Diaper Duty Anyone??

So I just got done changing a diaper that leaked out the sides and manifested itself on the pants of a cute little pink number. Hmm... cute no more. =) Not 10 minutes later, new outfit cutely in place, I realize that the entire thing is soaked and the diaper I've just put on her has failed. The new outfit and ME are the lucky recipients of a bunch of infant wetness... Nice.

So I'm soliciting diaper changers.

I know I havent written any all week. Each day I have fabulous intentions to conquer the chores and each day I've been surprised to find how LITTLE I actually accomplish. This is definitely an eye opener for me as I develop a new appreciation for mothers everywhere.

Here's some pictures of Natalie from the past week though... just to catch you all up.


I woke up to find her sleeping like this one morning. We call this one "Undercover Baby".

He's a changed man.

Sleeping baby pics are my fav!

Peanut

This post is for my mother - who wanted to see how big Natalie was next to a set of hot curlers so she could get an idea of her size. My family is coming to visit on the 26th and they've been chomping at the bit to see the little peanut. I've included a 12 inch ruler for the rest of you who dont use hot curlers. =)

Sweet Petunia

We made it to church yesterday - what a feat! It took us 2 hours to get out the door and the cat insisted on barfing on the carpet to make the affair that much more dramatic. =) We were late, but we made it and enjoyed showing her off to everyone. She thought it was so great that she slept the entire time we were there... ha!

Kevin went into work today to take care of some things but will be home with us the rest of the week. We were both surprised to learn last week that he was being promoted (God is SO awesome) to the position of I.T. Manager. Its a timely answer to prayer (indirectly) and just continues to prove how faithful God has been to our family.

Here's some fun pics of Natalie from Saturday night. I kept taking pictures of faces that I thought were really cute only to end up with a completely different shot once the camera got around to snapping the photo. These were some of the most amusing from the batch!

Videos, Videos, Videos!!!

Kevin Here! Here are some video clips from this past week. I hope you all enjoy them :)

NOTE: Don't click on the play sign in the middle of the video windows below... click on the smaller play button on the bottom left of each video... then it will play the video right on this website.



Natalie on the way!



Just Born, 15 minutes ago!




With us only 30 minutes... and under the heat lamp!




Snuggling w/ dad





After first bath at home. What a cutie...



Thanks for watching!!!!

Getting adjusted to life at home...

Lauren here. I have to say I'm rather impressed at how Kevin kept up the blog in my stead the past week. He captured some great moments that all seem a bit of a whirlwind for me now. Its hard to believe that only six days ago we had yet to see Natalie's cute little face...

It's been three days since we came home now and each has been a bit of an adventure. Natalie has seen a home nurse each day. She was diagnosed with jaundice at the hospital and they wanted to keep a close eye on it. We got a bili-blanket (designed to decrease her bilirubin levels) on Thursday and had to keep her on that 24/7 until our pediatrician appointment on Friday. We were REALLY hoping that they were going to let us go off of it on Friday because it was a hassle to hold her and feed her with the blanket attached. She looked a bit like a glow worm when she was all swaddled with the bili-blanket around her. Praise the Lord, though, she's now off the blanket and her jaundice seems to be disappearing. Here's a picture of us on Thursday afternoon (before we got the blanket) doing a little sunbathing (that's also helpful for kicking jaundice to the curb).



One of the effects of jaundice is being a little sleepy. And sleep is one of Natalie's FAVORITE things to do right now. The past two nights I've had to wake her up every four hours to eat and then had to syringe feed her (with an orthodontic syringe) because there was NO WAY she was going to wake up enough to nurse. It's gotten kind of comical as Kevin and I get all excited when she actually opens her eyes. Its a bit of an event for her to be awake - since it's so rare. I imagine we'll have a whole different baby on our hands once the sleepiness goes away. But for now... we rest. =)


One of Natalie's other favorite things is barfing. Well, I guess when they're infants it's called spitting up. But, she's rather talented at it and has sent many an item to the wash in her three short days at home. We gave her a sponge bath yesterday to wash off some of the crusties. Here are some memorable pics from that.




Stay tuned! I have a feeling this is only the beginning!!

Natalie's First Sunrise

Well, Momma and Natalie made it through the night with just a few interruptions. This morning has become a bit rainy but soothing. The poor little peanut is just so tuckered out she doesn't even want to eat! Can you imagine anyone in MY family who doesn't want to eat?!?!? It really must have been a tough day yesterday for her . :)

Here she is, mustering up enough energy to peep an eye to say hello to ya'll out there...


Natalie is a very peaceful little girl so far (of the 24hrs we've known her, hah!) and even when she cries its for good cause. I love the little pipsqueak. :)

She loves to lay on her side, just like her momma... (as seen below)



If ya can't guess, this is a capture of my very first diaper change ever. She can really fill up a diaper, let me tell ya! I made it through....somehow....

My mom came to visit this morning bringing hot breakfast and coffee. Lucky Lauren got a huge breakfast in bed from Food Services. I wish they'd feed the dads!!! Lauren is finally getting a well-deserved shower and I'm not hearing any screaming so I think the pain meds are working well :) Poor girl. :( The nurse just took Natalie's temp and while she had been struggling to regulate her body temperature yesterday, it seems she is on track now at 98.1...yay!!! Now if we can just get her to eat like a big girl...

-Kevin

Natalie Amelia

Words not needed....

Baby is Born - 11:09AM, 9/10/07

5lb, 5oz.... My ears :) ... name to follow :)

She is adorable.

-Kevin

10am update

5cm, 2-3 minutes between contractions. Lauren has her epidural and is feeling no pain through these contractions. Thank God for medical science.

-Kevin

A quiet over-night

Well Lauren got some pain meds which knocked her right out around 1:30am last night. Apparently the contractions stopped for a good while too and she didn't make any real progress come this morning. The Doc came in around 6:30am this morning and decided to break her water to get things moving along so its a waiting game now... Lovely window we have here at least :)

Lauren is in active labor !

Well we are here at the hospital, after lauren's last news. Lauren wasn't dillated any more than she was a week ago, and the contractions slowed. We were pretty bummed because we might have to go home. The doc said for us to walk for an hour. So walk we did. We had already walked 2.5 miles this evening, so we knew we needed something more robust than sissy walking. Thus, the dancing and skipping commenced, along with several hefty heaving up and down the "Grand Staircase". An hour later, contractions were 4-5 minutes and she is now 4-5cm dillated!! Woohoo, our prayers paid off, and they've just admitted her. We are now in our room and they're asking Lauren all kinds of questions and getting her all hooked up. We're getting some pain meds ordered up (the oral kind) for now to help ease the contraction pain and possible let Lauren get some shut-eye. I've got the geek-dom gear all set up w/ my cellular broadband and web-cam, so hopefully I'll have some pics for everyone shortly.

-Kevin

Is she coming???

So this morning at church a friend of mine who is a nurse told me I looked puffy and that I needed to go get my blood pressure checked. I didnt really FEEL that more puffy than normal - I seem to ALWAYS be puffy of late. But, we swung by CVS pharmacy as a precaution and checked it out. To our surprise, it was 160/90. That's REALLY high for me - I'm usually around 100/70 to 120/70. So we called the doctor and he had us go into the hospital to get checked out further.

Once we were there they hooked me up the the fetal monitor and checked my blood pressure. It started to go down a bit, but still stayed a little high. Then they took some blood and said I looked all right for now and sent me home. Kev and I just got back from a couple mile walk and I've been having steady contractions about 5 minutes apart for the last 45 minutes. Could this be it??? We'll be calling the doc again here soon to find out!

Whoo Hoo! I may NOT have to go to work tomorrow! *grin*

What are Kevin and Lauren up to today???

Lets see... we've done a little yard saling, picked up the last vehicle from the shop (yeah!), played computer games (Kevin), made empanadas from scratch (Kevin), took a nap (Lauren), walked around Home Depot, gone to the grocery store....

Have you noticed that "have a baby" is no where in that list? Yeah, so did we. The yard sale activity and walking through Home Depot were supposed to have helped encourage that little bugger to come out, but she's rather content to stay where she's at. So, here it is, the DUE DATE, and no signs of her. I (Lauren) am convinced they'll have to induce once "two weeks late" rolls around. I guess we'll just have to see.

Man, am I going to be depressed to have to get up and go to work on Monday!

The Automobile Mis-adventure (by Kevin)

I know this blog seems to really just belong to Lauren, but I just had to write in and tell you all about our seemingly laughable week in autos.

I know it is redundant by all means to start this story by reiterating the fact that L is 9mo's, 28 days pregnant, w/ a turkey timer for a belly button, but hey, it really adds to the drama, so....

Here we are, last Thursday.... (me) "Hello".. (L) "Uh, Kev? We have a really really big problem........*silence*..... "My car is dead"...

Here I'm thinking she just gave birth on a sidewalk in Edgewood (edge of the hood) with that first sentence. I pictured her sitting on the curb, baby in hand, umbilical cord still connected, crowd staring and one hand on the phone :). I told her later to never ever ever use that preface again because I was now ill and about to barf. I had to swallow my stomach. :)

So we come to find that her gear shifter was as disconnected and wobbly as a bobble-head and the car was just stuck at the library. I was able to drive it stuck in 2nd to the shop, thank the Lord, but also gave it a nice overheat in the process, as the cooling fan apparently was also not having its best day. The following morning we were told that unfortunately it wasn't going to be fixed until mid-week the following week because of labor day weekend, the backlog, and parts. ACK!!!!!! It's the ONLY car we have that can hold a baby seat!!!! 8-

So labor day weekend begins a search for a new vehicle. We spent all weekend scouring the Internet, going to a car show, doing quick dealership drive-by's, pouring over consumer reports data... We ended up bringing home a 2004 Buick Rainier CXL, all-wheel-drive SUV, that we really really liked, on an extended test drive. We loved it, but we found out through the help of my caring father-in-law that consumer reports rated that year a no-buy. /ugh! We spent the remainder of the weekend looking for 2005 models.

So..... we find one about 1 1/2 hrs north of us in PA, but they were closed Monday. We decided to take a ride up Tuesday night after work. So off we went last night. Things were going well on the drive... nice scenic back roads, meandering through the country, quite lovely. Suddenly..... chug...chug....chug.chug.chug.... My truck's engine sputters and shakes and gives up pushing on anything but a flat road, right at the MD/PA line. We literally just sat there looking at each other like, Nuh uh!!!!!!!!!!!!

TWO dead cars in 1 week!??!? Is that even possible??? Someone pinch me!! We came to find out Lauren's mom was praying I'd stop driving the truck because it doesn't have air-bags. Momma B, you gotta be more careful what you pray for!! For the love of Moses, here we are stranded w/ ZERO cars 30 miles from home at the PA line w/ a 9mo prego wife. It was picturesque. Its stuff stories are made of!

Thank the Lord my mom was home and available and she quickly came scurrying to get us, and whisked us up to Lancaster just before they closed for the night, whereby we were able to procure a very fine gem for a price far below all the competition we had found. We ended up getting this 2005 Buick Rainier CXL AWD which was in mint condition, and thanks to the lovely depreciation of american-made cards, we got it at about 50% its original sticker price new. Some poor shmuck bought this puppy new, drove it for 2 years and paid 50% of it for us (probably more since it was a trade-in, ouch). It is quite plush and rides like a Cadillac, but is all-wheel-drive and an SUV. Perfect combination. As someone else put it, it's the best SUV no one ever heard of. I'd never even seen one till this past week. We like the fact that its a rare car.

So now we have at least one good vehicle, and I'm borrowing my buddy Larry's truck to go to work with for now. I was so sure Lauren was going to go into labor as soon as the truck broke down at the PA line. :) That would have been straight out of Hollywood. :)

Sleep, Elusive Sleep

Everyone says you sleep really poorly when the baby arrives as you're up intermittently for feedings, etc. I believe that, but I'm not believing how poorly I'm sleeping at present! Maybe it's natures way of preparing me for what lies ahead. For the past 4 days, I've yet to sleep all the way through the night. Does that mean she's coming soon? Lets hope so!

So its 4 am and I'm up with a nice case of acid reflux. Against my better judgment, I had marinara sauce from a local Italian joint (so good!) with my dinner last night and I'm now paying the price. I thought I had covered my bases with some Tums shortly after dinner, but apparently not because I woke up about 45 minutes ago with a lovely feeling of hurlage in the back of my throat. Ah, the joys.

Then my mind started racing about the size of diapers I have - I think I have too many newborn diapers. "Would Target take them back? Did I have the receipt? Where did that pesky little thing go? Better get up and go look for it." So, yup. At 345 am I was up looking for a Target receipt with diapers on it. I believe "insanity" might be the word to describe that. Well, I'm AWAKE now. *sigh* More Tums still hasn't helped. At this point I'm ready to swear I'll never eat marinara again...

So we've had a bit of a setback here over the weekend. Our only baby-mobile (one of these) died. I picked up a book from the library and got in my trusty little car only to find that I couldnt shift out of 2nd. Actually, it turns out my linkage (I didn't even know what that was until this weekend) broke. Hmmm... nice timing (1 week prior to due date). Trying not to panic, I called Kevin at home and informed him that I had some "really bad news".

Fortunately (or unfortunately) we were able to drive it to the shop, but by that point it was supremely overheating as my newly installed radiator fan had also busted. So not sure of what damage is going on there. And did I mention that I also need rear brakes? When it rains... it pours, folks.

Actually, Kevin and I thought it rather ironic in light of all of the events going on recently. God has been teaching us a lot about how FAITHFUL he is. And He's been giving us a lot of reasons to really have to lean on Him for things. There's been a lot of things recently that have been out of our control and we're either still trusting Him to work things out (because there's not much else we can do) or we've seen Him answer prayer and provide in miraculous ways (that were totally not of us).

So after a lot of prayer and contemplation, we decided to take advantage of the Labor Day sales and look for a new (new-to-us) car that might be a suitable baby-mobile. Mini-vans are straight out for both of us. Neither one of us are extremely fond of the look and feel that there's a sort of "grown-up-ed-ness" that goes with one that we're just not ready to embrace. We decided to look at an SUV to accommodate a family AND all of our gear (camping, luggage, baby-crap, etc) for many years to come. We're actually on an extended test drive this weekend of a Buick Rainier and have really liked it so far. Although the one we're test-driving is not the one we're going to get (we learned that this particular year had some issues), we are hoping to drive up to PA tomorrow (oh... I guess today - its IS 4:30 am) and buy this 05 model.

Its a big purchase for us - we have been enjoying the land of no-car-payment for some time now and the thought of a loan really makes us cringe. But neither Kevin's truck nor my little Saturn (if it is completely fixable) is a terrifically safe car. (My car has seen 3 hoods - I used to be a bit of a speed demon in college - and the airbags have NEVER gone off). So, hopefully this SUV is available when we call about it later today. If not, we may be renting a car for a few more days (in case I go into labor) and will be back to the drawing board about what to buy. Somehow, I'm not sure they let you put your newborn in the basket of your bicycle and pedal away...