Happy Birthday!

Nora Katherine MacDonald 

Born Sunday, June 27 @ 11:09 am.  Weighing in at 6lbs 9 oz. 19 1/2 inches long. She is beautiful.  I have too few words to describe this amazing journey, so I will try to do it in pictures.  This may take a while...

 Time to head to the hospital - Just before 1am

Arriving at the hospital

We got to the room around this time - AM!

OK, we'll skip the grunting, pushing and yelling -- she's here!

Mom and Nora

Happy Birthday, baby!

Love at first sight

Weighing in...

6lbs. 9oz.

Warming up

Daddy helping Nora warm up

Heating up

Our nurse, Karen - she was the best!

Karen and mommy, warming Nora

All warmed up

 Mom time

 

Grammy, meet Nora

 

Nora meeting Auntie Carrie

Bath time

Nap time with Daddy

We have had the most amazing experience here at St. Joes -- everyone has been wonderful.  We love every single nurse and midwife who gave us so much support along the way.  They were so patient with me through my 2 and a half hours of pushing! I think Nora was happy not to have any drugs in her system when she was born.  She was so alert and happy for hours after delivery.  She was certainly willing to eat her first meal of yummy and nutritious colostrum. Yay!

Stay tuned for more photos of Nora -- and probably a whole lot less rambling on about mommy and daddy!

Thanks for all your kind words, support, food and treats (grammy)!

Love, 

Patty, Jamie and Nora 

Friday Night

It's pretty early Saturday morning -- not quite 8 am as I sit down to write this.  But that's how it goes, these days.  Sleep is pretty elusive, so I have to busy myself with other things. 

Last night we had a very exciting evening here at home.  It stormed like crazy.  I have never seen rain so fast and hard since we've lived here. Neighbor Larry was out back tending to the low spot in the alley.  It piles up quick right outside of our driveway and his.  We sat and watched, took photos and shot some video.  We had dinner and watched some of the NHL draft.  We were just settled in on the couch when I noticed some commotion outside.  I looked out to find a HUGE tree in the neighbors boulevard had come down, blocking the street completely.  It was CRAZY! The whole neighborhood was out taking photos.  We did not hear it -- the air is on, of course.  We were somewhat late-comers to the party (shocker), but the whole neighborhood was out.

Thankfully we had Macy there to survey the damage

We have had two similar trees come down like this in the last year now.  The first one happened on a perfectly sunny day.  I was home and heard the crack, it was so loud.  Last night was not particularly windy either.  The tree must have been diseased and the wind just right to knock it down.  Scary.  Thankfully there were no injuries and though there were cars parked right there, the tree fell right between them.  Had it been the tree on our boulevard, falling towards our house, it would have come right in to our bedroom.

Tree down

I was again impressed with the response of the city.  It took less than an hour for them to show up and make considerable progress securing the tree and cleaning it up.  It was quite the ordeal. But in the end the whole incident took probably less than two hours. All that remains of the big old tree is the flat stump, shaved down to the ground.

St. Paul, in action

Not much else to report here.  I've spent the week walking and stretching and trying to keep my mind occupied and baby moving in the right direction.

Macy's galoshes are way cuter than mine

Thirty-nine...

Lots of rain has sure helped the flowers.  Now we need some sun!

I don't think I am going to ramble on for this post (yeah, we'll just see about that).  Not a lot to report this week, outside of that I am still pregnant with no major signs of labor.  I'm feeling pretty good and the contractions come and go with no real pain or too much of a pattern.  I am trying to keep my brain occupied so that I am not thinking about every little ache or pain.  I am feeling a bit huge and would like to get this show on the road -- but a watched pot never boils, right? So I'm really trying to keep my mind off of things. It does not really help that when I go ANYWHERE, people ask me when I am due and how I am feeling. I want to wear a sign stating "I feel fine, folks. Thanks for asking!" I will call that pregnancy rage -- or pregnancy honesty, really.

 

I didn't think I had a picture of me this week. But alas, there I am, walking on the path at a photo-shoot at Como Park.

I am no longer working, which I may have mentioned before.  This is both good and bad.  I don't think I could physically do massage anymore.  And getting myself up, dressed and ready to interact with people is also questionable.  But I've had way too much time on my hands.  You'd think I could busy myself doing all the things that get pushed aside when life is too busy.  But so far I have had too much idle time and very little motivation to do anything useful.  I've cleaned the house, done the laundry, picked weeds (the ones I can get to) and done a boatload of reading (which I can't complain about). On top of that, I've spent a considerable amount of time at the mall. Now, I am generally not a mall person, but maybe I go there in hopes that it will send me in to labor.  It seems as soon as I walk in the door I start having contractions.  I think it's called mall stress.  I have been going out to the Mall of America (MOA) lately - which I guess needs no extra explanation about mall stress.  For a non-mall person, the MOA is quite an undertaking.  But it happens to be the closest mall to our house.  It is also the only place where you can hit Nordstrom and all the critical venues all in one stop.  Believe it or not, it is actually the perfect place for me not to spend too much money.  Sure, I could spend a lot of money there -- but what happens is that I start looking at things and I put them on "my list". I continue this way until I have about 10 things from 10 different stores on the list -- by the time I get to the end, I am usually too exhausted to make it back to any of the stores where any of my list items live, so I end up walking out the door empty handed (empty headed, I may add).

Oh right, I said I was not going to ramble on this week.

We had a really lovely weekend here. On Saturday, we spent the morning picking through old mail and organizing about the house.  In the afternoon we ran around ticking several items off our to-do list.  In the evening, we went to dinner at a place near our house. Mom had given me a gift certificate for my birthday.  It was a really lovely dinner, followed by a DQ cone and a nice drive around St. Paul.

Sunday (Father's Day) was another nice day for us.  We had a nice morning of coffee and leisure -- and then ticked even more items off the list.  I made a little Father's Day dinner for Jamie on his first father's day.  I guess it wasn't spicy enough to truly make it his first father's day.

Father's Day dinner at home

This week is more of the same -- Midwife appointment, Yoga, hurry up and wait, reading, etc.  I could use more book suggestions, if you have them. I'm burning through one about every other day or so.  Could be even faster if I stay away from the mall!

Have a great week!

Still pregnant...

I got flowers from mom for my birthday and they are still beautiful! No, it has nothing to do with today's post.  Enjoy!

I really thought yesterday was the day -- or at least the day I would call the midwife and explain what I was feeling. I started getting quite a few contractions on Saturday (Well, quite a few, I thought -- but what the heck do I know?). I was pretty contraction-y all day Sunday, too. Sunday evening I took a long lavender-filled bath (instead of writing a blog entry, I guess) and what do you know? I felt better. I was almost disappointed when I hit the water and the crampiness left and baby started to move around. I might be crazy, but I think I am a little excited to meet her.

Jamie was quiet all day as I moped about the house, grunting, moaning, breathing and shifting from the exercise ball to the yoga block. After my bath, I announced that I thought we'd be ok for another little white, he breathed a sigh of relief. He said he wanted to get through Sunday and Monday, maybe Tuesday too -- you know, because he has all those meetings at work. Well, baby must have sensed his anxiety and said, "Ok, Daddy -- not today"

I have not slept well in the last few nights. I'm not all that physically uncomfortable, I just seem to have insomnia. I wake up about 4 hours after I go to sleep and I'm wide awake, brain full functioning. I have been trying my relaxation techniques -- the ones I've been learning through my birthing tapes -- but my brain seems to be hyper aware of every little thing. Last night, as I was laying there, wide awake, I thought about how I had not written a blog and so I wrote a blog in my head (a much better blog than this one, to be sure). Let me tell you just how funny and witty it was. But for the life of me -- can I remember all the little things I wrote in my head? I should have had the computer upstairs.

My mind goes to strange places in the middle of the night. I remember thinking about my relaxation tapes (perhaps thinking about how I should use them to get back to sleep). Of course they are not exactly 'tapes'. They are not even CDs. They are copies of files loaded from CDs on to my computer and then on to my iPod. But I still like to think about tapes and refer to my music as tapes. But truth is, tangible media is so far in the past. Our baby girl will not know what a tape is, VHS or cassette -- surely she will be familiar with hockey tape :) But days of blowing on or into something to make it work or , God forbid, waking up to find your dog has chewed through your favorite Madonna tape and now there is a string of warped plastic intertwined in to the fibers of your carpet, are so long gone. My generation will joke about 8 track tapes and vinyl records -- but my guess is that by the time she is bopping her head to the latest boy band, ipods and music files will have morphed in to the next best thing, and probably the next best thing after that. Perhaps you will be able to just start singing a song in your head and it will be downloaded in to whatever device is en vogue at the time. I may sound old here, but it's kind of scary to think about. She will probably read this blog entry, years from now and think, 'mom, you're such a nerd'.

On Sunday, to keep my brain occupied, I tried to fix my sewing machine. I don't really know what is wrong with it, which is the frustrating part. It's a tension thing, I'm sure. I've blown air into all the critical parts and threaded and re-threaded the thread and bobbin a hundred times. It will work like a dream and then, poof, just crap out and get clogged up. Really frustrating. I was able to partially finish two panels of curtains for baby's room. At this rate, she may have new curtains on her 7th birthday. We'll see.

Perhaps I will move on to some no-sew crafts, for now. It's Monday and I have no plans for today, or for any day from here on through baby time. Probably not the best, could spell trouble. I'll do yoga again on Wednesday morning, and another midwife appointment on Wednesday afternoon. Outside of that, it is cleaning, organizing and hurry up and wait.

I am open for craft ideas, if anyone has any. I have embroidery floss and a lot of random fabrics, some paint and a camera. So the possibilities are endless, I'm sure. Wish me luck!

Check back often. We'll keep you posted!

Purple Power!

Perhaps I am feeling like we are getting close.  Perhaps I am just bored.  Whichever, it is Wednesday morning and I am sitting here feeling the urge to update the blog. 

Monday I went to the nail salon for a little retirement celebration (no, not my own retirement) with a few ladies from Lyngblomsten.  I figured this was the last opportunity to get my toenails done.  I certainly can't paint them myself at this point. It was nice and relaxing.  I picked out a nice purple color because I thought that purple would give me power during labor.  I am not usually very adventurous with my toenail color -- but the purple is pretty fun!

The sparkly went straight to my head - ok, it wasn't real

Purple power - purple pampering

Tuesday was a really fun day for us. James had the day off and I had no clients.  We had a bunch of stuff planned, but had just the nicest day of coffee and errands.  I'm not sure we accomplished a ton, but that was ok.  We woke up to a very rainy morning, which turned out to last the entire day.

We had another doctor appointment in the afternoon which went well. Jamie had only one question, "When will the baby come?"  Oh, if it were only that easy.  I continue to make progress in the whole dilating and thinning process.  Could still be weeks -- could be tomorrow.  Baby calls the shots at this point.  Our midwife said that she is small to average in size and her position is good - head down and ready to go.  I didn't gain any weight this week, so maybe that means she's now taking fat from my rear end or other places it has accumulated in the past few months.  One can only hope!

Last night we met up with some of my most favorite women in the world -- my hockey team!  Happy hour shower -- what a fabulous idea. It was so great to see everyone and they have now determined that the baby's name will be Fern Soderquist MacDonald.  Fern, for Fern's (our locale) and Soderquist for the fact that the only Soderquist to carry on the name is a full-blooded Korean boy. He's darn cute, but doesn't exactly look like a Soderquist.  We will update the baby book. Here are pictures from the shower - I will wait on updating on the rest of the week.  We might have to run out and do something crazy just to have something to write about.

Good thing Jamie was there to help with all these gifts

The whole gang

Aimee, Schrof, Devie, Karen & Tracy

These grape-scented boogie wipes are sure to come in handy

Well, we'll save the rest of the weeks updates for Sunday. 

Term!

James at 37 weeks

 

Me at 37 weeks

It's been quite a week here. I may even have to break it down day by day, it seems we had a lot going on.

Monday was Memorial Day and we had about 20 or so people over for the annual brunch. It warmed up early and was very sunny, so it was nice in the shade and pretty steamy in the sun. I know this because I was moving around so much and was not fortunate enough to get spot in the shade. The crowd did not thin out quite as early as we thought, I think the last to leave was close to 3 pm! The rest of the day was kind of a wash between napping and preparing for the week ahead.

Tuesday, June 1 -- My birthday! I didn't really have too much planned, but mom asked if I wanted to do breakfast or lunch. I love breakfast -- so that is what I chose. We went early, to Day by Day Cafe in St. Paul. I had banana pancakes, of course. Mom had a breakfast burrito. The food was delightful, not to mention plentiful, and the atmosphere at Day by Day is hard to beat. It was another sunny morning and we sat in back overlooking the back yard/patio. Really lovely. I had a load of coupons and gift cards burning a whole in my pocket, so it was my plan for the day to run around and spend them. We decided to start at Highland Nursery. I had not planned on flower shopping, but Highland is a great nursery with tons of unique plants and flowers - and close to Day by Day. It's fun to just walk through and get ideas. I bought a few impatients and we were on our way. Next stop, (after dropping the plants by the house) was Hot Mama. I've had my eye on this pajama/robe set for a few months now. I used my coupon that I earned by modeling at the fashion show -- score!

Sadly, this is just about the extent of the gardening this summer

Later that afternoon, I met Jamie and his crew from Hamline out for a little baby shower. They gave us really awesome gifts, including a Red Radio Flyer Wagon! After the shower we took a nice drive along Summit and eventually made our way to Punch Pizza and then on to the DQ for a cone. Banana pancakes, Punch Pizza and a DQ cone -- birthday success.

Yay!

Wednesday was yoga and doctor day, again. Yoga was delicious, as always, and the doctor (midwife) was good. Much to my surprise, I had not gained much weight since last week -- where was the 5lbs of birthday food? I had my finger pricked to check my iron and I had to "go" in a cup for some reason I can no longer recall. We talked about our "birth plan" and learned about what we should expect for early signs of labor and when/who we should call in case water breaks or the contractions get stronger. We also learned that I have started to dilate (yay!). As of today, we are considered full-term and would not be high-risk if we went in to labor. Crazy, right? Seems like just last week I was "going" on a little stick that told us we were pregnant. Time sure does fly.

I worked a very full day on Thursday to catch up from the holiday. I was beyond beat by the end of the day, it took much of Friday to catch up.

On Friday, my cohorts from massage school had a little graduation celebration. Yes, it's been quite some time since graduation, but you know how those things go. People are busy and schedules don't line up. We finally made a date and stuck to it. We had a lovely lunch at W.A. Frost. It was so fun to catch up with my 'Sister' sisters. It was like no time had passed. I guess that's what happens when you spend such an intense year of your life with a few wonderful women.

We had a very lazy Saturday morning. The weather was gloomy with rain, off and on. We hung out at the house and tinkered with computers and the remote control. I am starting to get nostalgic (ahem, hormones) about these lazy Saturday mornings. I feel like there is a bit of a deadline looming to this time we have -- just the two of us. As much as we look forward to baby, we still really enjoy just us.

Today is Sunday. We did absolutely nothing to write about. We are watching playoff hockey and Jamie has started another week of work. I am playing this work week by ear. I have been having contractions throughout the day today as I move around the house. It is not labor, just contractions -- and they go away when I sit and relax. But not sure how much time on my feet that I'll be able to handle. We shall see what the midwife has to say when we go in Tuesday.

We're getting there! I can't wait to come back to this site and post pictures and stories of our baby girl. I'm sure you'll all be pleased as punch when you'll have cute baby pictures to look at and not pictures of us! ha.
Have a great week!