Isabella has arrived!

Our little Isabella Rose was born on Monday, April 13th at 11:40 am. She weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and measured 20 inches long. She is beautiful. We were scheduled to be induced on the 14th, but didn't need to go to that appointment! My water broke between 4 and 5 in the morning on Monday and I started having contractions. When we timed them, they were about 9 minutes apart. Around 8:00 Art wanted to go to the hospital. All the books and our classes say that you should labor at home as long as you can, until the contractions are about 5 minutes apart. So I fought him the entire way. I was scared, plus I didn't think it was real, and I just didn't want to go. But we went. We got there and they examined me and found that yes my water did in fact break and that I was 4-5 cm dilated. That was incredible to us because last Thursday at the doctor, I was only 1 cm. So the doctor came in and did an exam and he kept saying that her head was really high up (this was not our normal doctor, it was the one on call). So he did an ultrasound and as luck would have it, she was breech. They're thinking that she had been breech for quite a few weeks, but that we had been misinformed about her position. Nice huh? So anyways, they gave us the options, and on the top of the list was a c-section. That scared me. Well, what scared me more was that she was breech. So we decided on doing the c-section because the other options were too dangerous and not a sure thing. From the time we decided it was a go til the time they got us in the operating room was amazingly fast. Once in the room, she was out within minutes. I barely got to see her, but I could hear her crying and everything. Art got to go to the nursery with her while the stitched me all up. I lost a bit of blood during the surgery, so it took a little bit longer. Then we went to a recovery room. I was pretty out of it there. After all that they took us to our regular room. She got to be in the room with us the whole time. She's so precious. Because of it being a c-section, we had to spend 4 days, 3 nights in the hospital. That seemed like forever. At one point they thought it would be longer because they discovered she was slightly jaundice. So they started doing light therapy with a bili bed on Wednesday. Then yesterday they checked her jaundice levels and they had gone down, so they ordered us a bili bed to take home. She has to stay on it as much as possible until Sunday. It's really hard because we want to hold and cuddle her and we can't. We have to leave her on the bed. She's doing great though. Breast feeding is going very well. I'm doing good too, starting to get up and walk around more without it hurting so badly. Art is doing fantastic, he loves being a dad so much! Here are a few pictures, I'll post more once we have them on the computer.

She's Coming!

Sorry I don't have any cute pictures to go along with this entry. I'm not feeling very photogenic these days! We had our 38 week doctor appointment today. The doctor wants me to stop working immediately. So I guess today was officially my last day. My blood pressure was a little high and I've been swelling really bad in my hands and feet. I'm not on bed rest, but I have to stay off my feet as much as possible. Hard to do when you're chasing after a classroom full of 1st graders :) So tomorrow I'm just going to go in and get the last minute things ready for my sub. That really was great news to hear because I've really been struggling at school. Each day was getting harder and harder. And then for the even better news...as you all know, because of the stroke that I had, the doctor wasn't going to let me go past my due date. So we asked about that today and how that will work. We were just expecting to hear that we'd play it by ear and wait and see sort of thing. Nope. We're scheduled to be induced on April 14th! So unless she makes her debut early, Isabella will be here on the 14th. That is still sinking in for me. I cannot fathom that in a week and a half she'll be here. It's not that much earlier than our original due date of the 17th, but something about knowing for sure made it seem more real. We'll be going in at 7 am that morning to start the process. The doctor didn't seem to think that she'll come early because I haven't really had any contractions and I haven't started dilating. Who knows though. Stranger things have happened! I think that both Art and I were on cloud nine when we left the doctor's office. It really took us by surprise, in a good way! 11 days to go. AHHHHHH!

34 Weeks and Counting...

Well here we are, 34 weeks pregnant. Just for comparison. I posted a picture back in October where I'm wearing this same shirt, so you can see the size difference. There is a definite difference between that 3 month picture and this, almost, 9 month picture! I feel like I'm counting the days at this point. We had an appointment last Thursday and the doctor estimated that Isabella weighs about 4 1/2 pounds right now. She's already head down, ready to go. We also found out that at week 34 her lungs are pretty much fully developed, so basically she can come at any time and be healthy. We'd like her to wait til at least 36 or 38 weeks though! I am definitely feeling this later stage of pregnancy. Being at school is getting very hard, especially considering my classroom is on the second floor. My students are all getting really excited about the baby though. They talk to her and pat my belly. Kids are so funny! I don't think they've quite made the connection that I won't be coming back to teach them once the baby is born. I'm planning on taking the week before our due date off of work, so my last day will be April 10th. A month from today, which is so hard to believe, but refreshing at the same time. We're very ready now, we've got the nursery completely done and we actually have the hospital bags packed and ready to go. Nervousness about labor is setting in and I don't know that I'm going to ever feel prepared, no matter how much we do beforehand. We seriously need to start bets about when she's going to arrive :)

Baby Shower

Over the weekend we had a lovely baby shower! It was great. We got a lot of things that we really needed for the baby. I don't know what where we're going to put all the clothes we got! It was a lot of fun opening all the presents and seeing all the cute, girly things. I'm 30 weeks along right now. Feeling pretty good, other than this nasty cold that I've caught. We're both very ready for our little girl to arrive.

January Happenings

The month of January has been fun for us, especially considering that we're not one month closer to having our little one! We're now in our 29th week and in our third trimester! This month also brought another fun event, Art's 28th birthday! We enjoyed the day before hanging out at Dave and Busters together and on his actual birthday spent the day with his parents. Art really enjoyed putting together one of his new presents for the baby, a swing.

A few weeks prior to his birthday, I had also surprised him with the bedding we'd been wanting for the nursery. The nursery is almost complete now, just a few final touches and we're ready for Izzy to be here!
Everything is really coming together in preparation for the baby. Art is so excited that he even likes to write her little messages on my growing belly. We're excited for February to start tomorrow with our annual Super Bowl bash!

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve this year we went down to Denver to spend some time with our friends Brett and Theresa. They host a great party every year with a theme. This year the theme was the Best of SNL. Art and I dressed up as Wayne and Garth. Art was Wayne and I was Garth. Our costumes included a few Top Ten lists, drumsticks, and a guitar. I think we looked pretty good!

The party was at Theresa's parent's house in their newly finished, incredible basement. Here is Art and Brett, dressed as SNL character Matt Foley ("...in a van down by the river."), playing foosball. We had a really good time bringing in the New Year. We can't believe it's 2009.

On a side note, everything is going great with the pregnancy. I feel like I'm getting bigger every day. We have a doctor's appointment next week. Right now we are 25 weeks along. She's kicking all the time, Art can feel the kicks now too. She'll be here before we know it!

Gizmo's First Grooming Experience

For Christmas we thought we'd get our precious little Gizmo groomed. For those of you that have seen Gizmo, he's a big ball of fluff. He is most definately a long haired cat. He has a huge fluffy tail and a thick white beard below his chin. Because of this he sheds constantly and has hair ball issues. Poor little guy. So a few days ago I took him to the groomer. Getting him in the car was quite interesting and when I dropped him off I felt so horrible. He was shaking and meowing, he was down right scared. So here is his before shot.

And here is his after. He looks like a sheep that just got shaved when you see him up close. It's kind of hard to see in the pictures. The most hilarious part is that the short hair stops about a 1/2 inch below his head and tail. So his head and tail still have the long fluffy hair. We think he likes it though because he wants us to pet him all the time lately. He weighed 13 pounds with all his hair and since his haircut he weighs just a little over 12 pounds. We like our big fluffy Gizmo a little bit better!