Lauren Elyse

Here she is! We went in last Friday morning and well, only 3 1/2 hours of labor and 3 pushes later, Little Lauren joined us at 7 lbs, 8 oz, and almost 19 inches. Thanks to the pre-planned epidural I didn't feel any of this quick and easy process so I'm certainly not going to have anything to hold over her head when she's a teenager! She has blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and is just the sweetest baby girl!
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Proud parents

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Bright eyes and chubby cheeks!

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Sweet naptimes

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Noah inspecting his new "beebee."



Thanks to Rachel for hijacking my blog and posting her arrival a few days ago, and thanks to all of you for the sweet comments! That's it for now though; I'm tired and have only 2 more hours before yet another feeding. I'll keep you posted!

Announcing Baby Lauren!

Rachel here, hijacking my sister's blog to let you know that Jackie and Greg are the proud parents of a baby girl! Lauren Elyse was born today at 1:09 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. Mom and baby are doing great. I will post a photo as soon as they're sent out!

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Knowing that we'd have a little baby around on Noah's 2nd birthday (which is actually November 2), we wanted to give him a birthday party early so he'd be fully celebrated. We chose the Little Einsteins' theme since it is his absolute favorite thing in all the world at this point; he can sing parts of the theme song, say Vrooom! with Rocket, and shout "Blast Off" at all the right moments. We wanted to remember this phase and give him one last birthday party of his own before he has to share them with his sister for the rest of his life!

So last Saturday we had several friends and family over to the neighborhood park (because at 10 months pregnant I wasn't about to clean my house and host it there--I'm a nice mom, but not a crazy one). We had food from Chick-fil-A, brought a basket of sports equipment and bouncy balls, we had 4 dozen Little Einstein cupcakes, handed out treat cups, played on the playgrounds, and of course opened presents. A great time was had by all, especially by the grown men who played football and pretended to allow the small children to play with them. A big thanks to my sister Rachel who was in town with Jared, and got up early to help me get everything set up!

Here are some highlights:

This was officially the final "scheduled" function that I really wanted to get through before the baby comes. Happy early birthday, Noah--we love you!

Last Day of School, er, Work!

Remember the last day of school? I'll pretend I'm not too old to remember that feeling I always got those last hours of the last day of school before a break. I have that feeling today as it is officially my last day of work before 3 glorious months of maternity leave! My schedule is very light today, I've already gotten 2 baby gifts from patients this morning, and another patient brought in cheesecake bars! If all goes according to plan, I'll have the rest of the week to try to relax, get a mani/pedi, do some last minute cleaning and preparing, and then head on up to the hospital Friday to have a baby. Sounds intense when I put it in writing, so today I think I'll just sit and savor my "last day of school" feeling...

Hairdos and Baby Showers and such

Well this weekend was a whirlwind, but a great one! On Friday my friend Stacey came over with her son, Carson (Noah's best friend). She had arranged for a professional hairstylist (very cool woman we both know) to come to my house and set up a 'salon' in my master bathroom! We both got haircuts, full foil color, and styles -- all without having to maneuver our pregnant bellies around town and try to find weekday babysitters for our boys! It was such a treat.

On Saturday, four of my dearest friends threw me a baby girl shower. It was gorgeous and so much fun; we ended up with so many adorable things that I can wait to use! I felt very blessed as several of my friends and family drove anywhere from 1 to 5 hours to be there -- this little girl already has many great ladies she'll be able to look up to!

Finally, tonight, whilst grimmacing at the Cowboys' tragic first loss of the season, I was able to sort th rough ALL baby gifts and items we've gotten thus far; this includes packing the baby's bag for the hospital as well as my own, washing all 0-3 month clothes and arranging them neatly in drawers, hanging everything else up by size, and sanitizing bottles/nipples/pacifiers/etc. and putting them away in her very own cupboard.

I'm exhausted, large, and tired, but finally feel like we are "set up" to have this baby. Now if she can just hold off until after Noah's birthday party next Saturday...

A few pictures:

Tracy's beautiful house, gorgeous display of food, and homemade Vanilla-Raspberry "Diva" cupcakes (in the back) from her cupcake business.

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The hostesses (and me): Stacey, Rebekah, me, Kaci, and Tracy.

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My two sweet cousins, Leslie and Alli. Great to catch up with you both! And yes, there's my new 'do which is not too terribly different except there are a lot more layers and quite a bit of auburn/red/dark blonde color. Apparently she said this is closer to my natural color since my hair has darkened; figures since I'm turning 30 this year.

That's it! Have a nice week. I'm going to bed.

Holy Crap

Sorry for the title, folks. I went to the doctor today and found out that although I am not yet dilated, I am almost 90% effaced and according to him, the baby's head is so low that it is "somewhere between my knees." I'll go in for another sonogram next week, and assuming things continue as they have, we tentatively scheduled to have the baby on October 26th. Yes, that's right, that's two weeks away--well, 17 days to be precise. So I'll say it again...Holy Crap.