Our First Day at Home

Our first day at home has been great. Ella has been a great baby, nursing well, pooping lots and sleeping in between :). She's a bit jaundiced so we had to go to the pediatrician to get her bilirubin checked and it's a little elevated still, so back to the pediatrician again tomorrow. She's waking up, so this is gonna be short, just wanted to give a quick update and some more pictures.

Sunning away the Jaundice

Ella Lydia Manson is Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had our beautiful baby girl Friday afternoon at 12:33pm.Ella Lydia Manson is her name! She weighed 7lbs 9oz, 19 1/2in long. She has tons of hair, chubby cheeks, long fingers and toes, she is just perfect! Delivery went well, we were at the hospital in labor for 14 hours, labored for 22 hours total. Made it to 8cm then got an epidural, pushed for an hour. It all went darn smoothly! We just got home today so we're still settling in. More to come later....for now we've got a baby to coo and swoon over! We are SO IN LOVE!

Japanese Gardens

Here are some photos of a trip we recently took to the Japanese Gardens. We've had a few bright warm sunny days the last few weeks, so we've tried to get outside and enjoy them. We haven't been to the Japanese gardens for a few years, so it was great to go back. The cherry blossom trees were just starting to bloom.

On a baby note... we had an OB appointment today and I am 4 cm dilated 70% effaced. T-1 week until our due date. We got the ball rolling to schedule an induction at 41 weeks if she does not decide to come before then. We are extremely antsy and can't wait to see our baby girl.

Eugene Visit

We sure missed this place! So many fun memories were made here!!!

The construction site for the new Mac Court...it's ginormous!

With our buddies Betty and Fr. Dave at Studio 1

Last Sunday Jason and I drove to Eugene for a visit. We hadn't been there since we moved to California 2 1/2 years ago, so it was long overdue. We went to the Newman Center Sunday morning for mass and got to go to Studio 1 Cafe for breakfast with our friends Fr. Dave and Betty. We hadn't told them that we are having a baby, we wanted to surprise them in person....it was so fun to see their reactions! We drove by the new baseball field at Autzen, saw the HUGE pit at the new basketball arena site, saw the new alumni building at the entrance of campus, went to Sweet Life (bought 3 pieces of cake...2 for then and 1 for later), went to the store Modern that's always been a fave of ours, and ended the day with a stop at Burrito Boy (got 4 burritos...one for then and one for later, they even gave us extra mole since we were bringing them home to Portland). It was a great trip and it was so nice to visit all of our favorite old sites. Can't wait to visit again!

Heaven in a glass case!

37 1/7 Weeks

Oh the fun that awaits us!

We had an OB appointment today and I am almost 1cm dilated, 70% effaced, and at 0 station....in english that means that the baby's head is down right at the cervix, cervix is 70% of the way thinned out and starting to dilate. As far as what that means for delivery, that remains to be known, could still take weeks for her to come, but at least there's been some progress! We were pretty happy with the news! Our to do list is complete, can't think of anything we have to do while we still have some baby-free time....we're just relaxing a bit and enjoying each other's company - cooking some fun meals together and laughing lots. Jason is making blueberry scones as I write this so I should head to the kitchen and help...just wanted to give you all an update!

This girl has one heck of a wardrobe already!

Nursery

We've got the baby's nursery all put together....we think. Crib - check, dresser/changing table - check, rocking chair - check, clothes/blankets/burp rags washed and put away - check, toy box ready with toys inside - check, boppy - check, diapers/wipes/butt paste ready to go - check, 5 million other little gadgets and things in their "proper places" - check, it feels like we have it all put together, the last thing we needed to do was put things on the walls (aside from actually having the baby...but that's a given right?). To start we hung the wonderful quilt that my friend Sara made, above the crib. We hung "baby" in wood letters on the wall, but we were at a loss for what to do on the rest of the walls. My aunt Kathy gave us the inspiration we needed. She gave us a framed photo of my great grandma, who was a nurse way back in the day, holding up a newborn she helped deliver for the dad to see for the first time. It was a really special gift and it helped us figure out how to decorate the rest of the room. We put up frames of black and white baby photos of us and the baby's grandparents along with sweet baby quotes like: "Babies are like tiny blossoms so eager to grow." and "A new baby is like the beginning of all things, wonder, hope a dream of possibilities." We don't have all the photos gathered yet, or all the quotes in the correct sizes, but getting the frames up and to get an idea of the photo layout was huge for us. We love how it's all come together! Can't wait for her to arrive ....now is the only time there will be any semblance of order in there we're sure, but hey we'll enjoy the cute pink cleanliness while it lasts! :)

Blast From The High School Past

I was recently going through some old high school photos and got a good laugh out of these in particular! These are at my high school graduation party....my friends and I did a dance to the Backstreet Boys, "Bye Bye Bye" at our grad night party (we actually placed in the top 3 and won $$). We gave the guests at my party a preview of our performance - looks like we were having fun! Don't you just love the HOT pink cowgirl hat I'm wearing...it was all part of the gig. Ah the memories.

Anna Lail, Maria Lawler, Sam Guido, Rebecca, Me

I think Anna and I were both a little lost and cracking up at each other! Love it!!