Our little Flora has finally arrived! She came into the world at 9:33pm on September 30th, 2008. She took her time. I was in labor for 18 and 1/2 hours of which I pushed for an hour and a half. My whole labor experience was a positive one. The medication certainly helped. I was surrounded by much of my family and some friends. I think we had 12 people there supporting us. It was nice to have everyone there. Flora weighed 7lbs 15 oz and was 19 and 3/4 inches. We went to her first appointment last Monday and she was up to 8 lbs which is great for a breastfed baby. She is just so adorable and looks a lot like Ryan. Her hair is a light borwnish blondish color and her eyes are blue and hopefully will stay that way. She has been a bit fussy and the nights are kind of hit and miss with her. She seems to alternate so that one night we get about 5 to 6 hours of sleep ( not in a row) and getting maybe 1 hour of sleep. It really helps to have Ryan home and to have help from his parents. I still can not believe that she is already 10 days old. These have been the longest 10 days of my life but also the most fulfilling. We have been so happy to share her with all of our friends and family and are thankful for all the love and support everyone have given us. Keep on the look out for more pictures and stories. We will post as often as we can get time for.

After over 15 hours of labor our little one finally decided to come out and play. Flora Lanell Chase was born on September 30th at 9:30pm. We were released after a couple days in the hospital getting everyone healthy.

Since then we have been adjusting to life as parents which incidentally means very little sleep for everyone.

Click on one of the photos to the right to see more.

Well today is our due date and still no real signs of labor. I have never in my life wanted to feel pain like I want to now. I just want to go to the hospital and have her and I am not being very patient about it. When we went to our last doctors appointment last Monday I was 1 centimeter dilated. I am hoping things are coming along but there has only been some discomfort and slight pain here and there. I have been walking and riding on the stationary bike to try to get things going but that has not seemed to help much. I really just want to meet my little Flora. Flora is still very active which is great but uncomfortable. We are really hoping that things will start to pick up and we will have a baby sooner than later.

We had another weekly appointment today. It went fine. Everything looks good. Flora’s head is down and really low but there is no activity happening yet. The PA was surprised that there is no dilation with her being so low. We will continue walking and maybe some other natural measures to get her to start the labor process. I really want to her to come out. I am starting to get impatient. We are 37 and a half weeks and the waiting is getting harder everyday. I am just hoping the contractions will start. I just want to meet our precious little baby girl.

I knew that Flora would have a lot of things before she was even born but I could not have imagined exactly how much. She has so much stuff I hope she gets to use everything at least once. I am glad I saved receipts for the things we bought and was thankful for gift receipts. I hated taking back gifts but we had about 30 to 40 blankets so we had to take some back. Even after taking things back and getting other things like a pack n play and crib mattress we still have a ton of things. It’s amazing how a child can accumulate more clothing and other items than I actually own myself. We are so thankful that we have such caring family and friends that are so generous and are so supportive of us. I have been washing everything which has been a bit of a pain. Then sorting clothes by size and organizing it. Taking tags off of new items is such a pain. I don’t understand why they put so many plastic tags on baby items. I literally spent 20 minutes taking tags off of a pack of wash cloths. It must have had 10 plastic tags to cut off and then tape around each wash cloth. It just does not make any sense. The crib and changing table are beautiful and we are really happy with the bedding we chose. We almost have everything together. All we need now is the precious little baby. Now we need to pack our hospital bags and wait for the big day which hopefully will be sooner than later.

At our last doctors appointment I had to do a test for Strep b which was quite easy and the doctor checked the position of the baby. she is head down (yay!!!) and no signs of labor yet which was expected. He said that she feels about 6.5 pounds and if she come on time she should be about 7.5 pounds at delivery. This is great news for me. I was a little concerned about having a huge baby. Also at this appointment we got a bundle of bags that contained formula and coupons. They also had good information about breastfeeding and supplementation. If for some reason we need formula we have a huge stock of it. The bags they gave us were really nice as well and will probably get some good use especially when we go to the hospital to deliver. Our appointments are weekly now and have been for about two weeks. At this point we are just going to check if anything has started. It’s pretty much just a waiting game. Ryan and I are really excited and just can’t wait for our little flora to arrive. We really want to hold her and see her little face.

Well we are officially one month away from d-day. Its amazing how quickly the time has passed. Its been a crazy and wonderful trip.

We recently had the baby shower which was a blast. It was great to see all of our friends and family after us being away for so long. We received a ton of blankets for some strange reason along with a myriad of other great gifts. Sarah has been busily organizing everything and washing the clothes. If you look to the right you will see some thumbnails of pics I took during the baby shower which turned out pretty well.

We’ve also been taking some classes at the local hospital. Sarah signed us up for just about every class they offer. So far they have been really good and we’ve learned a lot. We are also taking a tour of the hospital next week which we are looking forward to.

I put together all of the furniture which was quite an experience. If I have to assemble another piece of furniture in the near future it will be too soon. The crib and changing table were in a million pieces and it didn’t help that half the time the instructions were hard to follow. Next time I’m going to hire someone and save my self the 3 hours and headache. If only everyone followed in Ikea’s footsteps with clear and concise instructions the world would be a better place.

Ryan and I started one of our pre-natal classes last night which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed the instructor and hearing what she had to say. Last night was more of a review of things that I had already read about or heard about but there are subjects coming up that I think will be really beneficial for both of us to know about. This class is mainly about labor and delivery and techniques to use before and during labor. We also signed up for a breastfeeding class, baby basics class, anesthesia class and a hospital tour. Those should keep us busy for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully these will help get ready for labor and what is to come with a new baby.

It is way too hot here!!! My body just can not take it. I am already slowing down because of aches and pains and my expanding belly but the heat makes it way worse. I can not walk for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time without resting. My feet swell up so easily. I am exhausted all day long but have a hard time napping and sleeping in general. I was not real good at handling stress before I was pregnant and now it’s even worse. Good thing I don’t encounter much right now. I feel so out of shape. Although, I don’t mind the shape of my body right now, I think it’s pretty cool to be round. I was waiting the whole pregnancy for this belly and now I have it. I just wish there weren’t as many discomforts.

The new doctor wanted us to have another ultra sound to see how Flora’s growth is to make sure she in on track. We went last Thursday and it was the longest ultra sound ever. It lasted at least 45 minutes if not a bit more. It was nice to see her again and we saw her cute little profile. She certainly is growing. The technician said from her measurements it looks like she weighs about 4 pounds 10oz and she still has 6 good weeks left to go. I just hope we don’t have a baby over 9 pounds.