin Hector and his wife Reagan are expecting! 

It is very early but very true… we are excited that our little boy will have a cousin to play with!  Hector and I were very close growing up and we look forward to Preston having someone to grow up with as well.

Congrats Carmona’s!!

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our night at Capital Grille with the DiRoccos at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

I made a comment on our blog regarding going to Capital Grille now that we know we are having a baby boy and Andrea offered to join us.  We had not seen them in a while so we made plans to head there on Friday night. 

Andrea and Alisha both Pregnant

As you know, Capital Grille is by far my favorite restaurant!  The calamari, steaks, and truffle fries are to die for…. and the flourless chocolate cake (topped with espresso) is even better than all of it combined.  While at dinner, Andrea gave Alisha a present for Preston.  It is his first Lovie embroidered with his name.  We had a great time at dinner celebrating Andrea and Ryan’s pregnancy as well as ours.  Andrea does not have too much longer before she has her third little boy!

Thanks for joining us guys!

On Sunday we had planned to head up to North Point Mall to begin registering for clothes, cups, spoon, baths, car seats, and everything else under the sun.  We went to Babies R Us and spent about 2 hours going through the store deciding on what we needed.  After our 2 hours there, we headed to Target to spend another 30 minutes or so wrapping up what we did not find at Babies R Us. 

We have been asked numerous times where we have registries, so if you were waiting for this post please see below:

Babies R Us:  Click Here -

BTW, their website to find registries sucks as does their registration process.  When searching for the registry, I had to use all lowercase letters or it would not find the registry.  If you try to find it in the future, please keep that in mind.

Target:  Click Here -

Child Seat – Click Here -

This seat is only available online in our area.  If you purchase it, please make sure it is CRIMSON.  Shipping is free on this product. 

Most of our items are on the Babies R Us registry and a lot of the clothes and other items are online only.  Don’t be scared to order them LOL.  We are still trying to find out about a crib that was offered to us so that is not on the registry. 

This morning Alisha and I were just being lazy watching some tv and she asked me to see if I could feel Preston kick.  She put my hand on “the belly” and sure enough I DID!  It felt just like a bump beneath my hand - it was so cool!

You are in trouble now Alisha…. you told Kara she cant touch your belly until you can feel him kick.  LOL

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Alishas gifts at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

So today I surprised Alisha with a few very much deserved gifts.  She had a busy day and I had been wanting to do so for some time so it worked out really well.

Alisha's Gifts

I went to Build a Bear yesterday and purchased one of the things you can record your own sound on and brought it home.  I knew that I had a clip of the baby’s heartbeat from this video when we did an ultrasound earlier in the pregnancy.  I basically took the part of the heartbeat out of the video and saved it to the computer.  Because the clip was shorter than I was looking for, I set it up  back to back 4 times on a new video and saved it.  Then I took the build a bear recordable sound piece and recorded the heartbeat playing from the computer as I played the video.  It came out PERFECT!

I headed back to build a bear and had a bear made, put the recording in his hand, and dressed it up to bring back home.  I grabbed a quick card as well as some chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva and headed home.  I set it all up and Alisha came home shortly afterwards. 

The bear is named Preston which will be the baby’s name by the way   When you press the button in his hand you hear his heartbeat.

Alisha loved it and I am glad.

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our baby clothes at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

So now that we just found out that we are having a boy, you can imagine that Alisha is having a tough time staying out of the stores.  LOL  Click the link above to see some of the clothes that she has already purchased.

Alisha has a BUNCH of websites already to purchase clothes from.  I’ll have to have her post them for any other expecting mom’s browsing our site. 

We are so excited!

I have uploaded the belly picture from after our ultrasound on Monday to our Belly Pictures album found here.

Whoops.. just noticed it is the wrong orientation but you get the point LOL.

So as you,  can imagine Alisha has been out shopping for clothes and scouring the Internet for the cute things that she has always wanted to purchase.  Fortunately for me, she had much more girl things that boy things so I wont go broke LOL. 

She has been out a few times shopping and she is getting the closet going with clothes and stuff for the baby.  We are also planning to put up chair rail in the baby’s room as well as bead board in the playroom downstairs and obviously paint those rooms.  The other night we were laying down and right before we fell asleep it hit me that I may not be able to get a stroller in my car.  The trunk has no space and it just isnt the best car for a carseat.  Also, I would LOVE an automatic after driving a stick for the past 9 years.  Plus it is easier if both of us can drive either car.  Since Alisha doesnt know how to drive a stick, we always need to be sure that her car is at home for her.  It would be nice to be able to freely take whatever to get things done.

Well this has started the search… do I boost the economy with a new car purchase or do I sit tight until December, or do I simply buy nothing at all.  I guess we will need to go test driving (ugh I hate dealing with 30 salesmen) and see where that takes us…I guess we will see where we end up.

If you have any recommendations feel free to leave a comment with them.  We are most likely going to grab something with 3rd row seating – my main concern is just the engine power…. many of the cars just dont have the power that I want in a car.  I have driven a 4 cylinder for 9 years now, I want something that feels like Alisha’s TL.

Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Gender / Anatomy Ultrasound at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.

The Clan

 Left to right – Aubree, Kaitlyn (baby), my mom, me, Alisha, Tiffany, Kara, Paul, Anne (Alisha’s step mom), Danielle

So as you know we went for our gender / anatomy ultrasound today!  Alisha found out that we are having a boy ( I knew all along )

Click the link above for the ultrasound pictures that they printed for us.  We tried to grab some pictures or record it but they would not allow us for legal reasons.