Declan's 1st day at preschool and Maren's busy, busy weekend!

This was a very busy week for us! Declan started at his new preschool on Monday. It's at the school where he'll go to kindergarten. I wasn't discharged from the hospital until Tuesday so I missed his first day, but I hear he likes it a lot! His teacher's are very nice and I hope he makes some good little friends. The class is small, which I like, only about 20 kiddos. I'm glad he already has the experience of having been to preschool, he knows how to take turns and get in line. He is excited to go too, which is always good!

We were invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend, AND we went to both of them! Maren benefited from some photo therapy and the other two had a blast! The first party was our friend's Sara and Niki's combined 4th/2nd birthday. Ariel came and did face painting and a treasure hunt. The kids did arts and crafts and played in the pool the whole time. Here is a great action shot of Declan 'helping' Teagan in the little pool......

And one of Maren, sunbathing with Daddy.

And baby makes 5!

This time last Saturday evening I was in labor!

I had an uneventful remainder of the week. Greg took Declan to see "Surf's Up" and my Mom and I were hemming the panels for my sliding glass door. Around 4:00 I felt some contractions, but wasn't going to even write them down, as I had done 3 or 4 times over the previous week. After about the 4th contraction I figured I had better start keeping track of them. At 5:00 we met the boy's at the Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Contractions continued through out dinner.

Once we got home I laid down to see if the contractions stopped like they had previously. At 7:30 Greg was going to help me go lay down upstairs when *thankfully* my water broke and I knew it was time to go to the hospital!

We were in the Labor and Delivery room by 8:15, and I was ready to get my epidural at 8:16. Well, it turns out I didn't end up getting it until about 9:45, which is just cruel and unusual punishment if you ask me. It's pretty much a pain-blurred memory for me, but it seems like it took forever for the relief to begin. I think the nurse thought there would not be enough time for the epidural, but she kept telling me there was.

At 11:05 our world was blessed with Maren Claire. Sweet. Tiny. Beautiful. She weighed in at 7 lbs, and was 20" long. Amazing.

I guess baby #3 doesn't mess around. I think I earned a little bit of bragging rights! Oh, did I mention that it was 'back labor'? Yeah. Fun.

I felt GREAT after I had her, could barely believe how 'easy' it was to actually deliver her. She was fine (which is always a concern), I was relieved, the pain was finally over and I felt great! And then I puked.

But just look at this sweet face, it is all worth it!

My Mom brought the kids by the next morning to meet their new sister. Teagan was glad to see Greg and I. Declan was thrilled to finally meet 'Baby Maren' and wanted to hold her right away. Then he sang "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" to her and it made me cry!

Let me tell you, this girl is just too sweet! Last night we slept from 11:30 to 4:30 - yep, 5 hrs straight! I didn't even sleep 5 hrs straight when I was pregnant. I was worrying it was because she is a little jaundiced, but I think it's because she knows her Mommy likes to sleep!

Don't you think I should have this car?!

Do you think I can get 3 carseats in it? Teehee!

Non-Stress Test, Pretty Pigs and Floors!

I had a doctor's appt this morning. I'd been somewhat concerned, it seemed like the baby hadn't been moving much since yesterday. They immediately sent me to the hospital for a non-stress test. I wasn't surprised, but I was scared going to the hospital alone. Greg came as soon as I called him. I ended up being at the hospital for about 2 1/2 hours, but everything was fine so they sent me home. I have another doctor appointment next Monday, I will be 40 weeks. Please pray for me that I do not make it to that appt.......

After the hospital I went to get a pedicure, and here are my pretty sausage piggy's. Thankfully the nail tech could make my broken big toenail look decent...

And won't my piggies be cute in these new shoes!

Finally, here is the floor! We've got quite a bit of trim work and painting left to do, but it is coming along. I'll take more pictures after I've filled the nail holes on the baseboards.

And last but not least, here are the WILD Dos Coyotes, they are running absolutely crazy through out the house. Wild. Crazy. Noisy. Is it wrong that I'm actually looking forward to labor for the BREAK at the hospital?!!!!!!

39 weeks and still pregnant......

Well..... I thought I would have had the baby by now......I am 39 weeks today. At my last doctor's appointment I was dialated 2-3 centemeters. That means I can get my epidural right away when I go to the hosptial!!! YAY! That's right, I'm all about pain control. I'm driving myself crazy though, the wait is killing me. The baby is moving around a lot at night, and keeping me up, not to mention that my kids are waking my Mom up around 6:00 every morning. Makes for a grouchy hormonal pregnant me. Nice.

Let's see, what else has been happening in my neck of the woods.....

This past weekend we got the 'flat' part of the floor done finally. We still need to do the baseboards, various trim and paint the walls. I will take some pictures and post them this afternoon.

Bean got her first set of pigtails. I think she looks absolutely adorable, and she must have too because she left them alone and kept moving her head like they felt funny.

I got a new Cuttlebug manual die cut machine. I hope to have some time to play with it. The die cut machine I had was outdated and none of the new dies on the market would fit in it.

I just had Declan take this picture of me 2 minutes ago, and I realized this is the first picture of me on my blog. I was trying to post it on Scrapjazz to a thread asking to post a picture of you right now. So, here I am as of 2 min ago.....