Last Night

We've made it through the last day. With nurses, doctors, hospital staff and visitors filing in one after another it has made for another long day. Luckily it wasn't as bad as last night because we hadn't slept in such a long time. Last night we were able to send her to the nursery and sleep for three hours before she had to nurse again. Which she did and we sent her to the nursery again after she was done, so altogether we slept for about 7 hours and we were finally able to shower. It's amazing how good a shower can feel after 36 hours of labor. But Thank You Very Much to everyone who came by and visited us. I know for some people it was a drive but thank you for your time and effort, it's humbling to see the amount of support we received. And to all of our family who called, texted, sent emails or came down Thank You, Bella, Stacy and I appreciate everything you all have done for us. Tomorrow is the big day, we finally get to bring our precious Bella home.

Wrapped around her finger

I'm not going to say much in this post, I'm just going to put up some pics. We just had a session with Bella Photography, and just so everyone knows this is a real photography business not me taking pictures and no we didn't get her name from them, and some time this evening or tomorrow, everyone will be able to view and/or order pictures online. I will give the log-on information to everyone privately, not through the Internet. Anyway, I will post more pics later of everyone that has stopped by to be a part of her life.

Bella Marie Frame

Little precious Bella was born June 24 at 7:32am, 7lbs 5oz, 21 1/4 inches long with a full head of dark hair. It was a very long night, labor was tough at times but eventually Stacy dilated fully and was ready to push. Delivery went very smooth and Bella was among us before we really knew it. She's healthy and beautiful and the light of our lives!!!

Little Bitty!

She's taken her sweet time! Family is starting to wear down, but they're all being real troopers and helping as much as possible, especially Uncle BJ... I mean Dr BJ. She is definitely won't be here on the 23rd, I'm thinking it's going to be some time VERY early morning the 24th. Uncle BJ thinks she is doing this because she doesn't want her birthday overshadowed by her Uncle BJ and Aunt Danielle's Wedding Anniversary. Since Peanut's Aunt Donna Lee has nicknamed her "Little Bitty", I think she's just trying to live up to her name and have everyone in her immediate family revolve around her, which is working. But we will love her even more when she gets here!!

Labor...you're not kidding!

We've passed the 24 hour mark, but we have good news to report. She is now dilated to a good 5, 80 percent effaced and the baby is in the +1 position. Basically this all means that we are getting close to starting delivery. It's been a long 24 hours so far, lots of waiting, hoping, guessing, walking around, eating and just trying to pass the time. I know our family grows more anxious with every passing hour, but they also know how special it's going to be when they're here to see her in her first few moments of life. Time goes by so fast, it feels like two months ago Stacy told me she was pregnant. The feeling I had that day still resides in me now, I just can't wait to see, hold and love my new baby girl. She means the world to Stacy and I right now, when I think about all the texts, email and calls we'll have to make once she makes her appearance it seems overwhelming and such a burden. But I don't feel that way at all. I look at the people in our lives and I think, "How lucky are we and what have we done to deserve such loving and caring family and friends?" So many people have touched our lives in different ways and we've touched so many others lives, it's just amazing. This little girl has no idea how many people have been waiting for her at the hospital, at home by their phones and following her progress on the Internet. I just want everyone who reads this to know that Stacy and I are so grateful for everyone in our lives, you've made this experience the pinnacle of our time together, and I know you will all share your love with our new baby girl.......just as soon as princess decides to show.

I like to move it move it

We have some progress!! Her water has been broken and she's now starting to dilate faster and the baby is coming down a little farther. She should be here around 10 tonight. Still just waiting, contractions are nice and consistent and Stacy is doing great!

Progress

Finally, we're starting to make some progress. She's starting to dilate more, become more effaced...and feeling more pain. I would post a pic of her, but like I said before what pregnant woman would want a picture posted of her during labor. Anyway, I'll post when there is more info available.

Family is arriving...and waiting

It's 11:30am and still no Peanut. She's still in there kicking away, Stacy's contractions are getting stronger and closer together, but it might still be a while. So far Bob and Sue are here, my Mom and Phil are here, my dad just got here and BJ and Danielle just showed up. I know this is the most boring part of waiting for a new little member of the family, but it's great to see we have such great family that they would be here in our time of need. It's a long slow process and it's nice to have family here that will just sit and be with you while hour after hour passes. I know we're all excited to meet and hold her, but all the suspense just makes the time she gets here even more exciting and special!

Nothing yet...

Not much going on yet, but I think Stac might've gotten a little sleep. I finally fell asleep around 2am, I fought it off until then. One thing is for sure, the Boppy pillow is not only a great pillow for mother and baby, it's a great pillow if you need a pillow. Stac had all the pillows through the night so I just used the Boppy and it was very comfortable. This is a picture of my sweet bed, it actually wasn't too bad, pretty comfortable really. Only a little while longer before we start bumpin up her meds and we get to meet our baby girl!! I can't wait!!!

Waiting...

Waiting is part of the process, we've been here three hours and it's going to be many more. The best way to describe waiting for your child to be born is like waiting for Christmas morning. Think back to that one Christmas when you were little and you knew you were getting that new bike, you didn't know what color it was going to be, what features it would have, would it be a mountain bike or a bmx bike? This is a very vague description of how I feel, we've waited for 39 weeks to meet her and now the waiting game gets more intense. We know she's coming but we just don't know when. I need to get some sleep but how do you sleep at a time like this?

Final Countdown

The time has finally arrived...we're at the hospital. After 39 weeks of waiting, doctor visits, reading books, receiving advice from everyone and the last few weeks of Stacy being on modified bed rest, it's time to finally meet our beautiful baby girl. We've been checked-in and Stacy went through the initial battery of pokes and prods, everything is fine and now we're just relaxing, as much as possible in a hospital. I've posted a pic of our room and NO, I will not be posting a pic of my gorgeous wife. For those of you who have gone through pregnancy yourself, you know that having your picture posted on the Internet is not a first wish you want fulfilled. For now you'll have to live with the pics I do post. I may post other random things later, depending on how much sleep, if any, I get tonight. ;)

And yes girls, that is a Seat Belt Diaper Bag in the picture...you know you're jealous!!

Day Before

For everyone that has been following my blog, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with what's been going on. Just so everyone knows I WILL be updating more when we get into the hospital. We're going in Monday night at 8pm, so she should be here Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who was involved in the shower Sue threw, and my Mom and Kelly for the shower they threw. We have so many friends and family to be thankful for, we've received so many wonderful gifts to help us with our baby. I'm getting more and more excited, at this point we've talked as much as possible about what to expect for the delivery and we don't know what else to say, we just have to wait and go with the flow. It's going to be a busy and exciting day, I believe Stacy will labor well and we'll have no problems. Anyway, we're going to enjoy the rest of this fathers day and do our final preparations for this week.

Lots of updates!

I have many things to update, I've been a slacker lately. First and foremost I have to thank Angie and Dawn for the great shower they threw Stac, she had a great time and I thought the cupcakes were delicious. It was a great first shower, everyone was very generous and I'm very appreciative of all the hard work and time that was spent to bring this event together. Next, everyone that participated in the shower at Citi, thank you as well. She was very surprised and again we received many great gifts from friends that bless our lives. The most unique gift was a small chair and desk that was painted to match the colors of her bed set, it's really neat. Finally, we went to Ultrasona and did a 3D ultrasound session, which if you have a hard time seeing 2D ultrasound the 3D is no comparison. We could actually see her face, it looked like a normal baby's face, it was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We're getting closer to the due date and the excitement builds with every passing day. I can't wait to hold her, feed her, rock her to sleep and watch her learn and grow.

27 Weeks

Had another routine doctors appointment Friday, everything is going great she's still in there enjoying life. Stac went for her gestational diabetes test last Friday, needless to say it wasn't an enjoyable experience. She was worried when the nurse called to give her the results because usually they don't call unless something is wrong. The good news was that she doesn't have diabetes, the bad news is she's anemic. It's not that big a deal though, she just has to take some iron pills and she'll be fine. I was worried when she started telling me because I didn't know how the anemia would affect the rest of the pregnancy, but she reassured me that it's common and nothing to worry about. The good news is the iron will give her more energy, which she has desperately needed for a while, but I will miss her mid-day naps. :)

Stac, Joe N Peanut

Welcome everyone!! To get caught up read from the bottom up, I made a cute little rhyme. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the work that has been put into this site, and please leave as many comments as you wish on whatever post you want.

P.S. If you're wondering why I added this picture it's because I was doing an experiment. I wanted to see what Peanut's world was like, swimming around all day under water, it was fun.

Registering

A few weeks ago Stacy and I registered for all the essentials and a lot of things that probably aren't essential. It was more enjoyable than I thought. Granted it's not as much fun as shopping for a new TV, but it's neat to see how things have changed just since I was a kid. All the different gadgets and gizmo's they come up with, some are practical and useful while others are just a huge waste. I found a monitor with a camera in it that could be rotated or zoomed with the remote control. It was cool but not something that was a need. The vast amount of choices you have for everything is overwhelming, but Stac was glad I came to give my input. I wasn't going to let her do it by herself anyway because I wanted to learn what products are out there and I wanted to help her make decisions. We went to Babies R Us first because it's really like one stop shopping, it's a huge warehouse full of baby stuff. We had prepared ourselves for this day by going to the store several times looking for other things to buy and comparing cribs. I will tell you don't try and register if it's your first time to the store it's huge and you'll most likely get caught going through the baby clothes rather then registering for items you need. We also registered at Target for a few items, just for a variety with stores. All-in-all it was a good day, we finished registering for everything we wanted and it was a great bonding moment for Stacy and I, and the baby.

Room Complete

The nursery is finally complete, it was a lot of work, a lot of decisions and it looks good. The stripes were the hardest part of the whole room, I learned there is no easy way to do them but they were definitely worth the seven hours I spent taping them off. The crib, changing table, and dresser all look great. The crown turned out nice and the fan is my favorite part of the whole room, it looks great, it's quiet and they help prevent SIDS. Now all we need is the glider and something else, I just can't remember......oh yeah, the baby! ;)

Nursery

The nursery is almost complete, the walls are painted, the crib is assembled and we're waiting on the changing table to arrive. Working on the nursery has been a lot of work but fun. Stacy had a great idea for the nursery, she wanted to do vertical stripes on all the walls. At first I wasn't really sure how it would look, but I trusted her instinct and it turned out awesome! The whole room looks great, I'm putting crown around the ceiling this weekend and changing the outlet covers to match the crown. Once the room is done I'll post pictures of the finished product.

Boy or Girl???

One of the most popular questions we were asked and the one that was the hardest to answer was, whether or not to find out the sex of the baby. We waited and waited, counted down the months then the days, hours then the minutes, then we discovered the gender of our little miracle......but I'm not going to tell you yet, I'm going to make you read farther along. :) Just kidding, it's a girl!! We're so excited, it's amazing how much you can love something that looks like a blur on an ultrasound picture. She's so beautiful and we've never even seen her. We found out on February 4th, Stacy was the smart one and had the whole day off. Luckily I was able to get the rest of the day off because it would've been impossible trying to concentrate with this great news. My suggestion for anyone else is to take the day off and have a nice romantic day, just the two of you and enjoy each others company. Now we are buying dresses and pink stuff, not too much though because I don't want her to think she's a spoiled princess before she's here. She's already going to have me wrapped around her little finger and she doesn't even know it.

Too excited to sleep!

It's Monday night and we just went to bed after going out to dinner with Stacy's cousin. Sounds like a boring night, but we found out she's having a boy! When we were looking at the ultrasound picture it didn't stand out, but when she showed us the third leg, we understood what she was having. We're less than 48 hours away and I have a hard time sleeping because I really want to know what's in her belly. I don't have a preference either way, just as long as it's healthy. I could see myself with a little daughter or a little boy, regardless they're going to have me wrapped around their little finger. Well I'm going to stop rambling and wait to post the sex after Wednesday.