Introducing Zoe!

Zoe Leif to be specific. She was born on March 24th at 8:36pm, weighing 7lbs and measuring 20 inches long. She's beautiful, perfect, awesome and is everything we hoped she would be. 

After being 12 days late, Sally was scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning at 6am. Instead, Zoe decided she was going to take charge and Sally's water broke at 4am. Lucky she did too as it was busy, busy at the hospital and all inductions had to wait until a room became available. Since Sally was already in labor, we moved to the head of the line and got a room right away. We were in the room by 6:30 and our doula, Majbritt, arrived soon thereafter. Mary Ann and Julie also provided backup and were really a great help.

Sally was amazing. She was 3cm for 11 hours, then things started really moving along. Two hours later, she was at 5cm. Another two hours at 8cm, then 10cm and pushing another hour later. 30 minutes after pushing, Zoe introduced herself to the world. Simply incredible.

So far, she's a champion eater and a good sleeper. She's now four days old and frankly, I don't remember what it's like not to have her. That's a memory I'll gladly forget.

Here's a slide show of all the pictures so far, from bump to birth. Lots more to come too! http://gallery.me.com/ryan_rumsey#100022

Austin baby shower and 2 weeks to go!

We had a great weekend and celebrated our last baby shower with all our Texas friends. The night started off with drinks, food and cake at our place, then we headed to a baby shower mainstay...Karaoke!!!


Nothing says impending birth like unique renditions of "Holy Diver", "Mr. Crowley" and "Ebony and Ivory".


Many thanks to Julie, Jessica and Renee for all their help putting the party together. Special thanks to Agatha as well for her rockin' invites. And of course, all our great friends for coming over to celebrate us. We can only hope Baby Hoagie shares our enthusiasm of friends and music. Speaking of hoagies, we had to include a picture of the hoagie present we received from Jessica and Marvin. 

It's really coming down to the wire too. Sally is now 38 weeks and in prime "let's get it on" mode! We took a bunch of pictures to show her progress. Here's Sal showing off that baby belly.

Here's Sally holding Sally the cat for size comparisons. Sally the cat is about 12 pounds and the belly beats her!

While Sally continues to look amazing, this is how she is feeling. 

After 10 pictures, this is also how Sally is feeling.

T-minus 25 days

We're getting down to the wire and Sally is still the hottest lady around. Almost 37 weeks and a knockout!

We spent the weekend washing several loads of baby clothes, building a bookcase for the nursery and beginning the decoration. We're pretty minimalist when it comes to design, but with so much cool stuff, it's hard not to put everything out!

Austin is known for bats. Furry blue bats are cute.

The new bookcase is 'home' to a couple new whatchamacallit friends.

Every Texas girl needs boots. Purple cowboy boots with flames to be more precise.

We love this Flensted mobile. Appropriately enough, it's a flock of 4 white and 1 black sheep. We're hoping they'll be counted successfully for many nights to come.

It's been a bit

So how about an update! 

Sally's now 34 weeks and still looking good. We've been spending our weekends busy around the house attempting to get things as ready as possible before Hoagie arrives. Furniture construction, drywalling, painting, putting down new floors...you name it, we've probably done it in the last month. 

We're also enjoying our birthing classes and have met a bunch of other couples having kids around the same time, so hopefully Hoagie will have a built in set of friends to hang with.

Nursery step 2: Assemble Crib

Thanks to the generosity of Grandpa G, we now have a crib for Hoagie. It's sleek, modern and above all, functional. I've heard a ton of horror stories regarding crib assembly, but luckily it wasn't the case this time. In about as much time as it took to open the box, the crib was assembled and ready to go.

Here's an action shot.

Here's the crib all set up and in place. 

What a Month!

Well, I'm finally home again after almost three weeks in Kentucky with family.  It's been an adventurous time, complete with 3 baby showers and a tremendous amount of babygirl loot.  We decided to begin decorating the nursery today, and since the furniture has not arrived yet we went to Lowe's and picked some paint colors.  Ryan spent the evening painting...



...and painting some more!



We're going to sleep on it for now and see if we still like the colors in the morning, but I think we're on the right track. The 1960's metal blinds, though, definitely need to go.

Ryan and Katie did some shopping yesterday and found a HOT DEAL at our local vintage store, and now our front living room actually has furniture in it. HooraY!



I want to say thank you to everyone who made an effort over the holidays to host and attend our baby showers. Baby girl now has a complete wardrobe up til age 2. Let's just hope those ultrasounds were accurate, because otherwise our baby boy will be wearing a lot of pink.  Here is a random sampling of some of her loot: 

We found these guys in rural Kentucky at the same mall where Ryan found a foot-wide bling Obama necklace.

This little outfit is from Ryan's Auntie, who has a children's clothing business (www.mulberrystreetinc.com).  Notice the frog bum on the back.

Here's a onesie that Katie personalized for us.  And yes, it's personalized on the butt.  Soooo cute.

These two outfits are from our cousin Karen in Chicago.  Because everyone needs a onesie of a milk carton riding a cow AND a baby kimono.

It's a Disco Xmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

From Belize to this

That's right people, last week we were tanning and now sitting at the door watching snow falling from the sky. It's not often we get snow in Austin and it's great to see.

Some Pics

Hi everyone,
So we are back from our vacation and our tans are already beginning to fade. We had a fantastic time and it was everything we were hoping it would be. Here are two of the pictures from the trip, one being my favorite and one being my least favorite. Can you guess which is which?

Hospital Tour....of Terror!

Tonight Ryan and I took the hospital tour where Hoagie is scheduled to be born. The hospital is shiny and new and freshly remodeled, and the tour started off ok, but as soon as we got to the Labor and Delivery floor I immediately StOPPED HaVING FUn. Ryan seemed to enjoy the whole damn thing, but for me it was just one more unpleasant surprise after another. The private L&D rooms were nice enough, with real wood cabinets and windows and doors (I guess that's what all those people were oohing and awwing about, but all I saw were the wires and the sterilized sheets and the "WHAT, not all the rooms have windows? How the hell am I supposed to escape if there are no windows?!?!". I heard people laughing around me and commenting how "nice everything is...ooh, a flatscreen tv, sounds like a party..." WTF? What are all these people thinking? This is a hospital where we are all going to come to have our bodies ripped open and wires and tubes and pokey things protruding from all our orifices. That does NOT sound like a party, it sounds like a medical emergency (WHICH IT IS!). I know Ryan thought he did something wrong during the tour, because as we walked back to the car I could barely manage the energy to spit out my gum, much less laugh at his jokes. Sorry Ry, I do think you're funny, just not when faced with my own mortality.

(Sigh). Hopefullly the hospital-induced panic will wear off by the time I actually have to be admitted there :(

24 Weeks

Tuesday we went to the doctor for our normal checkup.  We got two surprises while we were there, neither of which will stop festering in my already deficient pregnant brain.  First off, the doctor "congratulated" me that I'm definitely going to hit that 35 pound mark.  Probably within the next couple of weeks.  She might as well have said, "Good for you tubbo, now put DOWN THE DONUTS."  



The second surprise stemmed from checking out the fetal development chart, which looked something like this. Ryan and I had been talking on previous visits about how this chart must be larger than life size because there was no way I was ever going to have any baby inside me that was as big as one on the chart. When Ryan asked the doctor if the chart was life size or on a bigger scale, she said that it was life size and my baby was already bigger (gasp shock wince) than the smallest baby pictured (which by the way was waaayy bigger than my head). I guess I have been actively deluding myself and thinking that my baby was going to be petite baby doll size, which she quite apparently is not (seen my stomach lately?). Apparently she is already over a foot long, which is just her length from crown to rump and doesn't even include her long and powerful legs. And her weight? Over a pound and a half. Holy kajesus, batman, this is getting real.

She's Gonna Pop

So we're about 23 1/2 weeks along, which on some days seems like a lot and on other days seems like we're never going to get to the finish line.  Here's a pic of what my belly's looking like nowadays.

Next, prepare yourself, because this is what my belly feels like.  

Now mind you we did not do any trick photography, this is just what the bump looks like head on. AHHH!  As you can see, my belly button is losing the "innie" battle and will soon convert to being an "outie." Sad.

The name game

I'm not sure if this is a classic pregnancy milestone or not, but last night I felt Hoagie's head.  Like through my shirt, next to my belly button, there was suddenly a big, round protruding head.  I told our friend Marvin he could feel it, and when he did she jerked and kicked me in my pelvis.  Which just reaffirms for me that it was in fact her head that we were feeling.  Weird.

Right now we are playing the name game, and though I'm pretty sure we've settled on a first name, we are having ISSUES figuring out and agreeing on a middle name.  Though after last night I wouldn't be surprised if her middle name became Hussein. Or Barack. Or Oprah (I just really like Oprah).  Any name suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sleep is for the. . . freaked out!

Last week I started having a lot of trouble getting comfortable in bed, so I bit the bullet and invested in a pregnancy pillow that completely encircles me. Since I brought the pillow home, I have been sleeping soundly and deeply, which you would think would be a welcome change. However, with uninterrupted sleep comes uninterrupted dreaming, and last night I had my first pregnancy nightmare. It all started out fine, and then the baby came walking into our bedroom. She was still an infant, and definitely should not have been walking and talking, but she was, and it was CREEPY. Then she climbed up into my lap and tried to start nursing through my nightshirt. When I looked down to talk to her, I noticed her mouth was full of razor sharp teeth and then she LATCHED ON!!!!! Fortunately I woke up after that , but now instead of freaking the frick out about labor and delivery, I'm freaking out about my child (who looked a little like the Bride of Chucky in the dream) chewing my boobs off. Scary shit, baby girl.

In other news, Hoagie was given her first robot onesie by her auntie Julie yesterday.  This is awesome news because the theme of the nursery is going to be robots and monsters blowing up stuff.  Sounds dainty, huh.

Finally, your heartbreaking quote of the week, as said by Ryan on Thursday night, "Sally, this little girl is going to be the end of me (said in a gooshy soggy lovey sort of mushy way)."

Crystal ball?

We're having a skeleton

Busy weekend

  Last night was my 30th birthday bash.  There were caramel apples, sloppy joes, and some serious pumpkin carving.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it a fun and exhausting night.

  On the baby front, Hoagie has been kicking and somersaulting all day long.  I think she (or he) got pretty excited about our new dishwasher (which is still sitting in the garage but will soon enough make my life so much easier and stainless-steelier).  We hit up the Home Depot near our house that is closing and got a wicked deal on it.  If only we had a truck, we may have come home with a kitchen full of new appliances.  

   For those of you waiting patiently or not so patiently for news on the baby's sex, we will probably find out this Thursday and we will be sure to post news and lurid pictures as soon as we can.   (As we speak Hoagie is flipping and kicking. I think she likes the feel of her dad's 17" state of the art laptop as opposed to mom's hunk-o-junk.)  Here's a pic of my cutie pie pumpkin as well as my sister and brother-in-law's tribute to thug life.

19 weeks