Week 20 of this pregnancy is upon us - which means that this part of the journey is nearly half over. I think every expecting family goes through the feeling that the birth will never get here and yet the pregnancy seems to just slip away too quickly - Our family is certainly no different in that.
We have officially chosen our Midwife, Carrie Blake, and will be starting our regular prenatal visits soon. I love that she comes to your home for prenatal care - it is such a difference from the experience I had last pregnancy with my overbearing OB. I feel that I absolutely have informed consent over every aspect of my pregnancy and birth, rather than being forced through the traumatic "birth machine" like last time.
I had interviewed several midwives over email, and Carrie was the only one we ended up interviewing in person. After the meeting we just knew she was the right fit for us and we had absolutely no desire to interview anyone else. What sealed the deal was that Eliza warmed up to her almost immediately - my little girl who will take days to warm up to someone she doesn't remember was giggling and playing with Carrie before our interview was up.
The baby has been very active in the last couple of weeks - I can't claim that I have the road runner speeding around my womb, but I do now feel kicks throughout the day, instead of mainly in the mornings and late at night. This babe also has the interesting habit of curling up into a tight corning at the very top of my uterus as I sleep. Inevitably I wake up every morning with a baseball-like lump next to my navel. The really cool thing about it is that I can poke around and identify the baby's head and butt and sometimes it's arms/legs if the babe is facing up.
I keep on thinking about how I'd like to have some sort of celebration to welcome this babe. Due to how far I lived away from my family last pregnancy, Tim and I didn't really get to celebrate Eliza, and I do feel a bit bad for that. I'm not even sure what sort of celebration I'd want - blessing ways, baby showers, or even just a "mommy-to-be/welcome-baby party" all sound very nice, but nothing quite sounds perfect, so I am at a bit of a loss. This is probably a moot point anyway - I don't really have any friends I spend time with on a regular basis, and those that do aren't really the "party hosting" type. So I don't know, it is a bit of a conundrum, but I figure we've got plenty of time. We will see what the future brings.
Some of you may know the exciting news that Dave and Marguerite (Tim's parents) recently bought their first house in Waynesville, Missouri - which is not far from where Dave is now stationed.
I just got back the CDs of digital photos my family took while on vacation to San Diego and Disneyland (can you believe that we took over 3,500 photos between us?). Now that I have these photos I'll start posting a few here and there to show off our really fun trip. Anyway, this is one of my favorites - Larisa was nice enough to snap a couple of family shots for us one of the days we were on the beach. We really have so few shots of all of us that I really treasure getting the opportunity to add to that small collection.
Here is another picture from the day we arrived at Mission Beach in San Diego - in fact it was her first time seeing the ocean and stepping on sand. This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Eliza. I think a lot of her spirit comes through nicely in this photo, and it also shows how in awe of the scene she was.
But here is the kicker - What I'm REALLY excited to announce to you is that this beautiful little girl pictured above is going to be a big sister!
We've been sitting on this secret for quite a while now - in fact I had intended on telling everyone about a month ago, but I was determined to tell everyone at the family get-togethers, but they ended up not happening despite my best efforts. So this is plan-b, and I think I like it better simply because everyone can find out at the same time.
Our Due-Month is November (I refuse to have a due "date") and that makes me almost 17 weeks at this posting. This pregnancy has been super smooth so far. I had no official morning sickness (just slight queasiness), no real cravings (though some food aversions - like the smell of fried chicken), and I didn't even go through the first-trimester sleep-a-thon. I really really hope that my luck continues :)
I even have been able to feel the babe since 11 weeks (the popcorn popping type kicks) and while we were at Disneyland (14 weeks) I started to feel the harder thumps. The babe hasn't been terribly active - much like Eliza was I only get twice a day to feel it move. (Usually mid morning and very late at night)
So now our little secret is no longer a secret. While the secret was fun to have, we are really excited that we can celebrate with everyone now.
I've decided to start to go through the hundreds of photos that I've taken in the last two years and share some of our special moments with all of you. We have had a lot of fun experiences, but I've never managed to get them up here on the blog so I figured it would be nice to start a "Back Track" series in hopes of motivating myself :)
The Estes Park Highlands Festival has become somewhat of a tradition with my mother's family. Its been really quite interesting to see how this festival has grown over the years - I remember the first few years that the parade was only a few minutes long, with only a handful of Clans and pipe bands, a Boy Scout Troop Color Guard, and the faithful old Leprechaun clad in emerald from his tails to top hat.
The attendance and interest has ballooned. The parade route is simply packed with people now, with everyone clamoring for a great spot. The common dress for the day has shifted from jeans and your beat-up weekend tshirt to dress kilts and sporrans. It is also interesting to note that as the popularity of kilts has risen, the availability of "toe mirrors" has too.
One of my family's favorite parts of the parade was always seeing the small group of Canadian soldiers marching through with their old cannon [for use in the cannon demonstrations, where each group brings a cannon and tries to sink Nessie (the lockness monster, or rather a balloon likeness of her) and at the same time scares the ba-gee-bas out of passing motorists]. Unfortunately, with the application of the Homeland Security, the Canadian soldiers can no longer get their cannon through customs, so we are left with just our Yankee counterparts for the cannon demonstrations. The festival planners have managed to make up for our loss though, as the U.S. Marine Corp Band has made a visit every year since. They may not be quite as "cool" but they certainly are impressive crowd pleasers.
The festival itself is always impressive. It stretches across the massive Stanley Park, with booths that offer a little of everything. From the aforementioned cannon demonstrations, to highland-breed dog shows, highland games (log toss anyone?), clan information, keepsakes, kilts, Celtic jewelry, art, food, music and dancing - it really is hard to get bored.
Parade Shots:
One of the classic Bagpipe Bands - I think this may have been one of the police bands.
A perfect example of the sort of Clan-pride demonstrated in the parade (though I have to admit that I am not affiliated with the spirited Wallace Clan).
This is more of your classic marching band - though I do think they did have a few bagpipes. But mainly they featured brass and drums on their Celtic tunes.
Music on the Field:
The U.S. Marine Corp Band exiting the performance space after an ever-impressive show. Tim took a bunch of video of these guys, but alas it never turned out. This shot also shows just how majestic Estes is - being nestled in the mountains right next door to The Rocky Mountain National Park definitely has its perks!
Nap Time:
As the afternoon progressed 18 month old Eliza tuckers out and takes a nap on my back in the Mei Tai. For some reason she was considerably more comfortable hanging like that than when we tucked her into the Mei Tai deeper so that her head would be supported.
The Cannon Demonstration:
My cousin, George (pictured on the immediate right) has always been into period reenactment. I was really impressed at how realistic his group was for this particular event (well, that is if you ignore the soda bottle and cone of sugared almonds!). Unfortunately, George's now wife, Theresa disappeared into the tent just moments before I clicked this shot, so I didn't get a good picture of her lovely dress (complete with hoop skirt).
This was the cannon setup (about twenty feet away from the previous picture) on the bank of Lake Estes. If you look closely you can see "Nessie" floating in the background on the right, and on the left the line of cars traveling into Estes on the main road into the town.
Eliza just after waking up from her nap. Still groggy, she is clutching the beautiful glass paperweight a local glass maker gave her earlier that day.
Eliza holding Grandma Rosie's hand while watching the cannons being fired off. She has always done very well with cannon blasts - but the sounds do tend to stress her out a bit.
Well, I am quite excited to announce that Katie (Tim's Sister, for those of you who may be confused) just birthed her baby, Benji. Katie wrote in her email "Benjamin Orval Hursh was born at 3:09 am on the 9th of November after a (reasonably) easy labor. He weighs in at 6 lbs 12 oz and is 19.5 inches long. :)"
Congrats to Mama Katie, and Big Sister Anna.
Tim and I are very excited to have another darling nephew. We can't wait to meet Benji and Anna, hopefully in the new year!
On another note - I've been working for the past few days to upload photos and get them organized. I should be done soon, and then I'll start to blog some of the highlights of our summer/autumn.
Well, I've never claimed to be very good at this blogging thing, and I think I've proved that I tend to be even worse than I even like to admit. But, as in everything in life, this seems to need babysteps to make it work, so I'll just try to concentrate on those, rather than my lofty ideals of what the perfect blog should be.
I guess I should start with what everyone wants to know about: the lovely and spell-binding Miss Eliza. She is, as of today, officially fourteen months old, and proudly an energetic and curious toddler.
Everyday she learns to do something brand new, and most days she amazes us with learning more than one skill. On May 19th, she determinedly and deftly pulled up for the first time, as if it were nothing special and she had done it every day previously. Eliza continues to pull herself to standing at every opportunity and dares herself to stand just a bit longer than the last time. She still doesn't trust her feet enough to try cruising or walking much yet, but she has crawling down to lightning speeds.
She has exploded into chatter, first through signs such as "Milk," "Food," "More," "Hungry," "Bath," and "Oopsie." And just recently through verbal words starting with "Yea" and "No", moving onto "More" (which not surprisingly still sounds like "No") and as of yesterday "Nose" (as she enthusiastically points to the nearest nose available).
Her favorite activity (when crawling is not an option) is miming the hand motions to the first few lines of "Little Bunny FuFu" as we sing it ad nauseam - She especially loves when we get to the "Bopping them on the head" line, when she 'bops' her forearm repeatedly all the while giggling like a mad woman.
The day of Eliza's birthday was a very relaxed day - we spent most of the day just enjoying family time, and we got to have a low-key celebration dinner with Oma Marguerite and Uncle Andrew. I think I really needed it to be as calm and relaxed as it was, because it honestly was a very hard day for me. Not so much the "My Baby Turned One Today" syndrome, but more that I am still dealing with Cesarean Rage and the trauma of Eliza's surgical birth and all of the crap that surrounded it.
We took a trip to Colorado at the end of April so that I could get my driver's license renewed. We were hoping to have a larger joint birthday party for Eliza and I with the entire family, but due to various misunderstandings it never panned out.
The ever flexible Grandma Rosie whipped up an intimate celebratory feast with Marlys, complete with Eliza's own cake. As you can see she was absolutely thrilled to mush the cake into every crevice and strand of hair she could get her sugary little hands on:
The short trip to Colorado was very relaxing despite the long drive, and we even were lucky enough to catch breakfast with Grandpa Lee, Grandma Mary Ann, and Aunt Bonnie before heading back to Kansas. Here are a few of the other Colorado pictures, thanks to Grandma Rosie (I've been assured that there are more photos to come):
The other big news for Miss Eliza is that she was asked to be the Flower Girl in our friend's, Rae and Issac's upcoming June wedding. We have been having a blast helping them finish the last few preparations for their big event. They are the sweetest people I've ever met, and we are all so excited to be a part of their big day.
June will be a big celebration month for us, as we are lucky enough to get to go to Harrisburg, PA to be with my cousin Michelle and her fiance Ben at their wedding at the end of the month. This is a big time for them as Ben just graduated this past weekend with an MBA from Cornell, and has accepted a job with Deutsche Bank in New York City. Needless to say, with everything the celebrate about this looks to be quite the event! I've been keeping updated on the shindig with Michelle's fancy-shmancy website: http://www.michelleandben.weddingwindow.com/
After that it will be a whirlwind of packing so that we can move out to Colorado mid to late July. We don't have any solid plans yet - we are still working on trying to get Tim a job (and hoping that the State Troopers want Tim for 2008 - we should be updated soon!) And we are trying to collect all of the funds we will need to make this move happen. Hopefully everything will fall into place when it is supposed to and this will end up being a smooth transition.
In other news, I frequently get plenty of questions regarding David, Tim's Dad. I know many of you are terribly curious how he is doing and how his deployment is going. The short of it is that I truly don't know much. I do know that Dave and his group are safe and have done some heroic and noteworthy things over in Iraq (unfortunately I do not know what those things are, so you'll have to squash your curiosity!). They've been extended another three months or so, and are due to return to the states in December, 2007. Currently David is on R&R in Germany with Marguerite, Andrew, and Katie (and her family), and I'm sure they are deeply enjoying themselves. Tim and I are a bit sad that we won't be able to spend any time with him while he is on his break, but we can't wait to see him when he returns from Iraq.
I am sorry that I do not have any photos of my own to share with you today, we don't currently own a camera - but it is on my must-have list for once we move back to Colorado come July. In the mean time, please enjoy these two short movies of Eliza that Oma Marguerite and Uncle Andrew recorded (she is oh-so tiny in these!):
Dancing Eliza on Halloween:
Dancing Eliza enjoying Christmas tunes while we deck the halls:
So, a general update that I’ve been meaning to do since Easter.
We are all doing well. The biggest news is that we are moving into another (much nicer) apartment on the other side of Manhattan. Unfortunately this move is going to be quite crazy as there is an 11 day gap between move-out and move-in. David and Marguerite (Tim’s parents for those of you who are unfamiliar) have been kind enough to offer their guest room to us for that week and a half or so.
The really good news about this move is that our rent and utilities will be going down and we will be moving into an apartment that a) is designed to be a home (rather than a dormitory as this current apartment is) and b) will have brand-spanking new carpet (I’ve been rather concerned about what Eliza will be exposed to with this very old and dirty industrial-grade carpet when she becomes mobile).
Packing is just exhausting, but it is coming along – I am sorry if I seem quite remote to people right now, my energy just seems completely drained from packing and getting this apartment ready to move out of.
Tim is doing well – work wears on him, but he did just get a pretty decent raise, so he doesn’t feel quite as under-appreciated as he used to. He also volunteered to take over the night shift, so he has a rather predictable schedule, which is nice.
Eliza has become such a character. She now knows both smiling and pouting (and seemingly the exact timing to make those effective), she has discovered her hands (she likes to hold them together, and just in the last day or two she has become fond of holding onto her plastic key-ring and shaking them like they are a rattle), she has decided her voice is the most amusing thing to play with (she loves to chatter, and sometimes it seems like she is trying to figure out how to sing) and she has become extremely strong (she can push her head, shoulders, and chest off the floor when doing tummy-time, and has great control with moving her arms and legs, and arching her back while Tim makes her “fly”)
So that is pretty much all that is happening in our lives right now, most of it isn’t all that exciting, but life certainly isn’t all that bad. I did, however, manage to delete all of the photos that were on my camera about a week ago (I’m still mourning that moment), so please blame the lack of updated photos on that horrific moment.
P.S. I wanted to say Happy Birthday to Grandpa Erb, Mary Ann and Bonnie, all who had birthdays very recently.
We certainly have had a vary nice Easter this year. This morning all three of us got all dressed up and attended service at Tim's church. It was a lovely morning - Tim thoroughly enjoyed showing Eliza off in her Easter splendor. Holiday services are always so joyful, it is really hard to have a bad morning when you are in an atmosphere like that.
This is the beautiful Easter dress that Grandma MaryAnn and Grandpa Lee sent Eliza. She had a sea of admirers - who can resist a little baby in such a cute outfit?
The rest of the day has been really laid back for Eliza and I as we've just hung around the house while Tim has been off at work. Whenever he makes it home I think we may dive into our Easter Basket (also courtesy of my Dad and Step mom) seeing as we managed to skip over it this morning. I'm not sure how we managed to resist Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory bunnies - mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Eliza Fae Theisen
Born on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 at 1:46am in Manhattan, Kansas.
6lbs, 1oz. and 19in.
This photo was taken by Oma Marguerite just minutes after Eliza was born - just after the nurses brought her into the nursery. I know many of you have already seen it, but it is the only photo of little Eliza that I currently have, although I finished off a roll of film today and will get that processed soon - then there shall be much picture sharing!
All three of us have been doing well this week. We've very much enjoyed our babymooning - I think we are all a little disappointed that the end is so near and Tim has to head back to work tomorrow afternoon.
Learning to adjust to family life has been an interesting process, but so far things have been running quite smoothly - which has been a bit of a surprise to me. I've always heard about how the first few weeks with a new babe in the house are extremely trying (though extremely joyful nonetheless) but I can't say that is an accurate description of our experience this past week. We have certainly hit our learning curve in some areas (establishing good nursing skills after the hospital kept bottle-feeding Eliza in the nursery has been the biggest so far), but Eliza is thankfully such a mellow baby that adjusting our life to fit with her has been relatively pain-free. :::knocks on wood:::
To those of you who have called me I apologize for not returning your phone calls. All of you have very much been on my mind, but my free time and energy spurts have not really coincided. I hope to have you all called back in the next couple of days – sorry again for such a delay!
I’ve decided to cut this post shorter than I was intending to. I know there are several of you thirsting for details about the birth, I had intended to include it here, but because this post is becoming more lengthy than I expected I will be posting a recap of Eliza’s birthday in my next post.
Well, I just got back from my doctors appointment. I had a Non-Stress Test done today – it’s a test that monitors the baby’s heart rate in conjunction with their movement. The kidlet is doing well and passed with flying colours, but my blood pressure spiked again, so I am on bed rest for the remainder of this pregnancy.
I have another Non-Stress Test on Friday and we have an induction scheduled for next Monday (assuming the kidlet doesn’t decide to make her grand debut a bit earlier than Monday). I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated.
Well, we are now in the home stretch - today we officially hit the 38-week mark in this pregnancy.
So far I’ve been feeling pretty good – well, aside from the occasional bout of swollen feet and a bit of a hard time with sleeping. My doctor is a bit concerned because my blood pressure has spiked a couple of times in the last two months, so she has suggested going ahead and inducing labor in the near future. No date has been set and nothing definitive has been decided, but I will make sure to keep you all updated on that front.
We have received such an outpouring of generosity from our friends and families, and I wanted to take a moment to say a quick thanks to everyone for all of the gifts and well-wishes. You guys have really helped us prepare for Eliza’s arrival, and we really couldn’t be more grateful. So, thank you.
As promised in my first post, pictures are soon to come (including the latest ultra-sound image). Unfortunately since we moved around my desk, the cable for my digital camera has decided to play hide-and-seek. Once I find where the little bugger is hiding, you all will be inundated with photos – I promise!
I just want to take a moment to welcome everyone to my new blog.
I've been realizing just how bad I have been about keeping communications open with most of the people in my life, and I've made it a goal to get better about it. And because most of the people in our families have access to the internet, I figured this would be a great medium to start about accomplishing that goal.
I hope everyone enjoys these quick glimpses into our daily lives - we have so many wonderful people in our community of family and friends, and I’m really glad to have an opportunity to share with you a bit of ourselves and hopefully cut down on some of the estrangement feelings.
So, anyway, welcome! I promise that there will be a real post sometime soon – and hopefully some pictures not long after that.
