Maidie Ann Pearson, aka "Sweetie Doo"

Well, we finally have our little Sweetie Doo! And in typical Pearson family fashion, this little one came surrounded by drama. This was a particularly challenging pregnancy for Sherri. She carried extremely low and got pretty big pretty quickly. I recall her saying something along the lines of "get this thing out of me.." around month 6. But she was always cute, as shown in this picture.

We were scheduled to be induced on March 13th, one week before her actual due date. Hallelujah! However, when we called in the night before as instructed, we learned that 6 girls had been bumped that day to the 13th and our chances of actually maintaining our date were looking "dismal." Sherri was devastated. I snuck away with the phone and called the hospital, trying to "grease the monkey." I practically begged, but there just was no room at the inn. Dr. Curtis was going out of town on Friday, so our only shot to have our baby delivered by her actualy OBGYN was to miraculously get in on the 13th. Somehow the stars aligned, God smiled, and we got the phone call. We made it into the hospital at 2:30 on the 13th.

Sherri never did get comfortable. The epideral never quite took like we expected it to and she started to feel intense pain when she was dilated to a 6. The anesthesiologist came in and pumped her full of more epiderajuice, but gave her enough to numb a small elephant. She was subsequently numb from the top of her chest to her toes. There was a moment where the nurse was searching for baby's heartbeat unsuccessfully. She even got to a point where she was visibly panicking. After about 5 minutes of searching the heartbeat finally registered. She checked Sherri, informed us she was fully dilated, and asked Sher not to push. She was going to call the doctor. This all happened within 30 minutes.

Dr. Curtis got there blazingly fast and it was SHOW TIME! The amount of epideral medicine given to Sherri made her nauseous and just as she was about to start pushing she started throwing up. She ended up pushing once and the baby came shooting out amid all of Sherri's "throw-up moves." Dr. Curtis sewed her up, we got Maidie cleaned and warm, and were finally able to unite mom and baby!

Baby Maidie was born at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 13th. She weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She had a surprisingly large quantity of dark hair. And we recently discovered that she has the distinct Riley family middle toe. Imagine a sloth that can dangle from a tree branch from a single toe. That's what we have here. It's a full inch longer than the other toes.

During our hospital stay Maidie was a perfect baby. She wasn't fussy, hardly made a sound, and had nice moments of actually being awake. We had many loved ones show up to visit including her two older broeys. They love their little sister and were constantly stroking her head and giving her kisses. We are all having to reprogram now that she is home. Everyone has to be extra careful with her and some of our old habits of throwing things about the house with reckless abandon are having to be changed.

Each of our kids has left the hospital dressed up as an animal. Talmage left as a little froggie. Eric left as a monkey. The tradition has been to have a hat with the animal's ears or eyes sewn to it, so Grandma Riley made us up some little deer ears and sewed her name into her hat. It was a darling little outfit. I was so proud to have my little sweetie doo all dolled up to leave the hospital!

Being the dad of a girl is very different. I'm scared again. When Talmage was born I didn't know what to do with a baby but I was determined and excited to figure it all out. And I did so quickly. When Eric was born I didn't skip a beat...it was just like I'd fallen off my bike and simply needed to pick it up and hop back on. But this time it's entirely different. I'm nervous again. And timid. Much moreso than I was with Talmage. Maybe that's an indication as to how protective and smothering I'll be as a dad. This is MY Sweetie Doo. Beware to all those that don't get that!

We love our little Maidie Ann. And we're grateful to have her home!

Preparing for Sweetie Doo

We are unbelievably excited for this baby to arrive. Having a little girl is so new and exciting! Part of the process of preparing for the baby has been getting the nursery ready for her. What started as a plain white room has turned into Sweetie Doo central! I am proud of Sherri; she had a vision and has come up with an adorable little nursery for Maidie.

The color scheme is pink, creme, and brown, as you can see in this picture. I installed a chair rail at 35" and the decorative trim around the window. Sherri then caulked it and painted it a creme color. She is so meticulous with her painting that she refuses to allow me to help. I used to offer, but I don't anymore. I just let her do her thing. Above the chair rail is painted pink and below is painted brown. We joke about it looking like neopolitan ice cream. Sherri's mom helped make the valance above the window. Sherri's good friend Emily made the "Memories" magnet board.

To add some color to the wall, Sherri bought some 8x10 plain white canvases, painted them the same creme color as the chair rail, then drew some flowers free-hand and painted them. She did a remarkable job, as seen here in this picture. Sherri's talented mother took the little diaper holder that came with the crib bedding set, tore it apart, and made a cute pink pillow. She also made a pillow from the excess fabric from the valance she'd made.

My favorite part of the room is the wall above Maidie's crib. Sherri found some cute wood letters to spell out her name, painted them green (ties in with the green in the crib bedding) and hot-glued on some flowers and butterflies. Then we ordered some silk butterflies online to accent the lettering. Sherri put a crazy amount of thought, time, and effort into this part of the room, and I think it came off perfectly!

Having the room done makes everything seem so real! Hard to believe she'll be here in 5 days.