in love.

my friend jen came over yesterday to take some pictures of serena. i am in LOVE with them.

seriously... go to jen's blog to see more.

jen, they are beautiful. thank you SO MUCH!

why i always have my camera with me.

have you ever seen a baby goat strolling along down a busy road? i have. and it made my day.

before i turned my car around to take a picture, he was in the middle of the lane and cars were piled up behind him.

loves.

1. my birthday.

2. my husband sneaking out of the house very quietly so i can "sleep in" on my birthday. "sleep in" meaning maybe get 15 extra minutes of sleep before serena wakes up hungry.

3. half smiles from my baby.

4. nilla wafers.

5. spontaneous cabin trips with sean.

6. prayers before bed.

7. giving myself a birthday pedicure.

8. renting a bbc movie from the library {daniel deronda} and watching it while soaking my feet for said pedicure.

9. memorial day bbqs.

10. daily trips to bring sean his lunch.

11. bolt. have you seen this? hilarious!

12. lots of willing {and eager, i might add} babysitters.

13. cereal for dinner after a particularly stressful day.

14. the prospect of sleeping through the night again someday... hopefully...

15. book recommendations from friends. do you have any for me?

2 weeks.

our little chubster had her 2 week appointment today. she was down to 8lbs 2oz at her 3 day appointment, but she's back to 8lbs 11oz. i guess she's getting enough to eat! she also grew an inch taller, making her 22 inches today. she did SO much better this time with getting her blood drawn. did i mention that all 3 of us cried last time? that's what happens when you're a totally sleep deprived parent of 3 days and the nurse is torturing your baby :) anyway... only serena cried this time.

{check out all of the pink on this girl! all of her newborn stuff is pink... but i have a feeling she'll be growing out of nb clothes any second now.}

lullabies.

i don't know any lullabies, really.

so i end up singing serena to sleep with old love songs. the ones that i love to sing with heather at the piano.

like:

the way you look tonight.
at last.
can't help lovin' that man of mine.
someone to watch over me.
embraceable you.
summertime.
they can't take that away from me.
love is here to stay.
{we have a thing for gershwin}

serena doesn't seem to mind. i think she shares my taste in music.

on parenting.

1. everything is more difficult than i imagined it would be.

2. one look at her sweet little face and i know it is all SO worth it.

{and i hear it gets easier after a few weeks!}

thank you, america.

you got it right this time. seriously, i will buy his album the second it comes out. anyone else get chills when he sings "ain't no sunshine"? love it.

i have a small celebrity crush on him.

serena's first week.

just born. 8lbs 10oz. chubby little girl.

cuddling with daddy at the hospital.
check out her rash. allergic to polyester, just like her dad.

at home in the bilibed.
first trip to the doctor.sleeping by daddy.

cuddled up in the bassinet... and pulling the camera a crusty.

first sponge bath.

after the bath.

a walk in the park.

cuddling with mommy.

photoshoot with mommy.

may 11, 2009.

sorry it's taken so long to post about serena's birthday! it's been a bit of a rough recovery and a huge adjustment with her home, so i've had little time to blog. here's how the day went:

my doctor induced me a week early, and boy are we glad he did, considering how big she already was. we checked into the hospital at 8am, got changed into my lovely hospital gown, got our name tags on, and got hooked up to an iv. i could write a whole post about what a nightmare my ivs were, but let's just say it was painful, i got poked a lot in several places, my left arm became hugely swollen at one point, and i now have some REALLY nasty bruises. anyway, they got me started on the pitocin around 9am and the waiting began.

when they first checked me, i was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced. not much changed until around noon when my doctor came in and broke my water. he told me at that point that we were looking at an 8 or 9pm delivery... which was slightly discouraging to hear. after that, the contractions started actually hurting. by 1pm, i started feeling them in my back a lot, so i got the epidural. i wish i had waited just a little longer. only because i still labored for 7 more hours and i felt completely useless. i didn't love that sean & the nurses had to help me move positions, fix my socks, reach everything for me, etc, etc, etc. but i'm super glad i wasn't feeling any of those contractions we kept seeing on the monitor! the only discomfort aside from being useless, was the nausea. i felt pretty sick every time i moved, so i stayed in one position {on my left side} pretty much the last 7 hours. i fell asleep a few times, and sean and i watched a bunch of episodes of gilmore girls :)

it took me until about 5pm to get dilated to a 6. the nurse had told us before that moving positions can help speed up the labor, so sean and i started to maneuver me to my right side. suddenly the nurses all came rushing into our room and told us we needed to move me back immediately. apparently serena's heartrate dropped significantly and she did NOT like me being on my right side! it kind of scared the heck out of both of us. but it did indeed speed up the labor! by about 7pm i was dilated to an 8. the nurse said she would let my doctor know and that baby would be coming soon! shortly after that i started feeling the pressure and knew that it was time to push. they checked me and i had gone from an 8 to a 10 in about 15 minutes. by the time my doctor showed up, he said "well, you're ready to go!". and it all went soooo quickly after that!

in about 5 minutes, they had all the equipment in the room. they kept saying how huge her head was, which was scary to hear! but i pushed through about 5 or 6 contractions and she was here. i can't describe how amazing it was to see her for the first time. they laid her on my belly and i was just overwhelmed and speechless. i just stared in awe as they took her over to the lamp and cleaned her up. the nurses had to remind sean to get out the camera. he was as overwhelmed as i was! they were all amazed how what a big baby she was. we had hoped for a chunky baby, but i wish her head hadn't been quite so big for my sake :)

she is so perfect and i have to say, she is the cutest baby i've ever seen. i know i'm biased, but seriously, she's adorable! it has been crazy to have her home. i am so exhausted, but it couldn't be for a better cause. we just love her and stare at her all day. hopefully we get used to this whole no sleep business soon.

{pictures later. i need a nap now.}

proud parents.

update.

i promise i'll post some details {for those of you who care} about the labor and delivery. however, at this point i can barely sit at the computer for 5 minutes! i thought i'd post a picture of serena's first bed, though :(

unfortunately our sweet little girl has jaundice and has to stay in this "bilibed" at all times except for feedings. hopefully this only lasts a couple of days. we hate that we can't cuddle her or do much to comfort her when she's upset. can't wait until this little bump in the road is behind us!

serena breanne.

Our baby girl was born at 7:53 last night. She weighed in @ 8 lbs 10 oz. She is a very healthy girl. She has already out grown newborn diapers and graduated to size 1. Ariel is doing very well and will probably give better details later. I am so proud of my wife for the great job she did. I have the two most beautiful girls in the world!! Thank you friends and family for the meals, flowers, texts, calls, visits and prayers. We will keep everybody updated.

seriously, so blessed!

check it out, people! i actually won something! this just made my mother's day. thanks, TAMN :)

bad car day.

10:00am: i leave home to pick up sean at work so we can go to our doctor's appointment. my car is filthy so i take it to the car wash, spend $8, and it still looks filthy. i am not pleased. then my car starts making a squeaking noise. again, i am not pleased. we proceed to doctor's appointment.

12:30pm: take my car to the shop. they think a belt is loose, so we leave it there to get worked on. i drop sean off at work and take his car to go run errands.

2:00pm: i leave a parking lot after one of my errands and get hit by a little old lady. she cries and feels so bad. sean has to come because we switched car insurances like a week ago and they haven't mailed us the cards yet {just our luck, right?!}. he had to print everything off of the internet and borrow dave's car to come to the accident site. for some reason when sean shows up, litte old lady starts crying again. she can't get out of her driver's side door, so sean had to help her out & in. i bet the cop thought it was kind of funny to pull up and see an hugely pregnant woman and a little old lady :)

4:30pm: we go to pick up my car at the shop. it ended up costing $130.00. i go out to drive my car home and it won't start {??????????}. they jump it for us, and i drive it home. let's cross our fingers that nothing else is wrong with it!!!

in short: not a good day for us and cars.

loves.

1. chocolate covered graham crackers.
2. afternoon naps.
3. vacuuming with our dyson.
4. having a good excuse to be exhausted all the time.
5. cranberry mango room spray.
6. a tuna roll-up for lunch {tortilla+tuna+cheese+lettuce+avacado+tomato=yum}.
7. ice water + a slice of lime.
8. counting down the days.
9. the smell of spring.
10. playing bejeweled on my phone {i'm addicted}.
11. pretty notecards.
12. my new pillow shams, made by mom.
13. fresh produce in my fridge.
14. vanilla ice cream cones.
15. pretty pictures of babies {can't wait, jen!}.

what do you love today?

evolution of the belly.

{20 weeks}

ugh. this one is depressing to look at. the weight comes on so gradually that it literally shocks me to see what i looked like only 4 months ago! please also note: i totally thought i looked pregnant at this stage! ha!

and then a 10 week break during the "i look fat, not pregnant" phase.

{30 weeks}

{32 weeks}

{36 weeks}

{38 weeks}

and probably the last belly photo i'll be taking.

47% of you will be pleased to hear that we are going with breanne. we had been leaning that way, and your votes helped solidify our decision. thanks for playing, everyone!

things that made me get teary-eyed this week:

my mom telling me about the part in the movie Earth when the baby elephants get blinded by a sandstorm and they are trying to follow their mother.

a music video by taylor swift.

a verizon wireless commercial.

when russ gave heather her bday present {a picture frame with a romantic saying on it and a picture they took just after he proposed}.

thinking about meeting my baby girl for the first time.

beautiful.

i am in love with the eve collection from serena & lily. {random side note: i had decided on lily as her middle name up until about 2 weeks ago. i googled serena lily and stumbled across this website.} when baby girl gets bigger, i want this to be her room. if only i were loaded and could afford all of this adorable stuff. also on my wish list is this beautiful sling. i recommend not subscribing to their catalog. you'll want everything. especially don't look at their amazing nursery collections {this is my personal favorite, but they are all gorgeous}.