Annabelle Lyn is here!

After 41 weeks of pregnancy, 28 hours of labor (apparently Melissa has a high pain tolerance, as she went 14 hours until her first round of meds) and a c-section Annabelle Lyn Shafer is finally here!

 First official family photo

Family photo after some sleep.

She sleeps, eats, crys, and repeats very well.

Melissa has learned how to do many things one handed and Nick is starting to learn how to function with no sleep.

Annabelle, or Belle if we are sleep deprived and lazy, has crazy long fingers that have put the death grip on Melissa's hair, her IV, and everything else in reach. As you can see from the pictures Annabelle has a ton of blonde hair, thanks to all the heartburn she gave Melissa during pregnancy, seriously we should have bought stock in tums.

We are planned to be out of the hospital on Sunday afternoon, 96 hours in the hospital is long enough for  Melissa, the person who hates hospitals. As you can see she loves visitors. So far she hasn't spit up on anyone with out warning and only screams a few decibels louder than normal when visitors are around.

Grandma Jami 

Grandpa Mike

Aunt Steph

 

Mommy enjoying a sleeping baby.

  

Daddy enjoying an awake baby.

In other kids news, Gizmo had surgery on her left knee again last week. We figured it was the most convenient inconvenient time to have it done. She is still quite precocious, the vet said she would have to have her cast re-wrapped once in the two weeks she is supposed to have the cast on, she has already had it re-wrapped 4 times. Thankfully our vet is really awesome and doesn't mind the two emergency calls that we have made to her late at night. Also super thankful that Mike, Melissa's dad and Stephanie, Melissa's sister are in town. They spend most of the day at the hospital spending time with Annabelle and then go home and take care of the pups.

Princess Annabelle has requested some more attention, so we must oblige!

still. no. baby.

Baby Update

Until further notice please visit http://www.haveyouhadthatbabyyet.com/ for all baby arrival updates.

Gizmo is in surgery for her knee today - will share updates as soon as we get them.

O.M.G.

The countdown to Baby Girl's arrival is now in single digits.

Oh.
My.
Goodness.

What have we gotten ourself into?

Big News!!

The big news of the day ... I'm still pregnant! Other than that nothing of any importantance to report :)

But in reality, we have a couple of big events coming up this week and after that Baby Girl will be given the green light to come anytime she pleases.

Nick is getting ready for a trip to Des Moines for work. He will be gone Monday night - Wednesday. Then on Wednesday he has his final for his MBA class. So Nick's vote is for anytime after Wednesday night.

My week consists of finishing up taxes (seriously why can't I get motivated in February to do them?), making more lists and then checking them twice. On Wednesday I will have another doctors appointment and I will make sure to pay attention to what they say to report back to Nick and everyone. Then finally on Saturday my Dad flies into town from India, so it will be nice that he's in the country and an extra helping hand.

This past week my favorite phase to Nick when he asks me how I'm feeling is "I feel 9 1/2 months pregnant". I mean seriously what am I supposed to say? I'm not on bedrest which is a plus, but other than that as the doctor says everything looks great. Boring. Typical complaints of being this far along.

I also pushed my limits with 2 back to back late nights this week. On Friday my dear friends Kimberly and Stella hosted a baby party for us. My favorite part (besides the super yummy food) was everyone decorated a onesie for the baby and people were darn creative! I will be sure to post pictures of them soon, we decided to let them dry a little bit more before moving them. Then on Saturday we attended a surprise birthday party for a wonderful friend from church. While both events were wonderful, they went on way past my bedtime and I was a little to stubborn to sit down the whole time. Nick did at least win one argument, I didn't wear heels. It kind of ruined the outfit, but I guess it was more comfortable, but still.

In other news Nick's cousin Monica just announced that they are expecting their second baby in October. Which is wonderful news. The crazy thing about it will be Christmas. One year there was 1 baby, then the next there was 2, then the next there was 4, then last year there were 4 kids and 3 kids growing in bellies, and this year there will be 8 kids under 5. I can't even imagine!

It's supposed to be my bedtime, but my mind is racing. So I think I will start working on some of my lists. I love lists - they make life easy (or annoying if you talk to Nick).

So until next time when there is real big news or I can't sleep or whatever. Thanks for listening to the ramblings of this pregnant lady!

M

2.5 weeks and I might be getting annoyed

So everyone always asks me if I'm ready for the baby to come, to which I always respond "As much as we can be". I'm pretty sure that even with all the checklists and books we've missed something and I've finally come to terms with that fact.

The next thing they always ask is how I'm feeling, to which I normally respond with "I'm feeling good for being 9 months pregnant". True statement. I've had a fairly easy pregnancy and I'm very thankful for that no question about it.

But then when I talk to the doctors I'm convinced that I have an alien inside of me. They say they baby should calm down towards the end, with less movement since there is less room. Not this baby girl. They say that during her active times I should be able to get 10 movements in an hour. I wish that were true. Seriously she's throwing herself a party in my tummy, singing and dancing to her own tunes. My ribs are sore from her booty shaking and my stomach muscles are sore from her constant flailing. Nick tries hard not to laugh when he sees and feels my stomach contort into odd shapes, but most of the time he just can't help it.

So I might officially be getting to the point of wanting this baby girl out. Might be ... I will have to review the checklists one more time.