I don't want to forget

Time is flying by and Ary is growing by leaps and bounds every day. Everyone I talk to says how fast our little ones grow up and in a blink they are teenagers! My blog is going to turn into just a baby book but I don't care right now; I want to record how precious and tiny she once was and be able to look back and enjoy it. Maybe I'll try to do weekly or monthly photos with updates so if I decide to make a hardcopy someday it will all be done for me.


4 weeks

My favorites

I know, two posts in one day- I'm going to turn into one of those people... Oh well, new moms are entitled to it, right?

Newborn photos

The only smile we caught

I told you guys I'd have a gorilla baby, look at the hair on her back and shoulders!



For Bobbi and Meagan; the fluffy skirt from our shower

The only features I can claim are those feet and toes!

More monkeying

Yes, I fell off the planet

I knew that I was a space case before but never imagined how I would be after I had a child of my very own. This little girl came into our lives and everything else dissappeared to me! All of the cliche`s are true about becoming a parent for the first time :).

Friday night I started feeling pretty crappy and achy but it went away so I just went to bed and tried to forget it. Saturday afternoon I was feeling cramps and a backache, so I got on the treadmill and walked for a minute hoping it would bring on some stronger contractions, but as soon as I stepped off they quit. By this time I think I'd had it because I'd been in early labor for two days now. I got up the guts and drank the castor oil I'd had for a week and not dared do it. Eeww- that's something you never forget either! I went to bed that night hoping it really would work for me; not sleeping due to the on-and-off contractions and backache.

Well, Sunday morning 5:00 AM rolled around and I hopped out of bed so fast thinking I'd just wet the bed! They say you sometimes can't tell the difference and I sure couldn't for the longest time; I kept telling Jed, I think my water broke but how do I be sure and when do we go to the hospital? I waited around until 7ish when the contractions were really bad and we decided to go over. By the time we were checked in and I was in a room they were killer enough to cripple so the nurse said I could get the epidural right away. Oh man, can I just say how thankful I am for modern medicine and facilities; I would haved died in childbirth if I were a pioneer.

Once the epidural kicked in, labor went really fast and around 12:30 I was ready to start pushing. That's when things got really difficult- I pushed for THREE hours and couldn't get poor baby girl past my pubic bone. (Sorry for the TMI...) The doctor said she was stuck and no matter how good I was doing with my pushes, (and yes they WERE good, I watched the monitor the whole time!) I wasn't going to get her out by myself. He talked for a split second about a c-section but said forceps would do the trick with a decent episiotemy. Well, the salad tongs and a little cut sounds much better than surgery to me, so that's what we did and at 4:00 baby girl finally made an appearance.

I'm a little morbid, but I had to watch in the mirror while I was being sewn back together while Jed went with baby to be cleaned and weighed. She was 7lbs, 18 in. and had dark hair all over!

We still didn't have a name at that point, so she spent most of her first day of life with us nameless. The next day we settled on "Ary". We both liked the sound with "Argyle" and are going to use that spelling even if some can't pronounce it as "Aury" because I like it without the U.

Long story short, the first night was absolute Hell for me between the drop in hormones messing with my emotions and not enough pain killers in the world, but life is good again. We are all home safe and happy and Jed is such a good mother to the both of us. I appreciate him more than I have in all the years we've been married. Good job mother Teresa raising him- you did so well:)

He's going to be home with us for the rest of the weekend and come to Ary's first doctor visit on Monday.

Meeting each other for the first time

After the first bath (check out the hairdo!)

Yep, a mullet!

A peanut in the carseat

Intro to Schroeder:)

I think I'm ready?

Yep, I've somehow managed to go almost ten months without posting a belly pic. At first it was because I just looked pretty chubby for a long time, but now that it's obvious I don't have an excuse. Someday I'll probably wish I had more to remember this time by; it's just hard to see yourself change in ways you don't have much control over!

Now that it's days away from baby really coming I feel more scared and excited than ever. All of the "what if's?" are getting to me; what if we're not as prepared as we should be, what if I can't breastfeed, what if I don't know how to make her stop crying, what if I can't make ME stop crying... Ahh! I'm a big stressball as it is and I'm ready for things to hurry up and happen so I can start dealing with them, wish us both luck- baby girl will need it!

Shower time

I need to say a big THANK YOU to Jed's mom for hosting a shower for baby girl at her house. She did such a great job decorating and playing hostess. My mom and sisters did the treats, I think they turned out so cute! Thanks to Jed's sisters too for all of the work they put in also, it was great :)
Now the hard part for me: getting everything put away and organized how I want it in her room. I don't even have everything set up yet, let alone decorated and put together- thinking about it stresses me out. Ahhh I get overwhelmed too easily with all of this stuff now that it's really time to get going with it. I'd better get over freakout mode pretty quick or both baby and I are in for it when she gets here!

Happy 5th!

March 26th was our five year anniversary. I'm sure everyone feels like this, but it seems like on one hand Jed and I just got married and are still working out the kinks, and on the other we've been together forever and we've just always been the way we are.

It's true that time flies when you are having fun! We've experienced a lot and been on some great adventures together! We've definitely grown up as people and as a couple too. Our fifth year was the last year we will be just us; and I'm glad we had that much time before deciding to start a family.

I am excited for the future though and excited to see Jed as a dad. In spite of how much I harrass him for doing stupid things, I know he's going to be a great parent. He has more experience by far with kids than I do and he stays calm when I have meltdowns. He does great with the girl moments I go through and I can see him hopefully getting up in the night with me when baby's awake.

Happy five years Jed, I love you!