HERE'S OUR GRACIE ROSE:

7/7/08: 6mo check up & shots. Our beautiful baby is now 28 1/2" tall & weighs 15 lbs 11 oz. Doctor said she is still under weight for her height. I am just ignoring that. She eats as much as she wants when she wants. I can't force her to eat more. We did start the stage 2 foods. So now she gets yummy chicken & beef stew.

Took Grace for her 4mo check up. She is 26" tall & weighs 13 lbs 11.9 oz. Doc said to start her on the stage one foods to get her weight up. She doesn't look to skinny to me but if that is what the doc wants, we'll give it a try. :)

New funny face.

Gracie's first professional pics - 3mo's

Mommy's favorite picture :)

Happy Easter!!

2/25/08: Took Grace to the doctor to get her first set of shots today. Poor baby. She screamed like crazy.

She is now 24 1/4" long and 11.5 lbs. Oh my beautiful big girl!!

Valentine's Day 2008

MY FIRST PICTURE SMILING...

I'M JUST SO STINKEN CUTE!!

2/07/08 - This is Grace flirting with her Pooh mobile. All she has to do is hear the first note and she starts smiling. Sooo Cute!!

1/17/08 Took Gracie to the doctor today for a check up. She now weighs 9.9 lbs and has grown an 1". (22 1/4"). They said she is in the 95% in length. She is just beautiful.

BIRTH STORY: 12-25-07 Scheduled induction at 7pm on Christmas night. Checked in and was at 1cm. They gave me something to help "soften" me and said they would check my dilation again tomorrow. And that this could take a few days.

Well I immediately started cramping. It was so incredibly painful that I was shaking uncontrollably. My husband tried to tell the nurse that the pain is not normal and that I know what a contraction feels like and this is not it but they did not think anything of it. Then (according to my DH, I was too wrapped up in pain to remember I guess) the baby's heart beat went down to 20. My DH called the nurse and the doctor rushed in, shoved a needle in my arm to counter react what was happening. Apparently I had a bad reaction to the "softening" medication and it was causing stress to the baby. They had to stop what was happening now. He reached up inside me and hooked a monitor to the baby's head. All this helped the baby, thank God, but the cramping continued. Finally I yelled I want the epidural (which I was dead set against). That process seemed to take forever but once done, oh the relief! My poor daughter (the 15 yr old), she was in with me the whole time and seeing me in such pain was really hard on her. She refused to leave my side after all that. They checked me again and said it will probably be morning when I will be ready for the patocin. So my daughter got in bed with me, DH on the chair next to me and my mom on the other chair tried to get some sleep.

At 5am the next morning they checked me and I was fully dialed, but not having contractions. So they gave me the patocin. At about 6am they said it was time to start pushing. The nurse said, with the next contraction I need you to push. That is when I panicked because my husband was not in the room. I was yelling where's Donnie, get Donnie! The nurse told me its ok, if you get too close we will stop. He was getting coffee because they told him it would be another few hours. Poor guy, even the people in the waiting room were yelling at him "She's pushing!" He tossed the coffee and ran in when I was about 3 pushes in. After a good hour of pushing, on Dec 26th at 7:02am, out came our Gracie Rose. She had a full head of dark hair and just the most perfect body and face. 8lbs 3oz and 21 3/4 " long. We all had a good cry and took pictures. It was incredible. A true gift from God. One healthy baby girl.

12-24-07 It is Christmas Eve and still no baby. She is tucked away all cozy in my belly and refusing to come out. I have an appoinment tomorrow night at 7p to induce. Would love to have her today or tomorrow morning naturally. Seems like everyone else has had their babies. This one is just like my husband, stubborn. Well if this is any sign of how she will be in the life, atleast I know she will be strong and do things that she wants and not let anyone tell her otherwise. (That will be good when she is an adult anyway). Oh baby come out, there is so much love waiting for you out here.

12-10-07 Well it is now one week before my due date. I am more than ready to see our baby girl. Every day my husband asks "When is she coming out". I had a doctor appointment on Friday and she said I have not dialated at all yet. So I guess our peanut is comfy and sitten tight for the time being. The house is a mess with Christmas decorations. We need to get the tree in the next few days so we can take the buckets of ornaments back to the garage. I am getting anxious, can't wait to see our little angel.

10-16-07 Ok I am going to try this one more time. My info. that I have posted the past month is gone. So I am starting over.

We did find out we are having a girl. The names we are thinking about are: Gracie Rose & Addison Rose.

I went for my 2nd 3d U/S on the 11th. She would not look right at us so we didn't get a good pic of her face. We did see she has a cute little ear and cheek. Got a good profile shot. She was bent in 1/2 so her feet were up by her face (and kept getting in the way). Made it easy to confirm again that she is still a girl. Nothing hiding down there. I can't wait to see her in person!!

8-29-07 My daughter started her Sophmore year on Monday. OMG she is almost all grown up. And when did I become old enough to have a kid in High School? Thank God she is so much different than I when it comes to school. She really doesn't mind going. That to me is the best thing ever. She has a great group of friends and they all do pretty well in their classes. They are all boy crazy but (thankfully) none are really dating yet. They like to hang out and do all the normal teenage things AND like school, huh who would have thunk, my offspring. She is just a great kid and I am so proud of her!!

8-21-07 Ok is this what they call a "pregnant moment"? I was dropping off my daughter at her dad's last night and we were talking about birthdays. He said he was going to be 38 & I said no, you will be 37 because you are only a year older than me. I literly argued with him for a few minutes before he said, when were you born? Then it hit me, I am going to be 37 next month! For months I swear I have been thinking I am only going to be 36. I was even talking to one of my girlfriends last month & told her I was turning 36. Oh how depressing, I am a whole year older than I thought AND obviously loosing my mind at the same time!!

8-19-07 Today my husband felt our little peanut kick for the first time. It was so exciting! He couldn't believe that was the baby. He kept asking was that it or just my stomach then the baby did a big kick, twice. He just kept kissing my belly and I cried. I was so happy that he could finally share in this and feel what I do. It was quit an exciting moment!

8-13-07 I can finally say I am one of those women with an active baby! For the past 3 days my little peanut has been moving around quite a bit. It is so comforting! :)

8-8-07 Went for my 2nd u/s yesterday. The first time all we could see is the baby's spine and it wouldn't move. I was in there for atleast an hour. This time the baby was in another weird position and we still could not get a good view of it. They want to get a good picture of the heart. So now, I have an appointment for next month. Driving me crazy cuz I really want to know if it is a boy or girl. Also a little worried about it's health. It doesn't seem to be very active. :( Just have to stay positive and hope for the very best.