3 Months...

Aubrey turned 3 months old on July 6th and so much has happened since I last updated this. We have had lots of visitors and cannot believe how quickly she is growing and changing - her little personality is too sweet! It might take me a few posts to get completely updated with all that has happened so I better get started...

First of all, I want to take a minute to talk about the things that Aubrey is doing right now...

• She holds her head up all on her own
• She loves to stand up on her own with me just holding her hands - she is such a strong little thing!
• She loves tummy time
• She loves to play on her floor gym and "talks" to it the whole time
• She "talks" to us all the time now. I think it's one of Rob's favorite things to do when he gets home - just talk to her and hear her talk back to him about how her day was - too cute!
• She SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT! It's amazing - I'll feed her somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. then she'll cuddle and fall asleep until anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m. Believe me, I know just how lucky we are!
• She grew out of her bassinet so we had to set her crib up. It was bittersweet because on the same day I also packed away all of her newborn sized clothes (she was 3 months old and still fit into her newborn clothes...) so she is really getting bigger. I love to see her grow and change but it's hard to let go of her being so teeny-tiny! She does look awfully cute and little again in her crib though and it was nice to set up all of her nice things!
• She is also starting to laugh :-) It is probably the sweetest sound I have ever heard. I just love her to pieces!

I'm sure I'll think of more cute things she does, but for now, we'll move on to some pictures of her first month...

Aubrey on Easter Sunday - her first time to church at 6 days old!

Aubrey meeting a lot of people on David, my step-dad's, side of the family. She got to meet her only Great-great Grandmother!

On April 19 we decided to take some pictures of Aubrey while she was still teeny-tiny, and of course we had to take some naked ones! Hopefully she won't hate us for it when she's older but I think they're pretty cute!

I was so excited when Amber came to visit the weekend of April 24-26! I couldn't wait for her to meet Aubrey and to see her - it was such a nice visit. I just wish she lived closer so that Aubrey could get to know her Aunt better :-( But she is coming to visit 10 days from now so we are looking forward to that a lot!!!

My favorite picture of the two of them - I love their faces!

Aubrey's umbilical cord fell off when she was 2.5 weeks and she was finally able to have a real bath! She loved the water and still loves her bath today. It is one of my favorite times of the day because she gets so cuddly after her bath all wrapped up in her little towel :-)

The following weekend, my grandparents made a trip from Canada to meet our little sweetie and they just loved it! It was so nice to see them and have them hold Aubrey and we can't wait to see them again in August!

This picture was taken on Aubrey's 1 month birthday - May 6, 2009.

I'll have to post about the past 2 months another time because I think it's time to go to bed! I better take advantage of this time that Aubrey is sleeping :-)

Aubrey Rose

It all started on Monday, April 6th at 2 a.m. when my water broke. I had only been sleeping for about an hour when it woke me up. I woke Rob up and told him that I thought my water had broken and a few hours later (after showering and drying my hair of course...) we headed off to the hospital. We must have gotten there around 4 or 4:30 a.m. when I was checked out my a nurse and hooked up to some antibiotics and an I.V. It was my first time getting an I.V. so I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. After a few minutes of waiting, we walked down to my room where I got all hooked up and sat for a while to wait for the Dr. to come in and see what we should do. At this point I wasn't noticing any contractions and I was still only dilated about 3 cm so the doctor decided to start me on pitocin to get things moving. After a few hours of the pitocin my contractions were getting to be a bit painful so I decided to get a dose of nubain to take the edge off of the contractions (it worked! but also made me really loopy feeling) That dose lasted a little over an hour but I wanted to wait and see what I could handle before getting another or having an epidural. Well, around 12:30 or so my contractions were getting worse and I wanted to see how much I had dilated before getting any more pain medication. The doctor came in and checked me and said I was about 3 1/2 centimeters and suggested me getting the epidural because I was progressing so slowly. It took a little while for the anesthesiologist come in and get started and by the time he did start to put the epidural in my contractions were getting really bad. (It didn't help that it took him 3 tries and over 20 minutes to get the epidural in). So at about 1:40 he was finally done and said that my contractions would start to feel less intense...that never happened...they just kept getting worse and I began to feel like this babies head was going to pop out any second. I started to feel like I needed to push and so the nurse went and got a doctor again and when she checked me I was 10 centimeters! So I basically went from 3 1/2 to 10 cm in about 40 minutes. At this point things got a little crazy in the delivery room as they quickly set up and got everyone in the room they needed and I started to push. 40 minutes later, at 2:47 p.m. Rob told me that we had a little girl. I will never forget the look on his face and tears in his eyes when he saw her for the first time and then told me what we had. Rob then cut the umbilical cord and they took Aubrey over to the warmers to check her out and heat her up (she came out looking very blue). They stitched me up and I was soon able to hold my daughter for the first time. She felt so perfect in my arms and was wide awake just looking at Rob and I - I will never forget that moment.

Today Aubrey is 8 days old and I cannot believe how blessed I am to have this sweet girl in my life. She is such a good baby. She eats and sleeps really well and I don't even mind having to get up with her in the night to cuddle her and feed her. I never get tired of looking at her and snuggling with her - she is a great snuggler already! Rob and I are just so in love with her and can't believe that she's actually here and is actually ours.

I'll leave you with some pictures of our sweet Aubrey Rose.

False Alarm

It looks like we'll have to wait a little longer before this baby enters the world. On Wednesday I had my 39 week appointment and my doctor said that I was almost 3 cm dilated and about 75-80% effaced so she decided to strip my membranes (yes, that sounds about as pleasant as it feels) which is really just trying to thin out my cervix to get this baby to come sooner. I think she secretly wanted it to put me into labor because she was on call the next day and really wants to deliver this baby - we want that too! She told me it would be common for me to have cramps or spot after the exam and so for the next 6 hours I ignored the cramps I was feeling. Finally around 11:30 p.m. I decided to time the "cramps" to see if they could actually be contractions and they were 10 minutes apart for a little over an hour and a half. Because they were so consistent ant I figured that they must be contractions, not just cramps, but they didn't really hurt as much as I thought they would. I was somehow able to fall asleep from around 1 to 3 a.m. when I woke up to more contractions but they felt a bit closer together than they did a few hours before. I tried to ignore them and fall back asleep because I just didn't really think this was it but they wouldn't go away. I finally woke Rob up around 4 a.m. and we decided to time the contractions, though they still didn't hurt that badly. We timed for an hour and they were all between 3 and 5 minutes apart and lasted for an average of a minute and a half each. Now, in our birthing classes they told us that we should be going into the hospital when contractions are 5 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute a piece for an hour. We decided to call the on-call Dr. to see what we should do. She told us that we should get our things together and come in because it was most likely the "real deal". So at 5:30 a.m. we were getting ready to go to the hospital and possibly meet our little bundle of joy in a matter of hours! We got to the hospital around 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning and I sat with a monitor on my belly for a little over 20 minutes to check to babies heart rate and then the Dr. came in to check my cervix. It was so neat to be able to listen to his or her heart beat for that long - usually it's only about a minute that we hear at my regular check-ups, so this was a real treat. At this point I knew for sure that I was having real contractions because every time I had one it's little heart rate would shoot up and then slowly go back down- too cute! But anyways...the Dr. came in to check my cervix and she said I hadn't changed at all since my appointment the afternoon before so we should walk the halls for an hour and then come back to be checked again to see if I would dilate more. We walked the 3rd floor of Strong for an hour (which does get rather boring because we had to stay in the birthing center area) and when we got back to be checked again, there was no change. The Dr. told me that I looked ready because the baby's head is all lined up and everything is "ready to go" except I wasn't dilating anymore. At this point they sent us home and told us not to come back until the contractions were stronger and even closer together. So now we wait. I came home yesterday morning, caught up on some sleep and when I woke up the contractions were gone. They came back last night when we were at a show and lasted through the night but they're really not very strong and definitely not regular. I keep trying to think of anything I can do to get this baby to come sooner but nothing has worked so far. Maybe I'll deep-clean the apartment to see if that will help (I just won't tell Rob until I'm finished!) Hopefully this little bundle of joy will decided to come soon, but if not we'll be ready for him or her whenever he or she wants to meet us! Hopefully the next post will be our birth story and some pictures of this sweet baby!

37 Weeks

So much has happened in the past month that I don't even know where to begin! There was my mom's 50th Birthday, Amber coming home, my Baby Shower and of course more baby updates!

February 26th was my Mom's 50th Birthday and we (meaning my sisters, David, Rob and I) planned months ago to have my older sister Amber come home and surprise my Mom for the big day. I was a little nervous that she would figure out our big surprise before her Birthday but somehow we kept it a secret! Rob, Marcie and I picked Amber up at the airport in Buffalo a little after 4:00 p.m. on the 26th and were able to give Mom the best Birthday present ever - having all 3 of her girls with her for the night! We met Mom and David at Pomodoro's in the city and had such a great time just being all together. I'm so glad it all worked out!

Here is a picture of my Mom and sisters at her Birthday dinner. It was so nice to all be together again

The next morning Rob and I went to our last birthing class (thanks goodness!) and then had my Baby Shower that afternoon. My Mom and Mother-in-law hosted it at the Ellen Stowe Room in Garlock and everything turned out so nice. We got a lot of things for the baby and feel so much more prepared now that we actually have some baby clothes, blankets and so much more. I still can't believe how much space such a little baby takes up!

It was also a real treat to have all of the Aunt's-to-be and Grandma's-to-be at the shower together!

With Amber and Marcie at the shower...

Now onto the baby news...I am officially 37 weeks pregnant today and cannot believe how fast the time is going by. We had another Doctor's appointment (I go every week now) and it turns out that I am already 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced! This doesn't necessarily mean that the baby will be early but it really could come at any time. Not that it scares me, but it seems weird that it could be so close! I'm paranoid now every time I feel something odd happen in my body and wonder if it's a contraction but so far nothing has really happened. I actually worry that I won't be able to tell when I'm in labor but from what other mom's have told me, I'm pretty sure I'll know what it's coming! We're just trying to make sure we having everything ready and are trying to remember to relax and just let it happen. He or she will be here before we know it!

Still Growing...

I'm almost 33 weeks pregnant but am somehow still not used to my growing belly. Sometimes I look down and am amazed as to how I got to be this big and how quickly it has happened. I absolutely love the feeling of being pregnant when I can feel him or her moving around inside - there is simply nothing like it. Especially when you can actually see my stomach move in all sorts of weird ways. I wonder what it's really doing in there!

It seems like the bigger I get the more people ask me about being pregnant, when we're due and if we know if it's a girl or boy. And to be honest, the more I talk about it the slower it seems to go by and the more people ask me if its a girl or boy, the more I want to know what it is too. I've been thinking a lot about that lately. Part of me just wants to know already yet I know that it will be worth the wait; it's just getting harder now. People also ask if I have a "feeling" if it's a boy or a girl and I honestly don't. Neither does Rob. Though other people seem to have a "feeling"; my grandfather is convinced that it's a girl and some other people also refer to my baby as a girl even after knowing that we haven't found out yet. Earlier in my pregnancy I dreamt that it was a boy but just this week I had a dream that it was a girl, so who knows! Part of me wants a boy first but part of me wants a girl first. Whatever it ends up being, I already know that I love it more than I ever thought I would and just look forward to holding it and kissing it. I don't want to wait any longer!

On Valentines Day Rob made me let him take more pictures of me, so here is one of me at 32.5 weeks. It's crazy to think I'm just going to get bigger!

A Few Updates...

I found out yesterday that I am going to have a niece! Chris and Kristina got the news at their appointment yesterday and I couldn't be happier for them. I just keeping thinking how lucky we are that our babies will grow up together and, hopefully, become really good friends! Of course, knowing what they're having just makes me want to know what my bundle of joy is even more, but it's definitely worth the wait. After all, I only need to wait another 10 weeks and I have a feeling that the time will go by very quickly.

I have no new pictures because, honestly, I just don't feel like having my picture taken lately. I know I need to take one soon so I can document this whole experience, but it's still hard to stand in front of a camera when my belly feels so big!

Speaking of my belly...it is becoming increasingly interesting to watch it as the baby moves inside. He or she is moving a lot lately and it's not just at night anymore - it's all the time! I can feel it anytime I am remotely still; almost as if it's trying to say "I'm still here mommy!" And although I can feel him or her moving all throughout the day now, it still seams to move a lot more at night or when I'm lying down. It's really kind of cute because whatever side I lie on it kicks or punches my side until I turn to the other side. It waits a few minutes and then starts doing the same thing on that side. I've concluded that the baby just doesn't like it when I lie on it! At first I was honestly a little annoyed by it but now that the time seams to be going by so quickly I'm really enjoying the feeling of this little thing moving so much inside of me; even if it keeps me up at night :-)

Besides preparing for the baby, Rob and I have had a lot of things going on these past few months; the most important one being finding Rob a new job. Since he was laid off back in the beginning of December life as been different because Rob has obviously been home a lot more than usual. And to be honest, I am going to miss him when he does find a job and go back to work. It's been nice to just hang out and sleep in together (and we all know that Rob loves to sleep in...) as well as spend our days relaxing and talking about our new life as we become parents. But as much as I will miss these times we've had together I really feel blessed that we have been able to spend this time with each other without being too stressed about money or his job situation. He had an interview this week with Northeastern Seminary and we are really praying that everything will fall into place with this job. If it doesn't, then we'll just keep looking and pray that God will open up a door for him sometime soon. Everything happens for a reason and we trust that as we remain faithful to Him, He will continue to provide for us.

I'll be sure to keep updating on Rob's job as well as what's happening with the baby!

12 weeks, 6 days and counting!

I cannot believe that our baby will be here in approximately 13 weeks! The time has gone by so quickly and it's just crazy to think that I'm already in the third trimester.

• About 3 weeks ago the baby really started moving to the point where Rob could somewhat feel it on the outside. Of course it never moves when I want it to so that others can feel it too! Within the past week the baby has started moving so much that you can actually see it moving on my tummy! It is such a surreal feeling and honestly looks really weird, but we're enjoying every minute of it. It's been really hard for me to sleep at night lately and it is so comforting to wake up in the night and feel my baby moving and kicking inside. (Though I'm hoping that this doesn't mean that it will stay up all night long!)

• Besides being really tired and somewhat emotional lately, I've been feeling pretty good. I'm at the point where I feel big and it doesn't always feel good to look in the mirror at my increasingly growing belly. And of course I know it's worth it and look forward to meeting this baby more than anything...I just really miss my pre-pregnancy body sometimes!

• We had another doctors appointment on Monday of this week and now my appointments will be 3 weeks apart instead of 4; which will only make the arrival of this little one seem to come even sooner. We'll be sure to keep everyone updated on how things are going and how much the baby is moving. Our baby will be here before we know it!