A Busy Seven Month Old

My, how time flies!!  It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas, and it's hard to believe that Grace is already seven months old. 

We have been extremely busy the last few weeks.  The first Saturday of December our church always holds a bake sale, and the day before the sale everyone gets together to make German pretzels.  This year Grace was able to come - she didn't help roll any, but she provided the entertainment!  She even had a front row seat - in a few years she'll be a professional pretzel roller.  She spent her time finding out what would happen if she dropped her toys in the container of flour :) 

She's gotten so good at sitting by herself that we stopped using the baby sling in the bathtub and now she gets to sit in it like a big girl.  She looks so stinking cute sitting in there with her chubby little legs balancing her!  I'm not sure if there's anything cuter than a baby in a bathtub or a baby sleeping!

We put the Christmas tree up two weeks ago, and I thought Grace would be more impressed with it, but she doesn't seem to care too much.  She was able to put her "Baby's First Christmas" ornament on the tree (with daddy's help!) that we bought for her in Frankenmuth.  Even though I was surprised at how little interest she showed in the tree, I have a feeling this is the last year that this will be the case!

Her favorite thing to do these days is spit all over the place.  It's cute, until she starts doing it while we're trying to feed her :)  She says "mamama" and "lalalala" but still no "dadada", much to Jeff's disappointment.  She also rolls all over the place, and she's started to kind of play peekaboo.  I don't think she necessarily knows what she's doing, but she'll hold her burpcloth above her head and then pull it down.  We think she's starting to wave some too.  When she sees me or Jeff she'll hold out one of her arms and kind of point/wave it around.  I have to say every day just gets better and better with her.  I read somewhere that colicky babies turn out to be good problem solvers when they are adults, so I figure Grace will be a genius :) 

Yesterday was a big day for me - it was my official last day as an employee of Visteon Corp.  I've decided to be a stay-at-home mom.  It was a scary decision to make, but it really wasn't necessarily a hard one.  It's scary to walk away from a decent job that pays well, especially in this economy, but I can't say that I have missed the job at all while I have been on my leave.  The only thing I've really missed is the people.  But in the end, I know being Grace's mom is the most important thing I can do, and after everything I went through to have her I can't imagine leaving her with someone else all day long.  I don't want to miss a moment of her life!  There have been days when taking care of her seems impossible and never-ending, but I know that every job in life feels like that sometimes, and I don't know if there's any other job that is more rewarding than watching your baby grow.   

I've been taking a Wilton decorating class at JoAnn's the last two weeks.  I had done some cake decorating in 4H when I was a kid, but that was more years ago than I care to think about!  I'd been wanting to take these classes for years, but with work schedules, etc. I never had the time.  I figured this could be "mommy's evening out" and I could finally take them!  I just finished the basics class and will be taking the fondant class in January.  What do you think of my final project (ignore the non-smooth icing!!)?

Hopefully I'll have a chance to post at least one more time before the end of 2010.  Lord knows I'll have enough to talk about - this Saturday we're having my niece's first birthday party at our house, Jeff's birthday is on Christmas Eve, we have two places to go on Christmas Day and the 26th, and we're having a New Year's Eve party at our house.  I'm not going to know what to do with myself once the holidays are done!!

Grace's First Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  Grace had her fair share of celebrating - we had the Holleran Thanksgiving on Thursday, Thanksgiving at my mom's on Friday, and we hosted the Weidmayer Thanksgiving on Saturday.  It's been a busy weekend!  I thought it was interesting that the turkey we cooked for the Weidmayer Thanksgiving was bigger than Grace :) 

She had her six month check-up on the 15th, and she's still a tiny thing!  She weighed in at 15 lbs, 4 ozs and was 25 1/2" long.  Both were in the 37th percentile. 

Grace has changed a lot in the last few weeks.  She is starting to try to figure out the whole crawling thing - she likes to use the carpet to pull herself forward.  She mainly gets to what she wants by rolling - once she decides she wants something, she goes for it!  She is also super-fast at grabbing things.  It amazes me how quickly she sees something and then grabs for it.  We call her "Quick-Draw McGraw" :)  I think I won't have to diet once she starts crawling - I'll probably lose ten pounds just chasing her around!!

My sister, her husband, and her daughter were able to come up from North Carolina for the holiday.  Her daughter, Eliana, will be one on 12/24, so she and Grace are only about 5 months apart.  We haven't seen them since July when both girls were baptized, so it was great to see them, and to see the two girls play with eachother.  They still don't interact too much, but Grace was interested in Eliana's hair!!  Grace was also not intimidated that Eliana was bigger than her - if Eliana was playing with a toy and Grace wanted it, she just took it.  I think we'll have to work on the sharing thing once she's a little older! 

We tried to have the girls pics taken together in their Christmas dresses, but it was like they had planned on making it a disaster.  When one was happy the other was crying, and then they would switch roles.  We got a lot of pics of them crying!!  To be fair, they are both fighting colds so neither of them was at their best.

Grace has also started laughing more.  I had been disappointed at how little she laughed, since there's not much better than hearing a baby belly laugh!  I discovered that she's ticklish in her armpits, and she also cracks up when you throw food (like grapes or popcorn) and catch it with your mouth.  The other day Jeff and I were playing tennis on the Wii and she thought daddy was pretty funny looking when he played tennis! 

She's started making more word sounds - she says baba, lala, and sometimes mama.  She still doesn't have any teeth yet, so sometimes when she makes these sounds she looks like a little old man!! 

She is eating more solids too - she still prefers the vegetables over the fruit.  We also learned that bananas are a great cure for constipation in babies :)  And the biggest news of all - Grace has now slept swaddle-free both at night and during naptime for a week now - HALLELUJAH!!!

On Sunday we took my sister and her husband to the Red Wings game.  Her husband is in the Marines, and we've been to games before where they will show the names of all the servicemen and women that are at the game on the big screen.  We let them know that he would be there, thinking that they would put his name on the screen.  I'm not sure if that night there was a special tribute or if they've changed what they do to honor the vets that are there, but they lined all of them up and announced their names and showed their faces on the screen - it was awesome.  And the crowd is great about it, too - they all stand up and clap and scream.  I think my sister's husband thought it was pretty cool. 

Well, that's about it for now.  Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon - I just went through our plans for Christmas, and right now our next free weekend is in 2011!!

Happy Six Month Birthday Sweetie!

It seems like I was just posting that it was Grace's four month birthday...now she's already six months old!!  I can't even imagine that six months from now will be her first birthday - AGH!  She sure looks different that her one month picture - this was the first time she was actually taller than the stuffed animal.  She's also a lot happier in the six month picture than the one month :)  She sure was a cranky baby those first few months.  There were times when I didn't think either of us would make it to six months.  Thankfully things have gotten (relatively) easier.  She still is a hothead but finally seems to be calming down and realizing that her needs don't need to be met instantly.  I do still feel sorry for any future boys she decides to date - weak men need not apply!!

Speaking of boys, we've had our fair share of baby boys being born these last two weeks.  Grace's godparents welcomed a little boy on 11/3, and Jeff's cousin just had her second boy on the 5th.  Some friends of ours just had twins on Tuesday, so it seems to be baby season around here.  I wonder what was going on nine months ago? :) 

Grace still continues to change almost daily.  She does a lot better at sitting by herself when she's propped up against something - she tips over pretty fast when she sits up alone.  We've also broken her of needing to be swaddled, at least at night.  We still have to swaddle her during the day if we want her to take more than a half hour nap.  It was a pretty painful process at first - the first night she woke up 25 times, at least.  The next night she went to sleep right away, but I think that was because she was so exhausted from the night before.  Since then she usually cries for 10 minutes or so before falling asleep, but I can live with that!  The interesting thing is that she likes to sleep on her stomach a lot or her left side.  She spent most of her time in the womb on her left side, so I guess that makes sense.  It's still hard not to freak out when I see her sleeping that way!

She's started eating more solids - so far she's had sweet potatoes, peas, and carrots.  She's not a big fan of the peas!!  We bought a high chair for her and she enjoys sitting in it, but I think she enjoys eating the straps more than the food.  Pretty much everything goes in her mouth these days.  She thinks we're pretty mean parents because we don't let her eat paper!!

On Thursday we traveled to Bay City for a cross country coaches clinic - we were supposed to stay both Thursday and Friday night, but Thursday night did not go well so we came home on Friday afternoon.  Thanks to some rude people at the hotel, Grace woke up at 11:30 wailing and we had a hard time getting her back to sleep that night.  I think I ended up sleeping about 3 hours and don't remember much of the clinic!!  We did stop at Frankenmuth on our way home and got Grace her first stocking and her first ornament. 

Well, that's about all the news from here.  I just realized that after next weekend we have something booked for every weekend thru the end of the year.  I guess we'll have to enjoy our last free weekend!!

Happy Halloween!!

Well, my plan of posting a blog every week sure isn't happening!  Oh well, at least I have a good excuse :) 

Grace celebrated her first Halloween, and boy, was she a cutie!!  I don't think she got much out of it, but it was still fun to see her dressed up.  We went thru Manchester on the 31st with some friends, and it was so neat watching the other kids and realizing that in the next year or two that will be Grace running around saying, "Trick or treat!!"  It's amazing how the holidays take on new meaning when you can see them through

your kids' eyes.  It makes me very excited for the future!

The cross country season is winding down.  Last Saturday we had our regional meet, and Christy (Jeff's sister) qualified for state as an individual, so we'll be going to MIS this Saturday.  Hopefully she will be able to break the current sophomore record at Manchester - she's only 13 seconds away with her most recent PR.  I can't believe the season is already over - it feels like it was just a few weeks ago that we were running in our first meet. 

Well, I don't really have much else to say for this post.  Grace rolls regularly from her front to her back and is starting to tolerate tummy-time a little more.  She is also getting pretty good at sitting by herself for a few seconds at a time.  As long as she doesn't try to move she can sit pretty well.  She still LOVES to stand all the time.  We got out her Johnny Jump-Up tonight, but our trim is too fancy so the only place she can use it is on the doorframe of her closet.  She seemed to like it, but was more interesting in biting the fabric than jumping in it.  I think until these teeth come in we are going to have a hard time getting her to do much else besides bite everything she can get her mouth on! 

Oh, please pray for me and Jeff - we are going to try to not swaddle her tonight at bedtime.  It should be interesting....!!

Five Months of Joy

Well, maybe not five whole months of joy, since the first two months were pretty rough, but close enough!!  Grace celebrated her five month birthday on Wednesday; it's still hard to believe.  At first I didn't think she had really changed that much in the last month besides learning to roll from her back to her front but as I think about it she really has changed a lot.  Not any huge milestones, but important ones.  She is so aware and interested in the world around her, and NOTHING is safe from those little hands!!  She especially loves hair - even when I pull it up she manages to find any loose strands and PULL!  Plus, she wants to put everything in her mouth.  The other day she started sucking on my chin - I guess she puts new meaning to the phrase "sucking face" :)  She also likes to grab your nose.  Neither Jeff nor I wear glasses, but she's fascinated when we meet other people who wear them.  I think we might see our first tooth soon - she's really drooling and biting on everything too. 

I am worried about when the "terrible twos" start - she already tries to have temper tantrums.  Sometimes I think that if she could throw herself on the floor and pound her fists she would.  When she's sweet, she's very sweet, but when she's mad - look out!!  Right now when she gets mad she screams really hard and deep and her face turns bright red.  I don't know what a five month old has to be so angry about - I tell her she needs to enjoy life now 'cause it doesn't get any easier than this!

We've also been working at introducing her to rice cereal.  The first time she had it she really didn't care too much, but when I gave it to her again a few days later she ate it like a professional, but since then she's been pretty wishy-washy about it.  I don't know if I should start trying to give it to her twice a day or just sticking with once a day, and I'm not sure how long I should wait to give her anything else.  At least breastfeeding is simple!!

The last two weeks have been pretty busy - lots of cross country meets and places to go.  Last Friday I took Grace to work (Jeff and I both work at the ACH plant in Saline) because my department always has a tailgate lunch the Friday before the Michigan/Michigan State game and Grace was a hit.  It was nice to see everyone I work with, although my boss did ask me if I've decided if I'm going back in January.  I told him I'm still not sure.  I keep agonizing over the decision.  In September we kept track of everything we spent, and I put it into the computer yesterday and we are right on the bubble.  I think we were about $75 in the black with just Jeff's salary and what I make working at church and coaching cross country.  It just seems a little close for comfort, but I can't imagine leaving Grace at a daycare every day.  Ugh!!

So, that about sums up the last two weeks.  We have our conference meet on Wednesday for cross country, and then we actually have next weekend off.  It's hard to believe there's only two more meets left of the regular season!!

A Time to Remember

I can't believe it is October already.  Less than 3 months until Christmas - AGH!  Of course, Christmas will be a new adventure this year with Grace.  Even though she won't really understand a lot of it I am so excited to see Christmas through her eyes.
This week has been pretty good, although a little bittersweet.  Friday marked the three year anniversary since we lost our first baby.  On one hand it feels like it was just yesterday that it happened and on the other hand it feels like a different lifetime ago.  I still remember the doctor telling us it was ectopic and that I had to have surgery right away - it all happened so fast it was hard to process everything (for more details, visit my first posting).  This year has been the first year where the pain has dulled somewhat now that we finally have our little miracle with us. 
On Thursday Grace decided to start rolling from her back to her front.  We had gone on a walk that night and I mentioned to Jeff that it didn't seem like Grace had really had any major milestones this month, and she must have heard me, because as soon as we got back from the walk she did it!  I guess she wanted to prove Mom wrong :)  The funny thing is that she is bound and determined to roll over, but as soon as she does she gets really mad because she hates being on her stomach.  I guess she still needs to learn cause and effect!!

Yesterday the three of us participated in the Big House Big Heart Run.  Jeff ran the 5K and Grace and I walked.  It was a little chilly but overall a nice day.  Grace fell asleep after the first 1/2 mile and slept until the very end.  It is a really cool race - you get to run down the tunnel of the U of M stadium and finish on the 50 yard line of the field.  Hopefully next year we'll be able to do it again.  A friend of mine had triplets three years ago that were born at 27 weeks and they spent almost 6 months in the NICU at Mott's so I have a special reason to support the race, since it benefits Mott's. 
On Saturday we had a cross country meet at Hudson Mills - the kids all did really well even though it was a pretty miserable day - about 50 degrees and rainy/windy.  We have another meet on Tuesday and then again on Saturday.  On Friday all the kids are coming to our house for a spaghetti dinner - at least this forces me to clean the house :)

So, another busy week, but it's hard to believe there's only about a month left of cross country.  I still have to decide if I'm going to back to work in January - any advice?

First Cold

So, I'm a little late with the post this time - last week was not a good week!  Grace started getting a cold last Saturday and woke up almost every hour that night.  That was not a fun night!  The next day we were scheduled to go to the Toledo Zoo with Jeff's mom and his brother and their family.  We debated whether to go or not, but Grace seemed in a decent mood and it was a nice day so we still went.  Grace didn't seem too impressed with the animals, but she did really well in the stroller.  So, she may not remember it, but it was her first trip to the zoo!  Jeff's brother has three kids - 2 girls that are 9 and 8 and a little boy who just turned 1 in June, so it was fun watching them at the zoo.  Hopefully we will be able to go again next year and Grace will enjoy it a lot more. 

Last Monday night I started feeling pretty crappy and it turned out that I had caught Grace's cold.  We had a meet on Tuesday and I dragged my way through it, but I did not feel good.  Unfortunately, there really wasn't any cold medicine that I could take since I am nursing Grace, but I was able to take Claritin.  I'm not sure if it really helped, but I was able to sleep pretty good on Tuesday night and started feeling better by Thursday.  Hopefully I can stay healthy this winter - taking care of a baby when you're sick (especially if the baby's sick too) is not easy! 
We had another cross country meet on Saturday, and we have a home meet today so we spent Sunday getting the course ready.  I can't believe that there is only a few days of September left - I still look around and wonder why the leaves are changing on the trees! 

Grace is getting cuter every day - she is handling tummy time a little better and is still rolling occasionally.  She still LOVES to stand when you hold her hands - I'm getting ready for her to try to start walking any day :)  Sometimes I think she gets mad because she can't walk - I secretly think she's a 30 year old trapped in a 4 month old's body and that's why she gets so cranky sometimes!!

Our Little Four Month Old

Yesterday Grace celebrated her four month birthday.  It is still unbelievable to me how fast time has gone.  When she was a few weeks old we decided to buy a stuffed animal to pose her next to at each month to track how she is growing.  Here is the latest one.




She looks so different from that first picture!  Yesterday was the first time where she was able to sit up pretty well without having to worry about her toppling over.  She was also reaching for the stuffed dog and trying to put it in her mouth :) 

We had a pretty good week, although Grace kept going back and forth between sleeping well at night and not sleeping very well.  Thankfully the last few nights have been pretty good. 

We broke out the exersaucer the other day to see how she would do - let's just say it would have been better if her feet actually touched the bottom!  She wasn't too impressed with it.  Hopefully she'll be able to reach the ground soon. 
Today she went in for her four month checkup.  She weighed 13 lbs, 5 ozs (41st percentile), she was 23 3/4" long (30th percentile) and her head was 41 cm (49th percentile).  So her head is the biggest part and she's still short!  I hope she's not destined to be really short.  She had to get her shots, and that is the worst part of going to the doctor.  I feel like the worst person in the world when they give her the shots and she starts screaming.  I made Jeff go with me this time so he could hold her down and I wouldn't always be the bad guy!  I also always get nervous when she gets shots because of all the media about vaccines being unsafe.  I know it's the right thing to do but it always worries me. 

I'm still not sure when I want to start her on solids.  I think she's getting close to being ready, but I'm not sure if I want to start this early.  The doctor said anytime to start is fine and made it sound like it would be a good idea, but breastfeeding is free, and minimal mess!  So, we'll see. 

This week is another crazy week - tonight we have volleyball at 9 pm (yuck), tomorrow is another cross country meet, and Thursday we're meeting with our financial planner.  No rest for the weary!!

Sixteen Weeks Old Already!

I cannot believe that Grace is 16 weeks old already - where has the time gone?  I used to think that having a baby in the spring was the best because then we could have all summer enjoying the weather but now I'm not so sure....I don't really remember this summer because it's been such a blur :)  I think we'll have to try to have our next baby in Jan or Feb so the yucky winter months fly by! 

So, what have we been up to?  Well, in the last few weeks Grace has started rolling a little.  It's still pretty random.  She hates being on her stomach so it's hard to give her enough time to practice.  I've been trying to put her on her tummy a little bit each time I change her diaper.  She first "officially" rolled on August 25th.  She also started laughing a little bit - her first real laugh was on August 31st.  She's still a pretty serious baby - I'm hoping the belly laughs start for real soon.  I think it's one of the best sounds in the world!
I think Grace has changed the most in the last 3 weeks so far since she's been born.  It's amazing how much more alert she is and how much more she pays attention to everything around her.  I love watching her change almost daily.  It's also been great that she's in a good sleeping pattern right now - she usually sleeps for 7-8 hours at a stretch at night.  It has definitely helped me to feel more human again!

She is also freakishly strong.  We put her in a SwaddleMe each night and somehow she is able to get at least one body part out, and somehow she can move herself from one end of the crib to the other and usually also turns herself sidways (as you can see in this picture).  This morning she had found a way to work one of her feet out of the sleeper she was in by forcing it through two of the buttons at the the ankle.  She might be small but she sure is mighty!!
Cross country has started up for good now - last Wednesday we had our first real meet.  It was my first time away from Grace for more than about 4 hours.  I think I had a harder time than she did!  Our friend Jill watched her from 2-5pm and then Jeff's mom, Sharon, watched her from 5-7:30 pm.  Jill had a bunch of kids at her house and Grace loved it.  She is fascinated by kids.  I was really glad she did so well while I was at the meet.  I was a little nervous because we had never given her two bottles in a row before but she took them like a pro!
Today we went to Jeff's mom's for a Labor Day party.  It was nice for Grace to see her cousins.  It was the coldest it has been since before Grace was born - I could hardly remember what it was like to be cold!  Grace tried out the swing at Grandma's and loved it - she fell asleep in it.  I think we need to get one of these!

We have a busy week ahead of us - tomorrow I have to take my stuff to enter in the Saline Fair (hopefully Grace's picture wins the Baby Beauty contest!) and we're also going to my friend's son's first birthday party.  Tuesday we start playing indoor volleyball, and on Wednesday we have another cross country meet.  I also have to get the house ready for a diaper party for a friend of ours who is expecting twins.  If only Grace could help clean :)

A Little Bit About Me

Just a little bit of info about me - I am 29 (yikes!) and currently on maternity leave from my job at a large automotive supplier where I work as a service coordinator.  The company I work for supplies instrument panels and consoles to Ford.  My job before I went on maternity leave was to coordinate building and supplying parts to Ford for service (past model) orders.  I also am the cross country coach for Manchester Schools - I coach both boys and girls, high shool and middle school.  I started coaching last year and this will be my second season.  If I do go back to my job as service coordinator, it won't be until January.  We're still determining if I will go back or not (and if I have a choice!). 
I love to bake (and eat!) and I also crochet and cross-stitch, when I have time.  I enjoy running and hope to get more serious about it as I recover from having Grace.  We are hoping to run the Keweenaw 25K again next summer. 
I love dogs, and our first baby (he's a yellow lab), Toby, is still very special to me.  He will be 8 years old in January and is definitely my best friend!!  He was there for me through all the heartbreak of the past 3 years and I'm so glad he is with us so Grace can grow up with him.  He's still adjusting to her arrival, but I think they will get along great.
So, that's about it.  I'm afraid I'm not that exciting :)

The Birth of our Miracle

As I stated in the last post, I was pretty lucky to have a textbook pregnancy with Grace without any major issues.  I did forget to mention that when we went to our 20 week ultrasound the tech said the amniotic fluid was "low" and that I would have to come back again in 2 weeks to have it re-checked.  She never said how low it looked, so of course I looked up stuff on the internet and started freaking out because most of the articles said it either meant that you were leaking fluid or the baby's kidneys weren't working properly.  I called my doctor in a panic and she told me it was only subjectively low and that she didn't see anything to worry about.  She was so nice and even though I was still worried she calmed me down a lot.  When we went in 2 weeks later everything was fine.  I would still like to wring that tech's neck!!

So, back to the birth.  My due date was May 13th and I went on maternity leave from work starting on May 3rd (which also happened to be my birthday!).  I was hoping that I would have at least a week off of work before the baby came, but I was also really hoping that I wasn't late!!  My sister was also planning on coming up from NC to be there for the birth, so it was a little nerve-wracking hoping that whenever I did go into labor she would be able to make it.  I had a doctor's appt on 5/6 and the doctor stripped my membranes and said I was 80% effaced and a little over 1 cm dilated.  I called my sister and she decided to come up the next day and stay for about a week so that she would hopefully be here when the baby came. 

I started getting pretty antsy after that.  I remember that one minute I wanted labor to start, and the next minute I was terrified and never wanted labor to start!!  I felt like a ticking time bomb that could go off at any time, and every little twinge would make me wonder if I was going into labor.  On Monday, 5/10 my sister came over and we played Wii Sports and then watched Dancing with the Stars.  I started feeling little contractions during the show and we started timing them.  They first started about 10 minutes apart and then after about 2 hours they were down to 6 or 7 minutes apart.  We all started getting excited, and we were pretty sure I would be going to the hospital early the next morning.  I went to bed after my sister left and woke up around 2 am from the contractions.  They still weren't really painful, but definitely more painful than before.  I got up and ate some food and tried reading a book but was too anxious.  I finally woke Jeff up at around 5 am and told him that I thought we should start thinking about going to the hospital.  I took a shower and we left about 6 am.  When we got there they took me into triage and I was only 2 cm and still 80% effaced.  Since it wasn't enough to admit me, they had me walk around the hospital for an hour and then re-checked me.  Nothing had changed, so they sent us home.  They told me to wait to come back until the contractions were so bad I couldn't walk.

I was pretty annoyed with myself for being wrong about being in labor.  We got home a little after 11 am (5/11) and I went to bed to try and get some sleep.  When I woke up 2 hours later the contractions had stopped.  I was so mad!!  Later that evening they started again but were really sporadic and not any more intense than they had been.  We went on a 2 mile walk to try to move things along, but it didn't do anything.  I continued to have the sporadic contractions all night, and they did start getting more intense, but still not enough.  On Wed morning (5/12) Jeff stayed home from work for an hour or so and we went on another walk to see if anything would happen, but it was still the same situation so he went to work.  By 11 am I was so sick of sitting at home and timing my contractions that I called my mom and sister and asked if they wanted to go to the mall.  I had to get out of the house!!

When we got to the mall we ate and walked around.  I'm not sure what time it was (sometime between 1 and 2 pm) that the contractions started getting a lot more intense.  They also started to get more regular and were around 5 minutes apart.  We walked around for awhile before we left.  On the way back to my house both my mom and my sister told me that I needed to call Jeff so he could leave work because my contractions were now closer to 2-3 minutes apart.  Jeff remembers that I called him at 3:46 pm. 

Jeff got home and we left for the hospital pretty much right away.  We got there around 5:30 pm and waited in the waiting room until about 6 pm before going to triage.  They examined me and I was 100% effaced and 3 cms dilated so they decided to admit me.  I knew I wanted to try to have a natural birth so I asked if they had a room with a Jacuzzi tub and luckily they did.  After being admitted, we decided to walk around for an hour and then I wanted to get into the tub.  I remember that American Idol was on and I wanted to see who was kicked off so I waited until 10 pm to get in the tub.  Jeff took a nap and I was in the tub for about an hour, but I noticed that my contractions really slowed down when I was in there so I got out.  We went on another walk for about an hour and came back.  The nurse checked me around 12:30 am and I was at 5 cms.  I had been laying on my back and I wanted to roll over to my side so I asked Jeff to help me and as soon as I tried to roll I felt all this warm liquid come out.  I don't know why but they first thing I thought was that it was blood.  I told Jeff and I remember him saying "Don't you think your water broke?" and it dawned on me that it was probably what happened.  I called the nurse and she didn't believe me, but when they tested it it was amniotic fluid.  This was at 12:45 am.  The contractions started getting really intense after that.  I remember the baby was also kicking me like crazy!  Even the nurse commented on how active the baby was. 

Sometime between 2 and 3 am I decided to get morphine.  I was in some pretty serious pain but still didn't want an epidural.  Looking back I wouldn't get morphine again - it just made me feel really weird.  I don't remember a lot of what happened after this point - I remember sitting on a birthing ball for awhile.  I think they checked me around 3 or 3:30 am and I was at 10 cm and they had me try to start pushing but there was still a little bit of my cervix in the way and the baby wasn't low enough yet so I had to try not to push when I had contractions.  They tied a sheet to a rail at the end of the bed and I pulled on that every time I had a contraction.  The contractions slowed down some to about 4 minutes apart and I remember dozing off in between them (Jeff slept in a chair through most of this part).  I do know that at one point he told me it was okay if I got an epidural and he wouldn't think I was a failure!!  I think he wanted it more for himself than for me, but at that point the thought of having to sit still while someone put a needle in my back sounded worse than the pain.  Finally at 5 am I told Jeff that I was glad I was getting a chance to sleep some but was sick of it and wanted to be done.  I think the nurse must have been standing right outside the door because as soon as I said that she came and told me it was time to start pushing.  I was so glad to hear that but I was nervous too.  My sister pushed for 4 hours and I didn't think I could handle it if it took that long for me.  I remember that while I was pushing I asked the doctor if the baby was close and she told me that the head was right there and I asked her if she was lying to me so that I would keep pushing!  Even though I didn't have any pain medicine I never felt the burning that the books talk about so I thought that I still had a long ways to go, but it only ended up taking a little over 40 minutes of pushing for Grace to arrive.

At 6:04 am on May 13th (her due date!) she was born, and believe it or not, I had kind of forgotten about getting to find out what we were having, so when the doctor held her up and asked me what we had, it took me a minute to register that we had a little girl.  I was surprised, because for most of my pregnancy I had thought for sure I was having a boy.  She weighed 6 lbs, 5 ozs and was 18 1/2" long.

We hadn't 100% agreed on a name if it was a girl because there were 2 or 3 that we liked, but we had always liked Grace because of its religious meaning.  When she came out, I knew that had to be her name.  We also picked Luella because that is Jeff's grandma's name and she is one of the most wonderful women I know and we thought it would be an awesome way to honor her.  It was so cute when we told her - she said, "I didn't think anyone liked my name!". 

We ended up staying in the hospital until Sunday, May 16th because Grace had jaundice.  That was awful - she had to sit under the lights with these goggles on and I could only hold her when she had to eat and she cried and cried.  I think that took a big emotional toll on me.  Thankfully it wasn't any worse and we were able to come home without any additional problems, and our life hasn't been the same since!!

Our story

Wow, I'm starting a blog.  This was something I've always thought of doing, but never really thought I'd have anything that interesting to talk about.  Now that our daughter, Grace, is here, I decided I can use this as both a diary of her life and also a way to keep family and friends updated on our family. 
I figured I should start at the beginning, or at least the beginning of me and my husband.  I first met Jeff at our church when I was 14 and he was 21.  Since there was such a big age difference we only saw each other in passing on Sundays and never really talked much.  Shortly after my 18th birthday my mom said she saw Jeff "looking at me" in church when I was playing the piano.  I blew her off, thinking, "no way".  A few weeks later our youth group went putt-putt golfing and I somehow got a hole in one on the last hole, so I won a free game.  My mom kept bugging me about how Jeff was "looking at me" so I decided to ask him if he wanted to go putt-putt golfing since I had a free game (yes, I asked HIM out!!).  He said yes, and the rest is history.  Well, it wasn't quite that simple :)  Our first date was almost our last because after we went golfing we went back to his house and he turned the NASCAR race on and proceeded to pretty much ignore me the rest of the night!  I remember when I got home my mom was dying to know how it went and I remember telling her that I didn't think I would go out with him again!!  I decided to give him another chance and our second date was much better than our first.  We started dating the summer of 1999 and on April 26, 2001 Jeff proposed to me in the Ravines of Grand Valley State University.  We were married on June 29, 2002.  Since I was only 21 when we were married and I had just graduated from college I was in no hurry to start a family.  I figured it would be at least 3 years before I would be ready to start a family.  Jeff was ready pretty much anytime, but he understood that I wasn't quite ready yet.  It took me a little more than 3 years to start thinking about kids - I think I bought my first pregnancy books in 2006 and after reading them decided I still wasn't quite ready to go through everything they talked about in the books :)  Plus, the house we lived in at the time was super small and only had 2 really little bedrooms, so I didn't really want to start a family in such a small space.  We sold our house in January of 2007 and started remodeling a house right down the road from where Jeff grew up (I'll post more on that later).  We had done the Clark Lake Triathlon in 2005 and 2006 and were going to do it again in 2007.  I was determined to finish the triathlon in under 2 hours, and I told Jeff that if I did, I would be ready to start trying to have a family.  Well, I finished it in 1 hour, 56 minutes, so now I had to keep my word :) 
We were blessed to get pregnant on our first try, and I found out I was pregnant on September 21, 2007.  We were still working on our house (and living with my mom), so I was a little nervous about the timing, but still very excited.  On September 30th I had been working on some landscaping at the house, and when we got back to my mom's I started to feel pain on the left side of my groin.  I thought I had maybe pulled a muscle while using the shovel, so I didn't think much of it.  The pain kept getting worse throughout the evening, and I decided to go to bed to see if I could get some sleep.  I woke up in agony around 2 am and tried walking around and stretching to see if it would get better, but it didn't.  I finally woke Jeff up at 3 am and told him that we needed to go to the ER.  When we got there they drew my blood to check my HCG values, and they came back really low, but there was no one there to do an ultrasound so we had to wait until my OB/GYN's office opened to have him check that everything was okay.  He did the ultrasound around 8:30 am and told me that the pregnancy was ectopic and I would have to have surgery right away to remove it before it burst my tube.  I was in complete shock and didn't even know how to handle the news.  I had never heard of anyone who had an ectopic pregnancy and only knew what it was from what I had read in books.  I couldn't believe that it had happened to me.  All my life I had been lucky enough to not have any problems with periods and everything pretty much ran like clockwork, so I had never expected to have any trouble having a baby.  That morning I had a laproscopy and laprotomy to remove the baby and ended up with 15 staples and no baby.  It was the worst time in my life (up to that point).  We hadn't even told our parents that we were pregnant so Jeff had to call our parents and tell them that I was going in for surgery to remove the baby.  It was a horrible time.  After the surgery my friends all tried to be there for me but I didn't know how to handle what I was feeling so I just holed up at my mom's and didn't really talk to anyone for awhile.
Two months after the surgery we got the green light from the doctor to start trying again, and again we were lucky and got pregnant right away.  I found out I was pregnant on December 23, 2007.  On January 7th the doctor confirmed the baby was in my uterus so we were super excited.  A few weeks later we went in for my 8 week checkup to see the heartbeat.  The doctor wasn't able to see one, but said he wasn't too worried since it was still so early.  We made an appointment to see him the next week.  On Saturday, January 19th I had a little blood when I went to the bathroom.  I freaked out, but I tried not too worry too much since I had read that it was pretty common in early pregnancy to have some bleeding.  We went to church the next day and during the prayers I felt something and ran to the bathroom.  There was blood everywhere.  I stayed in the bathroom for close to half an hour with more and more blood coming.  I finally came out and told Jeff we needed to go to the ER (for the second time in three months).  When we got there they did an ultrasound and couldn't find the baby.  At that point I knew there was no chance because I had never seen so much blood.  The doctor decided not to do a D&C because I had recently had surgery. 
After this, I decided I needed a break from trying to get pregnant, both emotionally and physically.  I had gained about 20 lbs after the ectopic pregnancy and my 10 year high school reunion was coming up in the summer and I wanted to focus on getting healthy both mentally and physically.  We decided to run a 25K in the Keewenaw Peninsula that summer to help get in shape.  We were also going through a bunch of issues with our house remodel and our contractor, so I knew that I needed to take some time off.
In August of 2008 we started trying again, and this time it took a few months.  I found out I was pregnant in early November and the doctor confirmed it based on my HCG values, but I ended up having another miscarriage 6 days later.  This one wasn't as bad since it was still so early but it was still heartbreaking.  I was able to get pregnant again in January but found out that this one was another ectopic in the same tube.  I hadn't felt any pain but the doctor saw it on an ultrasound, so I had another surgery on January 19th, 2008.  This time the doctor had to remove my left fallopian tube because there was too much scarring.  He was able to do it all laprascopically, so it wasn't as bad of a recovery as the first one. 
At this point the doctor wanted to check to make sure there was nothing wrong with my right tube (he didn't want me to have to go through another ectopic) so I had a hysterogram (sp?) in February.  Other than childbirth, this was the most painful thing I have ever had done.  Thankfully, everything turned out okay on the scan and he gave us the okay to start trying again.  He did warn us that it might take longer because if I ovulated on the left side I wouldn't be able to get pregnant since the tube had been removed. 
We tried for three months with no luck.  During that time, I found out my sister was pregnant, and I had a really hard time with it.  I was getting desperate at this point.  In May 2009 I decided I needed a fresh start and started going to a new doctor.  She put me on Clomid to hopefully help me get pregnant.  We did 2 months at 50 mg and then went to 100 mg.  She told me that if I didn't get pregnant after 2 cycles on 100 mg that I would have to start taking fertility drugs.  I really didn't want to go on the drugs so I prayed really hard that I would be able to get pregnant.  I remember this was a really dark time in my life.  It was like everything else stopped mattering and all I could think about was getting pregnant.  It haunted everything else I did. It was so frustrating to have been able to get pregnant so easily before and then try for 6 months without any luck.
By the grace of God I found out on September 4, 2009 that I was pregnant.  I could hardly believe the test and I think I took 3 or 4 of them.  My sister's baby shower was the next weekend, and I remember the day before her shower I started having pain in my groin and I was convinced that it was another ectopic pregnancy.  I remember trying not to cry the whole time during her shower as she was opening her gifts because I was so sure that I would never have a baby shower of my own. 
I must have actually pulled my groin that time because when I went to the doctor she was able to see the baby in my uterus.  She still couldn't see a heartbeat, but I made an appointment for the next week and tried not to obsess and worry too much.  I'll never forget how wonderful it was when I went to that appointment and saw the little heartbeat blink on/off, on/off on the screen.  I started crying and was just so overwhelmed to finally be able to see a heartbeat on my baby.  It was so hard not to tell everyone I knew but Jeff and I had agreed to wait until 12 weeks to tell anyone.  We were super paranoid because we had told people right away on the others and were determined to do everything different this time to not "jinx" anything.  I was also so worried to do any physical activity - I had started coaching cross country a month before and was so nervous any time I had to run at one of the meets to get the kids' times that it was going to cause another miscarriage.  I was so tired of living in fear of losing a baby!!
Thankfully, everything went okay and we were able to tell everyone in the middle of November.  I was very lucky and had a textbook pregnancy and all my ultrasounds were normal.  We decided not to find out what we were having because after everything I had been through I wanted it to be a surprise.  I also think that deep down I was worried about becoming too attached to the baby. 

Finally, after almost three years of trying to have a baby, our beautiful little girl Grace Luella was born on May 13, 2010.  I still couldn't believe it when I held her in my arms the first time.  I knew that I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life.

So, that's our story.  I'll post more details about her birth later.  It sounds like someone is hungry :)