Welcome to the world, Georgia!

Blake and I got to the hospital around 6:30 this morning and registered. The doctors actually got us into surgery a little early. As usual, I got sick on the operating table, despite the anesthesiologist's persistent attempts to keep me feeling okay. But that was alright. First thing the doctor said about seen Georgia was, "She has dark hair!" I was so sure it would be red! Then again, I was shocked when Nate did have red hair. :) They said she was a feisty one, grabbing onto her cord and all their surgery utensils when they were trying to deliver her. She wasn't letting go without a fight! They held her up for us to see her little screaming cute self! Then Blake was brave enough to walk past the blue curtain (while making sure to avoid looking at anything medical!) to take pictures of her getting measured and cleaned up.

Oh, she is precious. I can't tell who she looks like, but sometimes I think she looks like Nate. She has the sweetest little face. And because she was born c-section, she has the prettiest round head. She was 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and 18 inches long. This is nearly 2 pounds bigger than Nate was at birth, but to us she still looks so TINY! She is so sweet wrapped up in a blanket with her pink hat on ... just perfect.

She had some junk in her lungs still, but she was crying enough to clear that up! She went with us to recovery, where the grandparents could come in one at a time to meet her. Again, I got sick. Ugh. After an hour, they brought me to my antepartum room, which is very nice and huge! Then Nate could come in and meet her. Unfortunately, she started crying about the time he came in, and it made him a little shy. For the rest of the day, anytime anyone asked Nate about Georgia, he got quiet and said, "She was crying." Get used to it, brother!

We had several visitors today--we love visitors! Georgia and I have been attempting to nurse, with some success and some failures, and I'm pumping too and giving her my milk with a syringe. I think she'll be a good nurser; it will just take us some time to get the hang of it.
Nate had a great time today with his grandparents. Grandma and Papaw were at the house when he woke up this morning, and they got him his breakfast and brought him to the hospital. Apparently he was putting on quite the walking show in the waiting room! Then Granna and Pops took him for some lunch and to hippotherapy and then home for a nap. He came back to the hospital this evening to play for a bit, and he held Georgia for the first time, then Blake took him home.

Anyway, what you've been waiting for--pictures of this pretty girl!

Last day pregnant!

And Nate's last day as an only child! I know he'll adjust to it ... eventually. :) Today we've been cuddling, playing, and cleaning. He's taking a nap right now, then we're going to head out for some ice cream and to run a couple errands. He's just such a good boy, and I know how lucky I am to be having another baby to love just as much. That's a whole lotta love!

At this point, I'm not really nervous or scared about tomorrow. I'm just really excited! Here's me on my last day pregnant--36 weeks and 6 days.

Hmm, I guess I need to change the name of my blog. Any ideas?

Whoa

Nate just walked down the street and back. And he's walking all over the house. He's officially a full-time walker now! Whew, just in the nick of time!

More walking progress!

This morning I had my very last OB appointment! We went over the details of the surgery and what will happen Friday morning. We have to be there at 6:30, and the surgery will be at 8:30. As long as Georgia is breathing well, which we anticipate she will be at 37 weeks, she can stay with us in the OR and come with us to recovery. Yay! Such a difference from seeing Nate briefly before he was whisked off to the NICU. If she does have some fluid on her lungs, they'll take her to the nursery and I'll be able to visit her shortly. We should be there until Monday. My parents are staying the weekend and all next week, so I'll have plenty of help. Nate is so excited about getting to see all of his grandparents this weekend. He still hasn't quite caught on that Georgia is coming too, but I guess that makes sense. He KNOWS his grandparents, but Georgia is just the baby that lives in mama's belly. :)

This afternoon Nate had aquatic therapy. He hadn't had a nap, and for the most part he was not paying attention to a thing Becky wanted him to do. He was just in Nate world, splashing and doing as he wished. Then she taught him how to crawl out of the pool using the railing along the side (and he was pretty much pulling himself out of the pool himself, with just a little support from Becky) then he'd sit on the side and jump in all by himself! Becky was probably 3 or 4 feet away, and he'd jump right in, head first, to her. He's getting brave! He did this jump-in-crawl-out thing so many times, I was getting tired just watching him!

Then when therapy was over, he wanted to "walk by myself." He kept saying, "I can walk wherever I want." This is the mantra we've been repeating to him for weeks, and he's starting to believe it. :) So I had him walking from bench to bench in the changing room, then I told him to walk out the door and grab the railing along the wall in the hallway. He did that. So I walked to the end of this fairly long hallway and told him to walk to me, and here he comes! When he got close to me, I preempted him from just running straight to me by saying, "Walk beside me." So he turned the corner by himself, walked down another fairly long hallway, walked through a doorway behind me into the lobby, walked out the double doors, walked down the sidewalk, and then to the truck ... all by himself! No hands! No stopping at chairs! He's a real walker now! It was great. I knew he could do it, but HE didn't know he could do it. When we got home, I got him out of the truck, and he walked to the porch by himself. Really great progress today. I think it's finally starting to sink in that he can walk to get places, instead of just using it as a fun party trick.

Car seats are installed. Bags are packed. Plans are made for Nate. We're ready to have a baby! Only a couple more days! I can't wait to meet this little girl.

Nate-isms

I need to clear my brain of some cute things Nate has said in the last couple of days before I forget them.

Instead of okey dokie, Nate says "dokey dokey."

He calls quesadillas "pizzadillas" because when we go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, he orders pizza and also takes bites off my quesadilla.

This morning I put a sweater vest on him for church. He said, "Ooh, a sweater shirt! I wuv sweater shirts." At naptime, he was so upset that I took it off of him, and the first thing he asked for when I got him up from his nap was to put the sweater shirt back on. Apparently he convinced Blake to let him sleep in it tonight.

While he was napping, I changed out of my church dress and put on sweat pants and an old yellow t-shirt with a couple stains on it. When Nate saw me, he said, "Your shirt is dirty ... and yellow." Not sure where the sudden interest in fashion came from!

We had pork chops for dinner, and Nate wanted seconds but couldn't remember what they are called. He said, "I need more coupons." I tried so hard to not laugh, cause sometimes he gets mad that I'm making fun of him, but I'm still laughing about it! How did he get coupons from pork chops?

Nate's Walking Progress

Here are a couple of videos to show how well Nate is walking now!

(For those who get this on email, come to the blog to see the videos: http://whatnatesaidtoday.blogspot.com/)

And be sure to not miss the blog from this morning with the link to the Littlest Heroes Project photo shoot sneak peek.

Littlest Heroes Project

First a couple quick notes. Nate's new thing this week is "No way!" If I say, "Time to go take a bath!" or "Do you need your diaper changed?" or "Let's go to bed," it's answered with "no way." Not sure where he picked that up. Secondly, Nate has made some improvements with walking this week! He can essentially walk through the house, in small increments. From a chair on the far end of the living room to a chair on the other side of the living room, to a chair pulled out for him in the dining room, down the hall to a chair I set up by the front door, then over to the stairs. Climb the stairs, hold my hand down the hallway, then I let go and he walks into whatever room we're going to. So big progress.

Okay, I'm so excited to get a sneak peek of our photos by Priscilla Baierlein!!!! Check out her blog!
http://www.priscillabphotography.com/blog/

Weekend

Yesterday afternoon we decided to go to the zoo and visit the splashpark there. Here's a pretty unflattering picture of me looking like a whale. :) But Nate looks cute.



Well, it was just in the 70s yesterday, so the water was too cold!

So we left the splashpark and saw the animals. It was also free carousel day at the zoo, and Nate really enjoyed picking out which animal he wanted to ride on and riding around and around to see daddy.

Ever since we picked up a Thomas book at the library on Friday, Nate has been going on and on about a train named Spencer. So Blake told him we'd go to Target and get Spencer after church today. Well, Target didn't have Spencer. So then we had to go to Walmart. Guess what, Walmart didn't have Spencer either. So we picked out a few he didn't have and let him choose. Then he saw that there were pictures of trains on the backs of the boxes, and that's all he cared about. I wish we could just buy the box, really. Finally Blake made the decision for him and said, "Do you want Fearless Freddie?" Nate said, "Okay," in a tone that said, "I don't care, as long as I get my box." So, Nate does like Fearless Freddie, but he's mostly been playing with his new box today. Oh, and we've realized that he's replaced saying "yes" with "okay" today in every instance. Do you want some lunch? Okay. Do you like your chicken? Okay. It's been cracking me up all day.

Nate also did A LOT of walking today. He wore himself out. He's still stuck in a little rut of wanting to walk between me and Blake sitting in the floor, but he branched out a little today. I put his little recliner by the front door so he could pull up and push off of that, and he walked down the hall to me sitting in the kitchen floor. He also got pretty good at turning while walking. :) Progress.

Getting ready for Georgia

We have TWO WEEKS until Georgia arrives! I can't believe it! I think this is the fastest pregnancy on record. For about a month now, I've been in a panic (I believe they call it nesting) to get everything ready for her, and just this week we have gotten to the point where my anxiety is settling and I can start getting just really excited. We now have all the baby gear out and cleaned up, all the shopping done, the nursery ready, her clothes washed ... all that's left is installing car seats! I can't wait to see this little girl.

Nate has been very interested in all the preparations. When we brought out the baby gear, he needed to sit in all of it. Just three years ago, all of this baby stuff was out for him!

Then:


Now! (And I assure you, this was all his idea, none of mine!)

Then:

Now:

For a day or two, he kept crawling in this infant seat just to sit and rock. Once, he flipped himself all the way backwards, which Dakota and I thought was hilarious, but Nate was not amused!

I hate to brag, but Georgia's nursery is gorgeous! I think it's just perfect!

This is her coming home outfit that my mom bought:

Oh, and Blake just painted out bedroom and did a great job!

Yesterday, Dakota was here with us for the day, and Memaw and GrandBob came for a visit. Nate had such a blast--he played all day and couldn't even bother to take a nap. He got to play outside with his sand and water table, then swam in the baby pool with the sprinkler going. He also did a lot of walking--plenty of people to take turns sitting in the floor to let him walk in between. Janie and Bob helped out with some of the last little jobs to do around here, like put together the new stroller. Dakota used the stroller box in very creative ways, such as disappearing in it so Memaw and Nate could sing Pop Goes the Weasel, then she would pop out. Nate thought this was HYSTERICAL! They played this game endlessly. :)

So, we're having a good week, and I appreciate Nate's happy mood sooooo much more after the last couple of weeks' craziness. I think we're just going to hang out and take it easy for the next couple of weeks until the next round of craziness starts!

Some fun little tidbits about Nate

Nate's favorite color is blue.

Nate's favorite song is "It Happens" by Sugarland, and he calls it the "Blue Song." I don't know why, because it doesn't have the word "blue" in it. The only thing I can reason is that he calls it that because blue is his favorite color and this is his favorite song ... so Blue Song. Makes sense, right?

Nate's favorite toy is an empty box that one of his trains came in. Yesterday, he took this empty box everywhere we went. Today, he found another empty train box and carried BOTH of them wherever we went. We went to aquatic therapy, and while I was signing us in, a girl behind the counter laughed, "Look, that little boy is holding a box with no train in it." And I said, "Take a look at the other hand."

Saturday we went couch shopping, and Nate was obsessed with a certain blue couch. He just loved it and wanted to sit on it the whole time. I'm just glad he didn't get too attached, because a blue couch really doesn't go with our decor.

Nate is so good at giving updates of his day. You can really tell what makes an impression on him. Saturday night, he was telling me about his day: "See Mindy, got to eat chicken, see Granna and Pops and Wucas, sit on da bwue couch, more milk." That last part was in reference to his barely contained panic that the waiter at dinner wouldn't bring him more milk.

Today Nate did AWESOME at aquatic therapy. For the first time, it really clicked how to keep himself upright in water, kick his legs, and paddle his arms. He was wearing a floatie device, and he was swimming! He did great!

Nate is a backseat driver. Most of the time he's fussing at me to "go", which would usually involve running a red light or pulling out in front of traffic. I know he has comprehended my explanation of how stoplights work, because today I heard him say, "Here comes a red light, Mama. We have to stop." But in general, I've never met a younger person with road rage.

We went to a sibling class at the hospital tonight, where Nate got to learn how to hold a baby (doll), that a newborn as an umbilical cord that will fall off to make a belly button, and lots of other useful information. Unfortunately, we had to leave this class just before touring a hospital room and seeing a real live baby, because Nate threw a fit about having to leave the fish tank. Sigh.

At Texas Roadhouse tonight, Nate saw a large mural of a Native American Indian and pronounced, "That's my dad!" :)