She's Here!

Just give me a break on spelling and story telling skills, I'm going on 48 hours of no sleep. Okay, I know that no one is going to read this because you're going to automatically skip down to the pictures of Lucy, but I wanted to give a quick run-down of the day. We go to the hospital at 3 am and Janna was 3 cm dialated. They told us to go to sleep until morning and they would check her then. At 8:30 she was 5cm dialated so we thought for sure things were going smooth. At 2 the contractions were coming quicker and much more intense so when they checked Janna and determined that she hadn't progressed at all it was very frustrating. After trying to labor for 33 hours on her own without meds it got to a point where Janna decided to go ahead with the epidural, which ended up being a great idea because in order to get her to progress they had to break her water which apparently makes the contraction SUCK. A few hours later Janna had still not progressed. The Doctor said that one of two things was happening, either the baby was too big or the contractions weren't strong enough. He gave it one more hour and our great nurse did everything she could to get Janna to progress during that hour but it just wasn't happening. Lucy's head was just too big. So they prepared janna for a c-section and literally 45 minutes later Lucy was here. So here are a compilation of pics below with necessary captions.

This is Janna when we first got to the hospital. She was willing

to force a smile for me in between contractions.

This is me and mom once the epidural was put in. Everyone was happier

once the drugs kicked in.

This is Lucy right after they got her out of mommy's belly

The first family portrait

This is Lucy on the scale. If you can't read it, she weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces

Janna had to wait for an hour before she saw Lucy after she saw her in the operation room. So this is the first picture of mother and daughter together.

Baby Lucy

A video of Lucy about 10 minutes after she was born

Labor Continues!

Janna's contractions are coming MUCH stronger now and much more frequent. We're down to close to five minutes between contractions and each one seems more intense than the last. I just talked to the doctor and he told us to go ahead and come. We will be leaving as soon as Janna gets done blow-drying her hair (an obvious priority at this stage in the game). It's about 10 after 1 in the morning on July 31st. I bet the Lucy would be born July 31st at 7 lbs 9 oz's. So cheer me on!

I will be bringing the laptop with me so if I can find an internet connection I'll update the blog with pictures/videos and any information I may have. Thank you for your prayers and support, it truly means everything that everyone is so excited for us. We serve an amazing God whose willingness to give us a blessing such as this, despite our shortcomings, I'll never understand. Let's continue to pray for Janna and Lucy's health and safety. Thanks again everyone for your prayers and support and I will hopefully update again soon.

Labor Begins!

So Janna is officially in labor. It started about 2am and has been progressing very slowly but her contractions are getting worse and worse and closer together. It is about 9:30 at night now and her contractions are averaging about 6 1/2 minutes apart. We spoke with the doctor and since Janna is comfortable and nothing major has happened yet, he said it was okay if she labored at home for a while longer. We will most likely stay at home as long as possible. I will post again right before we go to the hospital which will be like 3am and probably no one will check it but its all good.

Baby Update...

We went to the doctor today, and nothing has changed. She's definitely head down but not very low so no progress has really been made. The plan is for me to come back on Friday to do a non-stress test and make sure Lucy and I are both healthy. If everything is normal, then they will induce me on Monday, August 4th. I hope I go into labor naturally before then, but its good to have an end date in sight! Thank you for all the prayers...we'll let everyone know how Friday goes (unless something happens before then!!)

Happy Due Date!

This is the day Lucy is supposed to arrive! Nothing is happening so far, but we are hopeful. Due to some recent requests (ahem...Julie) I'm putting a few pictures up of our house. I didn't take pictures of every room, so if you want to see the rest then you have to come visit! Hopefully we'll be updating you soon with baby news!

Part of our kitchen; you can see a little bit of the office to the right

Our family room, and the view when you walk in the front door

Master bedroom; you can see Lucy's pack n play all ready!

Lucy's room!

more of Lucy's room...

and some more...

Aunt Meredith painted these letters...she did such a good job. We, however, did not do such a good job of hanging them. Its more difficult than it looks.

The front of our house

Yes, I'm still pregnant

No I haven't gone into labor yet, you will be informed as soon as I do. For all of you calling me, don't worry, you'll get a phone call or a text when we are on our way to the hospital. Its just a little depressing for me right now to call everyone back and confirm that no, Lucy has not arrived and I just forgot to call. I appreciate all the calls and concerns though, it makes me realize how excited everyone is for us and that is so sweet. Keep us in your prayers!

Countdown to Sunday

I am 5 days away from my due date! We went to the doctor today and everyone is healthy and happy, but no action yet. Hopefully I'll go into labor this week or the next, but if not, then the plan is to induce me on August 8th. That's depressing to me because it seems like forever away, but atleast there is an end in sight if little Lucy continues to be a stubborn girl and do things her own way. In the meantime we are just waiting and trying to stay busy. I have the hospital bags packed, her room is ready, and WE are ready. Unfortunately she is not. So wait with us and we'll post as soon as something starts. Here are a few pictures to pass the time.

Mark wanted a pic of him doing a flip into the pool.

It's taken us TWO summers to get Heidi to jump into the pool from the side instead of taking the steps, so this was a big moment. Not a great picture, but you get the idea. We're very proud of her.

Our friends Carolyn and Aaron Barnard came over for dinner the other night. Carolyn is about 26 weeks and we were comparing bellies.

When I'm not walking or trying some other scheme to get Lucy to come out, this is what I do...

Good News!

God is good, and also has a great sense of humor. I went to the doctor today and Lucy has flipped and is head down! Crazy kid. Hope this isn't a precursor to how she will be when she's out. Of course Mark and I were shocked, because I never felt her flip, but we're excited that hopefully we'll get to do things like we originally wanted. We are definitely more open to other alternatives now and realize that things still may not go as planned. Now we just wait! Thank you for all the prayers and support. We are so thankful that we have been able to experience a pregnancy, especially one where mom and baby are both healthy. I thought it would be a good time to look back and see how much Lucy and I have grown, so here are some pictures taken throughout my pregnancy. We'll let you know when labor starts!

At the end of January...about 14 weeks. Not much going on except a little pooch.

At the end of February at 18 weeks. This is when my belly "popped" out.

In April, right before we found out she was a girl. I'm about 26 weeks.

End of May, 32 weeks.

July 1st...3 weeks to go!

Mixed emotions...

Well, a little update for those of you who don't know...yesterday at my 37 week check up my doctor was measuring me and became suspicious that Lucy may be breech. They sent me to ultrasound right away (fortunately I had the support of my Mimi, otherwise I probably would have freaked out) and sure enough, Lucy is head up and butt down. The good news is, they did a very in depth ultrasound and she's healthy and looks great, I could even see some of her little fat rolls :) The bad news is, a breech baby means only one thing...a c-section! For those of you who know me well, you know that I was planning on a natural, drug free birth, and now I have to have major surgery! I'm getting used to the idea, and really am just grateful that Lucy and I are both healthy. Mark and I go in Tuesday for my last check up and to talk about the c-section, which will be scheduled for the 17th or 18th. So more good news, this time next week I won't be pregnant anymore! We'll finally have our baby girl and that means more to us than anything else. We'll let you know the date and time as soon as we do. In the meantime, get ready to meet Lucy!

25 days to go!

Went to the doctor today and everything is on track! They are guessing she'll be about 7 1/2 lbs...we'll see how accurate that is. I've been having some contractions this week, which the doctor said was good news. Apparently the more my uterus practices now the better it will perform later :) We are finishing Lucy's room today, I'll put more pictures up when it's finished.

One of our pear trees split in half during a storm, and I HAD to get a picture of Mark with these goggles on....and using a chainsaw.

Mark putting together the furniture

The crib!