Photos for Geoff

Charlotte's Blue Steel

Big mouth

Eyes getting tired.... ;)

Sam cuddle action

Week 1

Charlotte Arrives

12 hours old

Cuddling with Dad

Heading home from hospital

Still waiting for baby

This photo was taken around 36 hours into labor - halfway point really

So as you can derive from the lack of new baby photos - we are still waiting for the baby to make her arrival.  My due date is tomorrow and my next Dr. appt on Monday afternoon.  Geoff came with me to my last Dr. appt and everything is still great if not perfect - I am feeling really well, all my stats are perfect and she is doing well inside.  If I do not have the baby over the weekend then we need to put a plan in place for the following week.  They will let me go to 41 weeks (if everything continues to look good health-wise) and then after that they insist on helping to nudge her out.  At first I was a little disappointed to be talking about interventions, but at this stage of things I am fine with it.  Even if they need to induce me at 41 weeks I doubt it will take much for my body to pick up on things and take over on it's own.  I think an induction at 41 weeks would be much easier than an induction at 37 weeks like I had with Sam.  Sam was so not wanting to be moved, but this baby has had some extra time to bake and hopefully less begrudgingly dragged out ;)

This week sort of flew by - I had appointments all week and today is my first day without having to be someplace at sometime.  It looks like rain later so I am planning to get my walk in this morning and then do little things around the house if I fee like it.  I am pretty keen on putting away my maternity clothes - at least my "work" maternity clothes.  I will keep some more casual maternity stuff out for when I get home from hospital but so looking forward to packing those away as well and pulling out (larger) spring stuff :)

Also, as a side note, I found someone to help me with the baby starting the first week in April till the end of June.  She is a graduate student (in nursing) at a local college and was looking for part-time nanny work while she is in school.  I have her lined up to help me 4 mornings a week from April to mid-May and then 2 mornings and 2 afternoons from mid-May to end of June.  It will just be 12 hours a week of help, but huge for me to be able to shower or get some exercise.

Sam & Nicholas - Junior Firemen

Casey brought Sam and Nicholas to a local fire station a few days ago - the boys had a blast and Sam has been talking about fireman Paul every since :)

Waiting for baby

I am now at the end of my second week being off of work, waiting for baby.  I have been doing little projects around the house, online shopping, and lots of little errands here and there.  That and I am going for a walk almost everyday and also napping or laying down for an hour or so each afternoon.  So I am filling my days and taking it easy, but it can be a little boring for me.  I am happy that I decided to stop working a few weeks back, but I am a bit surprised that she did not come on the earlier side.  I had a Dr. appt on Monday afternoon and everything still looks great, my blood pressure is perfect (120/70), my belly is measuring perfectly, I have no swelling, and I am feeling overall really well.  I think the only downside to it all is that she is still inside ;)  I have another Dr. appt. on Monday afternoon and Geoff is going to try to come with me - he has a lunch meeting or the like, so he has to scramble a bit, but it will be nice to have him there.  At  my last appt. the mid-wife broached the topic that if I go to 41 weeks we would need to have a c-section plan in place - so not what I wanted to hear.  She said that if I go that far they would be open to inducing me, but my chance of uterine rupture goes from 1 to 2%.  That and of course with inductions your likelihood of a c-sections goes up anyways.  But I think I would still rather try an induction to get the baby out than surgery - but the whole conversation was a bit depressing to me - probably bcs I thought I would be trying to keep the baby in (not going pre-term) not dragging her out ;)

The highlight to my week was meeting Geoff for lunch yesterday afternoon - it was such a nice day out (mid-60's) so I packed lunches for us and met him at his work. From there we ate our lunches on some benches by a pond at a park close to his work - it was such a treat to see Geoff in daylight and just to be able to hang out by ourselves.  It is really fantastic that he only works 10 minutes away.