Opened the New Year with her Baptism

The Birth of Our Daughter!

 Our baby M was born at 4pm weighing in at 5lbs 6 oz and measuring 18.5 inches long.

Little did I know while writing the last post that I would go into labor that very night. We went to bed at an early hour on our second wedding anniversary, and I had my normal pregnancy insomnia. My body was weary, yet my mind would not fall asleep.  After failing to fall asleep, I got up around midnight and went on the computer. A little later I went back to bed and attempted to fall asleep again. Boy did I fail at that one! I had just gotten cozy (not too easy a feat while 8 months pregnant) when baby girl gave a great full bodied kick. It was a rare kick at this stage of the pregnancy as she had replaced such vigorous kicking with more gentle movements due to the space confinements. All of a sudden with the kick I felt myself pop from the inside! I crossed my legs, rolled out of bed, and hopped my way to the bathroom. My water had broken! Thankfully not one drop reached the bed or the carpet. I called to N, and he rolled over. I called again and said, "In less than 24 hours we were going to see our daughter!" I wish I could say that we simply put our bags in the car and made our way for the hospital. That next day was the day I had promised to get the bags all packed. So, we went around the house finishing up our hospital packing and took out the video camera to get a pregnancy video I had promised my grandmother. In the dark of night we calmly headed for the hospital in the drizzling rain and met no traffic through the infamous tunnel. The drive to the hospital felt like the calm before the storm because, while I was in no pain, we knew our baby would be here within the day. I felt such relief that N was home when I my water broke and was at my side through the whole process.  We were admitted to triage at 3 am where it was confirmed that my waters had broken and that I was less than 2 cm dilated. We waited there for half an hour until we were officially admitted to labor and delivery. Two hours later I was still at 2 cm with irregular painless contractions. At 7 am they used a foley bulb to encourage dilation. As my labor was not progressing well against the twenty-four hour time constraint due to the waters having broken, I was started on an oxytocin induction at 9:30 am.  With this intervention my attempt for a natural labor ended. Since a medically induced labor was certainly not a natural labor, I had decided that if they said oxy I would say epi. By noon, I was at 7 cm and received the epidural a little while later. Getting the epi took two tries, two doctors, and three contractions. It was most uncomfortable having to be perfectly still through those contractions. Twelve hours into our hospital stay, I was ready to push. After having been awake for 31 hours, the thought of then pushing seemed an impossibly difficult task. Yet, I was astonished that the pushing process was invigorating and dare I say enjoyable. What a relief to work through those contractions rather than breathing through them! N was a great support as he counted for me and actually held his breath while I held mine. It was a family effort~ all three of us working towards the same goal. Pushing for an hour only felt like 15 minuets as I enjoyed watching my progress and was given a flood of energy for the task at hand. One of the most joyous moments of my life was touching our daughter for the first time while she was still inside me. It was a sweet hour of labor ending with the arrival of our tiny baby girl! They put her on me all slimy just like I had asked them, and then she went for a bath. Thank you for all your prayers, support, and love. We are blessed.

 I uploaded quite a few closeups so that you can get the views you would have gotten if you could be here with us.

Getting closer

37 weeks


The past few days I have been running around doing last minute baby preparations. I finally got a crib mattress! Now that might be helpful J I am still in the process of accessorizing the nursery. The last few days I feel as if I have looked at hundreds of different art for the walls with no success. I am going back to internet search for that. So much of the nursery art you find in the stores is so trendy. Where is classic nursery rhyme art when you need it? And even if it does have a classic theme- it is done in such a way that it is already out of style. In so many ways I have had to fight my way to a classic white nursery. I am presently on the hunt for a metal piggy bank. Piggy banks I have found from princess to sports themed but no metal pig piggy banks in sight. There are even snail piggy banks if that is what you want. These pictures are just fillers until baby comes along. The frame on the right is my favorite frame. I looked and looked for one like it and am still looking. The other two frames I do not think work well together. So one will stay and one will move once I find a more appropriate frame.

Here are a few more details of the nursery.



Close up of the crib detail. And the diplomas are gone. The wedding pic of us it not staying there forever but filling in some empty space until I find the right piece of wall art.


Close up of the shabby chic lamp. I love so much of this collection and Target in general.


Here is a close up of the handmade satin and lace crib comforter. It was a surprise gift from a dear friend. It is so beautiful and most special that she made it for me- and I could not even find it in the stores if I tried.



I am not usually a fan of figurines. I really have to be drawn to a particular piece in order to like it rather than simply like it just because it is a nice (expensive) piece of art. I have loved this llandro for years and had it out in my own bedroom years ago.




This was one of our wedding bowls. I am not sure what to do with it or if it fits at all. I love the meaning that comes with it, the bowl itself, and that it is silver. Just what to put inside? I really dislike fake flowers, and we are not about to fill it each week with fresh cut flowers. Maybe I could put potted flowers in it?

See the bowl below?

I love this christening lamb. My own baby cup badly needed to be polished. I just bought the polish wash. I was reading a 37 week pregnancy article about nesting, and it was mentioned that now is not the time to be polishing the silver. But I needed to!! and the updated picture of the cup looks so much better.

We are getting there. You have to love Marshall's.

Thank you so much for looking and sharing in my progress. I really miss you NJ girls and hope you feel more apart of my life through this line of communication. I always love "talking" to you whether through here, email, fb, and phone- and am looking forward to seeing you with baby girl.

Reflections

Pregnancy-2008

N's Homecoming-2008
N's Graduation-2007

Our wedding- 2006

This past 2008 election got me thinking about the past and looking back to recall my life in 4 year spans. The day of the election I had a doctor’s appointment and thought that I could squeeze in voting an hour before the appointment because I could always vote in under 5 minutes back home. So I go to the polling location and find that the voting line is out the door! I asked how long the wait was and they said that it was about two hours! I had never encountered that. So, I decided to go after the doctor’s appointment and wait in line with N. No need to wait in line for hours all by myself. So we met at the school (the polling location was the public high school), got in line, and thankfully it was so much smaller than it was the few hours before. I made sure I brought snacks, and there we were waiting outside in line snacking away (mostly myself on gummy bears) at a new polling center in a new state with our baby girl. It ended up being only 45 minutes, and it was pleasantly spent talking with my husband. In the past four years we have graduated, married, gone through a deployment, moved to a new state, become members of a new church, and have become parents.

2004
4th navy ball- 2004

The 2004 election was my first time voting in a presidential election, and I remember going with my mom to the local NJ voting polls with less than a 5 min wait. I didn’t even have my driving license! In 2004, I had just started college, many of my friends were still in HS, was learning to drive, was with N, and had a really great time just being young. I remember staying up all night watching the results come in all by myself. It was a lot of fun, especially when they called a state for Kerry and had to take it back, and really memorable.

1st navy ball- 2002

In 2000, my parents had an election party. It was really great fun. I was a baby!- well at least a young teen. I know the pictures from that night are not on this computer but they were so cute and should be found. I had just started HS, was starting to become an “item” with N, and just loved life.

Dance-1992


In 1996, we had just moved back home after two years of living on the other side of the country. We were living with my uncle while waiting for the renters to move out of our house. It was a blast living with my uncle and playing with his kids in woods. Life consisted of getting school done by noon and playing the rest of the day. That campaign season we saw Mr. and Mrs. Dole at a rally. I enjoyed that. I remember that election night very well (which is surprising because I forget so much so easily) because of my dad’s reactions to the results. The memory makes me laugh. By this point, I believe I had seen N once while visiting his church over the summer.
Baby me

In 1992, we went to go see President Bush at a rally. I remember it being sooo crowded. Those are some really cute pictures as well. At this point in life, I was learning to read and just played most of the day.