More pictures

Here's a few more pictures. LJ is doing fine, and I'm doing well too. Adjusting has had it's up days and down days, but all-in-all has gone pretty well. Gary has been a Godsend, helping me with the baby, making sure there's good, nutritious food in the house and bringing it to me on many occasions, and so on and so forth. Binx and Nala are adjusting as well as can be expected. Since you can't really explain and reason with them, I feel like they think I'm ignoring them, but I do my best to give them attention when I can.

Anyway, I think LJ is going to have Gary's dark eyes, and will definitely have his dark hair. I need to get some of our baby pictures for comparison. He looks an awful lot like Gary, but I think he may have a couple of my features in there as well.

Hopefully I'll get in another post before too long. It's pretty tough to find time to sit at the computer to check e-mail and update the blog!

HE'S HERE!!!

Well, my water broke at 5:00 this morning, and baby LJ was born at 2:38pm. He's 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long. I did end up getting and epidural, and I was SO thankful I did. It ended up being a much more pleasant experience for both Gary and I after that! I'm doing well, and Gary even better, other than being tired after a long day. LJ is doing fine and feeding very well. In fact, once attached, he doesn't seem want to let go...even after he's fallen asleep. Will post more pictures later.

Officially Past Due!

Well, my due date came and went. Although without a baby, it did have some excitement to it. On the 18th at around 11:00pm, I started having mild contractions, fairly regularly. They did intensify and get closer together, so I was up all night and by 4:30am decided I ought to at least go get checked. We got there, and I was still at a 2 and 60% (I almost made the nurse check again just to make sure). They went ahead and hooked me up to the monitors, and indeed I was having fairly regular contractions that were getting more intense. After an hour, still no change. So they said I could walk around for an hour and get checked again, or they could go ahead and turn me loose. So I opted to walk around. After that, I was still at a 2, but the baby's head had dropped very low and I was effaced 80-90%. I was so exhausted by that time, that I opted to just go home and try to get a little rest (that was easier said than done because the contractions were getting more intense). I managed to sleep for about 2 hours, then at around 3:00pm, the contractions had gotten intense enough where I could just barely walk through them, and had to stop and catch my breath if trying to converse. We were just about to head back up to the hospital when I thought that laying on my right side would feel good. Did that, fell asleep for another 2 hours, woke up and the contractions had all but stopped! Then today, nothing! You can imagine my frustration. Oh well. I guess it just wasn't time. He still seems to be moving fine and all that, so I guess I'll just have to wait. I have another appointment Monday, if I make it through the weekend. So, I'd imagine my next post will be either the baby is here, or the baby will be here on.....

If you look down at my links you'll see that I added a link called Leah's Mom. This is a blog that Leah has created to keep friends and family updated on her Mom's health. She has a condition that has gotten to the point of needing both a heart and lung transplant. Her Mom and the family have very strong faith, and are okay with whatever God's will is. But, either way, it's a tough road to travel and they can use all the prayers they can get. So please check it out and add them to your prayer lists.

.....Another Dr. appointment

Well, I made it to another doctor appointment, and today was told there was really no change from last time. You can imagine how discouraging that is to hear when you're doing everything in the book to get things going. So the doctor said she could strip my membranes (whatever that means) to try to get things going and I gave her the go ahead. Well, by the time that was done, I was doing everything to crawl off the end of the table. So, I guess I now know that "stripping membranes" in laymans terms means the doctor tries to make her hand come out your throat.

Well, tomorrow is the full moon, so we'll see if that triggers anything. We'll keep you posted.

Dr. Appointment

I had another dr. appointment today, and only a little progress was made. I was dilated "a strong" 2 cm and 60% effaced. He said that the baby's head is still way up there, though. So he wants me to really crack down on the walking so his head gets further engaged before I go into labor. I was a bit disappointed in the progress, I guess I was hoping for more. At the end of last week I was having a lot of contractions and honestly didn't think I'd make it through the weekend, but since the start of this week, I've scarcely had any, and feel that it will be at least another week or 2! The dr. guaranteed me that I'd either have the baby by or be induced on June 26th. We'll just have to wait and see.

Couple of more recent pictures

Here's a couple of recent pictures that were taken over the weekend. My belly looks HUGE! I'm anxious to see what (if any) progess has been made at my appointment on Wednesday. I've been having a lot more prelabor-type contractions. Of course that still means it'll probably be another week or two, but it does give one reason to hope! :o)


Of course this one where I'm leaning back on Gary REALLY makes my tummy look big!

Dr. Appointment (revised....with pictures)

The following pictures were taken at my baby shower about a month ago.

This is Michelle, Vong and I. Michelle and Vong are fellow civil engineers. We stayed up many a nights fretting over tests, working on projects and bashing our heads against the wall with structures problems!

Awhile back I told everyone that Melody is pregnant too. I think she's right at the beginning of the second trimester in this picture, and I was around 32 weeks.

I didn't realize these were the most recent photos I have. So I'll need to get some more profile pics soon! Also, I currently don't have any pics of the nursery either!!! (I really thought I did), so those will have to come later too. Oh, I have to throw this one in:

I had another doctor appointment yesterday, and thank God my body is actually deciding that it will not remain pregnant forever! I know dilation and effacing really means nothing when you talk about 1.5 cm and 40%, but it does reassure me that the light at the end of the tunnel is at least getting brighter (I actually meant that figuratively, it wasn't until I reread it that I realized it could also be interpreted literally). Anyway, I'm not getting my hopes up for an early arrival, but I asked the doctor how far over my due date he'd let me go without inducing. He said, assuming everything was healthy, he'd let me go a week over. For those of you who don't know, d-day is the 19th.

I'm still working full time, but chances are good that I'll end up cutting down to 4 hours/day if LJ doesn't arrive soon. My poor feet are quite tired and swollen come the end of the workday, leaving me with painful stumps to stand on while trying to get housework done. Gary's been super-helpful, but things at work just picked up dramatically for him, so his time has become a bit more limited too. Other than my feet, I really can't complain to terribly much. I have had a relatively decent pregnancy so far, but I definitely don't enjoy pregnancy as much as I thought I would. It's funny how BEFORE I got pregnant all everyone ever told me about pregnancy was how wonderful, exciting, and miraculous it is. Then AFTER I got pregnant, several of those same people told me how sucky morning sickness is, how miserable the last trimester is, and how painful labor and delivery is, etc. After I experience the whole thing for myself, I'll see how my opinion compares to others I've heard.

All is well, though. Binx likes to sleep in the bassinet, and Nala climbs on top of the crib canopy to get stuffed animals out of the pet net above the crib (a picture will help with visualizing that one). OH, and as for the kitten, they did end up keeping her, and it sounds like she's already spoiled rotten something terrible. They named her Abby, which I think suits her just fine.