... and we're back!

After seven BUSY months, we have started the blog once again. Since Easton is going through so many stages and hitting so many milestones, we thought we'd document this important time in his/our lives and share it with all of you!

These last seven months have flown by. We have enjoyed this time so much with our little boy. We couldn't imagine our life without him.

This past month has been full of milestones for Easton. Yesterday (June 16, 2010)he did two things for the first time. Whenever we are eating dinner, we put Easton in his high chair with cheerios in front of him. Usually he feels around at them and just plays. He likes the way they taste, but we have always had to feed them to him. Well yesterday we put the cheerios in front of him and he started going to town! Right away, with both hands, he was picking them up, looking at them and putting them in his mouth! At his 6 month check-up, the pediatrician said that he should be able to start feedind himself by 9 months. He's well on his way!!

As of the last couple of days, he is officially crawling... on his elbows and knees. He's been doing the army crawl for so long that we thought that he'd never do the "official" crawl. Boy are we in for it now!! Time to get those baby gates on our stairs!

Since I haven't blogged in so long, I thought I'd include a few pictures of Easton's first 7 months of life. Enjoy!

1 hour old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

7 months old

:: 39 weeks ::

Well, here it is! I can see my due date so close ahead. Only 4 more days!! Hopefully Easton will make his appearance within these next 4 days, but I'm thinking he's going to be a few days late. My midwife determined at our last doctor's appointment last week that I have not dilated at all yet. His head is REALLY low though, so hopefully that will make pushing his little head out a little easier.

We have had several doctor's appointments over the past 2 weeks (including 4 ultrasounds). I have had to get so many ultrasounds because my fluids have been a little low. The doctor wants a pregnant woman's amniotic fluids to be between 5-25cm throughout the entire pregnancy. And although it's normal for the fluid levels to decrease as the baby gets bigger, they have been monitoring me to make sure they don't get too low. At one point they were at 6cm, which is on the low average. In the last 2 weeks they have increased to 12, then 9.5, back down to 6.5 and are now at about 7cm. They won't induce unless the level goes down to 5 or lower. We have another ultrasound on Tuesday to see what my levels are at, but at this point, they're hoping that they won't have to induce and that I can go into labor naturally.

At the last few ultrasounds, Easton has measured a little on the smaller side. The doctor's are predicting that he will be somewhere around 7lbs at birth. They are monitoring his weight to make sure that he keeps putting on weight.

A little over a week ago, we went to the CHP to have our carseat installed and we put together or last piece of "furniture", the baby swing. So we are officially now ready for the arrival of our little boy. We are VERY excited to meet him.

I have been on maternity leave for the last 2 weeks. It has been really nice to relax and continue to get things ready for the baby. The last 2 days I have had a cold, so that has not been fun at all. I'm hoping that it goes away soon... especially before I go into labor!

Well that's all for now. I will try to update this one more time, closer to my due date. And have one last picture at 40 weeks!

:: 37 weeks ::

Only 17 days to go! 17?! 17!!!!!!! Wow, where has the time gone?

This past Friday (Oct. 9th) was my last day of work! I have officially started maternity leave for the next 4 months. My tentative return date is February 2nd (which is all dependent on the actual day I deliver).

Last weekend we got together with my friend and photographer, Amanda Bordonaro, for our maternity photo session. Although we are waiting for the complete package of pictures, you can see a few of them here... www.amandaraeblog.com. Just scroll down to the blog titled: Michelle & Dusty (Prego). She did an amazing job and we had a lot of fun shooting with her!

In the past week we have had 2 ultrasounds and have another one scheduled for tomorrow. We had a little scare with my amniotic sac fluid levels, but in the past couple of days I have been able to get the levels back up to normal. A huge relief, that was initially a little bit of a scare. During that same appointment, my blood pressure had increased a little bit, but has gone back down to normal.

Right now, Easton is an estimated 5lbs 3 oz. And because of that, we are getting another ultrasound tomorrow to monitor his weight. Apparently that's a little small at this point in my pregnancy, but they aren't to worried about it. They just want to make sure that his weight progresses over the next 2 1/2 weeks. They are estimating him to be about 7lbs at birth.

So now is just a waiting game. Easton could come at any time. Our bag is packed and we're all set for that mad dash to the hospital :)

:: 34 weeks :: Only 6 Weeks Left! ::

The last two weeks have been very eventful. We are now officially ready for Easton's big arrival. My co-workers through me a baby shower on September 14th, which was really nice! Lots of good food, friends and memories! We got our pack and play where Easton will sleep for the first couple months, lots of good clothes and gift cards. I feel pretty darn lucky to work with some pretty amazing people!

This last weekend Dusty and I attended birthing classes at the hospital. We did the weekend crash course with our 2 friends, Nicole and Mike, that are expecting 2 weeks after us. All 4 of us had a great time and learned a lot about labor, delivery and life after the baby is born.

We have a doctor's appointment this afternoon where we'll get to meet with Dr. Diesfield for the first time. We'll then schedule our final ultrasound for 2 weeks from today. And after that, we'll meet with the doctor weekly! It's getting so close! And we're SO excited to final meet our little boy!

:: 32 weeks ::

There are just eight short weeks left until we get to meet little Easton Reed.

This past weekend we had our co-ed baby shower (family expansion party :) ) with lots of friends and family. We had a great time seeing everyone and got a lot of great things that now pile in our baby room waiting for the weekend where we can organize and finish up with his room! We started washing clothes and putting a few things together, but we'll continue to work on it the next few weeks until it is completely done! We'll post pictures soon.

We have another doctor's appointment this Friday. We probably won't find out much, but it's always exciting to hear his heartbeat and know that everything is still going well. Our next (and last) ultrasound will be at 36 weeks.

:: 30 Weeks ::

66 days and counting!

Last Friday we had our monthly checkin with our mid-wife. From now until about 36 weeks we see the doctor every 2 weeks. At 36 weeks, we'll start to go in every week!

This one was a fast appointment. She checked my weight, measured my belly, checked the heartbeat and chatted about a few things with us. She let me know that I passed the glucose test, which is really good news! My weight gain continues to be about 2 pounds per week (and has been for the last 9 weeks or so), which is a little more than average at ths point, but the mid-wife indicated that my body was making up for the no weight gain for the first 21 weeks. So now I get to gain it all at once! Yippee :-/

In 3 weeks we will be taking the birthing classes at the hospital with another one of our couple friends that is expecting. The pre-registration paperwork is filled out, so I will turn it in to the hospital when we go in for our classes. The countdown is officially on... 10 more weeks!

We're really excited to see all of our friends and family at our baby shower this weekend! We have a lot of people coming, near and far, and are excited to spend time with them!

That's about it for now. We won't have another ultrasound for another 6 weeks or so, but as soon as we do, I'll post more 4D pictures of our baby boy!

:: 29 Weeks ::

27 weeks





As I opened up this blog, I looked over at the Baby Herman countdown and it reads.... 77 days! In 2 1/2 months we'll be meeting our baby boy for the first time. WOW!


A lot has happened in the past month. We have put the room together as much as we can now. The crib, dresser and glider are put in place and the room looks so cute, I must say! I'm very happy about our purchases and how great the pieces look in the room! We also found a great deal on a used (but practically brand new) BOB baby jogger. We're very excited that we were able to find a used one in such great condition and save ourselves a good amount of money.


Our last doctor's appointment went really well. Our baby boy is right on track. As of 3 weeks ago he was about 2 lbs. I have definitely began to show a lot more and have gained a good amount of weight. My belly is starting to get BIG and it's officially now becoming hard to bend over to pick up things.


A couple of weeks ago we officially announced our little boy's name! After a lot of consideration and many discussions, we have decided on Easton Reed. We are very excited to now be able to call our baby boy by name instead of always calling him him and he.


We have scheduled our birthing classes for September 12 & 13th... 2 full days of class. A couple of our friends will be taking the class with us as they are due 2 weeks after us.


I have also worked out my maternity leave and was excited to find out that I'll be able to take 4 months off of work! I will officially be out from October 9 - Feb. 8. I'm looking forward to spending the first 3 months of Easton's life with him full time. We have also met with a daycare in Ventura and have decided to use her. She has been watching kids for many many years and is also a friend of a friend, so we feel really comfortable with her. That makes me happy!


And last, but not least, I have posted a few of our last ultrasound pictures (One in 2D and one in 3/4D). The 4D picture shows his face pretty clearly. We will get more 4D pictures taken closer to term where you will be able to see his face really clearly!