Maxwell Dean Gifford

I know this is a long time coming but we have been very busy!!

We welcomed Max on January 8th 2010 at 9:44pm. He was 8pds 5 oz and 21 inches. He was perfect. He has red hair and looks just like his dad.

The labor and delivery process was pretty uneventful. I went in on Thursday night at 9 pm to have Cervadil placed. Cervadil helps the cervix thin.

At 6 am, they took me up to labor and delivery and started the IV and Pitocin. At this point, I still had it in my head that I was going to go as natural as possible.

I worked through my contractions for 6 hours until they broke my water at 12:30. At about 1:30, I asked for an epidural. It was awful pain. Greg was an amazing coach though - rubbing my back and making sure I had what I needed. When they broke my water, they noticed that there was a little meconium in the amniotic fluid. For those of you who do not know what meconium is… the easiest way to explain is that Max has his first stool in utero. Dr. Richards told us that they would have the NICU staff on hand in the room and they would have to hand him over ASAP to suck out any fluid. He did not want to take the chance of him aspirating any fluid and getting sick.

At about 9 pm, Dr. Richards came in and let me know that it was time. I was incredibly excited and ready to go. I was ready to work, in my head I was expecting a 9 pound plus baby, so I was very determined to get him out.

I pushed for about 20 minutes and he was here. Like they said before, they whisked him off to the NICU set up and sucked out any fluid.

Everything turned out to be perfect and he was handed over to me and daddy!!

We were absolutely, unequivocally, head over heels in love with this little guy. We spent the next few days recovering and soaking up the idea of having Max here.

We had a little set back on the day we were supposed to go home. Max had a little jaundice and unfortunately, we had to stay another day.

We finally got to go home on Monday. Jordin got to meet Max that same day.

That is the seal of approval from big brother Jordin.

We are finally home :)

Countdown to Max

Since I am going into my third trimester very soon I thought I would add a fun little countdown. We are very excited and anticipating the arrival of Maxwell Dean Gifford. We are just now beginning to shop and look for baby stuff. I have been putting it off and realized the way time is flying I better get on the ball. I hope you all enjoy the countdown.

Baby Update

So we haven’t blogged in quite a while, cause life’s been pretty crazy – between the last half of the Boston Giffords’ trip to Dallas and the end of summer craziness, we just haven’t had the chance to post any updates…

So for those of you who haven’t heard yet… we’re having a boy!

Here are the most recent pics of little Max…

he’s sucking his thumb in this one…

and if you look closely on the right, little Max is tossin’ out a peace sign…

There’s a bun in the oven…

So for everyone who hasn’t heard yet, there’s a baby Gifford on the way!

Our due date is January 11, 2010 – and we couldn’t be more excited!

Ash has been feeling pretty sick lately – it’s more of an “all the time sickness” than “morning sickness”, so we’re eagerly awaiting the end of the first trimester.

Jordin is SUPER excited, and has told us that we have to have a baby brother, and that we have to name him “Spiderman”…  When we told him that Spiderman probably isn’t a good name for a baby brother, he told us the only other option was Joaquin (he’s got a friend at school named Joaquin and thinks it’s a cool name).  Joaquin Gifford… hmmm… probably not gonna happen…