D-Day Has Finally Arrived!

I can't believe our baby girl is 3 days old already. It's amazing how quickly you can't imagine your life without her. As I'm sure all you mothers know, being a mother is truly an indescribable feeling. She is absolutely perfect in my eyes.

I hadn't had a chance to fill everybody in on the birth, so here it goes...On Monday, June 7th, we had an 8:20 am appointment with Dr. Nyhus. I wasn't feeling much for contractions up until this point, but I was 2 cm dilated. He stripped my membranes and sent us home with another appointment set up for Wednesday morning. All day Monday I started to feel some mild contractions. Initially they were pretty close together, about 7-10 minutes apart, but then they decreased to about 20 minutes apart. By the time I was ready for bed, they were 10 minutes apart again. Oma came that night, just in case. We were settling into bed around 10:30 that evening, when everything changed. The contractions quickly became more intense and were a consistent 5 minutes apart. We timed everything for about a 1/2 hour and then decided to go to the hospital. We arrived around 11:15 Monday evening. Everything took off from there. I quickly was dilated to 5 cm, when they were finally able to try to get the epidural started. I went from 5 cm to 8 cm in 45 minutes, so I was already at 8 cm by the time the epidural was in, and it didn't fully take effect until it was time to push. Greta Mary entered this world at 2:53 am on her Daddy's birthday! We spent one additional night in the hospital and came home the next day. We've been so blessed to have all the support of our friends and family. We've so appreciated all the nice e-mails, phone calls, and texts. We also can't express how nice it's been to have Gramma and Grampa Gillespie, Oma, and Auntie Kathryn come and visit and help out with our bundle of joy.

Attached are some more pictures from the hospital, Greta's first bath by Mommy, and her homecoming.

Greta Mary Gillespie

Dear Friends and Family,
Sarah and Bryan are proud to announce the birth of Greta Mary Gillespie. Greta was born at 2:53 a.m. on June 8th (just in time to share her birthday with her daddy). She weighs 7 pounds 8 ounces and is 21 inches long. She is a beautiful, healthy baby! Sarah, Bryan and Greta are all doing very well and can't wait for all of you to meet their little bundle of joy!
Love, Auntie Kathryn

Full-Term Momma

Our first due date has long come and gone (May 28th) and we are now at our second due date. I was hoping I'd be sharing pictures of the little one, but I guess you'll have to settle for some full-term Momma pictures.

And the Waiting Continues...

Yesterday I had another appointment. Everything continues to look good, except no progress has been made for the last 3 weeks. Dr. Nyhus did assure me that we will have a baby by next week. On Monday, June 7th, I have a morning appointment and hopefully he'll try something to help speed up the process. My last day of work will be Friday (if I make it), so I hope our little one decides to come soon, because I don't think I'll do very well sitting around and waiting.

I finally feel we have our house in order. Daddy and I spent Memorial Day weekend organizing and cleaning. I would have thought that being 9 months pregnant and scrubbing floors on your hands and knees would help induce labor, but I guess not.

Sorry there's no picture, but Daddy has been busy with baseball. The Frazee Hornets won their first play-off game yesterday and are now scheduled to play on Thursday. It's an exciting time for the coach and players, but makes Mommy a little nervous with Daddy having to travel.

Hopefully next time I write we'll have some BIG news to share with lots of pictures! Thanks to all our family and friends who helped us move and get settled into our new house. We can't wait to have you over, but next time not to work.

And the Waiting Begins...

A lot has happened since I've last updated the blog. First, we moved into our new house and now are officially living here. Luckily, we had a lot of help from Gramma and Grampa Gillespie with the actual move and Oma and Auntie Kathryn helped us unpack and clean. I've also had 2 doctor appointments, with the last one being today. As of now I'm about 90% effaced, but not dilated. Baby's heart rate has finally slowed down a little and is in the 140's. Everything continues to look good with the baby's head being down. Dr. Nyhus guessed the weight is probably around 7-7.5 pounds, so I'm hoping our little munchkin plans to join us sooner rather than later.

House

Daddy and I went to look at the house Friday night and were very pleased with the progress, so we thought we'd share. Unfortunately, our appliances didn't arrive. They were suppose to come Thursday, so I'm working on getting to the bottom of this. Closing is set for this coming Friday (May 14th) and Gramma and Grampa Gillespie are planning on coming to help us move in. We are really going to appreciate their help! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers on Sunday!

35 Weeks

I'm just about starting my last month of pregnancy. Everybody is telling me this will be the slowest month, which I think I will be OK with as we still have a lot to get done before the babe comes. I had another appointment with Dr. Nyhus today. The baby's head is down. He also checked my cervix for the first time, and said it was starting to soften but not dilated yet. Everything continues to be uneventful; my weight gain, blood pressure, and the baby are all normal thus far. The baby's heart rate was around 155 beats per minute. Dr. Nyhus still thinks it would be a good idea if I would deliver on his big 60th birthday on the 30th of May. I guess you know you have a caring doctor when he doesn't care if his personal life is interrupted. My next appointment is in two weeks, unless I have problems before then. The house should be almost complete by the end of this week, so we're going to try to post a virtual tour.