Faith is six weeks old

My little girl is growing so fast! It seems like just yesterday that we just brought her home from the hospital. She has done so much in the last six weeks. She gets to go to work with me and she got to go on her first trip to Visalia for Easter.

A few days later, I took her to her first baseball game....the Visalia Rawhide's opening day verses the Stockton Ports.Up next...this weekend Kevin and I are taking her to Monterey for the weekend while he attends a union training event and then we get to move into our new house in the next two weeks! So much to look forward too!

It's Official!

The house is ours!

We got the keys last Friday to our new 3,000 sq.ft., six bedroom, three bath house! We are so excited. Kevin and I have been spending every free minute at the new house we can to get it move in ready.
Kevin surprised me with the good news Friday evening after I got off work with a text message picture of Faith sitting in front of the stairs with a message saying, "Hi Mommy, I'm at my new home!" He had gotten the key earlier in the day and spent the rest of the evening changing all the locks on the house and even put a new handle on the front door.
On Saturday, Kevin and I spent most of the day cleaning the house and taking measurements of windows for blinds. Things were going well until we moved the old stove and found roaches. Yuck! We stopped cleaning, figuring it wasn't going to do us any good and decided we needed to bug bomb the entire house before we finish cleaning and painting. So we called it quits, packed everything up and went home.
On Sunday, Faith went and stayed with Aunt Poe while we went back to the house to get it ready to bug bomb. Kevin fixed a blocked gas line in the laundry room and the leaky sink in the master bathroom. Once we finished all the repairs we could, we got it ready to bomb and Kevin set the off.
On Monday, Kevin went back to the house by himself to fix some more stuff and clean up the first bug bomb mess while I stayed home with the baby. We are going to wait a few days and then bug bomb it one more time to make sure we get rid of all of the roaches.
Today, Kevin, Faith and I went to Lowe's to start the fun stuff. Picking out paint to the inside of the house! We picked a pretty light green for Faith's nursery, decided to paint two walls in the office/baseball room Green Monster Green, the kitchen will be a Medium Buff and the rest of the house will be Cream in my Coffee in color and all the doors in the house will be Roasted Coffee.
Can't wait to start the painting next week so we can start moving in next weekend!

Great News!

Well, Kevin and I have some exciting news to share...We are buying a house! After months of searching, we finally the house of our dreams for a great price.

We started are search just before Christmas. We looked at quite a few houses before we found our first dream house. Kevin found the home on an on-line home forclosure website and got really excited about it.

We contacted our realtor and asked if he could take us to see it because what we found seemed too good to be true. It was a two-story, six bedroom, three bathroom, 3,000 square feet home selling for less than $230,000. When we saw it, we fell in love with it immediately. We went back to the realtor's office and placed an offer on it that day. Well, a week past and we never heard back from the selling agent. Another week past and we still didn't hear back from the selling agent. We later found out that the house sold to someone else. Needless to say, we were devistated.

We ended up going to see another realtor and a month later, he found is an identical house just a few houses down from the one we originally put an offer on that had just come on the market. We jumped on the house and went and saw it. At this pointm it hadn't even been on the market for 24 hours. We knew going in to see this house that we wanted it and after we walked through it, we put an offer on it right then and there.

The good news is that we close escrow on the home sometime within the next week. Once we close escrow, was can started painting the inside and move in by the end of April. We can't wait!

Awaiting Baby's Arrival

On Sunday, February 28th, I arrived at Clovis Community Hospital, not really knowing what was going to happen. Kevin was hoping that all that was going to happen was that the nurses were going to check to see how the baby and I were doing and then be sent home. We didn't really expect to stay. Little did I know, Dr. Swanson had something else in mind for us.

When I checked into the hospital, I was taken to a room and told to put on the standard issue hospital gown, put into bed and hooked up to the fetal monitor machine. A nurse came in and explained to Kevin and I what all was going to happen. Apparently, Dr. Swanson was planning on inducing me the next day as a precaution because of the gestational diabetes.

Despite Kevin's hopes, we were spending the night at the hospital. Well, once I was given the medication that was going to help soften my cervix and was all settled into my room, Kevin went home to grab some things and to also get us something to east as we hadn't eaten since lunch time and I was not on a diet restriction just yet.

First thing the next morning, Dr. Swanson came to check on me. He told me the procedures od induction that was going to happen over the next few hours, which included breaking my water and administering the pitocin and then checking my cervix every couple of hours to see how far I had dilated. While we waited for the mediation to run its course, my mom and Melissa, Kevin's sister, arrived to spend the day with us as we waited for the baby's arrival.

I did pretty well for the first couple of hours after the pitocin took affect and the contractions started. From day one, I told everyone that I did not want to have an epidural done, so I opted for alternative pain medication that was administered through an IV in my hand. By mid-afternoon, the pain from the contractions became to bad for me to endure any longer (to the extent that I was told that at one point I flipped Kevin off for taking pictures of me in pain), so I eventually gave in and had the epidural done.

At around two or three in the afternoon, the nurse came in and checked on me and told us that I was dilated to about a six and that we should have the arrival of a baby sometime before 8 p.m. or so. At around 4:30 or so, Kevin decided that he needed to go home real quick and grab a bote to eat, take a shower as he had been with me all night the night before and bring me some things I wanted from home, and I was fine with that.

A couple of hours later, Dr. Swanson came into check on me and told me that I was still dilated at a five or six and I had not dilated any further since the nurse had come in and checked on me a few hours before. While Kevin was still at home, Dr. Swanson informed me that he was not happy with the progress that I had made and was going to have to deliver the baby by c-section. I had to ask home if could wait until Kevin got back and Melissa had to call her brother and tell him that he needed to get back to the hospital as soon as possible as the doctor wanted to take me in soon.

As soon as Kevin arrived, the nurses quickly prepared me for surgery and rolled me out of my room and into the operating room. At 7:21 p.m., Faith Catherine Westbrook arrived into this world by c-section, weighing in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19.5 inches in length.

Preparing for Baby's Arrival

On Thursday, February 25, I went to see Dr. Swanson for my 38-week check up with Kevin in tow. Dr. Swanson did his usual exam and then checked my cervix to see if I was dialated yet, which, according to him, I was to a one. After he finished his exam, he looked at us and told me that he wanted me to check into the hospital Sunday night at 5 p.m. and he would meet with me at the hospital first thing Monday morning. Not really sure about what is going on, we said okay and went home.

Well, once Kevin and I got home, we realized that there was still quite a bit a things that we needed to do before the baby's arrival, like finish hanging up pictures in the nursery and going to have some maternity pictures taken.

On Sunday morning, Kevin and I went to the mall and had some maternity pictures taken of us before the baby came. This was the first time the two of us had had our pictures taken like that, aside from our wedding, was when we had first started dating, nearly twelve years ago. That task alone nearly took all afternoon. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the hospital on time, but when Kevin is involved, when are we ever on time!

27 weeks and counting

Well, a lot has happened over the last two weeks. Here's a recap:

On December 1, 2009, as I was laying on the couch watching TV while Kevin was getting ready to go to work. While lying down, the baby started to move and kick quite a bit for about 15 to 20 minutes or so. When Kevin came out in to the living room, I told him to come over to me. He looked at me funny and told me that he was getting ready for work. I told him to come over to me again, and he did. I told him to put his hand on the side of my abdomen and hold it there. He then put his hand where I told him to and waited a few seconds. He looked at me and said, I don't feel anything. I told him to have some patience. After a few seconds, he looked at me and had a big grin on his face, the baby had kicked him in the hand pretty hard a couple of time. He was so excited. I don't think I could have given him a better birthday present.

The next day was his birthday. With him being so hard to shop for because he never asks for anything, I decided to get him a "Family" photo frame and put a couple of pictures in it. I put one of the two of us together, a picture of my growing belly that he took and a picture of the last ultrasound that was done. We went out to dinner with him mom, step dad and sister that night. After dinner, I presented Kevin with his present.

Needless to say, Kevin loved the present. So did everyone else.

Also on December 2, 2009, I had to go to the lab to have my glucose test done to see if I have gestational diabetes. (I'm told that every pregnant woman has to do this test.) it is a test where they make you fast overnight and go in first thing in the morning, drink a really sugary flat orange soda tasting drink and then wait an hour before they draw your blood. Well, I go the test results back yesterday and was told that I have to go back and take the three-hour test because my glucose level was elevated. I was also told that my iron count was low, but all I had to do to fix that problem is take an iron supplement at night. I will be going back to the lab on Monday to have the long test done.

Yesterday, I also had my 27 week checkup with Dr. Swanson. Other than the glucose issue, my pregnancy is going great. The baby does not like the doppler that the doctor/nurses use to check the baby's heartbeat as it just moved around every time the doctor tried to get a reading. i go in and see him again on December 28th, then in January I start seeing him every two weeks and then in February its every one week until the baby's born.

Only 13 more weeks or so!

25 weeks.....

As of today, I am 25 weeks along in the pregnancy. That leaves me with 15 more weeks, give or take a few days, to go until our little bundle of joy arrives.

Yesterday, I went and had a maternity massage at Zena's Island Day Spa. It felt soooo good. I would love to have one of those pillow things they have that has a whole in the middle so you can lay on your tummy and not put any pressure on the baby. I think that it might help me sleep a little better at night as I have always been a tummy sleeper. I only had the 30 minute massage, but am thinking that if I go again, I will do the hour long one next time.

The baby has been moving quite a bit the last few days. I can feel it as it swims about. I can only imagine how big it is by now as it's movements are getting stronger everyday. My only concern about the baby moving this much at this point is it wrapping the umbilical chord around it's neck. I guess it's something that I can talk to my doctor about at our next visit.