One and one and one is three

Happy Valentine's Day!

My funny Valentine, Sweet comic Valentine, You make me smile with my heart

They're tiny and chubby and so sweet to touch,
and soon they'll grow up and resent you so much.
Now they're yelling at you and you don't know why,
and you cry and you cry and you cry. - "Friends: The One with the Birth"

 

Violet Atsuko Fourre

On February 11, 2011, Baby Girl came screaming into the world at 4:49 pm after an incredibly long and complicated day. Without going too TMI, here's the story of how she joined the world.

Since her due date was Feb 6, on our Feb 7th appointment, we made arrangements to have her induced. The date of 2/11/11 appealed to both Scott and I, for our separate reasons: his because it's a date that's easy to remember, and mine because I felt it almost poetic that it marked exactly a year since I lost my job in TN that helped kick start my time in Idaho. So, we made set up the appointment and the nurse said, 'great, it's set up. Come in 1600 on Thursday' - which confused the both of us, but we didn't feel the need for an explanation and just said 'no problem.'

Thursday rolled around, I repacked the hospital bag, double checked the checklist and Scott came home early from work. We got all of the stuff together in my car, I fired up my iPod for some tunes and we both laughed at "Like A Surgeon" by Weird Al popping on. We should have taken this to be an omen for the next day.

Apparently, the reason why we were called in on Thursday afternoon was to insert something to get my dilation to further progress. (Again, there are going to be some parts I'll vague out to help avoid TMI.) Once that was done, we were told that we could just go home and relax as much as we can till either my water breaks or my contractions get 3-5 minutes apart. So, home we went. We spent the rest of the evening watching "American President" and "Mission Impossible 3" (my choices) while I sat, paced and tried to breathe through incredible discomfort. At around 1 in the morning, I decided it was time to head in.

Right away they got me hooked up to various machines and it took three tries to get an IV in, but after several hours, I was hooked up to an epidural and feeling nothing below my naval. This was just to get a baseline of how effective that wonderful, marvelous drug would be for me and later got the pitocin and then broke my water at around 1 in the afternoon. After near three hours of active labor, baby still wasn't in any mood to join us. After a discussion about what to do next, we all agreed on a cesarean section and I was rolled into the OR.

After a little over an hour, we heard lots of baby crying, a doctor held her up to show a pair of tiny feet poking above the blue curtain that separated where my head was lying and Scott's seat to the surgery and the doctors called him over to the heat bed to tell him some of her vitals.

Violet was born at 8 pounds 5 ounces, with a full head of curly dark hair, all fingers and toes (and working joints, because, yes, I checked) and cute dimples.

We spent the weekend at the hospital and was discharged Sunday afternoon. I'm having a bit of trouble getting around, but the pain pills they gave me help tremendously. We are still amazed at what all happened and both Scott and I are delirious on happiness and intermittent sleep.

We love all of the attention we've been getting from family and friends, and we swear that once we get any sort of groove going we will be more responsive to phone calls, texts, emails and Facebook. And there will be a wealth of pictures...eventually.

It's time to play the music, It's time to light the lights, It's time to get things started...

Because the due date has come and gone, we set up the appointment to induce the labor for Friday. At my last checkup on Monday, everything looked good and the baby is healthy, so we are all set to get this party started.

At first the appointment was going to be made for next Monday, but Scott and I have been discussing how we would like Baby Girl to have a birthday separate from Valentine's Day and we like the sound of 2/11/11 as her birthday. The hospital is pretty accommodating, so we just asked for Friday and they said no problem. We are expected to check into the hospital this afternoon, which makes me think the process will start early in the morning tomorrow.

There is still a possibility that she may come today, so we'll see how the next couple of days turns out.

I will ask for any messages to be sent to either here or our Facebook accounts. I'll be busy doing some last minute things around the house and hopefully catching a nap before going in and cell phones are allowed in the hospital, but not really encouraged to be used. Thank you to all of our supporters!

Here we go...

Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying...

I am officially due tomorrow. We were sure the Little One was going to make her debut earlier than this, given what the doctor told us at our last visit this past Monday, but so far, no go. I don't want to rush her, but we are eagerly anticipating the baby to make three.

Instead of just sitting around making ourselves crazy waiting and fighting off the 'is she here yet', 'is she here yet' chants from all over, we unboxed the diaper pail, laundered the last bit of bedding, burp rags and bibs and put the finishing touches of decorations up in her room. We still have other photographs we'd like to develop and frame, but it's a good beginning.

This is what is hanging above her door

A watercolor painting my sister made

Calendar my Mom gave me

A watercolor my friend painted (resting on the dresser) and a watercolor from an artist we met at a Art in the Park in Boise (hanging).

All your life, You were only waiting for this moment to arise

My bag is packed. The car seat is strapped in and waiting. The room is set. Pretty much everything is good to go for Baby Girl's arrival. Now it's just a waiting game.

I've been forcing myself to keep calm, cool and collected, which I honestly thought would be a whole lot harder at this stage of the game. Scott's been really fantastic about not allowing me to overexert myself and takes care of stuff around the house. I spent a large part of the weekend sitting down a lot to stay off my feet to keep them from swelling into Hobbit-feet. And as I sit, Baby Girl would shift, shudder and occasionally hiccup while giving me small glimpses of what contractions feel like. I'm still in 'early labor' which basically means that I just have to be aware but not alarmed.

One of the ways I've been trying to lessen any possible stressers is avoiding my phone. So far, it's been working wonderfully. I already have a multi-tiered 'plan' of how I'll let people know when the action starts happening, and I figure if I can be patient, so can everyone else.

Blue canary in the outlet by the light switch, Who watches over you

In the last week, Baby Girl's room has really started to take shape. We've received all of the major furniture pieces from Babies 'R Us and Scott has put everything together. We're feeling pretty good with how the room looks. This is what we started with:

And now, after lots of work from Scott with putting the furniture pieces together, this is what we've got ready:

Two weekends ago, I was treated to a very sweet surprise. Since Scott had a three day weekend to recover from his head cold, we both decided that we would take it easy, rest up and clean the house for the house guest we were expecting. Our Saturday started in a very lazy manner, slowly getting out of bed, hanging out and catching up on some of the programming off our DVR. It was early afternoon when Scott decided he was going to finish replacing the O2 sensor on his car, but he needed to borrow a a tool from a buddy, so he took off. I took this opportunity to play some Animal Crossing. I played long past the time he came back and from the computer, Scott nonchalantly suggested I go and take a bath to relax. This made me think that I was unknowingly acting all tense and crazy, and I took the suggestion as something helpful, but declined because I needed to clean the tub first. I got up and took a shower instead, and when I came back out to the living room, I was greeted with:

I found out that my in-laws had been sending boxes over to a friend's address so that Scott could set up a mini-surprise baby shower. He picked up the cake, as well as the presents (and that tool he needed for the car) and was insisting on the bath because he figured that would give him more time to set up. We sat down, unwrapped the presents and had the football playoffs on in the background. We both had a great time.

Since then, we've been receiving a steady stream of boxes from all of our friends and family. I've been keeping all of the packing slips in a shoe box and taking pictures of all of the great stuff people have been so kind in giving us. This is mostly so that I can successfully write up the thank-you cards since my short-term memory seems to be on the fritz. We have appreciated everything we've unwrapped on behalf of Baby Girl, but to be absolutely honest, this present from my sister's husband made me laugh out loud the most:

I'm 33 for a moment, Still the (woman), but you see I'm a they, A kid on the way, A family on my mind

Things that have happened since my last birthday:

• (Re) Started my life with Scott
• Went to Vegas to celebrate turning 32
• Lost a job in Tennessee
• Had a last minute surprise for Valentines weekend
• Went to my 10th home opener for the Mets
• Moved to Idaho
• Found out I am pregnant
• Got married in Colorado in front of close family and some friends (and 'celebrated' by going to a Barenaked Ladies concert at the Red Rocks)
• Moved into a very nice house
• Found out we're expecting a girl
• Attended 3 out of the 6 weddings of friends
• Found out 4 other people I know are expecting, one of whom already delivered a healthy baby boy
• Had my first Christmas with my new husband and a 'real' home

 All in all, it's been a blissfully eventful year.