Shout Out

I wanted to send a shout out to our friend who created Ariel's birth announcements.

Sara is the owner of Norwood's Arts, a company that specializes in custom design holiday greeting card, birth announcement, or invitations. She also made our Asian themed wedding invitations.

I highly recommend Sara, as she is a good friend of ours and the quality of her work is unsurpassed by anything you may find in retail stores.

Find some time to visit her website http://www.norwoodarts.com/.

As a baby shower gift, Sara sent us a "Countdown to Baby" box. It works like an Advent calendar, where 10 days before baby, you open a box a day until your due date. This was a lot of fun, especially since I was getting antsy that last part of the pregnancy. When Eric would come home at the end of the day, we'd open a box. Taking the theme from the Ten day of Christmas, I would sing, "On the 10th day of countdown to baby we received . . ." and then we'd open our gift for the day. Genius idea, I tell you. Genius.

Happy Father's Day

Since I haven't had time to go shopping for Eric's first father's day, I improvised. I bought a frilly, pink sundress for Ariel. Because Eric likes to see his girls dressed up, this was her gift to her daddy. I know it sounds lame, but it's the thought that counts and Eric just beams when he shows Ariel (and her outfits) off.

We started our day off with Coffee for Dad at a local coffee shop. It was a nice quiet morning and Eric and I enjoyed ourselves while Ariel caught a cat nap. Maybe we'll make this a tradition of ours.

After church, we drove up to Eric's parents house and had a nice afternoon of food and conversation. Jesse grilled the steaks and I made dessert (a lemon pound cake). Don't ask what time I had to do this. I honestly don't remember.

The grill master Pretty girls

We had a good day, but we may go to the reservoir and have a picnic lunch next year.

Life and Death

In the wake of death, there comes a sense of healing. Of new opportunities born out of the tragedy of losing a loved one.

On Monday, May 25th, my grandmother passed away from pancreatic cancer. It was not an unexpected death, but who is ever prepared to lose someone?

My mom's mother was a riot. When I was born, she told my mom that she was too young to be a grandma. So she would not answer to "grandma" but to her name, Carole. Yes, like a Christmas carole. While we only saw her very couple of years, some of my best memories were the summers we spent catching lightening bugs and pretending to be Transformers in the front yard.

Eric and I packed up the car and Ariel (who was only 2 1/2 weeks old) and made the 24 hour drive to Ohio. Ariel did great in the car. Thank goodness.

While I'll miss Carole an awful lot, something good has come from her passing. We were able to reconnect with cousins we haven't seen in 18 years. It was such a shame that so much time passed between us-- all because of miscommunication and misunderstanding. My sister and I even met family that we didn't know existed! The entire occasion was bittersweet.

The funeral service Carole was nicely done and Vicki even sang a song that brought everyone to tears. But despite our mourning, life continues. The reception felt more like a family reunion with laughing, picture snapping, and story swapping. I know my grandma was looking down on us and laughing at our jokes and glad that her family was reunited.

The McClendon Grandkids & Ariel

Grandpa and his girls (Vicki's shooting the pic)

If you are inclined to pray, please keep our family in mind, especially my Grandpa. I know that the upcoming holidays are going to be hard on all of us. Carole's spirit will never leave us, as we all carry a piece of her in our hearts.

One Month Birthday!

It's hard to believe that it's been a month since we brought our little princess home. Life has certainly been an adjustment and we're all doing the best we can (meaning we're up several time in the middle of the night).

At two weeks, Ariel went in for her first doctor's appointment. She weighed in at 6 lb, 9 oz and her height was 18 3/4 inches. I know that it seems like she had shrunk, but we think it's partially due to her head rounding out. Ariel is a great eater and her weight gain shows as much.

After our little road trip to Ohio, I took Ariel back to the doctor as she had been fussing an awful lot since our return. She weighed in at 7lb, 13 oz. That was the great part. the not so great part was that she was diagnosed with acid reflux. Oh boy. She's now on Zantac and the meds seem to be helping.

However, Ariel has now taken to a middle of the night marathon. She usually wakes 2-3 times in the night to eat, which is fine. But at least one of these wakings, results in a 2.5 hr period where she wants to do everything but sleep. She'll be changed, fed and otherwise ready for sleep, except that Ariel has other ideas. This is really starting to take its toll. If anyone has any ideas on how to keep her awake during the day and asleep at night, shoot me an email. I wish more parents talked about these kinds of things. I'm starting to feel like a special case.

Overall, we're doing ok. Keep us in your thoughts.

The First Week

So, it's been a week since Ariel became our new roommate. Let's just say that we are surviving the long nights of hourly snacking and enjoying our days when we do nothing but sleep. That seems a little backwards. Huh.

Ariel is adjusting well to life on the outside (of the womb, not prison). She is breastfeeding like an all-star and sleeps like her daddy when she sleeps. Unfortunately, her days and nights are mixed up, which makes mommy and daddy a little more than tired. Ariel's favorite night time indulgence is sleeping on daddy's chest. They are so cute as snuggle buddies. She smiles quite a bit (probably due to gas) and squeaks in her sleep. She seems to enjoy listening to Eric and me read her books and sing those silly nursery rhymes.

She also had her first home sponge bath. She screamed for the first 30 seconds, then decided that being wet wasn't all too bad. She did great and now she's squeaky clean! Ariel's also had a handful of visitors come to see her. Man, she's popular already.

I am healing from the two tears I incurred during delivery and hopefully the edema (swelling) in my feet and ankles will take a hike soon. I'm ready for a nice walk outside as the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. We are handling the sleep deprivation fairly well. Even Pazu is feeling the effects of inadequate rest. However, he is very gentle with the baby and just wants to get his snuggle time in too.

Overall, we are doing great. Ariel has her first well baby check up next week. We'll keep you updated.

An All-Star Is Born

Sage City and the Greene Team All-Stars are pleased to announce the signing of their new shortstop.

Ariel Madison Greene

Signing Date: Wednesday, May 6

Signing Time: 10:03 am

Height: 19 inches

Weight: 5lbs, 14 oz

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

As part of the big announcement, the Sage City Sentinel offers this play-by-play birth report provided by All-Star captain, Nicole.

I woke up around 2:30 am Wednesday morning to make my nightly visit to the bathroom. I noticed that my underpants were wet. Could my water have broken? As I contemplated this, I was hit with a serious contraction. These weren't like the Braxton-Hicks I experienced earlier that day. I actually had to breathe through this one. Ok, I thought it was a fluke. Yeah right. I spent the next hour breathing through eight more contractions. I woke Eric to let him know what was going on. We timed them and after fifteen minutes, called the hospital. It was time to make our trek to the land of medical professionals.

By this time, I was really starting to hurt, but things really took a turn for the worse after I strapped myself into the car. The contractions were coming hard and heavy and I wasn't sure if I would be able to stick with Birth Plan A: all natural, no epidural.

We made it to the Labor and Delivery ward around 5 am. I did my best to sit still as the nurse checked my cervix. I was already dilated 7 cm! Holy cats, Batman! That is virtually unheard of with first time pregnancies (most moms show up around 4-5 cm). This is when I bit the bullet and asked for the epidural. Things got a little fuzzy at this point, as the pain I was experiencing has blocked some of my trip to my L&D room. I did puke all over myself, so clearly I remember something.

It took about an hour for the anaesthesiologist to arrive. I knew I was getting close to missing my window of opportunity and I almost started to panic. Fortunately, it was not too late. I received my drugs around 6:30 am and despite my best intentions to go sans drugs, this was the best decision I could have made. As I continued to labor, I watched my contractions on the monitor. The were about 90 seconds in duration and about 30-45 seconds apart. Yikes. There would have been no way I could have dealt with that.

I was able to rest a little bit and I started pushing around 9:40 am. At 10:03 am, our little angel entered the world after 7.5 hours of labor. Eric was great through the entire ordeal and I officially give him the Labor Coach of the Year award.

Things have been a whirlwind since coming home, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Ariel is great and has already shown us how nosey she is and how much she enjoys her sleep (blame that last part on Eric). We send a special thank you to all who have prayed for us and for the health of our family. May God bless you always.

Shortstop Update: Weeks 38 & 39

So we are head into the ninth inning, this pregnancy is moving right along.
My 38 week appointment was April 23rd. My belly was measuring 38 cm and I had lost a pound. Woo hoo! After that 6 lb jump, I was getting a little worried. That brings my total weight gain to 14 lbs. Not too shabby. Shortstop's heart rate was 148 bpm. This was the week that my cervical effacement (thinning of the cervix) and dilation was checked. I was 1 cm dilated and 20% effaced. Really? That's it? How discouraging. For those who may not know, labor begins when the cervix is effaced 100%. Then the cervical opening has to be 10 cm before pushing can begin.
36 wks (9 months, 1 day)

39 wks (9 months, 22 days)

Had my 39 week appointment on Friday. Shortstop has descended into the birth canal is posts a heart rate of 150 bpm. My belly measured 38 cm, due in part to Shortstop dropping. I gained back that pesky pound I thought I lost, but I really shouldn't cry about 15 lbs when some women gain 50 or 60 lbs. My effacement and dilation was checked and I made some progress. 85% effacement and 2.75 cm dilated. Now that's much better. My last day of work was Monday, so maybe all the rest has been helping things along. Only six more days to go, if Shortstop is to arrive on time.