Ariel Elizabeth is here!
Born on 9/22/2011, at 6:47PM, weighing 6lbs 7oz, measuring at 20.5in.
In about 12 hours, she will be one week old. The time has flown by and I've loved it all so much. It's been a little difficult at times, but totally worth it. Paul loves his sister so much and gets a bit jealous of her at times too. He tries to take her from me to hold her and to sit in my lap while I'm holding her. Silly boy. She is doing so great with everything. She's sleeping well, eating well, but not quite burping the best :( which equals more spit-up than I ever had to deal with with Paul. I'm feeling great, hardly like someone who had a baby only a week ago!

Baby, oh baby...

Alright... so, I feel I should blog a bit before Miss Elli decides to show up and I don't have the hands free to do so.
Things have been going very well. She's growing at the rate she should and her heartbeat has been great. My blood pressure and weight have been good... What else...? Doc said of her a couple months ago that she has been consistent. And it's stayed true. Poor Paulie is still teething. His eye teeth have finally poked through, but I have a feeling that the bottom two are close behind. Poor kid can't catch a break from workin out those teeth!
With the weather being nicer, it's killing me that I haven't had the energy to take Paul out and play more. It's also frustrating that we don't have our own yard to play in with our own stuff. ... Anyway... I really don't know what else to talk about. It really feels like Elli is just going to stay inside forever and that I'm just going to be big and tired and sore forever and ever!!! It just feels that way. I know it's not true. So, I keep telling myself. I also keep telling myself that she may just arrive this week and I go through the lists of things that I could do or should do to make myself our home more ready for her. It seems that I don't have much to do... just practice relaxing. And maybe finding someone to take care of Paul while we're in the hospital. Which we do have people, it's just going to be a matter of coordinating and timing... Since we don't know what time she'll be popping... oh... well... you know... I can't really plan much!!! Maybe tonight will be the night that everything starts. Hope so. Jerry could come home early tomorrow and/or not go to work and have a nice little vacation with me.
blah blah blah
I am getting tired... this often happens... and then I think of even less interesting things to talk about.
In summary, we are doing well and I am becoming impatient.
Oh yeah! We picked up a free couch off the street that is in pretty decent condition, smells great and looks great too! It's longer and more comfortable than the couch we did have, so i'm pretty excited... it's been so nice to sleep on.
Did I mention we also got a rocker/recliner? Yeah, that was free too. Needs to be covered, in my opinion, but otherwise a great chair. *sigh* Good furniture makes me happy.
Thanks for reading... sorry it was so.... chaotic.

9/8/2011 - Teeth and Mosquitos

Yes, Paul is still teething. It seems as though 4 are coming in all at once. Ugh. This makes for a very crabby little boy most of the time. Can't blame him though. I'd be crabby too if I had that many teeth coming in all at once. It's been great that the days have been nicer out. We've been to the park a lot in the last couple of weeks. A few days ago we spent a few hours at the park with friends disc golfing. It was a really great time. I didn't do too bad myself and we only got bit by a few hundred mosquitoes. Okay, so a few hundred is a bit of an exaggeration, but we still got bit up. Paul got quite a few on his face, poor lad, and his face puffed up pretty good. Looked like someone gave him a good sock in the eye. After the long walk in the park and tossing a disc around, the next day I started feeling some regular Braxton-Hicks. It felt like real labor had begun and it lasted a few hours. We had a couple of people on call in case we needed to go into the hospital,but no one was called and we slept through the night. I was slightly disappointed that nothing came of it, but it was clear to both Jerry and I that we were not quite ready for little Ariel to come home yet. We still needed to preregister with the hospital, which I did this afternoon, and get an idea of how much clothing we actually had for her. I also didn't have anything set up for her clothes to go in, but I do now. Last night our neighbor was kind enough to give us her rocker/recliner. I'd been searching for one that I liked for quite some time and noticed one sitting in our basement. I figured with where it sat that it might be hers so I left her a note and about an hour later she popped over to say we could just have it! PTL! We've gotten a lot of things done since our little "scare" and I'm grateful. I'll soon have my bags packed and a list of the things I want with when the time does come.

Other great news is that Jerry was finally told when he'll end his weekend shift and begin the "night" shift. The 19th is his last day for weekends, and the 27th is his first day on nights, 3pm-1am. It would be great timing if Elli came in-between those days so that Jerry could have some extra time off. Or maybe even the week before would be better.

Not sure what else to include. Getting to be my nap time. Thanks for reading!