Christmas!

Christmas vacation is over and it was lovely (Chris and I both felt like we could have easily sat around for a few more days though). We had a great time in Winter Park staying in a lodge with about 30 of our relatives. Reilly got plenty of attention to say the least! She did a great job with everything although nighttime sleep was a little challenging. Too bad that is the most important one! There were lots of chances for naps and when we weren't napping we were eating food, playing games or both. Here are some picture highlights:

Girls photo! Calee, Nicole, Lori, Jane (Melissa's mom), Melissa and Reilly

Photo shoot with Auntie Calee

Christmas morning

Relaxing by the fire

Cousin Zoe's hat

Reilly got lots of sweet bows for Christmas. The nicest thing about them is they cover up the bald spot in the back!

As we look back on this very full year we are not sure where the time has gone! Tomorrow we say goodbye to 2010 and welcome the new year (I am not expecting to make it to midnight though. Sleep is too precious anyway). We are excited to see all the great things God has in store for us! Cheers!

We've got a four month old!

Reilly "sitting" in her buzzy chair.

Time with family in Iowa.

Reilly lounging on her boppy.

Tummy time with Sophie the giraffe.

Reilly's new favorite toy is her saucer!

Turning four months included getting more shots and starting solid food! The shots went pretty much the same as last time. A couple hours after her shots she wouldn't stop screaming so we gave her some Tylenol. She was much happier after that but too exhausted to stay awake any longer. We were definitely fine with her going to bed! At the appointment we learned that Reilly is already 26 inches long, which puts her in the 96th percentile. It looks like we might have a tennis player on our hands! She weighed 13 pounds, 7 ounces, and that is average. She just looks skinny because she is so long. The pediatrician always comments on how strong Reilly is and she loves being in the exam room because she gets to watch herself in the mirror the whole time.

Solid food has been fun for all of us. We started her on some oatmeal cereal at night and she is enjoying the new adventure. She wasn't quite sure what to think about the spoon but she is getting better each time. I am hopeful that it will help her sleep a little longer during the night but, so far, we haven't seen a change. It is possible that she wakes up just because she is in the rhythm of waking up at night, so we will be doing some experiments (anyone with advice?) to try and figure it all out. It does feel like once we figure one thing out, something else changes! It keeps it very interesting to say the least.

We had a great trip to IA and Reilly was exceptional! It was a long 9 hours in the car (one way), and we could tell she was frustrated with her car seat, but she did really well. It made the trip so much easier and enjoyable for us. My family was more than happy to hold her, burp her and change her diaper and I never fought them for it. It was so nice to be with my family and catch up on life face to face! We also had a special guest over thanksgiving, and it was so great to spend time with him as well. We ate a lot of food and played a lot a games. It was too short though, and got me even more excited for Christmas vacation.

My grandma and her new husband Dick made it out here as planned and we had a great weekend with them. It included a lot of really good food and dominoes! To my shame I realized after they left that we didn't get any pictures! We have been pretty bad about getting pictures taken lately, so it might have to be my New Year's resolution.

Another resolution of mine is to try to eat less cold cereal. This is going to be very difficult because I LOVE me some Special K and red berries. We are going to try to eat hot grains M-F, so we'll see how that goes. It will be a nice healthy way to start our day, so I hope it sticks. It might balance out though, because I have been making a lot of desserts at night! Blueberry Buckle and Upside Down Cranberry Cake have been two of the favorites. Tis the season!

Sophie the giraffe!

Fall is here to stay!

Yay for fall and sweatshirts and raking leaves. Although I am loving this fall weather, it sure makes our house freezing! Why don't we turn up the heat? We'd rather stick it out, that's why. It's on a little...but Reilly and I are always bundled up just the same! I have been in the fall spirit though, with roasting my own pumpkin for bread, and munching on the seeds all day long!

It's been awhile since our last post, so I'll try to catch you up on all that has happened!

We had a Bradley class reunion! We all took a 12 week class together to prepare us for childbirth, and here we all are as parents! We were missing one couple and baby, but we'll see them soon because we already have another get to together planned (not to mention all the moms trying to get together every other week). All of these babies were born within a few weeks of each other, so hopefully they will all be good friends!

I love that they are all looking at the camera. So sweet!

Reilly's Nana was here to visit! We had a good time just hanging out, playing cards, and enjoying sweet Reilly. She had just started cooing a lot, so it was perfect timing for my mom to be here.

Pumpkin carving party.

We've come a long way since her first picture with Raggedy Ann. Raggedy Ann might have received a stink eye the first time.

If you look at other posts with bath pictures, you can really see how much she's grown. She always holds her head up now, is cooing a LOT and knows how to respond to your smile with a smile! She has gone back to only sleeping around 6 hours at night before needing to eat again. She's just a hungry kid. I appreciated those weeks of sleep though, and can't wait for them to come back. We also graduated a snap on the diapers this week. That's a big deal.

Reilly and I spent the morning learning how to can tomatoes. It was very nice of our friend Rachel to show us how! The goal is to also make all of the baby food from scratch, so I am hoping to acquire a food processor somehow. I am planning on doing all the pureed fruits and veggies, as well as the rice and oat cereal. Wish me luck! I am also keeping myself busy making homemade bread, and really whatever else I can think of. I wonder if I could home make Velveeta because that would be super delicious.

Our next adventure will be this Thanksgiving as we drive to IA to be with the family! Hopefully we won't have to stop too many times, but we'll just do what we need to. It will be great going back home for a couple of days and I am sure Reilly will get to meet so many great people! A couple days before we leave for IA my grandma will be in town, so we will also get to catch up with her and her new husband!

I guess that's it.

Peace to you and yours.

Vaccinations: Check

We had family shot day this week, with Reilly getting multiple vaccinations and Chris and I getting the flu shot. Babies can't get the flu shot, so Chris and I got it for her so hopefully we won't get sick. If you think you have the flu, let us know and we'll stay away! The shots took only seconds but Reilly was screaming up to high heaven. Poor kid. The nurse said that most babies fall asleep soon after because they kind of shut down after the shock of it all, and that's exactly what Reilly did. She woke up once we got home, so I nursed her and we put her back to bed. When she woke up a couple hours later, she was in so much pain! She would nurse for 30 seconds or so, then take a moment to cry because her legs were so sore. Luckily we had bought pain reliever for her, and we wasted no time in giving it to her. It definitely helped, but we could still tell she was in pain. It's hard seeing your baby hurting and knowing there is nothing else you can do for them. By the evening though, she was back to her normal cute self.

Reilly also is a champ sleeper right now, and we are enjoying it while it lasts. I was reading that sleep habits change when there are changes for the baby like solid food and things, so we are thankful for what we have right now! She slept from 10:45 last night to 7 this morning, and we're thinking that is pretty good! She has been sleeping about 7 hours a night for the past two weeks or so, and our pediatrician told us that 5 hours is average for this age. Since Reilly is gaining weight well ( she was 11 lbs 7 oz at her check up this week) it is fine to let her sleep as long as she wants at night! It's awesome! I still don't let her sleep past three hours during the day though, because I don't want her thinking its night, and she'll need the calories to get through the night later. I do think our sleeping success has so much to do with us sticking to the Babywise plan. It is a book we read while still pregnant and we knew we wanted to give it a shot. It doesn't work for everyone but it worked for us! Now since she knows the different between night and day, and she is gaining weight fine, we don't follow the Babywise schedule to the letter, but we still do the same general idea.

We also have had a slight struggle with nursing, but Reilly had a breakthrough this week and it was like everything clicked in her head. Things are so much easier now and I just hope it will continue! I'll spare all the details for the boys that are reading, but if any girl wants to know the saga, let me know! Reilly is doing splendidly, and we can't help but be so proud of her!

I have been back to work now for two weeks, and everything is going fine. Last Monday I "sprung a leak" TWICE, and it was all very messy but funny! It maybe would not have been so funny if I had been helping a customer, so thankfully no one was in the branch at the time. All the girls at work are very sympathetic to my plight. :) Monday and Tuesday are very long days for me and I am so thankful when I make it to Wednesday!

Chris is staying busy at work as we are getting closer to the busy Christmas season. There are lots of things churches need to buy to stay current with the festivities! We both feel like time is flying though, and it will be Christmas before we know it. That's great though because we get to see both our families over the Holidays.

My mom will be flying in tomorrow and staying until Wednesday, so Reilly will be getting some good Nana time. I couldn't get her to come out and visit me until Reilly came along, but it has been nice seeing more of her. :)

Until next time.

Hanging out in her chair

Drying off after bath time

Naked baby before bath time!

Walking around with mom in the Mobywrap Auntie Laura made for us!

Chillin' with dad on the porch

Two Months Almost Gone!

I am in my last week of maternity leave and I'm sad to have to leave my baby! Luckily she gets to go play with her Gramps and Grammy, and I'm sure she'll have a great time. I am also used to getting a nap everyday, so I'm not sure how I will cope with working a full day without one! It will be good to get out of the house though, to have adult interaction and a conversation where the person actually talks back. I'm blessed to only have to work 20 hours to still get all the benefits, so that's what I'm doing and not a minute more!

This last week and a half Chris and I have been busy looking for a new car. Our '93 Toyota has finally had enough and is ready to retire. If anyone sees a good deal on a small SUV, let us know! It's very time consuming looking for a nice used car, and you just hope people are being honest with you. We're hoping to have enough stamina to find a car without going to a dealership...but we're getting close.


We are proud to report that we had an awesome trip to Arizona, and Reilly did such a great job on the plane. It was so great to get to see my grandma get married! We made history since a great granddaughter got to attend a great grandmother's wedding. We even got to sleep in and relax at the resort on Sunday before flying home.

Reilly has graduated into her bigger diapers now! We have one size cloth diapers that "grow with the baby" and she's finally into the smallest size. It's nice because we have double the amount of these diapers than we did of the extra smalls, so that means less washing. A couple weeks ago I decided to change out all the elastic bands in the diapers, and they definitely took longer than I expected! I got them done just in time because her extra small diapers were starting to spring leaks. All in all, cloth diapering is going well! We are using cloth wipes too, and saving a lot of money. It's not that much extra work, and to us it's definitely worth it. The average baby goes through 3000 diapers before being potty trained and that gets expensive! And, if we're lucky, our diaper investment will last through more than one child.


Well, tonight I'm subjecting our small group to an experiment of bruschetta with homemade artisan bread, so I had better get that rolling! Cheers!

This last weekend we went to the Butterfly Pavilion!

I just thought this picture was funny.

Reilly on the plane to AZ.

Almost Four Weeks!

It's crazy how fast the time is flying! Reilly has survived us being her parents for four weeks now and it's looking like we're all going to be okay. She really is a great baby (although I have nothing to compare her to, I've read horror stories!) and we're figuring out the tricks that really work to get her sleeping. Most of the time now, we just lay her in her crib and she falls asleep on her own! I'm one proud mama. It's so nice watching your baby peacefully sleeping and then taking a nap yourself. We're hoping that within two more weeks she'll be sleeping through the night. She only has one feeding in the middle of the night right now, so that should be a good start.

I'm so thankful that we have a washer and dryer at our house because we have been doing laundry six days a week! When spit up happens, it gets on everything. She does a good job with it coming out the other end as well. With baby stuff strewn all over the house it's easier to throw it in the laundry than try to figure out what happened to it!

I'm also thankful that my whole family (minus Uncle Josh) was able to come out and meet Reilly, and my mom actually made a second trip out this week. It was very nice having her here to help (I was actually not feeling well for a couple days and it was so nice not having to do everything myself!) The rest of the family will get to see her again when we fly to AZ for my grandma's wedding. Hopefully we won't be THOSE people on the plane, but what can we do about it? We have places to be! If anyone has airplane advice, that would be great! Cheers!

New Pictures!

Reilly Bun!

Our Little Bun is One Week Old!

We're counting up now. Our new little baby girl is now one week old. It feels like this last week has been a blur. Reilly, apparently, is a great test taker. First off, her APGAR scores after one minute and five minutes of being born were 8 and 9, respectively. Our nurse swore that she would be a ten if she had been born somewhere with a little more oxygen. The next night Reilly aced a litany of tests thrown at her by her medical team. She aced the most stringent hearing screen, got a 1.1 on her jaundice test where the nurses were looking for a number less than 10, and only lost 5% of her body weight in the first 24 hours (anything less than 10% is considered good). On Friday she was reweighed and we found out that she was almost back to her original birth weight, something the nurses didn't expect to happen for another week. Obviously, our little Bun is eating like a champ.

Reilly also got a healthy dose of friends and family this week. We feel so blessed to have so many of you who are excited for us and our little girl and we are so grateful for the time that we have been able to share with you over the last week. Reilly was able to meet most of her family this week and is really looking forward to meeting Aunt Lindsay soon.

Reilly has continued with some things that she did while she was in the womb. She used to get the hiccups every night around 11 p.m. and coming into this world has not slowed that down at all. We are also assuming that she was this adorable in the womb and she continues to show everyone what a cute baby she is.

Nicole is doing really well and has felt better each day this week. She is still tired (waking up multiple times at night will do that to you) but has managed it well, taking naps when Reilly is napping.

We continue to fall more and more in love with this beautiful little girl and learn more about her daily. For example, most of the time when Reilly sneezes, she sneezes twice. Nicole and I are so blessed to have her and it feels great to have our own little family started. It has also been amazing for me how watching Nicole go through a difficult labor and then already seemingly know how to be a great mom has grown my love and affection for her. I feel as though I have married this astoundingly strong and beautiful and proud woman who wants nothing but the very best for her family. I love that God has used our newborn baby to teach me how to love her mom more than I ever had before.

Thanks for continuing to read our blog. We really do look forward to updating you on our family. Thank you for your prayers and support.

REILLY MARIE IS FINALLY HERE!

Yes, yes, yes! It is true. Reilly Marie Loyd made her way into the world last night, August 1, 2010, at 7:43 p.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 inches long. Coincidentally, those statistics won pools for Grammy Lori, brother-in-law Troy, and cousin Caleb. Congratulations and you're welcome to the three of you. We expect a cut of your winnings.

Labor and delivery was not as easy as pregnancy for Nicole. Her waters broke in the gushing fashion on Saturday night and we were forced to head straight for the hospital. Now, this wasn't part of our plan. Nicole was really looking forward to being able to labor most of her time at home. She knew she'd be more comfortable there and that it would really be able to prepare her mentally. However, when your water breaks you run a much higher risk for many things from uterine infection to a distressed baby. We had no choice but to labor at Good Samaritan Hospital. Saturday night wasn't too bad. Nicole didn't sleep for hours on end but was able to rest, waking up occasionally during contractions.

After laboring for 12 hours and making no progress on her cervical dilation, our doctor thought that it would be best to start Nicole on pitocin, a drug that helps to increase the strength and frequency of contractions. They felt like this was very necessary because her water had broken and we did need the labor to move on so that Reilly could be born and Nicole would be safe.

Six hours later Nicole was at 9.5 cm. She had one small part of her cervix that just did not want to finish dilating. She had to go through an hour of really painful contractions for that last 1/2 cm. At this point, she had been laboring for 18 hours and was just exhausted. She was able to only snack on small things and that had stopped hours earlier.

Finally, at 6:45 Nicole got to start pushing. She did amazingly well. I am not at all ashamed to say that I get choked up (read: cry) when I think about how unbelievably strong she was. Her determination, her ability to fight through huge amounts of pain, and the strength that she finished labor with was, and is, unreal to me. I am in awe of her and I will never view my wife in same light. She is so much stronger than me. She is doing well today. She is very, very sore and was very, very hungry until 5 minutes ago when her breakfast arrived. She is tired but is so excited to finally have our little Bun here.

We had about 10 family members at the hospital who waited around all day long (from about 11 am on) to meet our little Bun. Little miss Reilly Marie did not disappoint. She stole the show when everyone finally got to meet her.

We'll get more pictures and some video up soon of our new baby girl.

Thanks for sharing in this journey with us, everyone! We truly appreciate your prayers and support. We'll continue to post about Reilly Marie and our lives together. We'd love it if you continued to share in our lives with us. We love you all so much. Thanks again!

Today's the Day! (But Not Really)

Right? I mean, it is July 25. The day that countdown timer has been counting down to all along. We're all set. We've got our bag packed (as Nicole is demonstrating in the picture), the nursery all set, and our birth plan is printed. I guess someone forgot to tell Reilly that today is the day. Right now it looks like we'll begin another week of work. We know that first time pregnancies typically go past their due dates but we were optimistic. Now it's just a waiting game. Labor could literally start at any moment. Nicole thinks that if we weren't all set and ready to go that Reilly would have decided to come early. You know, Murphy's Law? Now that we're prepared, though, it's not going down that way.

We tried to get the baby out today. We took a nice walk this morning before church. I tried to get Nicole to eat some jalepeños at lunch (she wouldn't). We're not just sitting idly by. We are, however, still in good spirits. We are enjoying our time (and the attention). Ideally, I won't be writing a post next week titled 'T-PLUS 7 Days," but who knows?

I asked Nicole what we should tell you all about this last week. Her response? "I don't remember last week." Ah, back to the whole "the baby ate my brain" excuse. I love it. It was strange not having our Bradley class this week and not getting to see those friends. We're looking forward to spending more time with them soon! Nicole did mention that Reilly has been moving a lot today. My favorite mom-to-be has also felt like she has to go to the bathroom every 45 minutes. I am pretty sure that she is ready to be done with that. I asked Nicole what she is most looking forward to (other than having a baby, of course) about becoming un-pregnant. She is mostly excited about her feet not being swollen and having an occasional margarita. Yum!

I'm not really sure what to put about baby facts anymore. Reilly's head is really low right now and we heard today that that means she'll probably have a cone head when she's born. Soooo, right away she's got that going for her. We've both been reading more books but we've moved onto the child rearing books. We really like On Becoming Baby Wise and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. We spend a lot of our time discussing our parenting plans. Talking about schedules, feedings, sleeping, all of those kinds of things. It's a pretty amazing and exciting time of life.

Thanks, again, everyone for sharing in this journey with us. We can't wait to have the opportunity to introduce you to Reilly Marie. Please continue to keep all three of us in your prayers. Pray for an uncomplicated labor and delivery (a short one, too, if you're feeling as though your prayers are especially powerful and effective that day), a healthy baby girl, and wisdom for all of the medical personnel that will be part of one of the best days of our lives. Thanks again! I'm really hoping that our next post has pictures of our baby girl!

One Week!

One week left until our due date! Can you believe it? Nicole's theory is that Reilly will be late because we feel like we're actually prepared and ready. She thinks that if we felt as though we still had a lot to do that Reilly would maybe already be here. I'm not sure if that is true but we'll go with it.

We have finally finished our Bradley classes and have mixed feelings about being done. We are excited to know that we have put in some good time and have a much greater wealth of knowledge to pull from when labor comes around. We are also sad to not have class every week. We have really enjoyed getting to know the other couples in our class and are excited about continuing those relationships with new friends. The group that was in our class was a lot of fun and we are excited to share in this part of life with them.

One more thing: it is hot. Denver broke a record yesterday and got to 100º. Nicole's poor feet are on fire. We have been putting ice bags on her feet every night. Last night, I was an idiot and never turned on our swamp cooler. Neither of us slept at all. It's all my fault. However, if this is the worst part of pregnancy then we have done well and had it pretty good.

The lanugo has mostly disappeared off of Reilly, but we'll probably find a bit on her shoulders, arms and legs and in those protected little bodily creases. It will vanish completely on its own in time. Her lungs are maturing and surfactant production is increasing and fully prepared to take on the outside world! Our Little Bun doesn't have much room to move and certainly Nicole agrees! I don't think she could imagine 8 months ago that this wee one would be able to hook a toe in her ribs while elbowing her bladder? Reilly certainly has grown! Her body continues laying on the fat stores that will help regulate her body temperature after birth. In addition to normal fat, she is accumulating a special "brown" fat in the nape of her neck, between her shoulders and around organs. Brown fat cells are important for thermogenesis (generating heat) during her first weeks. Reilly probably weighs around 7.25 pounds and is about 19.9 inches inches in length.

T-Minus 2.5 Weeks

Hello, hello to one and all! Well, as you’re reading this that little countdown timer over to the left has a number that is less than 17. I know we keep talking about how quickly time has gone by but this is astounding. We are both wondering if now time will begin to drag because we keep saying that, literally, Reilly Marie could be born any day. Any day. Nicole could be starting labor right now as I type this. Uhhh . .. . that kind of makes me nervous. Maybe I should call her quick. Nah, she’ll call me. I’m sure of it. Anyway, we’re hoping that the time between now and when our little Bun is born continues to move quickly. We are most definitely keeping ourselves occupied (we will be going to a baseball game tonight) so that should help. Also that picture is a fake. It’s photoshopped a little bit. The real picture of Nicole is at the bottom of this post.

Nicole has continued to feel great. We spent some time last night just reflecting on how amazingly blessed we have been over the last year. Nicole just finished up her once-a-week babysitting job that was great for so many reasons: she feels like it was a great reminder of how to take care of a baby, it was some extra income for our family, and the family she was sitting for was incredibly generous towards us in a lot of ways. It is crazy that a job that Nicole worked less than thirty days total would be such a wonderful blessing to us. We feel overwhelmed by God’s provision and foresight in our lives.

We feel like we are as ready as we are going to be for Reilly to be born. The nursery is all set up. We’ve got the car seat base installed in the car and inspected by a pediatric flight for life nurse. Our bag for the hospital is packed and awaiting our departure. We only have one of our Bradley classes left and we’ll be talking about post-partum topics. We feel like we’re ready. We’re excited because we really believe that we can do this! It’s a great feeling because we thought we could do this back in the winter when we found out we were expecting a little bun. Let’s just say that our level of preparedness is much, much higher now. It’s a little worrisome because we know that the amount that we’ve learned in the past nine months is probably nothing compared to what we will learn the first week of having Reilly at home with us. That’s not scary, though. We are just so excited.

As far as Reilly goes, it’s the calm before the storm. Changes in her weight have leveled off with only a few ounces of fat added this week. At this point the Bun should weigh in at around 7 lbs. and 20 inches. Happily, as far as internal organs go, they are now developed enough to function in the outside world although the oh-so-important immune system is still developing and will continue to do so after birth with a large boost of antibodies provided by breast milk when nursing begins. Fighting infection and staying healthy should be well within Reilly’s physical capacity when our little Bun is born.

3-1/2 Weeks Left! Can That be Right?

Nicole here. Chris has been busy so I thought I would take charge of this blog, especially since we are already a week and a half behind. First of all I would like to point out that the floating baby countdown to my left is not really how it is. I was watching to see if that baby would throw a punch or something, but it didn’t, therefore I think they should take away that feature entirely. They say (who’s they? I don’t remember, I just know I heard this somewhere…hopefully a credible source somewhere) that the baby’s most active weeks are from 33 to 36, and that really was the case with Reilly. I had to tell her to calm it down a couple times for fear that I would just rip right open (gross, huh?)!

We missed last weeks blog because we were road tripping it to IA for the College World Series. There were six of us in a land cruiser and we had a fine time! Chris and I were both a little worried about the trip because if I went into labor in the middle of Nebraska, what would we do? The doctors said that the biggest thing to do was drink plenty of water and make a pit stop every two hours to walk around and avoid blood clots. It worked out because I (and most of the boys in the car) had to use the bathroom every two hours ANYWAY. I didn’t go watch baseball though (and they only ended up watching one which was a bummer, but I heard that Sporcle kept them busy)…I relaxed at my parents' house and had a baby shower! It was really great to be able to see people and catch up on their lives. Thanks to Lisa, Sharon and Sarah for throwing it for me! All of my sisters were able to be there too, along with Josh and Edwin, so it was a nice family weekend. We got home at 6pm Monday night and headed straight to birth class. That whole week was a whirlwind and the reason why we didn’t blog. Sometimes sleeping is just more important.

This last weekend we finally buckled down and got a lot done in the baby room. It was really fun going through everything and finding a place for it! Seeing how much stuff we’ve been given has been an awesome reminder of how the Lord provides! Many many thanks to everyone for the things they have bought or handed down. We have been so taken care of, and that makes everything so stress free! We even have a near complete wardrobe from newborn to 18 months, which is a huge blessing! By looking at all of our great baby stuff because of friends generosity, the awesome house we get to rent, and the fact that we have two good jobs it really proves that the Lord is good. It wasn’t in our timing, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We also have our hospital bag mostly packed. It made this labor thing feel a lot more real! It is just sitting in our living room, waiting for the last minute additions, and then off we go. It’s a good thing I asked the family when they wanted the “labor call” because if we took off in the middle of the night, I would have waited to call. I figured, labor will probably take HOURS so they might as well get a full nights sleep and we would call in the morning or when she was born, whichever came first. They told me that was a bad idea. It seemed practical to me!

Three and a half weeks to go and time is flying! Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: Chris here. My wife is so amazingly great, isn't she? I am so blessed to have her be my partner in this wonderful journey. I just had a few things to add to Nicole's post. The one thing that she forgot to mention is that her feet and ankles are swollen. I asked her today if it hurt and she said no, it just feels like her feet are going to jiggle when she walks. I laughed at that. Also, Nicole didn't write any baby facts so, here you go:

• The only organ left to mature inside the Bun is her lungs. Every day that she stays inside Nicole (up to 42 weeks) improves her chances and ability to be a great breather when she is born.
• While unlikely (because she is our first baby), Reilly could drop down into the birth canal any day. This would be a win-lose type of situation for Nicole: she would have a much easier time breathing but a much more difficult time walking.
• I get excited about this one: fat is beginning to collect on Reilly Marie's body and create those adorably cute dimples around her knees and elbows.
• The Bun's skin is growing smooth and, yes, I'll say it, baby soft.
• Her gums are very rigid and it won't be too long before we get to learn about the joys of teething.
• If Reilly is exactly the average right now then she is 18.66 inches long and 5.78 pounds. Between now and when she's born, she'll gain about 1 oz. every day.

The last thing that I needed to do was to make sure and post a picture of Nicole. We love you all so much! Thanks for reading and for sharing in this journey with us.

34 Weeks

Wow, only 6 weeks left. We continue to check things to get done off of our list. Birth plan: check. Furniture set up in the nursery: check. Bags packed: not yet. But we'll get there. Nicole is still feeling good. She's had moments where she's said "if I wasn't thinking about it right now, I wouldn't know that I'm pregnant." That could probably pass as the definition of a great pregnancy.

We are headed to Iowa this weekend for a shower with friends and family there. (Well, Nicole will be headed to a shower. I will be headed to some baseball games at the College World Series.) We are really excited to see everyone there and get to be around family. I am also really excited to go on a road trip with a woman who is 35 weeks pregnant. We have some rules from our doctor: we have to stop every two hours for Nicole to get out and walk around and Nicole has to drink a lot of water. Normally on this drive we'd stop once. We're thinking we can make it in three stops. We'll see how it goes. I'd say the chances are very high that we'll need to stop more , considering the whole "drink a lot of water" rule. It feels like this coming weekend the last big thing we have before Reilly's estimated time of arrival gets here.

Nicole still has people tell her that she doesn't look nearly big enough. She keeps measuring exactly where she should be and our doctor and nurse both think that she's doing wonderfully. We have another appointment on Wednesday—hopefully that one will go as well as the others have.

Your baby acts completely like a newborn, with her eyes opened when awake and closed when sleeping. She has started to settle into more of a routine for sleeping & awake times. She has learned to blink. She can also see more clearly when there is a bright light on Nicole's stomach and probably has the outline of all her organs memorized. Antibodies from Nicole's blood are being transferred to Reilly. These immunities continue to build until birth. Then breast milk will add even more protection against disease. Reilly Marie may have already turned to a head-down position in preparation for birth. Since this is our first baby she may be settling into the pelvis with her head pressing against Nicole's cervix. Fingernails have reached the end of the fingertips now. The Little Bun may scratch her face even before she is born. Reilly Marie's length is probably about 17.7 inches and weight is around 4.7 pounds.

IT'S A GIRL!

I usually hate all caps almost as much as I disdain exclamation points but I needed to convey my excitement. We're having a little baby girl!!!! It feels so good to finally get to tell everyone. Our little Bun is a girl bun. We have picked out a name and it is Reilly Marie. One of the best things about everyone knowing now is that I can stop writing all of that "s/he" and "his/her" nonsense. That is fantastic.

At this moment we have about 48 days to go. We were talking to some friends, Dan and Jenn, last night at our Bradley class who are at 29 weeks. They said "Eleven weeks away still sounds like plenty of time but we realized that that means we only have eleven weekends left. That doesn't sound like much time." So true. We only have seven weekends left. Can that even be right? Only seven more Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until Reilly Marie comes to live with us forever. I still ask Nicole if Reilly can come tomorrow. She gently reminds me that she's not ready yet. She's not. But she is getting so close to being ready. We are so excited.

Nicole's baby shower happened recently. If I'm being honest, the weekend didn't go exactly as planned. Don't get me wrong, from what I hear, the shower was an enormous success (thank you so much to those of you who got us gifts: we are overwhelmed by your generosity), but Nicole, along with two of her three sisters who were in from out of town, spent most of Friday night and Saturday with some sort of stomach flu. Nicole is so tough, though. She didn't let a silly little bug slow her down. I can't express to you how proud I get about who my wife is and how strong she is. I just love her so much.

We also got to celebrate our anniversary this past week. The past two years have easily been two of the best years of my life and I can't believe that, as good as this last year has been, I am even more excited about our third year of marriage.

As far as Reilly Marie goes, she got the hiccups for the first few times this last week. I think it's adorable but I'm sure it's a lot less fun for Nicole. Right now amniotic fluid is at its highest level during Nicole's pregnancy. Reilly Marie's head size has increased 3/8ths of an inch due to rapid brain growth (probably more—our kid is going to be smart). Neurons and synapses are developing in huge numbers—forming connections in Reilly's brain will give her the skills she needs to thrive as a newborn. This week, she may be able to coordinate sucking and swallowing with breathing. While most of her bones are hardening, our little Bun's skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. The bones will be able to move slightly to make birthing easier. Reilly now takes intermittent deep breaths of water. That's okay, though since she gets oxygen from the placenta. This breathing exercises muscles and encourages her lung cells to produce more surfactant (a protein essential for healthy lung development). Reilly Marie is now about 17.2 inches long and weighs around 4.23 pounds.

31 1/2 Weeks(ish)

Man, I'm sorry I haven't updated in over a week and a half. We've had a crazy last few weeks. I got a new job and our evenings have been incredibly full this past week. We really covet your prayers for our friend, Navan. He was hiking on Friday and fell 800 feet when a false snow ledge gave way. He's still in critical condition and has a long road ahead of him but has done better than expected thus far. If you want to read more about his story you can go to http://navanpowers.com.

Nicole and I both had birthdays this past week. She turned 23 on Thursday. I turned . . . I turned . . . I turned th—. I can't even type it. Thirty, okay? I turned thirty on Tuesday. Apparently my mind has been pretty occupied because a week before my birthday, someone said something about me turning thirty in a week and I was absolutely convinced that I was still weeks and weeks away. I was not. I am now into my fourth decade of life. Seriously, though, things couldn't be better.

Nicole has felt this week like the Bun is really beginning to stretch her stomach. I guess it's not her favorite feeling. The Bun continues to be very active and likes to kick and squirm and test his/her limits within Nicole's belly. S/he is really starting to get cramped in there so you can understand the desire to test boundaries. I'm sure anyone who has already had kids just thought to themselves "Test boundaries? You haven't seen anything yet."

Our Bradley classes continue to go well and we both feel like we wouldn't be completely lost if the Bun was born today. That's a good feeling. I may have said this before but we've really connected with a couple of other couples in our classes. One couple, Eric and Gweneth, were ecstatic to learn that we'll be cloth diapering as well. We had a nice little chat about it on Monday.

In spite of our unbelievably busy week, all three of us have made it to Friday and have a three day weekend to look forward to. If you hear that we were in bed at 6 on a Friday night, it may be true. This week has been our fullest in a while.

The rate of physical growth slows down just a bit this week, but even though s/he doesn't get much longer, the Bun will gain a lot of weight the rest of the pregnancy. Fat continues accumulating. This layer of fat turns his/her skin from red to the rosy pink s/he will have as a newborn. Calcium, phosphorus and iron are being stored and his/her bones are growing and hardening. Our baby is 16.2 inches long and weighs 3.3 pounds. His/her brain enters another period of rapid growth, producing hundreds of billions of new nerve cells! Amazing! S/he may move to the rhythm of music. Studies with heart rates show that s/he also prefers some types of music to others — already! Lungs are the only major organ left to complete development. While we may be anxious to meet our little Bun, these last few weeks can be vital — with each day increasing our baby's ability to breathe on his/her own.

30 Weeks and Then Some

Hey, everyone! We have less than ten weeks left! That's incredible! Who could have known that time would fly by this quickly? We knew it would go fast but this is almost shocking. Things are going well for us. In fact, as I write this I am waiting to go meet Nicole at the doctor's office for an appointment. We continue to be surprised at how uneventful all of these appointments continue to be but, in this case, no news is good news. Nicole and the Bun both have been healthy and right where the should be each time we go in so there is very little for the doctors or nurses to do.

Our Bradley classes have also continued to go well. We really enjoy the other couples in the class as well as our instructor, Debbie. Last week I had the opportunity to wear the Empathy Belly and get a little, tiny bit of a taste of what it feels like to be pregnant. The worst part wasn't the weight but the strap that they cinched down over my diaphragm to simulate the baby pushing against Nicole's diaphragm. It made every breath so shallow. While the five minutes I spent in the Belly really weren't horrible, it was easy to see how difficult and uncomfortable it can be to be Nicole. I am so thankful for how strong she is and has been.

Nicole continues to feel pretty good and pretty healthy. She is also really looking forward to her upcoming showers in June. God has really blessed us, too, by allowing Nicole to work some extra hours over the past few weeks and now, at the perfect time, will be able to give up those extra hours because her bank has hired some new people. We have just felt as though God has really orchestrated some amazing things in our lives over the past six months.

As far as the Bun goes, s/he is about three pounds now! Every day that goes by means the Bun has a much better chance of survival if s/he is born today. In fact, if the Bun were born today s/he would not require a ventilator and would have about a 90% chance of survival! The Bun is surrounded by about a pint and a half of amniotic fluid. The amount of fluid will decrease as the Bun continues to grow (too bad for Nicole that she won't feel as those anything will be decreasing except her amount of sleep). S/he will spend a lot of time opening and closing his/her eyelids. S/he can follow light and may even reach towards light that s/he sees. The lanugo hair (meant to protect the Bun's skin) is starting to disappear. Toenails are in their final growth stage and bone marrow is now responsible for red blood cell production. Our little Bun can now produce tears, as well. Yes, even inside of the womb.

29 Weeks

Wow, we're getting so close! 75 days to go until the Bun's due date. Before that we have a major milestone. Nicole's shower is on June 5 and, if I am not mistaken, that will be the day that we announce to the world if the Bun is a boy or a girl. I am especially looking forward to that day so that I can stop this ridiculous s/he, him or her, blah blah blah nonsense. It's such a pain. Oh well.

We are all moved in and mostly settled in our new home. We are loving it. It's been great to have that space and to really have a place that feels like it will be home for a while—a place where we can raise the bun. I'm still working on getting up some more pictures for you all but it's a slow process. I'm sorry.

We had another great development last week: we started our Bradley method classes! For those of you who don't know, the Bradley method classes are like a Lamaze class. We have twelve weeks of learning about everything from pain management techniques to breast feeding. We really enjoy our instructor as well as the other couples in our class. I think we were both pleasantly surprised after our fist class at how much we enjoyed it. Feel free to ask about what we're learning, it'll be a good refresher for us.

You may also notice that the location for Nicole's pictures has changed. No more fireplace. Unfortunately, our new digs don't have a fireplace so we'll likely be taking the rest of these pictures in front of a blank wall. We'll see. Maybe we can take them on the front porch.

As far as the Bun goes, his/her head is growing bigger to accommodate the (enormous, I'm sure) brain, which is busy developing billions of neurons. The eyes can move in their sockets. The Bun may be able to follow a blinking light right now (I'm sure s/he can). As well as our baby's increasing sensitivity to changes in light, s/he may also be able to taste. In fact, our baby may already have preferences or dislikes for particular tastes at this stage. The Bun is also moving from side to side, but probably still is head up. In the next few weeks, s/he will move to the head down birthing position. At times Nicole may feel as if the Bun is performing somersaults for an olympic gold medal. The Bun may be performing fewer movements now because living conditions in the womb are becoming more cramped. The Bun is still, however, doing a lot of kicking and stretching. Some of our baby's kicks and punches could potentially take Nicole's breath away. The Bun hears things better from the vibrations all around, and can now distinguish real sounds and voices. We can now "teach" our baby in the womb by exposing him/her to music, literature, and simply talking to him/her. At this stage baby eyes are almost always blue and can distinguish bright sunlight or artificial light through the uterine wall. At week twenty nine, our baby measures about 11 inches from crown to rump, or a total length of about 15 inches from head to heel, and weighs about 2.5 pounds.