One night at a time. . .

As you can imagine, based on the title of this blog, we're a little tired:) Nothing that wasn't expected of course, we all hear other parents tell us (when we were still pregnant) how tired we were going to be. We heard, we understood, we're there, and still alive. Well, alive and very sleepy parents.

I have to remember though that whatever I eat, baby Marin eats too, and I had a hamburger yesterday, that I, in my infinite desie to be a great chef, poured lots of yummy seasonings into. Poor girl, I think last night her belly was just aching from all that spicy delicious-ness. I need to remember to tone it down a little for my baby girl, last night was pretty rough!

My parents came Tuesday afternoon, and yesterday we took a picinic lunch (with those spicy burgers) up to Mount Charleston to get out of the heat and see some open land. It was a lot of fun. I like to be away from the city, I'm really a country girl at heart, and being in the middle of nowhere makes me feel at home. So we had our late lunch and drove around to a few lookout points on the mountain. Wonderful outing! The air was so much cooler, I felt like I could breathe!

This is a picture of daddy snuggling his little girl at one of the lookout points. She did really well yesterday:)
Here is a picture of my dad (grandpa for baby) soaking in the moment. He is the epitome of a baby snatcher. Loves loves loves little ones, and as you can see, she's very content.

Daddy making faces at his baby girl, she is very intently studying his face!

Here's Marin! Such a good picture of her with her eyes open, just looking around. She is such a beautiful baby. I know I'm the parent, and every parent thinks their baby is beautiful, but she really is a pretty baby.

Kris was holding her up against his knees, all propped up, she has her hat on, looking like a little elf, so stinkin cute! I think this is right before she peed on the bed. She's done that twice now, the little stinker! That's ok, we still want to keep her.

First day out!

Here are some more pictures from the hospital. Our brother in law Sam took them for us, so it's nice to have more pics to share.

Here is a sideways close-up of our sweet baby girl, just a few hours old:)

Almost everyone has their hand on the new little one. She's wearing one of my favorite outfits, it's a terry cloth like texture and it has little footies (babies are so cute in footie pajama's!) and some little sheep across the front, just adorable!

Daddy getting to know his new little girl. I'm still in a state of shock. I really pushed her out of me?!

A pic of Kris, his sister Melodie holding Marin and Kris's mom Trine, a very happy brand new grandma:)

Kris's sister Melodie cuddling with Marin.

So today was our first trek out of the house (not including the one coming home from the hospital). We went to the grocery store just down the road, we were running pretty low on fresh groceries. Mama needed to have the carseat readjusted first though:), and make sure it wasn't too windy outside!

Our drive was good, I had to keep checking to make sure the sun wasn't in her little eyeballs though. And the journey through the store went well, she slept the whole time! I still get nervous though for first time anythings. I guess it goes with the territory of being a new mom.

My parents come tomorrow. I'm excited to see some family, and I know they are excited to cuddle with their new granddaugter. Our baby blessing is going to be on Sunday too, I think we may have quite a few people coming, which is great.

I really need to post pictures of my strawberry jam! It tastes delicious too! I'm very proud of myself:)

Embracing our Life

Today is Sunday and all three of us have been ,oving being at home as a family. Life has never been sweeter. I have always wanted to be a mama, and it's been a bit surreal these past few days. I can't believe when I look at my little girl that she's mine and I gave life to her, and pushed her out of me! She is doing well, and wants to be nursed quite a bit, but it's wonderful because we both get to practice:)

Kris has loved every second of being a dad. Maybe it's because he doesn't need to get up at night with her yet (I haven't started pumping). No worries though, he'll start getting up with her soon enough. Kris does so well with Marin, changing her and burping her and just staring at her in awe. It's really wonderful to see your husband become a father, I have never been so attracted to Kris as when he is loving my baby girl.

We had Kris's mother and sister and brother in law come down late Tuesday night, so they were here to send us off to the hospital and take care of us, clean our house and make us food, and of course, snuggle with our baby :) They had to leave today, which was sad, but they have lives to get back to as well.

Speaking of going to the hospital, I think I had written that I was scheduled for an induction on Thursday morning at 0430. Well, as stubborn as our little girl has been in coming, she decided that's not how she wanted things to work. Kris and I went to bed at 9:30 that night, with the intent to getting up at 0300 in the morning to be at the hospital at 0430. I gave Kris a benadryl so he could sleep and we went to bed. Then at 10:15 my water broke! Surprise! I told Kris I thought we needed to go the hospital a little earlier, and off we went! I felt so bad having drugged my husband, because he was up all night with me of course, and he was sooo tired after I delivered, and we all napped for quite a while.

My parents are coming out on Tuesday, which will be nice. They were out at almost the same time last year for our sealing! I think they are also looking forward to some snuggle time with their new granddaughter.

Baby Girl has Arrived!

Here is our little one right out of the womb on mama's chest! She's still all goey and wet too. This was the most surreal feeling, I really couldn't believe I had this little person inside of me and had just pushed her out, amazing. Kris took these next two after they took her over to the table to rub her off. Marin Elise Lyman, born August 21st, 2008 at 0727 in the morning. 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

This is after they moved us over to the postpartum unit. Marin was happy just to snuggle with mama:)
Here we are the today, a few hours before we went home, she was napping, with her mouth open, just like daddy!
I'll post more later, but these should suffice for now. Thank you everyone for your love and prayers and support!

The end is near!

Kris and I had our doctor's appt today, and the end is in sight! He did do some manual manipulation to try and speed things along, but if that doesn't work, we will be headed to the hospital at 0430 in the morning on Thursday to be induced. I really wasn't to keen on the idea at first, the thought of needing drugs didn't really thrill me, but then again, the idea of being able to meet my baby girl, and not be pregnant anymore, sounded awfully nice. So, nothing as of yet, but I darned well know for sure she's coming on Thursday! Hooray!

We went out to dinner tonight with some friends from Mesquite (a little town an hour north of Vegas). We went to this place called Bahama Breeze, one of my personal favorites, and let me tell you why. While the island food sure is tasty and delicious, I really only go for his chocolate upside-down pineapple cake they have there. It is sooo stinkin good. This moist little round cake with a pineapple on top that has this liquidy chocolate center. The whole thing is drizzled with caramel sauce and grenadine and topped with a cherry and whipped cream. To-die-for delicious. I almost consider tonight a form of a "Last Supper" for us. Our last meal out with just friends as a child-less couple. Kind of sad when you think about it. No worries, I have to tell myself. Thousands of women (well, couples really) go through this transistion, and they come out OK, so I have to think that Kris and I will make it through. At least until the next kid right?

Kris's mother and sister and brother in law are coming down in an hour or so. I'm excited. It's nice to have company, and then the help after little girl makes an appearance. Ahh well. There will be much to write about very soon, keep checking the blog!

Monday, Monday

As you can tell, today is Monday. And I am STILL pregnant. I won't sport with you on how that makes me FEEL (which would be extremely frustrated and angry by the way), but I will tell you it's been a good day.

Kris has started his FMLA leave, so he's hanging out with me at home. Today we made some cinnamon buns together, that was very fun, and they turned out so yumo-licious! They were frosted too, so that made these homemade delicacies even sweeter (am I making your mouth water yet?). I also tried my hand at making some strawberry jam. I've never done it before, but I have a book on jams and jellies and pickling, those sorts of things, so I gave it a shot. I need to wait until tomorrow to see how my little glass pots of strawberry delicious-ness have turned out, but they sure do look cute! All vintage like sitting on my counter, I feel like the epitome of a Suzie-Homemaker with my cute pots of jam! I'll post some pics soon.

Our doctors appointment is tomorrow, so I think I'll take in some of those luscious cinnamon buns and bribe the doctor to help this baby along! I don't think he'll be able to resist!

today, should be the day. . .

Today is supposed to be the big day! I am 40 weeks today and my baby is due NOW! However, she is not here yet, and seems to be still very comfortable hanging out in mama's belly. I am getting a little frustrated (to say the least) and nervous too. Nervous because Tuesday is our baby doctor's appt, and when we go, I know he's going to start talking about getting this baby out. Which, yes, is good, but I have a feeling he's going to want to induce me (via drugs) and that just isn't part of the birthing experience I want. So, I am nervous. I want to have a natural delivery (all other moms can laugh at the novice, it's ok, you're right, I may not know what I'm getting myself into), and with the pitocin (the inducing drug of choice) it's highly unlikely I will be able to pull that off. The pitocin doesn't allow for breaks between contractions, they almost just keep going and going, and with regular non induced delivery, you have your contraction, and a break (however small, it's still there). So, being induced, I wouldn't really have much of a choice, my body would exhaust itself without the drugs. I don't know. I guess I'm getting all worked up. Things will work out right?

Kris and I went to the gym this evening and I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes. That's right, 45 minutes. However slow I may have been, it was 45 minutes of effort to try and get this baby out. Ahh well, we had some Subway for dinner and picked up stuff to make smoothies with tonight! Yay! I love smoothies. Hopefully they will turn out well. :)

something to do

One more day of nothing to do! You know, I used to just be so happy for my days off (when I was working, that is) and now, I am so blasted bored. I sit around the house and putter around. Doing dishes or laundry, vacuuming (if I'm lucky, not sure why like it so much!), playing wth the cat, and waiting for baby to come.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I honestly feel like a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode. I really don't have energy to go anywhere, or the mental capactiy either (that blasted "pregnancy brain", I used to be smart, honestly!). I'm just waiting to start having contractions or make a big wet mess somewhere and have to call Kris and tell him to come get me so we can have a baby. No such luck though. I'm reconciled to the fact that I will be forever pregnant.

Enough of the self pity! My visiting teachers came this morning, so that was nice, to be able to socialize with someone other than my husband. Although I do love hanging out with him, everone needs some other social stimulation.

Well, let me see if I can find some fun pictures to post. This one is of Kris and I the first time we met, back in February 2006, taken at a friends house.

This one was taken at our first apartment in New York. Kris had curled up to take a nap, and Sadie crawled in next to him to keep warm, it was so cute. It's a habit she still keeps. She will crawl underneath the sheets in bed in between his legs and sleep there. He's pretty toasty when he sleeps, as I'm sure most husbands are:)

Yay! Pictures of my baby's nursery! The furniture is a little mismatched, but I don 't think she'll care.
*The first one is a pic from the doorway
*A pic of a shelf with some goodies we'll need for her


*Her crib and the pictures we found for the wall. SOOOO stinkin' cute too!
*A pic of the top of her "dresser" with the ladybug lamp (ladybugs are the theme) and another picture of a duck. He didn't match any of the pics on the wall, but he was WAYYY too cute to ignore, so here he sits!

This is my belly at 39 weeks. It may not look big n the picture, but trust me, it is.

Wednesday Night

So, after our appointment on Tuesday, Kris ad I decided to get out of the house for the evening. We went and saw Mama Mia, which I think I mentioned in my last post, and stayed at the Paris Hotel/Casino (my personal choice, I think I'm French at heart). We had some amazing crepes there last night. I know that some casino food can be kind of yuck and second rate, but these crepes were FANTASTIC! I'm not sure why I loved them so much, but they really were THAT good:) They were made with a traditional large flat metal plate and the batter was spread with a special flat "rake" like tool. I forget it's name, but I've seen it used before, it takes quite some time to master. I've gotta get me one of those things. . . I am such a food gadget junkie. I could shop for food gadgets all day. Men like hardware stores and big tool chests, Samantha likes Williams-Sonoma and big pantry's for her cooking stuff. I just love to cook!

But I digress, so we watched the show, ate these yummy crepes and went to bed, I don't have much stamina lately. This morning we woke up and had a yummy breakfast at one of the hotels restaurant's, stopped at the mall briefly and then came home. Kitty was glad to see us, she always is, she misses us when we're gone. If we're gone for more than a night or so, she stops eating and cleaning herself, so she looks petty sad by the time we come back :( poor thing! What a social cat though!

And, the best news of the day! My new vacuum cleaner came today! HURRAY!!! Our other one broke (after only 9 months mind you!) about 4 months ago, so I bought a cheapo little one called a shark or something just in the meantime. Well, that died last week, so Kris ordered one from Amazon, and it couldn't come soon enough for this nesting mama-to-be. I have been DYING to vacuum all week long. I've cleaned everything else, and have been waiting impatiently for this vacuum to arrive, and today it did! I vacuumed my little heart out, the carpets, the bare floors, the couches, the futon, the stairs, the carpets upstairs, between the washer and dryer, next to the fridge, by the oven. I'm quite satisfied now :)

Still no baby though :( every day I keep hoping, but to no avail. I do have quite the itchy belly though. Wouldn't be the first time, but now that baby is just hanging out in there packing on the pounds, my little belly is stretching away. I've given up putting on lotion for preventative purposes (stretch marks). I already have them everywhere, whats one more?! So I itch away to my little hearts content until it gets raw, or Kris catches me and makes me stop.

Once again, I'll post pics, when I figure it out:)

Tuesday's Blues

So, today is Tuesday, and for Kris and I, right now at least, Tuesday means a trp to the baby doctor. And today, for some reason has been paticularly rough for me :( not quite sure why!

Our appointment this morning was really very routine. Get there, sign in, pee in a cup, and wait. Then go stand on a scale and look the other way while I'm being weighed, I just can't bear to look! I know what it is, but just seeing the scale read as much as it does when I'M on it, gets me anxious. I know I have a good excuse for that weight, but still, it's unnerving! The Physician Assistant did our appointment today, which, I'm actually grateful for. She is SOOOO nice (not that the doctor isn't, he is, really), but I feel much less pressured to choose to induce labor. And let me explain abou that.

2 weeks ago, at 37 weeks for myself and baby, the doctor said, "Oh, it should be any day now!", so Kris and I have been jumping at every single thing, thinking that at any minute, I would sink ito the couch wih heavy contractions or at least have some very wet pants to warrant a trip to the hospital. Well, here we are, and no baby, 2 weeks later.

The doctor seemed very OK with inducing labor, which, this mama really doesn't want, just because I'm going natural and, well, the less drugs the better. Besides, I would feel like I was cheating myself out of the whole experience, it's just me, that's not the right choice for everyone, but it's the experience that I want.

Meeting with the PA today, she was very calm and reassuring saying that I'm not even to m due date yet (saturday) and I's already dialting and almost completely thinned out, so no worries, I am making progress, it's OK, we don't need to jump the gun.

Thank goodness for her today. Even still, I starting crying on the way home I was just so frustrated and tired of being preggo. I know I'm so close, and I think that's what makes it so hard.

My husband, being the wonderful man that he is, made some reservations for us to stay on the Strip tonight, just to get out of the house and break up the monotony, and to go see a show, Mama Mia! I'm excited. It will be fun, but about as much as I can handle, I'm not very resilient these days.

But all is still well, baby is healthy, I'm ready to pop at any minute, my husband is still alive and managing to keep his cool for the both of us. I'll keep trying to figure out how to get some blasted pictures up for everyone too!

Ticking time bomb

Well, as you may have already read in my profile, or wherever it is I wrote it, my husband Kris and I are about to have a baby. Like, ANY STINKIN' DAY! The pregnancy has been uneventful, the usual stuff though, puking for the first 13 weeks was about the hardest thing I had been through. Many a night (that was when it was the worst was bedtime) I would cry myself to sleep because I felt so blasted awful, sobbing to Kris that I just wanted to feel better. Poor guy couldn't do a single thing about it though. Just got me whatever I could eat at the time. What a sweet guy, I really love my husband:)
So anyway, the pregnancy has been pretty uneventful, the nausea went away (this is where choirs of angels join in harmonious melody), my little belly popped out, and kept popping out, and popped out some more. Luckily, if I do say so myself, I have the cutest preggo belly. I look like I swiped a medicine ball from the gym! I'll see if I can't get a pic up for you to see.
So now, I am 39 weeks and one day, which means baby is allowed to come whenever she wants to. And I don't think she wants to come out. At this point, I feel that I am going to be the only woman in the world who is going to be pregnant forever. My pregnancy will just continue on and on, I will grow to the size of my king size bed and have grown up conversations with my gown up child who is still living in my belly.
These last few days, are ridiculousy long and tedious. I'm not working anymore, not just because of the physical rigors I just can't handle, but being pregnant, I'm pretty stupid, especially since like, week 34. So, being the good nurse that I am, I decided that maybe being responsible for taking care of sick kids in the hospital wasn't the best choice for a metally-struggling-mom-to-be.
So, lt me just recap, We are about to have a baby, and we feel very blessed to have had a wonderful, ueventful pregnancy with a (so far) healthy baby on the way. And now, I am where so many other previously pregnant womn have found themselves right before delivery: feeling fat, swollen, bloated, stupid, unable to sleep, bored, hungry, at times sick, anxious, un-pretty and more than READY!
Kris and I have been doing everything possible, everything that we've heard of to get this baby out (I'll spare you the gruesome list, but if you're really curious, and you're not my parents, you can call me and I'll tell you). The nursery is pretty much done, minus the rocker (which we're waiting for), so that's good, again, I'll need to post a picture or two, very cute nursery too:)
I'm so glad this is almost done, I'm ready to be a mama, and not so preggo. I know all you veteran moms are thinking "Yeah, she doesn't know the half of it! She'll wish she could keep that baby inside once she realizes what it's REALLY like after they come out!". But, as a novice, I only wish to see beyond pregnancy and cuddle with my little girl, and watch daddy cuddle with her too:)