It's a girl!

Avery Dayle made her way into the world on Tuesday, December 22nd. She weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces, and was 21 and 1/2 inches long.

And we were fortunate enough to be able to come home on Christmas Eve, so we were able to spend Christmas together as a family.

We're all very much in love with her, including her big brother Logan. He always has to know what she is up to, and is always willing to give out a kiss or two or ten. He's such a great big brother.

So we're just adjusting to life with a newborn again, which so far hasn't been too bad. A bit sleepy, but all worth it.

7 more days

And we are so very ready! Logan and I are going to bake some cookies tonight and we'll officially be done with the to-do list.

We dressed Logan up for his Christmas program at church:

We ourselves got dressed up for the company holiday party, and I swear we did have an okay time, despite the look on Richard's face :)

We made a gingerbread train, okay we put a train together, bought one of those nice pre-made kits. Worked out fairly well, although I'm pretty sure we won't be eating it.

And we visited with Santa:

So the Gustafson house is ready for baby #2, just as long as it waits until Friday. Everyone asks if I think I'll go earlier than my scheduled C, and honestly I'm not really sure. I never really went into labor on my own with Logan, or I guess I kind of did but didn't really notice. So I'm not sure I'll notice an early signs.

Why Friday you ask, because my husbands stupid boss decided, that even after he promised me he wouldn't, to send him 3 hours away to work for the week. He left this morning to work up near Chicago. Luckily the guy he's working with understands and they're going to work their butts off and get done early. So baby just has to wait until daddy gets home :)

Richard's brother Nathan will be on Friday from Hawaii. He's in the Navy stationed out there, and we only see him about once a year. And my other sister Joanna, will be in hopefully sometime this weekend as well (as long as she gets her butt in gear and figures out how she's going to get here:))

So this will be Logan's last weekend as an only child, so we're going to try to spend the whole weekend with just him, even if we don't do anything exciting. If I'm feeling okay, we might venture down to Christmas at the zoo for a little bit, but we're not making any big plans.

So the next blog entry you read will be pictures of our beautiful new addition!

One more....

Only one more doctor visit before the big day! Wow, I cannot believe how fast time as gone. Even these last few weeks, everyone says how slow they go, but not for me, time is flying by. Two weeks from today (unless I go early) we'll be holding our new little bundle of joy.

And we're pretty much ready around the house too. Maybe just some cleaning before hand. I had thought maybe I'd throw together some freezer meals before hand, but if I don't get to it oh well.

We finished putting up the Christmas tree last night, just a few little decorations here and there to put up. I think this weekend we'll make a few batches of cookies and we have a gingerbread train to put together. Shopping is done, so other than wrapping presents, I think we're all set.

I'm starting to get a little anxious/nervous about once the baby is actually here, we're ready household wise. But it's been awhile since we've had a baby around, and so much has happened since Logan was born, I hope its just like riding a bike and it all comes back quickly.

But we're all excited to meet the new little one, so stay tuned for any news :)

Ladies and Gents, a new record in medicine has been set!

The length of my doctor appointment today truly had to be a record, and not in the way you think. I arrived at 2:45, my appointment was scheduled for 3:00. I was called back by the nurse at 2:55, weighed in, peed in a cup, got my BP checked, met with the doctor, had a couple extra questions this time, even had my Group B Strep test so that made for a bit longer appointment. Even with all that, I was back in my truck at 3:12!!!!!! All doctor visits should be like that, I was truly stunned.

All is good on the baby front, it was being stubborn and didn't want its heartbeat heard today, my BP was great and things are measuring just right. I now get to see my actual doctor from now on.

The problem with my leg ended up being superficial (basically meaning surface) phlebitis. Just an inflammation of a previous varicose vein location. I've been taking an antibiotic and aspirin to help with the inflammation, it's still a bit bruised looking but its 100% better than it was, and will completely improve after birth, not much else can be done about it now.

3 more weeks, or as Richard says 22 more sleeps. Can't believe we're that close already. We've been busy (well Richard has, I'm not much help these days) around the house lately. We're working on finishing the basement, and I think at this point we're about 90% done. It's going to be a family/playroom, and Logan is very excited for all his toys to be down there. Logan's bathroom also took on a new coat of paint, and our bathroom/bedroom is next. Guess we're using the baby coming as an excuse to get projects done, its working well :)

When I was pregnant with Logan I surprised Richard and went to Glamour Shots and had a belly portrait taken, so we wanted to do one with this pregnancy, however didn't want to spend the money again. So with a borrowed white sheet and Richard putting his very amateur photographer skills to work, we took a few shots. I'm pretty happy with how a few of them turned out.







We also started putting up Christmas decorations this weekend too, just haven't dragged the tree up from the basement this year. I love our tree when its up and decorated, but its such a pain otherwise. Might even go with a smaller real one this year, shh, just don't tell Richard, I bugged for years for a fake one :)

Happy Very Belated Halloween

I was looking through pictures and realized I hadn't shared a picture of Logan in his Halloween costume, he was so excited about it! Even though he wasn't all that into the trick or treating part.

I'm over it!

(for the record, I'm not a fan of that saying)
Okay, it's official I think I'm done being pregnant. This pregnancy has been uneventful for the most part, and I feel so blessed to even be pregnant, BUT I'm ready to be done. Pardon me while I complain a little bit :)

I'm incredibly sick of my maternity clothes, but at this point see no reason to invest in anymore, so it seems I wear the same few shirts over and over again, luckily I work with mostly men who probably don't even notice, or care.

Amazingly I'm sleeping well still, just get up to use the bathroom at least twice a night, but I usually fall back to sleep fairly quickly. It's the getting out of bed in the morning that takes a bit. Even though I don't sleep on my right side, my right hip is killing me these days. It feels like more of a groin pull, but the pain comes and go randomly. Eh, tolerable I guess.

This week one of the wonderfully genetic varicose veins in my left thigh (thank you Krueger family) decided to swell up. Hurts like h-e-l-l. I've don't everything they say you should when you're prone to them, keep my feet up when sitting, have them on a little stool at work too, take frequent breaks, blah blah blah! Guess I"m just blessed, mornings are the worst, putting pressure on that leg is quite painful until I get moving. The skin around the bulging vein is a bit harder than the rest of my skin too. So, since going to the doctor today anyway, I'll have him take a look at it, I hope its nothing, but hope to get some relief from the pain as well. Can't help but think the worst sometimes, you know large clot shooting to my lungs, stuff like that.

On a good note, Logan and I were able to get our H1N1 vaccines this week. I wouldn't have bothered if we didn't have a newborn on the way. The health department was holding a clinic on Wednesday. Lucky for us, Richard decided to leave work a bit earlier than planned to go get Logan and take him over there, and they gave him two spots in line since he said his pregnant wife was on the way. If he hadn't I wouldn't have made it on time, as they only had 500 to give out. But, I think our total wait time was about 2 hours. Not too bad. The first woman that came out said she had been there since 11:30, a bit excessive I suppose.

And Logan was quite the trooper. Listening to all the other small children screaming, he was getting a really nervous look on his face the closer we got to the front of the line, but he didn't even flinch. He looked away, and when she pinched his arm for the shot he even watched. So hopefully we'll have a healthy winter at our house.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Birthdays never used to be a big deal, just another day. Until I began to approach 30, then I dreaded birthdays. 30 was old! Today as I turn 31, I realized that birthdays are fabulous! It's a celebration of another healthy cancer free year, and the promise of another healthy year to come, I definitely don't take birthdays for granted anymore, especially cancer free ones.

Also had a doctor's appointment yesterday. My blood pressure was a bit elevated when we first got there, so the doctor was a bit concerned, so after the exam they made me relax for about 15 minutes and took it again and it had come down. So all is well, he told me to take it easy, and call if any other issues came up, headaches, floaters in my vision, and swelling. But so far so good, and don't really expect anything different. The baby is really active as always and really starting to make itself known just by watching my belly move, always fun. Can't believe how fast time is going, I'll be 34 weeks on Tuesday but with my c-section being at 39 weeks we really only have 5 left. I can't wait to meet this little one!