3 Weeks Old!

WOW, I can't believe how fast time goes by, Isabella is already three weeks old!!! We went to the doctor yesterday and her weight is back up, she now weighs 7 pounds 12.5 ounces. She is still a very content little girl and we are loving every minute of having her in our lives!!! Isabella has been very busy since entering this world. She has gone many places to meet new people and many people have come to visit her. At just over a week old, we went to church for the first time and at 1 1/2 weeks old I took her to the chiropractor for her first adjustment. At two weeks old we went to Pacific Raceways to watch friends race in PINKS All Out, and just today went went to visit my Great Auntie Annie. Isabella is loved by many and I can't wait for everyone to meet her. I have attached a few pictures of our adventures for you to enjoy!

Getting Ready to go to church!

First chiropractic adjustment with Dr. Alex

PINKS All Out with Mom and Dad!

Daddy loves his little girl!

Mommy loves her baby girl!

Isabella Grace

Isabella is finally here! I have also discovered I am not so great at keeping up on a blog...sorry! Isabella entered this world on July 31, 2009 at 9:47 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and was 19 inches long.

At 6:49 AM, I rolled over in bed and told Jason, "I think my water broke, either that, or I peed my pants!" At that point I waited a little while to be sure and then called my sister to see what she thought. She asked if I called my midwife yet and I told her I decided to call her first. She suggested I call the midwife, so I did. I was then told to go right to the labor and delivery floor at the hospital, but since I wasn't feeling any contractions, I decided to take a shower, put on my makeup and pack my bag. Jason kept asking, "shouldn't we be going?" I let him know we had some time. Once we arrived at the hospital, I was given antibiotics and a pill to help speed things up. Not much happened for quite some time, but then after the second dose of the pill, things happened rather quickly. I started to have contractions in the form of back labor...how miserable. After about two hours of that, I decided to opt for an epidural. What a relief! I was able to relax and have a good time with the family. I did need to be "topped off" a little while later and then when they checked to see where I was, I was dilated to a 9 and almost ready to start pushing. Once the pushing started, it took three good pushes and Isabella entered the world!!!

We both are very blessed to have such a beautiful healthy little girl! Hope you enjoy some of the pictures.

3-D/4-D Ultrasound

Today Mom, Dad and Jason joined me to enjoy the wonderful experience of the 3-D/4-D ultrasound. We went back to Baby Pictures in Bellevue to get a glimpse of our daughter before she enters the world, but found she did not want to cooperate this time around either. She was very comfortable and sound asleep with the cord in her hand in front of her face. A couple of times she sucked on either the cord or her thumb. She moved a little bit, but it was very difficult to get a really good shot of her. The owner asked me to come back next week to try again at no cost, which is fine with me, it is just another chance to see my little girl! :) Hopefully she won't be so camera shy next time around though...she always seems to want to have the cord right where we want to see every time!!! Anyway, I have posted a couple of pictures, but if I get some better one's next week, I will put those on here as well...enjoy!!!

Work Shower

Last week, everyone at work held a shower for three of us who are due between July and August. We all had a great time and all of our wonderful co-workers gave us some great gifts to help get ready for the babies-to-be! Two of us are having girls and the other one doesn't want to know what she is having, so there was a lot of pink flying around! What a great time I had spending time laughing and sharing stories with my co-workers...thanks for everything!!!

Kimmy, Julie, and Shanna

Opening the gifts!

Cute cake!!!

All of the wonderful gifts!

Isabella's Room

Well, I finally did some more to the nursery and I am very excited to share some pictures! I painted the room awhile ago and let me tell you it was a lot of work, especially the dots in the green, but it was well worth it in the end. We just put the rest of the furniture in yesterday and I finished painting the knobs for the dresser today...yes...I hand painted the knobs!!! I tried to find some to buy, but I just couldn't find what I was looking for, so, off to the craft store I went to buy some paint to do my own. I tried to capture what I could in the picture, but I think they look much better in person! I hope you all enjoy the pictures...it is still not done, but these capture most of it!

Greenwater Adventure

Since it was such a nice day yesterday Jason and I decided to take a little road trip up to the Greenwater area to see if we could find any decent areas to go camping in the near future. We had an awesome day and really enjoyed the sunshine! Miley also had a great time, she just loves going for car rides to new places, especially when we let her get out to explore. We did stop a few times, but at one point we stopped at the river to let her get out to play and took some pictures of our adventure. I am not so sure we found the camping situation we were looking for, but overall the day of exploring was fun and relaxing. Something I really needed after all of the stress from the federal review we just had at work.

Kimmy and Miley by the river!

Where's Miley???

24 week appointment

On Friday I went in for the 24 week appointment and everything looks great! Isabella is growing at a rate that is pleasing to the midwife and she had a very strong heartbeat. It was pretty funny when she had the doppler on my tummy to hear the heartbeat, Isabella kicked it pretty hard about three times, to the point you could actually see it move...very cute!!! Although, I am sure I won't think those big kicks are so much fun as she gets bigger and they get stronger.

On another note, a few weeks ago we made the purchase of the bedding for the crib and then later the paint. I am really looking forward to painting the room, but finding the time to focus on it seems to be a problem lately. Hopefully I will be able to get to it soon and then I will post pictures so you can all see it.

Pink or blue???

PINK!!! It's a girl! We had another ultrasound done today at Baby Pictures, which is a place that does them for fun! The ultrasound tech/owner was awesome, she answered all of our questions and made it a very enjoyable experience (unlike the day before). We chose the gender identity package, so of course, she told us within minutes that our baby is a girl and she also printed us a whole bunch of amazing pictures to go home with. We will definitely be going back to her to have the 3-d/4-d ultrasound done around 28 weeks! We both were hoping for a girl, so we are both very excited, not only to get the girl we wanted, but for the fact that she is healthy and everything looks great at this point! I am really looking forward to going shopping for all of that oh so cute pink girly stuff!!!

It's a....

We still have no idea. The baby had its legs crossed and the cord was in the way. Everything else on the ultrasound looked good. The head is measuring at 20 weeks and 5 days and the rest of the body is measuring at 19 weeks and 5 days. We heard and saw a very strong heartbeat, but other than that, not much activity. I found it kind of funny, considering the baby was VERY active all morning up until about 20 minutes before the ultrasound. I will post the pictures once I am able to scan them!

16 weeks!

I just returned home from my 16 week appointment and everything looks great! The baby had a very strong heartbeat and the midwife was very happy with the progress I am making. I have actually lost three pounds since my first visit, so that was kind of exciting too...and yes, the midwife was fine with it at this point! I felt the baby move for the first time on 2-28-09 and I have been feeling it move ever since! The first few times I wasn't so sure that it was the baby I was feeling, but as the days went by, I became certain it was! My ultrasound is scheduled for 4-2-09, so after that I will get to share if we will be buying pink or blue!!! I am also really looking forward to working on picking out decorations for the nursery, so I will be able to do that after the ultrasound.

Sick...Sick...Sick

As I entered my 14th week, it proved to be a very trying week...Friday started out great! Jason and I went to our second doctor's appointment, where we got to hear the heartbeat!!! It was exciting, as we didn't get to hear it last time, but it didn't even compare to seeing our baby on screen! We received good news from the doctor, she said she doesn't believe I need to be considered "high-risk" and gave me permission to go back to seeing a midwife if I would like to. We left the appointment feeling pretty good about things! On Saturday we were working on painting Jason's room in the garage and by the middle of the day, I wasn't feeling so hot. We finished what we could for the day and I had plans of making salmon and king crab for our special valentine's day dinner, but that didn't happen, instead I was hit so hard by an achy body and high fever, so we headed out for a very quick dinner before the rush, then went and got a movie to take home to watch...I have been on the couch/in bed ever since. I have always heard it is rough to be sick while pregnant, but I never imagined it would be like this. I called the consulting nurse a few times and they kept telling me it sounded like I had the bad flu virus that was lasting 6 to 10 days...are your serious...at this point I was only 3 days in and couldn't imagine another 3 to 7 days of this misery. Well, today I can finally say I am feeling "human" again!!! I am able to sit up on the couch rather than lay down and I feel like I have a little energy. Things can only get better from this point!!!

First Doctor Appointment

Yesterday we had our first doctor's appointment and everything looks great! The due date is estimated to be August 18th at this point and the ultrasound confirmed that I am approximately 11 weeks. There has been one scare at this point in the fact they have classified the pregnancy as "high risk" because of Mom's previous back surgery and other medical conditions. We later found out there are no complications with the pregnancy and they don't anticipate any in the near future, but they are playing it safe for the months to come. It was an amazing experience to view the ultrasound screen, the baby was rolling around and even moving his/her arm and hand up and down as if he/she were waving to us. It amazed me even more to know how much the little one is moving inside of me and I don't even feel it yet! :) Overall, I have been pretty tired and nauseous, but it will all be worth it in the end. Although, in the past week I have noticed I am starting to get some of my energy back and the nauseous only comes in "waves" rather than all day, so things are starting to look up!!!