New Blog/Photo Address

What comes with newborns (besides lots of dirty diapers, sleepless nights, and infinite love)? TONS of pictures! So we've decided to amend our blog situation. We are using a sharesite on Shuttefly. That way we can upload all photos and everyone can look through them as they like and we can still blog. Below is the web address--please bookmark and check in as often as you'd like.

http://madelyngracerose.shutterfly.com/

The Nugget is here...Announcing Madelyn Grace Rose

Born Friday, January 29th at 8:23am.

She weighed 8lbs, 7oz, and was 21.1" long.

She is perfect!

Has a full head of hair and already monopolizing our time and hearts.

Zoey is unsure of what she is, or what she's doing here, but is very gentle around her. We think Zoey will figure out soon enough that Maddy is here to stay.

The delivery in a paragraph: Went in Thursday to get checked because I thought my water migth of broken. It had. They checked us in and started me on pitocin since I wasn't dilated more than a centimeter. Pain got bad. Got the epidural. Loved life at that point. We thought she wouldn't be born until noon or after on Friday, so we planned on getting some sleep that night. Wellll, in an hour I went from 3cm to "done" as they put it (10cm). So we started pushing a little before 6am. After 2 1/2 hours she was here and gorgeous! Everything went pretty smoothly and now that we are home and in a rhythm with breastfeeding it's good times.

We got home yesterday and as we left the hospital Mike said this, "Sunday seems like a good day to go home. Like all is right and good with the world." Deep thoughts by Mike Rose. God love him, he's been the best husband and a better dad. He's very nervous about hurting Maddy so he's very delicate with her. He won't carry her and anything else down the stairs because he wants to be extra careful.

We'll try to keep updates about Maddy on the blog so everyone can follow along (if they want to).

Induction Date Set

Well, we are having some movement (i.e. contractions), but the cervix isn't cooperating. Looks like next Tuesday night at 8pm I'll head on over to the hospital--if the Nugget isn't here by then--to start the induction process. Cross your fingers the little girl decides to show her face before then!

Blog Slacker

Man, time flies and it's very easy to forget about blogging! I'd like to think once the Nugget arrives that I'll blog more to keep family and friends updated on the little one, but I hear having "extra time" will be even more rare at that point.

Sooo, we are at 38 weeks now. Only 16 days until the due date! It seems so unreal that in a couple weeks (hopefully she won't be late) we'll have a baby in this house. We are all ready--packed for the hospital, nursery complete, and all necessary baby items in place. Mentally, we are pretty much there. I'm SO ready to not be pregnant anymore, but the whole unknown it a bit scary to us. How tired will we really be? Will the Nugget be healthy? All those things!

We love our nursery! I found some great artwork that I planned everything around. I found the artwork online and loved it. I was so excited to have something that not everyone would have. Well, wouldn't ya know it, the more recent PB Kids catalog now is selling our artwork. Dang it! OH well. We also got a little help from our friends, Jill and Mark, in the way of nursery furniture and some decorating items. Their littlest man was ready for his big boy bed so they wanted to get rid of all the baby room stuff, and we were the lucky recipients.

We have officially settled on a name as well--both first and middle (we were struggling with the middle name). We still are not going to share the name until the Nugget arrives, but we love it. The top baby names of 2009 came out yesterday and our name has really made a jump in the top 100. This is fine. We don't want a totally off the wall name.

So now we just wait...and wait. Every movement or pain I get a little hopefully that labor is starting, but really, it's now. We still have 16 days...seems so short and so long all at the same time!

It's been a while...

It's been so long since I've posted anything on our blog--I think this is definitely a testament to how busy work and everything else is right now! When I get a break from work we are super busy getting things done around the house, reading baby books, and traveling out of town for baby showers. It's all been good, but I'm really looking forward to the holidays and some R&R!

This week I'm 27 weeks along. When I think of it as only 13 weeks left I just can't believe it, but on the other hand, I also feel like I've been pregnant FOREVER! We are so ready for our little girl to be here! We have started cleaning out the soon-to-be-baby room and started the painting process. I'm very excited to have it all done--mostly because it's a pain and my hand does not enjoy painting right now (swelling in hand = carpultunnel = takes SO long to paint). We also ordered our glider chair. So things are coming along nicely for the room.

We were in KC a little over a week ago for a baby shower. It was hosted by my mom and sister and they did a lovely job! Here are some pictures from the festivities:

My sister was in charge of the cake...she used our nursery artwork as inspiration

Another great idea--as a party favor each guest got a mini-bottle of champagne to save and pop open once the Nugget arrives


It was great to see family, but also very nice that some of our friends from KC could make it!

As some of you may know, my sister is a budding photographer and took some shots of my preggo self while in KC also. Here are my favorite shots:

Coming up, November will for sure be busy. I have a lot of work travel to get in before I'm no longer allowed to travel, a baby shower for my sister-in-law, a baby shower for my friend (Michelle) who is due a week after me, and my final baby shower here in STL. Then it will be Thanksgiving and the holidays! Christmas is my favorite and I can't wait to put up the decorations, but I will restrain myself and wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving :)

Halfway to meeting our BABY GIRL!

We found out last week that our little nugget is a girl. I had a hunch, but really with 50/50 odds what's a hunch worth? First and foremost, the ultrasound looked ALL GOOD. The nugget--as far as they can tell--is healthy and growing quite nicely. At the time of the ultrasound they measured her at 9 inches, and 9oz. So weight is about on track, but the height is ahead of track. Might have a long baby, I mean tall :0)

Watching her move around while we were getting the ultrasound was really amazing. I haven't felt her move yet, but the girl is active. She was constantly moving and even "waved" at us one time. Good thing we have a friend of a friend over at Barnes so we can sneak in another ultrasound to watch her move around later on in the pregnancy.

We decided to go out and buy the nugget an outfit the day we found out she was a girl. Mike picked it out, and in his words, "...you get to have the baby, so I get to pick the outfit." He did a great job. A cute little pink number that looks warm and snuggling for a cold January (or maybe February...if she's late) ride home! It also had a little hat. He's already thinking like a dad!

At 20 weeks now--halfway there! It seems like I've been pregnant forever and this point and there are still 20 more weeks to go. I'm sure time will fly by--especially with baby showers coming up and the holidays! I have my first (well, second...some friends surprised me in Chicago) baby shower this weekend. I'm really excited and cant' wait. I think it will be so fun!

Oh, the other news...well, not really news, but fun stuff. I think I've figured out a direction for the nursery. I knew pink had to be involved, but I also wanted it to feel like a kids room with fun bright colors. I'm very pleased with my choices so far. Here's our bedding and artwork:

Week 18

The nugget is a bell pepper this week. That baby sure if growing fast in there and I can really tell! The waistline is expanding. Almost time to start taking those monthly "look how big my belly can get" photos.