More Pictures

More pictures of Emma.

Emmaline's Pictures

Here are some pictures of Emma with her Daddy, taking her first bath and snoozing. She's so great. :)

She's Here!

Sorry this is so late, but she's here!!!

Emmaline Pearl was born on 12/22/05 at 10:15 am weighing in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 3/4" long. She's the most beautiful baby girl and we're so blessed to have her. Pictures are forthcoming, I promise. :) Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone!

Still No Baby

I know we're all waiting with baited breath for the arrival of Widget ("The Widget is Comin! The Widget is Comin!") but sadly s/he is not here yet. Though I am having a bit of fun calling friends just to say, "Hi" and hearing the excited anticipation in their voice. *wink*

I know, I know, it's kinda mean of me but it makes me chuckle. :)

Cathy and Roger (Morgan's parents) are here and waiting for the little arrival and in the meantime we're working them like they're slaves. Since we're looking to buy a new house, we're fixing up things at our current house so we can put it on the market. Actually, they've been fixing up and painting the kitchen, breakfast nook and bathroom to help us out and I feel a bit guilty. I'm not even sure giving them a grandchild is going to be enough repayment for all their hardwork but man do we appreciate them doing all this!

Promise to keep everyone posted with Widget's progress after the doc appt tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Waiting & Celebrating

Just to answer your first question: No, Widget hasn't been born yet.

I've been asked about a million times:
"Are you ready yet?" ...I can't even answer this one anymore without wanting to smack someone...
"When are you going to get that baby out?" ...don't you think if I knew that we'd all be a lot happier and relaxed?...
"Are you still here?" ...No, I'm just fat...

On the up-side, just yesterday a HUGE box arrived from Cathy, Morgan's mom, with tons of stuff in it for Widget and I had the greatest time going through it all. Hehehehehe. When Morgan came home I had to show it all to him and I love seeing him smile over baby stuff. *sigh*

In the meantime we've been celebrating the day we all thought might never come: I've graduated with my Masters in Economics.

Saturday was the day I should have waddled across the stage but instead we looked at new houses closer to Morgan's work (no real need to be up here now that I'm done with school and work) and then went out to a nice dinner with my Dad and Bea. Dinner was quiet and relaxing, just what I needed, and Dad and Bea gave me a beautiful diamond pendant necklace as a gradation gift. It's gorgeous and I was most definitely surprised.

This week cards came from my friend, Kristin and my Grandma Jean & Grandpa Butch saying congrats and I was really touched that they took the time and thought of me.

Our lives are moving forward so quickly and I have to admit that I'm a little scared. I'm officially out of school, Morgan and I are about to become parents and we're looking at buying a new house about 15 min from his work. It's exciting and at the same time terrifying. I'm doing my best not to be a big chicken, but if we do move I'm really going to miss seeing my Dad so much...

I think the doc might be lying to us

Maybe he's just telling us what we want to hear about the baby coming in the next week or so. Maybe it's because I was pretty crabby at our appointment yesterday.

Or maybe it has something to do with me asking him, "If I went to Labor & Delivery at the hospital and refused to leave, would they let me have the baby? What if I put a nurse in a choke hold until they promised to put me into labor? Would they call security? Would the wrestling that ensued induce labor?"

He laughed and said, "Not a chance, they deal with that all the time up there."

Somehow I hope he's lying since the idea of rampaging pregnant women is pretty scary and at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if he was telling the truth.

In the meantime, I'm going crazy and I feel like I want to beat someone or something. Let's just say all the knitting and sewing I've been doing aren't quite taking care of my frustrations. By the time this baby is born our house is going to look like a craft show. *sigh*

No Dice...

So Widget didn't make an early arrival this weekend, or during my defense, so it looks like Morgan and I are out of the running for baby bets. Oh well, baby will be here when s/he's dang good and ready. *sigh* In the meantime I just get to be uncomfortable and complain a lot.

My friend, Liz, told me she'd try to keep me company while we all wait. Sounds like we're in for some movie marathons and lots of knitting. :::laughing::: Man, I'm exciting company these days.

I'm going to graduate!!!!

I just finished presenting my paper and I'm so happy I'm dancing. Everything went really well and my committee loved it! There were only a few hard questions and everything else went pretty smoothly. One of my members said it was the best master's defense she'd been to in a long time. I'm beaming right now.

So all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed and in one week I will have completed all my requirements for my masters degree! What an amazing feeling.

So Nervous

So tomorrow is the day I present my Thesis (Plan B, actually) and I'm getting really nervous. Not much sleep going on since I can't get comfortable and I keep waking up to make bathroom trips. *ugh!* On top of that, when I do sleep I keep having these dreams about going into labor or having my water break during my presentation. If we can just make it through the next 25 hours, everything will be just fine...

Until then, I'm a nervous wreck!

Place your bets now

Yesterday we had our weekly doctor's appointment and outlook is favorable for an early arrival. Yay!! The baby is at -3 station and though the top of the cervix is closed, I'm 2 cm dilated at the bottom and have started thinning. I knew all those random contractions were doing something.

Of course, when I told the doc I'm presenting my Thesis on Friday and Morgan plans on going camping out of cell phone range on Saturday, he laughed and said, "I'll make sure to carry my pager with me on Saturday because with everything going on that'll probably be the day." Yeah, and the baby will most likely be a boy because the nursery has pink walls. Don't it figure? We also decided not to have the 3rd ultrasound because everything has looked great so far and there's nothing really they could do if they did spot something out of the normal. *Phew* I wasn't looking forward to being made to chug water, hold it for an hour and then be pushed on by a mean ultrasound tech for another hour. It really isn't a pleasant experience.

Anyway, getting into the spirit of the coming arrival how about we start placing some bets on when, how big and long and what sex the baby will be? Winner will get...a candy bar. How bout a Baby Ruth? *wink*

Here's my guess. Feel free to post with your bets by commenting on this post.

Name: Lisa
Date: Sat, Dec 3rd
Weight: 6 lbs 9 oz
Height: 19 inches
Sex: Boy

Name: Morgan
Date: Monday, Dec 5th
Weight: 7 lbs 3 oz
Height: 18 inches
Sex: Girl

Name: Cathy
Date: Tuesday, Dec 6th
Weight: 7 lbs
Height: 19"
Sex: Girl

Name: Roger
Date: Thurs, Dec 8th
Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz
Height: 20 "
Sex: Boy

Name: Dave
Date: Sat, Dec 17 (but hoping for 21st!)
Weight: 6 lbs 13 oz
Height: 20 inches
Sex: Boy

Favorite Picture

This is, by far, our favorite picture of the growing tummy...that and the other ones wouldn't upload correctly since they were taken with Morgan's camera phone :( It was taken October 7, 2005 around 29 weeks. Look at that huge tummy!!

First Ultrasounds

These may be old news to most of you, but we wanted to post the first round of ultrasounds we had. These were done back on July 12, 2005 when Widget was about 16 weeks along. Enjoy the pictures!

27 days left!

Morgan and I are getting so excited about Widget coming. We went to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving and just got home last night. Now that Turkey Day is behind us that means it's time for us to get ready for our favorite holiday, Christmas! We started decorating and brought home a tree today. I did an excellent job of supervising, if I do say so myself, while Morgan put the lights on the tree.

This Christmas is going to be so special for us. It's going to be Baby's First Christmas (wheter or not Widget is born, says Morgan) and the begining of our family. Last year we so very much wanted to have a baby and couldn't wait to start this journey together and this year we're going to get the best gift ever, a new baby!

Since I was so excited about Christmas, I was up until midnight decorating and sewing gift bags while, for a change, Morgan was ready for bed long before me. Cathymom (Morgan's mom) told him that a burst of energy can be a sign that you're about to go into labor. I think Morgan was a little nervous and excited thinking I might go into labor soon and kept giving me these odd, sideways looks. Needless to say, we're all still here and Widget hasn't come out to play yet. :) Only 27 days until we're due!

I can't wait until there are no more feet in my ribs...

We have now passed the 35 week mark and are slowly making progress towards the due date. I'm somewhere between very excited to meet our new baby and just wanting the feet out of my ribs and the backaches to go away. Either way, I'm ready and so is Morgan. The funny thing is I have no doubt the day will come and I'll look back with rosy glasses thinking, "I wish I was pregnant again."

Between getting Christmas presents ready, working on my Plan B (Thesis) and preparing the nursery for Widget, life has been a bit busy.

We have our next doctor's appointment next Monday and I know I'm going to be scolded. The doctor wants us to get another ultrasound but I'm a bit reluctant. When they did the last ultrasound they discovered that Widget has a two blood vessle umbilical cord instead of a three-vessle cord. Everything looks fine with baby but our doc wants another ultrasound to make sure. The thing is, I hate getting ultrasounds. I mean, it's great to see the baby and watch it move but it hurts. They push so hard on my stomach that by the time they're done I ache all over and all I can do for the rest of the day is rest. Blah.

Also, I need to send out a hello to my brother dearest, Matt. I know he'd be happy to see his name in cyberspace so, "Hello, Matthew Darling!" Are you excited about being an uncle, yet?

A picture of Us

Here's a picture of us taken this past spring, before Widget was around.

Here's to our coming addition!

Because we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of baby, A.K.A. Widget, it seemed only right to have a way to share all the pictures and happy moments with everyone. We will update as possible but since we don't have internet at home right now it may be a bit between updates.

For those of you out of the loop, here is a quick cheat sheet:

* Widget is due on Christmas Eve, 12/24/2005, but there has been speculation of an early arrival.
* As of now, the sex is unknown. (Yes, really. And Widget does not cooperate and share so even if we wanted to know we couldn't. S/he's camera shy, okay.)
* Yes, we have names. No, we're not telling. Consider this baby one big surprise!
* In the last ultrasound they saw hair (how cool!!) and estimated Widget weighed 4 lbs 3 oz on 10/24/05. We're expecting another ultrasound in the next few weeks.