Pretty Evie

So yesterday turned out ok. Daddy ended up going to work and coming home early really sick so it was truly a girl's day 'alone' for most of the day. We did good though and Evie took some nice naps where Mommy could relax and get chores done. I have seriously had to do laundry at least once a day since she got home from poopie blow-outs and her peeing when I am changing her diaper or the few major spit-ups she's had. It is crazy.

She got her first 'real' bath yesterday where we completely dunked her and didn't just sponge bathe. It went better than the sponge baths but she still hated it. Hopefully she will grow to like them ok?

More pictures up on the Voellmecke's website. Here are two of my new favorites:

Evie and Mommy's First Day 'Alone'

Daddy is at work today for the first time, so it is just us girls and the puppies today. I think Evie is starting to establish a 5:30 & 7:30 a.m. feeding routine because she's eaten at both times pretty much every day since we got home.

I must have been really tired at the 5:30 feeding because I put a diaper on Evie but it completely failed to cover her butt so we had a bit of a blow-out. My bad! I felt awful when I saw the mess my sloppy diapering made:(

New Pics!

I don't plan on posting every time I've added new pics to her galleries, so make sure that you're checking out Evie's photo galleries at:

• Evangeline June
• Evie Fashion Show

They're both already multiple pages and will keep growing as we add more and more stuff. We're pretty picture-crazy, but can you blame us? She's so gorgeous:


Yesterday Evie visited her Great Grandma T and Great Aunt Mary. Great Grandma has especially been looking forward to meeting her, because Evie is the first little girl on my Dad's side of the family since my Aunt Mary (my dad's older sister), and she's been really hoping to have a new baby girl in the family. Evie was happy to oblige!

Evie's Actual Due Date

So today was Evie's actual due date, but she very kindly came 9 days early. We have been having a good time with her--lots of exciting stuff!

Here she is doing 'tummy' time:

She can move her head from one side to the other and the doctor said she had good arm strength because she can already lift herself up using her arms. She is a crazy girl!

I went to the doctor today because I keep getting really bad headaches and my blood pressure is still high, which is the likely cause. He thinks I have chronic hypertension and said my blood pressure spike from the pre-eclampsia should have gone down by now. I am totally bummed and hope he turns out to be wrong, but in the meantime I have to take something to try and bring it down. I swear I have been on more medications since I got pregnant than I ever was before--it is insane.

In good news on my health I have lost almost all the weight I gained during the pregnancy which is awesome since it has only been 9 days! Thank you Evie:)

Evie's First Play Date

Evie had many firsts already this week, including her one week birthday today.

Yesterday, the Fish's came over and we had a wonderful time being new families together. It was also Evie's first 'play date' and they were so cute together--it is funny how different they are in size (and notice how aware they are of each other-not):

Then this morning she had her one week Doctor appointment. She is now 20 1/8 inches long and weighs 7 lb 14 oz, surpassing her birth weight already (which usually takes 2 weeks and not one!) This means that we do not have to wake her to feed her which is very cool and also that the breastfeeding is going well and is actually working. Here she is with daddy in the doctor's office:

Daddy also got to use his diaper bag for the first time--he was so pumped:

Introducing... Evangeline June!

And Baby T's identity is revealed...

Evangeline June
born April 11, 2006 @ 2:15pm
Weight: 7lbs, 8oz
Length: 19.6 inches

So Amy was having contractions pretty regularly starting Sunday night, and we got about this -><- close to calling the doctor when she decided to lay down and rest, and they slowed off. Apparently according to the doctors this is called Prodromal Labor. Her contractions continued through the day on Monday and were pretty regular and getting closer together on Monday night. Around 1am they woke her up and she timed them as they got even closer and more intense... though I didn't actually wake up until she had taken a shower and was drying her hair, around 2:30 or 3. She called the doctor and he said to head on in, so we were hospital bound sometime around 3am on April 11th. In triage we found out Amy's blood pressure was VERY high. It had been normal as of her appointment last Wednesday (and she normally runs low), but after three checks (including changing the cuff) she was still running really high, and they indicated they'd probably admit her based on that... but in ADDITION to that, she was also dilated 5-6cm, so it was definitely game time - Baby T was officially en route.

We were moved back to L&D and Amy was put on Magnesium Sulfate to prevent the high blood pressure from causing seizures. Apparently it makes you pretty dopey, gives blurred vision, weird aches & pains, and just is overall pretty terrible... but for safety's sake, it was for the better. Parents were called in, and the day progressed, as Amy's contractions continued (she opted for an epidural at some point mid-morning, and things went a little more smoothly after that). Apparently the magnesium slows down labor, so they countered that with pytosin (the drug normally used to induce labor), and the day went along. At around 1pm the nurse did the transformer act with the bed, and turned on the spotlights, and Amy started to push. The doctor was called at 1:20 and showed up right around 2pm. Amy did two contractions of pushing with the doctor and out came Evie!


Here she is posing with her Mom (who looks AWESOME after just having gone through all that!) After a bit of bonding, they swept her away to the nursery triage for all the official checks , tests, etc. We visited her while she was up there and though the windows didn't offer any great picture opportunities, it was great to see her spread out wide and relaxing under the warmer. They spent awhile checking her over, but she was in great shape and we got to see her back in person a couple hours later, including some great wide-eyed shots, like the first one above. And look at all that dark hair:


We spent the night in the labor & delivery room Tuesday night, as Amy was still on the magnesium IV (for 24 hours after) and wasn't allowed to leave the bed. Wednesday we were transferred up to the regular Maternity area and we were there Wednesday night and Thursday night (the high blood pressure led the doctors to keep Amy one more night just to be sure). This morning Amy & Evie were discharged and we headed home right around lunch time.

Thanks to everyone who came and visited us in the hospital - it was great seeing everyone and watching everyone meeting Evie. Also thanks much to all the help folks offered and provided, and to those of you who brought her gifts, thanks for those as well. It's truly a great thing having so many friends and family around who love us.

As you might expect, we've already got TONS of pictures of Evie and the whole process. They're currently available in a couple locations - if more come up, I'll add them as well:

• A wide selection (but not all) of our pics
• Evie's fashion show
  
• Nana's page has an initial gallery and a musical slideshow (needs Quicktime!).

Pictures

Here we are at Melting Pot.

I need to correct the weird halo over Beth's head--but maybe this just means she is an angel:)

And here I am on April 9, 2006. About 38 weeks 3 days pregnant, so just a 'little preggie'.

On the left is me today, but it is semi-hard to tell I am pregnant.

See how the side view makes it VERY obvious?

10 days left on the 10th

So it is April 10th and we only have 10 days left until the due date (and a maximum of 14 if we run over and need to be induced). I can hardly believe it!

I am still waiting for that nesting/cleaning frenzy that is supposed to precede labor to kick in but I am not sure it will. Not that I want to clean or anything it just seems to be one of those signs people always talk about.

Yesterday I had a really nice afternoon with the ladies--Beth, Carrie, Jennie and Mo. We went to the Melting Pot and it was yummy! Tons of good food. It was also just nice to chat and hang out and have my last 'hurrah' before life gets a little more complicated with adding baby stuff into going out plans. I have some pictures I will need to post as soon as I load them onto the computer. Because of where the table hits me you can't completely see my huge belly--but I also took another belly pic yesterday for your viewing amusement (as soon as I unlazy and get the pic up there!).

Baby T will be here soon...

Third Weekly Appointment

Baby's heartbeat was 160 today, so back up again from 2 weeks ago. I am 3 cm dilated and still 80% effaced, and the doctor said things are looking really good and we will have a baby soon (which of course we will since I am due 2 weeks from now--crazy!).

Baby has been very shy about moving around the last few days. I wasn't sure if it was because I have this awful head/sinus cold or because there isn't much room in there or what but the doctor decided we should hook me up to the NST machine there in the office. Baby's heartbeat continued to be ok and after being hooked up for about 15 minutes finally moved around a little (I couldn't feel it but the machine registered it). She said everything is ok and that if I have anymore times with very little or no movement for a while to call and they can have me come back in and hook me up to the NST machine again. Hopefully baby will step up and it won't come to that.

So its crazy--in about two weeks we're gonna have a baby! Exciting and slightly scary stuff!

Preggie and Cankle Pics, Look at Your Own Risk

So this top one is from 2 weeks ago and is definitely bigger than the bottom one that I posted at 28 weeks...this would have been 35.5 weeks. I need to get a new one for this week.

And here are the infamous cankles from yesterday, right after I got home from work and took off my socks and shoes. While my ankles themselves might not seem overly large you can see the deep grooves from my socks and I even have ankle roll from where my foot bends. It is so gross. Even worse, this is nly about half as bad as they were last Friday--I was really swollen Friday!