Mason Birth Announcement

Cuddle Up Blue Birth Announcement

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5 Days Old

Grandpa took out his new toy to shoot some beautiful pix of Mason on a lambs skin blanket which was my fav type of blanket for me growing up. Also just some more pix for Daddy to see.

Daddy's Departure

3 days after Mason was born, Matt had to leave for military duty to serve our Country. He will be going to Iraq after spending some time in Washington finishing training that he missed while he was in Afghanistan. Thursday was a hard day, not only with the influx of hormones and emotions I was already going thru but to top it off with daddy leaving about put me over the edge. Matt is proud to serve our Country and doesn't like the timing but will proudly serve for our family and yours. I am so proud of him and know that this sacrifice of time now will be worth it in the end. Our marriage is strong and our family can get thru this. Matt will be serving a deployment of 1 year so for Mason's 1st birthday, his birthday gift will be his daddy! Here are some pix from Thursday.

~After our first night home, so tired!~

~Last pix with Daddy at the gate for his flight. They gave me a gate ticket so that we could say good-bye.~

Mason's Baby Blessing

We are so thankful for the opportunity that Matt got to give Mason a blessing for our church the night before Matt had to leave. It was a wonderful blessing and evening. Couple of things. We gave Mason his very first bath here at the house, so first bath in general and also first bath at home. Grandma helped with the bath and Grandpa and daddy took all the pix! Mason did not like the bath one bit but it had to be done because he had to look super cute for the blessing. The pix if really funny to me because the areas that need to be blurred were naturally blurred from all his moving around! Sorry Mason for posting this, I know you will be mad at me when you are older but you are just so darn cute!!!

Couple things about the blessing. We had quite the assistance from many Grandma's for many of the things used in the blessing. Matt's mom gave us the afghan that she made for Matt's blessing when he was a baby. My mom made the quilt as well, so we used the quilt and the afghan for Mason to be blessed on while daddy held him. Also the outfit he wore, my mom got that for him, but had some help embellishing it for Mason. The tatting on the outfit my mom added it. It was tatting that my Great-Grandma made for my Grandma's skirts over 100 years ago. My mom found it at Grandma's house when she was cleaning it and mom saved it. So the outfit had tatting that Mason's Great-Great Grandma made for Great Grandma that Grandma added and mommy loved! Don't you just love lineage!

Enjoy the pix!

Mason's Arrival

MASON ROBERT ALLEN

7/18/2011

8:52pm

7 lbs 4 ounces

20 inches

Monday, July 18th 7:30am, Matt and I arrived at the hospital for our scheduled induction. I was induced with half a pill of cytotec and then we waited, and waited. I was 2-3 cm dilated when we arrived at the hospital. Doc didn't come back until 1 to check me. I was having just very small contractions up until then. Doc came in and I was unchanged and did the other half of the pill. I started to feel more contractions but really they were just like the braxton hicks I had been having for the last month just more regular every 1-2 minutes. Doc said at the check up at 1 that I would be picking up and that Mace would be here around 4:30. We called our doula to come in anticipating active labor to start. She arrived and we just talked and watched me really do nothing. She left around 3:30 to give us alone time and asked us to call after the doc did his check again.

The doc arrived at 5 and one look at me told us either he brakes my water or I go home cause he could tell I wasn't much further along. I didn't want to home so we let him break my water. I was 4cm dilated at this point. Within 30 min of my water breaking I started to feel what real labor felt like and was wishing for the barely there contraction I had earlier. I made Matt call the doula to come back in cause I didn't know what to do to get comfy. I asked Matt about 10 times if he really contacted her and he assured me he had. I was starting to panic because it hit me that this kid was going to be here soon. When my doula arrived she jumped right into action. At this point I can't really remember what happened. Matt and my doula have been filling in the blanks for me and telling me what happened. I labored in the bathroom for a while and the nurse had started the bath tub and I immediately wanted to go in there because I was hoping for a little relief. I got into the tub and for about 2 min had a little relief and then, bam, contractions happening again. My doula started timing the contractions and gave up because I was in hard labor but not having the regular contractions of hard labor. My contractions were for only about 30 sec and 1.5 min apart and STRONG! I hated the nurse because she would make me go into an awful position in the tub so that she could take the heart beat of Mason. She would take the doppler and push it into my stomach during a contraction. Every time she came in the bathroom I said, "He's fine, you don't need to check. Don't push." Every time she would check he was fine, as I said.

In the tub I started to feel like I had to push and by the third time I told my doula I think I had to push she ran out and got the nurse who checked me and told me to get out of the tub and go to the bed. As I made it to the bed I had another strong contraction and finally made it to the bed. When I got there the nurse said she called the doc and he was on his way. After what felt like forever the doc arrived and I never felt happier. He checked me and I could tell that there was a little pushing happening. He said that my cervix was pretty much gone but a little bit and said, "let's just go ahead and try pushing." I did one push and he said, "Oh, yeah this baby's coming out." He also said that Mason was sunny side up and that I had to push in the WORST position possible, flat on my back and use handles to pull myself up. I pushed for about 50 min. Matt was amazing during the whole day, but the look on his face when he told me that Mason had a TON OF HAIR, he was so proud. Matt couldn't believe what I was doing and what was happening and was so very impressed with how birthing is. I remember looking at him for strength to keep pushing and just looking at how happy he was was amazing. At the very end Mason did a 180 degree turn in the birth canal and was delivered in the normal position for babies to be born in which makes it a little easier. Right as Mason came out, I remember seeing the nurse and the doc jump backwards as the remaining bag of water attempted to soak them. I remember laughing slightly and thinking, "payback for you hurting me and the doc telling me to push harder when I was already pushing as hard as I could!" I still don't remember a lot of details and some things come back as Matt or my doula tell me but it just kind of feels like a cloudy dream thinking about it.

One detail I didn't forget to mention is that, I didn't have an epidural. I didn't even have time to think about it because from 5pm-8pm I went from 4cm - 10 cm. Once my water broke I was in hard labor and stayed there for the entire time. The doc let me do mother directed pushing where I call the shots for how long I push for and everything which was really nice. No one was screaming at me counting. It was just a great, but very difficult experience. My biggest frustration is that I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get comfy to help relieve the pain. The pain was more of just really, really bad cramps, but I just couldn't get comfy to help me thru it. I am so happy that I accomplished the type of labor I wanted and that I survived. I am so happy to have my little mini-Matt here with me. It is truly amazing what the female body can accomplish from making another human to delivering a human without too much harm to either party.

I am so thankful that I have been blessed to have a baby. For so many years I thought that it would never happen. I am just so thankful.

Check out some pix just after the birth!

~Us with my Doula, Merrie~

~Matt holding Mason for the first time~

He's Here!

Mason Robert Allen joined our family Monday evening the 18th at 8:52 weighing a perfect 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long! We are so happy to finally have this little bundle of joy with us. Pix and more to come soon!!!

1 Week OR Less?!?

Well, in 1 week from today Mason will be joining our family whether he wants to or not. We have our scheduled induction for Monday, July 18th. We are still hoping that he wants to join us prior to that date so that Matt can spend more time with him before he leaves for his military duty.

Yesterday, we got back from our Babymoon over the weekend. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson's Corner, just outside of DC. They upgraded our room to a super nice suite because of Matt's military service and the baby. It was such a nice experience at the hotel. Everyone very nice, and courteous. Also, we were part of the club level and there was pretty much food all day long!!!

Matt and I went to 2 super nice and yummy restaurants, one, a Brazilian BBQ with so much food and MEAT that we stuffed ourselves full of the amazing food. The other, the hotels super fancy nice restaurant. The raspberry dessert was AMAZING! I also indulged in a Mellow Mama Massage that was very relaxing! I love my husband who pampers me more than I deserve.

So if everyone could please pray and have happy thoughts for Mason to join our family ASAP so that Matt can spend some extra days with Mason and so that we can enjoy this time together as a family of 3! Thank you!