Julia Anne

Quite a wonderful day for us on Thurs. as we were blessed with our beautiful little girl, Julia Anne. What we thought was going to be a long haul since it was taking me quite a while to dilate turned out to be a whirlwind delivery. I went from 6 cm to 10 cm in a hour and Julia came out in only 2 pushes. I was still so numb from the epidural, I didn't feel her come out at all and voila, she was here. Only bad thing that she came out so fast that she didn't get all the fluid out of her lungs so we are battling a lot of spit ups and she's not wanting to eat since she's still full of fluids. Otherwise she is perfect and all we do is stare at her all day long. :)

She was only 7lbs 4 oz, 19" long. Born at 3:10 PM, March 27th. I really thinks she looks a lot like Nina did when she was born.

Easter & Last OB Appt

The Friedman's had a great Easter day celebrating with Nina and our neighbors Mark, Cindy & Lexie Bisbing. Nina started the day out great with a fun Easter basket from the Easter Bunny and a new bunny Webkinz from Peter & Sally. Our neighbors invited us over for Easter Brunch which was awesome. Cindy will be our daycare provider when i go back to work so it's so nice to be on such a great level of friendship that they had us over. Brunch was awesome and afterwards, Mark and Mark hid the Easter eggs for the girls to hunt. Had to hide them in the neighbors backyard so Kutter didn't get to them. haha

Had my last OB appt yesterday. I am dilated to almost 3 she said. That's a good sign!! We go in Thurs morning bright and early to the hospital so keep your fingers crossed this goes quickly and smoothly. :)

Nebraska Furniture Mart SUCKS!!!

So Mark and i get home last night to find a message on our voice mail that the crib we ordered back in December will not be delivered on the 24th (this would make it the second time NFM has postponed) but that it wouldn't be delivered 'til May. Didn't even give us a date, just said sometime in May. Needless to say, Mark and I went thru the roof. You have got to be kidding me. If we knew that it wouldn't be delivered before the baby's due date, there's no way we would have ordered the crib. So my fabulous husband got on the phone this morning and after much yelling, arguing and finally threatening to have me call them (ha ha not really, Mark is much better at this sort of thing than i would be), NFM is refunding us our non refundable deposit. He really knows how to wear those customer service people out!! So Mark and I will be heading to Babies R Us tonight for a new crib. I'm pissed we have to do this again but at least we aren't out any $$ in the process. We'll probably find a nicer one for a better price too. Only drawback is that Mark will have to put it together. And you can damn sure that we aren't buying anything that isn't in stock. So Peter, I'm guessing you and Mark will have a fun project next Saturday of putting the crib together!! :)

38th Week

Another week, another OB appt.... still looking good at 38 weeks. Measured 38 cm and wasn't dilated anymore than i was last week. Darn. We're all set for the 27th at 8 AM to be induced at Menorah. Only 9 more days and i can't wait. I think Mark and I have finally decided on a name but you will all have to wait 'til she's here to know what it is. :)

Big 12 Tourney in KC

Finally the Big 12 tourney is back in KC and how much did i get to enjoy. Um.... yep, nada. No games, no Kelly's in Westport, nada. Such a bummer. Not that I expected Iowa State to do much in the tourney but this time of year is a lot of fun and usually a big cyclone reunion. It always amazes me how many people and old friends I run into at Kelly's during this weekend. But this year, i spent most of Big 12's hanging out at home watching the games on tv. Mark made it to Kelly's for Thursday's night game.

Thanks to Kati for the picture. Good news is that the tourney will be back in 2010 and I'll be ready!!

We also had the second half of our birthing class on Sat. Now we're all educated on epidurals, c-sections and other forms of pain medication that i intend to take full advantage of.

Saturday night was spent at our friends Steve & Beth to celebrate St. Paddy's Day and Beth's birthday. Happy Bday Beth. Steve went way over board as usual grilling up lots and lots of food. He also had the deep fryer going and i hear they made fried pickles and fried Twinkies. Mark said the Twinkies were good. I opted not to try them. Maybe next time when I'm not pregnant.

Today is Mark's sister Laura's birthday. Happy bday to you Laura. Hope you're feeling better and over your cold soon.

Mark had a nice relaxing day today while i headed into work for a few hours. I have 2 major deadlines before i go on maternity leave and I would probably drive myself crazy if I wasn't able to make sure they get done. When you have to sign and seal the plans, you pretty much want to be in 100% control of everything that goes in them. So I final plans due this Friday for a major highway/interchange/bridge project on I-70 thru Lawrence. And i have another interchange project final plans due the following Friday. I know i won't make it 'til then since I'm getting induced on the 27th so i have to have them ready the Wednesday before. Thus the weekend work and lots of OT I've been doing lately.

37th Week

Another week, another OB appt. Still right on schedule. Measured 37 cm at 37 weeks. Only dilated to 1+cm. Doctor said we can set an induce date for the last week of March if we want to. Probably be the 27th if nothing happens before then. Mark is still convinced we'll have the baby before the 20th so he can be home to watch the NCAA tourney. He's got his priorities.

Another busy Saturday...

Another busy Saturday for Mark and I. We started the morning off with our first of two birthing classes. Since Nina was so early, I didn't make it to one when I was pregnant with her so this class was new to me as well. All in all the class was okay. Didn't really learn anything new. We did get to see "the video" of a woman giving birth. It really wasn't all that bad to watch. I don't even think the men in the room squirmed around too much. The best part was when the mom in the video asked if it looked like a baby? Yes, she actually said this. Not sure what she thought it would look like but I hope the dad took some time after to get to the bottom of it.

Of course the best part of class was the relaxation and massage time. Not that Mark liked it much but I sure did. The teacher gave the men tips on how to massage his wife during contractions. Mark needs all the help he can get in that department. :) Next week we get more massage time too!! We basically learned about breathing techniques during contractions which i hope not to worry about since i'm planning on getting an epidural. Epidurals ROCK!! and i don't know why any woman would choose natural labor rather than a nice easy epidural!!

I don't think you can go anywhere in this city without meeting a fellow Iowan. There was a mom in our class that was from Iowa and went to Iowa State. Both her and her husband seemed very fun and easy to talk to. Hope to see them again next weekend for the second half of the class.

Saturday evening we had a great time out with our friends to celebrate mine and Renee's birthdays. We headed out to Classic Cup on the plaza with Gartelos's and Regas's all packed in the Acura. That third seat option has really come in handy. Found about that Chris gets car sick easily and we had to do a chinese fire drill before we got out of the neighborhood. Hope everyone knows what a chinese firedrill is. We met up with Coleen and Margie at the Cup for a great dinner. Chris kept on entertaining us thru out the evening as he somehow managed to lock the men's bathroom on his way out and the restaurant had to have someone come and jimmy the lock.

Gartelos's and Regas's came back to our place for drinks after. Of course, Jen and I reluctantly declined. Still, was a very fun night to be out with our friends.

Now it's Sunday and I'm at work. Not that i want to be but I have a huge deadline in a couple of weeks that I really need to make sure it gets done. So i'm here and my engineer Kyle is here as well.

Today is also my dad's 60th Birthday. So Happy Birthday Dad. Hope you have a great day and wish I could be up in CB with you to celebrate.

Finally, Happy First Birthday to Peter Gartelos!!