The arrival of Zinnea Rae Reardon (July 30, 2011)

Our sweet little girl finally arrived on July 30th, one day after her due date. Alesha went into labor about 4:30am on July 29th, but Zinnea didn't make her final appearance until 11:37am the next day--only 31 hours later! Zinnea weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19 3/4" long. She's already growing, having put on about 9 ounces by her first doctor's visit on Wednesday. She's doing great!

Here are a few photos of Zinnea and family following her birth. Enjoy :)

More to come!

Mike, Alesha and Zinn

Belly and fruit series-final edition (39 1/2 weeks)

Hi everyone,

Believe it or not, Alesha and baby are creeping toward the anticipated due date, which is this Friday (July 29th)! Here is one last fruit series photo for your enjoyment-a watermelon! It's actually fairly believable that this particular watermelon could be inside Alesha's belly.

We will make sure to let everyone know once the baby is here and eventually post some photos (probably sometime in the middle of the night in a state of extreme sleep deprivation). In the mean time, here are a few more recent photos as well of Alesha's expanding belly and swollen feet.

 Last weekend, Mike and I went to Dupont State Park to wet our feet and relax in the sun. It was awesome!

Alesha's swollen feet, squeezed into her Chacos. Booooo!

Love,

Alesha, Mike and baby

Professional photos by Jonathan Myers (a.k.a., Uncle Jon)

Here are several (of the many) photographs taken by my brother, Jonathan, of my growing belly. We spent a few hours at Curve Studios in the River Arts District and on the train tracks taking photos on early morning recently. Many thanks to Jon for sharing his talent and time!

Enjoy,
Alesha, Mike and baby

38 Weeks-Belly Shock Waves

Check out baby Reardon's amazing acrobatic skills, only able to be seen from the outside of Alesha's belly. Those movements are starting to feel pretty intense as the baby's amount of room gets tighter and tighter. Soon enough we will be holding this little one in our arms.

Enjoy!

Love,

Mike, Alesha and baby

38 Weeks

We are down to the wire ladies and gentlemen. Let us know what you think.... boy or girl? Both (that is scary)? What day? What time?
As we both finish up our jobs, start breaking ground on our house, temporarily relocate, build a shed, Lesh finishes her semester, and I continue to guide and help write a guidebook, we are hoping for a few more weeks before birth. BUT, the biggest and best suprise of all is on its way and we can't wait to see who has been growing in Lesh's belly all along.
The picture above is from Long Branch Environmental Center in Big Sandy Mush- go there for all of your blueberry pleasures. We took some video where you could see hiccups bouncing from the belly but it was too big of a file to download. So, you will just have to see it in person.
Enjoy!
Mike, Alesha +1

30 weeks

 We have an outty ladies and gentlemen. The little one is growing too quickly for Alesha's bellybutton to maintain its comfortable inny position. Turns out, there are many unexpected sacrifices that expecting moms have to make and this is just one of them.
Most of you know that we are now living in Arden with Roy and Sue and yes, our house finally sold! We are always pushing on Alesha's belly and occasionally the baby pushes or head butts back. The baby should be about 3 1/2 lbs now and is developing its ability to see.

25 1/2 Weeks

Well folks, not only is there is a lot going on in babyland (kicks, movements, karate chops, ect) but the same goes for the soon-to-be parents! Life has been somewhat chaotic in last few weeks, but Mike and Alesha know things will work out eventually. Anyway, back to those kicks--Mike and Alesha are really enjoying that and spend almost every night sitting together, one hand each on Alesha's belly, feeling these amazing movements! It's the coolest thing.

Here are some recent photos of our growing baby and subsequent growing belly. All of a sudden it seems like Alesha's belly is expanding rapidly. Even strangers are doing a double take as if to say, "Is that lady eating too many cream puffs or is she pregnant?" Maybe both, they wonder.

Top photo: 24 weeks; Middle photo: 25 weeks; Bottom photo: 25 1/2 weeks (yesterday).

Mike also put together the baby's crib over the weekend (see below). It's exciting to see something tangible, like the crib, come together! The reality that we'll have a tiny, wonderful baby soon is becoming more and more vivid with every kick, baby item assembled, and expansion of belly.

Stay tuned for more details!

Love,

Mike, Alesha and baby

Belly and fruit series #3 (22 weeks)

This week, Alesha felt her first inside kicks/movements-seems like the melon is rolling around already! She has been able to feel movement when she/Mike puts a hand to her belly, but it wasn't until this week that she could physically feel the tiny movements happening in her belly. How cool (and distracting)!

So, there you have it-our baby, about the size of a "small melon" the books say. We're in week 22, so the baby is roughly 1 pound and about 8 inches long. For the baby's remaining time in-utero, he/she will really just be growing. In the sixth month the baby has everything it will need at birth, it's just small. Here's to the next few months of growth!

Love,

 

Mike & Alesha (+1)

Belly and fruit series #2 (19 weeks)

Well folks, Alesha now has a mango in her belly! Or rather, our little babe is about the size of a large mango here at 19 weeks along. Wait, are we about to enter the sixth month? Time is flying.

This week in particular it seems that Alesha's belly has grown a lot, although in relation to how big it's going to get, it's still quite small! Alesha's tummy is growing and feels like it's doing some serious stretching and pulling. You could probably bounce a quarter off of it if you wanted to. Must be that the baby is ready to evolve into it's next fruit phase...stay tuned!

Mike and Alesha (+1)

19 Weeks: "Ultra-Reardon"

 Baby practicing yoga.

Baby's left foot.

We strongly suggest, while viewing these images, to mimic the body positions exhibited in the top photo. If you have a wireless keyboard, you can keep typing and reading while your knees are hitting your forehead. Hey, the baby seems to like it. Enjoy!

Weighing in at 10 ounces, with a heart-rate of 167/minute, Ultra-Reardon was an active little baby flipping, turning, kicking, and waving hello. The only complaint was he or she would not reveal its head or face. Eventually, the baby came around after some maneuvering and waiting.

Needless to say, having an ultrasound was really fun-how cool to be able to see your baby! Check out the short clip below that Mike took during the ultrasound. Sandy came along as well-look at that grin on her face!

 

Love,

Mike and Alesha (+1)

17 weeks

We're just beginning to be able to feel tiny movements with our hands on Alesha's belly (Alesha seems to be able to feel it more than Mike). They are really small and subtle, but so sweet!

Alesha's just beginning to look pregnant-maybe. You be the judge. Top belly shot was just yesterday and the photo of Alesha below is from a few days earlier. There isn't too much else to report-the ultrasound is in two weeks so we'll keep ya'll posted about our growing babe!

Love,

A&M

Belly and fruit series #1 (4 1/2 months)

Well, we're 15 1/2 weeks right now! So, about 4 months and 3 weeks or half way done. Time is flying! We realized the other day that our baby will be here before we know it! Alesha is feeling great, still doing a little climbing, and craving fruit all of the time.

We've included in this post a photograph of Alesha's "belly". You tell us...do you think she has one? Most people we know say that they do notice, but the strangers Alesha tells (like the clerk at the grocery store and the mechanic) can't believe she's 4.5 months pregnant! A few of our friends have told us they didn't really show until 5-5 1/2 months pregnant, so we may have to wait a little longer.

All of the pregnancy books compare your growing baby's size to a particular fruit. Apparently, right now the baby is about the size of a navel orange. You'll see in the photograph Alesha has an orange up to her belly-neat, huh? So, our plan is to photograph Alesha with the fruit du jour (or maybe month) for comparison purposes. Should be fun!

We have a sonogram coming up soon, so we'll try and post the image on here. We won't be finding out the sex of the baby, but we would love to hear your premonitions!

With love,

Alesha (+1) & Mike

Prenatal First Ascents

Through the 50 MPH wind, rain, and snow, Lesh (with baby walnut in tow) managed to ascend multiple vertical puzzles at the Dr. Suess-esque interactive sculpture land that is Joshua Tree National Park.

Baby's First Quilt

Hi everyone,

Momma Myers unveiled the first of many (I'm sure) beautiful creations to come! Check out the baby quilt she made for our little one. It's incredible! Time to open an Etsy account, mom. You're in business. Here's a close-up shot and a full-on shot.

-M&A

Suprise/sirprize/surpriz!

Surprise! There is a reason why surprise is misspelled in the title of our blog and that's what we'll share with you in this first ever baby blog post.

We 'spilled the beans' to friends and family in various ways. Thanksgiving, the day after we found out we were pregnant, both of our families were getting together at Lake Lure. We rented houses across a little cove from one another, an easy morning paddle or cold water swim away. Lesh and I schemed on how to tell everyone and were nervous about keeping it a secret due to her lack of normal beverage consumption levels. Our plan boiled down to telling everyone that we were going to paddle the Myers turkey over to the Reardon house via canoe, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner with the stipulation that everyone had to be waiting on the other dock to welcome the floating turkey. In the rush of turkey prep, we collaged a banner saying 'baby on board'. As the turkey was ready to set afloat we realized that we didn't have enough arms to hold the turkey, paddle, and hold up the sign so we asked Gary and Sandy to come aboard to assist with turkey holding, paddling, and sign placement. As we jumped into the canoe we said, "Oh, yeah by the way guys-we're having a baby!" And off we paddled. See the above pic for the canoe announcement.

Our good friend, Jessy Kronenberg, was coming to town for a visit before Christmas, so we decided to wait until her arrival so we could tell all of our friends during a gathering planned at George and Kelly's house. Alesha went down to a local print making shop and had t-shirts made that said, "Surprise, We're Having a Baby!" or at least they were supposed to say that. You'll see in the attached photo that surprise is indeed spelled wrong and before most people caught what our shirts actually said, they pointed out that surprise was spelled wrong! Whoops! The good news is that we got a nice organic cotton onesie out of it from the print shop. Anyhow, we arrived at the party with outer shirts on and waited a few hours to expose our baby tees. Although we weren't "trying" to get pregnant, most of our friends tell us they weren't all that surprised because, "Alesha has been a crazed baby maniac", or something like that...

The baby is due on July 29th and we'll be working with New Dawn Midwifery here in Asheville. A home birth or a hospital birth are both options, although we're leaning towards a home birth right now. Alesha will be 12 weeks at the end of this week and when we go to visit our midwife on Friday we get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Whoa!

Stay tuned for more updates!

M&A&Baby