Happy Two Week Birthday Evie!

Evie is two weeks old today!

These first two weeks have gone so fast. We've had two visits from Grandpa and Grandma Sommers and one visit from Grandpa Jim and Grandma Lucy. Evie is awake a little more every day. We still can't tell what color her eyes are going to be, right now they are kind of a steely grey blue. Her hair still looks dark, but her eyebrows are blond.

She seems to have come down with a little bit of a cold, but is doing alright, mostly just sticky eyes. She gave me a couple rough nights where she just wanted to be held. She slept great, but I was pretty tired. Last night was much better, so hopefully that is a good sign.

Ripley is starting to sleep better too. At first every time she made a little peep he had to go check on her. Now he only gets up a couple of times a night. Dan set Evie on Ripley's chair with him yesterday and Ripley just snuggled his head right around her. When Grandma was changing Evie's diaper Ripley tried to push between Grandma and the changing table because Evie was fussing and he wanted to make sure she was alright. He is taking his role of protector very seriously.

Here are a few more pictures. We still need to find a photographer here in town to take pictures of Evie and some family pictures. Hopefully we'll get this done sometime soon, but it won't be before Christmas.

















If I'm taking this many pictures of her sleeping I bet you all can't wait until she is more active and I post that many more pictures.

INTRODUCING...

Evelyn Abigail


We had a little surprise this week, Evelyn decided to make an early appearance. It seems she has her mother's patience. I woke up at 1:30 Monday morning feeling uncomfortable and unable to sleep. Contractions started at 3 AM so I woke up Dan. Luckily we packed Evie's hospital bag Sunday evening so Dan only had to pack mine. We went to the hospital about 4:30, scared the nurse because of how fast things were going, the doctor got there about 7 AM and at 7:26 Evelyn Abigail was here. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Everything went so fast that Dan had a chance to call the grandparents around 6:30 and then call back to say "She's here!"

She was three weeks early, and the nurses were a little worried about here oxygen at first, but after testing they said she was fine. We stayed in the hospital until Wednesday because Tuesday she was so tired she wasn't feeding well. Grandma and Grandpa Sommers arrived around noon on her birthday and stayed until Thursday morning. They were a huge help and made us a nice and filling welcome home meal after all that bland hospital food. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Lucy came around noon on Thursday bringing Dan's cousin Kaitlyn with them. Evie is their eighth grandchild, but first granddaughter, so that was a special visit for them.

Since then we have been spending time as a family and enjoying every minute of it. Here are some of the pictures we have so far...

Dan got to help the with her first bath. (that's not Dan in the picture)

5 Week Countdown

I am definitely getting huge. I am ready for this little girl to be here any day, so good thing there are only five weeks left. I don't think she'll be coming this early, but I have gotten to the uncomfortable stage and am getting anxious.

We had a doctor appointment yesterday and the doctor says that everything looks great. He's been saying how the baby is right on track size wise, so I had to ask what size she is on track for. Luckily the doctor says that she is probably going to be just a little above average, probably in the 60 to 65% range.

I have been working on getting everything set around here so that I'll be able to relax the last few weeks. We bought our diapers this past weekend and I have washed them and gotten them all put away. The clothes are all washed and put away as well. Bedding has been washed and put on the crib. Curtains are hung. Toys are de-tagged. Blankets and towels are next!

I will hopefully finish decorating the nursery before Thanksgiving and get some pictures posted. Now I just need to finish my Christmas shopping and I can relax and enjoy the most exciting Christmas season so far!!

Halloween Party

Last night we went to a Halloween party and of course I had to find a way to incorporate my belly into my costume. I didn't have a black graduation gown that I could use to recreate the witch costume Mom wore 29 years ago to the party the night before I was born, so I had to come up with something else. I wish I could take all the credit for this, but I did see a picture on-line of this idea.

So without further ado... The cat who ate the fishbowl!

Little Red Rocker

Part of my baby shower gift from my Uncle Paul and Aunt Jan was the "little red rocker." The little red rocker is a rocking chair that has been passed down on my mom's side of the family for at least five generations. This story came from my Grandma Cole and hopefully I get the details right.




As far back as we can remember this chair was in my Great-great-grandma McDerment's (sp?) house. She had a sale to clear out some things before her daughter, my Great Grandma was married and my Great-great-grandma Huston bought the chair. Great-great-grandma Huston put the chair into the house of her son and his new bride, my Great-grandparents, as their first piece of furniture. Great-Grandma Huston rocked all of her children in this chair and then passed it down. My Grandma was the first of her siblings to get married so her mother gave her and my grandfather this rocker as their first piece of furniture when they were married. Grandma rocked Uncle Paul and Mom in this chair when they were babies. Grandma then passed the little red rocker onto Uncle Paul and Aunt Jan when they were married. Uncle Paul and Aunt Jan added the seat cushion. They decided to save the chair for the first of us to have children, and since that is Dan and I, we now have the little red rocker. Abby is planning on making a new needle-point cushion so that Aunt Jan can have her's back.

This chair is currently sitting outside our nursery on the little landing at the top of our stairs. This will probably not be the main rocking chair we use, but we will treasure it and pass it on with it's story someday.

31 Weeks

Today we are at 31 Weeks, only about 9 more to go (give or take). I feel like our little girl has had a growth spurt over the past few weeks. I used to feel most of her movement lower on my belly, near my belly button, but now she kicks me in the ribs one second and in the side the next. She is all over the place.



We do have a name picked out for our little girl, but we are saving that surprise for when she is born. We keep having to bite our tongues so that we don't give it away when we are talking to people. We picked out names before we knew boy or girl so we have a boy's name picked out just in case the doctor is wrong. Dan and I refer to her by name at home, so we really have to be careful when we're around other people.

We had another doctor appointment today and everything is still going great. The doctor says I am measuring right on track, so hopefully she'll arrive on time and we'll have her home for Christmas. I was able to get my flu shot today from the least gentle nurse I have ever met. But now Dan and I have both had them and we will hopefully be a flu free household again this year.

Our next appointment is in two weeks and pretty soon after that we will be going to weekly appointments. Dan has been able to make it to every appointment so far and hopefully that will continue to be possible. We are getting very very excited and hopefully time will keep speeding by.

Baby Shower

We had a beautiful baby shower in Bad Axe a couple of weeks ago and everyone was so generous. We got a lot of really wonderful things. Our bedding set, lots of pink clothes, some gorgeous homemade blankets, and a monster from Aunt Abby. Aunt Abby and Uncle Max came up from Florida. Great-Aunt Jan and Great-Uncle Paul came from Ohio and brought Great-Grandma Cole with them. Grandma Lucy came down from Alpena. Great-Aunt Annie and Kaitlyn came down from Alpena. Aunt Julie, Uncle Dave, Jack and Luke came over from Lansing. Erin came in from Baltimore. And off course all sorts of local friends made it to the shower as well. We had a wonderful time with everyone and cannot begin to express how thankful we are for everyone's love and support.



These were the centerpieces.



Our adorable ducky cake.



Aunt Abby, myself, and Great-Grandma Cole.



Great-Aunt Jan, Grams, and Cherri



The Monster from Aunt Abby.



Dan, Kaitlyn, and I with the diaper cakes from Great-Aunt Annie and Kaitlyn.



The gorgeous alpaca afghan and hat Grams made.



And just in case you can't guess...

Gramps did some shopping and our little girl has all sorts of Ohio State onesies, bibs, and booties!

Nursery Paint

Here's a couple of pictures of the paint in the nursery. We haven't finished assembling the furniture, but hopefully those pictures will come soon!

Big Week

I should probably be titling this REALLY big week since I feel like I'm getting huge. I'm actually putting up a picture from last week, so this is a 27 week picture even though I am now at 28 weeks because I had make-up on last week and this week I kinda look like the living dead.



Funny story... as I have been feeling huge lately someone was actually surprised that I was pregnant the day this picture was taken. I don't know if I should take this as a compliment that I'm looking pretty good for being this far along or as an insult because they think I am always this big.

We had our 28 week doctor's appointment on Monday and everything is still going great. I had to drink a bottle of nasty orange flavored stuff for my glucose test. Luckily everything was fine because I would really have a hard time cutting out sugars, I like my chocolate. Dan had a slight scare because we found out this little girl is already acting like me. As the doctor was checking her heart rate she kicked the monitor. She does not like take kindly to anything imposing on her space. Other than that it was a fairly uneventful appointment. I've been really fortunate to have such an easy pregnancy so far.

Dan finished painting the nursery.




I'll get some more complete pictures once we get all the plastic up and furniture put together. We will probably be working on this tonight.

We enjoyed a visit from one of Dan's brothers and his family this weekend and got a very nice compliment from our four year old nephew. When he was told we were going to have a baby and that is who that room will be for he said he didn't like babies. But when we said it would be a girl, he said that is okay because he likes girl babies. So I guess it is a good thing we're having a girl!

In a previous blog I mentioned how my parents, Gramps and Gram, no longer Grampy and Grammy, bought us our car seat and that seat didn't fit in our cars. Well good news! We bought a car that it will fit in!



Quite the upgrade from the Oldsmobile Ciera.

So this is my new mommy-mobile, I think Wee Sing Silly Songs will sound great on that Bose sound system.

Maternity Pants are Weird and I want a New Car

Labor Day weekend Grampy and Grammy Sommers came to visit and brought more presents for our little girl. She is already very well spoiled and hasn't even made her grand entrance yet. Grampy brought her a couple of little pink teddy bears, so she got her first teddy bear from Grampy. Grammy is making all sorts of burp cloths, a blanket, and recovered the cushions on our rocking chair so that it doesn't clash with the living room. They also brought a Minnie Mouse onesie back from Florida when they were visiting Aunt Abby and Uncle Max.

They also loaded up their car with some of the larger items they got for us. One of them was the rocking chair and ottoman for our nursery (more on this another day) and the other was the car seat that I really wanted. Now this car seat that I wanted is one of the convertible car seats that has all the extra safety features and all that. I didn't think of this until after the car seat was purchased, but the convertible car seats require more space when they are rear facing than they do once they are front facing. Hence the need to the new car.

We had already been talking about wanting a crossover suv so that we could have a bit more space and have the car seat in the middle while still having room for the dog to travel with us. So we started our search now. Dan says the old car seems to be nearing the end of it's life so it is about time. So we'll have to see where the search takes us.

spoiler alert: I already picked out the car I want. ssssssshhhhhhhhhh.... don't tell Dan.

And now for the other part of the title to this post... if you have never worn maternity pants, they are the strangest things in the world. When my parents were here for the weekend Mom offered to go shopping with me since I hadn't bought any pants yet and was living in workout clothes and occasionally wearing jeans with a belly band. These pants are a giant piece of elastic, no buttons, no zippers, and they will grow with me as I continue to get bigger over the next few months. Verrrrry odd. But I should pretty much be set for the rest of the pregnancy unless I see something I just can't live without. We were even able to find a winter coat so that my belly won't freeze once it doesn't fit in my regular coats.

So thank you to Grampy and Grammy for everything you have been doing to help out so far. We appreciate it all very much!

24 Weeks

We had our 24 week check-up this week and the doctor says we're doing really well. The baby's heart rate is still really strong at 153. My belly is even measuring right on track. I had no idea, but they actually measured my belly with a tape measure.

Here's a picture of me and my belly at 24 weeks.


Dan has been working really hard to try to get the nursery ready for painting. He already repainted the guest room and moved all of the guest furniture out of the nursery into the guest room. He went through this week and removed all of the baseboards so that we can repaint those without worrying about the carpet. And last night he started with the primer and got all of the cutting in finished.

Here are some pictures of Daddy getting started in the nursery (with only a little help from the dog).