b4 gma left 

sun @ 2 wks    family self-portrait minus daddy, who’s playing guitar at the 2nd service 

cute me    check out my cute booties 

Lauren seems to be an early riser…she typically wakes up between 3:30 and 4:30, so I feed her and pray she falls asleep…but instead of falling asleep, she is wide awake and yelling to get out of bed.  I’ve gotten used to her schedule – as long as I hold her and walk around a bit, she’s happy and falls back asleep within the hour.  So here’s my list of things to do at 4 am.  Some of these get done every day (#1, #4), and others just as needed.

1.  Make a cup of hot chocolate (warm milk + nesquick)

2.  Have a snack (frosted mini-wheats, dry)

3.  Empty the dishwasher

4.  Load the dishwasher

5.  Clean off the kitchen counter

6.  Fold and put away Lauren’s laundry (that one can be done every other day, it seems!)

7.  Spot check any clothes that haven’t already been checked

8.  Get a new load of laundry ready (notice a trend?)

I’d finish the post, but she’s asleep now…I’d better get to bed since I’ll likely be up at 4!

We’ve been seeing little smiles out of Lauren, but I wasn’t sure I really believed it, as smiling is a 6 week milestone, and this girl is only 9 days old!  What do you think?  Is this a smile?

Daddy played for church this morning, so Gramma and Uncle Tyler helped us get out the door.  Lauren looked adorable in her Winnie the Pooh dress…it came with little tights, but they weren’t quite little enough   She slept nicely through church, waking up to eat in the last half hour.  Of course, after she ate she fell asleep, and I had just given up trying to burp her when she suddenly decided to burp on her own…the loudest little burp you’ve ever heard.  James’ previous boss, wife and son (one of my students) were behind us giggling, and the people in front of us turned around to see who in the world could have (would have) done that in church!  I believe the comment was “who taught her to belch like a sailor?”

I guess it’s a step above one of Peyton’s church service noises…one service at Rosewood Peyton decided to…”let ‘er rip” in his diaper.  I think I’d take a burp over that any day.

Before church Uncle Tyler snapped a couple shots for us.  We persuaded Peyton to smile nicely and keep his gum INSIDE his mouth for the picture by promising a silly shot, so here are the two.  Lauren even picked up on the silly picture, as you can see from her immitation Dr. Evil finger.

All’s going well…Lauren is still sweet, Peyton’s adjusting, and “Mom” & Uncle Tyler are visiting…and now I’m off to bed… 

Thanks to those of you who must have been praying for us after my last post about sleep issues.  That night Lauren was awake until 11, then she woke to eat at 3, but fell back asleep until 7…I got 8 hours with only one wake-up call in the middle.  That I can handle.

Things are going well – she is still a very happy little girl, Peyton’s excitement is wearing off (ie he’s learning not to smother her constantly), and we’re getting some sleep   God is good!

Lauren has a different schedule - sleep all day, wake up at 8 pm and doze on and off until 3 am.  Other than the difficulty of working through those hours,   she’s a very sweet little girl. 

We’re getting ready to check out here…all tests are good and all pics have been taken.  Mommy gets a quick shower, and then we’ll be on our way!

Here are the promised pictures of our precious baby girl – I also included the pictures from when Peyton was a baby so you can see how much she looks like her big brother.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vv8ykdd.5u5uabo5&x=0&y=hszqof 

We have wireless internet at our hospital! I’ll add a better birth story later, but here’s the jist – 6:00 pm checked in with minor contractions, but the doc agreed to break my water if I hadn’t progressed. Apparently there were only 1 or 2 patients in our birthing center. 7:00 pm – Doc comes in to break the water, but baby’s hand it presenting next to her head, so if he broke the water her arm would go into the birth canal. 8:00 pm – Doc checks again, and baby has moved and the cord is not in danger of going into the canal, so he breaks the water. 8:30 – they start pitocin to make sure contractions are working 9:15 pm – contractions are strong, but still only a 4 (I came in at a 3) 9:50 – ready to push! In fact, I could barely hold back while we waited for the doctor. 10:00 – doctor says I can push 10:07 pm on 2-8-08 – baby Lauren is here! She did manage to sneak her hand next to her face again, which required a bit of maneuvering, but it worked out fine. She weighs in at 8 lb. 14 oz, 20.5 ” long…and very healthy. I had a minor tear, but it’s on the top/side, so it doesn’t bother me at all. We were able to avoid medications like I wanted, and James was an awesome coach, so it was really a wonderful birth experience! And she’s ready to eat (which is going well) – I’ll post pics soon (our camera battery doesn’t have enough power to load to the computer - check back in this afternoon, after James has had a chance to run home to get the spare battery.

Tomorrow morning we have our last doctor’s appointment.  If I’m dilated another 1/2 cm. from the last checkup 2.5 weeks ago, he’ll strip the membranes.  Whenever I read about stripping the membranes (pulling a small section of the amniotic sac away from the uterine wall) the sources always say there’s a 50-50 chance that labor will start within 12 hours, but when I mentioned it at work this morning, everyone said they’d never heard of a time it hadn’t worked.  I had planned on going to work tomorrow after my appointment, but they’re already maxed out on subs and I don’t want them to be stuck at the last minute, so instead we arranged for my long-term sub to come in for me regardless.  Also, one of the guys at work said that his wife gave birth within 45 minutes of having her membranes stripped, so now James is coming to the appointment with me just in case…the hospital (and our doctor) are about 35 minutes away from home, so we’ll spend a couple hours in Bellingham to see how things go, and if nothing is happening we’ll go home and spend the day off cleaning

Hopefully the next update will include baby pictures – we’ll see what happens!