She's Here!!

Well, obviously our little Addison Rose is finally here! I will try to give a somewhat brief recollection of the time leading up to her delivery. Momma was starting to get a little bit anxious when I actually made it to my due date because no one thought we would make it that far. So, I decided to bite the bullet and see if I could help things along. That shows you all how patient I am. I took the dreaded castor oil with a juice chaser at about 4pm on 7/17/11, my due date. Well, low and behold I actually started contracting pretty regularly that night around 9-10pm that night. I have to say I was pretty excited to get this show on the road :) I took a nice long warm shower cause I knew I might not get one for a day or two. Thanks Katie for telling me to do this!! So, I knew it could be a while so I decided to try and get some sleep after that. I woke up to some stronger contractions about 2 hours later and decided to give our doula a heads up. I think it was about 4am at this time. She told me to get in a warm bath to relax and see if they continued or slowed down at all. After about 20 minutes in the bath they were still coming so I got out. That is when my water broke. I realized that this is actually it now! We are going to have a baby soon!

Our doula came over to our house about 6am and we started the "marathon". At least that's what it felt like to me. We did a lot of walking and talking and just let everything happen on it's own time. I didn't call the hospital till about 4pm that day because I knew they would want me to come in right away because my water had broke. We did finally go to the hospital around 6pm on Monday evening. After being admitted we started walking the halls to get things going. I was only contracting about every 4 minutes and was only dilated to 3cm by 8pm that night. We realized I still had a small portion of my bag of water that was cushioning Addy's head and was inhibiting our progress. So, about midnight they broke that last little bag of water because I was just barely 5cm at this point. That is when things really got going.

I have to say, at this point I was starting to get a little bit

tired. My saving grace was the jacuzzi tub. When I started getting worn out it helped me relax so my body could do what it needed to. Our midwife showed up about 6am and said I was getting really close. This was such a wonderful experience because they all just trusted me to birth this little girl in my own timing. Everyone around me was so positive and supportive and that helped so much!! I remember when I was starting to push that my midwife was sitting in a rocking chair in front of me, just allowing me to trust my own body. I think I pushed for about 20minutes(that's what my mom said), and out she came. Little miss Addison Rose Hemphill was a perfect 9lb. baby and she was 22 inches long. She had a full head of beautiful dark brown hair and lots of little chubby rolls! Here are a few of her very first pictures!

We had a photographer at the birth, so when she gets those pictures to me I will post a few of them as well.

Well, it's almost time!

Well, I "almost" made it! I am now at 39 1/2 weeks. It seems so crazy that the time is almost here for us to meet our little girl! I have organized and fretted over every item of clothing and thing that I have bought for her! I feel prepared, but when you don't know what you are getting yourself in to, you can also feel a little anxious. I want to have all the right things for her, and yet I know it's somewhat a trial and error thing anyway. There are so many different products and things out there for babies these days.

At my last appointment with my midwife I was just 1-2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I feel like at least my body is doing something, but now I just want it to hurry up :) I am totally ready for this new adventure in our lives. Literally, I have gone crazy with the nesting over these last weeks and months! It's been so nice to get done all those little projects that I have been wanting to do for years (ever since we moved into our house). We were able to finish our basement, for the most part... I have organized and cleaned out all the cupboards in our kitchen. I have also gotten rid of all kinds of "stuff" that I had been keeping in our basement. I do not want to be a pack rat, so I try to go through things often and get rid of what we are not using. Well, I hadn't done that in a while, so I took a whole car load to Goodwill this last week. It felt good to clean it all out!

So, here I am at 39 1/2 weeks

I started this post just a few days before my due date and never finished it. I thought I would still post it, just for the memory.

Nesting time!!

I have been very unsettled lately! I can't sit around cause it's just not comfortable anymore. So I have been doing lots of projects, cleaning and organizing. I have to say I have been very productive as of late and I kind of like it. I do have to do some sitting when I get off work to let the swelling go down in my poor ankles, but then I am off and running. My mom and I made these blackout curtains for Addy's room. My husband has been helping with some of the projects as well. I got him to do the painting and putting up the chair rail in her room. He finished that up this last week, so I finally felt like I could start organizing the rest of her room.

I was able to put her name up on the wall. I love it!!

I washed all her bedding and put her crib together.

And her closet... This girl is going to be dressed very well for the first year of her life! We were very blessed by family and friends!

Addison Rose Hemphill

As you can see we finally decided on a name for our little

bundle of joy! We are starting to get very excited about this little one. With only three months to go until she arrives I feel like we still have so much to do. We have finally hired the doula that will be accompanying us through our birth experience along with our midwife. I am so very excited to have Sarah share her knowledge and support with us. We are striving for an unmedicated/natural birthing experience, and I am looking forward to it. Of course I know things don't always happen the way you want them to, but we want to try for it. I have heard many wonderful birth stories about natural births, and with my background of massage I thought it was perfect for me. I received a few quotes from our doula that I wanted to share. I think there is such great truth to these.

"Giving birth should be your greatest achievement, not your greatest fear" - Jane Weldman

This is one I want to not forget during the rest of my pregnancy

"If I had my life to live over, instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle." - Irma Bombeck

I would have to say first off, pregnancy is not for sissy's. I think many people don't realize everything that a woman's body goes through during the 40 weeks of pregnancy. It's not an easy change for a woman to deal with, especially when it's your first child. Now I know I haven't made it all the way yet, but I am making progress. I would have to say that my changing body, the hormones up and down, the acid reflux, the back pain and the nausea are not necessarily fun things to deal with. But above all that God has placed inside me the most wonderful little girl that He has entrusted to me. I do not take this responsibility lightly. Beyond the pain and discomfort there is a joy and a love for her that grows with each day!

So we have started doing a little bit of decorating in her room, but still have a few things left to do. I will leave you with a few pictures of our nursery.

This blanket is the inspiration for Addison's nursery

We have the room painted, but we still need to put up the chair rail.

Progression of my pregnancy

So, I figured I should try and get a few pictures up on my blog. I am definitely not the best at keeping up with the blog, but oh well. I am now almost 26 weeks along and doing pretty well. I have to say my back has started causing a few problems, but nothing horrible. I am actually enjoying the pregnancy for the most part. There are so many wonderful things to think about and dream about. Jesse and I have gotten into quite a few conversations about parenting and how we will raise this little one. Also trying to make the smoothest transition for our two furry kids. There will definitely be some jealousy issues from those two. So here are a few pictures.

12 weeks

I was still pretty sick at this point. I think that's why I look a little off.

16 weeks

Just a little tiny baby bump!

18 week Ultrasound

This is our precious little one's first profile shot! I love it!!

25 weeks

I think this is an odd angle. I think I look bigger in this picture than in real life. Must be the stripes. No more stripes for me!

It's a Girl!

We found out almost a month ago and I am just now getting around to posting on here. We are very excited about the news that we will be having a daughter. As most of you know I grew up with 3 brothers, and Jesse has 1 brother. We kind of just assumed that with all of the testosterone in our families that we would end up with a boy. God decided to give us the blessing of a little girl! This is going to be such an adventure for the two of us, and we can't wait.

I have been enjoying the growth of our little one over these last few weeks. I have been feeling her little movements over the last 4-6 weeks, but it has gotten to be so much more lately. I can now feel her kicking on the outside too. I absolutely love the feeling of her moving inside of me throughout the day. It makes me wonder how people could not believe in God! This is such a miracle growing inside me, and I relish every minute of it.

We are starting to get some things for her nursery and I am having lots of fun with that!! I am not a really girly girl, so I am not using pink and purple. I know this sounds strange to some people. I have found some very cute things in blues and greens and yellows that I think are still girly though. I bought some paint for the room, and I am sure Jesse will get around to painting sometime in the next four months! We have a few other projects that need to be finished first. Well, that's about all the news for now. More later!

Another addition to the Hemphill family!!!

This is definitely going to be the most exciting new addition to our household. Many of you have already been told this exciting news, but I wanted to have it documented for future memories. We found out at the end of October of 2010 that we were expecting our first child!! So exciting and a little shocking and a tad bit scary too! It will be so much fun as Jesus carries our little family through this next adventure in life. We are thoroughly ready for the joys and even the hard times that are sure to come our way over this next year. So, our little bundle of joy is due to arrive somewhere around July 17th 2011.

Jesse and I have been together for quite a few years now. We dated for about 4 1/2 years before we got married, and we are now coming up on our 4 year anniversary. Starting a family is something that I have always hoped and dreamed about since we first met. Jesse is a very methodical and analytical person and he had a plan (I did too, but they weren't quite the same!) He really wanted us to have a house so we would have a safe and comfortable place for our family. Well, we got the house back in 2008, so then I was kind of starting to think it was time. But not quite yet... I had quite a few other friends who got pregnant and had their kiddos during this time. That was so exciting to see, but starting to get a little difficult. I just had to trust God that when our time was right we would have our own. We had a few things that we felt were important for us before we had a child. I know you can never be totally ready to have children, but being as prepared as possible is a good thing. Well, we ended up getting Harley and then Lily joined our family this last year too. The plan was that the two of them should be able to somewhat occupy each other when we add a baby to the family. So, after this final "preparation" we decided to start trying for our family. It didn't take us too long, and here we are!!

I am now coming up on 15 weeks. Sorry it has taken me so long to start talking about the last few months. I had a slightly rough first trimester, but thank goodness it's over now. It definitely could have been much worse, but I don't want to relive it again any time soon! It makes me a little worried about the third trimester because I know it will be difficult as well. I think the hardest thing for me is the unknown of how my back will react to my growing pregnancy belly. All I can do is pray and hope that no complications occur. I am VERY lucky to be working at a physical therapy clinic. My co-workers have taken very good care of me over the last few months.

I promise to try and keep up with the latest pregnancy news and all the other changes in our life over the next few months.