Elizabeth Lauren

We welcomed Elizabeth Lauren 4 days early, on August 4, 2013 at 7:35pm.  She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. 

On Saturday night, August 3rd, David and I were going to bed and David said "I just need a good, full night of sleep". HA!  Around 2am I woke up from what I thought was my water breaking.  I woke up David and called the doctor.  The doctor told us to head to the hospital.  So, we gathered up a few last minute things, we both took showers, and were headed out the door.  We arrived at the hospital around 3:45am and by 5:00am they had admitted me and we were in our room.  At that point we both rested, I took another shower, and we waited for my parents and Jill to get there.  Luckily, Jill was visiting my parents that weekend, so she was able to come with them.  I walked around a lot in the morning, just because I knew once I got the epidural I would be stuck in bed.  Around noon I started to feel my contractions, but the pain wasn't so bad that I couldn't handle it.  By 1:00pm I decided I should be the epidural because I didn't want it to be too late or get to the point that I couldn't stay still.  After that, my disgusting  gourmet lunch arrived from the hospital cafeteria and my back started to hurt.  We assumed it was due to the position I was lying in, so the nurse came in to help move me up a little bit.  The pain was not getting better, so they increased my pain medicine.  My family decided to go eat dinner around 5:30 because the nurse said it would still be hours before I would start pushing.  But, as soon as they left, I started to feel the contractions again - even with the epidural- so they checked me and said I was ready to push!  I started pushing around 6:30 and Elizabeth was born at 7:35pm!  The doctor let David announce the sex of the baby, and he also got to cut the umbilical cord.  After the nurses and David weighed her, bathed her, I fed her, and all that good stuff, my family came in to meet her.  By 10:00 we were moved into our other room for the rest of the hospital stay.

 

 

We were in the hospital for two nights.  It was a great hospital, all the nurses were so friendly and helpful, and my doctor was great (of course there are 5 doctors in my practice and the one doctor I had never seen before was the one on call that night, but we really liked him).  Ellie stayed in our room with us the entire time, she could have of course gone to the nursery, but we didn't want to give her up!  I was in a lot of pain when we headed home on Tuesday, and it took me about a week to feel better, I feel like the labor was the easy part!  Now we are enjoying life (a little sleep deprived) and the blessing that God has given us!  We waited a long time for Elizabeth and she is perfect!!!

I'm not exactly looking as good as Kate Middleton did when she left the hospital...but hey, I stopped wearing my maternity clothes last week, so that has to count for something;)!

32 and 2 weeks!

The weather has finally cooled down, last week was brutal!  The temps were up to 100 a few of the days, so I stayed inside in the AC.  I don't know how David does it, going to work in the summer heat dressed in suits and riding the subway.....gross! 

A few weeks ago we went to a park only about 30 minutes away right on the New York/New Jersey state line.  It was pretty hot out so we didn't do too much walking, but it was beautiful overlooking the Hudson River.  The pictures are taken from the New Jersey side.  As you drive up the Palisades Parkway, there are a ton of places to stop along the way for the views and hikes.

 

 

Last week my parents came for one night to drop off some things for the baby.  I knew I wanted a glider/rocking chair, but while many of them are very comfortable, I think a lot of them are ugly.  So, a while back my parents offered us a glider from the Amish Country as a baby gift.  A couple months ago we went to visit them and went to some furniture stores in the Pennsylvania Amish country to find one we liked.  (I have to admit though, David and I prefer the Amish country of Ohio much more...for not living in Ohio that long we seemed to have made a lot of trips up there.)  We found a chair we loved, so my parents picked that up and brought it to us last week.  The ottoman is not finished yet, but should be in a couple more weeks.  I still need to get a cushion for it, but it is surprisingly very comfortable without one.  The picture doesn't do it justice, maybe one of these days I will use an actual camera instead of my phone.

 

 

 



On Thursday I celebrated my 32nd birthday.  Why is it that as you get older, birthdays get less exciting?  David took the day off and we hung out, I had a dr. appt, and we went out to dinner.  He surprised me with a bracelet from Tiffany's with a place on the bracelet for me to get the baby's initials engraved on it - which we have yet to come up with...ahhh!!! 

 

On Wednesday I had an early birthday celebration lunch with my friends Liann and Ellie.

 



Yesterday we went into the city, and I am so glad we did, the temps were in the low 80s!  We went to the Met for a few hours.

 

Can you spot David in this picture below?

After the Met we walked through Central Park and then went to a BBQ place for lunch/dinner that I have been wanting to try.  We ate a lot, but I do not feel guilty...I am 38 weeks pregnant and walked from 86th street to 26th street (with minimal complaining might I add;)).   Don't worry, this was shared between the 2 (or 3;)) of us!

Last weekend David hung some stuff in the nursery.  This is the only picture I have taken...I am waiting for the rest of it to be finished (no rush David, the baby could be here any day;)).   There is some meaning behind the framed pictures.  For as long as I can remember my mom has sent me Winnie the Pooh cards, and I have saved them all.  I went through and picked a few out (most of them she sent to me in college) to frame.  The two green frames are pictures of David and me that were at my shower, and the "Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow" was a print I found online a few years ago that I always wanted to get for a nursery.  I think the Doxology is one of the first things I had to memorize in Sunday School. 

As of today I am a little over 38 weeks....2 weeks (let's hope it's not longer!) to go!! 

Lots of 4s!

Happy belated 4th of July.  Our 4th this year was very low key, I was just too hot and tired to do anything!  We were originally going to go to a BBQ at a nearby park with some friends, then head to Hoboken to a bar and then watch the fireworks, but with the weather in the 90s and being exhausted I just couldn't bring myself to go.  We did meet up with some friends for a quick drink (I was a rebel and ordered a coke!) during the day though. 

We had an ultrasound on Monday, everything with the baby looked good!  The estimated weight was 6lbs 6oz...although I don't put much into that based on what I have read and how much the actual weight can vary from the estimate. 

This week I somehow managed to get a terrible cold.  Between a stuffy nose, a horrible cough and not sleeping well, I have been in a great mood;) 

Yesterday we celebrated our 4 year anniversary.  David took the day off and we got pedicures!  I had to convince him for weeks to get one and assure him men get them all the time;)  Here are a couple pictures from a weird angle since I was sitting right next to him.  And no, he did not get his toenails painted:)

Last night we went to dinner at Capital Grille.  David has been there many times, and I have never been but have been wanting to try it.  The path train wasn't operating, so we ended up taking the ferry....about a 3 minute ride across the Hudson.

At dinner we both ordered steak, but I also had the surf.....and ate way too much!  At the end, the waiter brought us cake with a candle since we were celebrating our anniversary.  We had such a nice time! (I realize the food pics don't look that great, but trust me, it was!)

 

 

In addition to our four year anniversary, yesterday also marked 4 weeks left until the due date!!  The nursery is almost done, I actually didn't do too much to the room.  I told David he got off easy since we are renting, if we were still in our house in Ohio or Georgia the nursery would have been decked out!  But, since we didn't want to get rid of a guest room, I had to keep it simple and combine the two!

Getting Closer!

I am 34 weeks pregnant and will be 35 weeks on Thursday!  It's hard to believe how quickly time is going, but on the other hand, it feels like it's been forever!  I am definitely slowing down these days and every weekend I say I need to take it easy and then we end up going out in the heat doing something!

We took a childbirth class a couple Saturdays ago...it was looonnngggg, 9am-5pm to be exact!  We also toured the hospital, which was nice, and I am so excited that I will have a private room!  Last week we took a childcare class, I think we could have done without it, but at least we were reminded of things we already thought we knew;)

My sister, Jill, came in town a couple weeks ago, and we had such a nice time.  She picked the perfect week to come.  The weather was in the low 80s and I still had enough energy to walk around NYC.  We ate great food, visited the 9/11 memorial, walked the highline, had lunch in the meat packing district, and walked through the West Village, Central Park and Upper West Side.  Hoboken also made the list, and of course a visit to Carlo's Bakery.

 

We saw Bethenny Frankel on the Highline doing a promo for her new show!  Jill and I were so excited for our celebrity sighting!

 

I am getting bigger...a total weight gain of 18 pounds according to my doctor's appointment last week.  I have given up on trying to look decent for pictures, I am just too tired!

 

 

 

This past weekend we took the Staten Island Ferry there and back, just for something easy to do....my days of walking around the city are slowly coming to an end (I say that every weekend, but I mean it this time:)), especially in the 90 degree heat and humidity!

 

And, I have been doing plenty of this with friends during the week.  The only drawback is watching them sip on their mimosas while I have my water as we swim;)

I forgot to mention that my friends up here had a small shower for me in the beginning of June, which I thought was so sweet.  I feel so lucky to have made such great friends so quickly!!

 



Washington DC and Virginia

We spent last week in DC and Northern Virginia.  David had a conference for work, so we rode the train down Sunday morning.  I stayed with him until Tuesday morning, and then stayed with Kara and Kevin until Friday.  David and I took the train back on Friday night.  I had such a great time while we were there.  Sunday and Monday we spent walking around the city, and of course eating!  We both took way too many pictures, as usual, so here are just a few.

 

 

On Monday we went to the Newseum.  Years ago I went to the first one in Arlington, VA, but this was the first time we went to the new one in DC.  It was great, and there was so much to see!



Monday night we went to dinner at Jaelo (http://www.jaleo.com/dc), it was one of the best meals out we have had in a long time.  A while back we were at a taping of the show called The Chew, and during commercial break one of the hostesses looked at David and pointed him out to the other chiefs and said he looked like Jose Andres, a chief and restaurant owner.  So, we had to try his restaurant when we were there.  We took a ton of pictures of all the tapas we got, but I realize food pictures are boring :)

Tuesday morning Kara, Kevin and I went to visit my grandmother...she is still going strong at 99!

Tuesday evening we met up with Jill and Frank for dinner.  We had such a great time, we were just missing David!  He was still at his conference.  I don't remember the last time all 6 of us were together, it has been years!

Wednesday Kara, Kevin and I saw Hangover 3.... it was not that great, the first one was much better! Afterward we met up with Sarah and her son Jake for dinner.  He is so cute, and when he talks his little voice is so quiet and cute! 
This is not the best picture of me, but it is of them, so I will take one for the team and post it;)

 

Thursday I met up with two friends, Sarah and Maureen, for brunch.  Maureen brought her new baby, I think he's about a month old, he slept the whole time and I loved holding him.  Then, Sarah took off the rest of the day so we could spend some time together.  We went shopping and then went back to her house to see her boys.  They are so cute and I can't believe how much older they are then when I last saw them!  I am SO mad that I forgot to take pictures the entire day!!!!!!!

 

Tomorrow is two months exactly until my due date.  We are getting excited, I ready for the baby to be here now!!  Next Saturday we have our first class at the hospital - the birthing class- from 9am-5pm...I am sure David will love it;)