My Valentines

Carson's First Two Weeks (Well, Almost)

Carson is doing great- He is your normal kid, with good days/nights and bad. In some ways my parents said that he is above normal for how well he sleeps, once he is asleep, and the fact that he has already been out so much and done so much in his 11 days of life. Carson Boy has slept through every meal giving us time to eat, enjoy our family, have good conversations, etc. It is weird because every time we've left the hotel to go out he's done great. Slept the whole time, or waken up once to nurse. Sometimes I have to remember that we do have a baby with us. We are trying to enjoy this time because we know it could change any day.



Master Carson is doing so good feeding. He feeds when we want him to AND wakes himself up when he wants to eat. Due to this fact, and since he's gaining weight, we have decided to let him let us know when he's hungry. It actually ends up being around the same time or so that we would have woken him up to feed anyways. Last night, he slept from 12:30 to 6am and then took a 4-hour morning nap. Amazing, I know!


Marcus has been an amazing dad! I haven't had to ASK him to help me once. He perceives what Carson and I need and just does it. I am so thankful for him. On the nights Carson is fussy, we tag team. I feed him while Marcus sleeps, then give I give Carson Buddy to Marcus to be burped and put to bed. While Marcus does this I am able to go back to bed. Even when Carson has been fussy and doesn't want to sleep at night and the only thing that will soothe him is another feeding, I have at least gotten an hour or so of rest in-between feedings so I feel good. I praise God for two incredible men in my life.



Honestly, I haven't been too exhausted YET (remember, I know things can change tomorrow!) I was waking up at odd hours in the night during my 7,8,9 of pregnancy for a few hours at a time. I think this was God's way of preparing me for the first 6 weeks of Carson's life. Marcus has struggled the most with the lack of sleep/interrupted sleep but it also doesn't help that he wasn't sleeping that well before Little Man came. I am glad that Marcus went and had his sleep test done before Carson was born. I am sure the doctor would have laughed at him if he went in now saying he was having trouble sleeping and was exhausted during the day.
I can't wait for you all to meet Little Man, Carson Boy, Carson Buddy, Master Carson (what the Nurses call him), Buddy, Baby Arson- what his 3-year old cousin calls him. He is SO cute! We both love him so much and love to just watch him. He is an excellent baby and we praise God for him and for his first two weeks of life.

Carson Is Here

After months, weeks, and days of waiting, we finally welcomed our son, Carson Alcadio Pedroza, into the world on February 2, 2009 at 1:15pm Thailand time. It’s been quite the journey. I had the best pregnancy and I thank God for this… no morning sickness, acid reflux, swelling, no complications at all, and actually not too many pregnancy symptoms. There were days that I had to rely on the fact that I did see a baby in the first trimester ultrasound to help me believe that I was really pregnant. The only thing that I suffered from was chronic fatigue but that just gave me an excuse to take lots of naps.

One of the hardest things during the pregnancy was pinpointing for sure when Carson would make his appearance. The first due date was Jan. 13 which was based on my LMP. During our first trimester ultrasound however the date was changed to Jan. 23 (We later found out that this date was the most reliable calculation) and then the doctor changed the date again during our second trimester to Jan 17th. Based on that ultrasound, she said that she thought either the baby was going to be very big or arrive a week earlier than expected (the 23rd).

Well, January 13th, 17th, and 23rd came and went and still no baby. At each appointment during the last month the doctor said that the baby was healthy, strong, head down, face down, all good signs… but that he hadn’t dropped, head was too high, my cervix wasn’t dilated, and there were no strong contractions, so we were to keep waiting.

It was Marcus’ and my desire to have the baby naturally. We were even planning on delivering Carson in the water since the hospital offered water births and we’d heard great things about water births. We really didn’t want to induce on a certain date so we kept waiting for him to come on his own. It was so frustrating and discouraging some days. Every day hoping and praying that he would come and every day being disappointed. God continued to offer his grace to us and grant us patience to keep on waiting even during the frustrating moments.

Well, January came and went and I was entering into my 42nd week of pregnancy and still had no contractions or dilation. Never did we imagine that Carson would be born in February. At this point, Marcus and I began to talk about our options knowing that we had a doctor’s appointment scheduled on the Feb 2nd. (The hospital we delivered at is a birthing friendly hospital and is all about natural births, breastfeeding, etc. They do not push c-sections or inductions unless needed, which is something Marcus and I really valued.) Marcus and I talked and prayed about what to do and we really had a peace about the possibility of having a c-section (rather than inducing labor) if there was still no progress at our next appointment.

Father really did prepare our hearts because when we went into the doctor’s office Monday morning at 9:00am on Feb 2nd the doctor did an ultrasound and told us that Carson’s head was still too high and that the amniotic fluid had decreased. The doctor was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough amniotic fluid to protect the baby if we were to induce and try to give birth naturally so she at this time suggested a c-section. I think we surprised her when we said that that is what we were leaning towards too even though we had our hearts set on a water birth. We all agreed and had a peace about this and a c-section was scheduled for 1pm.

At 1:15pm, Carson was born. He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long and beautiful. He came out with a head full of black hair. To me he looks like Marcus but my mom reminded me that when I was little I also had dark features… black hair, olive skin, and dark eyes. Looking at me now one would have never known though. We were glad that Father prepared our hearts for c-section because Carson’s head was somehow stuck in the womb and possibly may not have made it out of the birth canal if we would have tried naturally. She had to work at getting his head unstuck even during the operation.

Surgery went extremely well and Marcus got to be in the room to experience it all. As soon as I got to the recovery room I got to feed Carson and he feed perfectly the first time for a good 30 minutes. Right now, I am feeling great… still on morphine so I don’t feel the pain and I’m not too tired (yet!). We are so thankful for this hospital and staff that has made this such a memorable experience.

We’ve had the baby in and out of the room with us today so that we can get the rest we need for the coming days. The nurses have been a great help when it’s come to feeding… and so far so good. We are so excited to be parents. It’s still surreal to us but each time we see him our love for Carson grows more and more. We give all praise and glory to God for his protection over the entire pregnancy and especially for giving our doctor and us wisdom when it came time to make a decision about the birth.

Thank you for your prayers for us during this time. God heard and answered each one of them and we are so blessed to know that there are people all around the world lifting us up.

We will be posting pictures in the days to come on our Kodak Gallery Site. Keep checking in to see how our little one grows and changes over the next days, weeks, and months to come. www.kodakgallery.com/pedroza

Love and Blessings to all,
Marcus, Katlyn, and Carson Pedroza

Hopefully Any Day Now

Carson's due date based on the first trimester ultrasound was scheduled for Jan 23rd... well we are still waiting on this boy of ours to make his appearance. We went to the doctor yesterday and he is head down, face down, strong heart beat, and healthy... but no dilation and the few contractions aren't strong yet so it looks like we will keep waiting. I am feeling great- no swelling, not too uncomfortable, sleeping well, walking a lot and physically doing great... emotionally I am starting to get a little weary. I am ready for Carson to be here and hoping that he will come soon so that my mom will get to spend some quality time with him. She leaves in two weeks.

I'll leave you with a picture of me at 39 weeks holding a lizard while at Bangkok's Ocean World. Wishing this little guy was cute and cuddly- and that I was holding my son instead.