Pictures

We just couldn`t wait to share - I`m here in the cyber for about 5 minutes :) Enjoy!

Oh, and offical measurements are 3Kilos 270grams and 51 cm. I`ll let you all do the conversions.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

GUESS WHAT EVERYBODY

This is Mary, Sheila's sister. Hi, how's everyone doin? Good. Good.

Now I'm sure you realize the only reason that someone other than Sheila would be posting on her blog is because she's a little busy WITH A NEWBORN BABY GIRL!!!!

She called at 4am today to say she was having contractions 3 minutes apart and they were on their way out the door to the hospital. She told my mom "I gotta go, here comes another contraction" My mom said Yep, that's real labor.

Next we heard from her was around 8:30 this morning. She had a short "easy" (I mean labor is labor, but relatively speaking, you know) 4 1/2 hour labor with about 15 minutes of pushing. (For the record my labor was like 14hrs w 2 1/2 HOURS of pushing. Not that I'm not happy for her. But she didn't have to show off like that. I'm just saying.)


Now for the important stuff.

Keep in mind we are depending on a brand-spanking-new mother for these details (which include kilo to pound weight conversion) so they may be edited later, but:



Katya Alana
born 5:30am (ish, and I don't know what time zone that is)
7lbs 1oz.



Sorry, no length (I told you, new mommy details). "FB" claims Katya looks like Sheila (those determined Carpenter genes) but Sheila hadn't seen enough of the baby to give her expert opinion on the matter.

My mom's going to meet the baby tomorrow or Saturday and I'm sending my camera so I tentatively promise pictures in a week or 2.

Happy birthday to Danny and Samuel, Danny always gets the best birthday presents....


Hasta la vista. Bay-bay.

A Voting Link

I´ve seen some varying thoughts on others´ blogs about how they might vote in the upcoming election. But it was this post that made the biggest impression on me. I also found the John Piper link in the post interesting.

Thoughts?

A collection of thoughts

So, I am currently listening to the drumming of a ritualistic dance/celebration for an idol that is taking place in front of the Catholic church a couple of buildings away from me. The dancers are dressed in traditional, indigenous outfits, very bright. Interesting, huh?

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In other news, we were back to the Dr´s this morning. Things looked pretty good, with me dropping a pound and the baby apparently gaining a little over a pound (estimated weight: 7lbs 11oz - which is actually my birth weight). The Dr did another internal exam, and it sounds like I hadn´t dilated at all at that point. When all was said and done, he announced that he´d like to induce next week (Wednesday, Oct 1st) if I haven´t already gone into labor. Something to do with the rate at which the placenta is ageing. I am not necessarily a huge induction fan, but considering the many levels at which I am out of my element right now (country, language, first baby....), I don´t really feel up to disagreeing with his strong personality and opinions. I am just happy he´s talking induction rather than C-section, and actually said he thinks I´m a better candidate for a normal labor than for surgery.

Both my husband and I are hoping and praying for labor to start on it´s own before next Wednesday - and in fact, it may have already. I have been having contractions at varying levels of strength and varying intervals all day. Actually, I had come last night, too. So we´ll see what happens. Obviously, any and all prayers are appreciated at this point!

One way or another, my little girl will be here in the next week. The thing that is funny to me about that is that those ticker countdowns I put on the blog just might be right on :)

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My 3rd and final shower was Saturday. Actually, I feel like I had 2 showers on Saturday, because that morning a package arrived from a very good friend who appears to have had fun shopping for us :) But the official one was thrown by my in-laws, who made me feel very loved by all the thought, planning, work, and money that went into making it something special. Several guests we thought were for sure never showed (including, for example, a cousin) - that was the only downer. I received a variety of really nice gifts, ranging from very practical (diapers, medicine dropper, nose suction cleaner thing), to fun (hairbands!), to special (handmade by the giver sweaters), to cozy (fleece baby blankets), to possible winner of best gift (a hardcover/pages children´s bilingual Bible!).

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Don´t know how many of you have followed the AIG bank woes, but that is the parent company that my husband is working for. He already was feeling enough pressure of late to feel his job is at risk. We´re obviously feeling that pressure even more now. Still waiting to see what God has in store on the job front, and hoping it is something new and better just around the corner...

Baby Update and More Pictures (not of me...)

So, had another Dr´s appointment Thursday morning. I actually gained 2lbs in the last 2 weeks. Still trying to figure that one out, as I think I did everything the same as always, and last appointment I had lost weight. Basically, I´m saying I don´t get how weight works when you are pregnant :)

Considering that at our last appointment, my little daughter had put on 2lbs in 3 weeks and totaled 5lbs 12oz (by ultrasound estimates, over a month before the due date), you can imagine that I was a wee bit nervous about her growth rate quickly putting her into the huge category. But this time she appears to have only gained 13oz in 2 weeks, putting her at an estimated total of 6lb 9oz. That´s not so bad. Of course, she could be in there for another month or so...

Everything the Dr checked looked good, healthy, normal. Amniotic fluid, placenta, baby´s heart rate, my blood pressure, etc.

He also did an internal exam. Now, Americans most likely read that and figure I got a run down on things like centimeters dilated and percentage of effacement. I did not get any of that information. I did get comments like, ¨this is a very good pelvis¨ and ¨the cervix is smooth, which is to say it should open easily¨.

I´m not sure if I have mentioned here how they seem to be much more C-section prone here in Mexico. As in, if there is anything out of the ordinary, they opt for the C-section rather than work with it. So at today´s appointment, everything the Dr checked, it was like he was looking for something out of the ordinary that would warrant scheduling surgery. Thanks be to God, he didn´t find anything. And told us he feels about 95% sure that I am headed for a normal delivery. Considering how surgery-happy they seem to be here, I am very happy to have been given that high of a chance to let things happen naturally.

Assuming I don´t go into delivery before then, the next appointment is in 10 days. The Dr seems to think I´ll make it that long, although I am not really sure how well a Dr can predict anything at this stage of the game. In the meantime, I am trying not to overanalyze every little change or oddity I feel in my body. I am not desparately waiting for labor to start in the sense that I can´t stand being pregnant any more (I´ve actually heard myself tell a couple of people that I feel great, if you can imagine saying that at 8.5 months pregnant). But I don´t like the unknown of it, the waiting game - and in that sense, I´m hoping for sooner rather than later.

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On to pictures. I promised Carole I´d try to get these up pre-labor, so here we go. The first picture is a typical view you might happen upon here, and the 2nd is the view from my in-laws house. In the 2nd you can see how we´ve had an unusual amount of rain the last month or so - it isn´t usually so green.




These next couple are the views from my house. As I am sure you can imagine, I am looking foward to the day that the construction is done, and keep (maybe foolishly) hoping that they are going to do something with that triangle of dirt in front of my house. But the mountains are forever beautiful, regardless.




And finally, here are a few pics of my house. The first shows it from the outside - the right-hand half is us. They like to build rows of houses or at least build a couple attached at a time. Then you see my living room and kitchen (the view of one is taken from the other and vice-versa) - which is what you see the second you walk in the front door. The front door, by the way, is the one by the stairs and living room furniture. The door in the kitchen opens to our walled in alley/patio like space where my laundry is. I included one of the kitchen that shows off my ´cabinets´. Houses here don´t come with built in cabinetry - everyone has to come up with their own solution. My is on wheels. What doesn´t fit in there is on a table by/under the stairs.







I was gonna post a few others, but the computer I am on today apparently is quite old, as it does not have a USB port. Maybe next time. But I figured better to post something than nothing.

Just to fill out your sense of the house...The stairs lead up to our bedroom and a 2nd bath. That´s all there is up there. We also have 2 more rooms (meant to be bedrooms) on the 1st floor - one in front and one in back. All 3 bedrooms are pretty small, as you´ll see when I get a chance to post a few more pics. I also have a couple of new ones that I took of the view of the mountains from my house when the lighting was better.

Oh, and to clarify - I keep using the phrase ´my house´- but we rent it.

Can you tell I´m trying to catch up on things I´ve wanted to post before the baby comes? I have no clue what kind of cyber time I will be able to finagle with a newborn! It really will depend alot on her personality and sleeping/feeding routines (since cybers are only open certain times of day...).

My stomach is getting bigger and bigger...

Just in case you thought, considering that I have not been gaining a lot of weight, that my stomach is not getting bigger, I figured I had better post a few more pictures. The first 2 are from about 7.5 months, the 2nd two are from today (I am exactly 37 weeks today...officially full term).







On another note, the showers went well this past weekend. Satuday's was small, I think about 8 people. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet any Americans after all. It turns out that 2-3 Americans are actually 2-3 forgeiners. I did get to meet one of them - from Brazil. Then one, who is actually American, wasn't able to come because of a sick child (with some strange viral thing she didn't want to risk passing to me). I'm still unclear on if there is another American. But regardless, they were all very nice and fun and generous. And by generous, I mean they gave out of the little they have.

Sunday's was also fun, a good time of fellowship with the women of the church - who still aren't really sure I can understand them. I had to reassure them several times that I understood just about everything anyone said. But there was a lot of laughing and generally a good time had by all. And they also were generous in the same sense.

In overview, I was given a number of outfits, although unfortunately close to half of them are newborn size and won't fit this growing girl long, I am afraid. I also received several blankets, some bottles (more than I feel like I will use, but oh well), diapers, wipes, baby soap and oil, and baby cologne.

The last shower isn't till a week from Saturday, being given by my in-laws.

And now, I will leave you with this incredible piece of trivia...

Historically, the woman on record as having had the most children was Russian. Between the years 1725 and 1765, she was pregnant 27 times and had 69 children!!!

Thank you`s, FYI, and Showers

Wanted to make sure I thanked all of you who
a) have been commenting all along :) and
b) recently came out of the woodwork :)

I feel much better about the whole `void` thing, and remotivated to post regularly. Plus, it was so good to hear from a couple of people I hadn`t in a while.

I`m pretty sure there are still more of you out there who check in and never say anything - would love to hear from you too!!

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After one of my girlfriends `threatened` to start calling me every 2-3 days to make sure she knew when I give birth, I realized I should clue you all in to my plan to have someone (prolly my sister) post here on the blog for me (an most likely on Facebook, too) when the baby is born with the essential details. I have too many friends spread out all over to come up with any better way of making sure you all hear the happy news.

And we do have a hospital - I can`t remember if I have officially said that here. It is a small, private hospital that opened in 2000. My husband is allowed in with me for the delivery, as well as to spend the night in my private room (he gets a very nice leather couch...). It is clean, close to home, and a reasonable price (as far as private hospitals go...).

The Dr I have been seeing all along for prenatal care will be my attending physician for the birth, so there will be a familiar face, and he will be familiar with my history, etc.

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The first of 3 baby showers is tomorrow (Saturday), and another is on Sunday. Tomorrow`s shower, the first, was actually the last to be planned, and was a bit unexpected. It will be largely attended by people I have never met before - a testament to the culture here understanding the need to help others out, as well as never turning down a chance to socialize. The fun part is there will be 2-3 other American women that I have never met there - it should be interesting and helpful to connect to others like me.

Sunday`s shower is being put on by the women at church and will be help immediately following the service.

I`m looking foward to the chance to hang out with all these ladies, as well as begin to wrap my brain around what I do/don`t have and/or need. Our budget is simply too tight to have spent any money on anything until seeing what we are given.

Another neat note of divine provision...
One day last week I took inventory of what clothing I have been given so far. It isn`t much. I spent the next day or 2 trying NOT to wonder how on earth we will ever affort buying clothes for our little girl. On Saturday, one of my good friends informed me that her mother-in-law, who barely knows me (I remember interacting at my friend`s wedding...?), was probably sending me a box or so of baby clothes - many like new or with the tags still on. Even if the box never shows, it was a great reminder of how God can use very unexpected sources to provide for us.

Baby Update

So, we got to see our little daughter again yesterday. Actually, she is not so little anymore...she put on almost 2 lbs in the last 3 weeks according to the ultrasound estimate, and weighs close to 6lbs already...5 weeks before the due date.

While she was busily gaining weight, I actually lost a pound. Weird,huh? But the Dr isn't worried, and the baby is growing, so all is well I suppose. Puts me at a total weight change of only about 15 pounds.

We had another analysis done for this appointment, and the indicator that was there last time for preenclampsia is now reading normal, so that was happy news. And my blood pressure continues to stay nice and low.

The Dr checked things like amount of amniotic fluid and how the placenta looks, as well as location of the umbilical cord, and everything looks good.

The two fun parts of the ultrasound....
The Dr showing us the baby's hair!
Simultaneously seeing and feeling that she had the hiccups!

The Dr said he had planned on doing an internal exam this time, but since everything seemed so good and normal and all, he decided to hold off till the next appointment in just over 2 weeks.

We've arrived at the weird neverland of pregnancy, where labor could begin any time really [and the Dr said if it started as early as a week from now, we would just let it take it's course], or might not happen for a good 6 weeks or so if she comes late.

But since she appears to be healthy and happy, we'll just continue on our merry way until she decides to come. Although, hopefully, she won't wait so long that she has time to grow too much more!

Mountains, a few pregnancy thoughts, and ¨The Void¨

In response to Inkling´s comment about that last picture, that was taken about 30min - 1hour from where we live. We live in a very mountainous area, but our city is generally considered to pretty desert like. It isn´t quite a true desert, because there are trees and flowers and bushes that grow here. But they tend to never get very big, and for example there is never any grass unless someone goes out of their way to plant and nuture it. The area in that picture, although relatively close, gets a lot more rain than we do for reasons I do not understand -and so is always infinitely greener and prettier, making for a good picnic/day-trip detination. Not that our city isn´t pretty in it´s own right. You just have to get used to seeing a lot of bare dirt and shades of brown. One day soon, I´ll see if I can post a couple of pictures to help explain what I mean.

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I keep forgetting to mention how much I am really enjoying doing pregnancy pilates, and in particular how much I like this book. I´ve long been a Pilates fan, since several years back when I was losing a significant chunck of weight. And doing them now helps me feel like I have a little bit of control over a body that I generally feel is out of my control these days, as well as helping to feel like my body is the way it should be, for lack of a better description. Like things are lined up and connected as they should be despite all the weird muscle and joint things that happen when you are pregnant.

Speaking of my body being the way it should be...
My sister reminded me that my body still won´t be my own as long as I am nursing, but I am looking forward to feeling like it is a little more predictable. I am particularly looking foward to being able to do things like get out of the car or roll over in bed without making a production of it. :) I am honestly not overly uncomfortable (I did not say I am not uncomfortable, just not overly so), but am beginnging to look forward to having a non-pregnant body for a while.

On another note, I have been reading through the prophets the last couple of months for my daily devotions (and finding them much more interesting than I ever remember finding them in the past- having a study Bible helps I think.). But I am beginning to wonder if my timing was a little off in choosing to read them - there are way too many times when they refer to a woman in labor to make a point about the terrible things that are coming (the pain will be like a woman in labor, they will scream like a woman in labor, etc). Not very reassuring to someone about to go through labor for the first time!

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And now for ¨The Void¨.

Let me start by saying thank you to those of you who reply to my blog in one way or another.

As for the rest of you...

I am beginning to feel like I am writing into the void of nothingness. Sitemeter tells me that there are people coming to read my blog, and it isn´t just Otrgirl and Inkling checking in over and over. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sitemeter, it gives me very general statistics about who comes to my blog. Don´t worry - I get no personal information out of it.) But despite an average of 10 people checking in per day, I get very little feedback from you all.

I wanted the blog to be a communication tool, a jumping off point to staying in touch with a variety of people. It helps me maximize my online time by letting all of you know what is up with me at the same time. But beyond that, I was hoping some of you would have some response to what I write, and maybe clue me in on your life.

I have had a couple different people tell me now that they feel funny leaving comments on the blog, knowing that the ´general public´ could potentially read them. If that is the case, send me an email, using what I posted as your jumping off point.

Ok, I don´t want to drag this out or sound like I am complaining. I just feel a little demotivated sometimes to make the effort to post since I am getting so little feedback. And more than that, there are several of you that I am pretty sure read my blog that I would really love to hear from sometimes - I miss you!

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Tomorrow we have another Dr´s appointment, so there should be a new baby update in the next day or 2. I can hardly believe I am down to the last month or so. My overwhelming emotion is a desire to know my daughter, and to see that she is healthy and well. I am getting a little nervous sometimes - feel free to pray that I will be ready in every way for what is to come, and will have a labor free of any major problems.

Pictures!

Ok, so I am finally posting pictures! :)
Thanks to my sister, I now have a memory card reader, which makes the whole process quite simple. It is just a bit time consuming, at least at this cyber.

This round is of me pregnant, for those who haven´t seen me at all. I´m afraid we started out really well and have of late slacked off a bit, but I promise to get some end of pregnancy ones taken and posted as well.

We started out with the grand idea of taking pictures every month of me in the same outfit, so you could see the differences. It was a good plan, anyways.

Blogger is being a little weird, and no matter what I do, the captions don´t quite fall in the right place, so...for months 3,4, and 5 - there are 2 pictures each, and they are in order. Hope that makes sense.

Here I am at 3 months:





At 4 months:




At 5 months (sorry these came out a bit dark...):






Here, I obviously am not in the same outfit, but soemthing is better than nothing. This was just taken about 2 weeks ago (when we actually had a real weekend!), and I´m right about at 7 months.