Home and settling in

We got home last night (Wednesday the 18th) and all is going well so far. Madeline slept most of the night, which was a relief. She seems to enjoy her crib and the rest of the stuff we have here for her. Heather put it well last night when she said "Welcome to your new home Madeline. This is where we used to live, and now it's where all your stuff is and you let us stay here with you." I picked up the dogs last night (Thanks to the Hilgendorfs again for keeping them) and they are adjusting very well to having Madeline here now.

Thanks to EVERYONE for your prayers and support during Heather's pregnancy. From thinking that she may not be able to get pregnant, to having this perfect little girl is more of a blessing than we deserve. I can't believe they actually let us leave the hospital with her! I also want to thank everyone in advance for the next many years of our lives as you help Madeline to grow up and become a beautiful young woman. According to Ted, as long as she ends up with her mom's looks and her dad's disposition, she should turn out just fine ;).

We look forward to seeing all of you soon. Keep checking back for updated photos and video. There will be many more to come!

She's Here!!!

Madeline Claire was born February 16th, 12:21pm EST. She's 7lb, 4oz and 20 inches long. She's got lots of brown hair, long eye lashes, and is perfectly healthy :) Heather is recovering just fine but is a bit tired still. Thanks to everyone for your prayers. I'm posting pictures as I can. Video to be posted soon too.

I'd Rather Be Sleeping

Right now it's 4:15 in the morning and I have been sitting here timing contracitons for at least an hour. Every 8 minutes......these ones actually hurt! I really don't know if they'll turn into anything though so I'm killing time by playing hearts, checking Facebook, and now apparently blogging. God bless whoever designed the website ContractionMaster. Just by pressing the space bar it will time how long your contractions are and how often, all from the comfort of you doing something more enjoyable on your computer!

One Way or Another

Well it's finally February and the countdown is getting smaller! Our blogging has been sporadic, I know. I actually wrote this on February 1 and am just now getting around to posting it. Things have settled down since my last post, which is definitely a good thing. However, after our last hospital visit, we kicked it into high gear to be ready for D-day and now we are just (impatiently) waiting. My parents are coming for a visit this weekend and have threatened severe action if there is no baby. I swear I'm doing everything I can! I had an appointment this week and it seems everything is progressing right along so it could be any time now.....

In the mean time, Brad and I are having fun guessing who (or what?)Madeline is going to look like. I think she is going to look like my sister, Brittany, with dark hair and skin and eyes. Whatever gene that is, it runs strong on the Webb side of things. I believe Brad's guess was "Claire Danes with red hair." I have no idea where he is getting Claire Danes, but the red hair is a definite possibility. We generally agree that she has little chance of looking like her momma, as I am the queen of recessive genes. We are bringing baby pictures to the hospital so we can compare.

Practice Round

So we had a little too much excitment this week with a trip to the hospital. Wednesday night I started bleeding enough to freak out (which is far less likely to happen with me than with Brad) so of course we had to go check it out. It's a long and gross story about what all was going on with that, but the bottom line was that all the bleeding was causing me to have way more contractions than the doctor was comfortable with. So we ended up spending the night and the better part of Thursday in the maternity ward so they could monitor the baby, the bleeding, and give me some very bizarre drugs to slow down the contractions. While this was a pretty boring setup, it did give us an idea of what the whole hospital experience will be like....

I have been banished to bed rest until Monday when I have another appointment to figure out where we're headed. They pretty much told me that if I had been one week further that we probably would have just HAD the baby while we were there. This whole bed rest thing is horrible in my opinion. For someone who sleeps as much as I do, you would think I would be happy about it, but really it's awful. I am incredibly uncomfortable right now, but at least I have an 1100 page Ayn Rand book and seasons 8-10 of Friends to entertain me until Monday. I mostly just sit around and think about all the things that I "need" to do. Brad, poor guy, is rocking it with all the household duties, plus me grumbling and needing stuff all the time. I just hope we can get this whole thing over with sooner rather than later. I don't want to leave the hospital empty handed again!

So it's been a while....

So it's been a while since we've posted anything interesting on here. My excuse is that the holiday season had us running around like crazy. We made our last trip to Ohio for quite a while for the Christmas holiday. While it was nice to see friends and family, the trip just about wiped me out. Hour upon hour in the car when I'm already uncomfortable, plus the frequent need to eat and use the facilities, does not equal happy travelling. We will most likely not be returning to the homelands until Memorial Day weekend. On a positive note about the Christmas season, Madeline made out like a bandit for Christmas! Good thing she couldn't actually see the Christmas tree this year or she might have some unrealistic expectations for future Christmases.

Brad is amusing me greatly during these last few weeks. We got a new videocamera (and I had better say HD video camera or he'll correct me) that he is SO excited about. He keeps filming Madeline's room everytime something changes, which is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. (I am apologizing now for all the random videos on this blog.) He also rearranged the furniture in our loft about 10 times before I finally yelled at him to stop because it was driving me crazy. So instead he rearranged the living room furniture. Can we say "NESTING?" All of this furniture movement apparently took it's toll and he managed to severely throw his back out 2 weeks ago. He looked like an old man, all leaned over. Very funny except for the pain part. Fortunately he has returned to normal, because one of us has to be well enough to be productive.

I am....stellar :) I am thinking there are a lot of merits to being an only child that I had not previously considered. The nausea has returned. EVERYTHING hurts. By the end of most days I lose the ability to walk (this is not an exaggeration) due to my already geriatric hips. It's a joyful time. I am working on a list of final To Do items that should be completed very soon. The only thing missing from the nursery is our chair, which is taking forever to ship. Other than that, I am ready for this whole pregnancy thing to be over!

(And in case your wondering, my belly button is still safely tucked away ;)

Here's an updated video with some commentary...