The Stork Visited Ewan Today!

Hello Family and Friends,

Ewan received a happy healthy pink package at 2:14am this morning (4/24/14).

Darby Moira McDonald joined our family in a flash (less than 3 hours start to finish), weighing in at 9 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 20 inches.

Thus far she is a sweet little lady and we are all in love. Everyone is doing well and now our adventure as a family of 4 begins!

Cheers,
Kevin, Peri & Ewan

52 : 39

Today Ewan and I get to celebrate our favorite person. While Ewan is 39 weeks old, K is 1,774 weeks old. This year he is feeling old because he works a lot, has a wife, has a baby, has a mortgage, has two dogs --- but we equate that to a lot of hard work and love, not a lot of years. Our goal today is to let K relax with an easy dinner out and some video game therapy, then tomorrow a date with the wifey and on Sunday a family beer-xcursion. We try to celebrate each other everyday, but birthdays give us the perfect excuse to love on each other even more.

52 : 37

9 years ago I met a guy, 8 years ago I kissed him, and 4 years ago today I married him. This year he gave me the best gift ever, so grateful this Thanksgiving!

This week's picture is that guy and that gift watching the ducks in a pond on Granville Island in Vancouver.

Being proud

Each day as I go through my life I think about the things I want Ewan to know and be... Not things like the circumference of the world (although K would probably argue this an important factoid) or to be a doctor. But things like being grateful, which I discussed after my birthday.

For the last month or so I have been thinking about the fact that I want EP to be proud. Proud of himself and his accomplishments, not boastful but proud, and also to celebrate the accomplishments of the people that he loves. Neither K nor I are awesome at celebrating ourselves, but each other, we do that in style.

This week it became official, Kevin is a Certified Public Accountant --- after 3.5 years of night classes and test preparation he did it! Being a CPA these days requires candidates to pass 4 board exams, 1 California ethics exam, satisfy various work requirements, pass background checks, and of course write a few checks. Kevin has juggled more than a full time job, his family, his friends, his puppies, his hobbies, his home, and the pursuit of this goal. We have celebrated along the way and will continue to for at least a few more months. K sees this as just another thing he has done, but we will make sure he is celebrated and has at least a few moments of pride along the way --- and maybe the opportunity to catch up on some of that sleep he has been sacrificing!

Whenever I write a card for K I tell him I am proud to call him my husband, and I know that many cards to Ewan will say that I am proud to call him my son. I want both of my boys to know just how amazing and accomplished and loved they are!

Being grateful

I spend a lot of time thinking about all of the blessings that I have in my life.

I wake up each day with my best friend, this man that will do anything with in his control to ease any pain that I am feeling. He settles my nerves as I mature as a mother, he advises me as a mentor as I scale the ladder of my career, he calms my heart as I worry about one thing or the other, and he spoils me endlessly and with out apology.

I safely and healthily brought a beautiful boy in to this world. A boy that melts my heart with his giggles, his babble, his crys, and his sly sly smiles. I get to be the one that cuddles with him at the end of every day, kisses his boo boos, sings him our song, and I have that special nook where he burrows his head when sleepiness is taking over. I get to nourish him, and nurture him , and guide him on his way. I will mother him relentlessly and always be thankful for that opportunity.

Today is my first full day of my 31st year and my wish this year is that I can keep this warm, fuzzy, overjoyed feeling that I feel right now with me all year...

The day we met our son...

I have hesitated to write any level of birth story because that day is so immensely sacred to Kevin and I. Recently I have been haunted by the thought that I will forget the details, so here is a short and sweet highlight for the sake of Ewan's history.

The hardest part about the end of my pregnancy was the constant calls and texts questioning his arrival. I reassured everyone I would not keep it a secret, but they still asked daily (or more), this boy has been so loved since before he even arrived. Once the due date (March 1st) came and went these questions only multiplied. The funny thing was that I wasn't even anxious for Ewan to come, I knew he would when he was ready and all the nonstress tests were perfect so I just wanted my boy to choose his time. I was very lucky to be comfortable for the duration of my pregnancy, my doctor credits my height for this, the worst part was trying to roll from one side to the other in my sleep with my hips settled and a nearly 10 pound baby resting in my pelvis.

The morning of March 7th I woke up to go to the bathroom and had a very weird feeling in my stomach, it went away and I was quickly back to sleep. The next morning (March 8th, 41 weeks pregnant) I woke up at the exact same time, 5:05am, with the same pain. Sure it would go away I got back in bed and waited through 3 similar pains before waking Kevin. He immediately asked me how far apart the pains were and of course I had no clue so we whipped out the trusty contraction app to realize they were about a minute long every 5 minutes, exactly the threshold our doctor told us to come in at. We wondered what happened to all that prelabor at home stuff we had been told about. By this time it was about 6:00am, and being the ever calm man Kevin sent an email to work saying he wouldn't be in, called the doctor to give her a heads up, took a shower, and packed the rest of my things - all while I laid in bed denying the reality that this would be the day (or the day before depending on how labor went) that I would meet my son. I then mustered up the energy to take a shower, to shave my legs, and to take one last belly shot.

Barefoot and 41 weeks pregnant in our not
quite complete nursery!

By the time we left the house it was a quarter after 7:00am, not the perfect time to be headed southbound on the 101, but oh well this would be our last car ride as a couple so that time in the car was pretty special, we were headed to meet our boy.

My calm cool collected man.

When we arrived at the hospital it was just about 8:00am and the contractions were a solid minute plus and 4 minutes apart. We didn't want to do the valet so we parked our car and headed in. I refused the wheel chair and walked up to labor and delivery, a bit overwhelmed I waited patiently as they checked us in and headed to the monitoring room to check progress. Baby was perfect and I was told I had been working hard and was already 4 centimeters. I was offered the ability to officially be admitted or wander around for awhile, at first I thought I would wander, but didn't want to be exhausted so opted to check-in, so to labor and delivery room 1 we went.

When I couldn't remember to push start I
figured we were good on stats.

The next 4.5 hours are a bit of a blur: we texted a few folks to let them know the status, chatted a lot, the epidural was administered, we watched movies (the dilemma and grown ups) on the entertainment station in our room, surfed the Internet a bit, and played Scrabble on our iPhones while things progressed and contractions continued.

My doctor came in at 1:40pm, when I was supposed to have my next checkup at her office, and I was 8.5 centimeters, so she broke my water. She let me know she would come back at the end of her day to check on us or they would call her based on progress, but that if I delivered after 5:00pm it would be her partner with me, I didn't want that but knew I couldn't control it. Kevin went to get a quick bite per the nurses suggestion and within minutes I was texting him to come back and calling my nurse. When my water broke the flood gates literally opened and this boy was coming. My nurse called the doctor back, she hadn't even made it out of the hospital compound yet, but had to go all the way around due to construction. She came back, took a look, and quickly jogged for scrubs.

Once the pushing began I literally couldn't stop it. Minimal rests were taken between contractions and a little over 10 hours from my first contraction, less than 2 hours after my water was broken, and less than an hour after the pushing started in earnest, Ewan Porter McDonald was born, at 3:33pm to be exact. He measured 22 inches, weighed 9 pounds 13 ounces, and it became obvious very quickly that this world would never be the same.

Ewan after a quick weigh, measure, and clean.

We scheduled visitors for the next day so that after Ewan was all cleaned up we could spend our first evening as a family of three quietly nestled in our hospital room soaking each other in and celebrating together with hugs and kisses and quiet acknowledgement of our miracle.

Our family!

Ewan's first shampoo - lather, rinse, repeat. 

All tucked in for his first night of sleep.

And on Saturday, March 10th we headed home!

Happy Father's Day K!

I consider myself extremely lucky. For the first three weeks of Ewan's life I did not change a diaper, cook a meal, or really address anything aside from our hungry baby.

Kevin may not always pick up the bathmat (a strange peeve of mine), but he always locks the door to protects us and makes us wonderful food to feed us and puts flowers in our home and our yard so each day is a little prettier.

Daily he does things I don't ask for but love, and he doesn't even expect a thank you. He is a better person than I am and because of that he inspires me.

I once heard that you should not marry a man unless you would be proud to have a son just like him --- everyday I look at EP and adore the Kevin bits that we see already, like his toes, and dream of watching him become an amazing man like his Daddy!

Happy Father's Day Kevin!