Fun with Cameras....

She's too cute, and was making a ton of funny faces, we just had to get a few. Unfortunately our camera sucks, so we didn't manage to capture ALL the funny moods of the Kat... but here are some :o)

Pbbbt!! Raspberries from the Kat!

Who is this man, and why must he kiss my face all the time?

This is my supermodel face....

Looking up at daddy...

So very tiresome being such an adorable baby...

THANK YOU!

We just got a knock on the door from the UPS fairy... and lookie what we got!

Dove, Shawn, and Johnny sent us some yummy cookies in a pretty basket! It's so pretty!!

Thank you all SO much! I almost don't wanna break the plastic because it's so very pretty! Kat said I could eat her share of the cookies, she must really love her momma.

We are lucky to have such wonderful and loving friends :o)

Sending you all much love!!!

Hospital pics and an apology...

Typing one-handed here, I have a sweet sleepy girl in my arms... I am so lucky and in love!!!!

I just found out that no one (and I do mean no one) on the call list was called when Kat arrived... it was a very long stay with a very complicated and strenuous labor. I am still recovering & it took all Tim had to care for me & Kat. We're still not really with it yet. I did want to apologize to you all though- it was definitely NOT intentional & if you wanted to visit the Kat give us a call or drop me an e-mail. I can apologize in person if possible. *grin*

I will post her birth story with all the gory details some other time, right now I don't seem to have the time!

Okay now for the good stuff! Ken just sent me a batch of pictures from the hospital stay and I figured I should share!

Before the birth, Tim and Tara (and Tim's mom) in the parking lot in front of the hospital.

Kat wide awake and alert in the Recovery Room.

Me in the Recovery Room the first time I was able to hold Kat. Yes I'm crying, luckily you can't see my face!

Daddy completely exhausted and in love with his little girl!

Our new family! God I love them!

Katherine Brigit Lewis

Typing one handed here guys... but we are finally home after 5 days in the hospital (I'll post the full story when I don't have a sleeping baby on my lap)

She is beautiful, and we've got lots more pictures, but I just now took these to show off real fast for you all.

She's a very sweet tempered little girl... unless she's cold or hungry- then watch out! She loves being held and just curls up into a little ball in the arms of whomever has her and starts snoring (not kidding)

More about the light of my life later... now for pictures!

She is pondering the meaning of life.... she's deep like that!

Meaning of life too difficult... must... nap....

Proof that this is indeed Tim's child... lol... he was trying to imitate her, I think the original is much cuter! (but you're still cute too Tim!)

Last pregnant blog...

Well here we go!

The bags are packed, and my mom is now less than 10 minutes from my house. The rest of my day is going to be spent with the family, we'll all have a big dinner, and we're heading to the hospital tonight!

Next blog, I'll be someone's momma...

See you all soon, send some good energy our way!!!

One last random post...

This is likely my last kinda random post before Thursday. We have a few things to do around the house before induction, and before Grandma (My Mom) shows up on Friday... these are things that normally would take me about a few hours to do, but since I move at the pace of a large overweight tortoise at the moment, I fully expect it to take 2 days.

Plus Tim got a new video game yesterday... soooo... not really sure if we'll be able to keep him off long enough to quickly get this stuff done LOL. Even when focused Tim moves rather slowly, s'okay because he's been phenominal about keeping the house clean and taking care of me this whole time, the boy deserves a trophy (or in this case a new video game lol)

So what's on the agenda?

I'm headed out to vote this morning (yay!) I was a little worried I might be in the hospital and unable to vote. Tim thinks I should take a Big Gulp with me and drop it on the floor while in line so people think my water broke and let us cut line... yeah this is the way my husband's mind works! It would be funny, but knowing my luck (living in Mayberry, MI as we do) I'd make the newspaper for that and wind up having to explain why Kat wasn't born until Friday. I feel pretty strongly about elections in general, but this one in particular- so I'm very glad I get to go cast my little vote today since MI didn't have early voting! (who knew?)

After that, we come home and start cleaning up around the house- thrilling no? It's not terrible, but I really want to try to have it as nice as possible, because it'll be nice to come home from the hospital to a nice organized clean house. Also add in the fact that my Mom will be coming on Friday and plans to do a full commando cleaning of the house... and I'd rather not make her cry because her daughter is so messy LOL---- She even went out and bought all green and organic cleaning stuff that she's bringing with her to clean with... she's too cute!

How is everyone doing?

The animals have been freaky for days... Luna keeps crying and wanting to clean me constantly... she alternates between that and being REALLY mean to Freya (which is odd for her) everytime the dog lays down to sleep, Luna runs up and bites her.

Freya on the other hand won't let me out of her sight for a minute... she just trots after me all day long and lays on my feet the minute I stop. She keeps shaking and whining at me (which is what she does when she's nervous) They know something is going on, they just aren't really sure what that is... they'll find out soon enough!

Tim is in a high state of manic behavior... I jokingly timed him yesterday and he's literally asking me if I'm okay every 8 minutes... I wish I were kidding. He really is! If I'm quiet for more than a few seconds... are you okay? I promised him that I wouldn't be too meek to let him know the minute I wasn't actually okay, and that he didn't need to worry so much! Everytime I get up at night to use the bathroom, he wakes up enough to ask me if I'm okay and try to tuck me back into bed. He says he doesn't even remember any of it, but he's been doing it for weeks! No wonder he's so tired! The only reason no one has asked me yet this morning if I'm okay... is because he's still in bed. Shhhh... nobody wake the worried man! Some guy ran us into opposing traffic yesterday by almost sideswiping our car (on my side) and Tim was literally following the dude to his house to scream at him before I talked him down. He's in overprotective-freaked out-scared silly-gonna be a daddy- mode... This birth is going to be as much a relief for him as it is me!

Me? Oh yeah, forgot about me... I'm just kinda large and uncomfortable. But that's how this is supposed to work! Kat doesn't have much room to move, so she doesn't do much of it, but what she does do is a tad painful. It's also nice to feel- it's a pregnant thing, if you haven't been there you maybe wouldn't get that. I'm pretty resigned that she won't be coming before Thursday night, so I refuse to get excited about all the contractions I have. I've been having contractions for months (damned Irritable Uterus Syndrome LOL) so I just breeze past them and don't even time 'em. I'm basically just sleeping a lot, waking up to eat, then sleeping some more. My body can't seem to get enough rest, and I'm indulging it knowing that those days when I can indulge myself are quickly coming to an end. I'm counting the days, getting my ducks in a row, and trying not to think TOO hard about the actual labor and focusing instead on the end result...

Also as a note-

If you aren't on Myspace, and didn't get the update e mail from me... if you need/want information on the hospital etc because you want to call or visit- let me know. Not gonna post it here, that's not really safe. We are letting everyone know that we likely won't have a visitable room until Friday night at the earliest, and the hospital is keeping us for 2 full days at least after the birth so those getting an e mail update or depending on the blog for updates will likely be waiting until early next week when we get home. If you do plan to visit either at home or in the hospital, we are asking that you please call first- just to be sure we are alert and awake... etc.

If you are on the "Please call me" list... if you were wanting the call when we're on the way to the hospital, if you don't hear from us by Thursday, just assume we're in the hospital as of Thursday night.. if you were wanting to hear about Kat's actual arrival, Tim will likely be making those calls, and I can't promise much. LOL... we'll try to keep everyone posted as much as possible, just be patient with us, and if we miss you- it's totally not intentional!! I promise that everyone will know as soon as I'm personally functional again, I just can't promise what my silly husband is going to do (or not do) when he's totally engrossed in his new little girl. I promise that we'll try.

Next time you hear from me, I'll likely be headed to the hospital... so see ya'll then...

Induction!

I made this widget at MyFlashFetish.com.

The 6th it is!

Yup, you read correctly... they're keeping my induction date as November 6th, but bumped it to an evening rather than early morning induction so I could get the most Awesome Dr. P... who we LOVE. She's like a tiny little kick ass cheerleader... very nice and very cool. I'm soft but barely dilated, the only redemption here is that the baby has dropped (the OB can touch the top of her head now)... so I have an unfavorable cervix right now, which is also playing into the decision to make me wait...

They aren't as concerned with Kat's size as I seem to be, they're thinking the ultrasound is likely off a bit and she's not QUITE as big as she's showing. We have another ultrasound tomorrow, so unless there's some crazy change they really want me to try to make it full term. Apparently babies of people with Gestational Diabetes tend to have lungs a tad underdeveloped, so taking the babies early isn't always a good thing. Since my GD is under control, and Kat is reacting well to all testing, they want me to make it to the due date if possible.

Now if I go on my own between now and then, it's anybody's game... so we'll see!

I have to admit I'm scared to have such a large baby (I mean c'mon... 10lbs?!?!) and had a minor panic attack earlier. But I'm going to trust that Kat will come when she's ready, and if she's not ready by the 6th, then they aren't going to let me go farther than that. So there's an end date in sight. I just hope my body can hold out... sooo 10 days more and counting!

*whimper*

I love Carters....

Okay, so some of you may have heard of the problem with the tagless labels for the Fall 2007 line of baby clothing from Carters... I didn't think I'd have any since she is getting mostly new clothes, but apparently they still have some of last year's clothes in Carter's stores, and places like Marshall's and TJ Maxx.

If you haven't heard about this, the long and short of it is- the tags can cause severe rashes and blisters in the tag area with some babies up to and including losing skin when parents take the garment off the child. Since Tim and I have such very sensitive skin, I wasn't really wanting to even TRY to see if Kat was one of those babies- she likely will be!

I checked Kat's clothing and we have about 15 pieces with the bad tag. A link to telling the difference can be found here: http://www.carters.com/Corporate/tagless_message.aspx

I e mailed Carter's customer service, not expecting much. These were all gifts, and I have no tags and no receipts. I got an e mail back within the hour stating they were sending me a prepaid box to return all the pieces of clothing and that they would, in turn, send me a check for the retail amount of the clothing. Not only that, but that they would send me the highest retail prices for each item as there is no way to tell the original pricing.

So that is fantastic Customer Service, and a better than expected outcome. I love Carter's, and they've got a dedicated customer in the years to come. If you're a mommy, check your baby's clothes... there is a link above that has pictures of what to look out for. Don't hesitate to contact Carter's... :o)

I have a squatter...

She weighs approximately 8 1/2 lbs and is suspected to be about 19 inches long...

We believe she DOES have hair (we're guessing blonde), but we do know she has a high propensity to wiggle her tiny arse in the air at every given opportunity.

She is growing daily and appears to be planning an escape sometime soon, though the timing and method are unclear, right now I'm thinking something Alien-esqe is a distinct possibility. *whimper* And while we do want her out (she is a squatter!), we would prefer to have some control over her escape... (IE- one that doesn't destroy the host body) *giggle*

The details on her mysterious escape are fuzzy at this point, but we do believe she is throwing regular raves completely with glowsticks in my womb, possibly inviting several large friends... We do believe there MAY be some graffiti on the walls of the womb... so having her exit the premises safely and calmly is a top concern.

She is rather flexible and commonly attempts to eat her own feet, but does stoop to either sucking her thumb or eating her hand when NOT attempting to push sensors off of my body the minute they're secured.

She enjoys Orange Juice and Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream...

She is currently causing earthquakes in the vicinity of my womb and causing my body start looking like the set from Tremors...

We don't believe her to have any tattoos, but who knows with kids these days...

Do NOT attempt to apprehend the squatter as we believe her to be amazingly cute and possibly dangerous...

I'm gonna have to call the police on this one methinks... or a highly skilled doctor.

10 pound baby anyone??? anyone??

Yeah, last week's 1lb gain was NOT a fluke... Kat went from 7lbs 8oz last Wednesday to 8lbs 5oz today...

She's averaging a pound a week... and I technically still have 2 weeks until she's due, so unless the doc steps in (hello?! any day now guys!!) and she keeps up her weight gain, I'm looking at a 10 1/2 lb baby come November 6th!!!!! Her head and femur length are consistent with a 40 week fetus, and I'm only 38 weeks. This kid is full grown, it's time!

Still haven't gotten word back on my new induction date, we'll talk to the doc again on Monday unless we hear from her before that to see what she plans on doing.

In the meantime I'm just praying for spontaneous labor, my body can't handle much more of this! LOL

Still MIA guys, but keeping this blog posted is as good as it gets for me. I do check in on my comments, and I appreciate the e mails and voicemails... love you guys...

Good news for me...

Okay well a little background here first... it's okay, it has a happy ending!

We have 3 doctors and one Midwife at our OBGYN Practice. The Midwife is semi retired and doesn't do deliveries at all anymore, just prenatal care, and we see her almost every time. She's the one who called the dieticians at the scary hospital idiots (I heard it, she really did, over the phone) and sent me to the nice hospital instead... she's a bitch, but she's on our side so we LOVE her...

The other two doctors (who do deliveries) we've seen almost every other time, and they are totally sweet and fantastic. The head doctor, however, we hadn't met until our appointment last week. He's the main guy, but apparently can't be bothered to really meet everyone until the very end of the pregnancy. Well after sitting in the waiting room for about 45 minutes (unusual), and then seeing the nurse- doing the whole nurse thing, and told to remove the pants and get a drape and wait for the doc... we waited over an hour for this doctor to make the time to see us. So pantsless, cold, and irritated I waited... eventually Tim went out and complained and the doc finally decided to see us. He breezed in, talked to me real fast about the Group B Strep... which I already knew... and basically wrote off having to go in for antibiotics immediately after the water breaking as unneccesary but the insurance companies *make* them do it... because a couple of babies got spinal meningitis and died and a few more went blind... just a couple of babies... uh---- well I know it doesn't make much sense from a statistics place, but if one of those babies is MY baby... it bugs ME... I'd rather have the precaution, even if he sees it as unneccesary.

Let's just say I felt he was too blase and breezy about something pretty important... my Kat!!! I want a doc that sees babies as individuals, not cost/effect statistics!

Then he checks my dialation, and for those of you who haven't had this done, it's not pleasant under the best of circumstances but he was SO rough, I was in pain the rest of the day... so he sends me home saying "See you at your induction on the 6th (which is over a week later than my other docs wanted me in to do it, and wow! on HIS day at the hospital....) He basically scheduled me to make sure he gets another delivery notch, disregarding the fact that they didn't plan to let me get full term, she's growing fast, and I'm having other issues as well...

So for a week I've been stressing about this... I don't want this man delivering my baby... he seems like the kind of guy that would write something off as nothing, and then Kat might suffer for it later. Plus he's rough, and no one likes a rough OBGYN... plus he told me I didn't need to see the doctors at all again until induction. (It's common for women to get WEEKLY appointments for NORMAL pregnancies at this point... and with the Gestational Diabetes, I'm considered a risk... so see the oddness here?)

Today we went for our Non Stress Test like we do every monday, and the Midwife came in to check our numbers and we basically told her our concerns... just like that she cancelled my induction on the 6th, and is checking into a better date for me with one of the other doctors... and EARLIER than the 6th. After Kat's big weight jump last week, she's thinking that me going full term is unlikely... she also realized I had no doctor's appointment this week, or at all, and saw me on the spot and made sure I was scheduled for a weekly appointment until the birth. Even she was totally shocked that he said no one needed to see me until induction... I'm glad we complained! Plus this week they caught that my Blood Pressure is a little high, so she wants to really watch that since the whole pregnancy it's been perfect so far. They never would have caught it if we hadn't spoken up.

SO good news! I got the weekly appointments (yay), an earlier induction, which according to the midwife may get bumped even earlier due to Kat's weight gain and my BP (double yay), and although it's a roll of the dice if I go into labor on my own who will deliver- at least if I make it to induction I don't have to have the a-hole doctor (WOOHOO!)

Long blog I know... but that's the story. I'm feeling so much more relieved. I actually had a nightmare about this last night, so it's been bugging me. I had to share that I was able to speak up (I'm not always good about doing this) and that it worked out REALLY well... and that the midwife totally rocks and has no trouble being frank and calling an idiot an idiot (LOL)

.... and then the pregnant lady had a lovely fast painless birth, with a healthy baby and lived happily ever after...

I wish!

Politics... well I am due on Electon Day...

Wow, a blog that doesn't include me whining and or making fun of pregnancy! LOL

This was SO well put that I had to steal it from a friend's blog and share!

Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?..... think about it.
Would the country's collective point of view be different? (10/8/08)

Ponder the following:
What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:
Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

Love you guys...

Totally mean it... love you all... thanks for keeping me sane...

Mwah!

I'm still here

And still pregnant...

Just thought you'd all like to know.

The date has been set...

We saw the doctor today, and they've set an induction date for me for the morning of November 6th. Why so late, you ask?

Apparently the hospital wouldn't accept an induction the week of Halloween due to an expected increase in activity that week... and they didn't want to do it a week earlier than that because they want to get her as close to full term as possible.... so pretty much on my due date I'll be induced, unless I go on my own earlier than that.

Aside from that, all looks well. Things are good here, we're using the Full Moon tonight to do my Healthy Mom/Healthy Baby Labor Spellwork.

We finally got the other two apartments in the house filled, and the neighbors directly next door are playing incredibly loud music... let's hope that stops before too long. We're too nice to say anything, besides it's good that Ken finally got some renters in.... so guess we get to just take whatever they do and try to ignore it. Wish me luck with that one!

Update----
Had an ultrasound today, and Wee Kat gained a full pound and change in the last week, she now weighs approx. 7lbs 8oz... up from 6lbs 5oz... if we keep seeing growth spurts like that, I may not make it to November 6th! We'll see...

It's a baby moon!

Yeah, our little princess is mooning the world. *grin* My belly looks hilarious too. She's upside down with her back to my front, and is sticking out her little butt just at the top of the belly. Occasionally she wiggles it... it's mildly uncomfortable, but so funny that I have to giggle a little (which makes her wiggle more!)

I knew it was her butt, but the ultrasound tech confirmed it and got a good laugh about it too! So now daddy walks by and taps the baby bottom whenever he walks by and giggles. My belly is totally hard and pointy at the top, then just more round towards the bottom. I'm currently using it as a shelf to sit the embroidery project I'm doing on.

I'm still pretty uncomfortable, and it's a waiting game at this point... but I get a few giggles in here and there. I'm mostly spending my days working on various crafts and sleeping as much as I can.

Until then... Baby Butt Moons you All!!

Your guess is as good as mine!

Basically here's today in a nutshell...

I've been up since about 3:45 this morning when I woke up to the lovely bloody show (nice name huh?)

I started having contractions (mostly mild, with a few painful) around 6am, which continued through the day.

I had an ultrasound at 2pm to make sure WeeKat wasn't in any distress due to a decrease in movement, she's doing fine- not moving much, but great heartbeat and practice breathing and thumb sucking... which means no fetal distress at all. She now weighs about 6lbs 5oz, and her head and tummy are measuring almost 2 full weeks ahead of me. (she's measuring at 37 weeks 6 days, and I'm 36 weeks on the nose today) We were told she likely isn't moving much either because she has very little room since this last growth spurt, or she's resting up for her big appearance... who knows?

We couldn't see a doc because they were slammed, but talked to the nurses and basically told that I likely had the bloody show... and that means I could go into active labor anytime from now until 2 weeks from now. There is just no way to tell when it's going to happen. So we know nada... other than Kat is just fine, and mommy feels terrible.

My contractions stalled out around 5pm this evening... just feeling generally sore and tired now. It's a waiting game at this point, we have NO clue when she's coming- tonight, tomorrow, next week... your guess is as good as mine, or the doctor's office!

That's the update for today, I'm going to bed early tonight.

Thanks for the well wishes and messages in my e-mail and voicemails, ya'll are too sweet. Please don't worry, everyone here is doing just fine. I'll return calls and e-mails as soon as I am functional again. Love you guys!

False alarm or the real thing?

Only time will tell at this point, but I just had (what we think is) my bloody show. It's about 4:30am... we'll know more soon. Even if it was, it could still be a day or two, so no one go panicking on me!

I feel bad for waking up the doctor LOL... off to lay down for 2 hours on her advice and see what we see.

Don't start blowing up my phone kids, I'm supposed to be laying down and no one else can currently answer, if I post here later saying it was nothing, you'll know... if I don't post... well... if you're on the phone call list expect a call!

I'm okay right now, just staying very calm and trying to relax. Don't worry- be happy!

Update:
It's about 7am now, Kat moved during that 2 hour mark so no Labor and Delivery for us right now. I'm having some minor contractions, but if it actually was the bloody show thing... I could have another few days to go. Going to lay back down now... so we still don't know if this is the real thing, or a false alarm.

Almost done...

just gotta keep telling myself that.

Ugh... in constant pain, tired, can't sleep... *whine*

If you haven't been hearing from me don't take it personally, I'm not even talking to myself right now.

I promise to come out from under my rock sometime in the next month or so.

Kat is good, I'm good, Tim is good... all is well.

Sorry I'm not more fun kids... that's life right now! Just letting ya'll know not to take silence personally.