Day 2 with Ava Claire

We made it through our first night! It was an interesting night but we all got some rest. Because I had lost so much amniotic fluid before Ava was born, I was given an antibiotic before delivery to prevent any possible infections for myself and Ava. Last night, Ava had blood drawn to check for any possible infections. Everything came back normal except her white blood cell count was slightly elevated. For precautions, they started her on an antibiotic just in case she would have an infection starting. They will retest her tonight and then again tomorrow evening before we head home.


We are having so much fun getting to know our new little girl. She has been sleeping most of the time and is a very good baby so far. Hopefully it will stay that way! :-)

Ava had her first visitor yesterday! My friend/coworker Nicole came by to meet Ava. Ava has gotten used to hearing Nicole's voice all year and she loved finally meeting her!




Here are just a few pictures that we have taken. Enjoy and we'll keep posting pictures. :-)

Welcome to Ava Claire Cattanach

Ava Claire was born at 1:08pm, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz., and 20-3/4" long. She has a full head of dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. The delivery went well and we are so thankful to God and to each of you for your prayers. The picture on the right is with our doctor, who was sensational during the past 9 months.

Baby Almost Here -

It's 10:30am and the nurse just left with great news that the baby will soon be here. Curt & I came in late last night because my water had broken. At 2am we were admitted and things have speeded up in the last few hours. We're lucky as our ob/gyn doctor is on-call today and will deliver our baby. More news and "pictures" coming in a few hours. . .

The Missing Pieces of the Nursery

Curt's Grandfather Ray passed away in March. The family generously donated his old rocking chair to us. It fits perfectly in the nursery and even matches the nursery colors. Thank you so much!









My Aunt Faith made the quilt for the nursery. Over Christmas, we picked out all of the fabric and made all of the plans. She finished the quilt just in time and I love the way it turned out. She is very talented at quilting and really enjoys doing as well. Thank you so much!

The Crib

The crib is all put together and ready for the baby. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. :-) The picture on the left is what the headboard looked like when UPS dropped it off. It took my Dad 2 hours to get it ready for shipping. He wrapped it in bubble wrap, then put plywood on each side. Then topped that off with cardboard so that UPS would ship it. WOW!!! Thankfully, it didn't take us that long to take it apart.


Here is a picture of my Dad and I putting the crib together. Well, I guess I didn't help too much but I held all of the tools and gave them to him and Curt when they asked. :-)








This is a picture of the final product! I absolutely love it and can't wait to have the baby use it!

Doctor's Appointment

Well, I'm a day late on posting what happened at my doctor's appointment. I was planning on posting some pictures of the nursery but we started a project in the nursery and I didn't get to take pictures before we started. We are currently working on putting a ceiling fan in and had to run back to Lowe's because the switch was broken. So, as soon as we get the new switch installed, I'll take some pictures and post them.

About my appointment. My doctor was surprised to see me and asked me "What are you doing here? I was supposed to see you in the hospital!" I told him all about my big contraction day on Saturday and that they suddenly stopped. I am currently at least 50% effaced and am still only dilated to 1 cm. But, he did a procedure to hopefully speed up the process. He said that it should cause more cramping which in turn should start contractions within a few days. The cramping has started so now we are just waiting patiently for the contractions to follow. My doctor is on-call on Monday and Wednesday so he wants me to wait until then. I would prefer to go NOW but we'll have to wait on God's timing. :-)

To keep busy, we took a trip to the beach today. It was a beautiful day with a high of 90. I am now exhausted but have a few projects to finish up around the house just in case this little one would decide to come. I'll let you know if anything happens! :-)

Just Waiting

Well, we are still waiting! On Friday, I started having contractions that were about 10 minutes apart and lasted for 1 minute. They continued to grow in strength until Saturday evening when they decided to slow down and eventually stop. My parents started the big drive down on Saturday morning and arrived on Sunday afternoon. It is great to have them here to keep me company and keep me busy.

On Sunday, I got some motivation and started cleaning all of the windows in the house. Curt didn't really know what was wrong with me but just assumed that I was "nesting". He thought it was great so he took pictures of me. On Monday, my parents took me to the Central Florida Zoo. We were secretly hoping that all the walking would help induce some more contractions. Nothing happened! My Dad even drove over some pretty big bumps and the baby didn't even budge. The zoo was really fun though. I was surprised at the types of animals that were there and I didn't even know that Central Florida had a zoo.

Yesterday, my Dad and I reorganized my pantry by adding some more shelves. It is so much better now and I have so much more space to store things. We had a good time doing it and it didn't take us as long as we had thought it would. As you all know, my Dad built our crib. The plan was for them to put it in the car and drive it down here but it didn't really fit in the car. So they ended up having to ship parts of it. It arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to put it together. It looks wonderful and I am so proud to say that my Dad built it! :-) Curt and my Dad put it together last night. I can now officially say that the nursery is finished and ready for the baby. I will post some pictures later of the nursery so that all of you can see it.

I have a doctors appointment today and will repost after the appointment to let you know what he says. Hopefully, I will be more dilated and it won't be long before this little one decides to come. I am really uncomfortable and my legs/feet are really swollen. Say a few prayers that the baby will come very soon! :-)

37 1/2 Weeks

Well, I'm almost there. I had my 37 week checkup yesterday. Everything looks great! I am starting to progress and it is getting closer and closer. I am dilated about 1 cm and have recently lost my plug. I have another appointment on Wednesday but my doctor thinks he will see me in the hospital before that appointment. So, I am getting ready to have a baby in possibly the next week! We are very excited and have went into panic mode to get everything done that we wanted. My parents will start the trek down from WI sometime this weekend or early next week. I'm excited to have them here and be a part of this exciting step in our lives. I have enjoyed my time off of work this week.


As you can see by the picture, Curt can't wait to use the stroller and actually have someone in it!!! He loves pushing it around the house and pretending that the baby is here. It's adorable and Shadow just follows him all over the house wondering what he is doing.

We'll keep you updated if anything happens. Keep checking for updates! :-)

37 Weeks

This week has been extremely busy. This is my last week of work so I've been busy trying to get everything ready at school. I think everything is finished and the transition for the kids will be good. My substitute is really young and should be really good with the kids. Tomorrow is my last day with them and it's kind of sad. It wasn't bad until today when they left and I realized that I only have 1 more day with them. But, I'm really excited to be finished with work and can now focus on getting everything ready at home.

Curt and I are going to the hospital tonight for a tour. I am really excited for this because Curt has never seen the hospital before and it might as well be a resort. It's the nicest hospital I've ever seen...granite everything, water fountains, etc. Then on Saturday and Sunday, we have our lamaze class. We weren't going to do a class but I found out that my insurance pays for the class so we decided to do it anyway. We are excited for this as well.

I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Everything looks great. The babys heartbeat was good and my doctor thinks the baby is about 4 1/2-5 pounds. I will go back to see him on Wednesday. Only 3 more weeks left!!! :-)


Curt loves this picture! He thought it was hilarious that the plate could just stay on my belly. Hey, it comes in handy! :-)

Nursery

My Mom and my sister are here visiting for the weekend. We have been busy getting things ready around the house and making coffee (decaf) runs to Barnies (the local coffee shop). We have managed to paint the nursery walls, paint the changing table, buy necessary items, and organize the nursery. My church friends had a shower for me on Saturday and we were truly blessed with many wonderful gifts from wonderful friends. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. Only 40 more days to go!