Introducing Matilda Edith Smiley!

On Friday, July 22, Matilda Edith Smiley was born at 11:33am.  She weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces (the same size as Eliza) and was 20.25 inches long.  It has been so wonderful finally getting to meet her and having her home with us.  Eliza’s thrilled to be a big sister, and we love our two little girls.

Half Way There

It’s been a while since I blogged, but hopefully you all know our most recent big news – we will be having another GIRL!  Kirk and I are very excited to see two sisters grow up together.  We have been reading books and talking to Eliza a lot about being a big sister.  When asked, “Where’s the baby,” she’ll point at my growing belly, but she also thinks that she has a baby in hers, too!

This pregnancy has not been what we expected.  At our 8 week ultrasound the tech found a build-up of blood in my uterus.  I was put on a weight limit of 8 lbs with no exercising.   It made for some difficult weeks especially when Kirk was traveling.  I felt helpless in obeying what the doctor ordered since even Otis is over 8 lbs! 

When we went back 4 weeks later it was frustrating to find out that the mass doubled in size.  With this kind of build-up the body could reabsorb it or we were told it could stay there the whole pregnancy.  It was really getting me down to think of having this for 30+ weeks.  If the mass were to burst I would go into labor, so again I was reminded of the restrictions and tried to figure out how to be a mom and care for this unborn baby at the same time.

Timing couldn’t have been better, since right after this second ultrasound we had  a two week vacation planned in Florida.  It was a huge blessing and answer to prayer to have not only Kirk there but my in-laws as well to do all the lifting.  I did nothing but lay around, play with Kirk and Eliza, eat, and read for two weeks. 

When I returned home I went in for another ultra-sound at 14 weeks.  I had been praying that the mass had gone down in size.  I didn’t even think of praying that it would be gone.  Thankfully, the nurse couldn’t find any sign of it!  I was shocked and kept asking for her to check again.  Such a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders that I couldn’t stop smiling.  We were also able to find that we were having a girl and that she was looking perfect!  Over the last month I have been able to clean the house, lift Eliza when she asked me to hold her, and be excited about being pregnant.

This last week I went in for another ultrasound and my 20 week check.  Unfortunately, they found the blood build-up again.  This could be the same one or a new one, the doctor wasn’t sure.  I was put back on restrictions, but since I am out of the first trimester and the mass is not as big as it once was, my doctor is not as worried as she was previously.  I am trying not to get too stressed about it this time around and continue enjoying this pregnancy.  This little girl loves to move and I feel her all day long.  She also loves oranges and Mexican food!

Image from flickr.

B is for…

Eliza’s getting really good at recognizing most letters of the alphabet. If you were to ask her what the letter B is for she would be quick to tell you…

BABY!

Coming this July – a new Smiley!

We can’t wait to be a family of four! Eliza and I had fun surprising Kirk with the news at the airport.

The Hospital Run Down

5:30 pm - Arrive at the hospital and get admitted

6:00 pm - Meet our first nurse (we've been through quite a few), who knows one of the Smiley cousins

6:10pm - Get hooked up to the monitors that track the baby's heart rate and the frequency of contractions. Lynne discovers that she had been having contractions already for at least a couple days, but she didn't realize it at the time.

6:30pm - Nurses administer cervidil. The original plan was to administer this drug, which would, over a 12 hour period, "soften" Lynne up to be induced on Monday morning with pitocin, a much stronger drug that would significantly kick start things and bring on strong labor.

7:30pm - Sara and Jerry visit and Lynne's contractions really strengthen.

9:00pm - Sara and Jerry leave.

9:30pm - Contractions become incredibly painful, occurring every 60-90 seconds, with no relief even between contractions.

10:45pm - After braving what we learned was "significant labor" for 75 minutes, and being brought to tears during a "progress check," one dose of Nubain was administered to reduce the pain. At the time, Lynne was disappointed, believing since we were so early in the game (and at this point, we had no idea the future time frame for labor/delivery) she was "wussing out," but our excellent nurse (one of many Purdue grads serving us during our stay) was surprised she lasted as long as she did since the contractions were pretty severe.

11:30pm - After the Nubain dose wore off, and still no certainty that labor wouldn't last until late Monday afternoon, Lynne received an epidural, much to Kirk and the nurse's agreement. She was planning to have one at some point, and it just made sense to get it done early before the intense pain returned (which would make it difficult to adminster the epidural).

12:00am - The epidural kicks in and allows Lynne to feel better and have a little bit of sleep through the night. Contractions continued about every minute thrugh the night, which was very suprising to the nursing team.

4:00am - It is evident now that labor is happening very well on its own and there will be no need for pitocin! We were both pretty happy since we weren't a fan of that drug. The baby was ready to come on her own, which was wonderful to hear!

7:45am - The nurses give notice that in possibly an hour it will be time to start pushing. Pushing could last anywhere from 1 hour to 2, they think. We have a Purdue nursing student shadowing our nurse, whose sibling I knew at Purdue, and the staff continue to tell her that this is not normal. Lynne is an all-star, and getting to those point without pitocin is very uncommon, and her labor is progressing better than most. We enjoy hearing that!

8:45am - The doc has Lynne wait another hour before pushing to give the baby a chance to move a little further down. Parents are called and told to head to the hospital.

9:45am - Parents arrive and patiently kill time in the waiting room. It's time to push!

10:30am - Lynne is an all-star pusher, even with an epidural (which makes it harder to push since you can't feel yourself below the waist. Again, the nurses have to tell the Purdue student that this is not normal, so don't always expect it this easy. Lynne does about 90-120 minutes worth of pushing in 45 minutes. Kirk helps the nurses and watches this miracle happen.

10:31am - Eliza Kathryn Smiley is born! Lynne had no pain, Kirk triumphantly cuts the cord, and the doc takes care of Lynne while Kirk takes hundreds of pics and video of the baby being cleaned up. She weighs in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. Lynne was relieved since the doc thought she weighed 7 lbs. two weeks ago, and we were worried about a big baby. She measures 19.5 inches and rocks her APGAR tests :)

Ultrasounds

Right before Thanksgiving we had an ultrasound, and everything looked great. We also got to find out the sex, which was told to us very anticlimacticly, as the technician simply typed "girl parts" on the screen as she looked at our little daughter. In 19 years, she's never called it wrong, so I guess we're having a girl! Below are a bunch of pics! The 3D images make her look like a little mummified monkey. Her hands were in front of her face, so either she's hiding, doesn't like pictures taken of her, or is already training to be a boxer. It's still weird calling "it" a "her" now.

We own a house!

It is finally official! We are now the happy owners of the wonderful home at 5438 N Capitol Ave., in Indianapolis! Since we've lived there for almost a year, it doesn't feel too different, just very releaving to know it is all done and we don't have to deal with irrational sellers and unprofessional sellers agents! Whoohoo, we are aging rapidly.

Guess what?

Where's my Mommy?

hi everyone. i hope you liked reading about my tooth. i've lost 4 now, but the rest hurt so i've been chewing a lot. my new big teeth are coming in before my old teeth fall out!

but that's not why i wanted to talk to you. i wanted to let you know that my mommy all of a sudden isn't around all day. i miss her, but she comes home pretty happy, so that is good, and then she and dad play with me. where is she? well, she got this new thing called a JOB, where she goes sometimes during the day. i heard her say it's at someplace called Williams Sonoma Home, or something, but all i know is she was very excited about it and seems to enjoy it a lot so far. and she says she works close to dad's office too.


on a side note, i see my parents posted about that little girl Hayden coming over to play. well, i didn't really like that. she got ALL of the attention for a whole day! how is a puppy supposed to compete? i was pretty sad and don't like sharing. after she left, mom and dad gave me lots of backrubs, played tug of war, and we ran around the house to make up for it, which was fun.

Wow, Monday was a BIG night!

So, reading below you see that we found out about a new addition to the family tonight, and now we know where he will be running around. We have a house! We found out at about 10pm that we got our first choice rental house! We were competing with two other couples, so we had no clue what to expect, but it all worked out. Lynne was so excited she was jumping up and down in the dining room. So here are some pics of our new place. It is a three bedroom and the third bedroom will be my office since I may be working from home a little bit early on. The office has the most amazing built-in bookshelves (yes, for which to place the spoils of my booksale addiction). There is a year-round sunroom, an amazing spacious kitchen with gas stove, a beautifully manicured and landscaped lawn, a two-car garage (hooray!), perfect hardwoods throughout, a fireplace, and a clean, coated, painted, and well-lit basement with an amazing washer and dryer room. Also, Lynne likes to remind me that the stone and brick in front look like a mini-ATO. :)

We were looking in the Broad Ripple area, and this house is on Capitol near 54th about 2 miles southeast of the ripple, and it was so much nicer than what we could find just south of the park. Also, it's near Meridian which is nice for Kirk since he may be working downtown once they secure him some office space. The neighborhood is VERY nice, but we are sad that we won't be there in time for trick-or-treaters this year. Tons of thanks goes to Sara, Jerry, Kevin, and Tammy for finding this place on their long "house-hunting" bike ride. This place was the best rental house they found, and we couldn't have agreed more!
Description: Nicely finished brick ranch in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood. 3 nicely sized bedrooms, a sunroom, & a basement. Newer stainless steel appliances & hardwoods through-out. 1414 sq. ft. / 2828 sq. ft. with basement

Meet the Newest Addition to the Family!

We have a new puppy! Well not quite yet. We will be getting our new family member around November 6th. He is eight weeks old but does not yet have a name, since Kirk's favorite one has been vetoed by me...Falkor is just not something I want to yell in public! He is a Havanese, the National dog of Cuba & its only native breed. We are excited and can't wait to meet him!Here he is with his black & white brother.

"Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has
to choose a relative."
-Mordecai Siegal

Who has two thumbs and got a job?

THIS GUY!

E-mail or call for more info (or check out the blog in the coming days)! :)