Christmas Babies

Our Christmas Cutie

Matthew with Pop-Pop and Suzie

Matthew Smiling

Pictures of Matthew and Grandma

Matthew is 1 Month Old Today!

Matthew is one month old today. Here are some things that have happened in the past few weeks. Matthew's umbilical cord fell off. His belly button is almost healed. He is holding his head up about 80% of the time. He gets stronger everyday. He uses his legs a lot to push off of our lap. He has also been very alert recently. He keeps his eyes open and looks around especially at windows and lights. He is such a pleasure to be around. We are loving every minute with him.

Matthew is 2 Weeks Old!

Hello Everyone,

Today Matthew is two weeks old. On Tuesday at his check-up he weighed in at 9lbs. 9oz. The doctor is pleased with his current weight gain. She said that he's big enough now that we no longer need to wake him every three hours to feed him. If he wakes up we feed him, but if he sleeps a little longer, we are allowed to let him sleep! YAY! Unfortunately, now that he is breastfeeding more, he is hungry more often, so we're still working on the sleep routine. His most active time is from 9pm-midnight. He's a night owl. I think he just likes Bobby rocking him to sleep. He know's how to scam the system. Just when he's just about to fall asleep, he makes a stinky diaper and we have to start over. Oh well, eventually we'll get the routine down and we'll be able to get more sleep. For now, naps are our friend! Breastfeeding has been difficult. Thanks to those of you who have offered advise! I'm finally starting to feel successful at breastfeeding. I didn't realize it was going to be so frustrating, difficult and painful! Fortunately, we are making huge steps in the right direction. So far he hasn't needed any formula today. If we can make it through the 9-midnight time tonight we might just be able to get him off of formula all together. That would be great! Stay tuned for more information. Thanks for thinking of us.

Lots of Love, Michelle

Matthew and Mommy Snuggle

Matthews First Halloween

Matthew in the Baby Swing

Matthew loves his baby swing. 

More Pictures of Matthew

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Matthew Robert Carp was born today at 1:10 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz and measuring 20 inches long. Here are a couple pictures of Matthew after he was born and getting his first bath.

Almost time for Matthew to arrive

Michelle is fully dilated and Matthew is in the right position. Unfortunately, we have to wait a little bit longer until he can come out because the doctors had to go to an emergency c-section. The nurse told us that they should be done soon, and that we're next! We're really excited and look forward to getting to meet Matthew finally!

Time for an epidural

Michelle was having some more intense contractions and decided to go ahead with the epidural. They had a little trouble with it, and Michelle's blood pressure dropped while they were doing the procedure. Everything worked out though, and Michelle is much more comfortable. They came just in time because it looked like after they finished that Michelle was having some serious contractions. The doctor hasn't stopped to check on how far Michelle was dilated since earlier when she measured 4 cm. That was a couple hours ago so we're expecting to be seen soon. We'll check in later with more exciting news.

Balloon Update

Michelle is very happy and more comfortable now that her balloon catheter fell out. Which means she should be between 3-4 cm dilated now. They have increased her pitocin levels gradually over time, fortunately this hasn't created significant discomfort for her.

Another Update

The doctor just checked on Michelle, and says that she is progressing along nicely. She's now at 3 cm dilated and they expect the balloon to fall out soon. They're about to start Michelle on a low dose of pitocin to stimulate more contractions. Michelle is waiting to see how she handles the pitocin before deciding on getting an epidural, though will likely get one sometime today. Michelle's mom is here now and we're all waiting in anticipation in the room.

Update on the Baby

Michelle and I made it through our first night at the hospital together. We both were able to get a little bit of sleep, but between uncomfortable beds and the constant care from the nurse and doctors I must emphasize the little part. Michelle is doing great. She responded well to the medicine they gave her to ripen the cervix, and only had to have two doses of it. She is now at 1 cm dilated and has been having a contractions at a regular interval. So, instead of giving her more medicine, they're switching to a balloon catheter. The balloon will give constant pressure until she is at 3-4 cm dilated and then it should fall out naturally. Michelle is on a clear diet and is looking forward to having some jello for breakfast.

Lots of love,

Bobby, Michelle and Matthew

Matthew is now at 41 weeks along, and so our doctor has decided he's ready to meet everyone. We're at Loma Linda now getting checked in, who knew having a baby would require so much paperwork? The doctor was able to check to see how Michelle and Matthew are doing, but said since this is our first baby that the whole process takes on average two days! She estimated that he is around the upper 7 lbs mark, so he should be of good size. before we left the condo we took a couple of pictures to show Michelle at her maximum belly capacity (her words not mine). They currently have her on medication to ripen the cervix. They have to apply it every four hours. Hopefully we can get some rest tonight, so that Michelle will have plenty of energy for when the tough part begins. Fortunately, we have a private room, which is also the room we will be delivering the baby in. They have a chair that can fold out to a bed, and I'll be sleeping by Michelle's side all night. We'll keep everyone posted if there is any more major developments.

Lots of love,

Bobby, Michelle and Matthew

Stress Test, Friends and Good Food :o)

Today we went to the hospital for a stress test. They don't actually try to stress the baby, they just monitor to make sure it is doing well. First, they did a routine ultrasound. The baby looked good. We got to see his little heart beating and see him taking practice breaths. The lab technician said that babies breathe the amniotic fluid until they are born and then the first breath flushes out the fluid and transitions the baby to be able to breathe air. This was interesting. After the ultrasound, they hooked me up to a heart monitor and a contraction monitor. The baby was kind of sleepy so she said she needed to wake him up. I thought she was going to shock me, but she used a vibrating thing on my stomach to wake up the baby. Sure enough it worked. His heart rate went up and he started kicking around a bit. Since he was being so active they only had to monitor for 20 minutes. She said that I had two contractions while on the monitor but I didn't feel them. After that we got the all clear and headed to Costco.

At Costco we were lucky enough to get the LAST chicken pot pie! We also got a pumpkin pie! YUM!! Once we got home we took the pups for a walk in the super nice cool overcast weather! Now we are just relaxing while the chicken pot pie cooks waiting for our friends Mark and Anali  who are coming over to visit with their little baby Luci. We met Mark and Anali in our pregnancy class. It's hard to believe that their baby is already 2 months old. Soon we will be saying, "wow I can't believe our baby is 2 months old". :) Time goes by so fast!

Baby Update

Today was our last OB appointment. It seems like Matthew is taking his sweet time. He's doing good though. His heart rate is normal and he has lots of fluid in there. Our doctor said that I'm not dilated at all so she scheduled for me to be induced Monday night. We have a stress test scheduled for Thursday afternoon. They will monitor the baby's movements and heart rate etc. to make sure he is still doing OK. If he is then they will let us go until Monday. It's still possible that he could arrive any day this week if I go into labor. We'll see. If we do get induced our doctor will be working at the hospital that day so she will get to deliver the baby. We would like that. She's such a nice doctor. We'll keep you posted if anything exciting happens in the meantime. :o)

Cool Weather Comes to California!

Good Morning,

I hope you are having a great weekend! Bobby and I are enjoying the wonderful weather we've been having. It's going to be in the 70's all week. Finally it is cooling down. :o) Yesterday we took the dogs to the park down the street. It's huge with lots of lighting and trails. They LOVED it. They were so excited the whole time. It was really nice to go for a long family walk. I like that park because it's not as hilly as our neighborhood. We've been trying to walk extra to see if it will encourage some contractions. So far, no luck with that. Our due date is tomorrow. We have an appointment in the morning so our doctor can give us a status update. We'll keep you posted. Have a great Sunday!

Love, Michelle

P.S. ~ A lot of you receive this as an email. You can also check it out at www.carpsandpugs.blogspot.com

Baby Belly Pictures

Pictures from the Mission Inn

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July!

We are going to relax and grill some tasty food. Hopefully you will be able to do the same.

Love, Michelle and Bobby

Our New Video Camera

Dear Family,

You probably received an email today about our tomato plants with a video that you could not view. Bobby and I have been practicing with our new video camera. We loaded the videos on to YouTube but they were listed as private that's why you couldn't see them. If you go back to your email you should be able to click on the link now and it should work. We're still in the learning phase. Hope you are having a great day! Hopefully we'll have some more exciting videos in the weeks to come.

Lots of Love,
Michelle and Bobby

Tomato Plants 2

Tomato Plants

New Baby Registry

Hi Everyone,

We just found out that Bed Bath and Beyond carries baby items. We really liked working with them for our wedding registry so we created a registry there for our baby. Feel free to check it out.

Our registry number is 5632365. www.bedbathandbeyond.com

P.S.~ We still have the Babies R Us registry, but we moved a few items from Babies R Us to Bed Bath and Beyond

Have a great day! Love, Michelle and Bobby

June 2010

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are having a great weekend! It's starting to get hot out here in CA. Surprisingly it sounds like it has been hotter in Maryland and Minnesota than here so far. It's crazy!

Bobby is at the lab with Mike today working on some research. He's happy that the semester is over and he has more time to dedicate to research instead of grading papers. We are both looking forward to seeing Josh this week. It will be so nice to visit with him. Before he gets here I have to get some lesson plans ready for summer school. I begin teaching next week on the 14th. It should be interesting. I will be teaching a semester of biology in only 12 days (6 hours each day). We'll see how it goes. I'm sure it will be fine.

Bobby and I are getting excited. I am starting to be able to feel the baby kicking. Bobby can't feel it yet because the baby isn't quite that strong. Maybe in a week or two.

Hope you are doing great!

Love, Michelle

New Neighbors

Yesterday we met our new neighbors. They are very nice. We're happy to have some new people moving into the neighborhood. Amazingly, the mother of the girls who moved in is a chemistry professor at a local community college. She said that she always has a hard time filling the organic chemistry lecture position and told Bobby to email her. She said that she has the position filled for the fall but not for the spring. Maybe Bobby can teach there next spring while he is writing his dissertation. This would be a great opportunity for Bobby because he would get some experience teaching. So overall, we are thrilled to have nice new neighbors, and thrilled at the idea of a possible job for Bobby.

Hope you are having a great day!

Love, Michelle

Our Neighborhood Owl

So last night while on our routine walk with the dogs we ran into our new neighbors. The said we have an owl that has been hanging out in the same tree for a while now. It's pretty cool to see an owl close up so we went to check it out. Once we got there, we got to see the owl swoop down and catch a field mouse. How Cool! Then when we thought the exciting part was over, the owl took the mouse over to a another tree. We realized that it was feeding it's baby! No wonder it has been hanging out in the same place for so long. It was a very neat experience to see the owl and it's baby. Hope you are having a great day!

Love, Michelle

Carp's at the Park

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