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We are still at the hospital. They want to keep Jayden for another 24 hours to monitor his vitals. So, Mommy has to stay so that he can eat. And of course, I’m staying with!

He’s been really good. He’s hardly cried at all, with the exception of a couple of times when he was hungry. He’s been pooping and farting like crazy though! He’s spent much of the time sleeping since he made his way out of the womb last night. There were a couple of times though where his little eyelids peeked open and he started looking around to observe his new surroundings. He even looked up at me for a while. I love my new baby boy!

Mommy’s been pretty good also. She’s just extremely tired because she hasn’t gotten much sleep. We’ve been staying up to enjoy our little ball of wonder. Yeah, it’s pretty much safe to say that sleep don’t live here no more! He packed his bags and hit the road!

I just wanted to give everyone a small update on what’s going on. He’s getting his hospital picture taken in a half an hour, so I’m going to run back to the house to get an outfit to put him in. We packed an outfit for him in Mommy’s overnight bag, but it’s a little too big for him.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday! Mommy and I really appreciate it! I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated when I can!

Updates are at the bottom of this post.

We are currently at the hospital where Mommy is in labor! She started getting contractions at 5:07 AM this morning. We wrote down the times and lengths of every contraction. Once her contractions were 10 minutes apart and 90 seconds in duration, we checked into the hospital. Last time her cervix was checked (hour and a half ago), she was 4 cm dilated. Her contractions have become more painful and are now only 2-3 minutes apart. We were told that she should reach 10 cm and be ready to deliver by this evening!

Mommy is doing REALLY good. I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of her! I can tell that her contractions are really painful, but she is taking it very, very well. She is such a strong woman. Jayden is going to be so happy that he has such a wonderful mommy. I keep telling her that he is going to be so proud of her.

If you are passing through Mommy Daddy Blog today, please take a minute to show Mommy some support. As stated before, she is taking this extremely well and I am so, so proud of her. She told me to tell everyone she said Hi and that she’s bouncing on the birthing ball to ease her contractions!

Update 4:10 PM: Mommy is now 5cm dilated and we think her water may have broken. Her contractions are now just one minute apart, and she is still doing amazing. She is so beautiful right now and I love her with all my heart.

Update 4:33 PM: Mommy is now 6cm dilated, and is still handling this whole thing like the strong woman that she is. Seriously, this woman is Superwoman.

Update 6:36 PM: Mommy went ahead and got the epidural. The pain of the contractions were too excruciating for her. However, epidural or not, Mommy was strong. She still is strong, and I am still very proud of her. She is doing so well. After getting the epidural, Mommy and I got a little nap time in (we hardly got any sleep last night). She is now 6.5cm dilated without contractions and 8cm dilated with contractions.

Update 9:37 PM: As I type this, my face is drenched and eyes blurred with tears. This is the best day of my life. My son is here. My beautiful baby boy. 7 lbs. 0.7 oz. , 20 in., born at 8:18 PM. I love my little son with all my heart. He looked up at me, grabbed my finger, and smiled at me. I can’t stop crying. He is so beautiful.

I never understood the importance of kick counting until I was introduced to the kickTrak kick counter. Doing a little research I found that an estimate of 26,000 stillbirths occur every year in the US. That was very disheartening to read. However, decreased fetal movement is associated with stillbirth as well as preterm labor and undetected growth problems. If a mother-to-be is able to keep a tab on her baby’s movement patterns, she can alert her healthcare provider of potential problems if she notices any drastic changes. Dr. Diep Nguyen, OB/GYN and kick tracking advocate, is dedicated to drastically reducing the number of yearly stillbirths which is why she has created the kickTrak kick counter.

Starting at 24-28 weeks into pregnancy, the kickTrak kick counter enables moms-to-be to document her baby’s kicks, turns, twists, swishes, jabs and rolls in daily sessions by inputing each movement as she feels them. Each session records ten movements. After the tenth movement is recorded, the kickTrak kick counter plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Healthy babies generally move ten times in less than two hours, with most completing ten movements in less than 30 minutes. Should mom-to-be notice any significant changes in her baby’s movements, she can alert her healthcare provider. I think every mom-to-be should have her very own kickTrak to support the well being of her baby. The device is affordable and very simple to use. I was fortunate enough to have a very active baby, so I completed my kickTrak sessions with ease!

To learn more about stillbirth prevention, visit BabyKick Alliance founded by Dr. Nguyen as well!

Show mom your appreciation by sending her a You Deserve It parcel from Parcels With Love. The You Deserve It parcel is loaded with goodies mom would absolutely enjoy! These goodies include; a Beautiful Designer Tea/Coffee Mug, Pure Origin Gourmet Ground Coffee, Flora Tea Forte Infusers, Honey Teaspoon, Gourmet Lemon Tea Cookies, Lindt Chocolate Truffles, Delightful Shikai Hand and Body Lotion (Japanese Citrus), Fragrant Reed Diffuser, and a Notepad and pen!

To have your parcels delivered by Mother’s Day, order by May 2nd and use discount code mdb10 for 10% off your purchase! Be sure to browse around Parcels With Love as they offer a parcel for every occasion, always arranged with a touch of love!

Put on your birthday hats and start cutting the cake, because MommyDaddyBlog.com is officially 1 year old today! Yup, that’s right, exactly 1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 366 (leap year) days, 8,789 hours, 527,388 minutes, and 31,643,326 seconds ago, Mommy and I gave birth to MommyDaddyBlog.com!

*scratching record sound*

But wait, if MommyDaddyBlog.com is one year old, why is it that the archives only date back to December 2007, with the very first post dated December 19th 2007?

Well, that answer is very simple. You see, MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, not the blog, is one year old today. Confused? Well then take a seat junior, let me tell you a little story…

One day, a year ago to be exact, Mommy and I were sitting in our office having a conversation amongst each other. I can’t remember what the conversation was about, but somehow we got on the topic of having children. We came up with the idea of starting a blog when we got pregnant with our first child so that we could journal our adventure as first time parents, and both of us would author it together. The idea of her having a separate “mommy blog” and me having a separate “daddy blog” was nice and all, but we thought it would be even better if we shared our experiences together on one blog. Instantly after coming up with idea, Mommy said…

“…and we could call it, Mommy Daddy Blog!”

So simple, yet so perfect! A mommy. A daddy. A blog. Mommy Daddy Blog! Excited about the whole idea, we immediately checked to see if MommyDaddyBlog.com was taken already. It wasn’t, so we immediately registered the domain on the spot. We thought we were weird for registering a domain that we would continually have to pay for year after year when we didn’t even know when we were going to have our first child. We just thought that at least we’d have the domain secured for when we do. But little did we know, that just 3 and a half short months later, our very first child, our baby boy, our pride and joy, would be conceived. Talk about irony, huh?

(For those of you who haven’t been with us since the beginning, and are wondering about the time gap from August 2007, when Jayden was conceived, to December 2007, when this blog was created, read our conception story.)

So here we are today, fulfilling what we said we would do; running a blog chronicling our joys and happiness as first time parents. Mommy and I really enjoy sharing our experiences and adventures as new parents here on Mommy Daddy Blog, and we hope you all enjoy it just as much! We hope you’ll stick around for Mommy Daddy Blog’s official 1st birthday on December 19th 2008. Until then, we’d just like to wish MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, a Happy 1st Birthday!

Coincidentally, we were just tagged in the Name That Blog meme by JMom. Well, JMom, I hope this answers your question!