Our Baby Burrito is here!

Here is my last pregnant picture! I have already had my epidural, so that smile is GENUINE!

Here is Luke right after delivery getting some Oxygen. He didn't enjoy being born so much. Even after he was in such a hurry to do it!

He's just a little guy!
This is what he looks like most of the time. A sleeping Baby Burrito!

I really don't think I'm biased when I say he is THE CUTEST baby ever!!

Here is Dr. Shanbour with Luke and the nursing team from the NICU.

My water broke Oct. 18 at 3am. Since it was 3 1/2 weeks early, I didn't know what was going on, and after some debate we decided to go to the hospital, fully prepared to have them tell us to go home. But they didn't! My water had broken, but I hadn't had any contractions or anything yet, so at 5:30am they started me on Petocin to induce labor. It worked. I got my epidural put in about 1pm and immediately felt a lot better and decided that the anesthesiologist was my best friend. I felt A LOT better after that! I highly recommend them. Around 3pm I was ready to go, but Luke wasn't quite convinced yet. He has his head turned in such a way that part of it wasn't doing what it was supposed to. So we waited. And waited. And then about 5:30 my Dr. showed up, very apologetic. He hadn't had a clue that I was in the hospital...and while they had called him upon my check in and he'd had them start my petocin, he had been asleep and had no recolection of that phone call! Hazzard of being a baby doctor I guess! Luke was born at 6:02pm. He flunked his Apgar with flying colors the first time...he got a 2!...but he quickly improved and ended up with a 9. We'll see if this continues to be a life pattern! haha

We left the hospital on Saturday. Mom and dad were there to help Kyle and I Saturday and Sunday and then went home on Monday morning. Then my friend Cindy came Tuesday evening and she just left about an hour ago (Friday). So I'm on my own now!

Luke had his first appointment with his Pediatrician yesterday. It went well. I had a whole list of questions that I brought with me and basically the answer to all of it was, he's fine, relax. I'm going to have to work on that! He also weighed in at 5lbs 14 oz so he's almost back to his birth weight, which is good. We have another appointment next Thursday.

Our nights have been going pretty well overall. I had 2 rough nights in a row, Monday night and Tuesday night, but luckily Cindy was here to help with the 2nd one, so that was good. He's pretty typical, I guess. He eats, sleeps, and makes dirty diapers! We're currently have difficulties getting him to burp, and he's been spitting up, so the doctor has him sleeping at an incline for the time being, which seems to be helping. We have had 2 HUGE projectile vomitings, which I did NOT enjoy. AND they created A LOT of dirty laundry! I guess that's all for now. Luke's set to eat again in about 30 minutes. While pregnant I kept track of time in weeks, and now I'm keeping track of time in "minutes until it's time for Luke to eat again".

The Big Reveal

THE NURSERY IS FINISHED! We've been working on it slowly, but surely and we finished up last night....and I must say, it looks great! Luke doesn't know how lucky he is! haha Kyle did all of the painting and it took forever, because it was a lot of work, and it looks great. This was one of those times when it was great to be married to a perfectionist! The above picture is a view from the doorway.

Before

Here is Kyle working on the priming the changing table. During. After
Here is the crib. I never found any baby bedding I really liked so I got this twin size quilt instead. I really like it. It's more little boy and not baby-ish.
Here is the the door to Luke's bathroom. My friend Aubrey, who is very crafty, custome-made the letters for me. They look so great. She also did his initials that are on a shelf in the built ins. Aubrey does TONS of different things and has great ideas. She's even gone into business. You should check out her website. http://www.blessingsandbows.com/index.html

This last picture is of the changing table and the chair we found. I'm thinking I'll end up spending quite a bit of time there. We'll see.

I went to the Doctor this morning. Routine. Nothing exciting. I do start going every week from here on out. My "safety" date is October 21...less than a week away, so he can come anytime after that. Hopefully he'll keep cooking at least until November. I've committed to helping at church on Halloween and some of my friends and I are going to a HUGE craft/decorators show on the 27th.

4 weeks until my due date!

The nursery is coming along GREAT. It is SO CLOSE to being done. I think it will be completely finished tomorrow or perhaps Tuesday. So....no pictures for you guys yet! I want to wait until it's all finished to have "The Big Reveal".

I've also been working hard trying to get a few things finished up around the house. I managed to pick out fabric for the breakfast nook and the formal dining room for curtains mostly all by myself. My friend Shanna's grandmother is a curtain maker and she's done all the curtains in the house so far, and after this last installment, I think we will be done. I just dropped the fabric off to her yesterday so it'll probably be November sometime before they get installed. I chose a more brightly colored striped fabric for the breakfast nook that she will make into Roman Shades for me. I think it'll turn out pretty casual, and a more subdued silk stripe fabric for the formal dining room. She will make cafe curtains out of that. I'm excited to see it all finished...and to not be blinded by the setting sun during supper every night.

Kyle finished painting the changing table today. He put the car seat in my car and our extra base in his Nitro this past Thursday....all we have left is to let the changing table dry, put it in the room and hang Luke's name above the bathroom door. I think our hanging marathon will be tomorrow. And it WILL be a marathon. We don't like to hang just one or two things at a time. Oh no. We hoard until we have a bazillion things and then do it all at once. So, that's on schedule for tomorrow, and then Tuesday we'll finish hanging all the things we didn't get done the day before because we found out we needed a little something to hang it with that we didn't have. It always happens. I'm prepared this time.

I also had good news from my mom this week. She had thought she wouldn't be allowed to extend her Thanksgiving break (she teaches 3rd grade in Randolph, NE) to come and see Luke longer, but she formally asked this week, and got approved to take her SICK DAYS!! (instead of personal days) even! So, she'll be able to be here from the 16th through the 25th. Dad won't be able to come that long, I assume, but he'll come later for Thanksgiving. He had a birthday this past Friday, the 12th, by the way! Happy Birthday!

Since I'm withholding nursery pictures for the time being, I'll include a picture of my brother and sister-in-law's ( Michael and Audra) baby, Solomon Isaac for your viewing pleasure.

The Belly

Kyle has been working hard on the nursery this week doing touchups. I think they will be the most time consuming part of the project. I finally got some pictures of him working on it.

We went to our last Prepared Childbirth Class last night. It was the session I'd been waiting for since before I was even pregnant! Kyle go to wear a 25 lb belly. I had to explain to him, while it was a nice example, it's still not reality. The same amount of weight on him and me...well, it just won't feel the same. Also, at 6' he has more room to put a belly than I do on my short torsoed 5'2" body. But I had a good time watching him wear it anyway. We were supposed to have them do something that's hard for us. Really, I've pretty well felt like myself and life isn't too tricky for me. Not like other pregnancies that I've heard about. However, the floor has gotten farther away and getting in and out of our very tall bed is no small feat in and of itself. So I had Kyle lay down on the floor, roll from side to side and then get up again. Not the same, I know, but the best we could do.

This week Kyle also realized that if I'm sitting on the couch reclined, you can rest a cup on my belly. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE IF I'M STANDING UP! My belly isn't THAT big!! So to even things up from his belly pictures, I'll include one of me. *Sad face

That's all that's new here! I worked on a "call list" today and packed the hospital bag. We're not ready for Luke to be ready yet, but we're getting there!

Dr. Visit

Today I had a doctors appointment. It wasn't anything big. I did, however, learn that Luke is head down. And while I wonder if all that blood rushing to his head is a good for his little head, I know it is a good thing...because maybe now he wont' be breech. Dr. Shanbour also said he thinks he's a little over 5 lbs. Which I certainly believe, and felt every pound of two nights ago when he was training for some unknown Olympic event. I think he may be considering going pro. My baby book says that I should be feeling Luke move about 10 times every two hours. No exaggeration...it is more like 10 moves every 20 minutes. If this is ANY indictation of what is to come...well I'm going to be a very busy girl here in a few weeks. My next appointment is in two weeks (Oct. 16) and then I'll be going every week after that.

A Baby Divided

Kyle has been happy about his OU baby clothing finds at a local consignment sale. He was NOT as happy about the package that came in the mail today from Michael and Audra. This is deffinately going to be a case of "A Baby Divided". I think we're both lucky King Solomon isn't around to try and cut him in half to solve the problem!

It feels like there is not a lot new going on around here. I've been trying to catch Kyle painting, but I think he purposefully waits 'til I'm gone to go an work on the nursery. So no luck on that front yet...but I'll get him. He got the navy stripe painted in the middle and has done a few touch ups. I took off the tape on the floorboards and ceiling so there are even MORE touch ups for him now!

Here's the wall so far! It looks great if I do say so myself. Kyle has done a great job painting. He's a perfectionist and I like it! I went today and bought all the supplies for the last step...combing a taupe glaze over the entire thing. We need to make a "sample board" first to make sure we like it, for some practice before the real deal, and to make sure the final product can be cleaned easily if needed. This is going to be a little boys room after all!

Last week I went to a consignment store and I bought a cheap, used changing table for Luke's room. Kyle volunteered to paint it green to match the crib, so it will much cuter when it's all finished. I bought the supplies for that project today as well, so we're all ready to go. Here's a before picture. The after will be posted later.
While I haven't done a good job at catching Kyle painting, he did catch me in the kitchen the other day, looking very large and in charge. So I'll include that for your viewing pleasure as well.

I guess that's all that's new for now. Only 6 weeks left until my due date and 21 days until I'm considered "full term". I tell Luke regularly about his window of opportunity for arrival. We'll see how well he can follow directions.