10 days old

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone   I hope everyone is having a nice holiday so far.  We sure are!  Ty is being an absolute Angel – and we thought he was a crazy baby there for awhile.  Now he sleeps wonderfully.  We took him out on Christmas day to dinner at our friends Jason & Traci’s.  He slept almost the entire time we were there – almost 5 hours!  Then yesterday we decided to push our luck and took him to his first pub for a drink in the evening.  He was GREAT!  Now that we have the smoking ban here, it’s great to be able to go anywhere without smoke.  We went to Morton’s for about 3 hours and he never woke – and that place is loud!  He really can sleep through anything, even the doggies barking at the postman.

But I have to give credit where credit is due – this wouldn’t be possible without Jason.  He is been so SO wonderful with Ty.  And we are so lucky for the paternity leave Enterprise gives us.  It also worked out well that Ty was born over the Christmas holiday – Jason has been off since Dec. 17th and doesn’t go back until Jan. 7th!!  Thank goodness.  It’s really nice to be able to trade sleeping shifts, have home cooking, shower and have a full time diaper changer!   Seriously though – I haven’t really done many diapers – I leave that to him!

Christmas day with Daddy

and Mommy

Old man baby – with his poor red eye

Daddy doing what he does best

heading to Morton’s

My recovery has been really great too – I cannot complain.  The first few days were rough obviously; it’s tough to hold your baby when you can’t sit up!  But it has been smooth sailing since.  I cannot fault the free healthcare we received for the superb job they did.  I CAN fault the aftercare I received – but I won’t go there.  I am still a little bummed that after 23 hours of labor it did end in surgery (after all the preparations I did!), but we have a happy healthy baby (and only a tiny scar) at the end of it .

So obviously our guessing game is over – and the obvious winner was…. KYLE!  He hit the nail on the head with the correct date.  Here is the ranking – it gives points for how close you were (fowest points win).  So nice job Kyle, Sondi & Aunt Pammy!

Rank	Player Name	Guess	Difference	Points	From	Who I Am
1	KD	-	-	69.50	Burlington NC	we are mutual friends of Mrs. Yonhorst
2	Sondi Davis	-	-	893.67	NC	Friends
3	Auntie Pammy	-	-	935.50	Jacksonville FL	Little Big Sister
4	Lisa	-	-	975.50	Armpit MD	they taught me to sweat til I bleed!
5	fay smith	-	-	992.25	birmingham United Kingdom	work with gretta at “the salon” we share food!!!!!
6	MeeMaw	-	-	1033.00	Nanjemoy MD	Mother of the Mother
7	Jason	-	-	1089.75	Solihull Mexico	Baby Daddy
8	Britamu	-	-	1122.75	Garmer NC	BFF of Auntie Pammy
9	Carrie	-	-	1169.50	Washinton NC	baby’s daddy’s little sis
10	Karpens, Cereal	-	-	1183.75	Chapel Hill NC	We used to make fish sandwiches for the Captain…
11	carey running	-	-	1278.67	raleigh NC	friend of the parents
12	The Altman’s	-	-	1288.00	Solihull England	Friends
13	Kate	-	-	1309.83	Raleigh NC	Graduated from UNCW with Baby Daddy and Baby Mama
14	Tara Mattingly	-	-	1324.75	LaPlata MD	Charles County girls.
15	Karl Britt	-	-	1356.67	Leland NC	It’s Hands aka Hadley we knew Orifice in Belk
16	Lauren Bowes	-	-	1389.58	Greenville NC	BFF of baby’s daddy’s little sis
17	Dianne /Grandma	-	-	1541.92	Rocky Mount NC	mom of the new daddy to be
18	Kristen	-	-	1618.75	Hickory NC	Friends
19	Kim	-	-	1700.50	Nashville TN	former Belk Hall inmate with Jason…met Gretta later
20	MMD	-	-	1805.50	Raleigh NC	Gretta worked at my office. She was a superstar!
21	Gretta	-	-	1913.00		baby-grower!
22	Uncle Richard	-	-	1929.50	Jacksonville FL	What is this…a baby?
23	Carl ‘Spoona’ Witherspoon	-	-	4390.75	solihull United Kingdom	I’m a random drunk who work’s with Gretta & keeps inviting her husband out be she won’t let him!

Happy Holidays everyone!

4 days old

Hello all!

Just a quick post - Jason and I don’t seem to have as much time on our hands as before – I can’t figure out why… oh, that’s right- we have an insane baby!  I think we are all 3 shell-shocked but enjoying getting to know each other and are learning to anticipate Ty’s needs.  He does like to ‘use his lungs,’ and doesn’t really enjoy sleeping or bathing at the moment.  My Mom flew out this morning which was a bummer but I guess has forced us to figure things out on our own!  It is so great to have such great free aftercare in the UK and we have had someone come out to the house every afternoon so far to check on us and answer questions. 

They don’t measure length in the hospital here, but we tried today and he was about 20 inches – just in case you were wondering.

one AMAZING father

our first stroll

Welcome, Ty Harrison Handley!

Well, he was actually welcomed Monday, December 17th at 6:06 pm – but I only just made it home from the hospital this evening.  Weighing in at a healthy 8 lbs and 1 oz, Ty was born by c-section with Jason at his side (and ‘mee-maw’ watching through the window ).    We are all doing well and are so happy to be home and healthy with our cutie-pie new baby!  Can’t wait to introduce him to everyone.

Ty & Mom – 1 minute old!

and with Dad right away

4 hours old

Love – Gretta, Jason and TY!

christmas shopping this afternoon

trying to keep busy! 

nav & gretta with giant polar bear

it’s high time for Ty time…

….but apparently he does not agree!  Thanks to all who have checked in on us but we are still just waiting patiently. 

xoxo,

the handleys

6 days overdue…

… but who’s counting?!  Muppet still shows no signs of being interested in the outside world.  And who can blame him.  My Mom is here – after arriving into the UK on Sunday.  We are just relaxing, eating and shopping… I am listening to Jason and my Mom having a Suduko race downstairs right now and I think Mom is cheating.

Here are some pics from our dinner this evening…(Mom looks frightened )

pulling her first ‘Christmas cracker’

I have another midwife appointment tomorrow afternoon – so we will see what she has to say.

xoxo,

gretta

40 weeks PLUS!

We are waiting so patiently!

And so are Jason & I – for now.  Ask me in another week and I may be in a mental institution.  I got a pretty bad sinus infection earlier in the week (all that walking??) and am trying to recover from that at the moment.  So for now – Muppet is OK to wait a few more days.   I still feel pretty good though – starting to get some funny twinges and feelings – but nothing concrete or timeable.  My Mom arrives in the UK on Sunday – so that sounds like a good day to me!  I am just using this time to sit on my butt (or birth ball),  eat, watch bad daytime telly and wait.  And wait…

I am the first loser…

of the Baby poll game, I guess.   You would think I would atleast have the inside scoop!  My guess was Ty would be born yesterday – Dec. 1st.  And I tried so hard to make that happen as well!  Just goes to show – they come whenever they want.  Jason and I literally devoted the entire day to going into labor and nada.  If anybody has any other old wives tales – lay ‘em on me.   We tried all the methods in the ..ahem.. books – plus I had reflexology, used Clary Sage oil, warm bath, long walk (including running stairs), bounced on the ball (without falling off this time), hot curry, relaxation – everything!

Though upon waking this morning – I am MISERABLE.  I have a terrible head cold and got maybe 3 hours of sleep last night.  Not the ideal time to go into labor.  I will just rest lots today and get back to walking and eating spicy curry’s on Monday!   Jason is at the grocery store stocking up on soup and lemon and honey tea for me… he was really hoping Ty was coming this weekend as well (I think he is ready to start his paternity leave now!).

So fingers crossed for us!  And stay tuned…