THE Chair

Arrived today.

It's perfect.

Love the color.

And it's so comfortable.

John went all the way to Brisbane to pick it up at the warehouse.

AND the ottoman is going to be in next week. Not July.

It's like Christmas! New baby! New chair!

Our first week.

Sleeping. Feeding. Holding. Kisses. Diaper changing. Crying. Love. Back pain.

That sums up our first week.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having Daddy home with us. He's painting the house with Santiago. And as a special treat for him, I love to poop in my diaper RIGHT AFTER he's changed me.

Mara and Scott came to visit us today and brought Mommy and Daddy lunch. And some yummy cookies. Of course, Mommy had to have a whole one to herself.

Ellie Elizabeth

She arrived! One day before her due date on May 19th.

I had a hunch that my aminiotic fluid had been leaking for a few days, so I went into the hospital around 4 pm on Tuesday the 18th for the second time to have it checked out. Sure enough, it had broken and I got admitted! They gave me an IV antibiotic right away and started pitocin a few hours later. It was a long labor and I dilated very slowly and my strongest contractions probably didn't start until about 4 am the next morning when I gave in and got an epidural. It was glorious.

Our labor and delivery nurse was incredible. Mary, a Scottish woman in her mid-60s that had been delivering babies for over 40 years. We felt like we were in really good hands and she loved hearing that mom is a nurse, too. I started pushing around one in the afternoon, and really only pushed for about an hour and half. Our doctor, Dr Chan, was working that day, so we were in luck and she was able to deliver our baby.

Ellie ended up making her debut at 3:25 pm and weighed a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz and measured at 20 1/4 inches. She has light brown hair and the perfect complexion. Mom and dad made it to the hospital all the way from Missouri two hours after she was delivered. It was so awesome, and John and I were so glad to see them. We ended up staying in the hospital two nights, and it was extra special as mom stayed with us the second night, so John could get some rest. They stayed until Tuesday and were a huge help. It was very hard to say goodbye and we miss them terribly.

We've been home for almost a week now. Tom, Arleen and Pam have been here the past week. They've cooked us yummy dinners and love holding Ellie and bonding with her.

Happy Mother's Day

I love you, Mom, Christy, Grandma and Arleen. And to my Grandma Faith who gave birth to my wonderful Dad on Mother's Day.

And to all my girlfriends that are amazing moms that have been sharing their stories, giving me advice and listening to me these past nine months. Happy Mother's Day.

It was nice to be invited to the club this year!

This is what happens when you are 38 weeks pregnant.

Either that or I was overly excited that we had just had the "reverse beep" deactivated. Regardless, this was the fun start to our day yesterday. Thank goodness John was home to call the towing company. I would've had no idea what to do. And Cole did a great job overseeing the whole thing. As you can see, he was very concerned.

Final Countdown

We're on the homestretch as I'm at 38 weeks. I'm seeing my doctor weekly now, and as of last Wednesday things are progressing as she's totally dropped and my cervix is 50% effaced. We have another appointment tomorrow, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things are continuing to progress. It's hard to imagine how different our lives are going to be once she makes her arrival!

In the meantime, I'm enjoying a bit of a slower pace at work this week, and I've decided that my last day before going on maternity is going to be next Friday, May 14th. I thought I could make it to my due date, but I've realized in the past two weeks that I need to slow myself down. It's getting more and more difficult to get around, I'm not sleeping well at night, so the days are rough, and I've got a severe case of "pregnancy brain."

As for things back at the house, it sure is nice to have John in town from now on and no more construction workers. We've been finishing up the baby's room, trimming the olive tree out front, writing thank you notes, installing car seats, revising screenplays and enjoying our new bathrooms.