MJ has taken over my life- part deaux

Holy moly. I am a mom. M-O-T-H-E-R. How utterly surreal and indescribably amazing, MJ has taken over my life and I love it...99.8% of the time, the late nights can be painful and the mirror is not my friend at the moment. I feel like this blog post is supposed to tell you the birth story, but that may border on Too Much Information and I would rather just hit the high points. Went into labor the night before the scheduled c-section. Kept the scheduled c-section time as the labor only made progress in regards to pain. Marigny Jean Vaughn was born on June 16, 2010 at 9:04 a.m. with a full head of hair, weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces and 21.25 inches!

She is exactly six weeks old today. It is amazing what a blur these last few weeks have been. Amazing that I can go on such limited sleep. Amazing that we have daughter. Just flat out amazing overall.

MJ has taken over my life

And as proof here is some video but no diatribe from me.
That is soon to follow. Maybe.

MJ Grin







MJ Milk Punch Drunk

Marigny Jean Vaughn the early days

Here is the link to our web album for MJ...

And the months come to a close

So here we are, one day before I go in for my scheduled c-section, and there are a million thoughts running through my brain. Some are panicky, others are excited, and one disappointed.

Panicky because life as I know it is about to make a drastic change, one that is hopefully for the good. But change is always hard, but as they say it is also the only constant. Did I really think things would stay the same forever, even with a baby? Nope. Panicky, because, can I do this? Can I be a mom? Can I think about someone other than Zach or myself? I like being selfish.

Excited because after 9 months of gestating this bambino, I will finally see the outcome of all this exhaustion and effort. And I will finally know if this is a little Zach or a little Morgan. Excited because I am starting a whole new chapter in my life. Yes, this one hits both the panicky and excited feelings.

Disappointed, because more than anything I wanted to have a vaginal birth (yes, I said vaginal), but for some health complications a scheduled c-section was deemed safest for momma and baby. At least the doctor gave me a few days to try go into labor.

Unfortunately, my darn body is just as stubborn as the brain in it. For me it isn't the c-section that intimidates me so much as the recovery from it, as I am so ready to get back to running and I know how hard it can be to get started again even without having to recover from surgery. That and I wanted those darn prenatal yoga classes to pay off. Oh well.

Tomorrow at 6:30 am we are set to arrive at Labor and Delivery and at 8:30 am the doctor is going in for Baby Vaughn, so I should have a baby in my arms by 9:30 am...and I will be a mom. Wow. Zach and I will be parents. Not just one of us as a parent and the other as a stepmother, but parents together.

Just breathe Morgan.

Throughout this pregnancy I have said and done things I never thought I would say or do....here is a list of the top ten.

10. Own a book called "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding"

9. Rename something already as gross as mucus plug to "vag snot"

8. Not recognize my own breasts...I will not get into any further detail here

7. Discuss Daycare

6. Have a car seat base in my car weeks before Baby Vaughn's arrival

5. Buy cloth diapers like they were stilettos

4. Visit a baby based website multiple times a day

3. Get excited about decorating a nursery

2. Weigh as much as I do right now and still sometimes be able to look in the mirror

1. Be excited about being a mom

The next post really will be the Vaughn of a new day.

Thanks for all your support and future offers to babysit!

Nursery Corner Pictures

The nursery corner is pretty much complete!
Zach finished building, yes with his bare hands and some wood working tools, the changing unit and it is sanded, stained and lacquered up! It is beautiful, he really did a spectacular job.

3 Furlongs to go

Or in non-racing terms, 3 weeks give or take a few days. I feel like I am cramming for exams, something at which I have never been very good. Here I am with three or so weeks left and am quickly trying to read and retain all of the information that should have been read months ago. I must say, I have learned some things that I never anticipated, for instance, did you know that circumcision is not actually a surgery that is medically necessary.
Who knew?
Yeah, I am sure that some of you out there were aware, but not I. This brings up the question, if it is not medically necessary then why do it?
There are two main reasons to do it, religious and social. Sure, people say that it is cleaner, that it inhibits the spread of STDs or that not doing it increases the risk of penile cancer. Yes, I typed penile and giggled while doing so. But the whole penile cancer risk is a whopping 1% to begin with, the cleanliness thing is proven to be untrue and the STD thing has some small and rather unconvincing medical case studies backing it...thus bringing it back to the whole not a medical necessity thing. This is the problem with becoming informed, it now becomes a decision that Zach and I have to make if little Baby Vaughn is a he. The social reasons for doing it are strong, as those who have had a "little taken off the top" certainly are in the majority in this country, and would other kids make fun of him in the locker room? And if so, what are they doing examining those parts so carefully anyway? I digress. For me, what it boils down to in the end is do we scar him now or scar him later? Who knows...it makes me kind of hope for a girl.
Enough penis chatter. Hee hee.



Not to say thank you in a post that has been filled with my new found penile, hee hee, knowledge, but I want to say thank you to my good friends Corinne Hufft, Rebecca Gibson and Krissy Barker for throwing me a fabulous and low key baby shower on May 1st, yes, Kentucky Derby Day. It was wonderful and in spite of initially feeling totally awkward about opening presents in front of others, I had a great time.

One Month

36 Weeks


One month.
Holy moly.

I keep telling myself to breathe, that a month is actually a long time...I am totally kidding myself.
I have plenty of time to finish everything that may need to be finished before I hop on a completely different road than the one I was on before, right?????


Am definitely kidding myself. By the time I get home from work I am too exhausted to do much of anything and with my super generous family, friends and co-workers baby Vaughn has received some amazing gifts...much of which has joined the ever expanding laundry pile. Small clothes are easy and quick to wash and dry but much more difficult to fold than adult clothes. But darn it, some baby clothes are just utterly adorable. The fact that they are so adorable helps to justify not finding out the sex of little baby Vaughn, because I think I could do some serious damage in the Mini Boden catalog. I digress.

One month...I am hoping that I am so distracted that in no way will adorable baby clothes be on the forefront of my brain.

One month...Holy moly.
Just saying it causes my heart to race a little...to panic. I am so excited, but oh-so terrified too. I have a couple of friends who have given birth in the last two weeks, or in the case of one are in the process of doing it as I type. In some ways I am totally jealous, but then I remember that I am still totally unprepared, at least in some regards.

Packing for one.

And by the by, if another person asks if I have packed my hospital bag I may scream. Because no, I have not packed it...I have asked friends to advise me and they have done so fabulously, but something keeps me from actually going through with it. Why? Because I can't seem to wrap my head around packing to go to the hospital. I get packing to go to the beach...to go skiing...to go to wine country, but there is something about packing to go to the hospital that completely freaks me out.
It means it is real. It means that soon I will be a Mom and how does one really prepare for that? I mean, packing a bag doesn't even come close to really preparing you. AAAAHHH!

Rebecca, I hope you have a packing matrix for this "trip!"