Fulfilling the many requests of pictures!

It's official, we're home and parenting all on our "own." Thank goodness we have all the helpful family members that we do! Day time routine goes fairly smooth, not much worry there. Nighttime is a little different. We really are on our own at that time and I'm a bit too afraid to sleep while she sleeps. Hopefully soon I'll get past that!

Here are some pictures we've taken since the big birthday!

Momma and baby Avery on her birthday.

Papa Caudle with his Little Jo

Grandpa Kebert with his beautiful girl

Great Aunt Kass (aka Aunt Wheeza) was so happy to meet Avery.

Madi was in a world of her own while she was holding Avery.

My little one was ok with her carseat...hope it stays that way.

Momma and Avery get to leave the hospital!

Grandma and Papa Caudle brought us an ice cream cake.

Grandma and Aunt Meg call her Princess Avery.

She sleeps pretty peacefully in her napper.

Lukey absolutely loves his cousin. He calls her his friend and kisses her often.

When asked if he was done holding Avery, Luke said, "Um, not yet."

Welcome to the world Avery Jo

First of all, both Jess and Avery are healthy and doing well.  Perfect ending to a hectic morning. 

On to the delivery details.  Jess and I spent the day at Grandma and Papa Caudle's house playing bean bags and grilling.  It was a fun day.  As everyone was winding down, and while Zynski was making a daring escape, we decided it was time to head for the hospital as Jess had been having contractions every five minutes or so for an hour or two.  We got to the hospital, and after 15 laps of walking around the labor and delivery unit, they decided Jess really was in labor and that she wasn't going to leave the hospital while she was still pregnant.

Then began the wait.  From 11pm on Saturday until around 3am on Sunday we waited.  Grandma and Papa Caudle and Grandma and Grandpa Kebert took turns visiting with Jess.  Aunt Meg kept her walking the halls and things progressed.  Around 3am Jess decided it was time for the epidural.  Of course, I left for this part, as a needle that big would've scarred me for life.  Right before Jess got her epidural, her water broke and soaked the poor nurse who was downstream. 

Things got a little crazy after that when the awesome nurse noticed some cord alongside our baby.  The nurses acted quickly, professionally and awesomely to get Jess to an emergency C-Section to ensure both mom and baby safely made it through.  Now, let me say that if our baby girl wasn't so cute, she'd be grounded already for playing with her umbilical cord when she clearly shouldn't have been.  The doctor arrived at 5:07 am and after running to the OR, Avery Jo was born at 5:25am. 

Both Mom and Avery are happy and healthy now.  We are trying to rest, but neither of us is really used to sleeping at 11am yet.  Not to mention, this is where they expect me to sleep:

Thanks to everyone who has been calling, emailing, twittering, facebooking, texting, etc.  Please keep the kind thoughts coming.  Jess and I have been down a long road to have a child.  Every finish line that we thought we were close to got pushed away from us.  It is still kind of surreal that we finally reached the end.  I do believe it is true that God wouldn't have sent anything to us that we couldn't handle.  Jess and I had our rough spots during all the bumps, but we made it through as a stronger family, more appreciative for this gift than we'll ever be able to explain.  We look forward to seeing everyone soon as we get our daughter started on her own path.  We'll do our best to keep the pictures and updates coming, but feel free to call or stop by if you can't get enough.

Love,

Kory

Holy Cow! It's Time!

It's official. Jess is in labor. Updates to come shortly, when I can get my hands on a laptop.

37 weeks

Baby Keebs looks WAY out there these days!

Weight gain to date: 18 pounds

Snapshot of our life

Music that we have been listening to lately: Baby Keebs gets to hear Momma sing pretty much anytime we're in the car these days. That means she's mostly hearing country. Still Daddy is trying to expose her to other radio stations.

Recent movie I've seen: Momma and Daddy went to the movies yesterday with Grandma Kebert. We laughed pretty hard at Grown Ups.

Book I'm reading right now: Still reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, guess that won't change until after she gets here.

Top news story right now: Fortunately there hasn't really been a huge news story in a while. I'd much rather it that way then having to mention some horrible crime spree!

Other news: We took our first trip to the hospital this week. Monday night my contractions were 10 minutes apart so they had us come in to get checked out. I was 1cm dilated and 70% effaced, which was different from my office visit the week before. We thought maybe this was promising so the nurse had us walk for an hour to see if we could get things to progress even more. No such luck. We decided since it was after midnight that we would go home and try to sleep and just wait for things to happen there. Again no such luck. Not a whole lot of sleep and even less progression.

At my doctor visit on Thursday, we had no progression since Monday night and the doctor said the baby wasn't engaged. His words were, "She doesn't seem to know where the exit is yet." Real encouraging to a couple of parents who thought they were just days away from meeting their little girl.

Now we wait again. We have another appointment on Wednesday, which Kory and I are both sure we'll have to attend (meaning she still won't be here). According to the doctor, at that appointment, we should have some choices to make. If Baby Keebs is still floating around, we'll do an ultrasound to see her position. If she is head down, we could schedule a slow overnight induction to try to bring her down and then induce labor. If she is sideways, we could try a binder to sort of limit the space she has, hopefully forcing her to get head down.

When I asked what we do if none of that works, the doctor said, "Well then you know my threat." For those of you who don't know, he meant a c-section.

Now we just wait to see what our little girl decides to do. We have read her an eviction notice (contingent on her health status and readiness) and the rest is up to her.

Baby girl, we are so excited to meet you! There are many people out here ready for that. We want you to be healthy and strong so stay in as long as it takes for that, then get your little butt out here! We love you very very VERY much!

35 & 36 weeks and Baby Shower again

36 week belly...on a momma who has started to stop caring what she looks like!

35 week belly on family reunion day

Weight gain to date: 19.5 pounds

People say my belly looks: like it's ready to pop

The looks I get from people these days are both entertaining and strange all at once. Some people look like they just feel sorry for me (especially those in Chicago when we were walking around in the 90+ degree heat!) and others look at me like I shouldn't be out at this stage of the pregnancy. They're just nuts if they think I'm going to sit at home for the rest of the waiting game!

Other notes: We've had a busy couple of weeks (hence the late posting) lately. We had our second baby shower and now have everything we need for Baby Keebs' arrival. We had an excellent time at the shower and really appreciate all the work that went into it. There are some pictures below!

We also had a family reunion, trip to Chicago, doctors appointment, baseball/softball games to go to! This year's 4th of July was a pregnant woman's dream! We went to the city, had dinner at a very nice restaurant and actually got to watch the fireworks from our dinner table. Who wouldn't prefer to sit at a window seat in air conditioning rather than outside with hundreds of other sweaty people all getting eaten alive by the bugs?!? Then to top it off, we all got to enjoy our fancy desserts while the crowds disappeared. It was fantastic!

The doctor appointment went well. I'm not dilated yet, but starting to efface. We go back Wednesday, when maybe we'll get lucky and find out things have changed.

Kory and I are both ready to meet our little girl. I spend my days feeling like a ticking time bomb, but trying to enjoy the last few days/weeks that I have my baby girl all to myself. The heat and sleep are definitely challenging, but I know I'll make it the rest of the way. Every day she stays in is just that much more growing she gets to do. I'm happy with that!

So Baby Keebs, you can stay as long as you'd like, but Daddy and I are ready to start caring for you on the outside. Daddy is very anxious to hold his little girl! We love you very very much and can't wait to kiss your little cheeks!

Enjoy the pictures from our shower!

Momma, Baby Keebs, and Grandma Kebert

The beautiful hosts of the shower. Thank you very much!

Pretty in pink tables

Pretty pink (and yummy) cupcakes!

We got a lot of really great gifts from everyone!

Thank you to all who came and enjoyed the night with us!