SURPRISE!

Audrey Lou has arrived... in Carbondale Memorial Hospital in IL! It is a long story, and I will write it all out another day, but for now, here are the details:

My water broke Wednesday evening around 7:45. We headed to Carbondale and got all checked in by about 9:00. We met the doctor on call, got introduced to the anesthesiologist, and got prepped for surgery. Miss Audrey was born at 10:50 on March 31st, exactly 2 weeks before her due date, and sharing a birthday with her cousin, Leila!

Her stats:
6 lbs, 5 ounces
19 1/4 inches

She's definitely a little peanut, the same length as Laney was, but 10 ounces lighter! Even the newborn clothes are big on her! She looks a lot like Elena did, but she has more hair, and it's darker. Her skin is considerably darker, too. But pictures speak louder than words, so...

Daddy- still in shock! We just kept saying "I can't believe this is happening, I can't believe we're at the hospital."

An unhappy Audrey, minutes after she was born... hearing her cry in the delivery room was the coolest thing. Best feeling in the world...

Hanging out with Grandma, who got to be there (in the waiting room, anyway) while Audrey was born. In a strange hospital far away from home, we wanted (or I wanted) my mommy!

Cleaned up and ready for bed time... as we all were!

So that's the brief update... there is, of course, quite the story! But I'm still in the hospital (gotta love wifi) and still a little overwhelmed! Look for more pics and the full story next week! For now, we're relaxing and hoping to go home soon!

Progress

…but not really on the whole labor front, which is A-Ok with me! :)  Instead, we’re making progress in getting ready for Miss Audrey!

Our accomplishments over the past week:

Last Saturday we finally got a second rod hung in the girls’ closet!  It doesn’t actually look like this anymore, because I had to put back the 6 tubs of Laney clothes!  But soon it will be cleaned out and organized, with clothes on both rods!

The bassinet came in, and I got it all put together.  Ok, so I didn’t get it all put together by myself, Josh definitely helped when I was ready to start beating it like they do in Look Who’s Talking.  But it looks pretty sweet with Audrey’s pink blanket hanging out of it!

But the funniest story of all is definitely the stroller.  I wouldn’t tell it, because I’m rather ashamed of how high maintenance I ended up, but it probably should be preserved for humor later! :)

So, I posted before that I decided to splurge on a new car seat cover so it would match a double stroller, since they didn’t make the strollers in the Pooh pattern.  It came, and I loved the pattern I chose, which was called Brentwood.  So, a couple of weeks later (a couple of weeks ago, now) I got asked about it.  online and ordered the stroller to match from Amazon.  Pretty quickly, they canceled my order because they were out of stock.  Bummed, I looked around and found another site to order it from.  They processed my order, and then said it was backordered and it would take a couple of weeks.  I decided I could be patient… meanwhile, as I looked around online, more and more sites seemed to be running out of the stroller, which made me nervous.  So I emailed Graco, and asked about it.  Yeah, they emailed back and said it was being DISCONTINUED! 

Worried, I looked eBay, assuming that anyone selling it on eBay, would already have it.  So, I found one and bought it from a guy, and canceled my other order for it.  I waited a day or two, then asked the eBay guy for a tracking number when it said the product had shipped.  Yep, not so much- he said “Oh, I just tried to order that and Graco said it’ll be 3-4 weeks.”  Not cool.  So I called Graco, and asked someone in service whether it was actually discontinued or just backordered.  After SEVERAL minutes on the phone, he tells me that it’s not discontinued.  But, it’s scheduled to be discontinued, there aren’t any in the warehouse, and they aren’t making anymore.  Which sounds like it’s already discontinued to me, but whatever! 

The customer service guy was not too helpful, except that he finally admitted that, if a retailer didn’t have the stroller now, they weren’t getting it.  And he said that the only store that physically carried the strollers (and therefore might still have some in stock) was Baby Depot, a part of Burlington Coat Factory.   None of those near here…

So after this conversation, I called Josh to update him on the whole situation… and he suggested that it would be worth it to drive to St. Louis to a Baby Depot if it meant we would actually get the stroller.  So, he called the store, and found they actually had one in stock!  And the most wonderful husband in the world grabbed his Garmin and his new cds, and headed to St. Louis Tuesday after work!  He had success, though, FINALLY, and brought home the stroller! 

All in all, probably way more work than the stroller was worth… but I got it put together, and it is awful cute! 

Laney was fascinated with me building it, and had to try it out once it was done:

It really is a nice stroller, though.  It folds up as easily as our single stroller, and it’s the same width so it’ll fit through doors, etc. without much trouble.  It has a cup holder on the front, and on the handle, and a nice little closed compartment, too.  So, yeah, I love it… I just wish it’d been a little easier to get ahold of!

And, the best part of having stuff to build, at least as far as Laney is concerned, is the bubble wrap! :)

As far as doctor’s appointments this week, nothing much to report.  I gained 1.5 pounds (!!!!!), but I guess that’s not so bad… still a couple of pounds under where I started.  Audrey looked good, although she was more interested in napping than in doing her practice breathing!  I haven’t really progressed any farther, she said I was still about 1 cm, and maybe a little thinner.  So I’ll probably still be pregnant for awhile, which, since we’re headed to Branson this weekend, and my doctor is gone all next week, I’m ok with! 

Hard to believe… two weeks from tomorrow and we’ll be meeting this little girl!!!

Week 36 Checkup

Well, it has begun… the weeks of “waist down” appointments started yesterday with my 36 week appointment.  I figured they were coming, and I dreaded them as much as I did last time!  But, well, I guess they’re a necessary evil! 

Other than having to sit on the table with no pants on and a sheet covering my lap as best I could manage (I really think I’d rather just wear the gown, something about wearing my sweater but not having anything on the bottom is what makes it so weird), this week’s appointments went pretty well.

In the ultrasound, they checked Audrey’s size… they think she is about 6 lbs, 3 oz, which is the 63rd percentile, right where she has been the whole time as far as size goes.  If she gains about 1/2 a pound a week like they expect her to, then she’ll be a little bigger than Laney when she’s born.  Of course, it’s all a guess! 

Some cute pics… I can never manage to get important appointments (like checking weight) to coincide with getting good pics during the ultrasound.  So, these are actually pictures of Audrey at 35 weeks… but close enough! 

 

Ok… so this is a profile shot, with her head to the right (the bright white part is her forehead down to her nose).  Then, the two little balls on the left are her hands- she was sleeping with her hands curled up by her face.  Thought that was pretty cute!

 

This one she’s looking at you, her head to the right again, and her hands still up by her face.  Not a clear, but still pretty cute!

 

And, just for fun, a 36 week belly shot, because I feel like a massive whale… (yes, I’m wearing cat pjs… not much is comfortable anymore!)

  

As far as being pregnant… it’s still not too bad.  I’m definitely less comfortable this week than I have been.  I’m having contractions pretty often (although nothing real or regular).  Dr. B. said I was 1 cm dialated, which is about where I was at this point with Laney, too.  As far as weight, I gained about another 1/2 pound… I’m about 5 1/2 pounds in the negative still… so looking at probably going into the hospital weighing about what I weighed when I got pregnant… so that’s not so bad! :)  Sleeping is not working so well, it’s just not so easy to get comfortable.  Blood sugar is still pretty well controlled, as long as I control myself! :)  Which I’ve done pretty well, I just give myself an occasional meal “off.” 

I am definitely nesting, though… I have a whole list of stuff that I want/need to get done over spring break… we are putting in a second closet rod this weekend, so I can get out Laney’s newborn clothes and hang them.  I am thankful to have spring break that week before my c-section, so that I have that time built in to really get ready… now I just have to make it that long! :) 

So that’s about it… 3 more weeks…

Week 34 Appt & Belly Shot

Appointments this week went fine, I had a meeting afterwards so we were kind of in a hurry!  Luckily, Audrey cooperated and did all of her “tricks” for the ultrasound right away!  And we managed to get one good picture to take with me, which is one of the best profiles we’ve gotten so far.  She just likes to bury her head and face, so profiles have been hard to come by! 

So that’s a hand on the left, then you can see the profile of her forehead and face starting on the right.  She’s got her lips pursed, so that’s what the big bump is there!  And the bright shiny white part is her chest.  She had her lips moving the whole time: sticking her tongue out, licking her lips, yawning… it was pretty funny!

I gained just under half a pound this week, which is about what they want her to gain per week at this point, so that’s good!  And everything else looked good.  I’ve been having a few contractions, but nothing serious… The only real complaint I have right now is the restless legs!  Anybody have any good suggestions?  They’ve been keeping me awake at night, and it’s exhausting!

And, just for fun, although it’s from a couple weeks ago (and I feel like I get bigger every day right now), here’s a belly shot from our weekend in IL, which makes it when I was 32 weeks. 

Just looking at it, I already feel like I’m way bigger.  But I thought that right after we took it, too!!

Prest-O Change-O

So, I said that we decided to splurge on a new car seat cover, since they don’t make our Winnie the Pooh pattern in a double stroller.  I ordered the new cover last week, and SURPRISE!  It came today!  I was pretty excited, so I decided to go ahead and switch them!

Here’s the before… Pooh is cute, but…  

 

…this is cuter!

 

So this is the other pattern, it’s called Brentwood.  It wasn’t my absolute favorite, but the ones that were my favorites and fit our car seat only came in double strollers that were $200+ and that just wasn’t happening!  So the stroller we’d been looking at came in Brentwood, and I thought it was pretty.  What’s cool is that it ended up having a little green in it, which is good since the straps are green from the Pooh pattern.  Anyway, I think it’s pretty cute!  Now I just need to order the stroller…

It was actually really easy to change the cover over, but what was weird was seeing how little the space for the baby is after I put the straps back down to the bottom hole, and put the little head thing on.  Hard to believe Laney used to be that small, and scary to think we’ll have another one that little soon!

In other news, the doctor’s appointments went fine this past week.  I gained just over a pound!!  I guess it was inevitable, at some point I have to gain some weight!  That actually puts me at 2 pounds in the last two weeks!  I’m still down about 7 pounds total, though, so I guess I should be happy about that!  And I spent all of last weekend in IL with Grandma Price’s candy drawer, so maybe a pound isn’t so bad after all!

6 more weeks until we get to meet this little lady!  Can’t wait!

Weight Check!

Well, this is a little late because last week was a CRAZY week, and then I was in IL all weekend hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Price, but I thought I’d go ahead and update on last week’s appointments, since we got to check Audrey’s weight!  She now weighs about 4 lbs, 5 oz, which is around the 63rd percentile, which is right where she was a month ago, the last time we checked her weight.  Anyway… so that’s good news, because it means she’s staying at the right size, not growing too big too fast. 

Other than that, not much to report.  I gained a little weight- about 8/10ths of a pound.  Blood sugars still all look good, and my blood work all came back normal.  As of last Friday, 7 weeks until my c-section!  Crazy to be thinking about it in a matter of that FEW weeks!  I know they will fly by!

As far as non-medical stuff, I am still pretty much liking being pregnant!  I haven’t been having many BH contractions, so that’s good.  And I’m still not so huge that I’m uncomfortable.  Audrey moves TONS, and I really love feeling her move around.  I remember with Laney that I was almost sad in the days after she was born because I couldn’t feel her moving around inside me anymore… seems silly, since I could now SEE her moving around OUTSIDE of me, but that’s how I felt.  And I imagine I will feel the same with this one.  It’s just such a special feeling.

Anyway… we’re slowly picking up the things we need for Audrey.  There really aren’t that many things we need, since we are reusing so much from Laney.  I decided to have one major splurge and replace the cover on the car seat.  They don’t make the pattern that we have anymore, so I couldn’t get a double stroller to match.  And neither of us really liked the closest pattern… anyway, so I decided it was worth a splurge… I ordered the cover today, in the Brentwood pattern from Graco.  Then all that’s left to buy is a bassinet, the stroller, and a spare closet rod so we can have twice the cute little girl clothes in the closet! :) 

Well, just to reward you for reading a long post… here are a few pics from my latest ultrasounds!

Audrey Lou, at 32 weeks!

To help decipher the ultrasound: her head is on the right, and she’s turned looking at you.  The white line is her nose, then the rounded part is her right cheek.  The darker line beneath the nose is her mouth.  Chubby cheeks, anyone?! :)  

 

This one is funnier… this is actually from my ultrasound 2 weeks ago, so it’s Audrey at 31 weeks.  Anyway, with Laney, they kept telling me how much hair she had.  Seriously, every ultrasound they would mention it.  And then she came out bald!  So, just for fun, I asked the ultrasound tech whether she could tell if there was hair.  And, yep, sure enough, it looks like there’s lots of hair!

So, I’m interested to see if Audrey actually comes out with hair, or if she’ll just have the little old man fringe like Laney did!  Just from ultrasounds, they seem like they look pretty similar- chubby cheeks, hair, Holt chin… but their coloring will probably make all of the difference!  Audrey could come out with dark hair and light eyes!  You never know…

Anyway, so there’s the update!  I did take a belly pic this weekend while I was in IL, but Jess actually took it, so I’ll post it when I get the pics from her!  It’s not that exciting, I don’t look all that big!  Although I am definitely clearly pregnant now, there’s no mistaking it! 

6.5 weeks… hard to believe!!

Hiccups!

Well, nothing too interesting to report from my appointments yesterday. They were amazingly quick- my ultrasound took less than 10 minutes, so I was done with all three appointments and out the door in less than an hour. Pretty sweet...

The one cool thing was that Audrey had the hiccups during the ultrasound! It was pretty funny to watch her jerk on the screen at the same time I could feel her hit the inside of me! She had them the whole ultrasound, but managed to do her breathing and everything anyway.

Anyway, everything looked good... so another week down! My c-section is 9 weeks from tomorrow! :)