Welcome Emery Grace!

After 30+ hours of labor, she's finally here and we couldn't be more in love! Let me share a little of my labor story...my contractions started around 11:00 pm on the 24th--they were very mild and didn't hurt, but I still couldn't sleep at all that night. Ethan didn't go to work the next day and we went about like normal until my contractions got to be about 10 minutes apart around 2:00pm. The grandparents had been put on alert and were making their way up. We went to see the doctor around 3:30 and he confirmed that I was officially in labor and 3 cm dilated. My contractions were no longer mild at this point and the doctor gave me the choice to go over to the hospital or to go home and labor it out until they were coming every 5minutes. We went home for a few hours and I squeezed poor Ethan's hand off with each and every contraction until about 8:00. We headed to the hospital, but first we stopped at Taco Bell so Ethan could grab a quick bite--nothing like having a contraction in the line for the drive through!
We checked into the hospital and when they checked me around 9:00 I was only 4 cm. I was pretty bummed--only 1 cm after 5 hours of pain! I decided to get out of bed and walk around with Ethan to try to speed things along. We cruised around the maternity ward for an hour, stopping every few minutes for my contractions. Long story short, when they checked me again I hadn't made any progress, so I decided it was time for the epidural. Best decision I ever made! I was finally able to get some much needed sleep (it was about midnight by this time).
I was finally 10 cm around 6:00am, I started pushing around 7:00 and out she came at 7:54am! They put her on my chest and she just stared at me for a minute, then she pooped all over me and started crying! She weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and measured 19.75 inches long. She is the sweetest baby girl and we are so in love with her. Here are some pictures from her first few days.

It's Go Time!

Here's one last belly picture for your viewing enjoyment! I can't believe my due date is tomorrow! I feel ready after having this week off work, I'm just playing the waiting game now. I hope she doesn't make us wait too long! This is probably the last picture you'll get of me, as this blog is about to become mostly about our little munchkin. I can't promise I'll be as diligent as I have been with my weekly posts, but I will do my best.

Less than 2 weeks to go!

These last few weeks have really flown by, and we are getting very excited to finally get to meet our little one. So I was kind of a late bloomer with the belly, but it has definitely made up for lost time lately!

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today and Brie, Brent, Koa and I went to Pismo to take in a little sun and sand. I also discovered the Carter's outlet store in Pismo which I'm sure will prove to be dangerous!

Holy Belly!!!

I knew my belly had gotten bigger in these last few weeks, but I didn't realize just how big until I uploaded these pictures! WOW! I have less than 3 weeks left, so I guess it can't get too much bigger. We'll see...

4 weeks to go!

I'm officially in my 9th month! Things are still going smoothly for me, which is great because I plan on working for another 3 weeks. We'll see if the little one cooperates with my plans.

I had a wonderful weekend of baby showers and baby J. got some really cute stuff. Thanks to everyone for being so generous and for helping me celebrate!

Valentine's Day in the park

This is our 10th Valentine's Day together and we spent this one having a picnic in the park and enjoying the beautiful weather. After our picnic we came home and did some more work in the nursery. Here's our progress so far...

8 1/2 Months...6 weeks left!

We had round 2 with the 3D pictures yesterday, and she was slightly more cooperative than last time. Her hand is still in front of her mouth, and the cord is in front of her face, so this is the best picture we could get. She still looks pretty cute to me! She's weighing in at about 5lbs 3oz, which puts her right around 8 lbs at delivery. I'm hoping she doesn't get any bigger than that for my sake!