Avery is a timely girl!

Avery Elizabeth Lowe arrived at 10:07pm. 7 lbs 15 oz and 20" long... more updates and pictures to come soon!!

Avery is coming...

As Ben posted the other day... He hoped Avery would let go and take the plunge! Well, this morning Ali officially went into labor. She has received her epidural and is resting comfortably. I even went to Blockbuster for them (especially for Ben) to pick up a few movies. Since they have a DVD player in their room, they can watch movies since it might be a little while. As of right now, Ali is 1 cm dialated. I will update soon! Hopefully the next one will include a picture of my beautiful neice Avery!!!

Sending all our love to you,
Kari

Still waiting...

No news to report. Nothing has changed since the last post. We are still in our holding/waiting pattern for little Avery to arrive. I am not working any longer, not because of the baby, but because my grandfather passed away on Tuesday this week. I think my boss thought that might put me into labor, so she gave me these four days as bereavement leave, and my maternity leave kicks in on Monday, so I am officially off work until August 3rd at the earliest. Seems like a ways away, but I know once the baby arrives, that 8-9 weeks will fly by so fast. I have no doubts I'll cry the first day we drop her at day care. No doubt at all.....luckily, my mom will be here with her at our house the first day I am back to work, so maybe that will help in my transition a little bit???

I've given Kari access to the blog so she can post updates once I do go into labor. Hopefully it won't be too late after Avery's arrival that we get some photos up. But since I have no clue what life after baby holds, please be patient! Thanks everyone for your good thoughts this week! Hopefully she arrives sometime soon! Services for my grandfather are Sunday and Monday, so we'll just have to see how all this timing works out.....

Still no news...

Nine days to go and no baby yet. I am having contractions off and on, but none hurt and I've not hit anywhere near the 5-1-1 rule. The 5-1-1 rule is where you have contractions closer than 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute and going for at least an hour. Maybe this weekend she'll decide she's ready, maybe not....all I know is that if the option is given to me to be induced the day after my due date, I'll probably jump at the chance! I'm getting a tad more uncomfortable this week as she drops lower. I can definitely feel it it my hips and pelvis every time I get up and walk around. Ben and I have been walking the last two nights (firsts in about 3 weeks since I just got so tired...), since everyone tells me walking is a good way to get things moving along. But like I said, I can only go so far before it becomes uncomfortable.

Still playing the waiting game....

Nothing exciting to report....unfortunately....

But no news at this point is probably good news. I'm grateful I'm not on bed rest or something miserable like that. I'm 38 weeks and 3 days and had a quick check up yesterday at the doctor's. The baby had moved down just a little bit, I'm about 70% effaced, but not dilating yet. So we continue to wait! We talked about inducement, but that would only be an option after I've passed my due date on May 31st.

Ben is still in super nesting mode. I had the nesting urge for a little bit a few weeks back, but now I'm just too tired to throw myself into anything for any stretch of time. So I watch him mostly. He planted a window box with some flowers for me this weekend, pink geraniums for our little girl! He also planted some strawberry plants in the backyard (to go along with his pumpkin, tomato and corn plants) and hung a hanging basket on our front porch. Looks like a home!! He's been busy cleaning the house, vacuuming at night after work, thinking of lists of things for us to do once we get ready to head to the hospital. In a word, he's been AWESOME. I'm very lucky to have someone so wonderful to me during pregnancy.

Here are some recent photos - none of just the belly though. I have way too many stretch marks to show off to the world!! You can get an idea of how big I am, even when I'm wearing black.

37 weeks on Mother's Day

38 weeks at a BBQ at Wash Park

And to finish it off, here's a funny video from my friend Paige. This cracks me up!!! Ben dry heaves after he cleans up after Tanner's accidents sometimes, so I wonder if he'll be able to not do the same with baby poopies!

37 week update

I was 37 weeks on Sunday - less than three weeks to go!!! Crazy how time flies, honestly. I had a quicky doctor's appointment yesterday and my blood pressure is great, baby's heart sounds excellent, and everything else is progressing normally. No major complaints or complications to report. Now we just continue to wait on her arrival!! I could potentially go into labor at any time, but I think she'll probably hang out in there for a while. I was late and my sister was late, so it tends to run in the family!

We've been having some issues with the cats getting into Avery's crib, so we went out and bought a scat mat - basically it's a clear pad you set in or on whatever you don't want your pets to get to and it delivers a mild shock to their feet. Ben said it feels like static electricity. There are multiple intensity settings, so we've started with the lowest one. I have a couple of videos of the cats' reactions, pretty funny stuff, and I'll try to get those loaded up soon. We put the mat in the crib last night and at some point during the night I did hear one of the cats get in there, jump around a bit and then make a beeline out of our bedroom, so hopefully it's done the trick. We've heard that all it takes is once, so we shall see. We'll leave it in there for a couple of days to reinforce that they are not to be in there.

That's all for now, we'll keep you posted with any news!

Doctor's appointment update

I had my 36 week appointment yesterday and all is well and progressing normally. I have excellent blood pressure, weight gain is right on track and the baby is moving around really well. The baby is still head down, which is great! Also, I am 50% effaced (here's a link to read more about effacement - http://www.americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/effacement.html) but I have not started to dilate at all yet, which is good. The doctor said everything looks great and even with my effacement, he doesn't expect me to go into labor next week or anything. Next week I will be considered full term. So now the real waiting and wondering begins - when will she be here?!?!?!

Nursery update (again) - plus Baby Girl Lowe's name, and a weekend wedding

Here are some photos of our weekend project in the nursery. Ben painted some reen circles (my idea!!) that match her bedding and we hung up the baby's name in pink letters - so yes, we've broken down and are sharing the name with everyone. Her name will be Avery Elizabeth Lowe.

We also had a weekend wedding to attend. My friend from college, Kate, married her husband Jace this weekend at Red Rocks Chapel in Morrison, Colorado. The weather was kinda crummy - cooler and sprinkles, but the view outside the chapel windows was amazing regardless. Here are some photos of the ceremony and then one of me and the beautiful bride at her reception.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon, which starts the weekly appointments until Avery arrives. I can't believe my due date is less than four weeks away!

Nursery update and belly photos

We made some great progress on the nursery this weekend. We got all of her bedding on (gonna have to rewash, but couldn't help ourselves to see it all together...), got the changing table set up and ready to go, loaded up the drawers with clothes, got the diaper stacker completely loaded, hung clothes in Daddy's closet, and hung curtains to give some more separation between our master bedroom and the baby's suite. Here are some photos of where we are at:

For another baby related update, here are some photos from the shower that my mom hosted for us a few weeks back. She did great! It was great to spend time with close friends and my family!

And here is the aftermath of two awesome showers (keep in mind that I had another shower at work and got some wonderful stuff from them as well, so imagine this room even more full than it currently shows below).

Here I am (probably around 33 weeks)....this is usually how I spend my evenings after dinner. I don't normally let my belly hang out like that, but she was moving a bunch that night and we were watching her rock my belly around.

The most recent belly shots are below. As you can see, I've got the double chin thing going and stretch marks to boot. Those didn't show up until about 3 weeks ago, so maybe they won't have time to get much worse??? Not a happy camper about either issue, to say the least.

32 weeks

33 weeks

35 weeks (taken tonight)

According to our blog countdown, the due date is 34 days away - it just doesn't seem possible, does it?!?!?!

Quick weekend update!

I am getting more tired again - similar to my first trimester, but not quite as bad. I definitely feel it each day after work, and yes, even though I sit at a desk/computer most of my day, I am exhausted after I get home. My evenings in the past week or so have consisted mostly of going home, taking Tanner for a half hour to 45 minute walk, having dinner, and then lounging on the couch. I try and get some thank you notes done from our showers, but that sometimes seems like too much work!!

Ben and I did so much stuff this weekend. I figured I'd use the energy that I gain on Saturday and Sunday from going to bed early and sleeping in longer to tackle the gift bags and baby clothes that have been piling up for weeks. We are finally making progress! The weather was so crummy on Saturday, I didn't leave the house until dinner time. I got through all of the bags of baby gifts, sorted everything into categories (nursery, bathroom, bedding, clothes, etc.) and started in on the laundry. I did probably 8 loads on Saturday, spent hours folding and sorting again into sizes, and then finally called it quits about 5 or so. We went to dinner at Jose O'Shea's out in Lakewood, one of Ben's new favorite, and then hit Babies 'R' Us to get some of the last things off our registry that we had some coupons for. I think we are set - now we just have to get organized and made up at the house and we'll be ready for BGL's arrival!

On Sunday Ben let me sleep in again - love him! I felt pretty good so I walked Tanner to the park and threw the ball for him. Back home and back to work on baby stuff. Man, who knew kids "needed" so much stuff!! Ben put together the glider and ottoman and bookshelf. He was a rock star. We grabbed some lunch, then ran "baby errands." Returned some things, bought more diapers and some wipes, etc. Back home and back to work again....we (and I do mean Ben) arranged the furniture in the nursery and we realized just how small that sitting nook is, so we had to leave the glider out in the main part of the master. But at least it's quiet, no squeaking or anything, so at least I won't keep Ben awake all night rocking the baby. We anchored the bookshelf to the wall and got the books we received at the showers out of the bags, and felt like we actually made some progress. More laundry on Sunday, and then finally relaxation after dinner! Woke up this morning and felt tired, but I guess I'm used to it at this point!

I'll get some photos up soon, I promise!