My handsome boy

Here are a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. We are now home from the hospital. We came home yesterday morning and my mom got here yesterday afternoon. Yea! Eli is doing great. He's getting better at nursing (as am I) and he slept from 12:00-5:20 last night. Woohoo! We were all very excited. I'm planning on giving a full account of my exciting labor and delivery sometime, but for now I'll just put up some pictures.

With his daddy on his first day of life:
He's so cute!

They had a nice dinner for Jeremy and I on Tuesday night at the hospital. It was very tasty.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital:
Eli with Grandma:
He has really long arms. Our little ape-man. :)
Sleeping peacefully this morning:

He is Here

Eli George Nowland arrived on April 27, 2009 at 11:22AM. He is a beautiful healthy boy. He is 9 lbs 3 oz. and 21 inches long. Here are some pictures.

The proud parrents

Eli showing his pouty face

Eli and his dad

And here he is with his wonderful mother. Sarah did so great! She had to push for over 1 and a half hours. He was no small baby and he was full posterior (face up) to boot.


Sarah is feeding him now and he is doing great. We will all take a nap and we will give the full account later.

We Finally Made it to the Hospital

So, this is my first post ever. (This is Jeremy) We came into the hospital tonight at 9pm to get ready to be induced. When the nurse checked Sarah she was dilated to a 2.5. So, they are not doing the suppository and they are going to check her again at midnight to see how she is progressing. The nurse said she thinks we would have ended up here tonight anyway. Sarah has been contracting about every 5 to 10 minutes.

Here is a picture of Sarah in her sweet gown in her oh so comfortable bed!

And her is me in my sweet bed/rocking chair. Yes that is right, it might be a long night.
I will give you all more news as I get it.

3:00 am Update:

Well this is Sarah here. I got checked at midnight at there was no change. So she said we should walk around a bit and then she would start me on pitocin. So we went on a little stroll and then I took a shower because my lower back was hurting a lot. Then we laid down for awhile and she ended up coming in at about 1:40 to start me on Pitocin. I've been able to rest a lot which has been nice. It helps with the contractions too because I am so relaxed and sleepy in between that it's easier to stay relaxed during contractions. Anyway, so they're coming every few minutes or so, sometimes right on top of each other, sometimes a little more spread out. But we're doing good! I have a feeling it's going to be quite awhile still. So far the worst pain I have experienced has been the 2 times I've been checked because my cervix is really far back I guess. Anyway, we'll update again later!

6:30 am Update:

This is Jeremy again. So, things a progressing nicely. At 5AM this morning Sarah decided she wanted an epidural. Her contractions were coming strong every 3 minutes (start to start) so she was only getting about 1 minute in between, that is if they weren't right on top of each other. She had several in succession that would not finish before the next one started. I think the epidural was a wise choice. Since then we have been resting comfortably. She is now dilated to a 4.5 so I am pretty sure we are going to have this baby today!!

8:00 AM Update:

Now we are cookin... we are now at an 8! The doctor just got here and checked Sarah and broke her water. He said we should have this baby in the next couple hours!! I'll put some pictures up when Eli arrives.

I'm sorry (follow up to my last post)

I'm feeling bad about feeling bad. I have so much to be thankful for. I really have had a wonderful pregnancy, and the baby has been really healthy. I complain about not wanting to be induced but there are so many other things that are so much worse. I have a healthy baby. I'm healthy. I am not on bed rest. I can walk 2 miles without keeling over. I have an amazing husband who is so patient with me and so supportive. I can't imagine people doing this alone. I have a great family both in blood and in law. I have so many blessings and you won't hear me gripe again. (I griped a lot more in my head than I did in my post, so trust me, I need to repent). Thank you again for all the comments. I am so thrilled to be a mother and hope I can do a good job. (Thank goodness my mom's coming in a few days!:)) So I, or maybe Jeremy, will post again soon.

Update

So a lot of people having been asking if I have a baby yet, so I thought I better post something. I am still very pregnant. More than ever actually! Here's what's been going on. Friday I went to my last doctor's appointment. He did another non-stress test and the baby is doing great. He also did an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels and that was fine too. While at the doctor I had 3 painful contractions (2 during the nst which was cool to see). I was surprised because so far I had only had Braxton Hicks contractions which don't hurt. So anyway, Jeremy had taken the morning off to come with me so then we went to the store and then home. Long story short, I kept having these painful contractions every 5-30 minutes until midnight that night. We were both pretty sure we would be having the baby Saturday morning, but we didn't. After a long day of timing contractions they started getting closer and more regular, so at about 11:00, when they were 6-8 minutes apart, we decided to go to bed to try and rest a bit because we figured it would be a long night. Well I drifted to sleep at about 12:00 and woke up a couple hours later and the contractions were gone. Needless to say I was quite disappointed.

Saturday morning I woke up and didn't really have any. That afternoon I had some sporadically and last night I had some every 15 minutes or so for a few hours, but again they just stopped. So it's been a bit of an emotional weekend. I really was trying not to get my hopes up on Friday, but after 14 1/2 hours of "labor" I really thought something was happening. Saturday morning I had a bit of a breakdown but I have since recovered and am trying to get ready for tonight when I go to the hospital. I go in tonight around 9:00 and they're giving me this vaginal suppository thing that is supposed to dilate me to a 2 or 3 by Monday morning. Then the doctor comes in and breaks my water or starts me on Pitocin and things start happening. So that's the update. I've got 13 hours to convince this baby that he wants to come on his own. :) Trust me I have tried every trick in the book (besides castor oil, which I refuse). I think I've walked more in the past week and a half than ever in my life. But I'm hoping since I've labored so much already that it will make it go a little faster. There's a chance that the suppository could be enough to jumpstart me, but who knows. We'll find out. Thanks everyone for your kind words of encouragement. I really didn't want to be induced, but I'm trying not to dwell on it too much or I lose it. It's just not what you invision when you think of having your first baby. I feel a little jipped not to have the excitement of going into labor and saying "Honey, we gotta go to the hospital!" But those are selfish feelings, and the outcome of a healthy baby will hopefully be the same. Anyway, I'm trying to focus on the fact that for sure by tomorrow we will have a baby! I'll post again if anything changes, but if not, we'll try and get pictures up soon!

Keeping Busy...

Well I'm now 4 days overdue, but I'm trying not to think too much about it. Since my doctor's appointment on Friday, I have been trying to stay more busy and active. I have walked 2 miles everyday (so 4 days now), we've gone out to eat (we keep saying "this could be the last time" to justify ourselves), we've watched movies, I've gone to the store several times, I've been reading, I lounged in the sun yesterday because it was so warm (and got a slight tan, woohoo!), I've done laundry and cleaning (trying to keep everything nice so I'll be ready!) and last night we bought a new kitchen table! We, well I, had been looking online everyday at ksl.com classifieds because I really wanted a new kitchen table. Ours is great but it's quite small and it seems like we're always having people visit and I just thought a bigger table would be nice. I really liked those square ones, but wasn't sure how I felt about the counter height tables, and most of the square ones were counter height. Anyway, it seemed every good deal I found was going fast, so I knew I needed to jump on this one when I found it. It is normal height, has 8 chairs, and it can be a big square or it has a leaf that folds down and it can be a smaller rectangle. And we got it for $200! Woohoo! It has some wear and tear, but we're having kids now, and that's going to happen. I had always liked dark wood, but decided this was great and would hide scratches better than dark wood anyway. So here's our new (used) table!
It seems really sturdy and we really like it. Now we're going to try and sell our smaller one. I've put it up on ksl so we'll see if we get any takers. In the meantime it's in with the piano. :) Anyway, so that's what we've been up to. I was hoping that carrying it into the house with Jeremy last night would send me into labor, but nothing yet.

However, I did go to the doctor this morning and he said he really doesn't think I'll make it until Monday (my inducement day) and he's usually on the pessimistic side. I could have kissed him I was so happy! Even if he's wrong, it gives me hope and I was needing some of that. He informed me that the baby is super low (which I already knew) and that I'm super soft, whatever that means. Since I'm overdue, they also hooked me up to an external fetal monitor for about 15 minutes which was fun and it gave a little printout of the baby's heart beat. He said it was so perfect he could cut it out and stick it in a textbook. Yea! So baby is good and I'm trying to just have fun and stay busy. I informed Jeremy that I'm taking him out to lunch today, so that should be fun. Hopefully our next post will have some news! I've got a good feeling it's going to be soon.

Happy Due Date

I know. I'm huge. I look at this picture and think, how has my skin stretched so far? (Without stretch marks; knock-on-wood) How has my body changed so much? How am I still carrying this child?!? But somehow I am. Well, it is my due date today. I don't think the baby has gotten the memo, but it's still early. :) Actually I don't expect him to come today at all. Did you know only 5% of babies come on their due date? And 50% go past their due date? Wow.

So I went to the doctor this morning. I am measuring at 39 cm, I'm still dilated to a 1, I am 60% effaced, and he's at a -1 station. So not much change in the past 4 weeks. But hey, a lot could change quickly. So now I have doctor's appointments twice a week. I set appointments for next Tuesday and Friday and then the next Monday (the 27th) I will be induced if he hasn't come. I'm really hoping that he'll come next Tuesday or Wednesday. Pretty much I just want him to come on his own, so anytime before the 27th. So send good vibes our way! I told Jeremy we've got to pull out all the stops now. Spicy food, long walks, and whatever else we can think of. (Although I know those things probably don't work, it may make me feel better).

So that's the update. Apparently all my friends are in that 50% group that comes before their due date. Three people I know have had babies in the past 2 weeks - all before their due date. But in my family, it's a much different story. My dad was 2 weeks late, I was 2 weeks late, my sister Amy's last baby was 13 days late, sister Wendy's last baby was 6 days late. I know. I'm doomed. But the most important thing is that we have a healthy baby. So I know that 10 days from now (at most) I will have a baby!

A fulfilling weekend

Well first of all, General Conference was excellent. I felt like I got a lot out of every talk this year. I took good notes through everything and just felt very uplifted. Jeremy and I were talking about themes we noticed and it seemed like it was focused on the temple and happiness and hope through trials. I really liked all the talks about the temple and Elder Stevenson's about making your home more like the temple. Overall it was a great conference and I can't wait to read all the talks.

So I am now 11 days away from my due date! I had a doctor's appointment on Friday and I'm dialated to a 1. Not too much change there, but that's okay. The latest he said he'd let me go is the 27th. So I have somewhere between 0-21 days left! We are all ready. My bag is packed; clothes are washed, put away and organized; all the baby gear is purchased (we just got a swing on Friday, that was last on the list); we got a pediatrician; we registered at the hospital; almost all of my books are read; I've got 4 meals in the freezer and 3 loaves of homemade bread; the baby has dropped; mom is uncomfortable and we are ready!

Anyway, so our fun weekend started on Friday. Heidi and her friend Brianna (who will be her roommate next year) came up Friday night for Conference weekend. We had a really fun time with them and they are some giggly freshman girls. :) They're great though and it was fun to spend time with them. Here we are Saturday morning, ready for Conference:
And here are some delicious cinnamon rolls I made. I gave my sisters the recipe too, so we all had these cinnamon rolls this weekend. Yum! Oh, here's the link if you would like the recipe. It was great because I made them on Friday and refrigerated them, and then popped them in the oven Saturday morning.
Here's Jeremy in front of the TV showing 179th Conference:
Then Saturday afternoon Heidi and Brianna had tickets, so they went to the afternoon session. Heidi had never been to the Conference Center so she was really excited.
During the Priesthood session, Brianna took a nap (she was getting a cold) and Heidi and I went to the store to get her some makeup. She has a big choir thing this weekend that they're video-ing, so they had a big lesson on makeup and she needed some things. Here's after I dolled her up:
And a farther-away shot so you can see my huge stomach. A lady at the store kept going on and on about how huge I was. It was a little strange. She said she was so sorry and that I looked so uncomfortable and she just couldn't believe how out there I was. Thanks. I think I look pretty happy, but whatever. :)
Then on Sunday we just watched it at home again. In between sessions Jeremy and I went for a walk because it was nice and sunny and warm...enough. Better than the snow we got on Saturday. Here's what the girls looked like at the end of Sunday afternoon. Oops!
And here's just a cute picture of Jeremy. :)
So Sunday night we went to my grandparent's house for a potluck. The whole fam was there and we ate and then everyone shared a favorite thought from Conference. It was really nice and made me appreciate my good family. Of course everyone told a lot of birth stories (that happens a lot) and gave their 2 cents about when I should have the baby. :) We hope it's soon! Like I said I am ready!