MI & VA Family Visit 2010

This summer James, Elijah, and I traveled home to Michigan & Virginia to see family and friends and introduce everyone Elijah. It was so much fun! Below are a couple of videos James made from the trip. I'll post pics soon too :-)

I'm a mommy!

Since it's been so long since I last posted, I wanted to take a minute and let everyone know that I am still alive. On April 28th I was admitted into the hospital where I was induced for labor. It was a slow process. Halfway through the doctor told me that I shouldn't still be smiling. That was when they cranked up the labor drugs. Soon after, I decided to ask for drugs myself :-)

At first they gave me some really strange drug through the IV. I was so upset I let them talk me into that one. It made me feel drunk and tired and didn't help me at all with the back labor I was experiencing. Finally the epidural doctor came and did an amazing epidural. He was really nice. He was convinced I was part Russian, since he was Russian too. Getting the epidural was a little scary. James had to leave the room, and I had to hold really still for them to get it into my spine. That sounds easy but it was quite challenging. I was having pretty big contractions, my blood pressure arm band kept going off, and the nurse kept telling me to do things counter to what the doctor was saying. In the end all went well and I ended up having a fantastic epidural, it was so effective that they had to take me off of it when it came time to push to help me feel the contractions a little more. The nurses also had a shift change and I ended up getting a wonderful and kind nurse to help me through the final stages.

James kept everyone updated with by the minute texts via twitter & facebook. It's crazy to think how social networking allowed us to share our special day with so many friends and family simultaneously while we were miles away in the hospital. The delivery itself wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I guess in my mind I had run through all the worse case scenarios. Eli was a little larger than we had thought he would be for having him 2 weeks early. I pushed for about 1 and 1/2 hours and finally we had our little boy! He was 7.4 lbs and 20 1/4 inches long. Elijah James was born at 10:10 pm.

We stayed in the hospital till Friday morning. I hated being there, the whole time I wanted to go home. I didn't enjoy everyone coming in and out of the room. I felt weird trying to feed the baby with so many staff popping in and out. I think I counted 20 different people that Thursday. Some of the staff and nurses were great, and a couple of them definitely lacked social skills but they still took good care of me so I can't complain...too much. The day we were released the doctor came to check on me while I was in the restroom. But that didn't stop him. I ended up having a full conversation with him about leaving the hospital while I was on the can!!! That was definitely a first!

Finally we were able to take our little precious one home. It was such a great feeling. The next day our friends Joel and Amy brought over food so we wouldn't have to cook or shop for awhile. It was so sweet, we so appreciated it! Especially since moving around was a little tough for me.

About a week after Eli was born my family came to visit and then James' came the week after that. It was so great to have our families here to meet little Eli. He is the first grandchild on both sides. It was also so nice to have the extra help while I was still recovering. One day my folks even cleaned while we were at a doctor appointment. I was definitely feeling the love!

Eli has had a few doctor appointments since his birth. He didn't take to breast feeding right away and I had some learning to do myself so he had lost a little of his birth weight. He also had moderate jaundice so we ended up going into the doctor twice the week after he was born and then 2 more times in May to check up on him. It was hard to get him in, I have a new appreciation for all the families out there who go anywhere and get there on time. The good news is that Eli is now gaining lots of weight and the jaundice is completely gone.

It's hard to believe that Eli is now 6 weeks old. He is changing so much already. He's starting to share a few smiles and I can't wait to see his full personality bud. He's sleeping longer stretches at night too. I can't wait until he goes 6-8 hours I'm hoping this may happen by the end of the month? One thing that has been challenging besides getting sleep has been doing all other things. Since Eli is on a 2 hour feeding schedule during the day, and feeding him takes 40-60 minutes I don't have very much time to get anything done. I feel like I've had an accomplished day when I can get the laundry and dishes done. It's an even better day when I can actually get a shower in :-) We're getting the hang of things though and I'm getting really good at doing things with one hand :-)

Overall it's been a joy being a mother, I'm so happy to have him in our lives. James and I love him so much! My life has completely changed...but in a wonderful way. Here are some pictures of the cutest little guy ever! I'll try and post again soon :-)

Labor Day

Today I had another doctor appointment and my blood pressure was still high. So the doctor has advised that I be induced. Wednesday morning James and I will go to the hospital and start the labor process. I was a little shocked at first I had always thought I would go into labor naturally but I'm trusting that my doctor knows what's best for me and baby. On Wednesday I'll be 38 weeks pregnant. I'm just praying that my body takes well to being induced and that baby Eli is healthy and strong throughout the process. I have no guess as to how big he will be, we'll have to wait and see :-) I'm super excited knowing that we'll be able to hold our little boy in just a few days! I'm also nervous about the delivery process and would love any prayers people would like to send our way. I know we're all in the Lord's hands and that gives me great comfort. Anyway guess I'll be catching up on cleaning, laundry and sleep tomorrow since James and I may not be getting a lot of it after Wednesday. Here's to another exciting week!

Pregnant Pictures & Anniversary

Since I'm at home with nothing to do I thought I would post a few pics for you all. The first two are of my huge belly and the others are from our anniversary celebration last night.

Getting Closer

It's hard to believe the baby is due in less than 6 weeks! Being pregnant and functioning like a normal person is definitely a challenge. My belly gets in the way of everything I try to reach, I have frequent trips to the bathroom making all my work meetings interesting, and I'm just tired. It's fun though too. People are so incredibly nice to you when you're pregnant. They let you cut in line, they buy you presents, and everyone wants to talk to you. I know this won't last long so I'm going to soak it up while I can! :-) Recently the girls at work surprised me with a baby shower. It was really sweet I felt very loved!

Though my work is still keeping me busy at record speed, I'm really looking forward to taking maternity leave soon. I finally took the forms to have my Dr. fill out the necessary items. Once my work reviews, and hopefully approves, I'll be able to leave work on the 28th for maternity leave. I'm asking for 2 weeks off before the due date. I'm praying all goes through all right so I don't have to work right up until the due date.

Lately I've been shopping for baby gear and items to have on hand while James is finishing up the baby crib and other things. So far I've been lucky to be able to purchase so much online but soon I think I will actually have to trek out to Babies R Us for a few needed items. I know I've been avoiding it...sigh. I've also been cleaning and organizing everything I can think of. James and I don't want to get too baby crazy so we've been trying to do some non-baby things with our weekends as well. Last weekend we hiked up Griffith Park, and though it took me double the time to get the top it was a wonderful time to relax and chat with my best friend. I'm hoping we can go on another hike this weekend :-) Below is a pic of my baby bump from a hike we did 3 weeks ago.



Last weekend along with the hike, I had a fun opportunity to take some photos of a friend and her lovely baby. See below for some of my favorites. I'll probably post the rest on facebook sometime soon. Have a great week everyone!

Really? Has it been over 2 months?

I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I've posted. Wow, time flew away from me. Things have been quite busy here on the home front. I'm now about 6 months pregnant. We found out in December that we were having a little baby boy and we're so extremely excited! We've already named him Elijah but we're calling him Eli for short. We've always loved that name, not to mention I always thought Elijah was a pretty cool prophet in the Bible. December we spent a lot of time cleaning out our apartment and getting rid of everything we didn't need. We're planning to stay in our one bedroom for awhile and with the baby's things it will be a tight squeeze. We managed to donate most everything to goodwill and I think we even sold a few things. It was a great purge for the new year. In early Dec. I enjoyed doing a few family photo shoots and even was given baby furniture as payment for a shoot I did. It was such a blessing! Also in Dec. I got a new position within the company I work for. So things have been really busy getting up to speed on the new role and transitioning over the old stuff. I've also been doing a fair amount of traveling for work over the past month, which has been more difficult than I thought it would be with being pregnant. I think I took my last trip this past week though so I'm excited to stay home for more than a week at a time for the duration of this pregnancy.Last week my work sent me to DC for meetings so we took the opportunity to hang out with friends and family while we were there. It was so much fun!

We've also had some friends visit us this Jan. between my travels and I think we may have more visiting in March/April. It's fun living in such a neat city where friends actually want to come visit. Below are some pictures from our friend's Kevin & Drew when they visited this January. Unfortunately while they were visiting I got incredibly sick and ended up in the ER for being dehydrated and not able to keep anything down. The baby and I were fine though and made it out okay. Kevin & Drew were so forgiving and easy guests, I'm glad we were able to do most of the fun stuff before I got sick :-) All is well now and we're so grateful!

Recently I've been enjoying my big belly and little Eli growing inside. I believe I've gained 18 lbs so far. I'm constantly feeling him move around, kicking, and flipping around. The movements have become much stronger and sometimes I can even see my belly move! James has enjoyed feeling the baby move and kick too! Today it hit me that the baby will be here in just a few short months. I have so much yet to do!!! I pray I have the strength and time to get everything done and still have time to relax. We'll see how it goes. My goals for this month are re-arranging our bedroom to make room for the baby crib, staining or painting the baby furniture to match ours, re-upholstering the baby bedding (maybe), registering for baby items, and maybe even sewing some baby items of my own. We'll see how many of these I actually get finished. I'm also hoping to get photography website started in the very near future. Well, whatever I don't finish I guess I'll just carry it over to the next month.

Okay enough rambling...I'm not even sure if this post makes sense. But at least I've updated my blog. Enjoy the pics below of Kevin & Drew's visit. I'll probably be posting more photos soon. I have a bunch of shoots I did that I'd love to share. Stay tuned :-)