More Christmas Photos

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Merry Christmas!!

Jacinda and Mommy went to the Christmas Eve service at church while Daddy was working.

Here is Jacinda with her stocking in her Christmas dress.

Our little family at Joanna's parents' house on Christmas Day.

Awww....

Sleepy Baby!

Jeff and I have a million pictures of our cats sleeping, so we want to make sure we get more of Jacinda than we have of them! :) But, when she is so cute it isn't hard.

She loves sleeping with her arms raised... no surprise since she was born with one of them next to her head.


It seems like she was startled in this one, but she wasn't. That is just how she was sleeping.


Taking a little cat nap while mommy checked email.

One Month Old!

Jacinda is one month old and it is so hard to believe. I feel like it has still just been a week or two. Partly it is due to the fact that all the two of us do is sleep and eat. She's been out shopping a couple times but she rouses frequently when napping, so she starts crying a lot and you just never know when she might wake up screaming and not stop.

We have had an eventful week though. Sunday we spent all day on pins and needles waiting to hear if all our family and friends at New Life were ok or not. I work there with Hospitality, so my immediate thought was all of them since they are always walking the building. Then it went to my brother-in-law who works in the Tech dept. and then when I heard the gunman went down the main hall (near all the nursery and elementary classrooms) I thought of my sister Jennifer who works in nursery but also picks up her kids from that area. I was relieved to know they had already left as did my other sister, Kim. Unfortunately, we missed the family meeting on Wednesday because we ended up in Urgent and After Hours care because mommy had mastitis and needed antibiotics. It came on so suddenly with flu like symptoms, so I wanted to get it taken care of quickly. It is not fun to try to take care of a baby and have aches, chills and a fever.

Thursday night I was feeling good enough to go to a homebirth family open house hosted by our midwives (Robin and Laura). We had a good time where we got to see a couple of our Bradley Class friends once again. Robin and Laura were shocked that it had already been a month since Jacinda's birth, it has gone so quickly. They have had a huge number of first time moms give birth at home and so were glad that a lot of us could make it. Here is a picture of Jacinda ready to go to the party, the hat is so cute!!

Jacinda helping Mommy decorate the Christmas tree... well, sort of, she fell asleep.


Our Bradley Class Reunion (natural childbirth) look at all those beautiful healthy babies!


Jacinda all tuckered out at Uncle William's 13th Birthday Party

Happy Thanksgiving... a couple days late

Playing video games with Daddy

One week Old

Jacinda had her one week check up and is doing great! She is now 8lbs 2oz, you can see it as she is getting a chubby little face. We are really enjoying Jacinda, she is such a cutie, even when she has her nightly tantrum. We also got to give her her first bath. I have to say, babies are very slippery, so it was quite a challenge for me and I feel like the poor thing had a very traumatic first bath. Hopefully next time it will be a lot better!

First time in the Moby Wrap

Today we decided to try out the Moby wrap, so that Mommy will have the hang of it when Daddy has to go back to work and won't have his second set of hands while Mommy is eating and taking care of other things. Jacinda didn't really know what to think at first since we haven't held her tummy to tummy yet, but after a little complaining and some walking around she fell right asleep. I think this will be a favorite for both of us.

Jacinda's First Day

38 weeks

Ok, so I'm a little behind in posting, but here is our 38 week picture. It may not look like I've gotten bigger, but I sure feel like it. I stopped gaining weight, so hopefully she'll be here any day! :) I still feel pretty good, but seem to be more tired than I was when I was sick. I think it just must be all the extra weight. I am better now, so I keep telling her when she stretches that she can come out now since she's so cramped in there.

I finally decided that Tuesday will be my last day at work. I am very excited, but am hoping that I don't even make it that long because I really want to see Jacinda and hold her and kiss her!! I just hope I don't sit at home waiting and not working for a week after that. It would be great if she could come before the Thanksgiving rush at Car Toys so that Jeff doesn't miss out on extra income. So, just a few little prayers you can be in agreement with. So, hopefully the next post will be announcing the birth!

Here is a picture of Polar who discovered the baby tub recently and sleeps in it every night, so it's a good thing I bought a new foam pad to put in it. Neither Peanut or Polar have discovered the actual crib to sleep in yet, which surprises me, but I'm sure once someone is in there making noises they'll start to investigate.

37 1/2 Weeks

We're almost there!! :) We would love to have our little one come early, but right now I have a cold so we definitely want her to wait until I can breathe again! Please pray that this doesn't stick around past the weekend, thank you! We had our 37 week appointment yesterday and we're going well. My blood pressure was higher than normal, but I think it has to do with my cold, nothing to worry about. Jacinda is moving down into my pelvis, so I should be able to breathe a little better as soon as my congestion goes away. We'll be going for appointments every week now until she comes, so hopefully only one more! :)

35 Weeks!

Here we are at 35 weeks! I am definitely starting to get antsy for little Jacinda's arrival, partly because my right arm and hand are pretty much numb most of the time and it makes functioning during the day pretty difficult. Dr. John Davis, our chiropractor, says he should be able to fix that in a couple visits, so I sure hope so! If so, I think I can stand being being pregnant for another 5 weeks... or less. :) We're pretty much almost all ready for her arrival, so that doesn't help our patience any. We still have a couple things we need, but for the most part we're ready. The kitties are very interested in all the new things we have around the house. Peanut enjoys sleeping in the little bathtub, which is quite cute. Poor little things have no clue what's coming! I hope they don't hate me too much!

The ladies at work threw me another shower on Saturday, it was very nice. Here are some pictures. (thanks Bree, I stole your slideshow idea!)

Showered with love!

Today we had our first baby shower. My sisters threw us a wonderful co-ed (cause not all invited were couples) shower. I tell you, this girl already has so many clothes, we're going to have to put her in two outfits a day just to wear them all. And, she receieved so many hand made gifts from her talented Grandma Weaver, her aunts, friends and even her great-aunt. Here are just a few photos from the day.



A handmade quilt with cross-stitching done by her Great-Aunt Mil. It says, "Made for Jacinda by Aunt Mil 2007"


The picture is kinda weired because it was taken right as the flash of someone else's camera went off, but this is one of her hand-made gifts from her Aunt Kim.

Jacinda's (and Daddy's) first puppet!


A must see video for every mom-to-be, shared at my shower.

I think this speaks for itself

Ugghhh

Ok, today I officially feel big and pregnant. My arms fall alseep during the night if I sleep on my right side and then are tingly for most of the day after that. And, now walking and standing are really hard on my back, but I guess it had to come sometime and it just means that our little angel is closer to coming. :)

Our last little getaway

So, week 32 is now half over and time is quickly closing in on our little one's arrival. Our appt. went great. We're both still very healthy and Jacinda is growing quickly as well. Much to Jeff's disappointment there is nothing that we can do about my snoring. So, give Jeff grace as he is not getting the kind of sleep he used to.

Monday and Tuesday Jeff and I were up in Aspen for Jeff to work on a client's cars. I was very grateful that they let me come with him as I know that if I wouldn't have been able to I would've gone into preterm labor from worry. Not knowing if he'd have cell phone reception, I'm sure that I would've gone crazy, especially seeing as how I am 100% emotionally stable right now. (can you sense the sarcasm?) It was a beautiful trip for the most part, but it never crossed my mind that it might be a lot colder up there! We, with me clad in flip flops and Jeff in just short sleeves, were shocked to hit snow fall at Eisenhower tunnel. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Approaching Eisenhower tunnel... just snowflakes...

Coming out of Eisenhower tunnel, hoping we don't end up crashing on the icy road. We did do a 360 into the median, but managed not to hit anything and get back on the road without any problems.


Some of the changing aspen trees with the fog.


Jeff trying to light a fire in our hotel room... never did get a fire going and it was freezing!

Oh the joys...

One of the newest developments in my pregnancy seems to be arthritis. Well, it hasn't been actually diagnosed, but it feels like I have arthritis in my hands for the past days and nights. I thought I knew what was causing the stiffness and fixed that, but seems to be getting worse. I'm sure it is Edema related as I had a pretty good Edema flare up yesterday, but it is so bad that during the night I can hardly open my hands all the way. And, today it is hard to make a fist. So, I am doing everything they suggest for Edema, but if you have any suggestions on how to make this go away, please share! :) It is pretty scary waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to move your hands. It is so weird and not particularly convenient when you can't grasp toilet paper (sorry, to much information!).

10 week Countdown

We had our 30 week appt. and all went really well. We tried to get an ultrasound picture with our camera this time, but our little angel was asleep facing away from us. She would not wake up or move for anything. We must have spent 10 minutes trying to get her to move or turn or something. So, we got to see the view of her little hiney and the back of her head. The good news is that her brain looks very good, her spine is good and even her little lungs are looking like they are right on track. She is measuring right at 30 weeks, so my hopes are high that we won't end up with a 9-10 pounder.

Other than that, I am really starting to feel the need to prepare for her birth. Some days I feel like I am clueless to what we even need or how we're going to take care of her. I'm sure this is something that everyone goes through, but I never thought that I would be there.

Another thing that has been on my mind is when to quit work. I'd love to have at least a week to rest, clean, do laundry etc. before she comes, but at the same time, if she's late then I might start getting restless. If I wait until I actually go into labor, then I risk being exhausted, dehydrated, etc. But, either way I do have to let work know what I'm going to do soon. My hearts desire to is for my last day to be Nov. 2, and not have to go back, but reality has set it that we probably can't afford for me not to work at least part-time. So, if I am just taking maternity leave, then I rather take as much time after. Course, since I don't have paid maternity leave, then the time off I have is really up to me anyway... but, how much can we afford for me to take? There's always something, huh?

My dear, poor husband...

Today we begin week 30, hard to believe that we're in the 30s now!! Wow, we're almost there! :) So, I have realized that a lot of pregnancy is cyclic. Like for the first trimester I didn't sleep well because I would wake up from hunger throughout the night. Well, it's back. I eat dinner as late as I can stand and then still at about 4am I wake up to a rumbly tummy! That second trimester is defintely the honeymoon stage! The other new development is that apparently I have been snoring and actually waking Jeff up. He is a pretty heavy sleeper, so I feel really bad! Usually I am such a light sleeper that I actually wake myself up if I start to snore, but Jeff says that he can toss and turn to try to get me to move, but has had no success when normally he can roll over and I'll wake up. :( So sad!!!

I am definitey not to the point in my pregnancy where I am done being pregnant and am blessed that I have not reached that stage as I realize there are many who have at 30 weeks, but there are things that I will look forward to getting back to normal, here are just a few:
1. Not getting heartburn from EVERYTHING
2. Rolling over without theatrics
3. Waking up from hunger or a full bladder (though I realize that now I will be waking up to a someone else's hunger pains and wet diapers)
4. The ability to reach my toe nails to paint them. (though Jeff is a very good and thorough pedicurest- Thank you, Jeff!)
5. Drinking caffeinated beverages (mmm... Pepsi...)

Magnesium is my best friend!

So at my last appointment it was recommended that if I were to get bad edema to make sure I was getting my magnesium. Well I ran out of my regular cal-mag supplement a couple weeks ago and hadn't gotten to the health store, but Friday I finally did. I bought the highest magnesium to calcium ratio I could find and started taking it at dinner. Two days of it and since Sunday I have had no sign of edema!! Sunday we spent the day out at the Parade of Homes, so it was hot and I was standing and walking for about 5 hours and no swelling. I thought that maybe it was just all the rest I had all weekend and that being back to work sitting all day it would surely come back. But, so far I still have ankles! :) Yay!!

Week 28-29

Attempting to take another picture with me in black, but Daddy snuck into the frame.



It amazes me that I still have my belly button... well, sort of. It hasn't popped out, so she must not be done yet! :)

Edema?!

Is it already late enough in my pregnancy for Edema? Yesterday after working all day, I changed into shorts and saw my ankles, or lack thereof, for the first time all day. I wanted to cry! What happened to my poor feet? After pondering a lot about how I could be swelling already in my pregnancy, I relized that I am just about 7 months pregnant now. How can that be? Time has passed so quickly! I feel like I still have so much time to prepare for our little angel, but she'll be here before we know it!

I have been getting more and more comments lately about my belly or my weight, which make me laugh. Yesterday I had a lady ask if I only had 6 more weeks and then told me that I hadn't gained any weight. I know that is meant to be a complement, but it's hard for my mind to accept it. For one, I know I've gained 30+ pounds already and I know that some of my pregnancy cloths don't fit any more (I'm sure I just shrank them in the dryer, right?), so you want to smack them. But, the more I see some ladies that are due around the same time I am, I really am smaller than I thought, at least in the belly. I'm sure it's just because of my long torsoe, but I also hope and pray that maybe she really did get Jeff's genes and be a 6 or 7 pounder instead of my families genes and be a 9-10 pounder. I do continue to pray, though!!

Too cute not to share!

Week 27

Today we had another prenatal and everything still looks great! Mom needs to do a little work to make sure she stays healthy through delivery, but nothing of concern. Jacinda is doing fantastic, but doesn't seem to like to have her heart listened to as she seems to hide and move around a lot when they bring out the doppler, so cute and stubborn! :) Mommy says she gets it from Daddy, but Daddy says she gets it from Mommy. Perhaps it is both... Jacinda is growing rapidly and measured out at 28-29 weeks. Mom is also rapidly growing by adding another 4 pounds to the scale since the last appt. and Laura was nice enough to give the total weight gain so far... not something Joanna wanted to hear. Again, nothing to be concerned about, mostly just depressing when she hasn't reached the real weight-gaining time yet.

We were informed today that at the next appt. we'll start to go every 2 weeks and we'll be at 30 weeks! Only about 10 weeks left at that point. Reality sure is starting to set in and our excitement is building, especially when we think about only having two full calendar months left to prepare.

Third Trimester Begins

This week begins our third trimester. It is so hard to believe that our little angel will be here in only 3 months! To bring you all up to speed, we are having a little girl and we have named her Jacinda Naomi. We are hoping that she will have her Daddy's brown hair and her Mommy's blue eyes. We have had three ultrasounds to date and everything looks great! Mommy and Jacinda are both very healthy. Jacinda likes to show off on the ultrasound stretching out and showing us all her little parts. She stretched her legs out at the last one so we could see her whole leg. We've also gotten to see her little face, but they were out of paper last time so we weren't able to get her first portrait. It is so amazing how much we are able to see on that old 2D machine, you can even see her little eyelids! I can see why parents want to see their little one on the 3D or 4D ultrasound. Truly a miracle! Here are some pictures of Joanna's pregnancy so far:

We're pregnant! 8 weeks Gestation (you can pretty much only see the heartbeat)

20 weeks

25 weeks