Happy Father's Day

Wow, it's been a long time since we've blogged. Having a kid makes it kind of hard :-). Anderson is 9 weeks today and turned two months old on Friday, the 19th. He had a doctor's appointment on Friday to get a few vaccinations and have his stats taken. At 2 months he weighed 10lbs exactly and measured 22.5 inches long. He's our little peanut - his weight is in about the 15% percentile and his height is about the 35% percentile.

We've been doing well as a family of 3 (4 including Evita!).  Sleepless nights are tough, but Anderson is becoming a better and longer sleeper at night every day.  However, I have one bone to pick with my previously pregnant friends - not sure why it was kept a big secret but it would have been nice of someone to let us know the first 2-3 weeks absolutely suck. For reals, suck! Don't get me wrong, I love my kid but it was brutal. So for those who haven't had a kid yet and plan to, just know it isn't great at first but does in fact get better -WAY BETTER.

Anderson smiles, coo's and holds his head up really well.  All in all he's pretty rad and we wouldn't trade him in for anything.  For father's day we went to the Giant's game where Barry Zito had a no hitter until the 7th inning.  Anderson's record is 2-0 when attending a Giants game.  Maybe we should take him more often?

Anderson's first two weeks

So Anderson will be 2 weeks old in a few hours, he's sleeping so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on the blog. Not sure how often we'll have the opportunity to update this thing, but will do so when time presents itself. (photo to the left is from his one week b-day, chilling w/his julius doll)

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and learning. We didn't get discharged from the hospital until the Wednesday after he was born and it's been go go go ever since. We've had several doctor's appointments and have made a point to get out of the house as much as we can - for walks and whatnot, we're steering clear of crowds due to the flu outbreak. We are not going to risk him becoming exposed. We've also been blessed with man visitors and some great food! Thanks to EVERYONE who has come over and brought dinner. It's been really nice to not have to worry about that aspect.

So what's been going on with Anderson? He's been keeping us busy doing what he does best - crying, eating, needing to be changed, changed again and napping. He was born with a tight fenulum which in turn provided some difficulties eating and gaining weight. After a few consultations we had it clipped on Tuesday and he has been gaining weight as he should. He's just a few ounces shy of his birth weight.

Yesterday we took some family portraits with a photographer in the City, a really wonderful gift from Brian's team at work. We were able to preview some of the photos and they look fantastic! It will be such a joy to look back and see Anderson as tiny as he is. We will share some photos when we get the disk. In the meantime, below are some photos of our little guy take throughout the past two weeks.

Introducing...

Anderson Leland Birkett! Born April 19th, 2009 at 12:47 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz and is 19.5 inches long.

We're totally head over heals in love and obviously think we have he best looking guy in the hospital - even though he has a rather large conehead, which we're assured will go down.

So how did we get his name? Anderson in a little shout out to my family, if you didn't know, my mother's maiden name is Anderson and it helps we really liked it as a first name. Unique, but not weird. Leland is in honor of Brian's late uncle. So there you have it, Anderson Leland Birkett.

Can a pregnant lady get a break?

The bad luck continues this week...I'm starting to think we're cursed for moving. Ever since, things have just been slightly off. Luckily it all has nothing to do with our boy and we are very thankful for that. Now that we don't live in the city we will be driving for the most part to the Giants games - no big deal, right? Well that was until our car was broken into. Yup, always a fun time. While having my backpack stolen, which contained my work laptop, is a pain...what really was the kicker was that my disability paperwork and house key were in this bag. The paperwork contained everything from our home address to my maiden name. Oh yeah like I said fun times...police report filed, work is taking care of getting me a new laptop (the other was encrypted so little did the thieves know they basically stole a large paperweight), car window replaced and house locks changed - locks changed because all I could think of was someone taking our address off my paperwork and just using my house key to come on in and help themselves.

HOWEVER, there is some good news. A couple found my bag (along with several others) about 5 blocks away and took them home with them. They found my contact information and we will be meeting up with them tomorrow to get my bag. She confirmed my house key and paperwork were in there - so it seems they were not out to do some ID theft, whew!!! How's that for a fun week? Special and HUGE thank yous are in order to Brian (for putting up with my worrywart-ness over a house break-in) and Rick for helping with what literally felt like EVERYTHING on Thursday - thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!

On to the brighter side! I'm still pregnant and enjoying it. I'm still working (one week left!) and have a good amount of energy, for the most part. We're blessed to have great friends and family and don't take that for granted. Ashley and Trevor are throwing us a co-ed baby shower/bbq tomorrow here at our house - and we can't wait to see everyone one last time sans kid! We completed the baby's room - not going to call it a nursery, cause it's not my style - we didn't "baby" it up too much. Pictures posted below.I do feel quite large and in charge these days. Went to the dr, now a weekly occurrence, and everything checks out well. I don't think he's going to make an early appearance - but hoping he's more like his mom and likes to be on time - not too late like dad. We'll see, we should start taking bets. The baby center email says that now at 38 weeks, he should be over 6lbs now and about the length of a leak.

38 weeks - length of a leek

37 week shot of me (excuse the face)

It's the final countdown...

But first a shout out to my wonderful husband - Happy 31st Birthday! My how times have changed, it was just a year ago he was celebrating in Cancun with tequila shots. This year it will be some dinner and figuring out how to play MLB 2K9 for the Wii.

As of today I have two weeks of work left and three weeks until our due date (so I'd say realistically about 4 weeks until he's for sure going to be here). I can't wait for work to be over, just in the last two days I've hit a wall in the afternoon and could sure use a nap! I think we're pretty chill about what's coming up and trying to enjoy our moments together as a family of two. Bri's been a trooper - I haven't been in the best of moods since the move but hopefully as the house comes together that's changing.

We're still unpacking but we really hope to make some huge jumps this weekend and have most of it organized and put away. On Monday we're going to get our closet redone and have an organizer installed - which should make a huge difference. Special thanks to Rick for having the house painted before we moved in - it totally makes it feel like our home even though we're still living out of boxes!

I haven't blogged in two weeks just because there hasn't been much going on other than the move, work and trying to unpack a little each night. Our friend Gina gave me the best compliment last week, she said I was a very unpregnant pregnant person (something to that effect). It made me so happy, I want to still be Dawn!

I'll take a little bit of time to address some of the more recent frequently asked questions:

• Are you two getting excited?

Yes, of course!

• Are you going to insist on drugs? What's your birth plan etc...

These are very personal questions and I would like to keep them to myself for the time being. In the future I may decide to share, but until then I appreciate the questions and can certainly understand the curiosity.

• Are you guys ready?

Ha! I'm not sure if we'll be 100% ready or even know. We're crossing our fingers we are!

We'll play catch up on the produce from last week. At 36 weeks he was the weight of a crenshaw melon (6 lbs) and this week at 37 weeks is the length of a stalk of swiss chard (heel to head 19 inches or so). Like the past few weeks his main job at this point is to put on weight - let's hope not too much more!

36 weeks - weight of a crenshaw melon

37 weeks - length of a stalk of swiss chard

We've moved!

We're now officially living in the suburbs. It was a rough move to say the least, so we'll leave it at that and one day I just might be able to look back and laugh as it really has been a comedy of errors, just without the comedy. I did not do any of the work - except cleaning up here and there and have started to unpack. Brian has been fantastic and has really worked his tail off. I do owe him big time as I was not the best wife in the world this weekend, hey I'm admitting it. Now I know why being 8 months pregnant and moving is NOT a good idea. To make matters worse someone also told me I had cankles!!!! Hmmm well if you were carrying around a baby in your belly, moving, stressing out and in general on your feet for a long period of time you too would possibly have a cankle. Geez at least they are not permanent. Ahh I'm putting the memories/nightmare of this weekend behind me and just moving forward.

On a fun note, Brian put the crib together and it looks great. Once we get done organizing all of our stuff we'll be able to focus on the kids rooms. Evita is enjoying the new digs - especially the HUGE backyard.

I had a doctor's appointment on Friday. That was interesting. For some reason she has the same due date (April 24th) but her and the nurse kept referring to me being in my 36th week. Odd, considering everywhere else says I am now in my 35th week. I don't want to rush things, nor do I want to get to my due date and they feel the need for induction or something. I figure I'll ask about the discrepancy at my next appointment, as we've always been on the same page.

This week Baby Birkett's weight is comparable to a honeydew melon. Just over 5 lbs. I'm hoping he doesn't gain too much more weight for purely selfish reasons - I need to use these thoughts to help stay clear off all the Easter candy going around.

34 weeks 1 day

He's yawning cause he had an awesome but jam packed weekend. I'll write about it in a little bit, but for now enjoy the cuteness that is Baby Birkett in the womb.