Baby Shower!

I was planning on having my baby shower the Saturday after I got discharged from the hospital, I quickly learned that this wasn't a good idea. I was still and still am recovering from major surgery and learning how to be a mother. So I pushed my baby shower back a week, which made a huge difference. I'm feeling more confident as a mother now and I feel a lot better from my surgery. :) 

 Amber and Elizabeth came over early to help me decorate and get things ready for the baby shower. Then the party began! We played the ice cube game to see who's water broke first. Then we decided to play Ticket to Ride, not a typical baby shower game but what the heck. :) We had lots of fun!

 Rebekah was an angel and slept during most of the baby shower, she only woke up once to eat.

Home Sweet Home!

 Thursday evening I was discharged from the hospital and we brought Rebekah home! Amber stayed the night to help me out since Andrew had to work that night. We still have a lot of settling in to do but I'm glad we're home now. :) Andrew's lovely mother came down on Friday to help us get settled in and adjusted to being parents. It was so nice having her here to help out with things, I really appreciate all that she did/does for our family. :)

 We came home to these gorgeous flowers from daddy and these lovely flowers from nanny and grandad. :)

I had my first week alone with Rebekah at night while Andrew was working and I think I'm getting the hang of things. She's such a calm and happy baby, which makes learning how to become a mother so much easier. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone since we've brought Rebekah home! It's crazy to think  she'll be two weeks old on Tuesday!

Home Sweet Home!

 Thursday evening I was discharged from the hospital and we brought Rebekah home! Amber stayed the night to help me out since Andrew had to work that night. We still have a lot of settling in to do but I'm glad we're home now. :) Andrew's lovely mother came down on Friday to help us get settled in and adjusted to being parents. It was so nice having her here to help out with things, I really appreciate all that she did/does for our family. :)

 We came home to these gorgeous flowers from daddy and these lovely flowers from nanny and grandad. :)

I had my first week alone with Rebekah at night while Andrew was working and I think I'm getting the hang of things. She's such a calm and happy baby, which makes learning how to become a mother so much easier. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone since we've brought Rebekah home! It's crazy to think  she'll be two weeks old on Tuesday!

Rebekah Kathleen!

Well, I made it to 38 weeks and then Rebekah was born! Part of me thinks she was waiting for her Auntie Amber to get to Idaho. Amber was supposed to get here early Friday morning, but because of bad weather back home she wasn't able to get here until Monday January 6th.  

The day started off just like any other day. School had just started back up, so Andrew and I were getting back into the swing of things. We went out to BK for lunch and then hung out until it was time to pick up Amber from the shuttle bus drop off. Then we helped her unpack her things, took her shopping to get some groceries and then headed home.

We went straight to bed after we got home. It was only 10:30, I know we're old.. I woke up around 12:30 a.m.  to go to the bathroom and my water broke! Luckily I made it to the bathroom, so there wasn't a mess. Andrew didn't believe me at first when I told him my water broke, he thought I just peed myself and since I've never experienced this before I wasn't really sure what was going on. 

We decided we'd better go to the hospital just to be safe. I'm surprised at how calm we were after I told him my water broke. We didn't have our hospital bag packed, but we were able to remain calm and stay level-headed as we gathered the items we needed. 

We got to the hospital around 1 a.m. We filled out some paper work and then we were led to the maternity unit.  

 Waiting anxiously for the nurse to come into the room and see if my water had actually broke AND DRUM-ROLL PLEASE... it did.

Andrew's anticipation of becoming a daddy after he heard my water broke.

 I wasn't dilated or having any contractions yet, so they hooked me up to lots of machines, one monitored the baby's heartbeat and the other monitored my contractions. After I was hooked up to the machines we headed to a different room. I found this part scary because I was laying on the bed and had no idea where we were going.

Around 7:30 I started getting pretty intense contractions that were about a minute apart, but I still wasn't dilated much. They had me on some medicine that helps produce contractions and that was helping some. Around 8:30-9ish I decided that the pain was too much for me to handle and that I really wanted to sleep, so I told the nurse I wanted an epidural.

I was able to get the epidural quickly and then I went straight to sleep. I woke up when one of the nurses came in to check on me and felt pretty well rested. That changed pretty quickly. All of the sudden Dr. Evans and about 5 nurses were in the room. Dr. Evans explained to Andrew and me that Rebekah's heartbeat was dropping, he said this could be due to the umbilical cord wrapping around her head. He took me off the medicine that helps produce contractions and put a tag on Rebekah's head to monitor how she was doing.

Once I was off the medicine Rebekah's heartbeat started to return to normal. Dr. Evans explained that a C-section might be our best option. He didn't want to risk waiting on me to get dilated to a 10 (I was now a 6) and have Rebekah's heartbeat drop again. They decided to keep an eye on us for a while since her heartbeat had returned to normal and then go from there. 

I went back to sleep and woke up around 1ish. Dr. Evans had told one of the nurses to put me back on the contraction producing medicine, but as soon as she did that Rebekah's heartbeat started dropping again. This is where things got scary. 

Dr. Evans came over and talked to Andrew and me. He told us that they were going to do a C-section because Rebekah's heartbeat was dropping again and he didn't want to gamble with her life. He explained that the epidural relaxed my body really well, but because of how relaxed I was Rebekah thought it was time to come out and started pushing which resulted in her heartbeat dropping. 

Dr. Evans and the nurses kept saying ASAP which means "as soon as possible" when talking to the surgical unit and others about preparing for my C-section. 

The urgency in their voices had me worried and the possibliity that Rebekah or I could die during the C-section. As soon as things calmed down for a second I had Andrew give me a blessing that everything would be all right. We headed to the OR and the doctor's went to work. My body was so numb from the epidural and the extra anesthesia I was getting that I could only feel a little pressure.

Andrew came into the OR right before they started cutting and held my hand. He said he watched some of the surgery. Once they got Rebekah out he brought her over to me so I could see her. I was really tired though so I didn't look at her too long. She's a beautiful baby girl though! 

After the surgery was complete we got settled into a new room and I took a nap until Andrew came in with little Rebekah. 

Shortly after that Amber arrived at the hospital, she was coming to visit Andrew and me while I was in labor, she didn't know she'd have a new niece when she got there! Andrew, Amber and I talked for visited for a while and enjoyed Rebekah's arrival. Then I slept a lot. :) 

Welcome baby Rebekah Kathleen! We're very excited to have you in our lives. :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Andrew had Christmas Eve off from work so we made Christmas cookies together and watched a Christmas movie. He had to work Christmas night and since we're in the process of moving we decided to keep things simple. 

Andrew was anxious to open up his presents from Santa because he woke up at 5:30, but I didn't get out of bed until 10. Then we had breakfast, got ready for the day, and opened up our presents. 

 Our beautiful Christmas tree before we started unwrapping presents.

Andrew got a new pair of jeans from Santa Claus.

 Andrew bought me the BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER. If you haven't watched 'A Year Without a Santa Claus' I suggest you do!

Andrew got me this beautiful Willow Tree Figurine called Our Gift. It has the mommy and daddy holding their baby. :)

 Nanny made two beautiful sweaters for little Rebekah Kathleen, which will be adorable on her! :) 

 We also got some yummy British chocolates from Andrew's Mum and Dad. :) 

 

 

 

After we finished unwrapping our gifts we played one of our new board games Ticket to Ride which is A LOT of fun! Andrew beat me with a total of 109 points and I only had 89 points, but still it was very fun. :) Let's hope I don't make him sick of this game..I have a tendency to get a little obsessive about board games to the point that Andrew doesn't want to play them anymore. 

After the game we started working on our not so traditional Christmas dinner. We decided to do something cheaper since we went all out for Thanksgiving and since Andrew was working we didn't want to spend all day cooking, so we bought some nice steak and had mashed potatoes and corn with it.We finished off the night with a Christmas nap before Andrew had to go to work. It was a fantastic day! 

One Month!

A  few days ago my friend Cindy took a few pictures of us and Andrew wanted to get a picture comparing our bellies. I'm not sure I did such a great jump of showing my belly, but the picture turned out cute anyways. I really love my baby bum! I'm going to miss it after Rebekah is born, but I'm really excited to meet her and be a mommy. :) I love hearing people's reactions when they find out how far along I am because everyone just says how tiny I am. Which is kind of true, I don't feel like I've gained much weight during this pregnancy. But everything is healthy with mommy and Rebekah so all is good.

I can't believe we only have a month until we meet little Rebekah Kathleen! I'm really looking forward to meeting her and seeing what her personality will be like. :) 

Now that the semester  has ended Andrew and I have been able to spend more time together, even if most of it involves cleaning and packing. Anytime with Andrew is the best. I know that sounds cheesy and sappy, but being married to your best friend is pretty awesome. :) 

 Next Friday we're moving into our new apartment (it's the same complex, but on the first floor).

It's going to be SO nice living on the first floor! It'll be easier to unpack groceries and being on the first floor will make life so much easier once Rebekah is born. :) AND after we move it means we can FINALLY start decorating Rebekah's room. :) I'm really excited about that! 

 Yesterday at my doctors appointment I told my doctor I've been having minor contractions (at least I think so...) and he said that's great because Rebekah is healthy and strong, so she can come at any time. Andrew and I told her she's not allowed to come until after we move and have her crib set up. I don't think she's in a rush to come, which is okay, I just want her to be healthy and strong when she's born.

It's a Girl!

I'm a few days late on this post, but that's okay. Around 18-22 weeks Andrew and I went to the doctors to find out the sex of the baby and get our final ultrasound. We found out it's a GIRL! Yay. I'm so excited to have a daughter. :) It'll be so much fun dressing her and doing her hair! Well we were able to find out the sex of the baby, but we didn't get the nice profile picture of our little girl because she wouldn't move from this position: 

This isn't the best picture, but that's her little head and her butt sticking up in the air. If this is any indication of how she's going to sleep I approve. This has to be the cutest sleeping position ever! :) 

The lady doing the ultrasound tried getting her to move from this position, but she wouldn't budge. So we had to reschedule an ultrasound for my next appointment on October 2. 

October 2 came quickly and we went in to get the profile picture of our little girl and guess how she was positioned..with her butt in the air. :) Silly girl. The doctor was able to get her to move this time and we were able to get this lovely picture: 

Isn't she adorable!? Look how precious her little face is. :) And that's actually her foot by her face. Our daughter is going to be a super flexible. She's twisted up like a little pretzel. 

I'm now 25 weeks along and things are going great with the baby! She's growing so quickly. It truly it amazing. This week she's about 13.5 inches long and 1.5 pounds. :) 

Andrew and I finally decided on a name for our little girl! We had a few options we were throwing around and came up with Rebekah Kathleen. :) 

I'm so excited to meet our little girl and can't wait for her to be here! I can't believe I'm  already 6 months!