Welcome to the World

So it's taken me a few days, but I'm finally posting about about Ryan's debut.

First, the stats:

Born on November 9, 2009 at 2:19 p.m.
7lbs 2 oz.

20 in.

Perfect

We went to the hospital Sunday evening at 5:30 for my induction. It was a long night, but my contractions started around 2 am. We had a bit of scare because our baby's heart rate kept dropping. To take some stress off of him, they gave me an epidural quite early, which made the whole labor much more bearable for me, but didn't have the desired effect for baby. For most of the day I had to stay on my left side because that's the only position that kept baby's heart rate at a constant and safe level. Because of his low heart rate, the doctor was anxious to make the pushing phase as short as possible so they used a suction cup on his head and I pushed even in between contractions. Overall, it was less than 15 minutes, but then Ryan Wheeler Shaw decided to enter the world. It took a little while to get him breathing, but since then, he's been doing just fine. We are so happy to have this beautiful baby boy.

Today was his first doctor's visit and only 4 short days after his birth, Ryan is almost back to his birth weight. Everything is looking really good and we are so happy to have a healthy baby. He's very good at sleeping during the day, and even better and staying awake at night. Both Mom and Dad have had a few long nights and are hoping that Ryan will soon get his days and nights figured out.

Getting closer

We had an appointment with a doctor this week and scheduled our induction for Sunday evening, meaning that we should probably have this little boy sometime Monday. Our due date is Saturday and I doubt he is going to be here by then. Our doctor doesn't want us to go over a week past our due date, but he only does inductions on Monday and Tuesday, so we get to meet this little boy sooner than I expected.

We are very excited and very nervous. We will be sure to post pictures so keep an eye out for them.

Just for a change, I thought I might update our blog with the events that have been going with us lately.

School is going really well for Clayton. He's doing great in all of his classes. The other night we went to a potluck with his classmates and one of his teachers told me that Clay is one of her "wisest" students. Whatever that means...but I'm still really happy for him. I know that he's great, but it's nice when the rest of the world recognizes it too. This semester is not nearly as bad as the first one. Without his Anatomy class, everything seems a lot easier. He does have plenty of group project though which takes away from "us" time but he's really motivated and trying to get the majority of that work done before our baby gets here.

School is going well for me. I'm just working on finishing up a few courses through Independent Study so I can officially be a graduate. I've already completed two classes (Bio 100 and New Testament). I'm more than half way through my Children's Lit class, and have made significant progress on my Calligraphy class. Once again, the goal here is to get these done before baby gets here. Wish me luck!

Our pregnancy has gone pretty smoothly. Today we are at 36 weeks, with only 4 weeks until our due date. This is very exciting because now I feel that I am in the home stretch. I anticipate the rest of the time going by pretty quickly. Between my classes, weekly doctor visits, and rearranging furniture to make room for baby, I think I'll stay pretty busy. Next week we get to have another ultrasound. Hopefully all is going well. I've included a picture of me now. I feel like I've got a watermelon under my shirt, but Clay measures and it's more like a basketball in size:)

So that's our life. We're also very excited about all the cousins you all will be providing for our little boy. It was very thoughtful of you:) In all seriousness, Congratulations to all of you. We are so excited and can't wait to meet all of your little ones.

Baby Update

Since I'd rather be on the computer than cleaning my house right now, I thought I would give our family and friends a brief update on our little guy. We have had a couple more ultrasounds in the past month just to do measurements and confirm that he is fully equipped with all of his organs. Everything is looking really good and we are grateful for that. Our doctor also has moved up our due date to November 7, although I don't believe him. I'm still saying mid-November. He is rapidly growing and these next 3 1/2 months can't go by soon enough. He's starting to kick more and harder. Occasionally I will have a sore rib because of him, but I can't blame him. If I was cramped in a tiny space like that, I would want to stretch too. Overall, though, things are looking really good and we have had multiple views of his "boy parts." There is no doubt about it. He's a boy. We still haven't decided on a name, but we have plenty of time. A couple of girls at work are throwing me a baby shower this Saturday. It's a little early, but we have to do it before they go back to school. Here's a picture of me at 5 months:

In other news, Clayton has less than a month of classes left in his first semester. He's doing a really good job. I think it's hard for him to study all the time, especially when we have Lego Star Wars on the Wii to distract him, but he's still doing really well. I'm looking forward to the 10 days he has off in between semesters so that I can spend a little bit of time with him. We will probably end up going camping during that time, which should be a lot of fun.

It's a boy!

I wouldn't suggest moving mid pregnancy and trying to switch doctors and insurance plans. It's a big hastle. Because of that, we are not able to get into our first appointment with our new doctor until July 20. We haven't seen a doctor since mid May, so we were feeling slightly worried about the welfare of our baby. That's why we decided to take it into our own hands and go in for one of those 3D ultrasounds. It was a wonderful experience and it didn't require a doctor's approval:) We got to see our little guy for the first time, which was really really neat. I'm happy to report that everything is looking really good. His heart is beating, he has all his fingers and toes, no extras. The 20 minute session was composed of a combination of 2D(the typical ultrasound) and 3D images. It was so much fun to see him him moving his little hands and feet, yawning, and just wiggling around. When it came to time to "peek" and to see if we were having a girl or boy, he wasn't the least bit shy. He gave us a good look and we feel very confident in their pronouncement of it being a boy. Here's a picture of the little guy. I think he's just about the cutest baby I've ever seen:


If this isn't enough to satisfy yourself of this hansome little guy, you can see a few more pictures of him at sneakpeekultrasoundco.com. To get in type in the access code: et6rn2

Tornados in Denver

For the second time this week, we have been under a tornado warning. I didn't know Colorado had tornado, otherwise I may have thought twice about moving here. I guess it's actually not that common, but still. Today's weather was much worse than Sunday, though. First, it got really dark very quickly. Then it started to rain and the winds picked up. Then it started to hail and the winds picked up even more. For a while, I could hardly see out the window because of the wind, rain, and hail. Things have calmed now, and we didn't get hit by any tornado, but Denver looks very atypical for it being JUNE. The white stuff all over the ground is not snow...it's hail. Lots and lots of hail. I have never seen this much hail. And this is after the rain has had a chance to wash some of it away. Anyway, maybe it's not quite that big of a deal, but it sure added some excitement to my day.

Denver

Well, here we are in Denver. We've both decided that we really like it here. It's beautiful and full of friendly people. Here are some pictures of our apartment. They really don't give an adequate view of the place, but it's really nice and we love it. For the first time in our married lives we actually have a washer and dryer. That will be especially nice with the upcoming baby. We also have a balcony where we keep our grill and bikes.

After we moved here, we had about a week before Clayton started school. Most of that was dedicated to unpacking, switching over driver's licenses, etc. But we did take some time to have some fun. We decided to take a free tour of the Hammond's candy factory. They make mostly hard candies and it's all hand-made. It was a lot of fun to see how it was all done. We took a few pictures and thought we would share them with you.

This first one is a picture of the factory. It actually isn't very big. There is one room for candy production and another one for packaging. There's a small candy store and a snack bar for visitors. That's about all.

This second picture is one of Clay and myself holding a 5 lb strawberry sucker. No, we didn't buy it. Something like that runs for $75 dollars, and we don't need that much sugar. We thought it would make a fun picture though!

School has now started for Clayton. It's very time intensive. It's interesting, though, and I enjoy when he shares some of his knowledge with me! For those of you who want our new address, here it is:

19685 Clubhouse Dr. #222

Parker, CO 80138

Correction

After my last post, Clayton brought to my attention that I had inadvertently lied. At that point in time, Clay had been accepted to two schools: University of Colorado and Georgia State University. We had already decided on CU, so I had completely pushed GSU out of my mind. However now we can add University of Nevada-Las Vegas(UNLV) to the list as well. We have now been accepted to 3 schools which makes Clayton feel pretty good. We are still planning on going to Colorado, though. The only school that would even make us reconsider at this point is the University of Utah. However school starts in about a month there, so we are not holding our breaths.

In other news...I'm graduating from BYU. Well sort of. I am walking this semester. I will still have 8 credits to finish up independent study, but that shouldn't take too long. But if you want to come and support, my convocation is on Friday, April 24, at 2 o'clock in the Smith Fieldhouse.

We have an apartment

Amber and I took a speedy trip to Denver this weekend to find an apartment. We signed on an apartment in Parker. Here is a link to what it looks like.

http://www.parkerhilltopapartments.com/virtual_tour2.htm

By the way that is not what our furniture looks like.

Apartment hunting

For those of you who haven't heard, we've decided on going to the University of Colorado-Denver for graduate school. Aside from it being the only place that we were actually accepted, it is also the best fit for us. While he was interviewing there, Clayton was very impressed with the facilities and said "It just feels right." We will be moving our stuff around the first of May, but will come back for a few more weeks so Clayton can work. School starts June 1st, and Clayton is ready to be a full time student again.

This weekend we are taking a trip to Denver to find a place to live. If anyone has suggestions as to what the "safe" areas of Denver are, it would be much appreciated. Right now we are looking at the Parker area and have appointments with a few of the apartments on Friday. Up until this point, it doesn't feel real. I can't believe we'll be leaving Provo and moving on to Denver in about a month. I'm sure once we find a place to live it will become more real.

I've include the link to a few of the apartments we're looking at, if you're interested:
http://www.rentatcherrywoodvillage.com/
http://www.hubbuzz.com/Denver/Parker/WindrockApartments/PropertyOverview.aspx