Man It's Been Awhile!

I have been totally lax about posting any new or photos of Amy Grace over the past few months! Let's see - at just over 20 months, she is changing so much all the time. She can say "Dada," "Baba" (which I started to mean "bottle" but she seems to use it to refer to anything edible now), "Mama", "Dee" (for "doggie," which also means pretty much any animal), "Night-night" (Brent taught her that), "Book" (Billy taught her that), "Bye-Bye", etc. She babbles constantly and I'm sure will be talking up a storm any day now. She can run and loves climbing, especially onto furniture. She is pretty well behaved and understands "put it up" and "close it up" (unfortunately pretty much all she hears in the evening while I'm cooking!) and when she's asked to pick up her toys. She loves to clean and especially loves to wipe down her highchair tray after dinner. There are very few foods she won't eat, and the baby who was skin and bones as a newborn has now got quite the little potbelly! She's still only in the 10th percentile or so for weight - that belly is just about the only fat on her :)

It is just so much fun to see how much she understands, to see her learning more every day, and to have the opportunity to do our best to raise her up in God's truth and according to His Word. We have been humbled by that a lot, I think, and can see every day how much her heart is tied to ours, and that just makes it all the more crucial that we grow together as one every day so that she can see and FEEL in her heart a strong, Godly union between her parents. What an awesome - in the true sense of the word - responsibility and calling God gives parents in their children.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it." ~ Psalm 22:6

Brent's 31st birthday dinner at Joe's Crab Shack

Driving the boat on Indian Valley Lake

Mother's Day 2010


With Granddaddy
Bathtime!
Before heading out to Lloyd's with Granddaddy and Dee

At Lake Martin with Walker and Kitty




Night-night!

He is RISEN Indeed!

The past few months have been a powerful time of seeing the Lord strengthening my faith, drawing me deeper into Him, and seeing that what I thought was faith in Christ before was but a fake glimmer of truly walking with Him. I would even say I have fallen in love with Christ for the first time - though certainly not the last - realizing that I - like everyone else - truly am a lost sinner without ANY hope for salvation OR sanctification apart from Him. He is more precious and sweet to me every day, and yet I still have SO far to go in knowing His grace and extending it to my loved ones. But this intensely spiritual time has made Easter all the more special to me this year. To "know that my Redeemer lives" gives us reason to hope against hope, to have faith in things unseen, to know that God is so good and powerful and mighty to save us in a world that is full of sin, including in our own hearts. I am learning that there is nothing more incredible in the entire world than faith in Christ's saving grace and knowing his love at a HEART level. Truly EXPERIENCING love. I have just begun to know Him and still have so much to grow in my relationship with Christ but I am really excited about what He is doing!

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday - here are some pics!

Tupperware, Tupperware Everywhere

Amy Grace's latest fascination is with everything in the kitchen. She has recently discovered how to open cabinets (she conquered the drawers a long time ago) and since she spends a lot of time with me in the kitchen while I am cooking dinner or doing the dishes or whatnot, this is the room she is by far the most familiar with. When she first started getting mobile I taught her (through some appropriately timed slaps on the hand) that opening drawers is a no-no. She still does it from time to time but is pretty good about that so far. At first I was determined to never be that mom that let her kids pull out all the Tupperware, but you know what? You can't make a child's entire world off limits and Tupperware is pretty darn harmless, with the only downside being the pick-up time afterwards (that is the next thing we are working on, picking up after herself). For whatever reason, Tupperware sure provides a lot of entertainment for pretty much every toddler on the planet - or so it seems.

We are seeing more and more how much Amy Grace is really learning from us just by watching! I thought it was adorable the other day when I took some Windex and paper towels outside on the porch to wipe down our glass coffee table and end table - at one point I turned around to see Amy Grace had found herself a piece of paper towel and was wiping the coffee table too! So cute. And so many opportunities opening up to teach her life skills and just make household chores a part of her life by example. A few months ago i would always put her in the exersaucer while I worked around the house, but not only is she really too old for that now, but there's also so much benefit to taking her around the house with me while I work, whether she's in the sling (which I still sometimes use if keeping her immobile is really necessary, lol) or just in the room with me.

Finally, Amy Grace has graduated to her big girl carseat, which was a gift from "Dee", Brent's mom. We got a good 15 months of use out of the infant seat but it was just time to move on :) AG now sits up a lot higher in the seat and can see out. This particular seat is supposed to be super comfortable so I can't wait to see how she likes it on a long trip!

15 months...

No pictures tonight - just a few musings as I watch our fire die out in the fireplace. It's been a cozy evening with a surprise snow!

Our little one turned 15 months yesterday, on Valentine's Day. And you know, I thought I was really into babies. I mean I am, but I didn't expect to enjoy the toddler stage as much as I do. I loved loved loved caring for Amy Grace as a newborn and little baby, but I am REALLY loving watching her grow and learn and develop into her own little person. She is walking like crazy, fairly well behaved (though she can pout and whine with the best of them), and you can tell she is learning new things every day. She loves to share whatever she finds in the house (including food - she loves to feed us lol!), is so very curious, and full of fun and laughter and joy. I cannot wait to see what the coming years hold. I can't imagine her as an eight-year-old, and certainly not a sixteen-year-old or anything like that, but I have a feeling it only gets better from here!

Our little Dragon still only says a few words - "dada", occasionally "mama", "bye bye", and something that sounds like "dee dee dee dee dee" that means "doggie". She seems preoccupied with getting around, as she always has, rather than talking. I bet that changes in a few months, though!

We are blessed that she has only been really sick twice - once around Halloween (she missed her costume contest at daycare, sad!) and this past week, when it turned out she had a double ear infection. (I had one of those when I was 12 or 13, way past the time when I should have been getting ear infections, and I remember it being brutal!) It was her first ear infection and I was thankful we have gone this long without one! Good ole amoxicillan made a huge improvement in about 24 hours and she was back to her happy self. She had been MISERABLE! We both hated to give her antibiotics as we are both firm believers in letting your body fight things off and not overmedicating, but in the end, I think either one of us would have taken the meds if we had it, lol.

I'm a little surprised to say that Amy Grace is still nursing! We struggled so much in the beginning, and I remember so many times wanting to quit the whole thing when she was about 5 months old and I was still mostly pumping (rather than nursing) at that point due to her issues with gaining weight. I'm SO glad I didn't quit!!!! I eventually came to terms with having to supplement with formula and was more thankful than I thought possible when something "clicked" around 6 months and her nursing improved and I started being able to nurse her a couple of times a day instead of bottle feeding. She is now pretty much completely weaned off bottles and onto sippy cups, but she still wakes up ready and rarin' to nurse in the mornings! I have no idea how much she is getting, MAYBE an ounce or so, but she loves it and so do I. Occasionally she will "ask" to nurse (aka stick her hand down my shirt lol) in the afternoon or evening and depending on what's going on, sometimes we will. I have REALLY been thankful for nursing at times when I've had to put her to sleep unconventionally (such as at a friend's bday party at a local restaurant the night of the national championship), and also when she has been sick, like this last week. The couple of days she felt the worst, she was going for boobie like a woman dying of thirst who's seen her first stream in days :) At times she even refused all liquids from cups and bottles and yet still nursed - so I was glad she was at least getting something. At this point I have no set idea about when to wean her fully. I would think by her 2nd birthday, but we'll see how it goes. Biblically I think it was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old - In Genesis, Abraham actually had a feast for Isaac to celebrate his weaning. I think that would be pretty cool :)

That's about it - hope to start updating the blog more, even just with tidbits from our life. Things are good. We are very blessed :)

1 Year!

It's been awhile since I've posted - mostly because I've been too much of a perfectionist to post without any pictures. Gotta fix that! Anyway, we celebrated Amy Grace's birthday this weekend with a boston butt and some football - a great way to do it! I kept thinking I would get all emotional during the day, but it did finally hit me when I put her to bed during her party. I didn't want her first birthday to be over (plus she was having so much fun with everyone, but was exhausted too!). As I put her to bed I hugged her tight and told her how much we love her and God loves her, what a great year it had been, and how much I was looking forward to year #2. I'm not gonna lie - I did tear up a little bit!

She is changing fast and is officially a toddler now. We just transitioned to whole milk, and I am so glad to be free of the old formula ball and chain! She has started standing up on her own and taking a few steps as long as she has someone or something to grab onto quickly, though you can tell that at this point it's more of a mental security thing because she doesn't hold very tightly :) Also for the last little while we have been loving being able to make her laugh just by making funny faces or otherwise being silly with her. Brent is especially great at that! He cracks her up. The baby stage is sweet and I have great memories from it, but man this time between babyhood and the "terrible twos" is pretty awesome. However, I know we plan to see that time as not so terrible, but an opportunity to start really teaching Amy Grace about life. And I'm excited about that!

9 Months: Then & Now

Amy Grace turned 9 months old last Friday! She had her checkup on Wednesday and everything looked great. She weighed in at 14 lbs, 13.5 oz (whoo hoo!) which may have been a teensy bit inflated due to the fact that the daycare gave her two bottles and both servings of solids before I picked her up at 12:30, haha! But still - she is gaining slowly but surely and hanging right around the 5% line. She was also 27 inches long, which puts her in the 25th percentile for height! She is crawling fast, pulling up like crazy (and even daring to let go with one hand), occasionally sleeping through the night, babbling constantly, and clapping! (Note to self: post a video of that soon!!)

Right after she was born, AG got a big-girl version of the sleeper she wore for her hospital Glamour Shots, so I thought it would be fun to see those side by side. I can't believe she is the same baby!

Amy Grace, 1 day old

Amy Grace, 9 months old

Why does she always look drunk when I try to catch her smiling??

Checkin' out the welcome mat

Looking cute as can be! (I never knew that coffee table would turn into a gym/obstacle course)

Makin' Trouble?

Lately I have been getting reports that Amy Grace is making the daycare boys cry. Now, keep in mind that they are all 2-3 times bigger than her and 2-4 months older! But apparently if they get in her "play space," she pulls their hair and they start crying while she just laughs. I haven't decided if this is a good thing because she is sticking up for herself, or if we already have a raging feminist on our hands. For now I'm going with the former, but keeping an eye out to see if there's any man-hating we'll need to nip in the bud as she gets older :) AG is a sweet baby for sure, but she's got some stubborn spunk in there that we'll have to be careful about channeling appropriately. We want her to be stubborn about her faith and truth and God and being fearless, but I know there will be a lot of loving discipline ahead too to shape the strong-willed side of her, too.

Last week was a rough week for Miss Amy Grace, though! She woke up every 1-2 hours for several nights in a row, but it turned out to be her first tooth coming in! It's broken through now so she is sleeping much better this week. She also loves to say "dada" which is wonderful to be able to hear the beginnings of talking! It's been such a crazy couple of weeks - crawling, pulling up, first tooth, babbling - what's next??

On the Move!

Amy Grace celebrated her 7-month birthday by officially crawling for the first time, making it about a month from the first time she almost launched herself off the bed by scooting until she started coordinating picking up her arms and moving them forward to get somewhere. More pics and videos to come :)

Happy 6 Months Amy Grace!

At 6 months, Amy Grace is really on the move!  She is working towards crawling and will push herself up on her hands and wiggle in an effort to move forward, but this only makes her move backwards - which produces a lot of frustration :)  She could care less about sitting, though.  I suspect that it bores her, because why would she want to sit if that involves remaining in one place?

Here are some recent pics:

Yay for bathtime!

I'm going to figure out this crawling thing, and then you guys are in TROUBLE!

Houston, We Have Liftoff...

After a week or so of trying desperately to roll over but getting stuck on her side each time (which made her very upset), Amy Grace rolled over to her tummy at daycare on Wednesday! They wrote us a note to let us know, and she has since done it at home a couple of times too.

Today, rolling over...tomorrow, sitting up! (Well maybe not that soon :))

4 Months on Saturday!

We are home today as baby girl got her 4 month shots yesterday and is running a slight fever and fussing today. I was so proud of how well she did getting the shots, though! 4 sticks in her tiny thighs, and she only cried for a minute or so. She even gave the nurse a tentative smile afterwards! Either she is very forgetful or very forgiving. I'm hoping it's the latter :)

As of yesterday, Amy Grace was 23.5 inches long and 10 lbs 3 oz. We are supplementing with formula now as multiple trips to a lactation consultant and various strategies to get her weight up indicated that I have too low of a supply. Since we have added in the formula, she has started to fill out but is still a beautifully petite little girl :) I don't care how much she weighs as long as she is getting enough. However, I hope she's not planning to get into a wresting match with Michael, the boy at daycare who is a week younger than her and about twice her size! I still struggle with the fact that I don't believe that formula is part of God's design for us, but I have to accept that for whatever reason, we need to use it. I'm just thankful for the breast milk that I am able to give her.

She gets more and more alert and in tune with her surroundings every day! She recognizes me and Brent and will watch us from across the room. She smiles and coos a lot, and knows how to ham it up when she meets someone. She has started to reach out and intentionally touch and grab things. (Lately she has been quite fascinated by my hair and the breast pump tubing. I think she might be jealous of the pump :)). Best of all, she has begun to settle into a routine and is sleeping much more soundly than she used to. All of a sudden, she started falling asleep around 7 or 8 o' clock. At first we would lay her down in her carseat or bouncer and keep her with us until we went to bed, and then brought her back in the bed with us after she ate around 2 am. Then, we started putting her carseat/bouncer in the crib and turning the monitor on. Now, we lay her down in the crib (with the help of a sleep positioner that elevates her head and keeps her secure) and enjoy the rest of the evening until she wakes to eat. She isn't sleeping through the night, but I don't expect her to at this age. Simply having her sleep by herself has been a nice break for us, and I'm glad we didn't try to force it when she was a newborn. It is neat to see her grow up and mature a little bit :)

House of Pain...

Well, on Friday our little Nublette started coming down with the sniffles. This was somewhat to be expected, as lots of kids get sick right after starting daycare (or so I hear). We took a quick trip to the doc as I mistook her sniffles for wheezing. (It sure sounded like wheezing, but the fact that it mostly happened when I nursed her - aka, when the only breathing she could do was through her nose - should have clued me in. Oh well. She was fine.) In any case, her cold worsened over the weekend, but Amy Grace remained in good spirits and was quite the trooper! We've taken to calling her "Dragon" as well (I forget how that started), and it was pretty funny to hear our little Dragon actually sounding like a dragon. Perhaps she's been spending too much time with Star Baby. There's nothing quite so humorously tragic as taking care of someone with a cold who does not have the motor skills nor verbal comprehension to learn how to blow her own nose.

In any case, Brent started coming down with AG's cold on Monday, and I bit the dust on Tuesday. Now we are just one big, not-so-happy-right-now family of snifflers and coughers. Here's hoping everyone recovers by the weekend...

The First Six Weeks...

Hard to believe that our little Amy is over six weeks old now! It has been a whirlwind since she was born, but also a lot of fun. Some of the highlights from her first six weeks in the world:



Milk-induced drunkenness:


First Iron Bowl party (2 weeks old):


First trip to the farm, complete with "extreme nursing" (nursing in a sling while riding on a golf cart on bumpy roads) (3 weeks old):


She is a wonderful baby, and such a joy to raise! We have been very blessed that she isn't colicky and seems to have naturally distinguished her days and nights, and sleeps for long chunks of time at night (like 3 and 4 hours. For an infant, sleeping "through the night" is actually defined as five hours at a time). We are spending the next 6 weeks (until i go back to work) getting her ready for daycare by spending more playtime in the crib and bouncer and getting more of a routine for getting up, naps, and bedtime. She has just started smiling a lot and it's so much fun to interact with her now that she's more responsive to everything. Can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring!

Amy Grace's Birth Story

Amy decided to start making her entrance into the word in the wee hours of Tuesday November 11th - ironically, her official doctor due date! I woke up late Monday night/early Tuesday morning with pretty mild contractions, though they were strong enough to wake me up. We'd been practicing timing the increasing Braxton-Hicks contractions throughout the weekend, so the stopwatch was on my nightstand, and I managed to roughly time them in my half-asleep state. They continued for 2 or 3 hours at 9 minutes apart before fading completely away by the morning.

Brent and I went in to see the doctor around 9 am on Tuesday, as it was standard practice at their office to see you on your due date if you hadn't delivered already. I'd been just a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced the week before, but apparently those early morning contractions had been doing their job - I was now 3 cm dilated, but still 50% effaced. I was hooked up to fetal monitors to check on Amy's heart rate and track any contractions. Her heart rate was strong and steady, but in that entire 30 min or so, I didn't have ONE contraction! The last test was an ultrasound. The doctor was concerned about possible low amniotic fluid levels and a big baby (despite there not being any indication of that and me not even having passed the ESTIMATED due date yet). Had my fluids been low (or the weight been very high), she might have pressed for induction at this point, but luckily they were right on target and Amy "weighed" in at 8 lbs 4 oz. That was just what I expected, though these weight estimates can be up to 20% off and are known to be inaccurate most of the time. We were sent home with an appointment to see the doc again on Friday if I hadn't delivered yet. At this point, we decided that it as best for me to go ahead and stop working, since it seemed I could go into "official" labor at any time.

Late Tuesday night, I experienced the same sort of thing that I had the night before - mild contractions around 9 min apart. Strong enough again to disturb our sleep, but not increasing in intensity, duration, or frequency. Yet again, they faded away by Wednesday morning. As we had no idea when labor would really start, Brent stayed home with me and tracked the contractions that I DID have (there were a few throughout the day, but nothing ever built towards labor). However, in the evening things started to pick up. At this point we were spending pretty much all of our time on the screened in porch, watching movies to pass the time between contractions. They would start to build, but any time that I got frustrated or upset, they'd fade away. I'd say that consistent, active labor really started around 10 pm, but I peaked out about 1 am while taking a bath, with contractions about 6 or 7 minutes apart and increasing in intensity. Though neither of us slept much at all that night, the contractions did fade some as morning approached. We saw the sun rise Thursday morning, and around 6 am we dragged ourselves to McDonald's for breakfast sandwiches. Since I'd read that midwives often recommend having some wine when labor drags on and on, I had a couple of glasses with breakfast and managed to sleep for an hour or two in the papasan chair. I'd discovered by this point that lying down during a contraction made it a LOT worse, so the chair helped elevate me a little bit.

We spent all of Thursday on the porch, still watching movies and episodes of Friends. My contractions were much more consistent throughout the day, and we were starting to think that perhaps it would be time to go in soon. Around 4 pm, however, Brent was taking a nap (it's a lot easier to stay awake when you're the one IN labor! we'd been up for so long by this point!) and I was draped over the exercise ball watching Shrek as the contractions seemed to be fading away again. I got super frustrated at this and was none too pleasant when Brent woke up. He talked to me about being positive again and needing to "get back on the horse", and at this point something clicked in my heart to really commit to having that baby soon. My contractions picked back up and over the next 4 hrs or so, edged to 6 min apart, then 5, then 4. By this point I was pacing back and forth between contractions and would stop and sway my hips or dance during one (we were watching various music videos by this point) - moving my hips helped a LOT. I was also very focused on not fighting my body, and used a technique called "horse lips" that I'd read about in Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Childbirth, where you exhale through loose lips during a contraction to help keep everything in the pelvic area nice and relaxed. It sure helped! Eventually we made the decision to call the doctor. My doc was on call that night, so we gathered up all of our stuff and headed in. Since I hated sitting or lying down during a contraction, I knelt backwards on the seat and hugged the seatback all the way there. Thankfully, things seemed to slow down just enough during the car ride to make it bearable.

Once we checked into the hospital, we found out I was 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced! Halfway there! They put me on the monitors for 15 minutes and briefly hooked me up to an IV to get antibiotics as I was Group B Strep positive. (If you have an epi or are induced, you have to be monitored constantly and have an IV the whole time, which really limits your movement and options during labor.) They also took my blood pressure, which was slightly elevated, but didn't concern the nurse as that's really to be expected when you're IN LABOR. However, my doctor - who had been touchy abut my blood pressure for several weeks at this point - decided to recheck it DURING a contraction and of course got a very high reading. She ordered additional bloodwork and instructed the nurses to check my BP every 15 minutes, but they assured us that they really weren't concerned about the reading. I also assured the doc that I had felt fine - no headaches, blurred vision, etc - to which she replied that that didn't really matter, I could still have a seizure anyway. (My next check was well within the range of normal).

Over the next couple of hours we were pretty much left to ourselves. We had a fabulous nurse that assured us that I was doing great, and would come in every once in awhile to make sure everything was ok. We spent the time slow dancing or just walking around the room (writing this almost three weeks later, it's a little hard to remember exactly what happened!) When the nurse checked me again, I was at 7 cm and the baby had dropped slightly (she stayed pretty high right up until labor). They all thought I'd be pushing her out by about 2:30. Around midnight, my water broke while Brent and I were slow dancing to one of the mixes he'd made me when we were dating - THAT was quite the memory ;) At my next checks I was 8 cm, then 9 - almost there! Labor was pretty intense by this point, and all I remember is being draped over the elevated head of the bed and moaning my way through each contraction. At this point, either the nurse or the doc realized that I still had part of the amniotic sac left intact under the baby's head, and the doc broke the rest of it for me and checked me again - and said I was only 7 cm. (By the way, it's well within the range of normalcy for the water bag to stretch your dilation some, and then for it to "snap back" once it's fully broken). But the doc didn't believe I'd ever been at 9 cm, and all of a sudden started saying I'd "fallen off the labor curve" and wasn't progressing fast enough...that maybe I'd need a Foley catheter (to measure the strength of my contractions, in case they weren't hard enough) and an epidural, or some Pitocin to move things along (which makes labor a LOT more painful and hard to handle without an epi), or even a c/s as she still thought the baby might be "too big".

At this point, I fell apart emotionally. I'd been in hard labor for HOURS and here comes the doctor telling me that I might not be able to have the natural birth that I wanted. I started crying and tensing up, which of course made the contractions hurt worse as well. I don't remember much from this time period, but the doc agreed to come back in half an hour to monitor my progress and we'd make a final decision then. Brent helped me get into the shower - I was hoping that the warm water would help me relax again - and asked me what I wanted to do, but I was so upset that I was shaking so bad I couldn't even talk. The water did help calm me down, though, and after speaking with the nurse (who assured us that we were doing great and she didn't see ANYTHING abnormal about what had happened that night), we decided that if it came to that, we'd opt for the Pitocin next. At this point, Brent left me in the shower with some applesauce to regain my strength, and deep down in my soul I decided that we were JUST GOING TO DILATE ALL THE WAY. I started yelling and moaning all sorts of things - not really from pain, because I still would better describe contractions as very intense energy that has to be discharged from your body somehow, and making noise is a great way to do that. But I went from being a little apprehensive about the last stage of labor and the birth to welcoming it! Sweet Brent came and got me out of the shower shortly before the half hour was up and wrapped me in a warm towel to keep my body from getting too shocked from the cold. The doc came back in around 5 am, and lo and behold I was at 8.5-9 cm. I had dilated almost 2 cm in 30 minutes! Once she left, the nurses leaned over and said "THAT just saved us. Good job!" Brent followed my doc out in the hall and let her have it for being so negative when there was NO reason to start making fear-based decisions, especially when she hadn't been there laboring with us all night like the nurses had (we hadn't seen in her in like 4 hours), and the baby had been doing fine all along. While she insisted that she needed to tell me all of the options, he told her that she should discuss those with HIM, not with the emotionally and physically strung-out woman that's been in labor for like 3 days at this point. I'm so lucky to have someone who will stand up for me like that!

It was now time for the shift change, and our sweet nurse that had supported us all night had to leave, but kept assuring us that "Daphney was on her way!" and that she had all kinds of tricks up her sleeve for natural birth. At this point I was leaning headfirst over a rocking chair while the nurses held the heartrate monitor on me (since I hadn't been able to stand sitting down through the monitoring for hours at this point) and I kept yelling things like "COME ON AMY!! WE'RE GETTING TO 10!!" (Another technique I'd read about in Ina May's book: visualizing and saying what you want to happen). Brent came back in and I think was a little shocked at the whole scene :) Shortly after this, Daphney (our new nurse) said that she had a way for me to lie on the bed while laboring that had proven very effective for her other mothers. I was wary about lying down, but as Brent said, I just needed to let the contractions intensify even more, even if it was hard. So I lay down on my left side, and after some span of time, Daphney said I was fully dilated and could start pushing! I never felt the "urge to push," so she told me how and I pushed for 20 min with Daphney and Brent each holding my legs back. The baby crowned, and Daphney had Brent call the doc and delivery techs. She told me to quit pushing at this point, which is next to impossible if you don't have an epidural! I managed to hold on for a couple of minutes, but just as I saw the doc entering the room, I couldn't help it anymore and pushed once more - and out shot our precious baby!! Daphney and Brent delivered her together, which had a sense of justice to it as well, since the doctor that didn't believe I could deliver her without intervention wasn't even there. But 75 minutes after she tried to tell me I couldn't do it, I pushed out our 7 lb 11 oz baby - with no conehead to speak of, and a hand up by her shoulder to boot!! Funny how she wasn't "too big" after all :)

Amy was born at 6:18 am, started nursing immediately, and was absolutely perfect in every way :)

Baby Prediction Pool!

Ok, I know I said that there would be no more posts, but I wanted you all to know about a baby prediction pool that my dad started. Here's the info:

There will be three different categories:
1) Date/time (to the minute)
2) Weight (to the ounce)
3) Length (to the inch)

Participants will be ranked in each category according to how close they are to the baby's official stats. Rankings will then be totaled across all 3 categories, with the winner being the person with the lowest overall ranking. Ties will split ranks. Winner takes all.

$5 entry can be made by sending an e-mail with your predictions in all 3 categories to loop@uab.edu (Dad / Mike Loop).

"Level Playing Field" info:
Official (doctor's/7-week ultrasound) due date: 11/11/08
Unofficial (Emily's best estimate) due date: 11/7/08
Our heights: 5'8" (Emily) and 5'10" (Brent)

(Almost) 37 Weeks...

The biggest news from this week was that I did indeed get cleared to go with Brent to Jake and Holly's wedding this weekend - yay! Of course things can ALWAYS change quickly, but from the look of things, it's pretty doubtful I'll be going into labor this weekend :) (I think the best comment of the visit was "WOW that baby is still REALLY HIGH!") I guess I always really knew that - I told Brent last night that I'd meant to call the vet and get the dogs set up to board while we're gone, and he said "but we didn't even know until today if you were going...". Right. Guess I just figured that all along (or else preggo brain is just getting to me big time :)

No pics today or tomorrow since we'll be leaving town early in the morning (yay!). Hope to have one or two from the weekends festivities once we get back. Note to self: USE YOUR CAMERA!

On a totally different note, it is truly amazing how God works all things for our good, even that which we can't see at the time. He's been really working on some attitudes in our hearts this past week, and it's pretty cool to see how things come out in their own time. I'm also in awe of the incredible journey He's taken us on throughout this pregnancy, and how we can see just how thoroughly He's been preparing us for this next stage of our lives, and this wonderful blessing that is our little girl.

36 Weeks!

At 36 weeks...

Just 3 weeks ago, at 33 weeks...

Just four weeks left to go now! It's been a busy week of getting ready for baby. As I said a few days ago, I made a lunch run to Babies 'R Us and picked up some of the major things we'd want to have on hand when the baby comes. We're still in the process of unpacking and organizing everything, but getting closer every day. I've got a load of baby clothes and sheets in the wash as we speak! (And can I just say, I don't really buy into the Dreft baby detergent mania and will eventually just buy fragrance free regular detergent, but we did receive a bottle of it from one of Brent's coworkers, and I have to admit that it smells great!)

I worked like a busy bee at work "getting my affairs in order". I've got almost everything done that I wanted to have done before I left, and joked with my boss that of course now she'll be late, and I'll spend the last two weeks just going through the mounds of magazines that have piled up over the past few months. (We have a group subscription to other titles like Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart Living, etc, so we can see what other magazines are covering at similar times of the year. While it may sound appealing to sit back and go through like 8 magazines a month - and get paid for it - it is something that always gets put on my backburner!)

Nublette continues to grow like crazy, as you can see from the pictures above, but supposedly she'll start to slow down now. I've been trying to figure out how she's positioned and what she's doing in there, but often that's easier said than done. My best guess is that she's head down and at a diagonal of sorts, with her feet up near my right ribs.

I'm still feeling good, though started to have some swelling in my legs and ankles this week, mostly from sitting down so long. I count myself pretty lucky to have made it this far without any swelling, so that's certainly no big deal (plus, I can chalk up some of the recent weight gain to water :). Oh! And I had a true, out-of-character, bona fide craving this week. One day at lunch I reaaaaallly wanted a fried chicken sandwich and fries from our office cafeteria...mostly the fries. But they'd changed the type of fries and they really weren't very good. Plus, there were no chicken sandwiches left, just hamburgers. I reluctantly ate both but still hadn't satisfied my craving, so I actually went to the vending machine and bought some chips. CHIPS. I don't think I have ever in my LIFE sought out chips! (I'll eat them if they're around, but I've always been a sweet tooth girl.) They sure hit the spot on Thursday, though! That was pretty funny to me.

35 Weeks...

Once again, here we are :) Just 5 weeks until Nublette's due date. I am still feeling good - better, even, than I was last week. I have more energy and have been sleeping well again (there were a few days there when I did not sleep well at ALL). I just started being more consistent with taking iron supplements though, which I think has helped a great deal. I was, in fact, slightly anemic when they checked about 6 weeks ago...I guess it was still a little higher than most preggo women's, which is why they initially told me my iron "looked good." May also explain why I was so into red meat the past couple of weeks!

I do think I have started having (or have started noticing) Braxton-Hicks contractions. They are hard to explain, though, and whatever I'm feeling isn't really what I thought they'd be like. Just means my body's gearing up for the big day...which hopefully will come after Jake and Holly's wedding, and the PE test! Nublette, just stay in there until Oct. 25th!

We did go to our last baby class (except for a one night one that I'll go to on breastfeeding next week) on Tuesday night. It covered what happens in the hospital after the baby is born, recovery once you go home, some infant care, etc. We practiced swaddling too, and Brent kept the back-up teacher (I think? random woman who came in towards the end) laughing throughout the practice time. He is so great!

Also had a checkup on Wedneday - Nublette is measuring at 36 weeks, which was slightly higher than the doctor's age of 34 weeks, but still within the normal range. My blood pressure was great, heartbeat was great. We'll go back in two weeks to see if anything is "stirring" before we head off to the wedding. If not, I can go, if so...plan B :)

34 weeks...or 6 weeks to go!

In only a month and a half (give or take a bit :), Nublette will be here! Amazing. Time is flying and dragging all at the same time...but there's starting to be a sense of urgency since she could basically come anytime between now and then. I've started to think along the lines of "ok, if I went into labor TOMORROW, what would need to be done?" So I worked on the nursery a bit last weekend (mostly just organizing and washing the clothes and blankets we've gotten so far) and also started packing my hospital bag. It's fun to actually be close enough to the time that you can start preparing things for real.

I've also started conversations at work about who will handle what while I'm gone, what we need to make sure gets done, et cetera. We've being doing our hard-core planning for the Holidays package, and it's a little disconcerting to think "wow, I won't actually be programming ANY of this!" Once again, I feel sooooooooo blessed to work in an environment that's so supportive of mothers and family. Everyone is just excited for me, rather than making me fear for my job or something.

Seems like my tummy is just getting bigger and bigger, though frankly I'm not as big as I guess I expected to be - at least at this point. But everything is measuring on track so we're good to go. We've got another baby class on Tuesday night and another appointment on Wednesday, so baby stuff galore again this week.

33 Weeks...

When I first got contacts in the 9th grade, the doc's assistant put them in for me. (Or is it a nurse? Dad would have to weigh in here with his expertise in the area of the UAB School of Optometry eye clinic.) This was so that you could practice taking them out first, then try putting them in yourself afterwards. The exchange that followed went something like this:

"AHHHH...!" ~ me (frantically wants to rub eye but resists)
"Uh oh...Does it feel like there's something in your eye?" ~ seemingly-concerned assistant
"YES!" ~ me
"That's because there is, dummy." ~ not-so-concerned assistant (ok, she didn't actually say dummy, but her tone did :)

That's kind of how I feel now! Sometimes my tummy just feels so FULL - almost like there's a giant air bubble at times - and I think, "It feels like there's something in there!" When I do, I can't help but laugh and remember getting those contacts so many years ago. Nublette is definitely making her presence known to the outside world more and more every day now!

We had a double dose of baby stuff this week: first, an installment of regular baby classes on Tuesday night, then a checkup on Wednesday afternoon Honestly, we didn't learn too much at the class that we hadn't already heard, though it was kind of interesting to just listen to the difference in attitudes between the nurse who is running this class (who openly said she was very pro-epidural but that she'd try to remember to cover the natural stuff) and the nurse who taught our natural class. We're picking and choosing which classes to go to out of the four, since we've already covered some topics, so we'll go again in two weeks to hear about postpartum stuff and infant care.

The appointment went well, which of course I'm thankful for. I do wonder sometimes, though, how much $$ the doctors make for that 5 min or so they spend with you. They basically listen to the heartbeat, look at your weight and blood pressure #s (well i'm guessing they do - maybe not), and measure your tummy, then say "see you in X weeks!" Lots of waiting around for basically nothing. I know there isn't much money in these things and that they probably rush to get as many patients in as possible, and of course I've been very healthy this whole time and haven't had any problems, but it does frustrate me a little. Not once have they ever asked what I'm eating, if I'm exercising, if I'm having certain symptoms, etc. Just part of the way our healthcare system works out, I guess. Anyway, we go back in two weeks now :)

Overall I still feel pretty good. I've been sleeping less (somehow find the energy to stay up till 11 pm or midnight and get up around 6:30), but don't often feel that tired during the day (even without caffeine), and I am sleeping through the night. I will say, though, that the women's bathroom at work and I have become BEST friends lately :) Also still have some general aches and pains, but nothing to compare to the excruciating, chronic back pain I had in college (Kristen can attest to what that was like!). They're more annoyances that make me move slower than anything to complain about!

Guess that's it - hoping to get the baby's room organized this weekend while Brent studies for the PE (Professional Engineer, NOT Physical Education) exam!