Birth Story

8/13/09 - 1st induction attempt, I only ever dilated to a 1.

8/14/09 - We were sent home and told to come back on Monday. I was so sad because I was ready to meet you, but in the end I was glad I didn't rush things. You and God had a plan for when you would come...teaching mommy patience!!

8/17/09 - We checked back into the hospital at 530 pm. The nurses got started on me right away. I got Cervadil at 6 pm. Your brother was with us at first, but he had football practice and ended up staying the night with the Ellenburgs. He learned his lesson about a hospital mat on the floor after our first attempt. We ate dinner and I was given Ambien to sleep.

8/18/09 - We were up pretty early. I was started on Pitocin about 6 am. My doctor came in and broke my water at about 645 and told us "no going back now; we WILL be having a baby later today". At 715am I was given an epidural and was checked again, was dilated to a 3. Checked again at 1110am and was dilated to a 4. They kept raising the Pitocin levels but I wasn't dilating. We were beginning to think we would be having a C-Section delivery. BUT, at about 230pm Dr. Rajala came back in and checked me and I was dilated to a 9!!! He left but said he'd be back in about 30 mins and we'd be pushing. The nurses came in, prepped me and the room in what seemed to be a matter of minutes. I had a rather uneventful delivery and at one point I even asked the nurses "am I even doing anything?". At 324 pm our lives were changed forever! Our miracle, Avery Alyn Eaves, was born and made mommy and daddy very proud parents! You weighed 7lbs 13oz and were 19in long.

8/20/09 - We were discharged to take you home at 140 pm. You had lost a little weight, as expected, and went home at 7lbs 6oz. We were so happy to have our baby home and when we got here we found pink balloons EVERYWHERE!! G-Momma and Preston had snuck over here while we were at the hospital and decorated the house for your homecoming. Preston even made a sign for your door! (we kept it, it's in your closet)

8/22/09 - We had your first (48hr) pediatrician appt. You weighed 7lbs 6.5oz and were a little jaundiced but they said it was nothing to worry about. They told us what we already knew: YOU WERE PERFECT!!

Jan 4, 2010

To my Avery:

Babygirl, you are growing way too fast for my liking! I absolutely LOVE being your mommy. You have been the single greatest blessing to my life thus far. Sometimes I look at you and I stare in awe and amazement that you are ours. So perfect, so sweet, so happy... You have opened my heart to a new kind of love, that I knew existed and dreamed of for a very long time, but didn't truly know until August 18, 2009 at 3:24pm when I first saw your face. Your perfect, beautiful face. You were even more beautiful and special than I had ever imagined you would be. While you were in my belly, I loved you. I felt you. I dreamt about you. I began to know you; your sleeping patterns, your daily hiccup fits... And, I just thought that I loved you then. That ALL changed the minute you were born. I love you, babygirl, more than I ever knew I could love someone. I have dreamt since I was a little girl of being a mommy and I can never fully express how thankful and blessed I feel that God chose me to be your mommy. You are my favorite dream come true!!

I love you with all my heart & soul,

Mommy

Internet

WE FINALLY HAVE IT!! I feel like a whole new girl! I have been trying to keep up with all the "little memories" we've been having since we've had Avery by hand-writing them in a journal........NO MORE HAND CRAMPS!! I will warn those of you that follow; I plan on catching this up as if I'd never skipped a beat. I have soooooo many pictures and stories!! I am truly excited about this!

So, if you follow us here...HERE WE GO!

A Newborn's Conversation with God

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?" God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you." The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy." God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy." Again the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak." "And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray." "Who will protect me?" God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life." "But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore." God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you." At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name." God said, You will simply call her, "Mom."

Sugar and spice...

Friday morning the painter showed up very punctually and early, at 7:30 and was ready to paint. We talked with him for a few minutes about his drive (he came from Ft. Worth!) and then he was in there working away. I kept checking on him while he was there to see if he needed anything but he kept saying he was okay. He said he'd brought a sandwich to eat, but unless he just jumped down off his ladder and ate right there on the carpet; I never saw or heard him eat or drink a thing. Maybe that would explain why I never heard him use the restroom either!! He was there for a total of about 8 1/2 hours and I never once heard him come out of that room! All I heard the whole time he was in there was him moving his ladder around.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier with the work that he did. The pictures just don't do it justice. I don't have her window covered in there yet so it was sort of hard to get a good picture because it was so bright in there. I ordered the valance that matches her bedding this past week and I'm going to get the window coverings done once that valance comes in.

It is a little strange seeing this room come together as a nursery! It makes it all seem so much more real. Barry and I have both been caught just standing in the doorway looking at what little is already done in there. I know this isn't his first child, but I think he is just as mesmerized as I am; in anticipation of his little girl's arrival!! And, speaking of...I have to mention what he did on Thursday evening. He got our video camera out, set it up on a tripod and started a video for his baby girl. He said it was the "before you" video and he wanted to make it for her to see someday. He introduced himself, me, Duke...walked all around the house explaining all the rooms and "showing" her what our house looked like before baby!! He had me take a few minutes of video of him putting her changing table and dresser together and everytime I started the camera up he would say "Hey baby girl"!! It was honestly one of the cutest things I have ever seen in my life! He is so smitten already! We are definitely amateur home video'ers so I'm sure we will get many a laugh out of it someday, but I hope she enjoys it & knows how excited we were/are to finally meet, hold & love her!

Can we get internet at home already??

So, we still don't have internet at home which makes for keeping up with this blog a little harder. I have to remember what it was I want(ed) to write and try to find time at work to post it. Anyway, I can make do, I guess...

So, this past Friday we went to our Dr's appt. with another sonogram scheduled. It was an early appointment but because of the sonogram and the fact that Preston got to go with us; I was pretty excited. P wasn't feeling well at all (we later discovered he was running a 102* fever) but he still seemed excited to see the baby on the screen again. Within the first few seconds it was obvious that Little Sister has put some meat on her bones :)!! She just looked so much bigger than before and it already looked (and feels most of the time) that she is running out of room in there! After the tech took her measurements & showed us what all it was she was checking, she tried to get us a peek at the baby's face...NO GO!! She wasn't having her picture taken at all! She was head down, face down and there was just no getting to see her that time. I was a little disappointed but I guess that anticipation will just build until I actually get to really see her little face.

We were told that that our due date would most likely be moved up about 2 weeks, which puts us at about Aug. 10th. Reason being, she already weighs between 3.6 and 3.9! I was actually a little shocked hearing that. Even being bumped up to Aug 10th, that still puts us at 7 weeks left to go; and he told us that she should be gaining 1/4 to 1/2 pound a week from here on out! I am so incredibly thankful that she is healthy (in fact Barry said it looked like she had little sausage legs!!) but when I do that math on the possible weight gain for the time we have left....OH GOSH!! We might have a big'en on our hands!!

Other than that, they said that I was right about the "no news is good news"... I am diabetes free and I'm not anemic so we were pleased to have heard that. Everything with her looked as good as it could/should have so we left there once again with huge smiles on our faces!!

Now, if we could just get her to show us hers!!

Still catching up

So, we finally got our crib bedding for Little Miss!! (notice all the nicknames so far??) I am so excited about this bedding! I had been looking for a while and did what I would like to consider some pretty extensive research online for bedding sets from stores that I could register at, like BabiesRUs and a place here in Frisco called Lone Star Baby & Kids. But, I didn't find anything that I thought I could make myself fall in love with, and since we already have so many other things, like nursery furniture, that we need to buy I was really trying to stay on a budget with the bedding. This set, I found on e-bay, and immediately fell in love with it, but my heart sank when I saw the price because it was double what some of the sets from the other stores would've cost. I couldn't stop looking at it and was determined to find a way to convince myself and my husband that this (more expensive, but...) absolutely adorable bedding was what our little princess needed to have in her crib!! BUT, I didn't have to. I showed it to my Aunt's Patti and Kristy, and they offered to split the cost of it for me, as a shower gift!! The listing on e-bay even said that the set included a pillow that you could have your baby's name embroidered on, and since we have decided to keep the baby's name a secret until she arrives, they just paid for it and let me order it and have it shipped directly to me! How blessed am I? I know you both read this, so thank you (again & again) for buying that for us. It may seem to be a simple purchase, but I cannot explain how thrilled I am to have that bedding! I absolutely cannot wait to get her crib in and put together so I can finally get it all set up! Thank you and I love you both with all my heart!!

The painter is coming Friday the 26th to paint the nursery and I am elated!! He's going to use the pink color from the bedding and do a border around the top of her room. The wording will be "Sugar and spice and everything nice... That's what little girls are made of" and he said he thinks he can get it down 4 times to make it all the way around the room!! Can't wait to see it!! I will post a picture of that after he finishes!

I thought since I was posting pics of bedding and whatnot that I'd put a couple that I'd taken of my work in Preston's room. It's safe to call this a work in progress, but I think he is happy with the look so far. I've just tried to get as much done in there as I can so that when he's home with us he can enjoy his space, and also before all our efforts are directed toward the nursery.

When we moved into the new house we got a new set of furniture so we put our old set in his room. I know it's not typical 10 year old boy bedroom furniture, but the whole 5 years we were in the apartment, he never had a headboard or nightstand or dressers. So he is enjoying that too. He got the comforter set for Christmas last year and he LOVES it.

These are the curtains I put up in there that I got on sale from IKEA. I didn't realize they weren't "ready to hang" when I got them. They had to be hemmed, and I did that myself. Barry isn't thrilled about the way they turned out, but I don't think they look all that bad. Our main reason for needing to put them up was because of the light coming in that huge window. Since we are on so much land, and don't really have to worry about neighbors being able to see in or things like that; we are still debating what kind of window treatments we want to do. We love the natural light and just aren't sure if we want every window covered with blinds or shades. But, the light was always so bright, Preston could never sleep in and most importantly, to him, the glare from the sun kept him from watching his TV!! :)

Two good things about these curtains are: They're not permanent, and I got them on sale...they were a cheap "try"!!


Two more things I need to tackle in here are his initials above his bed. He wants them painted either orange or blue....SURPRISE!! And the "fathead" things we can't get to keep sticking so we're going to have to figure out something with those. The texture on the walls is too rough and they just won't stick.

It's overly obvious that the boy is a Gator fan. Not a whole lot makes it in his door if it isn't royal blue or orange!!