Two Months Old!

It's so hard to believe over 2 months have gone by since our precious baby opened her eyes to the world.

Some milestones we have reached...

Brooke likes to look at Daddy; sometimes she'll even coo and smile

She is getting really good at controlling her gorgeous little red-head



She likes to sleep - and most of the nights, she lets Momma sleep until 4-5am!

She's trying to grow an 80's style punk-rocker chick mullet

And she is such a precious sleeper

We had our 2 month checkup today

she weighed in at a whole whopping 11 lbs 13 oz (75%tile for girls)

her length was measured at 23 3/4 inches (90%tile for girls)

and her head was measured at the 50%tile - I can never remember the number.

Andy and I have a bet on how tall she is going to be. I'm not sure what the stakes are yet, but we have quite a few years to figure it out.

Andy's guess: 6'1

Andrea's guess: 5'11

We shall see who is right....stay tuned for the next 18 years....

Brooke's Baptism

May 17, 2009 A very special day.

As I write this, there are tears in my eyes and wet splotches on my shirt. It is really starting to hit me now, Brooke is growing up. Too fast. And I feel like I am too busy fussing about other things that are much less important.

Let me back up...Sunday was Brooke's baptism. It was both a day I have been looking forward to, and stressing over at the same time.

What were the things I was looking forward to?

• Spending time with family and friends that we don't see often enough.



• Seeing the joy on those same faces when Brooke would smile and coo for them.



• Watching my grandfather hold his great-granddaughter for the first time.



• Enjoying the good food Andy and I prepared together

But where was my energy and my focus? I wasn't always "in the moment" soaking up every minute. I was distracted with trying to make sure everything was "perfect". And the ironic thing, it wasn't absolutely perfect, but it was the best I could have made it. And you know, no one noticed it wasn't perfect. So why do I put so much energy into trying to make things "perfect" and then miss the little moments. Little moments like being about to sit with the group and listen to wise words from my 90 year old grandfather. Little moments of spending more than 2 minutes talking to any one person.

But surely, I do appreciate what few little moments I was a part of.

Like when my grandfather held Brooke for the first time

And of course, there was the baptism itself...

And spending some time with both sides of the family...

And of course, the lady of the hour...

There are only 3 short weeks left and then I will have to return to work. I will try and make the most of every little moment and stop worrying about the insignificant things!

3 weeks and a day

Presenting...the one...the only...

Brooke Elizabeth Vandehey

born March 18, 2009

1:47 am

20 inches

7 lb 14 oz

Overdue

We are now past our due date. She seems very content to stay put for now. I haven't had many contractions the last couple of days.

Maybe this is better though - then Andy can study for his final and not be distracted with baby. I have another doctor appointment tomorrow, and maybe we'll have made some progress in the dilation department. But if not, she's only got a week to come out on her own, then we'll induce on the 17th at the earliest.

And this was the same girl that wanted to come out and play on January 16.....funny how things work out.

Going into labor??.....Not quite

I really thought that we might be heading to the hospital in the middle of the night last night or this morning. It started around 7pm and I was starting to get fairly frequent contractions. They were less than 5 minutes apart accompanied with cramping and back-aches. I was thinking...uh oh...here we go! And the contractions continued on for about 6 hours, but they weren't too intense. I didn't need to do any of the breathing techniques to get through them and they were more of an annoyance than anything. The contractions started to space themselves out.

I may have just been dehydrated, and so I drank about a liter of water between 7pm and midnight that seemed to calm them down and I was able to get to sleep. This morning everything feels like it is back to normal.

Definitely was an interesting night - laying there awake - wondering if my water is going to break, or if I should call triage.

Now we wait some more

+++++++++++

In the middle of all these contractions, I decided to get the crib put together.

Now we just need a baby to lay in here. (and organize the rest of the room that you can't see)

Only 16 more days, or less??

It is really hard to believe that we are only 16 days away from our due date! After the little scare we had in the hospital over a month ago, I just Praise God that everything has worked out so good this far! Our God is an Awesome God!

You might think that with just over 2 weeks until Baby Girl arrives, I might be a little more prepared. Hmm...not quite. The crib mattress is still balancing on end in the crib - to keep the cats out of it. I am just now washing the mattress pad and sheets and *maybe* I'll get around to making the crib this weekend. All the 0-3 month clothes are washed and in bags waiting to be organized into the dresser that my gracious Aunt is bringing over to us on Monday. And really - if she decided to come tomorrow, we would be more than okay. She won't care if the crib bumper isn't in place, or the window valance put up. So I'm not worrying about having everything perfect. It surprises me that I'm content with not having everything organized. Must be the hormones or something.

Ash Wednesday is coming up next week - and I've been thinking about what I would like to change/improve/sacrifice during those following 46 days. When I'm not working, sleeping, eating or staring out the window, I have been spending quite a bit of time reading. And the books I have been choosing to read, are not the most spiritually fulfilling. As entertaining as murder mysteries are, they aren't really filling my head and heart with good things. One of the things I plan on doing, is replacing my murder mysteries with the study of God's Mysteries. What better place to learn about His mysteries, than in searching for what is revealed in the Bible. I would like to read the whole Bible eventually, and maybe I can work through a large portion this Lent.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Baby Progress

We did have a doctor appointment on Thursday. And we seem to be progressing...
In 1 week, we went from <1cm dilated, to maybe a 1 1/2 cm dilated (but the first check was from a different doctor, so we may not have changed much at all)

Wouldn't it be ironic if she was late!