Here It Is -- The Baby Update

Dude, we did it!  First off, to calm the raging masses, some baby photos:

Day 1 in the real world.

Baby and auntie.

Getting ready to take her home!

Grandpa and his first granddaughter.

Vogue-ing in sleep.

OK, now that that's out of the way, some details.  An abbreviated version.  Evelyn Athena Marshall was born 11/30/13 at 11:28pm at OHSU via C-section, 9 days late.

Labor.  It was, you know... laborious.  I woke up on Thanksgiving day with contractions that were stronger and closer together, but still not painful.  At about 9:30pm on Thanksgiving (we were watching Catching Fire in the movie theater), the contractions started getting closer together and more painful.  We went to the hospital after the movie was over (it was a good movie!) and they sent us home until things progressed a little farther.  We got home at about 3am-- my water broke in bed at 4:30am on Friday.  After a few more hours of laboring at home, we headed in to the hospital.  I managed about 18 hours total of unmedicated labor, and then got the epidural.  When I got the epidural, my contractions had been about 3 minutes apart for several hours, but I was still dilated to only about 2cm (a VERY depressing fact to learn after 18 hours of pain). 

Anyway, with the epidural, my contractions slowed down, so they gave me pitocin, and then intrauterine monitoring, and after another 22 hours in labor, I was only dilated to 5cm total.  The babies head was starting to swell, my white blood cell count and my temperature were going up, and my water had been broken for about 42 hours.  The doctors were concerned with the potential for infection, and so a C-section it was.  I was a bit (as in, VERY) sad about that.  There were two things I had really wanted in the birthing process-- a healthy baby and a vaginal delivery.  BUT,  a healthy baby was the most important part, so into surgery we went.  It was an intense process-- I've never had a major surgery before.  And then all of a sudden I had a baby!

Holy crap, we have a baby.  She's really cute.  I'm biased, of course, but still.  It's been a bit of an adjustment so far, but we're coping.  We're a little sleep deprived, but otherwise doing well.  It's amazing how quickly your entire heart gets wrapped up in such a little package.  Newborns don't breathe regularly like we do-- they have pauses of 10-20 seconds where they don't breathe at all occasionally-- and in the middle of the night, I swear my heart stops every time she does it, even knowing it's normal. 

Also, I can't stop staring at her.  If she wasn't my daughter, it'd be creepy. We have all kinds of nicknames for her, as you might have guessed-- E, or Ev, obviously.  But we've also decided that she's a total gangster, and so we've abbreviated her nickname from in utero (us, abbreviate stuff?  No way!), and now instead of LTB, she's Lil' Teeb.  Or Teebs.  Or LT.  Because LTB is just too many syllables.  Jason has also changed her abbreviation from LTB to TTB-- that's Ticking Time Bomb, if you want the full nickname.  I'm calling her Ravenous Beast and Hungry Hungry Hippo.  These might not go over well as she gets older, but they're totally appropriate for the moment.  :)

So, yeah!  Life.  It has completely changed, as I know everyone said would happen beforehand, and we were supposed to totally know what that meant.  Except we didn't.  And now we do.  Sleep is a precious commodity.  I've never met a more adorable individual in my whole life than this tiny little girl.  Jason might just be a slight bit excited about her.  :)  We've been having an excellent stream of visitors who apparently like us-- they keep bringing us food and alcohol and dessert and stuff!  And holding the baby.  It's amazing.  Thank you guys, so much. 

Jason's mom has been in town since we got home from the hospital, which has been great.  My dad is thrilled, as you might imagine, so he's been spending a fair amount of time over at our apartment as well.  And now Jason's sister and niece and nephew are also in town visiting for a couple of days, and it's just awesome to see how everyone loves little babies.  It's pretty damn great. 

LTB makes the greatest faces while she sleeps.  And I never knew that babies are crosseyed quite a bit-- man, is that ever funny.  I'm sure she doesn't appreciate it, but we can't help laughing.  Amazing.

Also, in the hospital, they also sent a photographer over to take a few photos of the little one right after birth.  They are up for viewing here: Baby Bella Photography  Enter the access code:  shal1130marshall  They are only available on the website until December 16th, so if you want a print of something, go there soon.  We'll probably do another photo session one of these days, but I don't know when.  They're pretty cute.  You might like them.  Check out a couple:

The baby yawn-- otherwise known as adult kryptonite.  Don't tell me you didn't 'Aaawww' for that one.

Alright, that's the update.  I'm light on wit here, guys, but let's blame it on lack of sleep, okay?  Hopefully the next post will be more entertaining.  If we haven't seen you  yet, come over!  Come meet Evelyn, and come keep the adults company, so we can talk about more than poop and spit up for a little while.  :)

Nope, Not Yet-- Short and Sweet Update

Trust me, we are waiting on pins and needles.  My due date is the 21st, so we're almost there!  I keep trying not to hope that she'll arrive early, but it's in the back of my mind.  Which, of course, will mean that she'll be late, and maybe even really late!  I guess we'll see.  :)

I'm still doing well, feeling larger and more uncomfortable every day, but still working (and I climbed last week).  Although Jason did help me put on my shoes the other day.  It's just so hard to reach my feet!  Ha.  Yes.  The belly is giant.

And, as you can imagine, we are not excited at all.  Ha!  Every day I wake up and think, "Today could be the day!"  And it really could.  Except, the more I think that, the more impatient I get for today to ACTUALLY be the day, and so far, it hasn't been.  Clearly.  But I am doing my best to be patient-- the longer she spends in there, the better, right?  We just so want to meet her!  

And I think I am totally ready for the actual labor.  Last night I felt her drop more into my pelvis, and I just thought-- "Yes.  Let's do this."  Which really, is a big change from how I was feeling a month ago, and probably due to the fact that this last stage really is awkward and uncomfortable.  And we've just been waiting so long!  :)

Jason has taken to asking things like, "Do you think our baby will love us?"  Or "Do you think she'll have red hair?" 

Yesterday, he balled his fists up and waved his arms around and asked, "Who am I?"  Ha-- LTB, clearly.  

Or, lately he'll start talking to my belly, and says things like, "Follow the sound of my voice!"  Will this bring the child out?  I have no idea.  But it's certainly entertaining. 

I've been trying to keep busy-- balancing keeping the schedule open in case it happens, and also making sure to have things going so I don't dwell on the fact that I want this child to arrive!  I have just a few days left of work-- I'm going to work through Thursday, which is my due date, if she doesn't arrive.  And then after that, I think I'm done.  It's not too bad to be at work, but there is certainly some discomfort, so I think it would be better to be relaxing at home if she's late.  

We helped out at a fundraiser for My Voice Music, a non-profit run by our very good friend Ian Mouser, on Friday.  It was AWESOME.  Check out MVM here:  http://www.myvoicemusic.org/  Our friends are doing amazing things.

We've been playing a fair amount of Catan... and stocking up on groceries... and hanging out with my dad... and generally taking it easy, but trying to get ready as well.  This child has more clothes than I do, and I've done an obscene number of laundry loads to get her clothes ready.  It's pretty ridiculous.  But seriously-- the clothes are all SO DAMN CUTE.



Nicky put together a meal calendar for us-- if anyone wants to volunteer to bring us a meal, we'll let you hold the baby... :)  Doesn't that sound tempting?  Check it out here:

http://carecalendar.org/logon/166004

To get access, enter passcode 1213.  

Also, we took some preggo photos with our friend Lucas, and he's amazing.  Check out these fantastic photos:

Obligatory and cheesy, but cute!

This is our album cover.  For our band.  Which we totally have.

You can see the whole group of them here, and purchase prints if you want to:

http://shop.lukaphoto.com/dunbar-marshall


They are ridiculously great.  He's such a talented guy.  

Needless to say, my belly is now bigger, but I don't have more photos to share of it.  I plan on taking one right when I go into labor so I can compare.  :)  

Want to see something crazy?  I took this video about 3 weeks ago, but if you pay attention to the sides of my belly, you can see the alien child moving inside.  It's really rather awesome.  Check it out:

 

Yup.  That's every day, folks.  And her movements are getting more and more dramatic, I'm guessing because she has less and less room.  I think I even have a section of my uterus that is bruised from all of her kicking!  She's a feisty one.

Anyway, I promise to keep you updated.  When she arrives, I'll let you know!  And post annoying new baby pictures, of course.  :) 

3 Weeks To Go... No Baby Yet!

I thought I would make that the title of this post, since I'm assuming that is everyone's first question.  :)  Not that I'm counting or anything, but it's only 2 weeks and 4 days until November 21st.  I only have 11 work days left.  I mean, woah!  At some point, we're going to have an actual, live, real, human baby.  Like, to take care of, and stuff.  That's pretty crazy.  :)

I'm still feeling pretty good, though I am definitely getting uncomfortable.  My belly is now 41 1/2" around.  Which is gigantic, in case you were wondering.  It makes a lot of stuff rather awkward, including tying my shoes, getting out of or off of pretty much any piece of furniture (especially in and out of the car, and in and out of the bed), bending down to get something off the floor, putting on pants... you know, all those things you normally do in a regular day.  :)  It's actually rather entertaining-- I've entered the stage where all of these things require involuntary grunts in order to complete.  Jason thinks it's hilarious, but then is also constantly asking if I'm okay, since it clearly sounds like I'm working rather hard.  Which I guess I am.  Pretty hilarious.

34 weeks-- 3+ weeks ago!

We've finished our series of baby classes, which were actually really cool.  We learned about newborn care and breastfeeding, and then took a four-class series on birthing, in which I saw several actual births.  You'd think I would have been prepared for that, but I wasn't.  It was a little intense.  Have you ever seen someone give birth?  Yeah.  It's serious.  I won't paint too much of a picture for you, but 'crowning' is a really mild word for something that looks INSANE.  I'll be sure to report back to you on my experience-- we'll see how all that goes.  They say, though, that by the end of the pregnancy you're so uncomfortable that the crazy process of giving birth is actually worth it just to be finished being pregnant... and I can see how that could be true.

Anyway, this sort of talk might not be what you signed up for in clicking on the blog link.  :)  Did you know that this month makes 10 years for Jason and I?  Yup.  A decade-- we are, in fact, that old.  It's pretty cool, I think we've accomplished some pretty awesome things in that decade.  I like him still-- so I think I'll keep him.  :)  And if this child decides to arrive this month, that would be a pretty awesome 10-year anniversary present.

We've had quite a few happenings in the last month or so-- it's been a month of baby showers and baby prep, actually.  Here are a few photos from a baby shower thrown for us by Julia Eschman and Michael and Crystal Lary:

So at this baby shower, Jason was teaching Brad and Allison's daughter Willa to climb up the hammock.  Of course, he teaches her that she needs to vocalize when trying hard, so he teaches her to say, "PASSAT!"  This is funny if you're a climber, because that's the kind of car we drive.  Anyway.  A little inside, I know.  The point is, when driving home from the baby shower, Willa asked Allison what we should name our baby.  When Allison asked Willa what she thought the name should be, Willa responded with "Passat!"  HA!  Willa is a genius.

We probably won't name the baby Passat, but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

Or that it won't be her nickname, which is not something I can promise.

My aunt Antoinette also threw us a baby shower at her place for the family in town, which was awesome.  The most hilarious part was the baby shower gift from my dad, which consisted of marbles, balloons, and special agent glasses that let you see behind you, all wrapped in a paper bag from Fred Meyer.

My dad is also a genius.

Adorable photo of Angela, Suzanne and Nicky.

Best baby present EVER.

We went up to visit my brother for a day, a short trip, but awesome regardless.  Look at how big my nephews are getting, I can't even believe they're growing up this fast:

Me, Alex and Matthew

Jason and Matthew ninja fighting.  This was HILARIOUS, mostly because Matthew refused to admit that he could be beaten by Jason.

My mom and I.

Was that cliché or what?  But it's true.  It was such an awesome visit-- I really love being able to hang out with those guys, and life just gets in the way too often for my tastes.  We basically got to hang out and play games with my nephews for hours, and those boys are just fun.  I also got to see my mom and my older brother, which was really nice.  They don't live that far away (only about 2 1/2 hours) but somehow we just don't get up there as often as I would like.

Anyway.  One big news item of note is that as of October 14th, I got a new job!  It's basically Dream Job.  I am now an Education Officer for the Mercy Corps Action Center, which means I am teaching classes about international development to middle and high school students and adults.  It's pretty much amazing.  I have wanted to work at Mercy Corps for years, and had been volunteering there since we moved here with the hope that it might help get my foot in the door, which it clearly did.  Check out what Mercy Corps does here: http://www.mercycorps.org/; and check out the Action Center here: http://www.mercycorps.org/action-center.  Yup.  I'm pretty excited.  And so far the team I'm working with is amazing, and really cool and flexible with the whole, "I'm about to have a baby and be off work for six weeks" thing.

Honestly, want to know one of the best parts about the job?  It's only 32 hours a week.  I had no idea I would love not working full-time so much.  Or maybe I did, but I just pretended I didn't since the opportunity was never there.  It's been great!  I feel like I've actually been able to spend some time getting ready for this baby to arrive, which is critical.  And, since Jason's job is really flexible, and since he often ends up working some hours on the weekends, we've been able to spend a lot more time together lately.  It seems like that is going to work out amazingly for when this child does actually pop out.

Hopefully, we'll be able to use family for the few days a week when we will both be working, so we won't have to rely on daycare, which would be cool.  As you can imagine, both my dad and my sister are rather excited about babysitting, not to mention my aunt and my cousin.  We probably won't have a shortage of willing hands to help, at least in the beginning.  :)

I'm still climbing!  At least, I was as of last Monday.  I'll keep you posted on this week-- seems like the awkwardness has been increasing exponentially, so I make no promises.  Here are a few photos of the belly at the gym:

Cheesy posed shot.  Wearing the Bumps on the Move top.

The most awkward part is putting my shoes on.

Mountain Mama harness and top.

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!

I have to say, I get the most hilarious looks at the gym.  Either that, or people go out of their way to tell me how awesome it is that I'm still climbing.  I even had one girl ask me to sign her shirt.  Like, with my name, and stuff.  It's pretty entertaining.  It's like I'm a sideshow at the circus, which is totally fine with me, if it gets people thinking that it's okay to be active while pregnant.  Up to this point, I'd been feeling mostly normal, and yet everyone kept telling me to rest, and sit down, and not do things... kind of ridiculous.  I realize that not everyone feels great while pregnant, but still.  I'm not disabled, guys, I'm just making another human.

So yeah.  I'm still representing a couple pregnant activewear companies, which is pretty cool.  Mountain Mama is the company that makes the harness I'm using, as well as some awesome clothes, which I'm wearing in nearly every picture on this blog.  I think I like their stuff or something.  The other company I'm representing is called 'Bumps On The Move'.   And shortly I'll be a guest blogger for For Two Fitness-- I'll let you know when you might see that guest blog online.  Cool, huh?   

I've been hanging with my dad a lot, since I have more time off, which is really nice.  We've also been prepping the baby room-- holy cow, does this little girl already have a ridiculous amount of clothing.  The thing with baby clothing is that it's really CUTE.  And SMALL.  And when you put things that are cute in small sizes, it basically turns it into something as irresistible as a puppy.  Seriously.  Puppies are irresistible.  Try to resist petting a tiny puppy when you see one.  You can't do it.  It's physically impossible.  So my theory is that baby clothes are the same way-- people HAVE TO BUY THEM.  And after they buy them, they give them to us.  Oh, and for some reason, everything is pink.  The baby room looks a little like a bottle of Pepto exploded back there.  I had no idea there were so many shades of pink.

This theory actually pairs well with Jason's theory about puppies, which is that this baby is going to basically be kryptonite for me.  He thinks this is true because I really do think puppies are extremely cute-- Jason accuses me of thinking that all dogs are puppies, regardless of size.  I mean, they are fuzzy and adorable, so I can't really argue.  But, according to Jason, this baby will be so cute and so small that it will effectively be SUPER PUPPY-- Dunbar kryptonite.  I am not inclined to argue.  Things that are small and cute are definitely a weapon to be used against me, I'm a sucker.

Speaking of things that are really cute, we also went up to see my Grandma recently-- she is both small and adorable.  We went to the pumpkin patch, which I haven't done in ages. 

I just really love that lady.


Karen Darr and my sister threw us another baby shower, at which I took zero photos, like the slacker that I am.  Needless to say, it was awesome, and my friends are amazing, and my book club is amazing, and I can't help but appreciate the fact that I have such amazing people around me here in Portland.  Thank you Karen, and Nicky, for being so freaking awesome.

We carved pumpkins for Halloween at my sister's house:

Awesome.  It was actually really rather complicated to sit on the floor and carve for so long, but let's just pretend it wasn't.  And then the pumpkins lasted for all of three days before they started to stink.  Seriously, did that used to happen as a child?  I swear when I was younger pumpkins would sit out on our front porch for weeks, still looking pretty dang good.  For the last two years though, those pumpkins have had a porch life of mere days.  Is this selective memory from my childhood?  Or did days just seem like weeks back then?  It's an enigma.  Even scientists don't know the answer to this question.

Yeah.  The other day, on my day off of work in the middle of the week, I planned a Dunbar pamper day, where I had a massage, a haircut, and a pedicure.  It was awesome.  I highly recommend this to other pregnant ladies.  Also, I can't really reach my own toes well, so doing a pedicure at home is basically out of the picture.  So it was practical, in addition to being awesome.

Pampering is totally necessary, especially because these last few weeks have definitely changed in terms of comfort.  My sleep is interrupted constantly now, either by having to pee, or back pain, or pain in my rib cage (the child thinks she's supposed to burrow under there, I think).  I've been having tons of the Braxton Hicks contractions, or practice/warm-up contractions, too.  They aren't painful, though.  Jason, of course, thinks that this means that the baby is ready to arrive, like, any minute.  In fact, he is so sure he installed the car seat in the car this morning.  I'd love for him to be right, but somehow I think I have several more weeks to go.

We are totally professional, and totally know what we're doing.  Right.

With the car seat installed, we are totally ready for this baby!  Except not.  But somehow, sort of ready.  What I'm really excited for are the holidays with a little baby around.  Oh man, my family is going to go nuts.  It's gonna be great.

Alright, this is the end of another ridiculously long blog.  Hopefully, the next time I post, I'll have ridiculously cute baby photos to share!  And then I can turn into just another one of those people, spamming everyone I know with baby photos.  Yes.  Excellent plan.