Thursday, June 18, 2009

what to do on maternity leave

While both Josh and I are off this month we had some projects that we both wanted to work on. The first one was completed by Josh and my dad and that was building a roof over our back patio. It is really nice to have a shady spot in our backyard now!
Second major project was some painting that Josh has been wanting to complete. The colors we have used are Gobi Desert by Behr and Asparagus by Behr. There is also a reddish-orange color but we made it based on another color so it doesn't have a name.
Here are some photos of what we have done with the paint!

Asparagus and the reddish-orange color.

Gobi Desert starts in the dining room and goes all the way through to the living room.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


This week I did not finally put my little sweetie in a dress only 2 weeks after she was born because I would never wait that long to put a girl in a dress.

I did not go to the grocery store and realize why I really prefer babywearing over lugging that infant car seat all over the place...because I did not place the infant seat in the front seat of the cart and realize that I could not see over the seat thus having to peek around the edge of the seat the whole time I was trying to maneuver through the grocery store! No, that would not be me and my short little self!

And, no, it would not be me who would consider keeping our newborn in the Moby wrap while riding in the car instead of taking her out and putting her in her car seat. Nope, not me!

Have a great week!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Birth Story with photos =)

Finally!
My water broke and we were on our way to the hospital. This is me at 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant.
The most joyous part of this is that we had decided to induce on Friday night, May 29 since nothing was happening and we were ready for the baby to come. We had still planned to do things as naturally as possible after the induction. We were really praying about if we should induce and although we felt like it was ok we still weren't super excited about it. I had been praying all day that God would make it very clear if we shouldn't go ahead with the induction. I was exhausted and just wanted to meet this baby girl. I left work that day about 11:30 AM and then Josh and I spent the afternoon shopping and ate a nice early dinner around 3:30. We got home around 4:30 and were finishing packing and cleaning house before our time for induction which was 8:30 PM. At 5:15 PM I coughed and to my amazement my water broke! I was still not quite sure since I wasn't having contractions so we went to the hospital.Here I am in triage. Most definitely water has broken they said. There was meconium in the fluid so this meant baby was in distress, she wanted out. It also started the timer, she needed to be delivered within 24 hours. We walked for 3 hours while we waited for a room to open up! There were a lot of babies being born this day but I was so glad that God answered my prayer. I have no doubt that He heard our cries for direction. We are so blessed to serve the Master Physician!
After 3 hours of walking we were only at 60% effacement and barely 1 cm dilated. We decided to start pitocin to see if that would help. We gradually turned up the dosage for a few hours and tried to labor without the epidural. The pitocin started contractions hard and fast and they were unlike anything I have ever felt. After 3 hours of these contractions I still had not progressed any more. We decided to start the epidural. They started me on a prett high dosage which did not react well with my low blood pressure and ended up having to give me some other drugs to keep my blood pressure up which in turn kept the baby's heart rate up. It was a very long night and morning with having to be monitored so often due to the BP and heart rate issues. Around 10:30 AM, May 30 I was finally dilated to 8 cm, and baby was at station +1. I was finally able to push around 12:00 noon on Saturday, May 30.
Exactly 19 hours after my water broke precious Avalyn Marie entered this world. I only pushed for 15 minutes. She was posterior which typically takes a while to push or ends in c-section and that also explains why labor was taking so long. From the looks of her head she was stuck for a while on my pelvis! She came out a little bit blue due to her cord being wrapped twice around her neck but they got her some oxygen and suctioned out all the meconium from her mouth and she was good to go!
Our doula, Nicki. She was amazing and it was so nice to have a familiar face join us in the delivery room after such a long night!Who needs a boppy when you have a sweet black Lab princess??

Hopefully she'll fill out these pants soon!
Our lives have totally been turned upside down and we are so happy that God chose to bless us this way. We cannot fathom His love for us, that he would entrust us with His creation. That He created Avalyn for us to enjoy just as he made the mountains and the trees and the clouds in the sky, she is part of His masterpiece-wow.
We love you sweet girl, your life is a miracle to us.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Sling and Swaddle Journey

I just wanted to let you all know that I am participating in a very fun thing for the month of June. I was chosen to be one of 30 moms to Tweet for 30 days in a contest called Sling and Swaddle Journey. If you have Twitter, be sure to follow me, I am Mom_12! I will be Tweeting about life with a newborn, some of the new products we get to try and also sharing pictures and more fun stuff! So follow me on Twitter and keep up to date on how Avalyn changes every day!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Avalyn Marie Easterling

She has arrived, in case you are a blog friend!
The details-
Avalyn Marie Easterling
Born: May 30, 2009 at 12:15 pm
6 lbs 13 oz
20.5 inches long
Most fun part of delivery...when she came out totally posterior (face up) and cord wrapped twice around her neck. I will share more of the story soon!