Hello from Willow!

Just a quick note to catch you up on what's going on in the life of Baby Willow. At 16 weeks of age today, she's weighing in at about 14.5 pounds, she's had her first cold and she laughs when we tickle under her arms. The cloth diapering is going very well so far (we bought mostly Bum Genius One Size and some fitted Pocket Change after The Great Experiment was over). She hates getting in the car seat, but falls asleep as soon as the car starts to move. Daddy's doing a fantastic job of taking care of her during the day and Mommy is back to work.

As you will see in the following video, she was quite fond of Elmo Live when we borrowed him from the neighbors. Maybe a little too fond? :)



I really wish I could post more often as I want to share every single thing she does, but she just keeps us so busy right now. I can report, however, that she's the best thing that's ever happened to us and she makes us so happy and proud every day.

Willow's First Month

So, I realize now that I didn't properly introduce our daughter to the world in the previous post. World, I hereby introduce Miss Willow Kate Begalle!

More pictures have been posted to our Picasa site - check her out!

Here I'd like to list some of the many "firsts" in Willow's life. We've had these written unceremoniously on a whiteboard in her room (after we finished tracking the feedings, poops, and pees on it over the first two weeks) and I thought it would be nice to put them somewhere a little more permanent.

WKB's List of Firsts
(preface each item with the word "first")

Wednesday, October 15 - the day we came home from the hospital
Car ride

Thursday, October 16
Spit-up
Sponge bath - hated it!
Walk - with Daddy (while Mommy slept)
Video Conference - with Grama Lori

Friday, October 17
Visit to REI (Daddy said it would take 20 minutes, we were there an hour and a half!)
Doctor visit (weight back up to 7 lbs.)
Trip to Aunt Sandy's

Saturday, October 18
Family walk - to Richfield
Trip to Southdale - to the Apple Store (to get Mommy's iPhone fixed, which didn't happen, but I was good so I got a new outfit at Baby Gap)


Sunday, October 19
Coffee Group - at Patrick's French Bakery
Trip to Grama Mary's
Got a belly button (umbilical cord stump fell off)!
Meeting Bubba (one of Daddy's best friends)

Monday, October 20
Real bath - loved it!
Wore pants (Mommy didn't want me to wear pants across my stump)
Walk around Lake Harriet
Trip to Dairy Queen and grocery store

Tuesday, October 21
Trip to the Mall of America and IKEA

Wednesday, October 22
Rainy day
Lunch out at a restaurant (okay, this was actually a first for Mommy and Daddy, but I was there!)

Thursday, October 23
Trip to Target
Breakfast out at a restaurant (again, this is more for Mommy and Daddy)

Friday, October 24
Trip to the U.P. - Ironwood, MI, Daddy's homeland

Saturday, October 25
Visit with G.G. (Great Grandma Theresa Corona - sadly this was also to be my last visit with her as she passed away November 9 at the age of 92.)

Thursday, October 30
Ride in the Baby Bjorn (Mommy declared me to be the necessary 8 pounds in order to do this.)
Mail - a Halloween card from Grama Lori and Grampa Mike and one from Auntie Lee Ann

Friday, October 31
Bottle (what takes 30-40 minutes from the boob went down in 3.5 seconds from a bottle!)
Halloween!


Tuesday, November 11
Snowfall
Meeting Uncle Brian


Thursday, November 13
One Month Old (not really a first as you can only do this once, but it's noteworthy, no?)

More to come...

She's Here!

Baby Willow was right on time - October 13, just as predicted. Momma, however, has taken until now to get the blog updated. Oh well. Here's the whole story:

12:20 am - Water breaks, easy contractions begin. Call on-call doctor, who says to try to get some sleep. Yeah right.

12:25 am - Don throws up.

6:00 am - I call my sister Mel and tell her not to go in to work.

7:30 am - Call doctor back because contractions (though not any stronger) are coming sometimes only 2 minutes apart. He advises going to the hospital.

8:00 am - Arrive at hospital, get checked in, surrender my underwear even though there's a lot of "stuff" leaking out of me. Mel starts looking for something to watch on TV, Don tries to sleep on the cot. Contractions slow to pretty much nothing.

9:00 -10 am - Mel finds "Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood" marathon on Oxygen, which we proceed to watch ALL DAY LONG. It's pretty funny, actually. I didn't pay attention to the last few episodes because that's when I was in serious labor, but apparently Tori had her baby girl just prior to me having mine. But we're jumping ahead.

1:00 pm - On-call doctor recommends starting pitocin to get labor going again. I cry, scared because I heard it can really make things ramp up quickly, but the nurses assure me they will make it very gradual and back it off if I need to. Within a half hour, the easy contractions are back.

2:30 pm - Contractions kick in FOR REAL. I move off the bed and on to the yoga ball for a while, now needing to squeeze Don's hand to get through each one. Mel gets a little nauseated with how sweet and supportive we are being to each other. ;)


4:30 pm - I'm starting to think I need some drugs. A new nurse, Amy, arrives. She's the mother of 2 with another on the way, 25 weeks along, and she's one of those skinny women with the tiny basketball belly. So incredibly cute. She never speaks above a whisper the rest of the time she's with us. Instead of drugs, she says, "maybe we should try getting you into the tub." I had completely forgotten that possibility because I thought I couldn't do that with monitors and the IV, so I was willing to try. It definitely helped me get through a few contractions, until I started to get a little cold and wanted to get back out.

5:30 pm - Once again thinking I need some drugs. Amy suggests that we see how far my cervix has dilated (when I got to the hospital it was only a fingertip width dilated, and they hadn't checked again since then). I'm scared of this, thinking I've been in labor this long and what if I'm only at like 3 centimeters? Thankfully, I was between 6 and 7. Amy says she's pretty sure I can get through this without the epidural. I'm tired out and game for whatever. I get back on the bed, turn to the side and practically chew the side rail through the next few contractions. Amy calls my doctor.

6:00 pm - My doc arrives, someone turns Tori and Dean down so I can't hear them anymore, and my sister is running back and forth between the sink and the bed, keeping cold washcloths on my head and neck as well as Don's neck. Even though she's moving as fast as possible, I remember wishing she could keep them colder. Luckily I don't say this aloud. :) The doc and nurse talk to me about what position I want to be in to deliver. I try squatting on the bed and pulling on a bar that they attach to the end of the bed. This works for a while, but I don't have the leg strength for squatting, so I'm kneeling until my legs fall completely asleep. Mel notices as I get out of this position that my legs are totally blue. Yikes. I get into the traditional "Western Medicine" position, lying on the bed with my knees moving back toward my head, feet sitting in stirrup-like things. The pushing begins, and I am making noises that I couldn't replicate now if I tried. I was hoarse for two days afterward, if that helps explain how vocal I was. No Katie-Holmes-Scientology-Quiet Birth for this girl! The pushing seems go to on forever, and after 17 minutes I hear someone say that they don't want to make me push longer than a half hour, but I can't remember why. I guess they want me to get serious - I thought I already was!

6:31 pm - A big push gets the head out, which I thought was the end. Don't they tell us that the head is the biggest part, get that out and you are home free? Well, then they say, "One more push for the shoulders!" and I'm thinking, "What? I thought I was done! Rip off!" but I push once more and...

6:32 pm - TOTAL AND COMPLETE RELIEF as she comes sliding out, they plop her on my stomach and she immediately poops all over the place. I have the entire grotesqueness of humanity on my stomach, and I couldn't be happier. It was probably good that I didn't have my glasses on to see it though. They cut the cord, take her to the heat light, and then things get scary for a bit because she's not breathing right. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, though her heart rate was good all day long so it probably just happened toward the very end. The NICU nurses come in and rub her down and do whatever, and soon she's okay. Her first Apgar score was 6, then 5 minutes later it was 8, so she was doing just fine. They wipe her off and give her to me, and I am shaking and shaking and getting sewn up by my doc, but I am so very very happy. I didn't even cry, I was just so happy to be done and to see her and to start trying to figure out where all that dark hair came from and how she got to be so incredibly beautiful. Don was completely overcome by emotion he wasn't expecting. That was so adorable!

And that's the delivery story. 18.5 hours, no pain meds, and a beautiful 7 lb. 4 oz. baby girl thanks to Amy, Mel, Don, Tori and Dean. :)

Whoa Big Mama!

Just waiting for our little girl to arrive - tomorrow's the official due date. Thought perhaps this photo would amuse the masses as much as it does me:


Everyone says I don't really look "that" big, which is kind. We're definitely ready to meet our baby girl though. At the appointment last week the doctor said that she had "dropped," but I haven't felt any contractions yet. If nothing has happened by Tuesday, we'll be hooked up to a monitor to gather lots of data about how things are going on the inside, then we'll start talking about how long they will let me go before inducing labor. Meanwhile, I'm receiving acupuncture treatments from our dear friend Lauren in order to (hopefully) get this party started on our own.

Yesterday, in the midst of waiting, we went to the pumpkin patch and got a pumpkin for daddy, a white pumpkin for me, and a little baby pumpkin for Willow.


Perhaps in the next entry we'll be welcoming our daughter into the world? Keep your fingers crossed!

Worst Blogger Ever

So yeah, I get it, I stink at blogging. I've heard it quite a few times over the past few months, and yet still, no posts. Well, we're breaking the silence tonight!

Thought I would share some memories from the numerous baby showers we've been fortunate enough to have thrown for us and our soon-to-arrive baby girl. I am completely overwhelmed with the generosity of our family and friends and I feel fortunate to be so well taken care of.

The first shower of all was a surprise shower thrown by sisters Mel and Lee Ann for both Loni and me, when we went to Colorado Springs over Memorial Day weekend for Mel's birthday. We had no idea when we were welcomed into Lee Ann's backyard that we had entered our first baby shower. The presents and cheese curls quickly confirmed it, however. Special thanks to Phyllis and Bev!

"Bowling for Baby" was thrown by Don's co-workers Thea, Courtney, Brenda and Piper, at Bryant Lake Bowl. My bowling form was a little off. :) Best part? Lemon cake shaped like a bowling ball! Below you can see Avery, our official photographer of the evening, her mom Lauren, our friends Katie and Bret's baby boy, Bodie, and Expectant Me.


The very next evening Stephanie threw a ladies party at her house that was attended by friends, former and current co-workers, neighbors, and family (Mel). This shower featured catered food, fun games, and great prizes.

Next was a Sunday breakfast shower hosted by Don's mom, Mary, featuring custom coffees made to order by her boyfriend, Curt. My parents came to Minneapolis just for the shower, along with bro-in-law Brian, from NYC, and honorary sister Kiyomi, from San Francisco.


Cousin Kim threw the next one, in Mosinee, WI. Even though Don wasn't required to attend, all three of Kim's sons came home from college for the shower. I felt so honored! Check out the new family pictured below, ready to move into Willow's dollhouse. Isn't Don rocking those red pants?


Then, last week my co-workers threw a lovely lunch party for Willow and me. We were very pleased that ultrasound #2 had just confirmed that morning that it still appears we're having a girl, because the presents from this shower were the pinkest bunch yet!


I've only got the thank-you notes out for the first three, but the rest are coming soon, I promise!

Thought I'd add a picture from the previously mentioned ultrasound #2. We had this one done last week to verify that our girl is positioned head down and ready to go. Yay! This one shows her face, looking up. Isn't she pretty?!

Baby Willow!

As planned, we had our first ultrasound on May 20. After confirming that our baby had all the right parts and the right quantity of each, our ultrasound technician (who informed us she'd been doing it since 1978) said she was 99% sure we are having a daughter. Happy tears just poured down my face. With the distinct lack of girls on Don's side of the family, we were convinced we were expecting a boy, so it came as quite a surprise. Of course we would have been just as happy with either, but it is so fun to know now and to think about our baby girl.

Here are her first few pictures:

This one shows her heart.

This one shows her stomach (the larger black dot) and her bladder, I think (the smaller black dot).

And this one Don fondly calls "Skeletoria" (he has a copy on his desk at work).

First Family Portrait

Auntie Mel and Baby Willow

The next day we had another visit with the baby doctor, who told us that my "Quad Screening" blood test showed no increased risk for genetic abnormalities, so we won't be having further, more invasive tests. Phew!

The nesting instinct has started to kick in, so we've set up the crib and the dresser/changing table, and moved my dresser and the TV out of the baby's room and into our room. Last weekend, my friend Stephanie and her daughter Katherine helped me find my first maternity clothes at Target and start a registry at Babies 'R Us. Both the bedding I purchased and the dresser have bunnies on them, and the mobile on the crib has birds, so I think we're going for a forest animal theme in the nursery. It's starting to come together - now I just need to get painting in there before I fill it with too much more stuff!

We're now at 21 weeks and she's the length of a carrot. So big!

The Second Trimester Is Here

Hi all!

Sorry it's been so long between posts. Over a month has passed and things are progressing well. Auntie Mel joined us for our most recent doctor appointment and got to hear the "whump-whump-whump" of the baby's heartbeat, until she made me laugh too hard and almost got us kicked out of the place. Both our first ultrasound and our next dr appointment are scheduled for May 20. Hopefully we'll get to find out if we are expecting "Baby Henry" or "Baby Willow!"

Brace yourselves, here come the pictures! These were taken last week (at 15 weeks):


















Now we're in week 16 and the baby is the size of an avocado. I've started to feel little flutters in my tummy, and a couple of times I've felt almost like a little tap inside. I usually feel the most at night, though I've felt the baby move a few times during the day at work, which is really fun. It takes me away from my job and reminds me of what an exciting time this is.

We've started setting up the baby's room, and are filling it with lots of generously donated "gently used" items from friends, along with a few items I "just had to have." Mel's planning on setting up a changing table and crib at her apartment for naps and sleepovers, too.

And, the other exciting news is that my sister Loni and her husband are also expecting a baby, due in November! We are overjoyed that the cousins will be so close in age. Here's a picture from her first ultrasound:


Isn't it cute?! Congratulations Loni and Hamoodi!