Gladys'

Nolan Michael Gladys

2010-04-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the World! I've not posted for just over a month and so much has happened it's hard to know where to begin...

We had so many baby showers and were really overwhelmed with the outpouring of love from people. The ACR faculty threw us a shower, and then the final baby shower was given by the girls from the soccer team. The parents and girls really hooked us up with everything we could possibly have wanted and now all we had to do was get ready for the really big day.

There were still a few more doctor appointments for Mandy and I to go to. One of the doctors was asking about the size of the baby and noticed that Mandy might have a hard time delivering a big baby. After he heard the story of Liz's traumatic delivery he ordered an ultrasound to get the EFW (estimated fetal weight). GOOD THING HE DID THIS!!!! When we got the ultrasound the technician, and all of us really, was quite surprised to see little Nolan's head up. The dreaded b word... BREECH! How could that be? The doctor told us during an exam that he could feel Nolan's head... he must have been mistaken. At any rate, the doctors then told us that he would have to be delivered via cesarian section. After the initial shock we came to the realization that this was a relief on many levels. For one thing, we were able to schedule the delivery at that day and time that would work best and we were able to select the surgeon that we wanted to perform the operation. It also made us relieved to know that had we gone through the labor process, Mandy would have labored for hours before the doctors would have realized that Nolan was butt-first and then ordered the emergency c-section.

The big day came on Wednesday, March 24th. We showed up at the hospital at 6am and got ready. They took Mandy into the operating room and left me to wait until they came to get me. About 20 minutes later they rushed me, in full scrubs, into the O.R. I was greeted by the sight of Mandy's stomach wide open for the world to see. Feeling very light headed, I sat down at her head behind the "screen". About 5 minutes later one of the doctors said, "it's definitely a boy" (which we knew) and they pulled him out! It was all so surreal, it seemed like a dream. They called me over to the table and I cut the cord, picked him up and brought him over to Mom. After putting her back together we went over to the recovery room where they monitored her for a while, tested Nolan, checked everything out, and then sent us up to our room where we would stay for the next three nights.

As it turns out we knew a lot of people working in baby care unit and were treated very well. We had a great room with a view of the mountains and the nurses were wonderful. On the 2nd day I went to the airport to pick up my Dad and brought him to see his first grandson. It was a great moment. My dad and I even managed to sneak a weeee bit of Irish whiskey into the hospital room to toast little Nolan...

Making a long story short, he has checked out beautifully so far. My Mom drove down to join Dad and they stayed here for a week. Mandy's Mom came to stay with us the day my parents left and she has been here ever since. Today, we had newborn pictures taken in a marathon session. I'm sure there will be some of those pictures posted here as well. In summary- WE ARE BLESSED with a beautiful, healthy baby boy and our whole world has changed for the better. We are so very grateful to our friends and family for their wishes of support and for their help through all of this. We look forward to sharing Nolan's story with all of you as the days,weeks,months, and years go by!

It's raining diapers!

2010-02-21T18:09:00.000-08:00

In between sneak peaks of the Olympics, preparing the house (nesting...), and the beginning of the girl's soccer season, we have managed to get in another baby shower- this one was organized by our friend Lori, who Mandy coaches volleyball with at Reynolds. We met the volleyball girls at Applebees and got showered with tons of diapers and other fun things. One of the parents made a pretty cool "diaper cake"

Mandy is now 35 1/2 weeks in and we see the light at the end of the tunnel. In two weekends I take the soccer team to Chattanooga for a weekend and that will be 20 days before the due date. The fact that I will be 3 hours away for a weekend almost guarantees that Nolan will choose this time to come forth, so place your bets now...

35 1/2 weeks

Nolan's room

2010-02-15T18:49:00.001-08:00

Some updated pictures of his room :) The waiting game begins!!

In the Home Stretch...

2010-02-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we've updated the blog- so much has happened here. First and foremost the story of the past month has been the WEATHER! Holy Snow! We have already gone well over our allotted snow days and the school system has taken away two days of our spring break to make up for it. Mandy had her baby shower in the middle of a blizzard. We are so thankful for the gifts and that people actually braved the weather to get to Kathleen's Tearoom for the party! We wished everyone could have been there!!! Huge props to Andi and Lindsay for getting it together. I especially want to thank Rob and Bill for shoveling snow all morning and for not dropping dead of a heart attack while doing it. Eventually Bill was overtaken by common sense and flashed a 20 at a passing snowplow driver and the job was done! Mom and Jessica paid the price for being in Asheville during a blizzard. Their flight was delayed by about 8 hours at the AVL airport but eventually they made it back to the D. Mandy's Mom came in the next day and has been here for the past week shopping for Nolan and getting more stuff ready. Mandy is now in her 8th month and the reality is closing in. Final preparations have been made to Nolan's room and we are trying frantically to go over lists and make sure we have everything we need for the baby boy. In short, we are both very thankful for our friends and family and we feel blessed and excited for what is to come!

BIRTHING CLASS

2010-01-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say after our weekend birthing class. I went into it thinking it was going to be mostly Lamaze type of breathing exercises... that was not the case. Rather than the once-a-week for 8 weeks course, we opted to cram it all into a Friday night and all day Saturday affair. I won't even bother with the details because those who have done it already know, and those who haven't will have to find out on their own. Probably the most memorable thing that I learned was the practical stuff- where do I park, where do I take Mandy, what should we bring, etc- along with a million other things to expect- the bottom line is to expect the unexpected I think.

Mandy is at 29 weeks! now and the days and weeks are flying by as we keep trying to get ready for Nolan's arrival. It seems like it is going to be impossible to get everything done by March but we are trying. UPS packages keep arriving daily with gifts for Nolan from our registry- thank you everyone! Even though Elli is not happy and would go through the window to kill the guy in the brown truck if given a chance, we get excited everyday to see what is arriving next. One day when he is walking up the driveway with a package I think I am just going to burst open the door and let Elli show him what brown can do for him...

29 weeks

Nolan Michael's room

2010-01-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

Upon returning to frigid North Carolina we set about to make Nolan's room a reality. In between watching some bowl games the vision of the nursery came to fruition. Mandy and I spent all weekend taping, painting, and painting some more and the result is... pretty damn good actually. We are very happy with the way it has turned out so far. Now comes the hard part- putting together all of the furniture... On a side note- it is as cold as it ever has been around here and there isn't any relief in sight this week. We are hunkered down in the house with the heat on full blast and our very tough guard dog who is under 4 layers of blankets and hasn't moved for a day or two... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

BABY SHOWER!!!

2010-01-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

A highlight of our trip to Florida was the baby shower- held at Nicole's Village Tavern in Wellington. (sight of the infamous Jake Postlewait slapping incident) The ladies all seemed to enjoy themselves in the VIP area while the men held their meeting at the bar, and Nolan Michael got enough presents to more than fill our car! The best part for Mandy was getting to see so many of her friends and family. We are so very thankful for everyone who came out to make it a special and memorable night for all of us!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

Spending Christmas in 70 and 80 degree weather never seems normal to me but I was glad to do it this year! On the day we were planning on heading south to Florida- a big winter storm rolled into Asheville- we got out just in time! We were told that the interstates were all shut down a couple of hours after we got down the mountain. We spent 10 days in the Florida heat and got to see a lot people we haven't seen enough of lately. We went out on the boat on Okeechobee and on the ocean too. I got to spend some time in the pool with Callie Beth and did plenty of soaking in the hot tub. Christmas at Nan's house was great with a lot of Mandy's family there along with kids, dogs, and the presents galore!

Mandy and Elli X-MAS EVE

Patrick enjoying the hot tub :)

Mandy with Uncle Walt and Uncle Joe. They cooked a GREAT meal for us!!!

21 1/2 weeks!!!!

2009-11-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

21 1/2 WEEKS!

Mandy is now 21 weeks in and the little guy is getting bigger and bigger. He is active too, especially after she eats pizza… unlike his father, who generally falls asleep after eating pizza. Last Sunday we spent a good portion of the day walking around Babies R Us with a gun. (The registry kind of gun) We pointed and clicked at a whole bunch of stuff that we will need for the little one. Who knew there were so many different kinds of pacifiers? There was nowhere I would have rather been, especially not sitting at home with a cold beer watching the Packers whip up on the Cowboys… Needless to say, I wasn’t much help and ended up sitting in one of the rocker / nursing chairs and pouted while Mandy did most of the work. I know, I’m quite a catch and she is a lucky lady!
We also have picked out a bunch of baby furniture and other stuff as well. (In the coming months, I will be selling one of my kidneys and donating plasma twice a week) Now that soccer season is over we are going to start putting the room together and are excited to finally get to that project. Next week we are heading north to Detroit for Thanksgiving. Look for us in the end zone of Ford Field at the Packers / Lions game! I will be the one with the big foam cheesehead on and sitting next to the pretty fat girl.

IT'S A BOY

2009-11-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since we have posted, but we wanted to have some BIG news to share first and I think that this qualifies: WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!! We are sooooo excited to share this news with our friends and family. We have had a few OBGYN appointments since our last posts, and we can report that Mom is doing fine- she has gained some weight but doesn’t really have an appetite for most things- we have certainly explored most of the restaurants in town though…
At our “find out the sex” appointment the other day, our ultrasound technician was having a little fun with us and saving the best for last. We saw a lot of good looks at his hands, face, he “waved” at us and then it was time for the moment of truth. As she panned down to the lower extremities I was sure I saw a sign of the telltale manhood. I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t really know, but then she blurted out “Well, it’s a boy!” Once you see the “money shot” there is no mistaking it. Right now Mandy is halfway through the pregnancy- hard to believe. Now it’s time to start thinking of names and get everything prepared for the little guy! Life is good!!

HI :)

BABY FEET!!!

13 WEEKS PICS!!!!!!

2009-09-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

She's a fatty boombulatty, fatty boombulatty! Well, here it is...Mandy's belly. It's been 13 weeks and we are now taking pictures to prove that, in fact, Mandy is preggers... or eating a lot of fudge...

13 WEEKS!

2009-09-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd appointment came up and we were expecting the routine checkup, but our wonderful nurse, Terri, snuck Mandy into the ultrasound room and brought up the images of baby Gladys. I was running late to get to the appointment and got into the ultrasound room just in time to see the pictures of the little guy (or girl). That was quite an experience. You could see it squirming around and it turned it's head as if was looking at me. We saw little fingers and all kinds of things developing, we got to listen to the heartbeat, and we got some photos to take with us. I think it has my eyes...

2028 NC State Soccer Player of the Year Announced

2009-09-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Although we cannot confirm whether it will the male or female award given at this time, we do know that a youngster with the last name of Gladys will be winning that award...
That's right- Mandy is pregnant!!!! We've been sitting on this for a while now (since July) and we are so happy to be able to finally share our blessing with all of our friends and family. Checkup #1 went well and so we decided to spread the news. The checkup didn't go so well for me though... I got a little light headed when they were doing the ultrasound- that does not bode well for my ringside seats at the delivery, which the doctor told us should happen around March 26th. Appointment #2 is coming up on Wednesday where we will get to listen to the heartbeat. I will try to keep my head this time...

BLIZZARD OF '09 PART DEUX

2009-03-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

We are currently in the "worst snowstorm to hit WNC since 1993" day 2. The Lady Rockets were supposed to kick off the soccer season tonight, but the weather shut that down. We spent the day with Elli in the yard throwing snowballs. School has already been cancelled tomorow, even though most of the snow is gone, so cheers to that!
On another happy note, MSU Basketball won the big ten championship yesterday by dogging out the Illini on the road. Mandy took some pictures...

Blizzard of '09!

2009-02-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Thursday and we haven't had school for the past two days because of the "blizzard" (2 inches) we got. We also have a two hour delay scheduled for tomorrow- woohoo!
Mandy is grinding out the basketball season and I am looking forward to seeing Jerry Joseph play a show at a small local bar tomorrow night. Saturday we are heading to a party at a teacher friends house- should be a good time!

Welcome

2009-02-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

Because we have so many friends and family scattered throughout the country, we are starting this blog as a way to keep in touch. This is our first entry- the day after the Super Bowl- a pretty good game overall and a great ending.
Over the weekend we took Elli quail "hunting" at Fowler Farms up in Hot Springs on a clear, cool day. It was pretty entertaining and there should be some pictures posted.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Spartans lost, at home, to Penn State in basketball. It is at that point that Patrick cracked his first beer...
Mandy is finishing up basketball season and we are busy scheduling a trip to DISNEY. We also are looking into a trip back to MEXICO!!! or some other suitably tropical locale...