Monday, August 29, 2011

Pictures

** Update: I fixed it! The albums were set to private so only I could view them. They should be good to go now.
I added 2 new albums to the Picasa list in the right sidebar. One has all the pictures from Anna's birth and first couple days home from everyone's cameras. I almost deleted all the scary ones of me but then I decided if I'm going to share her birth story (that post is in the works) you all will understand why I look like that. The other is pictures from her first month. Most of them are stolen from my mom's camera. Enjoy the pictures!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

First Bath

Getting undressed



"I hate being naked!!"



Me telling Jamie to put her in the tub, and Jamie saying he doesn't want to be the one to make her cry.



Before she started screaming bloody murder






All done!



All snuggly in her hooded towel




All better, warm and snuggly with Daddy



Combing out her lovely locks



All clean and pretty

Sunday, August 7, 2011

The Living Definition...

...of a dream come true.




Anna Marie Hotalen
August 3rd, 2011 4:45 PM
7lbs. 0oz., 20 1/2 inches

I'll write out the whole birth story soon. Warning: if you were planning on having children any time soon you may not want to read this one...

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Best Laid Plans...

Remember this quote from my last post "when she comes on the 4th you may all laugh at me. Well get ready to giggle...

Tuesday morning I had a 9:45 appointment at my OB. After waiting almost an HOUR I finally got called back. The nurse said my blood pressure was a little high. I was thinking 'Yeah because for the SECOND week IN A ROW you left me waiting FOREVER to get back here. And I'm hormonal and irritable.' I figured I'd relax, get another reading and go home. Maybe with instructions to take it easy.

NOPE.

Instead they took a urine sample, put me on the fetal monitors and had me lay down to hopefully bring down my pressure. But the urine sample tested positive for proteins and though baby looked fine, my pressure stayed high. So I got what no pregnant woman goes into an appointment anticipating: "Go straight to the hospital. You're having this baby now."

Yipes.

I'm posting from my iPod and it's tough, so I'll quit now and finish the detailed story later. But big picture: I'm at the hospital now and baby girl should arrive in the next 24 hours or so. Wish us luck!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

August

It's officially August. The month our baby girl will be born, and the month we'll celebrate her birthday for the rest of time. I can't believe it!

I said to Jamie last night that I figure she'll be born sometime in the next two weeks, give or take (I wouldn't be too surprised if it's closer to 2 1/2. My official guess for her birthday is August 16th. You may all laugh at me when she's born on the 4th). That's crazy! Of course, if she loves her daddy, she'll come either on or before her due date or after August 14th. He has tickets to go to the PGA championship on the 14th, and we're both really hoping he can make it! He came home from work last week and told me someone offered him tickets, but the dates were too close to my due date (actually, his exact words were, "It's the weekend you're pregnant." But I knew what he meant). I told him take them! What a cool opportunity! If she comes early and we're settled at home with Mom here to help, he's going. Or if she's not yet arrived, he's going. We worked out all the details to make sure he could get home quick if needed - a little bit tricky considering you can't have a cell phone on when you're at a PGA event. And since he has two tickets, he has a friend going with him and that friend has another friend on stand-by, just in case Jamie can't go. But like I said, we hope he can! We'll just have to wait and see if Baby Girl has the same goal.

I also realized last night that we're actually ready for her. There are still things I'd like to get done around the house (for instance, pooch needs a haircut REALLY bad!), but as far as baby stuff goes, she could come right now and we'd be fine. The nursery is about 98% done (stay tuned for a picture tour once my mom arrives on Wednesday; I don't want to post any pictures until she sees it), the carseat is here and just needs to go in the car. We have strollers, diapers, baby clothes and pretty much everything else we could think of to buy or borrow. Physically, this place is just about ready for her!

Emotionally, I'm not ready yet! I'm not ready for pregnancy to end, and I'm not ready to go through labor and delivery, although I did get all teary reading my books on labor and delivery and picturing Jamie and I holding her for the first time. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the ENORMOUS change that's going to take place in our lives. And as much as I dislike waking up several times a night for potty trips, I'm not expecting the sleep thing to get much easier once she arrives!

But ready or not, it's August and our little peanut is coming! I can't believe how fast this 9 months went!