The Birth Story

Wow, what an incredible experience the last few days have been. There aren't many words to describe the feeling of becoming a parent, but for those of you who are you know what I'm talking about. Ashley is truly an amazing blessing and we feel so lucky to have her. Everything has gone perfectly with her arrival and she is just the most perfect little being. Most of you have heard the birth story, but for those who haven't, here it is! I never know what to tell people when they ask how long the labor was because it was a progressive thing over three days. I started having mild cramps on Saturday morning, but didn't really get too excited about them because I've heard so many stories of "false labor", I didn't want to get my hopes up. Sunday the cramps (contractions) got a little more intense, but nothing consistent. Monday morning I woke up at 2:30am and felt pretty intense contractions that we were able to start timing at about 8am which were 10 min apart and 40sec long. We timed for an hour an decided this was it. I finished my last minute cleaning and organizing, Brian took one last trip to the grocery store and we spent the rest of the day just him and I getting really excited for how our lives were about to change. After a long walk because of the multiple times stopping for contractions we were ready to go to the hospital at about 2pm Monday. At that time my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting 1+ minutes. We got settled into the hospital and got checked out, I was 4cm and 90% effaced at that time. I have to say I was a little disappointed because I wanted to do most of my labor at home and coming in at 4cm wasn't what I had in mind. But I stayed positive and was willing to do anything to get things going. We went and got some food and walked around outside for an hour. Around 5:00 my doctor checked me out and said that I was 5cm now and 100% effaced. She stripped my membranes and minutes after my water broke. Yikes what a difference that made in my contractions, this is were it got really difficult. The contractions were now 2 minutes apart and lasting over a minute. I didn't have any time to relax in between and it got pretty scary. I continued on with labor feeling like I was in transition from the symptoms only to find out around 8pm that I hadn't made any progress and I was still 5cm. My heart sank and I didn't have anything left in me. Everyone knew that I wanted to go natural so they were giving me encouragement and suggested more walking, etc but I was so scared for the next contraction I didn't have in in me to even move an inch. I decided to get the epidural and had relief by 9pm. I can't describe the relief I experienced and we were finally able to enjoy this life changing experience. In one hour I went from 5cm to 10cm and was ready to push. I couldn't believe how fast the change was, all I needed was to relax. Brian was amazing through the whole process and was there for me every step of the way. I couldn't have done it without him. He's jumped right in with being "pappa" and absolutely adores his daughter. It's been amazing to see him bond with her and we both have fallen more in love with her every second that goes by. Thank you for all your comments, we feel blessed to have all your support. Keep an eye on the blog and we'll post pictures whenever we get the chance.

Ashley Renee

Ashley Renee Timm was born at 10:23pm on 11/05/07 at 6 lbs 10 oz and 20 in. long. Emily did outstanding and is doing great. We are now home as a family less than 24 hours after she was born. I am so proud of Emily and Ashley. Please enjoy the photos and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We greatly appreciate all the love and support we have received from everyone.

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. We're going over to some friends house tonight for dinner, but not dressing up so we decided to paint my belly like a pumpkin. We had fun with it and she was moving all sorts of different directions distorting the pumpkin making. I think she was trying to put a word in about what the face should look like.

Water Leak NOT Water Break

I got home yesterday afternoon from the gym to find a huge puddle of water in our kitchen. Our kitchen faucet had a slow leak that built up and spilled onto the floor. I called Brian to tell him about it and told him he probably needed to come home after class to fix it rather than go to work. He's been answering the phone now with "Are you in labor?" and a bunch of his buddies from school were around when I called. Word got mixed up and people thought my water broke. There are 45 people in his class so you can imagine how information can get construed. The leak did get fixed and wasn't a huge deal it just wasn't fun to clean up. We have prepared for that call and Brian has been wearing a pager lately so I can get a hold of him when it is time. The pager is from work and a couple of weeks ago when he first started wearing it he got paged in class. He called back and no answer, but everyone in class was on high alert now that he was wearing "the pager" and thought I was in labor. I think everyone is a little excited to know when this little one is going to arrive including mom and dad!

Keepin' Busy

Another week has passed in waiting for our little one to arrive. We've kept pretty busy though so the time has gone by really fast. This past week the weather has been really nice so I've been able to get out and take Brody for a walk almost every day. I've gone around Greenlake a few times which is a 2 hour event now with the breaks I need to take, but it's great to get out. Monday night I went to dessert with my girlfriend Danielle. Her and her husband just got back from a two week trip to Spain and Morocco, so I wanted to hear all about it and nothing better than girl talk and dessert! They had a great time. They took a couple days in Morocco to ride camels into the Sahara desert and spent the night in tents to wake up the next morning early and watch the sunrise over the dunes. How Romantic! They are quite adventurous so it was fun to hear about all they did. Tuesday I had book club and Thursday was dinner with my cousin. Saturday I caught up with friends who just got back from Hawaii, so I got to hear all about that trip and see pictures. Today I went over to a neighbors and she taught me how to sew. I've been wanted to learn and today was a good start. I have a lot of practice to do, but I finished my first project which was a heating pad filled with rice. Our instructor for our baby class recommended it for labor so I decided to take on the task of making one. It's a little uneven, but it's my first project so my expectations weren't too high. It serves a function and I've already tried it out and it works great, no leaks. So, I've had to keep myself so busy because Brian's been studying all week for a midterm he has on Monday. It's a big test so he's been coming home late and studying a ton on top of working a couple hours a night. But he has managed to finish the cradle and set aside time for just him and I. We try to have dinner together every night and catch up. That's been really nice, no TV just the two of us checking in with each other. I'm going to appreciate that even more when the baby comes because I don't think I'll be able to get out of the house much right after she's born. Here's a few random pictures I've captured over the week.
This is the cradle that Brian has worked so hard on. It turned out really well and now our little girl will sleep safe and sound next to mom and dad's bed in the first few weeks.
This was after a long study session. Brian was exhausted and Brody decided to sneak in for a little cuddle time. He hasn't been on his regular sleep schedule with me home. Any time I move somewhere new he's right by my side. It's made for short naps and not as much sleep as he usually gets when we're gone.
I was at the computer for awhile and we had just gotten back from a long walk. Brody just crashed, he has his ear over his eyes and it looks like he put himself out for the day.

Dinner with Liz

Last night my cousin Liz treated us to dinner at Ray's Boathouse in Ballard. She works for HP and was in town for a convention this week. We had a great time and it was wonderful to see her. She lives in Chicago so it's been way too long since we've seen her. In fact I was remembering the last time she was in Seattle for business we went out to dinner and I had just started dating Brian. Of course we've seen her since then, but that was the last time she was out here. Now we're married and have a baby on the way, it's amazing how time flies! We talked a lot of baby talk, but also caught up on everything else going on. It makes me miss the Midwest because that's where all of my dad's family is, but we cherish the times we can see them even if it's for a short time. I told her that dinner was the last thing planned on my calendar before the baby gets here. I couldn't sleep last night because I kept thinking about her arrival and with all the baby talk and birth stories from Liz I kept wondering if I was going to go into labor last night. I'm here to tell you that we still have to wait, it didn't happen.

Punkins!

Another fun filled weekend. This is the result of our annual tradition of carving pumpkins with the Timm family. As you are starting to see Brian and I like tradition and have started a few since we got married. This is the third year we've carved pumpkins and made a night out of it. Uncle Ed came over this year and Brian made a delicious stew while we watched football and carved our pumpkins. Last year we had Brian's parents here for a visit along with good weather so we got to go to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins and do the corn maze. They have a really neat area up north where they set up a corn maze in the shape of Washington. You get a map and they have things marked like the space needle, Mt Rainier, the Peace Arch, etc... and you locate them in the maze and it gives interesting facts about each place. Great for kids on field trips, but fun for us too. We would have liked to go again this year but the weather was crummy so we just got pumpkins from the local store. Saturday night we went to a party over at our neighbors for their annual Rosstoberfest (their last name is Rossi) and had a great time. Daniel (our neighbor) makes an excellent pulled pork that he's won first place with in competitions. We were hurting that night as we both ate way too much. You can't stay away though, it's so good! Saturday morning we got our car seat check at Children's hospital so we're all safe and ready to head home from the hospital as soon as she gets here. We didn't have any expectations really, just that the car seat would be in properly when we left, but not only did they do that they taught us how to fasten her in properly, how tight the seat belt should be, angled the car seat so not to restrict her airflow. We were there for about 45 minutes and felt very educated when we left, so we're happy we did it. Then on Friday after the whole fiasco with me getting caught in the rain Brian decided to take me out to dinner. My grandparents had sent us a gift certificate to Olive Garden for our anniversary that we hadn't used yet, so we decided to go there. We had a great time and enjoyed time just the two of us, oh... and ate way too much again. Thanks Grams and Gramps.

Never Trust Seattle Weather

I woke up this morning and the sun was out so I decided to take Brody and go for a walk around Greenlake. They have plenty of bathrooms down there and benches to sit on so if I needed a break I knew I could take one. I love this time of year with the leaves changing and the crisp air, I thought it would be great to get out. Well I did enjoy it very much until about 1/2 around the lake I started to see some really black clouds rolling in and about 3/4 around the lake it started to pour. There wasn't really much I could do and by now we were surrounded by black clouds so I knew it wasn't going to let up any time soon. So, we just kept walking and got completely soaked. It would let up a little and then all the sudden just dump. We've had these rains in Boston when we lived there, but they're the huge raindrops that get you wet from underneath because they bounce up off the ground. There was even some hail mixed in. Yea, not too fun. I started out laughing about it because like I said there was nothing I could do but keep walking towards home and after all it is Seattle and you have to expect that you're going to get a little wet once in a while. I only had about 15 minutes left. Then the thunder came and it started to get pretty scary. I didn't want to get caught in any lightening and thank goodness I didn't. I'm not even kidding, as soon as we walked up to our door it hailed so hard it looked like it was a blizzard and because it happened so fast there was a thick layer of ice on the ground. I was so happy that we made it home before that happened. Poor Brody didn't know what was happening, he had his tail between his legs and a look on his face like get me the heck out of here! I came home and took a nice hot shower. I think I'll look at the weather forecast before I do that again!

37 Weeks 3 Days!

Here's the belly bump. I'm 37 weeks 3 days today, but this picture was taken at 37 weeks. I had an OB appt on Tuesday and I'm 1 cm dilated and 30% effaced. I know that really doesn't mean much, but I got excited and it does mean that we are that much closer to meeting this little one. She is still really active which is reassuring because we do a lot of ultrasounds in the last trimester to check the amniotic fluid because the baby isn't moving very much. Brian has been reading to her for the last couple of weeks and she seems to really be recognizing his voice. It's been various times at night depending on his study schedule and as soon as he starts reading she just kicks and rolls around in there, it's amazing to see. They say that newborns will turn there head towards their parents because it's a voice they've been hearing all this time. Brian wanted to make sure his little girl knew who he was. Her favorite has been the Cat in the Hat, but he's also read 5 Little Monkey's Jumpin' on the bed (another one of her favorites) and the Pokey Little Puppy. I've been amazed at how fast this week has gone. I guess I had a lot left to do because everyday has been filled with something. I'm still really enjoying this time off and am so grateful that I am able to. Brody has liked me being home to. He's helped mom around the house and settles in right next to me when I'm folding clothes or doing things in her room.

Preparations

My last day of work was Friday! Yea!!! I'm actually really looking forward to this time off before the baby is born. I never realized how much we're on our feet at work until now. I've been exhausted after work the last week, I can't imagine doing all this last minute stuff before the baby comes and having to work full time on top of it. I never thought I would say that. I'm such a person to want to stay as busy as I can. I guess there is a reason for aching hips, my back screaming, and my feet swelling. My body is telling me to SLOW down! I've actually had to go out and buy myself some slip on shoes because I'm no longer able to bend over and tie my shoes. I'm taking that as a good sign though that the end is near. Let me tell you, I should have done that a long time ago. It's so convenient. In preparation for when our daughter comes I went to dream dinners on Saturday with a bunch of friends from work so we don't starve after her arrival. I know I'll be extremely busy, so this is a way to get ahead of the game. We haven't done Dream Dinners for a while, mostly because it was summer and we BBQ a lot. But for those of you who don't know what it is, you go to a place that's set up with stations for meals that you put together and then freeze for later. They're really easy to prepare and it usually takes me about 2 hours to make 12 meals at 6 servings. That way we have left overs for lunch the next day and sometimes another dinner. It's a really good deal and you don't have to clean up after yourself. It's great, cuts down on grocery shopping and trying to decide what to make for dinner. Two things that I'm not fond of. The rest of that day was spent relaxing and doing some laundry... baby laundry. I can't believe how small her clothes are and the tiny little socks. I got so emotional thinking of our little girl who is growing and changing inside of me will fit into these clothes in a few weeks. It's an amazing thing and I don't think I will ever get over it. We got our carpets cleaned today so she won't have to be crawling on dirty floors when she's 6 months old. It needed to be done and I think we just decided to wait until I was off work so someone could be home. One less thing I have to worry about in my nesting stage. I have an OB appt tomorrow and I'll post another belly picture. I'll be 37 weeks!