Our Sweet Baby Boy!

I'll get around to writing the full birth story later, but here's the short version:  We went in to be induced on December 14th, but I was already contracting regularly so we just let things go on their own for a while.  I got the epidural early in the morning on December 15th and we started Pitocin a few hours later to increase the strength of the contractions and move things along since progress was stalling.  After maxing out on Pitocin (and waiting a few more hours) labor was still stalled so we headed to the OR for a c-section.

Andrew Jon Kimbler was born at 5:47pm!  He cried immediately, and so did Aaron and I.  He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long.  Perfect in every way!

We are so glad to have him finally here in our arms!

We are still getting used to having our little one with us, and we've struggled a bit as I've been recovering from the surgery, but we've been blessed to have help from family and friends.  And of course things are getting better bit by bit as I heal and we figure things out!

Welcome to the world, Andrew!  And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

(Update: Click here for full birth story.)

Baby Bump- Part 3

The last of the baby bump pictures!

I was so frustrated that I was still pregnant when I got to my due date!  (See this post for the rant...)  But at least this completes the baby bump pictures for Gummy Bear's pregnancy!

Past Due

Be warned: this is the post where I complain about the fact that I'm still pregnant.  If you're not up for that, stop reading now.

I'm starting to think this baby has taken up permanent residence in my body.  He obviously didn't get the memo that he was supposed to come out by yesterday!

This past week has been difficult for me.  I've been having contractions, but not strong enough to do much of anything.  My feet look like overinflated balloons- I have to wear Aaron's shoes if we're going to do much walking.  And I finished all of my pre-baby projects so I would be ready for him to come.  Unfortunately that means I don't have much going on to distract me from waiting.  My belly is huge and everything I eat gives me heartburn.  I've tried a bunch of natural induction things, which obviously haven't worked.

I had a nonstress test yesterday.  I was contracting regularly through the test, but they weren't intense enough.  Lost my mucous plug, but still dilated to a 1.

Tentatively scheduled for induction on Friday.  Still waiting to get confirmation from the hospital.

Yes, I know that I'm only one day past the due date and I know that only 50% of women deliver by their due date.  But somehow, despite that knowledge, December 10th was etched in my mind as the day I would have my baby by.  You know, like how if a paper is due on Friday, you can turn it in anytime BEFORE or ON Friday for full credit.  So this baby was supposed to be here BEFORE or ON December 10th.

I guess the silver lining here is that maybe he'll be born on 12/12/12.  We'd never forget that birthdate!  (Although you're still more than welcome to come today, Gummy Bear!)

*sigh*

On the plus side, Aaron has been a trooper.  He gets to deal with crazy me all the time.  He's been great about helping with meals, dishes, foot rubs, etc.  I couldn't ask for a better hubby.  I know he's anxious to get things going but he's had a much better attitude than I have, especially this past week.


Sorry for the rant- hopefully my next post will be happier, complete with photos of the little guy!

No Baby Yet!

Apparently yesterday was just a little teaser.

I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before so Aaron and I left church early.  I had a sub already lined up to play piano for me in primary, so I planned to take a nice long nap when we got home.

Instead, I did some serious nesting, cried over everything, and had lots of contractions.  Nice.

But the contractions weren't at all regular (and only a little painful) so my great plan to go into labor last night didn't work out.  Dang.

And poor Aaron had to deal with me being an emotional wreck when we had planned a nice relaxing day at home.  Dang again.

Here's hoping that Gummy Bear decides he's ready to come soon, because this pregnant lady is ready to have a babe-in-arms rather than a babe-in-belly!

Win! ErgoBaby Carrier!

Whattoexpect.com was running a "baby shower" for December 2012 babies a couple of months ago.  They were giving away 2 ErgoBaby carriers and all you had to do was post on a discussion board!  Well, out of all the entries, mine was selected and we won a carrier!  It came in the mail a couple of weeks ago and we were super excited to try it out.  So Buddy and Aaron gave it a trial run:

This carrier with the infant insert normally costs $163 so this was a major win!  Sweet!

I haven't tried it on yet (I have a feeling my big belly would get in the way!) but Aaron says it's super comfortable in both the front and back carry positions, so I think we'll be using this a lot over the years!

Baby's Room

I think our baby's room is finally ready (except for a few little things, like a laundry basket and diaper disposal) so Gummy Bear can come any time now!  Not that he'll even be sleeping in his room at first... he'll be in a bassinet in our room for the first little while.

Before we know his gender, we planned two color schemes for the room.  It would be turquoise and orange if he turned out to be a boy, and turquoise and pink if he had been a girl.  So we were able to start getting turquoise things for the room pretty early on.  And we went with white furniture (more details about the changing table here, in case you missed it), so that the color would really come from the accessories and bedding.  We painted the room a neutral-ish blue ("Quiet Rain") when we moved in and decided not to repaint for this baby.  It's probably not the best wall color for the color schemes we chose but it's not the worst either.  Too much work to repaint, since we're hoping to not be in this rental apartment long term.  And the curtains we have in here don't match the new color scheme... oops.  Maybe we'll get around to changing those.  But maybe not.

View from the door.  His room is also the computer room.

View from the rocking chair.

View from the crib.

The changing table.

The crib.

My mom made this awesome quilt too and I think it ties the room together really well!  Thanks Mom!

The quilt.

*Update:  I redid the glider rocking chair so it would look better and be more comfortable.  Click here to see it.

Thanksgiving!

We went down to my parents' in Manassas for Thanksgiving this year.  Austin, Mariko, and Harrison were there too.  It was a day full of family and food, and it was awesome!

Mom's been working on making a mini dessert cup version of nanaimo bars and they turned out great!  And they're cute, in addition to being delicious!  Aaron and I were in charge of snacks/appetizers, drinks, and rolls.  I made a cheese ball and cracker tray, fruit and fruit dip tray, and we brought a few different sparkling drinks.  For the rolls, I came up with this awesome idea to make them shaped like turkeys!  Some of them ended up looking really cute (and others... didn't...) and I was pretty impressed that my middle-of-the-night idea actually turned out well!

On Black Friday, we went shopping, but not crazy middle of the night/early morning shopping.  We went to the stores between 9:00 and 10:30 am and still got some good deals without having any lines and craziness to deal with.  Awesome! After shopping, we went with my parents to spend the day at their new lake house they just bought!  (They're planning on renting it out sometime in the next year or so, and then when they retire they'll sell the Manassas house and move into the lake house.)  It's a really cute house and we spent the day changing locks, testing appliances, putting up blinds, and cleaning.

So we had a really good weekend with family!  I'm so thankful to have my family living so close that we can see them often.

Baby Bump- Part 2

It's been a while since I posted baby bump pictures, and I certainly look bigger than I did last time I posted photos at about 24 weeks!

27 Weeks

28 Weeks 3 Days

30 Weeks

33 Weeks 1 Day

34 Weeks 3 Days

36 Weeks 2 Days

I'm feeling pretty huge these days but we only have a few weeks to go!  Only a few more of these pictures and then we'll have our little baby to look at instead of my big belly!

Updates:

Shoes?  Forget about it, unless Aaron's around to tie them for me.  Even though it's getting colder, I still wear flip flops if I go anywhere during the day since those don't require reaching my feet!

Rolling over is nearly impossible.  If it weren't so annoying, it would be funny how I have to grab the headboard or edge of the bed to help me roll over to get up for my middle of the night potty trips.  It doesn't help that I'm sandwiched between Aaron and my body pillow (so I will stay on my side instead of my back) so I'm not even really that close to the edge of the bed...

SWELLING.  Face.  Feet.  And my right hand.  Weird.

Baby shower is postponed :(  The girl who is hosting it had a death in the family and had to go out of town for the funeral so we have to push back my shower.  I just hope we get it in before I go into labor!

Bassinet is set up!  Aaron's been anxious to do this since we borrowed it from my parents about a month ago.  I didn't want it set up too early, because I didn't want it taking up space for too long before we can use it, but I finally let him assemble it this weekend on his day off.

Baby laundry is all done and organized.  Whew.  That project took way longer than it should have.

We tried playing "name that body part" the other day.  Gummy Bear was being super active and sticking hands, feet, and rear end out at us.  Sometimes we could tell what was a foot or a butt, but it's pretty hard to differentiate between a fist and a foot.  Oh well, it was just fun to be able to interact with our little boy!

Less than 4 weeks to go!  And we even get a holiday in there to (hopefully) distract me from my discomfort!

Kimbler Visit- Baltimore Aquarium

Aaron's parents came to visit us last weekend!  It was a short visit (cut even shorter by Hurricane Sandy) but it was fun.  We spent a lot of Saturday in Baltimore- going to the aquarium, eating, and doing a little shopping too!  We're lucky to have so much to do in our area!

I handed the camera off to Aaron pretty early on and he went a little photo crazy- he pretty much used up the entire battery while we were at the aquarium.  But we actually ended up with some good shots!

We also saw the dolphin show while we were there.  It was pretty neat to see what these dolphins can do!

We were glad to see Aaron's parents, even though the visit was short!

Maternity Photo Shoot

My dad is awesome.  He agreed to come up and take some maternity photos for me while we had the beautiful fall weather and leaves a couple of weeks ago.  He's not a professional, but photography and videography are some hobbies of his and I think he's pretty good!  (He did our engagement photos back in 2008 too.)  I just want to share some of my favorites:

We had fun taking these photos- thanks dad!