Meet Eleanore Josephine

Our little girl, Eleanore Josephine, was born last night (Sept. 29th) at 9:13pm via a natural birth at the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. She weighs 8lbs 2 oz, is 20" long, and has a 13" head circumferance. I'll have a full birth story later, but I'll just say she came very quickly once she decided to come!

We are so thrilled to meet our little girl, she is beautiful and nursing great. All of us are very tired and adjusting to life with two kids, but all is well. More to come later. :-)

It's my due date!

And no baby in sight! I'm not surprised. I had an appt with my midwife today and everything looks good, I'm 2cm and just waiting around.

If I'm still waiting around at 41 weeks, I'll need to be induced and deliver at the hospital instead of the birth center. So I'm hoping I go into labor soon and don't have to go that route!

Things otherwise are pretty dull around here. James is getting antsy being around the house all the time. I'm pretty tired and in pain a lot when I walk but I'm still getting around and doing a few things. My mom is here helping us and making meals, which helps a lot.

I've attached a pic of James playing in an Amazon box from his Aunt Alison just for fun. :-)

The nursery... finished!

We finished the nursery a few weeks ago but I am finally getting around to posting some pics. In them you get a preview of our baby girl's name... but you'll have to wait till her birth for the whole thing! I am 38 weeks and 3 days and ready to not be pregnant anymore. Everything is ready to go, my mom (God bless her!) is here helping take care of James and the house, and I am so tired of hauling my pregnant self around all day! I am having a lot of pain when I walk around, I'm not sleeping well, I'm super emotional, and I feel like I have a brain fog that won't go away. My midwife said the baby is doing very well and is very very low... I'm hoping that means this little girl won't hang out till 41 weeks like her brother! I guess we'll find out as we continue to wait...

Music lessons and other fun

We've had a lot of music in the house lately! James and daddy have been spending a lot of time recently exploring different instruments and how to play them. Also, when Grandpa and Grandma visit, James loves playing the piano with them. It's been fun watching him discover music in all different ways. I've also been teaching him solfege (do re mi, etc) hand signs with Julie Andrew's assistance with the song "Doe, a Deer" from the Sound of Music.

Other than music, James has loved exploring the sunflowers in the back yard by pointing out the bees (and saying, "Bee!"), and counting the petals on each flower. He likes to help me cut them and put them in a flower vase for the table too. :-)

Today, James started sitting on his ball like he sees me doing with my yoga ball since I am preparing for labor. He's also been watching Grandma and Daddy type on their laptops, so he's been imitating them at the same time... sitting on his ball and playing on his little laptop! It's adorable how he likes to imitate at this age.

Also included in this photo batch James meeting his "cousin" Roxie, his great-aunt's doggie. He loved the doggie, he would pet her hesitantly and then run away squealing when Roxie turned towards her!

Before the pics, I thought I'd also include a short video of James trying on his daddy's shoes.


Enjoy!

Happenings

Well, since I am 2 days away from being full term (37 weeks) with this kiddo and mostly done with all our exciting adventures and projects, I thought I'd do a quick post about what we are doing while we wait for our new baby girl.

James is chatting up a storm, though it's not always easy to understand him. He's be saying something that sounds like "broke" when things are turned off, more specifically "I broke" or "It broke." He also says "knock knock" when he knocks on doors, and, one of his favorite phrases, "I need it!" We also hear a lot of no no no or his variation "Nowie" which is just darn cute. He's using a pretty complex mix of sign language and semi-gibberish to get his point across, but he is communicating almost constantly and wants to know what everything is and why it is doing what it is doing.

Eliot is still in between semesters but doing some course prep, and I am just trying to get through the day. I have terrible heartburn that keeps me up and night and I spend most of my days limping around because my hips hurt so badly.

I spent this evening backing up pics, deleting things on the cameras so we have room, and making lullaby and relaxing music playlists for labor. Of course, I didn't really use them last time... but it's good to be prepared. My bags are mostly packed for the birth center/hospital, and the nursery is pretty much completed. And so we wait...

And while we wait, here are some of my favorite pics from the last few weeks!