DaddyBlog - Welcoming Lucie Rose!

Wow - That Baby Ticker is a few days off! 

"What shall we do Friday night?"

 There were a few things we came up with. "Let's go out for dinner. After all, it might be one of our last opportunities before Lucie arrives." Then Abbey sent me an email around lunchtime. "It's the Olympics opening ceremony. Let's stay in with pizza." Sold. It'll be nice to see how The Brits show off to the world.When I got home I decided to change into my USA T-shirt to watch the show. I'm a BritAmerican after all.

Three bites into her home made pizza Abbey says, "My friend at work told me that if I wanted to speed things along I should eat pizza." I smiled, and grabbed and took another bite of pizza, just as Danny Boyle's Olympic opening began. Ah, to see James Bond escort Queen Elizabeth to the opening ceremony. How more British can you get? My stomach did somersaults of pride! So did Abbey's and they became more and more frequent.

"I feel different." Anyone who has lived with a woman for any length of time knows this is not news. You just smile sweetly and say, "Really? How so?" In this case, Abbey grabbed her phone and called her sister Sam, playing down the difference. Sam knew this difference all too well.  Her mum was in agreement. Next thing we knew they were both at our door, and by 10:30 PM we was on the road to St. Mary's Hospital.

It was a long night. Hours went by. Hospital staff checked in every few hours to see if there were any signs that things were moving along. Abbey did laps of the hospital hall with Sam hoping it would help. I did a few myself. Are we staying or are we going back home? By 7am, it was decided we would be staying and we were taken to our delivery room.That's not a typo. It was a delivery room just for us! Couches, an extra bed if dad wanted to sleep, reclining chairs. It was bigger than our first apartment!

At this point we had both been up for over 24 hours with little to no sleep between us. Our nurse was a lovely lady called Mattie. Full of beans and ready for anything, Mattie talked Abbey through all of her pains and got her to a place where she could manage. We knew there was still a way to go but what we had been waiting for was going to happen. Today was the day!

Anyone that knows me knows I'm a softy. The right movie, (or John Williams score) and the floodgates open. It's a Middleton thing. A real trigger for me is seeing someone I love in pain and being powerless to help. I knew it would be the way when Abbey went into labour, and I remember crying more than once. Some of those tear triggers make me smile looking back on them. Here, in no particular order, are my favourite Abbey-In-Labour declarations:

"Oh God, Help me!"
"That's it I'm done. I guess she's staying in there!"
"What did you do to me!"

Around 1pm, things weren't moving. Mattie, who was by now one of the family, looked into Abbeys eyes. Maybe it was because of experience, intuition, being a mother herself, or all of the above that she knew we that Abbey couldn't take much more. I'll never forget the tone in her voice when she very gently said, "OK Abbey. Shall we just get this done? I'm off at 3, and we're gonna have a baby before I go."

When it was time to push my eyes were again full of tears. With everyone else coaching, Abbey gave it all she had, and on Saturday July 28th 2012 at 2:08 PM Central Daylight Time (8:08 PM Greenwich Mean Time) Lucie Rose Middleton was born! She weighed in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 17 and a half inches long.

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That's all for now. More will follow soon. Thank you to everyone for their love and support. (And forgive the typos! - Updates will contain corrections! :)

Nursery Photos!

It has been a long work in progress, but the nursery is officially done! Without further ado, here are the pics...

Standing in the doorway, this is the view to the left               

and this is the view to the right.

When you step into Lucie's room, directly on your left is the changing station.  We have her diapers, bum cream, wipes, clean onesies and her laundry basket all at hands reach.

Above her changing pad, we hung some tissue paper flowers to occupy and entertain our little Lucie bear!

You can see the door to her closet just beyond.  This girl is already VERY well outfitted!  Now she just needs to hurry up and get here so we can start dressing her up.

To the right of the closet is her crib.  We are hoping this is where she spends many comfortable nights, fast asleep.

The blanket set that inspired the animal theme for her room is pictured here up close.

For those times when Lucie isn't so calmly slumbering- every parent needs a reliable device to monitor their baby.  This is a toy that James has spent a lot of time playing with already, as you might imagine.

Under the window I hung what I am referring to as a book hammock.  She actually has lots of books already, they're just a bit too short to peer over the top of the hammock :)

If you continue turning to your right, you will find the feeding and rocking station.  The monkey on the wall above the small chest of drawers is a nightlight.

Lucie's bureau is just next to that, also already filled with clothes! The animals are 3D pieces of wood, painted in fun colors.

And here we have the full pictures again.  Archie LOVES the rug in Lucie's room.  Anytime the door is open to her room, he is in there lying on that rug.

Many thanks are owed to a lot of different people for their help and contributions to putting together this wonderful space for our little girl.  We'd like to thank (in alphabetical order): Auntie Sam, Grandad Terry and Ali, Grandma Jeanne, Henry's Momma and Daddy and Nanny Ann and Charlie.

Last but not least, we have our fancy pants stroller, including a straggler...

We really hope you enjoyed all of our pictures!  If you couldn't tell, we are so excited and ready for Lucie to arrive!

What a difference a month can make

Today marks the one month mark until our little Lucie's due date!  What to do with this month before her arrival? Here's our list:

• Celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary on July 12
• Celebrate Lucie's arrival at our Baby Shower on July 15
• Finish washing all of Lucie's clothes
• Prepare some meals to stock up the freezer
• Fit the car seat and have it checked at the fire department
• Loads of finishing up of projects at work

We are in a good place in terms of necessary preparations for baby, but there are lots of little things still staring me in the face.  The weather is supposed to be more in the 80s next week than 100s so hopefully that will give me at least a day to do some cooking and get the freezer stocked up and ready to go.

Now obviously I understand that Lucie is not guaranteed to arrive in a month, but it's a fun landmark nonetheless.

Growing Bigger Everyday

Our little gal is already growing up fast. This week she is almost 5 pounds and approximately the same size as a butternut squash.  She has her very own rock concert every night around 7pm where my belly is bouncing all over the place.  Tonight we were out walking Archie and the sun was setting in just the right place that James was able to capture the picture below.  I think it's pretty neat :)

I'm feeling hot, hot, hot!

It has been pretty warm the last few days (90s and even up to 100!). As a result of the increased temps my feet essentially doubled in size. Ugh! This is one of those pregnancy symptoms that I was hoping to avoid but lo and behold- my giant feet have erupted.

What they don't tell you is how painful it can be to walk on these suckers. I step out of bed and it's like pins in the bottom of my feet. Fortunately Archie is a fair weather dog and has zero interest in going for walks when the temps get too hot so my recent ailment has not impacted his walks too greatly.

James has been great and always offering to get me a drink or run to get something I need to avoid being on my feet much at night.  Just spending a few hours each night on the couch with my feet up has given me a whole new appreciation for all the mommas assigned to bedrest.  How hard it must be to sit or lay all day!

The temps are forecast to break next week so I'm sure the swelling will go down then.  My blood pressure has remained great (low even) so Lucie and I are doing well on the couch- eating ice cream, drinking lemonade and watching tv.

Love to all! And stay cool!

Two Months to go!

I can't believe that we only have two more months until Baby Lucie arrives. In eight short weeks she might already be here in our arms.  This seems like a good opportunity to list what we need to accomplish over the next several weeks.

1. Finish assembling crib and purchase mattress
We were a couple of screws short on the crib so they are in the mail and on their way.  Once we have the screws we will be ready to rock n roll!  Perhaps this weekend we'll make a trip to Babies r Us and pick up the mattress so we will be all set to go :)

2. Buy some diapers
I'm starting to feel a little anxious that I don't have any diapers. We've got everything else we need to bring baby home except for diapers.  I doubt we'll have any problem getting through them!

3. Install car seat base
We have our car seat purchased but the base needs to be installed in our car.  The local fire department will check that car seats are installed properly so I want to be sure to have it checked out in plenty of time.

4. Wash clothes
We have been very fortunate to have been gifted a lot of clothes for our little girl already.  Now I just need to decide what to wash in preparation for baby's arrival.

5. Finish nursery (this is a big one!)
Are you waiting to see pics of Little Lucie's new room?  Well me too!  It's coming together but there are still a few projects outstanding:

• Hang book holder
• Purchase and hang curtains/drapes
• Create art for her walls
• Purchase a mirror
• Line her dresser drawers with something fun and colorful
• (***) Insert 100 other things that I am probably forgetting here

As you can see, we have a few things to do.  I guess I had better go work on some of these, huh?

Love to all!

Mover and Shaker

Our little Lucie has been dancing up a storm!  As she grows bigger and stronger everyday, her moves are starting to become bigger and stronger as well.  My whole belly shakes when she wiggles around and I can see her arm or leg move across my belly when she makes a big turn.

James was feeling her move the other day and asked, "Is that you or her?" I replied, "It had better be her otherwise I think I might have a snake in my belly."

We are now officially in our third trimester- hooray!  It's so hard to believe we're 3/4 done baking our baby.  I am very fortunate that it has been such a smooth journey thus far.  It has kind of lulled me into a false sense of security about labor and delivery.  I have this [insane] notion that since everything has been so easy, labor will likely be a walk in the park.  Current Mommies- pick yourselves up from the floor, stop your laughing and please continue to read :)

We have started to take our baby and birthing classes which is exciting and depressing at the same time.  This means that pregnancy is quickly approaching an end and I really have enjoyed it to this point.  James and I both find ourselves saying, "Wow, Lu will be here to do this with us next year!" and we even talked about making a list of "musts" to do before her arrival this summer and neither of us could think of anything [at least not that I can do while pregnant] that we couldn't make work when she arrives.  It's exciting to think of her arrival but I also love our special time together feeling her move and shake in my belly.