Monday, December 31, 2007

elise lenore





wow is it amazing to type her name! for those who haven't heard, we had the baby...and it's a beautiful girl! her name is elise lenore. "elise" comes from j's great aunt elise and "lenore" is also my middle name picked out by my father when i was born. i have to laugh reading my last entry...because not even 9 hours after i made that entry, did my water break. yes, we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning with the sells, came home and did Christmas together, and as we were getting ready to head over to my mom's, i decided to take a quick nap. no sooner had i laid down on the couch than my water broke. of course i was oblivious and didn't realized what had happened, until j said, "do you think your water broke?" as he said it, the "ah-ha" look came over my face...he was right!
we stayed home for a while because i had no contractions. we took a walk around the block (almost 3 times actually)...met some of our neighbors in the process...had my mom and doug come over (and they brought dinner...which was a delicious "last meal")...we watched a movie...and finally headed over to the hospital at 7pm...still hardly any contractions.
i can give the rest of the details to anyone who'd like to hear them, but the short version of the rest of the story is this: justin, vanessa and my mom were in the delivery room with me the whole time. contractions started around 9:30 pm, we endured naturally until about 5/6am when the doctor told me i was only 6 cm. with my muscles twitching uncontrollably, the pain increasing, and my strength gone, i asked (more like begged or demanded!) an epidural. this gave us all a chance to rest until about 9am. with some petocin we got to 10cm and after pushing for 2 hours, little elise was born at 3:02pm on december 26th.
she is beautiful! so here are some pictures. we are falling in love with her more and more each day and can't thank the Lord enough for all He's done in creating her and bringing her to us.




Tuesday, December 25, 2007

christmas eve

we spent christmas eve with j's family for lunch which was very fun. they have such great traditons with having the grandkids (or greatgrandkids now) decorate nan's tree. the house was full of people and i loved it.

then we spent the evening with my family. marmo took some great pictures that i'll share soon. even my brother came over which was fun. he adds a fun element to the mix that i enjoy. after dinner (russian shrimp of course!) we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. it's the first time that we've even gone since joining our church because last year we couldn't make it. it was wonderful. i'm so thankful for our church family. just worshipping with them and giving and receiving hugs from people we have come to know so well, and love so much, was amazing. Lord, thank you for the body of believers.

it is now about 5 o'clock in the morning. i'm wide awake as j continues sleeping. a good friend said to me last night that when you start waking up every couple of hours, it's God preparing you for when the baby comes. really, it's His kindness. as i sit here, wide awake, i agree with her. i'm sure i'll be exhausted later on today...

no baby yet...but i think it's coming soon...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

lists

normally, i'm the type of person that has lists going of things to do...lists at home...lists at school. but now that it's Christmas and the baby is due so soon, my lists are more numerous and more extensive... pack the hospital bag, finish getting the baby's room ready, wash all the new baby stuff, get the Christmas decorations up, finishing getting things ready at school to leave for the sub...and the lists go on. my amazing husband has been incredible in helping me to cross things off those lists, and in getting things accomplished, i find myself very thankful and getting more and more "ready" for the baby to arrive (quotes are necessary because how "ready" can you ever be?!)

i wanted to share the latest things we've gotten done around the house. just the other night we finished the tree and the lights on the front of the house, as well as the lit garland on the steps and on the mantle. i love Christmas. i love the coziness of the season, i love being on the couch, looking at the lights and watching the room take on the warm glow from the tree and decorations. not to mention that jay found an amazing (and very large) tree this year...I LOVE IT! so here's our first year of decorating in our new house (as well as an updated belly shot). i hope you enjoy.