William Henry is HERE!!!!

On Wednesday May 21st, 2008 at 7:30 am mommy gave birth to a 10 lbs 9 oz little bundle of joy. He was 22 1/2 inches long and head circumference 14 3/4 cm and his chest was 15 cm, with red hair and blue eyes. Long fingers and feet that barely fit on the foot print card. Unfortunatley he has almost outgrown all the newborn clothes that we have (I believe that he is closer to the 3 month end of the newborn spectrum). Like all babies he enjoys sleeping and eating and more sleeping and eating. Due to his enormous size and 16 hours of labor the educated doctor decided that it was not going to happen naturally. Kimberly then had a C-section performed in order to get the baby out. Both are doing well and mom is recovering nicely (Mommy is still at the hospital recoverying). Hopefully the entire family will be home on Sunday. And amazingly Jeremy did not pass out even though he was close and had to be seated during the procedure. Expect more updates after the weekend to mid-next week. Here are some pictures of William and his family.

17 Days to Go....

With only 2 weeks and 3 days to go 'til my due date, we trekked over to the doctor's office again this morning for our weekly visit. I'm still at the same point as last week, not having progressed any further. The baby's in about the same position, still not quite far enough descended to be ready to enter the world just yet. (I think it's waiting for Grannie and Paw-Paw to be here! Oh, and Parin and Aunt Emily, too!) But the heart rate is good and strong, and my blood pressure and everything checks out okay. I'm experiencing a lot of swelling, but the doctors says it should ease a little this week - it's supposed to be cooler and drier here (joy - summer will never get here!). So all's still well. We'll keep you posted and let you know if anything changes!

A Big Thank You & New Pictures!

I’ll start this off by saying everyone is doing very well – me, baby, and Dad! As most of you probably know by now, our family had quite the scare a little over a week ago. Dad was having some chest pains, so he and Mom went to the hospital. He was having a mild heart attack – thank God they didn’t ignore the pains! This was on a Friday night, and at the Jennings Hospital, so he wasn’t able to see a cardiologist until Monday. When the cardiologist checked things, they transferred him St. Pat’s in Lake Charles to do further test, ultimately determining that the best course of action was open-heart surgery for a triple bypass.

Since I was at 36 weeks, there was no way I was flying home to be with them. Kent and Emily were home with them, which made me feel a little better. And so many of you, their family and friends, were there constantly to care for and support them. I’m so grateful to everyone who visited and called, brought food, washed Mom’s clothes, and just took care of them. Knowing they were being so well taken care of really helped to put my mind at ease. Thank you!! But they’re home now, and doing very well. Dad’s recovery is going really well, which means they will be able to fly up here later in May to see this grandbaby of their’s!

I had another checkup at the doctor yesterday. Everything is still looking great. My blood pressure is still at very good levels, and all blood tests have come back good. Yesterday she was guessing, just by feeling around on my ever-growing belly, that the baby weighs between 8-8.5 lbs. But, she also said it seems there’s still a lot of fluid, which may be why it felt like it was on the bigger side. So…She sent me for an ultrasound this morning to get a more accurate weight estimate – cautioning me that they usually over-estimate weight by about 1 lb. The tech said she estimated the weight at 7 lbs. 15 oz., so that means if you take away the 1 lb., we have a baby that’s about 7 lbs. now. Add the 0.5 lb/wk it’s supposed to gain ‘til my due date, and we’ll be having an 8-8.5 lb. baby! Not too shabby, but certainly not too skinny either.

Here’s the picture from this morning. It’s a profile of the face, looking up. On the right is an outline of the head, and you can see the ear, nose, mouth, and chin. It’s pretty cramped in there right now, and the bones have calcified, so she said it’s really hard to get clear pictures. But this one’s good enough. Before we know it, we’ll have the baby to hold in our arms. 22 days to go…..!

The Nursery Is Complete!!

Yes - we finally have the nursery done! Jeremy worked all day Saturday painting, then Saturday night (once the fumes cleared the room) we hung the border. Then we spend all Sunday afternoon organizing everything and arranging furniture. It looks awesome! For those who've never been to our house, this room was meant to be a den/office. When we moved in, there were no doors - just a wide opening. Jeremy hung the French doors back in October to close off the room. This room is adjacent to our bedroom. Now it's decorated and ready for the baby! Enjoy the pictures!

This one is looking into the nursery from the hallway through the French doors.

As cliche as these glider rockers are (Babies R Us must sell 1M a day!),
it's super comfy and will be great for those middle of the night feedings.

This is looking back out toward the hallway
(yes, the ladder is still in the hallway),
changing table on the left.

And here's the crib. You can't see the detail on the crib linens,
but they're the ones Mom (Grannie) made - they match the room perfectly!

Baby Names Chosen!! (And Other News)

I know... it's been a while since I put anything on here. It's just that there's not really anything exciting to report. We haven't had another ultrasound, and won't have another one unless the doc suspects any problems (let's hope not!). As of my last doctor's visit, everything's going great. My blood pressure is still very good, everything measures okay, no infections, and I was cleared for gestational diabetes. So far, it's been a very healthy pregnancy. We're very thankful for that. Overall I've been feeling pretty good. I have the occassional heartburn. And I feel huge some days. There are challenges to getting comfortable in bed some nights. But none of it's too bad -- and it'll all be totally worth it!

Two weeks ago our friends here in Michigan hosted a wonderful shower for me. We had a great time and got some fabulous gifts. We're really very blessed to have made some great friends in our time here. There were pictures taken at the shower - I saw the cameras flashing away. I just haven't gotten copies of them yet. As soon as I do, I'll post some. (And you'll get to see how much bigger my belly's gotten!)

We definitely have an active little baby - it's moving and stretching all day and night! I'm guessing it's got Daddy's big feet - there's some pretty powerful kicks. The nursery's coming along. We picked a wallpaper border and paint colors. Now Daddy just needs to get in there and paint! Then we can finish organizing everything and getting the room ready to welcome the baby home.

We also scheduled the baby's Baptism. We've chosen to baptize him/her at the church we've been members of here in Detroit - the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. We are quite lucky, though - Fr. Wayne LeBleu (you might remember him from our wedding!) has offered to come here to baptize the baby. Okay, he didn't really offer, so much as he demanded that he be the one to baptize this baby. :) So, because of travel arrangements, we worked with Fr. Mike here to pick a date - June 8, 2008. We're excited to have all the grandparents planning to be here for it, along with the baby's Godparents. We asked my brother, Kent, to be the Godfather, and my very dear friend Leslie (Chauvin) to be the Godmother.

Oh... and the names! We've decided on names for the baby. Obviously, we picked one for a boy, and another if it's a girl. If a boy, he will be William Henry, and if a girl she'll be Madeleine Grace (pronounced "line" not "lynn"). No, not Bill, or Will, or Maddie. William or Madeleine.

I think that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have shower pictures and pictures of a finished nursery to post very very soon! Stay tuned!!!

New Pictures!!

I had another ultrasound last week - and got more pictures! When I had the previous ultrasound in December, there were a few parts of the baby's anatomy they were unable to view due to it's position. Yes - the baby's already defiant and uncooperative -- Must take after it's father! :o) So this time they were able to see everything they need to. The pictures are all facial profiles. In the last one, the mouth is open - it's yawning! I think it was getting tired of all the pictures. But everything looked great. The baby, as of that day, weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. Enjoy!!

23 Weeks and Counting * The baby has a bedroom now!!

Well... I'm at the 23 week mark - only 17 weeks until my due date. It's incredibly - time seems to be flying by so quickly! This weekend we worked hard getting the office, er nursery, together. We've unpacked all the wonderful gifts we've received and organized them. Our furniture is in the room and all assembled. It actually looks like a baby's room now! Our lives have officially begun to change in making room for our new addition to our family.

For those of you who haven't seen our place, we live in a 3-bedroom/2-bath ranch-style condo. We have a 2-car attached garage (a must-have when it's snowing like today!) - and everything else is on the second floor. Our floor plan includes a master bed/bath (obviously our room), a second bedroom, a second bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and den/office. The den/office is now a nursery. It was originally build with a wide door opening, but no doors - okay for an office, not great for a nursery. So Jeremy painted and hung a lovely pair of French doors in that opening. So we've moved our desk out of that room into our bedroom to make room for the baby. Now the office/den is a bonafide nursery, completed with a rocker, armoire, changing table, and crib!! We chose this room over the spare bedroom for two reasons - 1) it's right next to our bedroom, and 2) by maintaining the guest bedroom, we'll have a place for the grandparents and other family and friends to stay during visits.

I'm going to take pictures of the room this week and get them posted - I promise!! All the bedding Mom (Grannie) made looks so cute with all the lovely gifts and accessories we've been given. This baby is certainly undoubtably loved very much!!