Matthew is home

What a whirlwind 72 hours. Matthew is home and we're beat!

Friday at the hospital was more or less uneventful: visiting with nurses, family and others. Pa-pa and I built a captain's bed that is currently mom's bed in Matthew's room, but will be Jordan's bed in a couple of months. (And by "Pa-pa and I built" the bed, I mean "Pa-pa did all the work, and I handed him the appropriate tool or piece of hardware as he requested it"). Jordan went to day care in the morning, but did get to go see Mom and Matthew in the hospital Friday evening. He loved that, discovering the foot pedals that operate the sink in the hospital room, and finding out that Mom's room had echoing ability.

This morning started off fairly uneventfully: we went to the discharge class with all the other new moms and dads (at 32 (me) and 30-something-or-another (Dondi), we were the oldest parents in there by 5 years; had we gone to yesterday's class, we would have been the oldest by at least a dozen years). Anyway, we learned such important things as to clean with soap AND water and that we did in fact, have to put Matthew in a car seat. So much for my idea of hanging him from the visor next to my garage door opener.

We did have one surprise: our "chosen hospital," Medical Center of Arlington (we're not planning on more kids, so I can say the name now) is the official hospital of both the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars. I'm not sure what that means exactly to be the official hospital of sports teams, but what it meant for us is Matthew got a Texas Rangers hat, a mini-Rangers baseball bat and four free tickets to a game during the 2008 season. So, that should be fun.

OK, "free" tickets. Yeah, that's funny to me, too. I'll let you know how much the "free" tickets cost when I receive the final bill.

Anyway, we're home now and I thought rather than a long, boring narrative (what precedes this doesn't count), we'll include pictures from the last three days. Enjoy. :)















Matthew's very first picture. He's slimy.















Mom and Matthew meet face-to-face for the first time.















Grandmas with new grandson. (Jo-jo, standing, Emo, sitting holding Matthew).
















Matthew, being burped. He is not happy.















Aunt Cristina corrals Jordan and holds Matthew on the first day the two boys meet. Jordan's T-shirt says, "I'm the big brother."















Dad, Mom and Matthew in the hospital.















The hospital's photographer posed this shot of Matthew. You can buy the professional picture, or, here's mine.















Here's the three of us as we get ready to leave the hospital.

Welcome to the world, Matthew!

Matthew Ryan made quite an entrance into the world today. Eight pounds and 12 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long, and like his brother, the most beautiful baby in the world.

Dondi went to the doctor yesterday for her blood work and final check before being induced this morning. She was dilated to somewhere between a 3 and a 4. When we arrived at the hospital at 5:30 a.m., she was already dilated to a 5. Two hours later she was at a 9 (that's when the nurses stopped giving her any more of the inducing medicine!)

She started pushing at 10 a.m., and Matthew was here at 10:15. Dondi did a great job and was amazing.

Matthew is absolutely perfect. We spent the afternoon getting to know him. About 5 p.m., Jordan met his little brother. Jordan was very impressed, letting us all know, "Baby Matthew isn't in momma's tummy!"

Lots to tell, lots of pictures to show. More to come tomorrow!

Ten days to go!

Dondi had a doctor's appointment this afternoon: sonogram, no-stress test and doctor's visit. The doctor said all told, she'll be inducing on Thursday, May 29.

The appointment went well: her blood pressure was a tad high, but dropped during the appointment. The sonogram showed that Matthew is about 7 pounds, 6 ounces and is healthy. Dondi is also already dilated to a three. She'll do another no-stress test on Thursday at the doctor's office, a no-stress test at the hospital Memorial Day, and then check into the hospital for delivery on Thursday.

We took the countdown ticker off the Web site since it's no longer accurate, but we'll keep you posted around here, including pictures of the nursery later.

The countdown to Matthew continues

Matthew's room is ready for the Great Move-In of 2008. We removed everything from the room (it's no longer an office, or a kitty cat retreat) and the carpets were shampooed today (thanks, Gee and Jo-jo).

Since the room is empty, Jordan decided to use it as a place to run laps. As soon as I showed up with a camera, he stopped running laps and decided it was time to be silly. Here's the clip.





The week has just been crazy around here. Monday night, we went to the hospital because Dondi was complaining about a headache and nausea. Those can be serious concerns, so the kind nurses in Triage got her checked out. Fortunately, it was *just* a migraine. We visited the doctor both Monday during the day (before the trip to the hospital) and again on Tuesday, and everything seems to be checking out just fine. We've had the house cleaned and have been trying to get everything ready. It's been interesting, but we're making good progress.

We see the doctor again on Monday at 2 p.m., where we'll do a sonogram and another no-stress test. Matthew will be considered "full term" sometime around Wednesday, so we suspect we'll be discussing inducing delivery.

We haven't done a good job of posting every picture of Dondi throughout the pregnancy, but here she is at 36 weeks this evening, looking beautiful as always.















We'll post pictures of Matthew's room some time this weekend, and of course, we'll let you know the details of Monday's doctor visit.

For now, here is a random picture of Jordan as he tries on Daddy's shoes.















To update my post from Saturday about my asthma and allergies: I visited an allergist today to see if we can determine why I've been having so many sinus/ear/upper respiratory infections recently. I was very impressed with his thoroughness. He spent about 30 minutes interviewing me and learning about my medical history. We ran a couple of tests that determined (a) my lung capacity is somewhat compromised right now but (b) it's very much in a range that many others would be thrilled to have. He prescribed a plan to deal with the current allergy and sinus problems I'm having, plus get my asthma under control. We'll do an allergy skin test two weeks from today. He seemed very confident my problems were preventable, and maybe we can get the 4-6 (and sometimes 8) annual ear/sinus/upper respiratory infections down to one or two without putting me on a million different medicines. I'm all for that!

Bed rest, renovations and asthma

Not much has changed since our last update:

• Dondi went to the doctor on Tuesday. Her blood pressure was excellent and she took another no-stress test. Basically in the no-stress test, they hook her up to a monitor and she has to press a button every time she feels Matthew move. Results were normal, or good, or whatever they're looking for. She goes back to the doctor on Monday morning, but for now, continues on bed rest at home.
• I've been sick for about six weeks. Allergy-induced asthma has been the main culprit, followed by being sick to my stomach for over a week thanks to the medicine to deal with the allergy-induced asthma. I've been to the doctor now three times in two weeks, trying to get over this gunk. I see an allergist on Friday, May 16.
• Jordan has also been sick -- also allergies. He refuses to do the breathing treatments that help keep his lungs clear, so there's quite the battle of wills at our house right now.
• Don and Debbie have been over on Thursday and Friday this week to help get the office cleared out for Matthew's nursery. We're way behind schedule on that, mostly because we have no place to move stuff (and because one or both of us has been sick the better part of the last nine months). It'll be ready in plenty of time for Matthew, but we all would have rather had this done by now. My parents are coming over today to pick up a desk and hutch that we have no room for and I'll be moving our computer and computer desk to the dining room today. Once we move the cat's stuff out of the office, we can get the floor clean and move in the changing table, a dresser and the pack-and-play bassinet.

So that's what we're doing when not coughing, fighting a 2 1/2 year old or any of that stuff. :-)