How it all went down...

Hello all!! We are here at home just LOVING Alden to pieces!! He is a really good baby and, though I realize I am partial, I think he is so cute.

Here are some more pictures and the whole story if, you care to read how the knockedupedness came to an end... LOL.

*Wednesday night at 2 am my contractions started.

*Thursday by 645 am they were consistent and 10 minutes apart.

*By 7:30 am I was in full bore prep mode with some last minute nesting. I mean, I was doing laundry, mopping the floors, etc... Micah was not happy when I insisted we water the plants outside as we left for the hospital... hey, who wants to come home to dead plants?

*I finally relaxed, and enjoyed the most boring afternoon of TV watching ever. I never watch during the day and all I could think was is this really the best they can do? How many people really need a fake judge to settle their disputes? Anyhoo...

*3:00pm we are 5-7 min apart.

*3:30pm - The ever faithful Jen comes to get Emerson. I am bouncing on her exercise ball and she doesn't even make a crack about me in all my hugeness popping it. (um, see photo... she should have worried. I was!! LOL)

*4:30 pm I finally agree to go to the hospital, this is when the plant watering is questioned. And check out that picture... the last official belly shot!

*On the way the contractions move to 2 min apart, and Micah informs me he does NOT want to birth a child in the car... Relax man, there IS plenty of room... (again, he is not happy with my humor. go figure...)

*5:30pm We arrive and the nurse says...

" Um, who sent you to the hospital?"

Okay... I'll play along...

"Well, that would be my 2 minute apart contractions."

"Uh-huh, and is this your first baby???" There is clearly condemnation in her tone, thinking she has guessed me for false labor or something.

"No, my third." I reply.

So, she agrees to get me a room, and I must admit, once she checks me I feel a bit of victory when I am 5cm, effaced, water ready to break... hahahaha...

*So we got all settled in, and by 7:30 pm I was 7cm. A tad disappointing to me. I wait one more hour and at 8:30 pm, when I am STILL 7cm, agree to have the doctor (a female!! ) break my water.

*9:05 pm - Water broken, Niagara Falls has nothing on me tonight baby.

*Intense contractions follow, and when the nurse checks I am a glorious 7½ cm... Whoopdeedo...

*So we attempt to go pee... apparently emptying your bladder is a trick to encourage the baby to move on out. On the way there I am frozen up with a contraction and tell her and Micah it feels like I need to push.

"Don't , your only 7½ cm!" she says...

"Okay, but no bladder emptying... let's go back to the bed."

*After a couple more contractions at about 9:24pm I tell Micah, call the nurse, I feel like I need to push. By the time Micah gets the call button pushed I am starting to push so all they hear is me... pushing... that is the way to make nurses run apparently!

*Before we knew it, 4 nurses were rushing in, and we were getting that baby out! My doctor got there, and yes, in just 5 minutes of pushing, out came Alden!

NOW, I did NOT say that it was 5 easy minutes, but 5 minutes none the less. It was kind of funny because they didn't have the bed or anything ready for delivery. We took guesses on the weight...

I knew he was big, but did not expect to see that scale say 10lbs 6oz!! It was love at first sight for me and Micah. Lincoln got to come up and hold him not too long after that, and he literally had tears in his eyes!! (although he told me he just had something in his eyes!) He kept saying how cute the baby was, it was very sweet. Emerson was literally scared the first time he saw him. Well... he is almost as big as Em so... haha. (and I will start sifting through the guesses and see who came closest!)

Anyway... that is how we welcomed Alden Justice into the world. I will now bore you to tears on a regular basis with tales of my rearing three boys. I am grossly outnumbered now, and when a baby pooping is cause for jubilant celebration, it is clear, I am losing the battle to tame the beasts...

Thanks to everyone for all the prayers and sweet comments too... I will try and get a slideshow up with some more pictures soon. :)

New One

This is Micah, posting for Jude as she tries to get some rest.

We had a 10lb 6oz boy last night at 9:30. His name is Alden Justice.

And as you can expect from Jude, she was a champion throughout the labor and delivery. So, no more "knockedupedness" to joke about. We have a very healthy baby and a tired but very exuberant mommy. Thanks so much for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers for Jude. She really appreciates you all. Here are a couple of pics. She said would post more asap. There's no wireless in the hospital, so it may be a couple of days.

Heading out...

We are heading out to the hospital. Contractions are 3-4 min apart...
stay tuned :)

The news is...

Nothing. I am still 3 cm, not effaced, and here is the best part... because I am group strep B positive, they are not allowed to sweep my membranes... joy.
The good news... I was having some contractions during the stress test, and didn't even know it. The baby has 19 cm of fluid. (um, normal is 5-20, so the kid is enjoying the swimming.) And best of all... if this kid can come tomorrow afternoon or this weekend, the female docs are on call.... Please, pray that he/she will make an appearance soon... :)
Thanks for all the sweet e-mails too! :)

STILL waiting...

Yeah, so there is still NOTHING happening here in baby land...

But apparently I got a creative bug Monday and decided to whip out these cards for the Deck of ME challenge, which I am grossly behind on... however, it felt good to keep crossing weeks off my list... Here is what I made : (click on pictures to enlarge. I am still loving that I have figured that blogger issue out!)

And here is a LO I made last night for the baby's book... yeah, a bit behind on this too...

And finally... here are the pages for Amber's CJ. This girl LOVES bright colors, so I actually abandoned my normal blue and green mode, and made some bright pages. Her theme was Mirror Mirror on the Wall and you were to share something you are quirky about yourself with, and something you loved about yourself.

I got my CJ back too, all done and looking beautiful... thanks to Ronda, Karla, Amber, Malou, Jessi, and Linda. They all made gorgeous pages and I love it! :)

Ok.... off to the doctor soon. I am getting an ultrasound and stress test today, and hopefully there will be a baby in the very NEAR future!

so...

I am still here, still in the state of knockedupedness... I am hoping the elephantine babe will come sooooon. :)

A five speed discussion, wow... cool.

So, I am still here in all my hugeness. This knockedupedness journey needs to come to an end soon... the midwife said the baby looks to be very large... oh yeah! :) I went on Tuesday and by the looks of things, she said the baby is well over 9lbs... sorry for all you 7lb guessers, but they may be wrong. (I am hoping so!!) (and if you have read this you are officially not allowed to guess now!! LOL)

So here is a knockedupedness observation for all of you... Adrienne brought this to mind when I read her post today and she asked about driving a 5 speed... I say...


Why drive a 5 speed... ???
Seriously... Micah tried to teach me to drive one when I was first learning to drive a car. I think it was doomed to fail since my first question was "Which one is the gas pedal? the long skinny one or the short fat one?" Clearly, I did not need to involve a third pedal here. Then a couple years ago, we had to borrow a car when ours was being fixed... and yep, it was a 5 speed. So... he takes me out on our quiet little road. I am doing AOK with the gear switching, etc. although I think it is a waste of time and a car should know what gear to be without me having to tell it via the clutch, but anyway...
We go to turn around. I am sitting there, and suddenly the car starts to roll backwards. I slam on the brakes, and look at the gear shift... we are clearly in "1" not in "R", so I look at Micah perplexed. He informs me that, 5 speeds can/will roll back sometimes...
WHAT??? Why on earth would I want to drive a car that goes backwards when I haven't told it to??? I also realized that putting on makeup, eating, etc, would all be nearly impossible. This was too demanding of my time and attention I decided. I promptly refused to learn anymore, and hence, I do not know how to drive a 5 speed.
Sorry to all of you gear shifting lovers, you clutch popping car experts, I, Jude, declare my laziness and desire to never own or operate a stick shift!

So there you have it... that is the opinion for the day, brought to you by "ornery am I"... if this keeps up I may have to delve into other hot topics such as toilet paper rolls... over or under? Should white be worn after labor day? and maybe even the proper pronunciation of Arkansas...

*** I have been asked how the pressure washing went. He stole our car... JUST KIDDING! He did a good job, didn't have a ladder to reach the eaves, no big deal though. I was a little nervous when he asked for cash and kept trying to figure out every which way for Micah to go get him cash...um, no. Here is a check. And I already checked to see that it posted without him adding an extra zero. :) I am such a truster of humanity eh???? ***

Linda tagged me for this little game, so here goes...
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Tinker Excursion
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Cookies and Cream Oatmeal
3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) Mine is lame sounding, so I am making one up... I will be J Biggie (as in I cannot possibly get any bigger in size)...
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Green Giraffe
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Anne Buffalo
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Again, mine is lame, so here is one "princess ornery" that is much more suited to me at this point in time...
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") Red the Water (after delivery of this elephantine baby it will be Red the Reisling heehee )
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Please, I am german, and my nascar name should be something southern and hyphenated, like Jilly-Jo, or Billy-Sue, or something...
9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Red Candy Corn (now that is why I can never be a stripper...)
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) I could tell you this, but then I would have to kill you...

That's all for tonight... hopefully next time you hear from me it will from a lovely bed at the hospital after a ten minute delivery of a 7lb baby... :)

I leave you with the latest LO for Unpubbed...

Sounds and games and Prizes, oh my!

So, guess what I am listening to right now as I type? It is the sound of my home being pressure washed. Now, some of you may remember just a few posts back that I was whining about not having this done before the baby came... well... now I am whining about having it done. Here's why...
I am at home a couple of weeks ago, enjoying a nice little nap, when I hear a knock on my door. I go to the door, and since I do not recognize the person, just shout through the door, "Can I help you?"
This launches into a brief conversation with a gentleman who says he washes houses. Would we like ours washed, and was my husband here?
Um... there's a loaded question, cause, yeah, I would love my yellow-green house to be cleaned,. but since you are in a truck, with no markings on it of a business, I am not about to consent or tell you about my husband's presence!
Long story short, he insists he needs to walk around with Micah to give an estimate, and will stop by again, and no, there is no business card or anything.
OK, this kind of crap weirds me out, I will be honest.
Well, guess who comes back today?
Micah goes out and less than 5 minutes later, we are getting our house washed....
HELLO?
No estimates from a "professional"?
No calling some of his other clients to hear if they were satisfied?
No checking into what he is using, etc???

Yeah, I am a bit of a pessimist about these situations, so I will have to let you know how things turn out. Micah is a very good judge of character. He has picked up on things in people and then we find out later he was dead on right, so I will trust him, even though the planner in me wants to make these choices in a more, well, planned manner. AND preferably with a business card and glossy brochure. Maybe even a fridge magnet, ya' know...
I think I have seen one too many Dateline episodes about the "Travelers"... LOL.

Now... Moving onto the games and prizes...

Ok, so Karla gave me the idea when she guessed the baby's weight one day... SO here is the skinny...
IN the comments section leave a guess of the weight. The closest one will win some fun stuff... Scrapbooking stuff that is.(and lots of good stuff too!!) Unless it is my friend Sarah, she will win lots of teeth rotting candy like nerds, spree, skittles, etc :)


You should also challenge yourself to guess the arrival, sex, and name... but since I am not going to figure out that many winners, only the weight guess will count. The others, those are just to prove your innate ESP abilities to yourself...


You have until, well, until the baby arrives I guess. But please post all guesses here, cause I am too lazy to look through other posts for them... LOL. Sorry I can only milk this knockedupedness thing for so much longer ya' know? (cause then I'll be milking in a whole other sense... ROFLOL... man I am laughing so hard at myself for that terrible joke, I really should hit backspace but hey... a cheesy joke amongst friends is okay every now and them right???)

So, guess away...

Still here...

Please do not take any long absences from posting for a sign of me being at the hospital or something. I was hoping LABOR day weekend would be more true to its name, but alas, nothing going on here in the baby department. I will be sure and post when it is time. I have been trying to get ready, pack things, arrange things, etc. and have had to admit, it will probably NOT all get done. But, I think the babe will understand if the house isn't properly pressure washed before he/she arrives. I am sad to say, the office is not even started... Micah's been busting out the outbuilding work, and technically, my office can wait... I guess this means I DO have to clean up my scrap stuff and organize it a bit. My brother in law was going to get my IKEA shelves, but alas, they were not nearly close enough to the store to get them for me. I got a bit frustrated because IKEA will NOT let you order on line, or over the phone, etc. and have someone pick them up for you. After an exhausting time trying every which way I could to get the store to agree, I just gave up. The Ikea woman said, "Well, thank you for shopping at IKEA." I was resisting the urge to say, "Um, well, no I am not shopping at IKEA because you have made it impossible to do so!"

So, seriously if this baby does not come soon I am going to run out of cupboard space. I "stocked up" on snacks for Lincoln for school... cause I would hate to run out when the babe arrives... I have like 40 each of applesauce cups, puddings, cheese and crackers, etc. I even bought 8, yes, you read that correctly, 8 boxes of reduced fat wheat thins. WHY? Well, they were on sale, (half price!) and I use them for his non-sweet morning snack. As I got home though I started to question my doomsday shopping techniques, but alas, it was too late, and I now needed to find a home for all these items...

Nesting last week also included me cleaning out the mudroom/laundry room. It is a large room and all my hair stuff had been out there, so it needed a good scrub down. I moved the freezer, the washer and dryer, a cupboard, etc... I paid for this later with a nice back ache, but the nesting bug was satisfied, and the boys happily played out there with some toys as if they had never seen them before.

So, in accordance with this most boring of blog posts, I will share some more pics of the 31 day journal. I was getting tired of keeping up, i admit it. I am glad it is done. I will get the last few days scanned in, well... at some point. I am not promising anything... :) (that would be the ornery Jude that Micah has been talking about.)

And here are my pages for Melissa's CJ...

*** ETA ******

I wanted to congratulate my girl Vee on being in the SIS catwalk AGAIN!!! Isn't this like the FOURTH time Vee??? Her works is great, and she totally deserves it! :) Way to go Vee!! ****