Race for the Cure

On Sunday, Lillie and I joined more than 45,000 others for the annual Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation Race for the Cure in Portland. She was appropriately outfitted in pink, and slept through the whole 5k!

The first....

SMILE!

7 weeks ago

We brought Lillie home. The first night was a rough one, no wonder insurance only pays for two nights - the nurses send you home before you know you really need them! This is what parenting's all about though right? Feeding every 2 hours, and by the way, remember that's counted from when you start feeding, not from when they finish. So in reality that could mean that mom only gets 15-30 minutes rest time.

We traded sleeping, holding, rocking, singing everything we could think of, if only we'd been parenting for more than 48 hours! Finally rescue came around 6 am when Lillie wore herself out. Just in time for us to take a quick nap, have a coffee and figure out how to load her up for the first pediatrician's appointment.

Lillie's here!

arriving 7 weeks ago today...pardon our tardiness but we've been so wrapped up with our dear daughter i forgot to post.

Since week 35 (May 22), Lillie had been making progress, during that visit we were already dialated 1cm and 70% effaced, and the baby's head was in position at the top of the birthing canal. The baby had been head down since at least week 32 (May 8). At each of the next weekly appointments I kept dialating and our doctor kept saying that the baby could arrive at any time. It felt like the baby was never going to get here and we thought she'd be early since every week there was more progress. To stay busy, I continued with pre-natal yoga, took long walks and worked.

At our 40 week visit on June 19, we were 2cm and 85% effaced and the baby was at 0 station, meaning the head was engaged in my pelvis and ready to descend whenever baby decided on a birthday. While we were excited, we'd been hearing these type of great news for weeks but figured we were in for the long haul and like most first borns, baby would arrive well after the due date. All along we hadn't gotten hung up about the DD anyhoo, but really thought squiggs would arrive early once we learned all that my body was doing to get ready.

Over the weekend Ryan and I did some house projects, took naps, watched movies and with the gorgeous summer weather on sunday took a long vigorous walk. After a scramble dinner we went to bed early to be rested for the work week.

FIRST LESSON OF PARENTING: nothing goes the way you think it will.

Speed ahead to 2:30 am. I get up as I often have to do late in pregnancy with a bladder the size of a penny. And, felt a contraction. Again not unusual at 40 weeks. Climbing back in bed I say to Ryan "i think we might have a baby today." Who immediately turns on the lights, leaps out of bed and is ready to go, meanwhile I'm trying to eek out a last few cozy minutes in bed. We agree to see how things go, and within two hours Ryan has coaxed me to head to Good Sam. Arriving at the hospital at 5:15a, we are shown to our room, vitals taken and examined. It's good news, we're 5cm, 100% effaced and baby's head is in great position.

Fighting off nausea and the contractions, Ryan convinces me to take the epidural which was so the right thing to do.

~Crib~!

The last 8 weeks

This picture was taken on April 26 before Ryan and I headed to an annual charity event. I feel like I have a basketball stuffed under my shirt and am amazed that I actually had a formal dress that could fit the belly!

We passed the gestational diabetes test and continue to be right on with weight gain and belly girth...after the 20w ultrasound that's what the docs use to determine that the pregnancy's going ok. Baby's heartrate is strong - 156 beats per minute at the last visit.

childbirth...class?

Last weekend we spent 12 hours with about 2 dozen other expectant couples to "learn" how to give birth. Five films and more personal information about each pregnancy in the room later, and I think we're going to do ok .

Actually, most of it was fairly informative and we did learn about some circumstances where we may need to make an informed medical decision....however, five films? that's a lot of birthin' babies, miss scarlett!

seriously.

Fortunately both of the instructors were objective and provided a great deal of information. Now, we've got some tools to get us through what seems like the endless hours of labor before you're actually ready to "push." Basically the advice was - stay at home as long as possible! Since the hospital is only 5 blocks away, we will!.....ooops, forgot we're moving....

We have a home!

24 Weeks

...and every 24 hours this belly's gettin' bigger and bigger!

At 24 weeks, baby squiggs is buzzing along. Heartbeat is 158 beats per minute (which is right where it should be), my blood pressure has stayed low, and belly growth is right-on for this stage of pregnancy.

The little person moves all the time keeping Ryan and I entertained. It's fun to feel how baby reacts to the things I do during the day, what I eat, and has his/her own active and rest times. There's kicking, jabbing and general motion close to 20+ times an hour. And, for now, baby rests when I rest. Ha ha ha, it won't last :)

Ryan's shocked I have no cravings (do orange juice, swiss cheese and ice cream count????)....although truly nothing too horrid. I'm just finding that baby's already developed a taste for the yummy foods like girl scout thin mints, dark chocolate, licorice :)

belly belly bo-belly...

oh belly, belly - i never knew how you'd grow, somehow my "normal" clothes still fit thanks to the almighty belly band!

ryan took this first belly shot in early january, at about 16 weeks.

Halfway to birth-day!

Hi family & friends! We're halfway to welcoming baby. Expected arrival is around June 18, 2008, although baby will come when s/he's ready :) At 20 weeks we had a long ultrasound, which is used to make sure that baby's growing as s/he should be and to check for abnormalities.

Everything is a-ok, and the ultrasound was amazing. The baby's head diameter, arm and leg bones, hands, feet and organs - including the heart ventricles - all were measured. Although only 7oz and 8 inches long, we could see all the detail of the spine, fingers and toes. There's not much fat in the skin yet, so the picture of the face is still a bit skeletal. But, the side views show a great profile!

Ryan and I are both feeling good too and there's a definite belly showing (on me that is!). Enjoy the pictures!