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Last Friday after work I had a severe stabbing pain in my upper right abdomen. We called my doctor, and she said to take some tylenol, drink plenty of water and lie down. The pain seemed to go away, but on Saturday night I had some bleeding. We called the doctor-on-call and he suggested we go in to labor and delivery to get checked out. Thinking I would just be given a pat on the back and sent on my way, we didn't bother to bring anything with us. Imagine our surprise when they told us I was 6 cm dialated! I hadn't even had any pain yet (besides the stabbing pain which went away anyway); I hadn't felt any contractions. Of course two hours later I was beginning to feel lots of pain. When we found out the news we called my mom and she and my dad started looking for the first flight out here. We didn't think she would be able to make it in time, but I finally asked for an epidural and everything just stopped. (Literally I went from 7 1/2 cm to 8 cm in about 18 hours, and now I don't want to ever have an epidural again.) My mom made it in the next morning, and was there for most of the experience. I tried to get some sleep, but I was a little anxious. The doctor was fine with waiting for the baby to come in his own time (since he was early), so after being at the hospital for almost 24 hours she finally broke my water and little Ezra came out shortly after that. Unfortunately since he was 5 weeks early he was rushed to the NICU right after being born. He's been in for a week now, and progressing really nicely. He was only on a respirator for a few hours, he's finally off of phototherapy, and he will be off his IV today. As he is progressing I will get to feed him more often, which means lots of time at the hospital. As soon as he can eat from me exclusively we will be able to take him home. The doctors say to plan for him coming home by his due date but believe it will only be two or three more weeks.

Anyway, we want to say thanks to all of our friends and family for your support. It has been tough not being able to take him home. He sure is a cutie though. I'll post pictures next time. I'm writing from the hospital, and I'm not sure how to get pictures on here without saving them to the computer.

We missed several weeks of belly photos. We've been very busy setting up our new home and getting ready for Ezra to come. So I have two photos to put up today. One is from 26 weeks and the other is from 31 weeks. There is a HUGE difference between the two photos; it's pretty crazy.

I don't really even fit into that shirt anymore. It shows a little bit of my belly now. You can see the whole set here.

Maggie called me on never posting, so this is for her. (Our internets were unreliable for a while, not to mention I've been very busy and I'm sharing computers with Matt... but I don't want to make any excuses or anything.)

About our new home the front room and the kitchen look great, the office and the nursery however are both disaster areas. Which brings me to about the baby/pregnancy. I am totally in a panic here. We only have 9 weeks to get the nursery ready for the baby. As I mentioned it is a total disaster in there; I don't even know where to start. Other than that, I love being pregnant, and I love my baby. He kicks like crazy, especially at night when I'm trying to sleep. When he's not kicking me he gets the hiccups, which are funny and annoying at the same time. I also feel like a big fatso, and I don't think I'll ever be able to fit into my old clothes again. Oh well!

I cut my hair today. Literally, I took the scissors to my own head. This is the shortest haircut I have ever had, and I actually like it a lot. Plus it was FREE, even if it took me probably two hours to cut it all. (I usually just go to the beauty school, and the students take almost two hours to cut my hair anyway.) I took off about 4 or 5 inches, so it was a pretty drastic cut. I know I'm crazy, but this isn't the first time I've cut my own hair. I used to do it in high school all the time.

Our good friends Boz and Maegan just had their baby boy this morning, Congrats! I can't wait to go see him. I love babies!

Okay here's my to-do list for the nursery.
1. Clear out anything that's not staying in the room and put in storage.
2. Put away anything we are storing in the baby's closet.
3. Sand down and clean baby's furniture.
4. Paint or refinish furniture.
5. While room is all cleared out paint room.
6. Put bassinet in our bedroom.
7. Arrange furniture in nursery.
8. Buy crib.
9. Hang any pictures or decorations.
10. Do not go insane...

I think you become an official blogger once you get "tagged" is that right? Well, if it is I guess the past three years of blogging don't count...

1. What is the best thing you cooked last week?
Our new home has a nice big porch (I mean big for a condo). So Matt got out our mini charcoal grill, and I made us barbecued chicken with corn and a green salad. I homemade the BBQ sauce and it was totally killer, and the chicken was still juicy! I was so proud of my grilling skillz.

2. If money, time, and babysitting were no object where would you go and with who?
Matt and I would die to go to Santorini, Greece. It is so beautiful, Matt's dying to take pictures there. (We first decided it was a lifetime goal of ours to go there when we watched Giada in Paradise, a show on the foodnetwork). Also if money were not an option I would want to take my whole family on a vacation to the Harry Potter theme park when it opens. (Plus it's in Florida so we could go to the beach and Disneyworld.)

3. When was the last time you cried.
Probably yesterday sometime. I'm pregnant; I cry all the time.

4. What is the most played song on your ipod right now?
I've been listening to a lot of Norah Jones lately. It's very mellow and soothing, and I like it.

5. Is there something on t.v. this week that you are more excited about than the So You Think You Can Dance finale?
I'm so happy about my answer to this question! We don't have cable or an antenna at our new house, so I haven't watched any TV since the Monday we moved in! Three whole weeks without TV, yay! We just bought a new TV, which I'm sure Matt will blog about because it was the deal of a lifetime. So we will be borrowing an HD antenna from a friend of ours, but we'll only be getting a few channels that way (Gotta make sure Matt can watch his Eagles). I used to watch a lot of TV, so I'm happy I can't because now I find other things to occupy my time with (which isn't too hard to do since we still have work to do on our new home).

So now I get to tag other people... I think I will just tag Maggie. P.s. Margs I was supposed to call you when I got your package, and then I never did because I am a bad person, but I got it thanks!

We're alive, well and living in our new home. More posts to follow when my house looks a little less cluttered.

Matt and I closed on our condo yesterday! We should be getting the keys to our new home today! We still have a TON of packing to do. Our big moving day is Saturday (everyone's invited! bring your swimsuits to swim afterwards!). We are going to buy a new couch! I am soo excited because our current hand-me-down couches are pretty ugly (and by that I mean I hate them). We are planning on getting this couch:


It's from IKEA, and I love it. But Matt thinks we should get a couch from Big lots because it is microfiber and will cost about the same. (I told him it looks like a Grandpa couch, it's really puffy and big) We're going to go look at it though. I'm just excited to have a home that I can decorate and paint however I want. I have lots of ideas, but we'll see if they all happen. Well I have to get back to packing. Here's last weeks belly photo:

Finally, here's four of them!

18 weeks:

19 Weeks:
20 Weeks:

21 Weeks:Whew! My belly is getting big! I'm at 22 weeks now too, so I will hopefully be putting 22 up soon. Everything is going great here, our house is a mess, and I have no motivation to try and straighten up because we're going to begin the packing process soon. Yay!

Happy Fourth of July!