Birthing Eve

So here are a few pics of me the night before Vern (Conor) was born. We had a scheduled induction due to some blood pressure issues, so it was easy to schedule the night before pictures. Looking back, I can't believe the little dude fit into that bump! He was crammed in there!

Those of you who know how I Wii bowl...well, it reminded us of hurling a large bowling ball down the alley...

Here is a pic of my sisters and I at a baby shower they threw for me about a week and a half before Conor came. My sister Aimee is in the middle and my sister Heather is on the right, she is due the first week of March. And watch out for little Fruitloop standing at our legs!

Baby's Room

Tim finished the baby's room a few weekends ago. He really put in some time on this room, let me tell you!! We first decided that green and blue stripes all around would be sweet. But after getting one wall painted and striped...we decided that the stripes were too bold and could put you into a seizure if you stared at it long enough. After much deliberation and consultation from both sides of our families, we decided to stripe the rest of the room and put up a picture rail at six foot. Above six foot would be blue. Here is the finished product. I do feel that it turned out pretty cool. I doubt that "Vern" will ever really care, but at least Tim and I can enter the room and not have to wear protective glasses.

Realizing Change...from different perspectives

All right, so the title of this blog is basically just my feeble attempt to tie odds and ends pictures together into one blog. The change that I am referring to is the birth of our first kid in February. We are all getting ready to accept this change with open arms...well at least Tim and I are. Bailey, our dog, however is another question. We have begun getting the baby's room ready for use and, I think, that with this activity, our dog is starting to wonder what might be happening. She is not one for change (she is still getting used to our house after nearly 4 years).

Here's the change being realized by Tim. He was out painting the crib during the last nice fall October weekend. What an engineer, he found that painting was much more efficient this way. And yes, this is non lead paint and the slats meet the standards set forth by the American Pediatric Association! His weekends from now on will be spent paining Vern's room (he is trying to get this finished by ski season for OBVIOUS reasons).

So I was going to put a profile picture of my belly up on the blog so you can see how I am becoming to realize the change. But then I decided that that would be weird. So here is a pic of me prepping and taping for paint in the baby's room.

And finally, here is Bailey realizing the change. What a cute pic, because our bedroom (where the majority of her body is) is where she hides when she is unsure of weather, the vacuum, etc. I am thinking that this is where she will be positioned when Vern throws his first wail after coming home.

Vern in Real Life

Here are some 3D images of our lil' guy in the womb. Some of these might be tough to decifer because you need a layer of fluid between the baby and the uterine wall in order to get good 3D pics. Unfortunately, "Vern" (as we have been calling him lately) always has his face burrowed into the wall of my uterus right where the placenta is. This makes it extremely difficult to get good images if any images at all. Because of this there is some distortion in almost every pic. You should see the tricks that the sonographer's have to make the baby move the way they want them to. It is amazing. However, Vern does get a little upset at times because he really prefers to hide his face. Alright Vern, thank you for the pics, now go back to sleep.

This is a perfect example of the distortion caused by there not being enough fluid between his face and the uterine wall. The "teardrop" that you see under his left eye is actually a part of the umbilical cord that could not be taken out by the sonographer because it was touching his face. Amazing!!

Here is another view of Vern from the side. He has both elbows up next to his face.

Here is an interesting side view of Vern. The sonographer suggested that he is A) Blowing me a kiss or B) Flipping me off. I like to think option A, but he was being poked and proded that day so option B is definitely not out of the question. You can also see the umbilical cord "figure 8" above his forearm and the placenta right above that. Again, so amazing!