Baby Joseph

Our darling baby Joseph was born on Saturday. Here are some pictures to update you on his birth story.

We were hoping for a VBAC this time around (since Andrew's emergency C-section birth story was quite traumatizing), so my midwife let me go overdue by two weeks hoping that I would go into labor naturally. Unfortunately, I never actually went into labor (despite my best efforts), so we scheduled an induction for Saturday morning 7am July 31st.


Before they started me on Pitocin the midwife gave me an internal exam in which we learned that not only was I only dialated to 2.5, but the baby's head was up over the pelvic bone, lending a natural birth fairly difficult if not impossible. Knowing I wanted to try for a VBAC, she gave me the option of still trying pitocin to see if the contractions would move him back into place, but gave me her honest opinion that it had only a 20% chance of working. Mike and I asked for some time to ourselves think and pray, and finally decided to schedule a c-section and spare ourselves all of the emotional energy. Three hours later, the baby was out and I was getting stitched up.


The above picture is the very first picture we took of little Joseph. He is still white and has monitors hooked up. He didn't cry at all when they pulled him out.

The above picture is my labor team. From left: my midwife Monique, our L&D nurse Lorri, me, baby Joseph, our doula Danielle, and my fabulous labor coach Michael.



The above picture shows Joseph a few minutes old after he is bundled up with the eye ointment on. I wanted to make sure we got a few pics of him before they put the eye cream on!

Sweet little toes (above).
Below, when I first got to hold him, he just stared at me for a long time. It was so cute.

That afternoon my mom brought Andrew to the hospital to meet his new little brother. We were all curious to see how Andrew would react, but the funny thing is that he didn't really react at all. He didn't even seem to notice the baby. He just wanted to jump on mom's bed.

We even had a hard time getting him to sit for family pictures. He just wanted to be running around exploring the room and playing with my iPhone.

My mom watched Andrew the whole time we were at the hospital and she was amazing with him. He learned new colors (now he knows blue, green and red) and became a digging expert at the park.

My mom uses the term "Grandma heaven" to describe the below picture.

Mike is so cute and possessive with his new little son. He also missed Andrew a lot which I think is adorable. He couldn't wait to get home to play with him.

All in all, my experience with this second C-section was much better than my first so I am counting my blessings. Little baby Joseph is so sweet and it is so much fun having a new baby around. There is nothing better than a newborn baby!

I love you little Joseph...

July 31, 2010 12:59pm

Joseph Gordon Featherstone joined our family last Saturday, born 10 lbs 3 0z via c-section at St. Joseph's Hospital in Towson, MD. We named him after Mike's dad (Joseph) and maternal grandfather (Gordon), who have both been inspirations to our family. Erin and Joseph are doing great, and should be home tomorrow.

More updates to come later, but here are a few pics from the weekend.

Still waiting

This is my 12 days overdue picture.



Here I am today before my non-stress test. It is my third non-stress test this week. Baby Featherstone #2 seems to be quite happy floating in there because he consistently gets high ratings during his test (good amniotic fluid, good heart rate, good movement). I go in Saturday to be induced if nothing happens before then.

Just for the record, I really really want to go into labor naturally since I didn't get that with Andrew.
And just for the record, even 12 days overdue I still have not felt one contraction.

My due date is today

Today is my due date. Still no sign of baby #2 on the horizon.

I promise we'll post something as soon as we actually have news. :)

All Things Courtney

My friend Courtney just set up her ETSY site. I am so excited because she is one of the most talented girls I know. In addition to jewelry and cakes, she makes little framed dinosaurs that are adorable.

I told her I wanted to put a post up about her new site and she said she'd offer a 20% discount if you mention "the featherstones." Check it out:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AllThingsCourtney

Details:
All Things Courtney
20% off if you mention "the featherstones"
discount refunded through paypal
or send message to the seller for custom listing
(does not apply to shipping)

Happy birthday to Madelyn

Madelyn is one of Andrew's BFFs. She turned two yesterday!
Denise (on the left) is one of my bffs and the greatest thing about that is that we are next door neighbors. Literally our doors are two feet away from each other. Yesterday was Madelyn's birthday.

Andrew and I made her a polka dot cake and flag banner in her birthday colors.

Happy birthday Madelyn!

Baby Sprinkle

Since my due date is getting close (5 days!), my cute workout friends had a baby "sprinkle" for me. They are so sweet and fun to hang out with. Here are some pics.

So fun! I am still trying to get out and work out or walk every morning as much as possible, but what I realized is really the most helpful is that I do yoga every night. I don't think I'd be able to sleep without it!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Happy birthday Mike! What could be better than having your birthday on 7-11?

Thanks to all of our awesome friends who came over to celebrate Mike's birthday.

To Mike from Erin: I love you darling so much. Thanks for being such a great fabulous and wonderful husband.

A short trip to KL

Here are some pics Mike took on his recent trip to Kuala Lumpur.

His meetings were at the Hilton KL. One of his daily activities after work was hitting up the water slide with a few of his coworkers.

Here is the view from his room.

On Saturday he went to the Batu Caves--a Hindu sacred place with lots of shrines. To get there you have to climb up 272 stairs.





Mike: "Goodbye KL, see you soon."

Visit to Baltimore

Here are some fun pics from Eric and Courtney's trip to Baltimore.


Andrew and Eric are buddies. There is no other way to explain it. Ever since he was a month old, he would stare at Eric's face for hours.

Andrew and Courtney also are buddies. Their relationship grew even stronger when she let him help bathe Maggie (which shows how patient Courtney really is).

This was our first time meeting Maggie. She is such an awesome dog--well behaved and so well trained (Good job Courtney! I would say good job to Eric too, except he has been working 100 hour weeks lately, so I figure Courtney must be doing most of the heavy lifting).

One afternoon we met Mike for lunch in Fell's Point. We went to BOP (Brick Oven Pizza)--interesting restaurant name since "bop" is also the word Andrew uses for grapes and kiss (and about five other words). Please note how Andrew is actually turning toward the camera in the photo which is pretty remarkable.

In the rest of the pictures Andrew was doing this (below).

Check out our handsome high-rollers below. I think the brain power represented in this picture could light the city of Baltimore for a month.

After BOP (not the grapes or kiss kind of bop) we made the pilgrimage to Pitango. Mike was so excited for me to try the Cardamom gelato, and was quite disappointed when I declared that the dark chocolate was still my favorite.

One of my favorite Fell's Point landmarks (although we've never eaten here):

When the weekend rolled around we headed to Mt. Vernon. We have a season pass (though this was only the second time we've gone).

We spent most of the time searching for the animals to show Andrew and we finally found them around the side by the gardens. We got to watch the sheep being sheared. I think we took more pics of Mt. Vernon but they must be on E&C's camera.

Thanks for visiting E&C!