Meet the Grandparents and Amery's Baptism

Amery had a big week! My parents came to town on Tuesday to meet their first grandson for the first time. Sorry for the quick captions. I'll try and post more baptism photos if I get time.

Hanging out with grandpa. He even babysat a couple of times!

Grandma was a huge help. We miss her around here!


Amery also met his godfather, Drew.

Jon's favorite picture from the baptism. We like to call it the Reservoir Dogs shot.

I'm trying to update, I really am

I have a bunch of cute pictures from my parents' visit but blogger will not let me upload them for some reason. Keep checking back and hopefully I will get it figured out soon!

The Rest of the Pro Pics

Here is a slideshow with a bunch more newborn pics plus some family photos. I love them all, especially the ones of Jon and Amery together.

http://www.lifeinmotionphotography.com/slideshows/amery/

POST UPDATE!

Huge congratulations to our photographer, Lyndsay Stradtner, for being named Critic's Pick for the Best Kids Photographer for 2008 by the Austin Chronicle!! What a huge and well-deserved honor.

First bath and snuggling with papa

These pictures are already a week old, but I just now had a few minutes to upload them.



Amery's first bath at home.

My two boys.

A few more

These are from Lynday's Flickr photostream. Bask in the cuteness.

Sneak Peek: Professional Newborn Pics

Amery had his own personal paparazzi yesterday morning. After a fabulous photo shoot with Lyndsay Stradtner of Life in Motion Photography and my good friend M.C. Urban, I think his head may be a little big for his britches. We may need to take away his platinum card and the BMW for a weekend to bring him back down to Earth.

Lyndsay posted a couple of teaser pics on her blog last night. Click here to see them (scroll to the bottom of the post).

Here's one that M.C. took and sent me last night. She's on her way out of town this morning, but you can bet I will be hounding her for the rest when she gets back!

One Week Old

Amery was born one week ago today!

Papa's log on the blog

What a great blessing from God.... My son Amery is beautiful and healthy. Mama did so awesome. I love you both..... The best day of my life.... - Papa

38w4d - Well, now I know what they feel like.

Contractions that is. Real ones, not the phony Braxton Hicks contractions that I've been getting for a couple of months. To those readers with ovaries, they feel like really bad cramps that all kind of run together and finally start to break in between. To those of you without, they feel like someone squeezing your gut while simultaneously twisting your organs around.

Things have calmed down now, but yesterday was a long day. I woke up feeling very very crampy. The crampiness started to have little breaks in between so Jon came home. When he got home I took my BP and it was 150/98 (higher than it was last week at the doctor's office). That was what actually worried me the most. I called and they told me to come in. Got to the OB's office and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor and the BP monitor. My BP was still pretty high so the nurse said that alone was reason for me to come in. My contractions were three minutes apart - three! They tell you to call or come in anytime they are five minutes apart for a full hour. After about an hour, the nurse checked my progress I was still only 1 cm. She wanted us to go to labor & delivery across the street at the hospital for labs, but when she couldn't get a hold of my doc (in surgery) or the other doc on call (in a birth) she changed her mind and told us to go get a light lunch and come back. When we went back I was still having contractions but my BP was lower and still no progress.

Sooo...here we are. She told I could walk a little bit around the neighborhood but not too much because of my BP thing. Jon went out and got me a yoga ball last night so I've been sitting and bouncing on that to see if it gets us anywhere. She also told me to take something to help me sleep at night. Tylenol PM, I would marry you if it were legal in Texas. We weren't surprised we got sent home and I'm actually glad the contractions are farther apart now. I either wanted them to STOP or GO, because hanging out in labor limbo is no fun.

Update from Monday

Sorry for not posting sooner. Lots of people have emailed me for an update on my Monday check up. Good news. My blood pressure was down to 108/68 which is super awesome. So, no more talk of inductions for a while I hope. I have an appointment with my doctor on Friday so we'll see where we are then. All I have to do now is get through this last week of work before I can start my leave.

38 Weeks - Modified Bedrest

Well, it looks like I haven't been lounging around eating enough bon-bons lately. I went in for my regular appointment yesterday and my blood pressure was a bit high (130/93 vs my normal 120/80). My feet and legs have been a bit swollen as well, but this was the first time the swelling was combined with high BP. This is a common concern near the end of pregnancy and there is no way to tell who will get it and who won't. I went back in this morning and, while it wasn't exactly stellar at 136/81, it was really no worse. That as well as my bloodwork coming back normal was enough to ward off any talk of inducing in the next few days. I go back on Monday for another BP check so we'll see how it goes then.

In the meantime, my doctor has put me on modified bedrest. I can still work my last week next week, but I need to work from home where I can recline. I guess sitting upright at a desk can cause fluid to pool in my legs and feet even if I try to keep them up. Oh yeah, when I was weighed at my appointment this morning I was 2 pounds lighter than I was yesterday afternoon. So basically I lost 2 pounds of water weight (swelling) overnight just by laying down more. Stay tuned for an update on Monday, but I suspect if I follow her advice all will continue to be well.

Ahem. (points to ticker)

We are in the "teens" today! Crazy.

37 Weeks and Progress

I just got back from my 37 week appointment today and got some good news from my doctor. I am 1 cm dilated, 30% effaced, and baby boy is head-down (that's the direction he should be facing in case you passed notes through sex ed class). Her exact words were "he's pretty far down there" meaning he is what they call "engaged." In other words, he's in position to bail out first chance he gets. The dilation/effacement thing doesn't mean a whole lot by itself since one can sit at 1 cm for weeks. The fact that his head is down low hopefully means that I have a better chance of being more dilated when I see her next week.

p.s. I'm messing around with some different blog backgrounds, so it might change a few times before I find one I like best.

More Maternity Pics!

They're done! Yay! My awesome photographer and now friend, Lyndsay Stradtner, put together a great slideshow of a whole bunch of pictures from our session a couple of weeks ago. I love them and I'm so glad I have these pictures to look back on and remember how exciting this time was for me. Once again, consider yourself warned: you will see more of my big bare belly in these pictures than you will ever want to see.

Click here for a slideshow with music. Sometimes it takes a little time to load up so be patient. Oh, and since we have failed miserably to keep his name a secret to pretty much everyone but extended family, I told Lyndsay to go ahead and include his name at the beginning. Also keep an eye out for Kona's pictorial debut.

And because it's my favorite:

New Poll!

Vote on when you think Baby S will arrive!

Oh, and that second option should read "on HIS due date" but Blogger won't let me change it.

Sneak Peek (35w6d)

Are you tired of opening this page only to see a picture of my fat feet? I thought so. Time to share some nicer angles of "little" ole me. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be photographed by a very talented photographer - Lyndsay Stradtner - as well as my good friend MC who is shadowing Lyndsay to enhance her own awesome photographic abilities.

Lyndsay has already posted three "sneak peek" photos from our session on her blog. Warning: These photos include my bare pregnant belly, so if that freaks you out, I guess you won't get to see my awesome pictures. :) Lyndsay is putting together a slideshow with a whole bunch of other shots from the session, so stay tuned and I will post a link to it as soon as it's finished. Kona may even make an appearance in a few of them.

To any of our readers in the Austin area, please consider hiring Lyndsay Stradtner of Life in Motion Photography to photograph your family. She is one of the nicest most talented people I have met, and you will not be disappointed.

Missing: Two Ankles

Last seen about two weeks ago.

Keep in mind that I'm only 32 weeks and I sit on my butt in front of a computer all day. The next time you encounter a pregnant waitress, salesperson, or some other profession that requires her to be on her feet all day, please be extra nice to her.

More Shower Pics

Two more to be exact. Sorry all, we were just having too much fun to take more than just pictures of me opening gifts.


The cake was beautiful and very tasty. Light blue whipped cream frosting with dark brown ribbons. Good work, Jen.


And that's me. Ann took a ton of gift-opening pictures - thanks Annie! However, you only get to see the one that hints at the fact that I indeed was born with only one chin, and that I will someday get rid of the second and third chins that have appeared thanks to baby boy here.

30w2d

It's been a while since I posted a new belly picture. Sorry it's blurry. The camera battery was about to die so Jon had to take it fast. You get the idea.



Last Saturday was my shower in Austin. It was a blast and I have a bunch of pictures to post, but they're on Ann's camera at the moment. As soon as she gets a chance to upload them I will post a re-cap. I do have a couple of pictures of the awesome diaper/gift cake made from scratch by my sister-in-law, Jen. Yeah, she made this:


Front


Back


Each diaper was individually wrapped with a piece of ribbon. That is some serious attention to detail. You would not believe how excited I was about the pizza pan that made up the base of the cake. See, I've got this addiction to Tombstone Pepperoni Pizza that started way before I was pregnant and I've never had a real life pizza pan before.

A Very Austin-y Weekend

The thing to do on the weekends when you live in the Austin area is to take your boat out on "the lake" along with a bunch of friends, a bunch of beer, and 10+ gallons of sunscreen. Most often, "the lake" refers to Lake Travis.

Funny story about this terminology. When Jon and I were engaged in 2004, I took a trip to Minnesota without him over the 4th of July holiday to scope out wedding reception sites with my mom and sister. During one phone conversation with him, I told him I was bummed out and bored because all of my friends were up at the lake for the holiday. He said, well, why don't you just go to the lake and find them? I started laughing so Jon says, what's so funny? I told him, in Minnesota, the term "up at the lake" refers to any of 15,000 individual lakes, not just one lake like where he grew up in Austin. I would have been driving for weeks trying to find all my friends at their respective lake cabins.

Jon's parents were kind enough to let us take their boat out last weekend and we had a great time.


Captain Jon.


Sean and Tyler with some delicious Lone Star beer given to them by fellow boaters after the guys drank all the beer on our boat.


In Texas, you are never more than a stone's throw from the nearest BBQ joint. Brisket y'all?


Please refrain from asking if there are whales in Lake Travis. That's just pregnant me and Jon hanging out in the boat while Sean took the helm for a bit.


This picture gives you a small sense for how popular this lake is. We parked for a while in an area called Devil's Cove (might be the same thing as Devil's Hollow on the map link above). This is basically a long and narrow inlet where everyone parks their boats and ties off to the boat next to them. Then it's just one big party until the food and drink run out. This is just one row of about 50 rows of boats that were packed into this little area. Crazy.


I swore I wasn't going to subject our readers to yet another nursery post, but I can't help it. On Friday I received a package from mom containing the long-awaited window seat cover. I am in love with it and can't wait to hang out in the window seat and read stories with our little guy:

Third Trimester (and a How-To)

Third trimester already! As in home stretch. As in three months left. As in let's get some crap done before baby boy gets here! (Yeah, that's his name, Baby Boy. No, we don't have a name yet. No, we're not going to tell when we do. No, I don't want to talk about it, but thanks for your concern, we love you, really).

Two things we accomplished this past weekend were to hang a room-darkening shade in the nursery (thanks mom!) and complete the window valance. I thought I would share with you how I painstakingly created this masterful work of wondow art.

How to Create a Window Valance

1. Take old window valance and have mom iron on some ribbon when she's visiting you.
2. Decide you need a second one to make it look fuller.
3. Purchase window panel that is "pretty close" to the same color at Target since first window valance has been discontinued.
4. Set up sewing machine.
5. Get overwhelmed and ask mom to do it next time you are visiting home state. Tell her you thought it would be so much more special for Baby Boy to have something made by grandma.
6. Hang second valance and curse when it doesn't match the first. Decide to make second (now third) valance out of remaining window panel fabric.
7. Set up sewing machine.
8. Get overwhelmed and ask mother-in-law to do it next time you are visiting her. Tell her you thought it would be so much more special for Baby Boy to have something made by grandma.
9. Iron ribbon on both new valances.
10. Hang valances and brag on your blog about your ribbon-ironing-on abilities.


New valance. Check out the ribbon. I did that.


New room-darkening shade. It works so well in fact that I need to add some sheers for when we want some diffused sunlight in there.

More Nursery Progress

We finally finished the closet! Well, almost, I have a lot of organizing and label-making to do yet. Jon did the painting and fixed the holes I put in the drywall (oops) and I installed the closet organizer. It's a far cry from my dream Elfa closet system at the Container Store, but it'll work. He even has an extra hanging rack to grow on.





I also had a chance to wash and put on one of the cute sheets and the changing pad cover I received from Jamie and my Aunt Lisa at the shower last week:

Double Digits

I just want to point out that our baby ticker is now showing double digits. :)

Baby Shower - Minneapolis

Here are a couple of pics from my joint baby shower with my cousin Jamie in Minneapolis last Saturday. I will post more as I get them. Enjoy!

(Some people told me all they could see was red x's for a while - I think I have that fixed).

With Grandma.

With diaper cake made by Aunt Gerry.

Opening gifts with Jamie.

Still opening gifts. Our friends and family were very generous.

The cake made by our family friend, Carolyn. Carolyn has made all my cakes since I was a little girl.

23w4d

You don't get to see my head because the only shot I could get with the self-timer this morning included a horrendous bottom-up view of my double-chin. I figure, let's give the people what they want, the gut shot:





Kona hasn't been getting much face time on the blog these days, so I'm posting a picture of him with his Humunga Tongue:

Chris and Ann's Wedding

This is going to be a short post, but I wanted to get some pictures up of the fun times we had at Chris and Ann's Wedding in Colorado on Saturday. If you would like to see the full set of pictures, click here.


Jon and Shannon


"Godfather" Drew and Shannon


Ann and Jon


The Couple's First Dance


Jon and Cojimar


Drew, Shannon, Jon, Nathan, and Lopey


Mac, Louriann, Jon, and Shannon
(I'm sporting a 23-week baby belly folks, cut me some slack on the arm pudge).


The lovely bride at the end of the night.


I couldn't resist including this picture of the couple's adorable niece.