Monday, March 28, 2011
Gabriel talks to Tabor
Although she is trying everything to go into labor, Danielle is still pregnant. She has tried walking, spicy foods, and even drinking raspberry tea. None of us know the day Tabor will decide to join us. Well... no one except Gabriel that is. We caught him whispering to Tabor in the womb. We just can't get him to tell us the date.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tabor's Baby Shower
Many of you know my friend Danielle. She and I were pregnant at the same time. Actually, she's still pregnant. Her due date is in a week and a half. We had the baby shower for her son (named Tabor) a few weeks ago. Here are some of the pictures.
The party was held at Marlene's house. She always does an AMAZING job decorating!!
We made a diaper cake for Danielle. She is the one who showed us how to do it! Back at ya, Danielle!
The guest of honor!
And we all want to touch her belly :0)
The beautiful Veronica holding my baby Gabriel.
We made Danielle's Pregatinis (juice with no alcohol).
Cute cupcakes that match the rocking horse theme.
This is the cake I made for the shower.
The two sweets addicts standing next to the sweets table. Yum!
As an activity, each guest decorated a onesie for Tabor. Ty came later on to pick the best one.
This is the onesie I made. Although it didn't win, I think it was the best by far! Tabor should wear it every single day.
The lovely hostesses, Danielle and her mom.
And of course, Gabriel and Tabor have their play time together. Just because Tabor is still in the womb, doesn't mean they can't still play. Typically Tabor is kicking Gabriel, and Gabriel seems to like it. It's like a little back rub.
Now we're all just waiting for baby Tabor to come join the party!
The party was held at Marlene's house. She always does an AMAZING job decorating!!
We made a diaper cake for Danielle. She is the one who showed us how to do it! Back at ya, Danielle!
The guest of honor!
And we all want to touch her belly :0)
The beautiful Veronica holding my baby Gabriel.
We made Danielle's Pregatinis (juice with no alcohol).
Cute cupcakes that match the rocking horse theme.
This is the cake I made for the shower.
The two sweets addicts standing next to the sweets table. Yum!
As an activity, each guest decorated a onesie for Tabor. Ty came later on to pick the best one.
This is the onesie I made. Although it didn't win, I think it was the best by far! Tabor should wear it every single day.
The lovely hostesses, Danielle and her mom.
And of course, Gabriel and Tabor have their play time together. Just because Tabor is still in the womb, doesn't mean they can't still play. Typically Tabor is kicking Gabriel, and Gabriel seems to like it. It's like a little back rub.
Now we're all just waiting for baby Tabor to come join the party!
Monday, March 21, 2011
The New Oven / Microwave
When we ordered the new oven/microwave combo (yes, ordered on the internet... saved us about $600 over Home Depot), it was scheduled to arrive around Gabriel's due date. Perfect timing, I thought, since I'd be home for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, it arrived the day before his birth. As Sarah blogged already, the installation began around the time of her first contraction. And so it began...
I managed to remove the old oven and cut the hole without too much trouble, just a lot of sawdust and mess. And as Sarah mentioned, I left a laboring wife to get a "man tool".
Since I had no one else to help me, I decided to use a couple chairs to support the old oven. It was too big and heavy for me to move. I thought it was genius, until I realized the oven would remain there as Sarah and I spent the next few days in the hospital. Fortunately, a couple guy friends moved the oven to the garage while I was gone.
After returning from the hospital, we received our first dinner from a friend. It needed to be baked in the oven {smile}. A knock on the neighbors door, 350F degrees, and 25 min later we had a dinner. At this point I realized not having an oven or microwave might be a problem. The new oven was in the garage, and it tipped the scales around 250lbs. Getting it up the stairs would be no small task... for someone else. On the first lift I managed to tweak my back and spent the rest of the night on the floor. Three friends later (thanks guys), the oven was installed and has worked beautifully since.
I managed to remove the old oven and cut the hole without too much trouble, just a lot of sawdust and mess. And as Sarah mentioned, I left a laboring wife to get a "man tool".
Since I had no one else to help me, I decided to use a couple chairs to support the old oven. It was too big and heavy for me to move. I thought it was genius, until I realized the oven would remain there as Sarah and I spent the next few days in the hospital. Fortunately, a couple guy friends moved the oven to the garage while I was gone.
After returning from the hospital, we received our first dinner from a friend. It needed to be baked in the oven {smile}. A knock on the neighbors door, 350F degrees, and 25 min later we had a dinner. At this point I realized not having an oven or microwave might be a problem. The new oven was in the garage, and it tipped the scales around 250lbs. Getting it up the stairs would be no small task... for someone else. On the first lift I managed to tweak my back and spent the rest of the night on the floor. Three friends later (thanks guys), the oven was installed and has worked beautifully since.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Gabriel's Big Day
Gabriel was born February 5, 2011. He is now 5 1/2 weeks old. Why so long before blogging about it? Babies take work and time!! I'm just now getting around to things in the house. So, without further ado, here's Gabriel's story...
On Saturday, February 5, I told Richard we should finish installing our new oven in the kitchen. By "we" I suppose that really meant just Richard. To do this, he would need to borrow a saw from a friend, cut the cabinets to the right size, lift the heavy oven into the cabinets (with help of course), and finish the electrical work. Around the time I asked him to start working on it, I also started having a few contractions. This was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I assumed my contractions were temporary, and they would go away shortly.
So Richard drove to a friends house to pick up the saw. When he got back, I was still having contractions. At this point, I was tracking them and they were about 9 or 10 minutes apart. Richard asked if he needed to do something. I said, "It's my first baby, so contractions will still go for while before we need to go into the hospital. Go ahead and work on cutting the cabinets." Soon, Richard was hard at work and bits of wood were flying everywhere. Our entire kitchen was coated in a layer of sawdust. I went to the bedroom to relax and keep tracking my contractions. They very quickly progressed to 5 minutes apart. At this point I started packing my hospital bag. Still assuming I had a while, but at least I would be ready to go. The doctor had told me I needed to be having contractions 5 minutes apart for 2 hours before going to the hospital.
At 5:45, our friends, Ty and Danielle, came to pickup a house key so they could take care of things while we were in the hospital. My contractions were 3 or 4 minutes apart at this point. I was in our bedroom, while Richard answered the door. I could hear Danielle yelling up the stairs how excited she was that little Gabriel was coming. While they were still chatting downstairs, my contractions were getting very strong, and some of them were only 2 or 3 minutes apart. I looked at the clock, and only 1 hour had passed since my contractions hit 5 minutes apart. Man, was I really supposed to wait 2 hours!?!?
I remember thinking I wanted Richard with me, but I didn't want to interrupt their conversation downstairs. I kept telling myself to be polite. Then, after one more strong contraction, I wearily yelled out "Riiichaarrrrrrd!". He was by my side the next second and I told him we needed to go to the hospital. The next thing I know, he's picking up his toothbrush. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well, if I'm going to help you breathe through contractions, I better have good breath."
"Do you REALLY need to brush your teeth right now?"
Then, as another contraction came, "DO YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT RIGHT NOW?!"
He got the message. No brushing the teeth. Leave the mess in the kitchen. Who cares if there's sawdust everywhere and an oven sitting in the middle of our dining room. We're leaving!
As we drove to the hospital, I could feel every single crack or bump in the road. I didn't realize it at the time, but at this point I was in the transition stage which is the most painful. When we checked in at 6:30, I remember thinking the nurses were far too casual. Didn't they believe me when I told them my contractions were 1 or 2 minutes apart? Finally, they checked my cervix, and told me it was gone.
"What does that mean?" I asked the nurse. "Where did it go?" I thought something was wrong.
"It means you're 10 cm, and you're about to have a baby. Unfortunately there's no time for an epidural, you need to start pushing."
Whoa! Guess we made it just in time!
After three hours of pushing , Gabriel came out. The doctor told me he was sunny side up. If he wasn't sunny side up, he would have come out much faster.
So there he was. 7 lb 5 oz. 19 inches long. A beautiful blessing from God! Thank you Jesus!
On Saturday, February 5, I told Richard we should finish installing our new oven in the kitchen. By "we" I suppose that really meant just Richard. To do this, he would need to borrow a saw from a friend, cut the cabinets to the right size, lift the heavy oven into the cabinets (with help of course), and finish the electrical work. Around the time I asked him to start working on it, I also started having a few contractions. This was 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I assumed my contractions were temporary, and they would go away shortly.
So Richard drove to a friends house to pick up the saw. When he got back, I was still having contractions. At this point, I was tracking them and they were about 9 or 10 minutes apart. Richard asked if he needed to do something. I said, "It's my first baby, so contractions will still go for while before we need to go into the hospital. Go ahead and work on cutting the cabinets." Soon, Richard was hard at work and bits of wood were flying everywhere. Our entire kitchen was coated in a layer of sawdust. I went to the bedroom to relax and keep tracking my contractions. They very quickly progressed to 5 minutes apart. At this point I started packing my hospital bag. Still assuming I had a while, but at least I would be ready to go. The doctor had told me I needed to be having contractions 5 minutes apart for 2 hours before going to the hospital.
At 5:45, our friends, Ty and Danielle, came to pickup a house key so they could take care of things while we were in the hospital. My contractions were 3 or 4 minutes apart at this point. I was in our bedroom, while Richard answered the door. I could hear Danielle yelling up the stairs how excited she was that little Gabriel was coming. While they were still chatting downstairs, my contractions were getting very strong, and some of them were only 2 or 3 minutes apart. I looked at the clock, and only 1 hour had passed since my contractions hit 5 minutes apart. Man, was I really supposed to wait 2 hours!?!?
I remember thinking I wanted Richard with me, but I didn't want to interrupt their conversation downstairs. I kept telling myself to be polite. Then, after one more strong contraction, I wearily yelled out "Riiichaarrrrrrd!". He was by my side the next second and I told him we needed to go to the hospital. The next thing I know, he's picking up his toothbrush. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Well, if I'm going to help you breathe through contractions, I better have good breath."
"Do you REALLY need to brush your teeth right now?"
Then, as another contraction came, "DO YOU REALLY NEED TO DO THAT RIGHT NOW?!"
He got the message. No brushing the teeth. Leave the mess in the kitchen. Who cares if there's sawdust everywhere and an oven sitting in the middle of our dining room. We're leaving!
As we drove to the hospital, I could feel every single crack or bump in the road. I didn't realize it at the time, but at this point I was in the transition stage which is the most painful. When we checked in at 6:30, I remember thinking the nurses were far too casual. Didn't they believe me when I told them my contractions were 1 or 2 minutes apart? Finally, they checked my cervix, and told me it was gone.
"What does that mean?" I asked the nurse. "Where did it go?" I thought something was wrong.
"It means you're 10 cm, and you're about to have a baby. Unfortunately there's no time for an epidural, you need to start pushing."
Whoa! Guess we made it just in time!
After three hours of pushing , Gabriel came out. The doctor told me he was sunny side up. If he wasn't sunny side up, he would have come out much faster.
So there he was. 7 lb 5 oz. 19 inches long. A beautiful blessing from God! Thank you Jesus!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I have what we call "PB"
So I've had some of what we like to call Pregnancy Brain, or PB for short. Two melt downs in one week. Poor Richard!
Melt Down #1
Richard and Ty installed the car seat in our Acura. At home, I decided to test it out to make sure everything was OK. I tried to take the car seat out of the car, but it seemed to be stuck. On top of that, in order to pull the release button, my hand was pinched between the car seat and the back of the passenger side seat. Once I was able to release the seat from it's base, I couldn't get it out the car door without tilting it, which made my back hurt. So then I tried to put it back in the base. Apparently I couldn't figure out the right orientation, because it wasn't clicking into place. I went through a few rounds of this, then got frustrated. I promptly went upstairs to our bedroom, collapsed on the bed and cried. Of course I felt silly for crying, but I couldn't help it! I wanted everything to work out and this apparently wasn't going to work out.
Melt Down #2
In order to carry an infant in a stroller, you need to keep them in their car seat and use a car seat adapter to attach it to the stroller. I guess I registered for the wrong adapter, because the parts just didn't match up when I tried to install it on our stroller. OK, no big deal. I can just order the correct part and return the wrong part. When the second adapter came in, I could tell as soon as I opened the box that it was the exact same as the first one. Ugh! This is when my second meltdown happened. No crying this time, but I needed lots of Richard hugs to make me feel better. So I ordered yet another part from a different website, thinking this new website wouldn't be so misleading. Today the third part came in, and I prayed over it before opening. I prayed that God would help me to receive the correct part and that I wouldn't get frustrated anymore. Then I opened the box and... well, just take a look at them all side by side.
They all look the same, right? I'm not crazy?!?! OK, well at least I wasn't frustrated. I can thank God for helping me stay away from melt down #3. So I decided to open the third box to see what was inside. I realized it actually WAS different. It was, in fact, the correct part. I then went back and looked at the second box, and it too was the correct part. Go figure! OK, God, you took care of me after all. Thank you!
The car seat ended up working just fine when we pushed up the passenger seat a little more. So I'm feeling much better :-)
Melt Down #1
Richard and Ty installed the car seat in our Acura. At home, I decided to test it out to make sure everything was OK. I tried to take the car seat out of the car, but it seemed to be stuck. On top of that, in order to pull the release button, my hand was pinched between the car seat and the back of the passenger side seat. Once I was able to release the seat from it's base, I couldn't get it out the car door without tilting it, which made my back hurt. So then I tried to put it back in the base. Apparently I couldn't figure out the right orientation, because it wasn't clicking into place. I went through a few rounds of this, then got frustrated. I promptly went upstairs to our bedroom, collapsed on the bed and cried. Of course I felt silly for crying, but I couldn't help it! I wanted everything to work out and this apparently wasn't going to work out.
Melt Down #2
In order to carry an infant in a stroller, you need to keep them in their car seat and use a car seat adapter to attach it to the stroller. I guess I registered for the wrong adapter, because the parts just didn't match up when I tried to install it on our stroller. OK, no big deal. I can just order the correct part and return the wrong part. When the second adapter came in, I could tell as soon as I opened the box that it was the exact same as the first one. Ugh! This is when my second meltdown happened. No crying this time, but I needed lots of Richard hugs to make me feel better. So I ordered yet another part from a different website, thinking this new website wouldn't be so misleading. Today the third part came in, and I prayed over it before opening. I prayed that God would help me to receive the correct part and that I wouldn't get frustrated anymore. Then I opened the box and... well, just take a look at them all side by side.
They all look the same, right? I'm not crazy?!?! OK, well at least I wasn't frustrated. I can thank God for helping me stay away from melt down #3. So I decided to open the third box to see what was inside. I realized it actually WAS different. It was, in fact, the correct part. I then went back and looked at the second box, and it too was the correct part. Go figure! OK, God, you took care of me after all. Thank you!
The car seat ended up working just fine when we pushed up the passenger seat a little more. So I'm feeling much better :-)
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Richard Turns 35 and Hat Cake
Happy Birthday Richard!!!!
We celebrated with chili and cornbread and game night. Here are a few pictures.
Whoa, that's a close up of Craig! He looks upset because he didn't win.
And Jon is celebrating his high point score.
Evelyn was helping too. At least she was helping the rest of us by distracting Stacy.
I also made Richard a Cub's hat cake. He loved it!
I even tried to make the little cub on the back of the hat so it matched Richard's hat exactly.
In case you were wondering, it was a cinnamon streusel layer cake with cream cheese frosting. MMMmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Everyone seemed to like it!
Happy Birthday Richard! I love you!!
We celebrated with chili and cornbread and game night. Here are a few pictures.
Whoa, that's a close up of Craig! He looks upset because he didn't win.
And Jon is celebrating his high point score.
Evelyn was helping too. At least she was helping the rest of us by distracting Stacy.
I also made Richard a Cub's hat cake. He loved it!
I even tried to make the little cub on the back of the hat so it matched Richard's hat exactly.
In case you were wondering, it was a cinnamon streusel layer cake with cream cheese frosting. MMMmmm my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Everyone seemed to like it!
Happy Birthday Richard! I love you!!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Gabriel's Baby Shower
I have to brag. I have such wonderful friends! They did an amazing job throwing a baby shower. It was held at Rachel's house, and we sat outside in the wonderful warm and sunny weather of Southern California.
Here are some pictures of how things were decorated.
Beautiful flowers made by Marlene's sister Rose. She painted them blue!
This is Pig-a-choo (Pig + choo choo). Danielle painted him and thus named him.
He is filled with quarters to start off Gabriel's college fund. Oh, if quarters was all it took!
I was very impressed when I saw this amazing cake Danielle and Marlene made! As their teacher, I am so proud. Although, they may have surpassed me. This cake was awesome!!
The California license plate has Gabriel's initials and his due date.
This is Erin holding Stacy's baby, Evelyn. Evelyn was too cool with those sunglasses.
The two happy prego ladies.
And our babies saying hello.
One of the games we played was guessing how many times you can wrap a roll of toilet paper around my belly. Can you guess? It was double ply toilet paper. To help, here's a profile shot of me.
OK. The answer is... 22 times! Lysken actually guessed the exact number!
Another game was drinking kool-aid from a bottle. Whoever finishes the fastest wins.
They gave me a bottle with the cap still on, so I couldn't drink anything! And after we all started drinking it, we realized they forgot to put any sugar in the kool-aid. It was so sour!
Jill was the winner!
And of course there were lots of gifts.
I had a wonderful time at the shower. Thanks to the hostesses to put it together (Lauren, Sarah, and Veronica couldn't make it)
Thanks everyone for the great gifts! Gabriel is almost here!!
Here are some pictures of how things were decorated.
Beautiful flowers made by Marlene's sister Rose. She painted them blue!
This is Pig-a-choo (Pig + choo choo). Danielle painted him and thus named him.
He is filled with quarters to start off Gabriel's college fund. Oh, if quarters was all it took!
I was very impressed when I saw this amazing cake Danielle and Marlene made! As their teacher, I am so proud. Although, they may have surpassed me. This cake was awesome!!
The California license plate has Gabriel's initials and his due date.
This is Erin holding Stacy's baby, Evelyn. Evelyn was too cool with those sunglasses.
The two happy prego ladies.
And our babies saying hello.
One of the games we played was guessing how many times you can wrap a roll of toilet paper around my belly. Can you guess? It was double ply toilet paper. To help, here's a profile shot of me.
OK. The answer is... 22 times! Lysken actually guessed the exact number!
Another game was drinking kool-aid from a bottle. Whoever finishes the fastest wins.
They gave me a bottle with the cap still on, so I couldn't drink anything! And after we all started drinking it, we realized they forgot to put any sugar in the kool-aid. It was so sour!
Jill was the winner!
And of course there were lots of gifts.
I had a wonderful time at the shower. Thanks to the hostesses to put it together (Lauren, Sarah, and Veronica couldn't make it)
Thanks everyone for the great gifts! Gabriel is almost here!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)