Time is flying!

If you can believe it, Zoe is now over a month old! Holy smokes, when did that happen? She's still cute as ever!

It's been a very exciting month of firsts for The Zo. First bath, first lunch out on the town, first stroller ride, first bottle...heck, it's all firsts! Probably the biggest first this month was meeting the closest members of her extended family. First up was Grandma Maddy and Auntie Julie. They were lucky enough to be there when she arrived, but have needed their weekly fixes, so they've been up to Austin a few times to enjoy all things Zoe. Uncle Rob was able to make a quick visit too, which was excellent.

Next was a full week with Auntie Cari and Auntie Katie. Both Aunts just wanted to hold Zoe all the time and definitely helped out on poop patrol too. Zoe hopes to meet Uncle Jeff very soon and wants to know if he and Aunt Cari will pick something French up for her while they're on vacaction. :)

After the Aunts had their visits, it was time for more grandparents. Grantie Terrye and Grandpa John were here for almost a week. We had a blast just hanging out and both were of great help around the house. Especially with cooking lots of tasty food and helping install major appliances. Unfortunately, all the pictures taken during their visit were lost in a bout with technology. We're hoping to see them soon to make up for the lost pictorial sessions.

Next on the docket was Oompa Paul and Mimi Cathy. Again, they were awesome help around the house and we had a blast.

Finally, Zoe celebrated her first birthday with a visit from Pop Jack. We're so glad his heart is on the mend and he was able to meet his granddaughter, healthy and happy. 

We had a great first month and are just amazed with Zoe. She's certainly the coolest person we've ever met. And of course, see more pictures at http://gallery.me.com/ryan_rumsey#100022.

Videos!

All sorts of firsts in this first week with videos to capture the events.

1st Bath:


1st ride in the swing:


1st backyard visit:


Funny faces:


More funny faces:

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.

Statistical Data

I'm not sure if it is because of my recent cold, my ever-increasing girth, or a combination of the two, but the last week has been full of some really interesting data that I'd like to share with all of you (because I obviously have no shame left).

Number of times I've peed my pants in the last two days: 3

Number of times I've blow-dried my underwear in the last 6 hours: 2

Number of times I've considered sending the husband out for some Depends: 2

Number of times I've left sessions with clients with the mumbled explanation "cough....pee": 2

Number of times I've wondered if silverware can go in the microwave b/c I have no memory of why it shouldn't: 1

Number of shopping trips I've been on wherein I find myself wondering if I normally wear a bra in public: 1

Number of times I've seen my bikini line in the last 2 months: 0 (this counts looking in the mirror, I am officially so large that my belly hangs over the whole damn area)

Ahhhh, ain't life grand.

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.