Gemma: 9 months

Another month, another time you get to hear me say "Where did my little baby go?"  I was recently looking through some old photos of Gemma and I can't believe how much she has changed!  I used to see a little bit of me in her (mostly in the mouth/smile), but I only see Jeff in her these days.  She is the spitting image of her daddy.  She definitely has her mama's personality though.  Here's why:

-She loves to sing.  Whenever I sing the "If all the raindrops" song, she skips ahead to the "ah ah ah ah ah ah" part! Love it.

-She loves to dance. (Just to be clear here, I do not dance. HOWEVER, I have been known to dance around like a fool to make my baby smile.)  It's pretty darn cute now that she can stand on her own.

-She is learning baby sign.  She has mastered "fan" and "milk" along with "hi" and "bye," and we're working on "apple," "hot," "eat," " night-night" and "dog."  She also likes to clap.

-I know a lot of people might not believe this, but she is beginning to TALK. Yes, real words.  She says "mama" and "daddy" in context.  And, her cousin, Miles, taught her "cracker."  She calls almost all of her snacks a cracker. Cheerios, bread, an actual cracker, you name it. :)

-Has regressed in regard to her sleeping habits.  Ever since we went to Florida (which I think is a total coincidence) she has been up every 1-2 hours.  I'm exhausted.  Whenever I go into her room, she is standing up in her crib.  I curse the day she learned to stand! (Not really.)

-Gemma standing on her own for about 30 seconds at a time. 

-She finally learned how to crawl forward, and has been doing it for quite a while. I honestly probably didn't even know it, because she wants to be walked around the house constantly.

-Loves to take the stairs! When you hold onto her arms, she walks up the stairs, actually swinging her leg up to each step and pushing off.

-Loves to eat anything and everything. Especially loves meat. Yes, MEAT. Hamburger, chicken, ham.

-Our favorite game is to chase Harper around the house.  Harper is way too fast for us, but its a fun game anyway.  Gemma laughs and squeals, and I mostly just run out of breath. :)

-Has learned to jump on her bed already. I came in to get her up this morning, and she was so excited to see me, she started jumping while holding onto her crib railing.

-Is getting two more teeth. When these come through, that will be 10 for her!

As exhausting as this stage of her life has been, it has been so much fun to see the new things she is learning.  I love seeing her little personality coming out!

We had her 9 month well baby check up yesterday, and I was surprised that there are no shots! And to think that I was dreading the appointment all week for nothing. (Well, not nothing. We waited over an hour. Not fun when your baby has already missed her nap to stay up for the appointment.)  At any rate, her are Gemma's stats:

18 pounds 4 ounces (58%)
28 inches long/2 feet 4 inches (77%)

And for some reason, they didn't give me her head stats! Guess I'll have to call in for those, so I can keep the baby book up-to-date.

What would be a monthly update without a couple of photos?

Ha! Gemma didn't like the Santa at our late extended family Christmas in February.

Gemma on her very first Valentine's Day. Her dress was her gift. :)

Gemma: 7 months

The time is passing so quickly and it doesn't even seem like that much has happened in the last month.  I'm a little late in posting this (what's new?), but better late than never!

Gemma is really the joy in our lives.  We love having her with us pretty much 24-7.  (Not to say that we don't have our moments when we'd love to give her to someone else! ;) ) Last week, she was babysat by my mom two days in a row as I had some business to take care of, and as silly as it sounds, we missed her!  Jeff, who works full-time from his home office, even said he missed her that week.  Okay. So enough gushing about how much we love her....I know everyone loves their babies, so I'm sure I'm not saying anything new here.  Here's what our baby G is up to these days:

-She is still scooting backwards and doesn't really seem to care too much about crawling forward.  She has now learned to scoot on her butt, too.  Girl can get where she wants to go without crawling!  I'm guessing she might skip it and move to walking sooner, but we'll see. Although her balance isn't great, she loves to be walked around the house.

-After an allergic reaction to pears (we think), she is back on the solids bandwagon.  She's started eating organic puffs and little pieces of our food, too.  I'm thinking to just try mostly feeding her pieces of food rather than get too involved in baby food.  In fact, she has already eaten whole peas, broccoli, pieces of bread and muffin, wait for it...cookie! (Gah. My mother. :) ) I don't intend to wean her from breastfeeding, but think this might be a good alternative especially since....

-Girl has 6 teeth and is working on 2 more!  Four bottom front teeth are the most prominent, and her two front teeth have shot through a bit, too.  She's currently working on the two to the sides of her front teeth, which may be why...

-She still doesn't sleep more than 3-4 hours at a time during the night.  I've had people ask me if I'm not sick and tired of getting up all the time, and the truth is, yes. It would be great to get a full 6 hours or so of uninterrupted sleep; however, its become my new norm. So, we'll go with it for now! I'll never get those precious moments when its just her and I bonding in the middle of the night back, so I'm not going to complain TOO much about it.

-She is learning to love new songs that I sing her.  If You're Happy and You Know It and Pat a Cake are still favorites, but she also now enjoys "If All of the Raindrops" and "Shake Your Sillies Out." (I'm not sure if those are the proper names for those songs, but you get the gist.)

-Gemma is getting very good at playing independently for decent chunks of time.  Every once in a while, she will whine when I walk away, but she quickly recovers when I tell her I'm still there. :)A

-Her brain is a little sponge right now. In the last couple of days she learned to wave "hi" and "bye." She is also clucking her tongue now.  I am loving this age!

Here are a couple of photos of our little chunk at the beginning of her 7th month.

Christmas 2011-Better Late than Never!

As I mentioned earlier, our little family of four celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve day.  We ate our apple dumplings, opened gifts, listened to Christmas music and just enjoyed the day with each other.  That evening, we headed out to church.  My brother's three youngest kids were in the Christmas program.  Each of them had to say a piece into the microphone and sing two songs with their Sunday School class.  All three did a great job--not needing any help with their parts at all!  It's so fun to watch them every year, and I look forward to when Gemma turns 3 and can participate, too.

Gemma opening a gift. Harper is waiting in the wings in hopes that she will need some help!

Our little family before Christmas Eve service.

After the program was over, we headed to Jeff's parents house.  Jeff's sister is lucky enough to celebrate her birthday on Christmas Eve, so even though we arrived a little late, we wanted to be there for her day, too. (Coincidentally, my sister celebrates her birthday on Christmas Day! We don't usually get to see her, though, so we make a quick call to her.)

Celebrating a birthday!

On Christmas Day, we opened gifts with the Lin family and my mother-in-law made "hot pot." (I'm not sure of the proper Chinese spelling, so I won't even try!)  It's basically a pot of boiling water that sits in the middle of the table. You pick the meats (scallops, thinly sliced beef, these Chinese balls of fish, ground pork balls, chicken, etc.) and veggies (mostly spinach and bok choy) that you want to boil and make your own little soup.  Delicious!

Gemma with G+G 

Gemma's pretty Christmas dress from Grandma

Harper felt she should have gotten more presents

Cousins in matching dresses. E is showing Gemma who is boss! :)

All three Lin babies!

It was a hectic weekend and Gemma didn't sleep well at Grandma and Grandpa's house. So, we were all a little exhausted, and ready to get back into our normal routine.  That didn't really happen, though, as we decided to pick up my niece Kaitlin on our way home. She spent a few days with us while she had days off of school.

We celebrated Christmas with my side of the family on New Year's eve day so that my brother's kids could all be with us.  (It ends up working out really well this way, so we're really not driving all over in a couple of days span.)  I sadly forgot our camera from this day, but managed to steal a few pictures from Kaitlin's mom.  It was a fun day.  My mom made a big turkey dinner, my brother's kids said their pieces for everyone, and Kaitlin's family acted out the Christmas story with Gemma posing as baby Jesus. :)

My side of the family--Minnesota cousins!

Gemma and her oldest girl cousin, Kaitlin.

Our first Christmas traditions

Being a new family of three, I've been thinking about our own family Christmas traditions I want to create. It's difficult to think of them now since Gemma can't get very involved in them.  I figure the traditions will build slowly over the  years, and I'm excited to dream up new ideas every year.  

Jeff and I started our own little tradition of opening our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve day, as we usually have plans with our extended families that evening and on Christmas Day.  I also began making apple dumplings for breakfast that morning and that tradition continued this year.  They looked picture perfect this year, and I was prepared to take a picture and post it here along with the recipe....until Jeff had to do some work quickly (even though he had the day off), and I put them back in the still warm (apparently too warm) oven. They soon were too dark to be called picture perfect anymore, but they, thankfully, were still good enough to eat!

At any rate, you'll have to trust me that these are fantastic and easy, albeit pretty unhealthy.  Hey, its Christmas, right?  The recipe is from my mom, and I'm not sure where she got it from. 

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup orange juice

1 tube of crescent rolls

2 apples, peeled and quartered

Melt the butter, orange juice and brown sugar together on stove top. Let simmer for a few minutes on low.  Wrap each apple piece with a crescent roll and place in a baking dish.  Pour sauce over apples and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  (I sometimes half the sauce portion of this recipe to make it a little healthier, and its just as good.)

One new tradition we added this year was taking Gemma to see Santa Claus at the mall.  We chose a mid-week lunchtime to try to beat the crowds, and we were pleasantly surprised that no one was there at all!  I expected Gemma to cry immediately upon being placed on Santa's lap because she has become afraid of men the past couple of months.  (Mostly just white men...hehe. Really. She is not afraid of Jeff's dad or brother, but cries at the sight of my dad, brother, her godfather, and my brother-in-law.) Anyway, Gemma lasted a good 5 minutes with Santa before the water works started.  We were really proud of her!

Hey, hey! All is good!

Wait a minute! Who the heck are you?

And, we're done.

Again, I'm so excited to add more traditions as the years go on and our family grows. (And, no, I'm not making an announcement...just that we do plan to have more children in the future.) I can't wait to create these memories with my loved ones.

Cindy Lou Who

Okay. I didn't mean to sound so Grinchy yesterday! I really do love the Christmas season. I love thinking of the perfect gift to get someone, making cookies, looking at the Christmas lights, and I really can't wait until Gemma is older and I can see her face light up at all of those things, too.  I guess I was feeling a little like Cindy Lou Who yesterday.  I just want to find and remember the true meaning of Christmas, and I suppose I've just had to try a little harder to find the Christmas cheer this year.

I'm just finishing up sending out the last of our Christmas cards and I am in love with how they turned out. (I was feeling a little guilty that you can't see the babe's face very well, but I've since come to terms with it.) We took the photos ourselves. Took the legs off of the couch in our basement (it was my grandma's), carried into our backyard, set up the tripod, and proceeded to take about 300 photos.  We learned pretty quickly that its difficult to get a dog and a baby to look at the camera, especially when there's no one behind it!  We ordered this card from Pear Tree Greetings, and I think the whole thing came together beautifully.

Here are a few fun outtakes from our little backyard session:

Can you spot Harper? 

Squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel! (I also forgot to take Gemma's nuk out of her mouth.)

Wow! Jeff is REALLY happy.  Harper looks like a pouting teenager.

And now for one of my favorites of Gemma.  I was really tempted to make this our Christmas card, but we put it on an ornament for the grandparents instead.  The hat was given to G by her auntie, Sophie.

This is the raw image. Jeff did a bit of editing before we ordered it. :)

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do! It's Christmas!

Is anyone else having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year?  Maybe it's all the RAIN we're getting here in Minnesota. Maybe it's the disdain I feel for the even earlier start of Black Friday. (Clearly, I am not a Black Friday shopper. I am a mostly online shopper.) Maybe it's the fact that I've been to the mall more than I should during December. (Something I rarely do.) I don't know what my deal is, but I'm not feeling especially festive this year...even as I'm wrapping up sending the last of our Christmas cards today.

Being that this is Gemma's first Christmas, I have a lot of fears of her not knowing the real reason for the season.  I see people getting caught up in the gifts and the commercialization of it all--people who really know better--and it worries me.  Even though this is Gemma's first Christmas and we want it to be special, she really is too young to remember anything or to understand.  Therefore, we've decided to just wrap up a few things we planned on buying her anyway and letting her open them as her Christmas gifts. Mostly for the reason that she loves paper.

I came across this awesome post by Britt from the blog Gus and Lula, and I think it's a tradition I'd like to start for our family next year.  Four gifts. One want, one need, something to wear, something to read.  I don't know that we'll ban Santa Claus from our home. We haven't really talked about it. My hunch is that we'll still incorporate him, but not really put much emphasis on him.  Anyway, Britt's post is bringing me joy today and hope for our future.  And, so is this song. It's a new favorite this year.  Here's to getting in the spirit!

Next Year I will Make Cheesecake

Today is the day my oldest brother, Matt, was born. My parents were so young---my mom was 20 and my dad was 23. Being the firstborn, there are a lot of stories of Matt's young childhood.  My dad likes to tell a little ditty of the day he was born. Dad told Mom Matt looked like a monkey. Mom cried.

Matt could walk at 8 months and could recite every nursery rhyme under the sun by the time he was a year old. His first word was "cocky." (My dad is a little mischievous.)  Matt was fast. Matt was athletic. Matt was popular. Homecoming king, in fact. I was in first grade and probably 6 years old that year.  All of the high school girls liked me (because of Matt, I'm sure).  They gave me those knotted thread bracelets (only to be worn on your left wrist, mind you).  I sat next to those girls during coronation. One asked me who I wanted to win, and I said I didn't care. (Of course I did!)  When Matt won, I jumped into his arms to hug him in the receiving line.  That embrace made the newspaper.

Matt was always my favorite sibling.  We rarely fought. Probably because we were so far apart in age.  Even when he was mad at me, like the time I told on him for piercing his ear (ha!), he didn't hold a grudge for long.   He was a sweet talker and I begrudgingly did things for him I really didn't want to do.  I just couldn't say no to him.

Matt gave me the most beautiful little niece and goddaughter, Kaitlin. She is one of the lasting reminders we have of him since he died in a car accident the day after my high school graduation.  Kaitlin was just shy of her third birthday.  And, even though she doesn't remember much of him, I try to remind her of how much Matt loved her.  He was one of the most devoted dads I have ever seen.

Sometimes I'm sad about losing my oldest brother. I'm sad he didn't see me graduate from college, get married, have a baby of my own. I wonder what he'd be doing now. What he'd look like. But, mostly I just miss him. Miss confiding in him.  I am, however, grateful. Grateful that I had 18 years with him. Grateful that we still have Kaitlin in our lives. Grateful that we were raised in a Christian family and, therefore, grateful that I will be with Matt again one day.

And, can I just add that I have the strongest mother on earth?  You see, I always only knew how it felt to lose a brother. And, now that I have a child of my own who has only been here five and a half months, I can't even bear to think of losing her.  Gemma and I baked some sweets and brought them to my mom at work today. We were celebrating Matt's life.  Mom was reminiscing a little and reminded me that Matt always requested cheesecake for his birthday. I can't believe I forgot that. It's my favorite dessert, too. Next year and probably every year after that, I will make cheesecake.

P.S. In no way am I trying to paint Matt as an angel on earth.   He had his fair share of faults, as we all do.  One of my favorite memories is of him outrunning the cops on his friend's motorcycle. He ditched the motorcycle and ran into our house.  My parents probably made a poor decision and told the cops they hadn't seen Matt since he had left earlier that night.  Bad kid, bad parenting. ha!  Anyway, I don't want to talk about his bad traits.  I just want to remember the good.  For today, anyway.

I always thought...

.....I wanted my children to inherit my blue eyes. (I knew this wouldn't be likely when I got married, considering my husband is 100% Chinese.)  But, I find myself gazing into Gemma's brown almond-shaped eyes and thinking they are the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.

.....I wanted an important job where I would have authority and decision-making power. I now have that, but it's a completely different job than I ever expected. And, it certainly doesn't come with a high paying salary. (It does come with huge perks and is more rewarding than I ever expected.)

.....I would move far away from my hometown to a big city like Chicago.  I never did that, and while it makes me a little sad that I probably will never move out of Minnesota, I'm thankful to be so close to my parents and my in-laws. Knowing that my kids will grow up having a close relationship with both sets of grandparents makes me happier than the city life could. (I guess there's always Minneapolis?!)

Today, I'm grateful for being totally wrong about so many things in my life and knowing that He has bigger and better plans for my life than I could even imagine.

August

August was a pretty busy month. (Aren't they all?!) So,  I guess I left off with Gemma's baptism.

Twins Game
The following week, as a member of the Bethany Lutheran College Alumni Board, I helped host at a reception prior to the Twins' game in Minneapolis.  This was the first time I had left Gemma for more than a couple of hours. So my trusty pump came with me.  Luckily, our reception was in the downtown Wells Fargo building and I had a nice curtained room for nursing mothers to use. The reception was pretty well attended and I even won a pretty sweet Bethany sweatshirt.

I met up with a few friends at the game and we spent most of the time walking around, checking out the different views. Target Field is quite the site! I don't follow baseball, but I enjoyed my visit anyway.  We ended up losing in the ninth inning, which was a little disappointing. Hey, even if I don't follow baseball, I still like the home team to pull off a win! I had a great time catching up with my college friends, too. It's unbelievable how time flies and lives change!

Evan
Two days after the Twins game, my good friend (and Gemma's godmother) Katie, had her second child. Evan is such a cute little baby. He has a dark complexion like his mama, but looks mostly like his dad. He makes the funniest little "horsey" noises in his sleep and is just a sweetie.  I'm really enjoying having some adult company a couple of times during the week now that Katie is on maternity leave. She lives about five blocks away and we sometimes meet up to take our babies and dogs for a walk.  We've also been meeting for coffee about once a week, which is usually much needed! I'll miss our time together when she goes back to work in about three weeks.

Gemma's first road trip/family reunion/ cousin's wedding
The end of August brought Gemma's first road trip.  We headed up to the Superior, Wisconsin area for a family reunion on my mom's side of the family.  We do this every year since my mom has such a large family (She had 14 kids in her family, giving us more than 30 first cousins. Add in cousin spouses and kids and you get total chaos for a weekend!)  We have always stayed here and usually go the weekend prior to the weekend we went this year.  My mom, the main organizer, picked that specific weekend because it fell closest to the date my (now deceased) grandparents were married.  Anyway, we changed the weekend to a week later this time because my cousin was getting married about 45 minutes away.

Gemma's first road trip. Can you spot her?! She's pretty excited.

The drive to the retreat center is about four hours.  Jeff took half a day off work so we could get up there by dinner time and enjoy some family time before we needed to head to bed.  I was a little nervous for the drive with Gemma, but she was a star! She slept so long that I got nervous, and we decided to stop for some water and woke her up to feed her. (I didn't want to get to a place on the road where she'd wake up and we wouldn't be able to feed her right away.)

We arrived right after most people had eaten, but everyone was eager to take Gemma off of our hands so that Jeff and I could have dinner.  Most of my aunts and uncles had not yet met her, and I think she might be the new favorite. :)  My uncle, "Paco," even told me that she is his new buddy for T-wolves games. :( (Meaning she is my replacement!)  The mosquitos were AWFUL and as much as we tried to shield Gemma from them and cover her up, she didn't come away unscathed.  My aunt gave Gemma a little tumble (let's not talk about it), which wore her out quite a bit, so we put her to bed and enjoyed a bonfire the rest of the evening.

Saturday was a whirlwind.  My little family had to leave for the wedding early because my cousin had asked me to play piano for the ceremony.  My two nieces wanted to join us, so we had a car full. Those two girls made the drive fun!  The ceremony was beautiful and we couldn't be happier for my cousin, Shaila.  We headed out to Barker's Island for the reception, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous.  The dinner and dance were both lovely, and Gemma adored all of the attention she received. An added bonus to the wonderful time we had was that my "favorite Uncle Paco" purchased a helicopter ride for my niece, Kaitlin, my cousin, Tarina, and me.  It was a short, but awesome ride.  We headed back to the retreat center and I managed to spot a coyote on the way back.  Again, such beautiful scenery "up north!"

My nieces, Gemma and me before the wedding.

The wedding reception right on the marina. Gorgeous!

The beautiful bride!

Our ride!

Gorgeous views over Lake Superior.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a big, family breakfast. Again, chaos, but a lot of fun!  Jeff and I were even able to get out on the kayaks for a little bit while my mom watched Gemma on the dock and took in a little bit of sun. (No sunburn this time, though! Gemma wore her hat.) A great end to a great weekend.



My Sister Visits!
My older (and only) sister lives near Detroit with her pastor husband and three young boys.  We usually only see them about twice a year because it is difficult for her husband to get time away from his work.  The drive is long (about 12 hours) and the flights are expensive (usually $300+ per person), so we usually only go to see them once a year and they come to visit us in MN once a year.  I was so happy I could spend the entire four and a half days with them this time! And, man, did we pack it full!

The first day we just hung out at my mom's house. They all met Gemma for the first time, which was so fun. The boys were all really good with her, and the youngest, Milo (age 2), really loved her. He was always asking to hold "baby Gemma."  Ahh. Her boys are so sweet and adorable. We grilled and had a picnic outside for dinner and Jeff was able to join us then.

Milo loving on Gemma at the Yellow Mushroom.

The next day my sister's family, my mom, and Gemma and I, headed to Minnepoa to see the falls.  I hadn't been there in years, so I didn't remember that the falls area was not the most stroller friendly place. Duh. We managed though and hung back in a few places so the boys could explore.  After that we picked up a pizza and headed to Sibley Park.  It was super hot (90+ degrees with a lot of humidity), but we had fun anyway.

The falls were kind of small because we didn't get much rain this summer.

The boys exploring.

Friday, Gemma and I decided to take a bit of a break and stayed home. :) We met up with my sister's family, my parents, my brother and his oldest son at one of my sister's favorite local restaurants, the Yellow Mushroom.  They have the best pizza!

On Saturday morning, we headed to mom's house for a pool party.  The weather was pretty overcast, but the kids had a great time. My little niece, Malanie, hung onto me pretty much the whole time in the pool. I taught her how to play "Motor Boat," and we did that a few times in between trying to hit her brothers with  noodles, balls, etc.  Gemma hung out with Grandpa Paul on the side of the pool and was quite content watching the kids play.

Having a blast at the pool!

Grandpa Paul and Gemma hanging out poolside.

We met up again on Sunday for church and had lunch with the family before my sister headed out. The trip was so short, but we had so much fun.  Jeff, Gemma and I will catch up with the Nelsons again in early February when we meet up with them for vacation in Florida! We can't wait!

One last photo after church before the Nelsons head back to Michigan.

Baptism

Gemma was baptized on Sunday, and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous, which was important as she was baptized at an outdoor service.  Each year, my home church has a Mission Festival.  The services are held in a shady grove not far from the church and a missions preacher comes and gives the message.  Members of the congregation who are musically inclined play instruments in a band for the hymns and our choir sings.  There is a potluck lunch  in between services and a question and answer period so that we can learn more about the countries and experiences of the missionary.

Gemma was baptized at the beginning of the first service.  She didn't fuss at all and even smiled at our pastor right after he baptized her "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  My brother, Jesse, is a godfather and my friends Katie and Eric are godparents.  Katie ended up not making it to the service because she had been up all night the previous night because of false labor.  We missed her, but that mama needed her rest!

Gemma is lucky she was so good during the actual baptism, because right after, Jeff's mom was holding her and she pooped directly onto her baptism blanket, dress, AND shoes.  Man!  :)  At least we will have a funny memory of the day!

Here are a couple of photos of probably the most important day in my little girl's life. A lot of our photos turned out kind of dark because of all of the shade.  I may be able to post more once I get through the hundreds and hundreds Jeff's dad took. :)

The godfathers

My parents, Gemma, Jeff and I

Farewell to You and Farewell to Me

Last week, I met up with a couple of co-workers who are leaving our place of employment for bigger and better things.  They are both going to grad school--one in Texas and the other in California.  (Both great places to visit in the long Minnesota winter, no?)  

Over drinks and appetizers, we reminisced about our work together.  I'm really going to miss these girls.  Kristine is my "go to" girl for fashion.  We both love to clothes shop and score great deals.  Katie was my employee, and I enjoyed getting to mentor her a bit.  Hopefully I taught her something!

So, as I say farewell to these two ladies, I am also saying farewell to working outside of the home.  I gave my notice last week.  I am going to be a stay-at-home mama for as long as it makes sense for our family financially and emotionally.  I'm looking forward to a new path and it's my dream job so far.  Jeff works from home, which may pose some unique challenges to our situation, but we'll make it work!  

Kristine says she doesn't want kids, but she sure looks like a natural to me!

Katie and I

Kristine and Katie---onto their next adventure

Catching Up

My, oh my! Has it really been a month since I last posted? I can't believe how quickly time is going!  Summer always seems to fly though, while winter drags on, doesn't it?

We've been having a great summer and are loving being parents. Here are a few things we've been up to the last month or so.

-Gemma got her first sunburn. It was horrible on me, but she took it like a champ!  I swear she was covered up and kept in the shade while at Jeff's volleyball tournament, but apparently there were a few minutes she managed to burn. :(

-Gemma turned 1 month old.

Gemma is 21" long and weighs 8 pounds 2 oz.

-We visited our friends, Matt and Katie, who had a little boy, Gavin, a month and a day after Gemma was born.

Katie, Gemma, Gavin, and I

-We had a birthday celebration for my dad and my nephew, Thomas, on the 4th of July. 

Thomas LOVES reptiles.  Here's his latest catch.

-My niece, Kaitlin, came and stayed with us for about a week. We were on the go pretty much the entire time she was here. Shopping, a college tour (!), coffee, volleyball, and a couple of walks were the things that kept us busy. Oh, and of course we made pot stickers! Our favorite. We even managed to save a few so that she could bring some home.

I can't believe how pretty she is! And growing up way too fast!

It's hard to see here, but she's visiting my alma mater, Bethany Lutheran College! Thanks to Sarah for the tour!

-I started back on my organ rotation.  Church starts a half hour earlier in the summer.  Man, is it hard to get going that early in the morning and get a baby ready to go, too.  Gemma loves it,though!

-Grandma Lorraine and Grandma Linna both babysat for a few hours. (On different occasions.)

-Harper learned a new trick.  She stands up and won't sit back down until you tell her she can.  It's pretty amazing how long she can hold her pose!

Ugh. She looks pretty mangy.  She got a nice summer buzz shortly after this photo was taken.

I'm making it a goal of mine to get a little bit better at blogging.  Jeff is moving all of our pictures to a shared drive in the house, so I don't have to wait until he is off of his computer to access all of our photos.  Here's to good intentions! :)

Fabulous family

I don't know if I've mentioned this on my blog or not, but I have some pretty fantastic in-laws.  Jeff has an older sister and a younger brother and we all get on just great.  His parents are pretty wonderful, too.  None of us live in the same city, but we try to get together as much as our schedules will allow.  (With the exception of Jeff's sister, as she lives in AZ.)

Gemma is going to grow up with two cousins very close in age to her.  Jeff's brother's son is about 6 months older and Jeff's sister's daughter is about 6 weeks older than Gemma.  (I need to ask them if its okay to use their names on the blog yet. :) )  

A couple of weeks ago, we all got together at our house to take some family photos.  It's hard to get three babies and a dog to cooperate for a photo.  (Not to mention we had three cameras on tripods aimed at us.  We were told which direction to smile in first, next, last; however, the cameras had ideas of their own!)

Not quite read.

Oh. I thought we were done!

This is about as good as it's going to get.  Not all looking at the same camera, but thankfully, Jeff's dad got some better shots on his camera.

31

Longest post ever.  This is your warning. :)

The number of hours I was in labor.  Yes, 31.  What the heck?  I think my body was trying to break all sorts of records with this pregnancy.  First, I got to be in the 1% of women who get the PUPPPs rash, and then I have 31 hours of labor.  I read somewhere that the average first labor is 17 hours.

On Saturday morning I was determined to get things going.  Jeff and I took Harper on a brisk 3 mile walk.  We ran into my doctor who lives about 5 blocks from us.  She was packing up her car to go to Des Moines for the weekend.  She told me she'd be back by noon on Sunday, so if I went into to labor make sure the nurses called her.

Well, my walk must've worked because I started having contractions later on that day. I was taking a nap with my first baby, Harper, when I woke up to contractions at about 2:30.  I wasn't getting too excited since I'd had a couple of contractions the week before and it turned out to be nothing.  Lo and behold, these contractions stuck.  They were about 10 minutes apart.  My goal was to stay at home as long as possible.  So, I did a few loads of laundry and cleaned up the house.  Jeff and I went out to dinner.  (We actually ended up running into my cousin and I think I did a pretty good job of hiding my pain mid-conversation when I'd have a contraction.)  We took Harper on a walk over to my friend, Katie's house.  Katie was sure I'd have the baby that night as my contractions were about 5 minutes apart at the time. (HA!)

Finally, at about 11:30 pm, we decided to head to the hospital. My contractions were 3-4 minutes apart.  We called our doula and headed to the emergency room.  We got checked in and I got checked out. I was shocked when the nurse told me I was only 2 cm dialated.  I got the slushies, walked the halls, and sat on the exercise ball.  The contractions were still going strong and probably about 2-3 minutes apart.  Finally, at 8:30 am Sunday morning, the nurse asked me if I wanted my water broken.  I hesitated, but she highly recommended it.  Dr. Benson was called and he came and broke my water at about 9 am.  (The nurse said it doesn't hurt to have your water broken, but she was mistaken.  Dr. Benson gave me 6 good pokes and it DOES hurt!)

After my water was broken, my contractions were extremely intense.  They were coming about a minute and a half apart and each contraction lasted 50 seconds.  They were so strong, I started dry heaving through them.  This went on for about 3 hours until I asked to be checked again.  Surely, I was going through transition labor and would be at least a 6 or a 7.  Not so.  I was only 4 cm, MAYBE a 5 said the nurse.  I immediately started crying.  I could not make it through another 21 hours of labor.  I requested an epidural and then cried some more.  I was so disappointed that I was giving up and not going to have an all-natural labor.  My doula said she agreed with my decision and thought that I requested the epidural at the right time.

The epidural was scary, but at the same time I was so relieved to not have to be in pain anymore. I think I even slept for 10 minutes here and there.  Eventually the nurses told me that my contractions were not strong enough, so they were going to give me some pitocin to get things moving more quickly.  (What?! Are you kidding me?  Those contractions could not have gotten any stronger in my opinion.)  At that point, I really didn't care.  I wasn't going to feel anything.  Give me whatever you want.

At 5 p.m. I was 9 cm dialated and when they checked me, they found that my dear little baby had decided to turn sunny side up.  Could I get on my hands and knees on the bed and use the exercise ball to try to rotate the baby?  Sure.  Why not?  Gah!!  Just when I thought I was almost done.  When you can't feel anything below your waist and you've already labored naturally for 21 hours, the simplest thing like moving your hips in a circular motion seems like a big deal.  I did as I was asked and was checked an hour later.  I had moved the baby!  But not far enough...I should try to move the baby again.  I said fine, but that I needed a break because I was tired.  They checked me again at 7 pm and the baby had moved on its own.  I was dialated to a 9-10!

The nurses called my doctor and got me prepped to start pushing.  Holy crap. I could feel when I was going to have a contraction, so the pushing went pretty well.  I pushed a few times and was doing really well.  I looked at Jeff and asked him what we were going to name our little boy.  We still had not decided on a boy name and were sure it was a boy.  Jeff had said that after watching me go through everything, that I could just name him.  To which I replied, wouldn't you just be shocked if it were a girl?  After only 45 minutes of pushing, we had our little baby girl!  I think we laughed in disbelief when the doctor said "it's a girl!"  Gemma Lorraine was born on 5/29 at 8:14 pm.

Gemma was quiet when she was born.  The nurses had to make her cry, but she was completely fine. (She's still not a big crier.)  She was extremely alert and just stared at me the whole time during our kangaroo care, and she even latched on right away to nurse and gulped like a champ.  I'm glad she knew what to do because I sure didn't!

Gemma is the sweetest little baby ever and we can't imagine our lives without her now.  Jeff says she looks like an Asian version of me.  I think she does have my nose, but I'm not sure about the rest.  Only time will tell I suppose!  She was definitely worth the 31 hours of labor and the 21 hours of pain.  She still might be an only child, though. :)  Ask me in a year.

What Dreams May Come

In the beginning of my pregnancy, I had a lot of dreams.  They were mostly about the sex of the baby, but some were strange.  Then, in my second and third trimesters the dreams disappeared. They're back now and they're weirder than ever!

The weirdest one I can remember happened last week.  In it, I was holding up my shirt to show my dad my bare belly. (Something I would never do to my dad...)  I told him to put his pointer finger and hold it against my belly because the baby would grip his finger through my skin.  My dad followed my instructions and my belly skin reached around and grabbed his finger.  (Just wait. It gets weirder.)  So then, as my belly skin is enveloping my dad's finger, my dad somehow pulls the baby out through the side of my belly! The baby is about 3 inches big and I'm yelling at my dad to put it back because its not ready to come out yet.  My dad is holding up the baby (dangling it really) between his thumb and pointer finger and saying, "See! It's a boy!"

Next thing I know, the baby (which is white by the way. Oops!) is in the bathtub and its a normal size.  Not sure if that means its like one of those squishy, foam toys you throw in water and they grow or what. 

These dreams are crazy, but kind of fun.  I don't know if I really think dreams mean anything, but I certainly hope they don't come true in this case! 

36 weeks and Overdue

No, no. I'm only about 36.5 weeks right now, so I'm not overdue, yet.  I'm just WAY overdue posting my weekly pregnancy photos.  I've been sick on and off for the past 3 weeks or so.  New symptoms every week, but mostly nausea and a horrible cold.

Here they are!  I can really see a growth spurt between weeks 34 and 35!

32 weeks 1 day and apparently still waking up.  You'd think after so many weeks of taking these photos I'd get a LITTLE more photogenic.  Not so. Gah.

33 weeks.1 day. Weird hair.

34 weeks. Can you see my red, stuffy nose?

35 weeks. 1 day.  I don't know if its the stripes or what, but I think I looked like I grew a lot since the last week.

36 weeks and 2 days. Looking enormous and gross. Still sick. Yuck.

I had my 36 week check on Friday along with my Group B Strep test. (No results yet.)  Doctor said I'm carrying high and that I'm not dialated yet.  Boo. I was tempted to ask her to check again.  I was sure I'd be a least a 1 because I've felt "different" for quite some time now.

I've been sitting on my exercise ball for the last few days and its relieving a lot of the pressure I've been having.  It's getting so bad that I don't even want to lay down anymore because, for some reason, laying down makes it hurt worse than anything else!

We had another super busy, but productive weekend. 
-Two baby showers (one for us, one for my friend) down.
-My super awesome mama came over to help me cook meals to freeze, and we made 4 different things which should be good for about 8 meals.
-Jeff's friend Adam drew some art for the nursery and it turned out awesome!  (I just need to paint it and hang it now!)
-I also played organ again this weekend and one of the church's ladies groups gave me a quilt for the baby.  So sweet of them!  I play for the last time again next weekend before I take the next two or so months off.  I'll be glad to have some time off, as it is getting kind of hard to reach around my belly when I play.  A couple more mistakes than usual! Oops!

I was looking forward to an uneventful week, but it seems its already filling up fast!  I guess the more I spend time doing things, the quicker time will go by while I await the baby's arrival!