Sophia's 2 Week Appointment

So I totally forgot to post Sophia's 2 week old stuff. Not that it's really that interesting to any of you, but again for keepsake purposes and for being able to look back on it someday, I'm posting it anyway. She's doing great, so here's her stats:

Date: 12/11/2009 (technically 3 days before said 2 week mark)
Height: 19.7 inches
Weight: 6lb 3 oz
Head: 13.3 inches

And as a further update, Jon and I weighed her today and she was right around 8 lbs! Man she's growing fast! I couldn't get her to stay stretched out long enough to get her length, so I'll have to try that again when Jon is home, but she's definitely bigger. Her newborn clothes are still either way too big on her or just right, so I'm excited for when she can start wearing some of her bigger clothes. :)

Anyway, that's the update. Her next appointment is in February, so I'll update again later. Happy Holidays!

Sophia's 1 week Pictures

So I'm a little behind in blogging (I've been super busy!), but here are Sophia's 1 week old pictures. My friend Brittney (who also did my pregnancy photos) did an amazing job and I just love them! Minus the fact that I was still very swollen (so much that I couldn't get my fat boots on that are now enormous on me) and still looked 8 months pregnant, I think that they all turned out amazingly! We just did them at my house in my kitchen and living room. Without further ado, here is Sophia Kate at 1 week old!

I was thinking of possibly using this as an announcement picture and putting the information above - what do you think? There's another one I'm considering as well, so make sure you look at both!

Sweet little angel!

4-Generation shot - Great-Grandma Margaret Nielsen, Sophia, me, and Grandma Angela Daugherty. (Again, try to look past my swollen-ness)

Sophia with Grandma Daugherty (she's so young! Not even 50 and a Grandma!)

Sophia with Great Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen (Steven and Margaret)

I think this is my favorite one of Jon and Sophia - so sweet!

Daddy and Sophia

Mommy and Sophia

Family picture

Yeah her hair just sticks out like that after a bath - it's pretty crazy!

My cute little Christmas present!

I felt bad for stuffing her in my stocking since it seemed pretty itchy, but as you can see she didn't really mind. :) (Had I done Christmas Cards, then this would have been it)

Brittney was even good enough to catch one of Sophia's beautiful smiles!

Cute girl with cute toes! (I think I like the black and white better on this one...)

Ha ha, droopy mouth. (She was really relaxed right here, lol)

I love this one - just so peaceful

These were actually the first ones we did. She had just had a bath and was cold so we had a little heater pointing at her and it took a bit to get one without her crying but it was worth the wait!

Another one of my favorites (I loved that pink fuzzy blanket)

And this is the other one that I was considering for the announcement picture, and just have the words on the side. Which one do you prefer?

Anyway, that's my sweet little girl. I had some more pictures done by my neighbor when Sophia was 2 1/2 weeks old, so when I get those I'll post them as well. I'm excited and so grateful for all of the people who are wanting to practice their photography skills on my daughter. If anyone else wants to please feel free, because I don't mind getting some cute pictures! :) Just remember to post some comments! (Sophia will appreciate them!) :)

Sophia, Sophia, My Sweet Baby Sophia

So it's now been 2 weeks since my sweet baby Sophia joined our family - it's a strange feeling. On the one hand, I feel like she's been with us forever and can barely remember not having her with us, and on the other I am so amazed to have this little person in our lives! But even more amazing is how naturally being a mother has been for me. It's just so easy to love her and take care of her, and I'm still waiting for that feeling of being completely overwhelmed to come and get me. Hopefully it won't, but before it seemed like such a daunting task and now it just seems so effortless. Could also be the hormones balancing out. :)

The only sad thing so far was that Jon had to go back to work today. It's been so fun having the three of us together every day and seeing Jon interact with Sophia, and I've loved every second of it. But now he's back to work to earn our food and I need to get my butt moving on my homework so I can finish my class and hopefully start working from home. With Sophia being so darned cute and with Christmas right around the corner it's been hard getting back into school mode, but the thought of going back to Convergys and away from my baby will hopefully keep me motivated long enough to finish. :)

Anyway, here are some cute pictures I've taken of her, enjoy!

This is our first night back from the hospital - Jon's parents were nice enough to let us stay there for a few days to help with meals and stuff.

This is how big my feet got - it's about the biggest here that it ever was and this was about 5 days after I gave birth! See how it looks like I stuffed marshmallows under my skin? Ridiculous! (Don't worry, about 8 or 9 days after I woke up with them normal sized and they stayed that way!) :)

Sophia's cute Christmas pj's. (I bought these when I thought she would be born the week of Christmas - oh well!) :)

This is the cute bathrobe we got from one of my neighbors - it's a little big so we had to roll up the sleeves, but still so cute!

Her in her car seat with her adorable little shoes! (These shoes looked so tiny when I got them, and when they're on her feet they look huge!)

This was just cute. :)

Daddy and Sophie cuddling

The cute snow suit my mom got her (her feet don't quite reach the leg holes yet even though it's a 0-3 month, so she can't wear it out of the house because she doesn't fit in her car seat while wearing it, but oh well, it's still cute and I can't wait until it does fit!)

Unfortunately she's been cursed with my hair - my hair did this as a baby, where it would be curly right after getting it wet, and then dry very straight. Then it was straight until about 13 years old and that's when the fro took over. Poor girl, but at least she has a few years before it sticks like this! (Mom I put this one on here for you!) :)

And this is her crazy hair after it's had time to dry - sticks straight up everywhere!

Sophia's cute little toes. :)

Well that's all I have uploaded for now, I need to download the rest of the pictures I've taken since then. Plus, my friend Brittney Miller - the one who took my maternity pictures, came over last Monday when Sophia was one week old and did some newborn shots! I'm so excited to see them! There's a sneak peek of one of the pictures on her photography blog at http://stolenmomentsphotography-brittney.blogspot.com/ so if you want to see one cute baby, then she's there. :) I'll post the rest of them as soon as I get the disk. I can't wait to see how they turned out! :)

Early Christmas!

So we got a couple of early Christmas presents this year. Seeing as how we had a very busy holiday season planned, my in-laws were nice enough to give us our first present (money to buy stuff we need - best present!) and we went to Costco on Saturday and got a new camera! Those of you who have heard me complain about my old camera know that this is a very very very good thing. :)



The other present we got on Monday - Little Baby Sophia was born at 11AM Monday 11/30 after 19 hours of labor! Just so you know, because I use this as my journal I will be going into detail on this which may be completely boring for you but is important for me, so if you skip down you can see all of the pictures. :)



All through the weekend I was having really bad braxton hicks (or so I thought), and on Friday I got the whole nesting instinct and scrubbed my bathtub for 4 hours! (Jon will have to redo some grout that I dug out because I was convinced it had mildew behind it). That was the first big hint. Anyway, on Sunday we went to church and I was hurting the whole time and kept contracting, so after church I started timing them out and saw that most of them were about 2-5 minutes apart, and then there would be a 10 minute break after about 4 of them. So I called my aunt (because my mom was at work - boo) and explained how the contractions were and she recommended I go in. Since I was three weeks away from my due date I figured that they would probably just check me and send me home, but in the hopes that I would get some pain meds or something to make it more bearable we went into the hospital.



When we got there around 4pm I was only dilated to a 2, but since the contractions were so constant they had me walk around for an hour and then I was up to a three and the contractions were a lot harder, so they decided to keep me! From then on it was a full night of me with my epidural and hooked to a hundred different tubes and machines and what-not and was really very relaxing. I ate my ice chips while Jon kept our families updated on the status of everything. We had my Mom sister and brother Jeffrey visit for the night, and Jon's parents were there for most of the night as well.



The labor part wasn't too bad because of that wonderful, wonderful epidural, until about 2:45 when I started to feel a lot of the contractions. For the next 2 hours they kept getting worse, and even after hitting the boost button every 15 minutes and having the anethesiologist come in twice for concentrated boosts, they were still getting worse and I was not a happy person. I had really bad back labor on top of all of it that was shooting all the way up to my shoulder blades on some contractions. Finally the guy came back and was confused as to why I was still hurting until he checked my back and saw that the catherter for the epidural had slipped almost all the way out! It was still in the skin, but not in the spinal area or whatever. So with that mystery solved they reinserted the epidural and about 20 minutes later I was in my numb blissful happy place and was able to sleep for a bit.



So that was annoying - the other thing is even numb those contractions were exhausting me! Around 2 they had started me on pitocin because I was still only at a 6, and after 4 more hours I was still at a 6! They kept upping the dosage of pitocin to help me move along, and around 8:15am my doctor came in and I was to a 7 (woot.) So he broke my water and they upped the pitocin a little more. By the time 11:00am was rolling around, a couple of things happened. 1) I had gotten a tiny bit more sleep - not totalling more than 3 1/2 hours the entire time though 2) I started feeling my contractions again in my stomach, but thankfully not my back and I was still completely numb from the waste down. I asked for them to refill it or replace it or whatever, only to find out that I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go! So they gave me some concentrated stuff that would kick in fast, the doctor rushed in and about 4 pushes later she was here! Oh, and as a side note Jon was great through the whole thing - first teasing me that he could eat real food while I had flavored ice chips, and then holding my hand through my 2 hours of "real labor", and then holding one of my legs while my mom held the other so I could push (my legs were completely numb and I couldn't lift them, so they had to help). He got to watch Sophie being born, and he got to cut the ambilical cord! I'm so happy to have such a great husband! And after when they were weighing her and stuff, I had my mom taking pictures and even though I know that Jon wanted to go over and see her right away, he stayed there holding my hand while the doctor stitched me up and made sure that I was okay before going to see our daughter. He is so great and I love him so much, just for the record. :)



Anyway, that is the epic tale of how my sweet little Sophia came into the world - it was a long labor, and I could barely focus on her face I was so tired, but so worth it and I am so happy that she's here now. Thanks to everyone who helped at the hospital, sent congrats, visited, or just thought about us - I know that some people were concerned because she's three weeks early (to the day, just like I was!) and I appreciate everyone for their concern and I'm so happy that she is here and that she is healthy. And I must say, me and Jon made one good looking baby! Enjoy! :)

New Truck!!!

So I forgot to mention that Jon and I (okay just Jon, I really did nothing...) finished our truck! You saw the before pictures on my blog earlier, about 2 months ago or so, and now it's finally finished! Unfortunately I can never remember to put the pictures on my blog, so it's a good thing that Jon started another blog to show off his handywork! And sorry that there's not very many pictures and that some of them aren't the best - we have a really really REALLY crappy camera. Anyway, to see the pictures go here: http://jonscustompaint.blogspot.com/

Just a Little Baby Update

So, since I'm basically using this as my journal now (I think that everyone else is doing the same thing with their blogs too!) I wanted to take note of a few things so that I don't forget so if I ever do get around to writing in my real journal I'll have dates and stuff to reference. :)

Anyway, Baby Girl is still growing strong, she likes to get into little shoving matches with me. I only have 5 weeks until her due date, which I am way excited about! I started having Braxton Hicks about 2 1/2 weeks ago (around November 4th or 5th?) and actually had to leave my training class because I couldn't hide my discomfort, so I put them on an activity and went to the lobby to lay down. On the 6th though, I woke up feeling like a rockstar and found out that she had dropped! So since then I've had more braxton hicks and people have noted that she sits lower, and otherwise I'm just swollen and uncomfortable almost all of the time. Luckily I'm in my last training class right now, so after Friday I won't be teaching for 7 1/2 hours a day and I'll be able to take it easier and won't have to stress about pre-term labor like I was when I thought I would be training until 38 1/2 weeks (don't worry, that class was cancelled!) :) And last but not least, I've already gained 40 pounds, which I wasn't too thrilled about but at the same time I'm really not too concerned about. We'll see how I feel after she's born though. :) (Anyone want to lose weight with me next year?)

So yeah, that's my baby update. I go in again on December 3rd when I'll be 37 weeks so we'll see where I'm at then. I can't wait to meet my little girl! I know that no one else will be interested in this post, but I'm so excited and want to make sure that I have a record of even the little things! :)

Another Baby Shower Update...

Hey guys, I'm sorry but there is another change in plans for the friend shower. My bff Katie is throwing it for me and she's recently had some medical issues that she had to go into surgery for on Tuesday, and because of that we haven't gotten any invites out and I wanted to make sure that she had time to recouperate and not worry about planning a party, so we are putting it off again. Thanks for those of you who have been keeping tabs and I wanted you to know that you are not forgotten! :) We're not sure when we will be moving it too, but more than likely it will be in December (sometime the week of the 7th since that's when my time off starts) or it may even be after Baby Girl is born sometime in January. I'll let you know as soon as we have the plans in place, but again I just wanted to make sure that Katie had the time she needed to get better because I would feel way too guilty if she threw me a shower when she was still sick and sore from surgery. Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone an update!

Baby Shower Update

Hey, just so you guys know, my shower for friends was going to be this Saturday but change of plans, it's now going to be the 14th (a week from Saturday). If you want an invite then make sure I have your address! It's going to be at my house, but all of the details will be on the invites. Hope to see you there!

Preggo Pictures!

So I got my preggo pictures today! Yay! I think they look pretty freaking amazing - though my face is really swollen in all of these - grrr - the pictures themselves still look amazing! I think that Brittney (she was my sister's best friend in high school so I've known her for a long time) did a great job, and if anyone needs a great photographer that's really (and I mean REALLY) easy and fun to work with, then I know a great one! ;) Anyway, here's the results!

*Note, these are in no particular order, but I'll point out some of my favorites!

Like this one for example - I loved this alleyway, even though there were pigeon flapping around all over above us and I was terrified of getting pooped on, it worked out pretty well. :)

I like this one too

This was the first picture - I was still really nervous and self concious and stuff, so I don't think I look very natural, but I like this wall still. I think it would look better if I were wearing something bright though...

Sitting down poses are always nice when you've got a bowling ball in your stomach!

I love this stair case! Even though my heel kept getting caught between the grate, I love the coloring and the wall colors behind it - very urban chic in my opinion

You can't see it as well here, but this is a reflection shot. When you look at the picture a little bigger it's more obvious, but for some reason it's just not looking as cool on blogger. Oh well, I still like it. :)

It's funny because I felt like I was wearing SOOO much makeup when I got there, and now looking at the pictures it looks like I'm hardly wearing any at all! It worked in this picture, but I just thought it was funny. :)

This is actually where my heel got stuck, when I was trying to stand up after this shot! lol I like the picture though

Cool green wall added some fun colors! Plus my oh so dedicated photographer was literally laying on the ground to get the shot like this - good thing it turned out pretty good! I like this one because of the colors and I think it makes Baby Girl look good. :)

This one I think is my absolute favorite! I love the lighting, the fact that my butt and thighs don't look huge and that you can't see my quadruple chins, just everything worked out perfect with this shot I think. (BTW, this is where I was most terrified of those dang pigeons - I picked a very small spot where the poop wouldn't hit me to stand!)

Ha ha ha, Okay so most of you know that I have a really dirty mind, so when Brittney said "Oh let's take one by these cool signs!" I read them and started laughing! I didn't tell Brittney what I was thinking until after, and then she was laughing just as hard. Can anyone guess why? lol

Alright, well that was my awesome photo shoot. Thank you again Brittney, you were so fun to work with and made me feel like a rockstar! Again, if anyone needs a good photographer, Stolen Moments Photography by Brittney is really really good! (There's also a link to her sight on the side of my blog under Favorite Sites- just saying!) I can't wait for her to do Baby Girl's newborn shots! :)