Quick Update

Grady went to the doctor today. He weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces....only 2 ounces away from his birth weight. He gained 1/2 a pound in just 2.5 days! His color was perfect and his rash is clearing up nicely too, so the doctor was very pleased with his progress. And if you were wondering, yes...it looks like his hair is fairly blonde! I hadn't really noticed, but today was the first day out in the sun and florescent lights. Eyes are still blue, but they're pretty dark. They're not as dark as Ainsley's were so I'm not sure if they'll turn or not. You never know!

There are a handful of new pictures on flickr also. Clint's still in charge of pictures, so as soon as I get a chance I'll get on his laptop and sort through them all.

Graden Matthew Bean

Grady is here!
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches
4/24/2008
7:47am

Clint uploaded a few pictures on our flickr site. I'll try to get a few more uploaded as soon as I can.

Grady is doing great! He's SO sweet and I'm absolutely in love with him. He's a super cuddle-bug and sleeps all the time. He had lost down to 7 lbs 2 ounces when we left the hospital on Saturday, but my milk came in the same day so I think he's making it back up quickly. He sure poops a lot! The kid poops every single time he eats...while he's eating. He seems to always smile when he poops too....such a little boy! :)

Ainsley is doing really good with him. She's still learning just what "gentle" means and is starting to not be quite so interested in him (that's a good thing) and play on her own. Overall, we haven't really had any jealousy issues, but we had a small accident yesterday. I was holding Grady in one arm and Ainsley climbed up on the arm of the recliner on my other side. We sat like that watching TV for a while until Ainsley went to climb down. When she did, she elbowed my incision......OUCH! Luckily, my mom swept her off real quick before she saw me cry. She got emotional...I got emotional....we were all crying. :)

I'm recovering fairly well. I still can't stand up completely straight and I have a LOT of back pain. It's the same pain that put me in the ER after Ainsley was born. So far, it's controlled with the Ibuprofen the doctor prescribed, but as soon as I get within an hour of taking more meds I'm in enough pain that it often sets me into tears. Other than the back pain, the left side of my incision "popped" a bit on Saturday and has been hurting since then, but it's manageable. I'm just glad I have my mom here to help with Ainsley. Clint is working 4.5 hour days this week while my mom is helping and he'll be off next week.

I'd just like to thank everyone who came to see us in the hospital. It was SO great sharing this time with all of our friends and I love each of you! Also, thanks to everyone (especially Becca) who kept or offered to keep Ainsley last week while I finished "nesting". You're all such a huge help and I'm so blessed to have such a great circle of friends.

I'll try to get back into posting in a few days. Until then, check our flickr site now and then for more pictures!

Veggie Tales and MDO!

Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (from Veggie Tales) were at church on Sunday. They were in the kid's area before church Sunday morning, but Ainsley was pretty hesitant. She was excited, and even waved, but kept her distance. Apparently they visited each classroom during church, which must have worked because Ainsley was hugging them by the time we picked her up! We had a big celebration that evening so they were back again and Ainsley was hugging AND kissing them...plus lots of hand shakes, high-fives, and even put her little clown nose on Bob and told him he could keep it! (He gave it back)



They served hot dogs, chips, ice cream, and brownies. Ainsley LOVED it! She doesn't usually eat hot dogs very well, but she ate almost all of hers, most of her chips (dipped in ketchup) and ate the ice cream until we took it away because it was completely melted. She loved eating it with a "stick" though. :)Kyla and her parents sat right by us, so Ainsley and Kyla danced together for a while. There was some pretty loud music while the performer was eating fire and juggling. :) Including Kyla's baby brother, I bet I pulled Ainsley away from 4 babies! She LOVES babies!
My "boss" at Mother's Day Out let me bring Ainsley in today since I'm having a baby Thursday. She's so sweet! I bought a few last minute things at Wal-Mart and then came home for the rest of the day. That's something I never do! I watched TV for about an hour, surfed the internet for another hour, cleaned out the refrigerator in a major way, and picked up around the house. It was a great day! PLUS Ainsley took a nap at school...3 times in a row now! So, I took her to the park where we met her friend Wilson (who is bringing home his baby brother tomorrow) and another friend was there that she knows from Toddler Toes, Blake and his baby sister (who Ainsley also wouldn't stop playing with!) She was SO brave! She was climbing things that she's never climbed before and swinging by herself. It was so nice to know that I might actually be able to take her to the park this summer and be able to sit back, hold Grady, and just watch! Then we came home and Clint (& Ainsley) made a homemade pizza and served it to me in the recliner! :)

It was a good day, which is good because I've had really bad nights. I have terrible back pain because I've been sleeping on an incline...on my side. I have terrible indigestion/nausea even after taking Prilosec daily and Tums every 4 hours, so I have to sleep sitting up. Plus, I'm very congested so I'm sleeping with my mouth open which makes my throat SO sore! I still don't quite have my voice back, but my cough is getting a bit better. I have high hopes that it will be gone by Thursday! We're going to stay home tomorrow and try to re-coop (other than dance) and then I go in Wednesday morning for my pre-op! It's almost time!!!

Ainsley's Special Day

First of all, thank you all SO much for your prayers! Luckily, Ainsley's fever only lasted about 2.5 days and, after a few breathing treatments, the cough went away too! So, she was able to go to school on Friday and give Mommy a day off! :) That's the day I started getting sick. I had no voice on Friday (after coughing all night Thursday night) and had a real scratchy throat all day today too. I still have a really bad cough and since I can't take any medicine it's not getting much better. Hopefully it will be gone by Wednesday because I can NOT recover from an incision in my stomach while coughing!

So, as most of you know, we've tried to make this entire month very special for Ainsley before Grady comes. I'm a little worried that she's getting spoiled, but so far we haven't had any issues. We purposely made sure that we kept our schedules today completely open so we could spend the entire day with Ainsley. When she woke up I explained what was going to happen and she kept running through the house saying, "Its' my special day!" and then she'd tell us to "Say 'Happy Special Day Ainsley!'" Ha! All day we kept asking her what she wanted to do next. She started off wanting to watch cartoons. Then she wanted to do a puzzle. It's a Thomas the Train puzzle she got for Christmas that's pretty complicated. She loves puzzles and is really pretty good at them! Next she asked to play a game. She actually wanted to play a game outside, but it was a bit too cold. I bought this Lucky Ducks game on the clearance aisle a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would be something fun to play after Grady comes. Even thought it was maybe a bit elementary for her (said 3-8 yrs on box, though) she absolutely LOVED it!

Choosing her duck...

Found a match!

After playing that game WAY too many times, we all built a fort together. (By the way, chip clips work really well to keep the blankets on!)

Wearing Daddy's glasses. She can't see at all when she has these on. It's pretty funny to watch her. :)

After a GREAT nap, we went fishing at the lake close to our house...in Decatur. She always thinks it's a treat to ride in Daddy's Bronco.

Reeling it in...she had a blast! Right after we got there, a guy was leaving and asked us if we wanted the 3 Perch that he caught. I declined, but he let Ainsley watch as he released them back into the lake. Ainsley thought it was a lot of fun watching them swim in circles until they got oriented again. :)

Like father, like daughter!

I was a nervous wreck when she was on the dock with Clint. She kept running and I was trying to yell, "Don't let her run!", but I had no voice! They were pretty far away from me too. Here she is waving at me.

She ate all of the snacks I brought on the 10 minute trip to the lake, so all I had was a sucker. :)

There were several geese and a couple of little families with babies too...

Casting...she was dangerous!

She kept getting upset when her plastic fishy would get moss on it.

I found another snack...an apple!

I just had to get one with her tongue out...she can't do anything with her tongue in her mouth!

When we got home she played outside for a long time, in the sand box, on the roller coaster, and kicking balls with Daddy. Needless to say, she went right to sleep tonight! Tomorrow is "Kid's Day" at church too, so it's an extra special weekend for her. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber (from Veggie Tales) will be visiting her class and she's very excited about seeing them. She's also counting down the number of days until Grady comes...she's so cute!

Prayer Request

Please pray for us! Ainsley is very sick...high fever, really bad cough, runny nose, etc. and I have a sore throat now too. In addition, the doctor's office called and said that my doctor had a surgery scheduled during my appointment time on Friday so it's now moved to Thursday....right in the middle of a very important presentation Clint had to give at work! It's my last appointment and now I have to take Ainsley (who will probably still be sick) and hope Clint can work his schedule out so he can go with me. I haven't really talked to my doctor about the surgery at all...we were waiting to do this at the last appointment so Clint could be there. I don't know what they'll do if I go in with a fever on the day of my surgery either. Ugh! I'm so disappointed and VERY tired after being up with Ainsley half of the night. So, please keep us all in your prayers! We could use a lot of healing in the next few days! Thank you!

More Belly Pics.....with Bean Sprout #1...

Baby Grady Update

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and got some good news. It's funny....if I was having a vaginal delivery, most of the news would have been pretty disappointing, but since I'm having a C-section it didn't really matter!

First he couldn't feel the baby at all, which meant he was still really high up. It didn't surprise me at all since Ainsley stayed like this until I was induced at 41 weeks. (This also means that I'm still on track for a C-section on the 24th) So, he told me he couldn't even tell what position the baby might be in. I said that I thought his bottom was on my right side because this hard lump was always popping out. But then the doctor said if it was a hard lump it's most likely his head. He felt around on my stomach a bit and said, "Well let's just see!" So, he turned the lights out and did an ultrasound! What a surprise! (Maybe it was because I had baked him cookies too, though...ha!) It was kind of neat seeing a baby that far along. I don't think I've ever seen an ultrasound at 37 weeks. Well, it turns out, the lump was his head!

I felt SO bad immediately because I've been sleeping mostly on my right side. That meant I've been sleeping on the poor thing's head! And making the baby sleep upside down! Oh well, right? So, as the doctor was doing the ultrasound he said, "Looks like he's coming out butt first! You were expecting a boy, right?" And then I looked at the screen.....let's just say there's no doubt this kid is a boy! I was also measuring much bigger this week, but the doctor believes it's because Grady is laying across my belly, rather than down in the pelvic bone. He is, however, sitting right on top of my bladder...also very clear in the ultrasound!

I thought this was my last appointment, but he wants to see me back in a week. Just to get back on MDO day, I scheduled it for 10 days, rather than 7. That will be 6 days before the surgery, so it's very likely the next appointment will be my last.

I can't believe it's gone by so fast! Clint just commented last night, "It's so weird having babies." I thought he meant how they are formed and such, but he went on to say, "I feel like we should be in high school, hanging out at the movie theatre or something!" It is kind of weird...thinking that we're 30 years old with 2 kids. I thought I'd feel much older when I got to this stage in my life, but I still feel very young. Hopefully the lack of sleep in a couple of weeks won't make me look much older! :)

Train Ride

Our Toddler Toes group went on a train ride from Springdale to Fayetteville today. The kids had a BLAST! Ainsley was SO excited! Here she is before the train started moving...

And one of us before we left the station...
(I look really ridiculous holding her way up above my belly!)

She and Will sat together. They were so cute to sit and hold their tickets until the conductor came by!

Zoie joined Will and Ainsley after a little while. The kids were funny...they didn't really talk to each other. They just sat there and looked out the window. :)

Ainsley was tattling on Will for something...I don't even remember what. (She's quite the tattle-tale) So, I told her to give Will a hug....

And here's the "hug"...
(Always a little Mommy)

It was a lot of fun and I'm very glad we went. Ainsley was worn out when we got home and went right down for her nap, so that was good too! There is some kind of Mother's Day train ride coming up too. I'll have to check into that and see what it's about. Maybe it means that Dad's take the kids on the train while Mommies get the day off? :)

More Baby Showers

I have officially attended my last baby shower before Grady comes. For those of you who know just how many pregnant friends I have, this is a big deal. Since the majority of my close friends are expecting, I've been on the hostess committees of almost all these showers. This has taken a lot of my time lately. Especially since I've made all of the gifts for everyone as well. (Luckily I've finished the gifts for all showers through the month of June!) This shower was for two of my best friends, Leah and Leigh. They are due 2 days apart, so we had a joint shower for them at Johnny Carino's. We had the entire patio just for us - it was perfect! We all ate dinner under the stars in 65 degree weather! It couldn't have been better!

We had the gift table divided...one side was pink and the other was blue. My friend Andrea made the cutest diaper cakes in pink and blue, Katie made picture frames for guests to write prayers and blessings over the baby, and we got each of the mommies a beautiful bouquet of flowers to take home.

Picture with all of the hostesses...

Picture of all the pregnant ladies in attendance...

The cake...yummmm! We had ordered a really cute cake from Sam's Club...an umbrella made out of cupcakes. It was going to have both blue and pink stripes on the umbrella...very cute. When we went to pick it up (45 minutes before the shower) they had left a note saying they didn't know how to make it! Ugh! The manager did offer to make another one for us, but we only had like 10 minutes before we needed to start decorating for the shower. So, we ended up getting two Black Forest cakes free. Plus, they threw in some raspberry topping to drizzle over each piece...in addition to the chocolate flakes lining the sides. It was delicious! The best baby shower cake I've ever had! :)

On another note, Clint's mom came up to visit this weekend. We went shopping on Saturday and she bought Ainsley some summer pajamas. We found some really cute gowns, and since Ainsley sleeps in a big bed with "covers" now, we thought they'd be perfect for my little hot-natured girl. Well, now she's out of control! She wears a gown all the time and even cries when she has to put on real clothes! I don't mind too much, though, because she looks SO cute in her little, frilly gowns! :)

18 days....

Clint took a few pics of me today since we haven't really taken any "belly shots" of me since I've been pregnant. I think I took one every month when I was pregnant with Ainsley, so maybe all of these will make up for it. I think he did a pretty good job! Although, it took me a LONG time to get over the shock of how big I was! :)

One more project...

...but it's for a friend so it doesn't count, right? :)

Last project....for now...

Ainsley and I went to Hobby Lobby early this morning to get some letters for Grady's room. I don't know why I felt like he needed letters. Ainsley didn't have any in her nursery, but she did have a lot of personalized things. And she has her name on her wall now, so it was only fitting that Grady have his name up too! I actually had a project for Ainsley to do while I worked on the letters, but I should have known I couldn't get the paint out without her asking to help! I took her shirt off, so all she had was her paint apron...

This is where she realized she had paint on her fingers. This girl really hates to have anything on her fingers! She did a great job and painted 2 full letters by herself. She was SO proud to show Daddy when he got home too.

Sorry, I had some flash issues...

They look really cute and I'm so glad I did them. I was planning on doing random patterns (dots, stripes, etc.) but I found these wooden cut-outs at Hobby Lobby for $.50 that I thought would be really cute instead. They weren't the right colors, so I had to re-paint most of them, but I'm pleased with the outcome!

On another note, I'm not feeling great. I've had a sore throat since last night and my stomach is crummy feeling. Ainsley had a sore throat (at least I think she did...she doesn't really understand what a throat is) yesterday and has had a very runny nose too. She's also been sleeping about 11 hours at night and taking 3.5 hour naps every day so I think she doesn't feel great either. I just hope we all feel better by Friday for Mother's Day Out!