Aubrey's 1 Month Portraits

Here are Aubrey's 1 month portraits that I had done at JCPenney's on July 15. I apologize for having been such a horrible blogger since Aubrey was born. My intentions are to still try and catch up on some blogging and to share a lot of pictures that we have taken at home so far in the last 40 days. The time since she was born has absolutely flown by and I am way more than occupied - I've got my hands full :) Lindsey is still overloading Aubrey with tons of lovin' and kisses. Aubrey is still such a great baby and only cries for the necessities in life - a.k.a. eating. I am so proud to be a mother to two wonderful girls. Life is great.

I took Aubrey for her 1 month checkup a little late on July 23. She weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and in the 39%. She was 21 1/4 inches also in the 39%. She has grown so much, so fast and I'm already wishing time would slow way down. She is perfectly healthy and the checkup went great. She even did OK with her 1 shot. She just cried a brief moment and that was it.

This 9 pic portrait collection above was taken and put together to keep up with a tradition I started with Lindsey. I have one very similar for Lindsey in a 10x13 at exactly 1 month as well, so I also wanted one for Aubrey.

(above) - Daddy's hands :)


Here is a link to the rest of the pics from JCP's.

Click on the pic below for more pics.

7/15/2008 JCP portraits - Aubrey 1 month

Aubrey's 18 day Portraits

(This is my favorite pic - I love the smile.)
You all are now probably thinking I really am picture crazy, but here's the real reason why I even had her picture taken again. I was with my friend Jenn at Kiddie Kandids while she was having her and Katrin's picture taken. While I was there they offered to take Aubrey's picture and give me 12 birth announcement cards for free if I was interested. (This is one of their regular offers - I just didn't have the coupon with me.) I accepted, even though I had not dressed for the occasion. What I like is that no matter whether you buy anything or not they send you all the pictures by e-mail and then you get to save them and keep them for memories sake. I absolutely loved the way the pictures turned out, but resisted purchasing any and only got the birth announcements. Here are a few of the pictures.

Mommy's Little Princess

Click on the pic below for more pictures.

7/3/2008 Aubrey 18 days Kiddie Kandid Portraits

Aubrey's 10 day Portraits

Hello to all! Sorry I haven't been posting more updates about our new precious baby Aubrey, but I am sure most of you out there can understand and sympathize with me having a 2 yr 5 month old and a newborn. It gets kind of crazy, but we are doing great overall. Keeping Lindsey off of the baby is our biggest challenge right now. She absolutely loves her to death and practically smothers her in kisses and in the process drives me completely batty - ahhh! :) The baby is absolutely perfect and sleeps nearly 24/7. I don't think Lindsey slept quite that much, but I contribute it to her being so much smaller and also having some jaundice, which I have been told makes them more tired. Aubrey only wakes up to eat and basically never cries. She usually goes 4 hours between feedings, but sometimes it's 2 or 3 hours. She lost down to 5 lb 10.9 oz and is approximately 6 lb 12 oz now as best as I can tell with weighing with and without her on my Mom's digital scales. I am a fanatic about getting professional pictures taken so I had her to JC Penney's at 10 days. I had Lindsey to the studio at 6 days, but wasn't able to get there that early with Aubrey due to other events going on. The outfit I had her picture taken in was what we brought her home in. I did the same with Lindsey. I figured every other picture taken of her will be in a pretty dress so this was my one chance to capture that new baby moment. I have attached the link below to the pictures that were taken at JCP. I will try to update again soon.

Special "thanks" to my Aunt Ruthie who made the beautiful blanket that is in the picture above. It is so perfect for a summer baby. It is seersucker material with a special hand crocheted edging. It is so lightweight and perfect. Absolutely beautiful!


Click on the pic below for more pics.

6/25/2008 Aubrey 10 days JCP Portraits

A few more pics of Baby Aubrey

I don't have a lot to say right now except that I wanted to share a few more pictures with you. I still have not had much sleep, so I am off to sleep for hopefully what looks like will be a much more restful night. We are heading home early Tuesday afternoon. We are thoroughly enjoying our new bundle of joy and life is already better with 4. Baby's are such beautiful miracles and I am so happy to have 2 of them now.



Click on the pic below for more pics.

Baby Aubrey - 6/16/08

Pictures at last of our new arrival!

I have posted several of the baby plus pictures of most of her visitors except for 3 that I failed to get pictures of, my apology. Also, please note the two pictures at the top of my blog are of my two babies and are not the same one. Lindsey is on the left and Aubrey is on the right. Can't argue that their sisters, that's for sure. Here is a few of my favorite.






Click on the pic below for more pictures.

Baby Aubrey

Yeah! Computer fixed!

Yes, were back in business and I can now post pictures. I am so excited to be able to share them with you before I get home. The problem was a mix up with the computer cord and was thankfully discovered as my Mom was packing it up to take it home since it supposedly wasn't working.

Baby Aubrey Lynn Pitcher has arrived!

She has made her grand entrance and we are both doing great.

She was born at 12:32 a.m. on June 15th.

She weighs 6 lbs. 4.1 ozs.

She is 19 1/2 inches long.

Her apgars were 9 and 9.

Big sister Lindsey is quite excited and thinks she's hers :)

They started my petocin around 6:20 p.m. So, my labor was about 6 hours although I actually had already started the beginning stages of labor Saturday around noon on my own before ever arriving at the hospital for my induction at 5 p.m. I received my epidural at 9:20 p.m. The doctor told me I was complete and ready to have the baby at 12:22 a.m. I delivered her 10 minutes later after having only pushed for 3 to 4 minutes through 2 1/2 contractions. Wow, I was so happy.

I am going to get some sleep since it is now 4:45 a.m. and we are all settled in.



PS: This is Leanna's mother. This is 1:33 p.m. Leanna was not able to post pictures as the computer at the hospital (my laptop) either crashed or the charger is not working. Leanna was trying so hard to get pictures for everyone to see, but that will have to happen at a later time.

The time has come ! :) ! YEAH!!

No matter what, I am having the baby one way or another this very weekend!! I went to the doctor Friday afternoon. I had the NST - which was fine. The doctor asked me if I would like to go ahead and be induced this weekend and I said that would great. She said that she thinks it is best at this point to get the baby out because it is still just not growing a whole lot and she said she is still very little. You could tell that she will just feel better about the baby once she is out. I have "always" said no inducing for me, but I don't mind eating those words - "I AM READY" :) So, if I don't go into labor before Saturday evening then I am scheduled to arrive at the hospital Saturday evening at 5 p.m. to be induced. I am soooo excited I can hardly stand it. I know one way or another this baby will be hear soon. It just may end up being a great Father's Day gift and a nice birthday gift for my brother Brian who turns 38 on Sunday. More than likely I won't be posting again until I am a Mommy of 2. I don't know this for a fact, but I am hoping that the hospital has wi-fi and that I can update my blog from the hospital on my Mom's new laptop computer, but we will see. If I can't update then I will have another family member do it from home. Baby birth announcement coming soon - keep watch and we will update right away. Bye for now :)

Nesting? I believe so!

Wow! I have worked and worked. I have had a very long list of things I wanted done before the baby comes and have been plugging away at it for what seems nearly months, literally. But, the time is ticking away and the baby will be hear soon. I have done tons of stuff over the last 4 weeks or so. I accomplished another "HUGE' project on Thursday evening. I knew I wanted it done, but didn't think it would actually happen pre-baby. I cleaned the carpets in my house myself. Mom and Dad have a Kirby vacuum cleaner, which also has attachments to clean carpets with and that is what I used. I have been putting this off for a very looonnnggg time, but was hoping to get it done professionally, which was just not working out. Soooo, I did it! Yeah!! My carpets are clean. I spent about 5 plus hours on it.
Also, since I posted last I have spent about 5 or so hours making a baby sling. I have had the material and rings for several weeks and just kept putting it off. I knew that if I did end up having the baby this weekend and did want to go to camp next weekend after the wedding that I would really want it. So, I dove in and got it done. I would like to think that the next time I make one it doesn't quite take me that long, maybe 4 hours or so. I enjoyed making it and my husband was quite impressed with it. I love sewing, but for some reason tend to put projects off and then thoroughly enjoy doing it once I have started it. Now it's done and that's one less thing on my list of "to do's".
Friday I go to the doctor again and I am so excited. We are hoping for good news and that we might have the baby this weekend. I only hope that my stakes aren't too high and that I'm not disappointed, if it doesn't happen the way I have it all envisioned. I will keep you all posted.
Later!

Walking

I was feeling a bit cooped up Wednesday evening since I hadn't left the house in 2 days, so I decided to take Lindsey to Sharon Woods again and attempt to feed the ducks. Jonathan decided to go with us despite the migraine he had and was glad that he did and it was finally gone by the end of our evening out. Unfortunately there were almost no ducks to feed so we ended up walking around the entire Sharon Woods Lake, 2.5 miles. We were hoping to speed this baby waiting game up, not to mention that it is quite hilly around the lake. It definitely gave me a good work out and surprisingly I didn't really wear out too much. After the long walk we let Lindsey play on the play ground for a good while and then we headed for home. Thursday is "hopefully" a final cleaning day for this baby's arrival since I go back to the doctor on Friday. "TIME" will tell :)

Getting Closer!

I went to the doctor again this past Monday. Sorry, I haven't posted this info sooner, but I think I am a bit excited and hadn't taken the time to inform my readers of the good news :) All of you know that I have my hopes set on having the baby this coming weekend, but I can't control it no matter how much I would like too. Well, I had another ultrasound on Monday and everything still looks great. They won't do another growth scan till next Monday, if I haven't had her by then. The fluid, cord, heart rate, movements were all good and received another 8 out of 8 on the BPP - biophysical profile. When I saw the doctor everything is looking good for a baby hopefully this weekend. I see the doctor again on Friday in two days and hopefully we will have a baby soon, but no guarantees. On Friday I will be 38 wks and 3 days. She said if I haven't had the baby by next Tuesday at 39 wks she would or could induce me, but that is not my preference. I don't mind more natural methods of speeding up the process, but if the baby isn't ready then I will leave well enough alone unless of course she thinks the baby "needs" to be born. I sure will be happy if this all works out like I would like it to, but God knows best and I will "try" to be as patient as possible. Sorry, my post have been so picture less.

Everything is still fine!

I don't know what to title these baby updates, because there is too many and I am running out of ideas :) I was back to the doctor on Thursday for another appointment and an NST - Non Stress Test. Baby is still doing great. I drank a Dr. Pepper and ate before I got to the doctors and she moved around for a while, but then she fell sound asleep in the middle of the test. They got the testing in they needed though, and all is a ok :) I go back Monday for another Ultrasound and BPP - Biophysical Profile. I've decided with all these test results that baby is just fine and just wants to be little, so I've quit worrying and now I'm just counting down the days. I have been much more uncomfortable this week than I had been being. I guess my body is just getting prepared to have this baby soon - I HOPE :) Will post again with any more updates.

p.s. Thanks to Mom and Dad for watching Lindsey today while I went to the Doctors. I am SO GLAD they are back home. Today would have been quite hectic without their help because both of my SIL's that live near by were both unavailable. I love having family close by.

p.s.s. I am starting to enjoy Mom's retirement as well! Thursday evening we went to visit a friend of ours, Jolinda Shelton Todd, that we hadn't seen since my wedding day. It was great fun getting to catch up and talk about the old days. Her little boy is just 2 months younger than Lindsey and they got along great as well as having fun with her two older girls as well that are 6 & 7. I got some really cute pics, but they are on Mom's camera and I don't have them downloaded onto my computer - sorry! Before retirement my Mom would have never done that on a week night and then grab a bite to eat on the way home. I think retirement is sinking in a little more and becoming somewhat of a reality to her since she has come home from vacation and she is not and will not be going back to work. I am so happy for her and she can now not be completely exhausted every evening after work. RELAXATION!!

Finally Home :)

My parents arrived home Tuesday evening around 7:20 p.m. and we were very happy to see them. They travelled 3,780 miles in 23 days and were in 9 different states. Lindsey was very excited and seemed to be in rare form the rest of the evening. I am just glad their back and now I'm just waiting on baby to ARRIVE :) Ironically I began feeling absolutely horrible after they got home and thought it would be just great to make them spend the night in the hospital, but no such luck! I have worked a ton in my house, both on Tuesday and on Wednesday, and I am verrrrry ready for the BABY :) I will update again after my doctors appointment Thursday afternoon.

Baby update time again...

I had another ultrasound Monday for a BPP - Biophysical Profile. Everything was great once again. They did not do growth measurements on the baby, but did check the amniotic fluid, blood flow in the chord, heart rate, and movement. The BPP score was 8 out of 8. This time around at the doctors I have actually gained some weight, which I think is good since I hadn't in the two weeks previous to my ultrasound last Tuesday. The baby is also measuring 32 weeks today and last Tuesday she was measuring 31 weeks, which shows she is growing some as well. I am 37 weeks today and that is considered term. I am still hoping for a Father's Day weekend baby, but we will see. That is a week from this coming Saturday and I will be 38 wks and 4 days. ~ Crossing my fingers ~ I go back again Thursday for another NST - Non Stress Test.

On another note - GUESS WHAT? !!!!! My Mom and Dad are on their way home - earlier than I had thought they would be! YEAH!!!! They left Monday from Yuma, CO at 1:13 p.m. their time (3:13 p.m. our time). They traveled to Lawrence, KS and stayed there Monday night. They have another 10 hours of actual driving to do today (Tuesday), but hope to be home by a decent time Tuesday night! They have been gone 3 weeks as of yesterday. In some ways it seems like forever and in other ways not very long at all. I will be SO HAPPY to see them and I know a little girl who will be too :) Now, I don't have to worry about my Mom being here for when the baby is born - thank goodness!

Will post another update when there is more news to be had. Later.

Studio pics of Lindsey, Baby, & Me

I decided that I wanted to get my picture taken with Lindsey and the baby while I was still pg. In order to make sure this happened we went to the studio before my doctors appointment last Friday, just in case they ended up needing to induce me right away. The day of the pics I was 36 wks and 3 days pg and Lindsey is 2 years 4 months old. I am happy with the pictures and of course I have my favorites, but I decided to share most of them with you.


Click on the pic below for more pics.

5/30/2008 JC Penney portrait pg pics

Memorial Day 2008

It was a fun Memorial Day weekend for this family of 3! Some parts were hard work and other parts were just plain relaxing and fun. Saturday before the holiday we worked outside all day. I was able to get a huge flower bed in the backyard all cleaned out, flowers planted, and mulched. Of course, Jonathan helped me as well in between the other work he was doing outside. Lindsey had a great day as well and played on her swing set a lot. Sunday was church, eating at home with no other family, which is VERY unusual, and going to the park to let Lindsey feed the ducks. Monday we did more work at home and then that evening we went to Newport on the Levee in KY, which is just across the river. We have gone down there for the last 2 or 3 Memorial Days or at least on that holiday weekend. I guess we have kind of started a small tradition. And as part of the tradition, we always eat at Clauddaugh's and eat fish and chips. Theirs is to die for by the way - the absolute very best - Yummy! :) All three of us ordered it, including Lindsey's child portion and she really liked it. I also, always like to get our picture taken with the view of the river behind us. This years picture wasn't that great, because we are kind of dark, but we got the pic taken, none the less. A very FUN weekend was had by all, even if there was no other family involved or around to be with. Now for the pictures, that you would much rather see, than me keep rambling on.

Click on the pic below for more pics.

Memorial Day 2008

Playing the waiting game . . .

For those few loyal readers that I have that are sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for a report - here it is! No baby yet :) :( I have mixed emotions, but we are doing fine. I was completely prepared to have this baby on Friday if need be, but the results from my NST were good. The baby will continue it's baking process for a little while longer. To be honest it sounded fun to have a tiny little baby this weekend, but we DEFINITELY want what is best for baby. The NST - Non Stress Test - showed good heart rate accelerations and variations with no decelerations, which is what they want to see. The baby also did a lot of kicks and movements during the test, which is also what they are looking for. I guess she liked that coke I drank on the way to the doctors :) My SIL, Lisa, went with me to the NST. She is and has been a L&D nurse for over 16 years. Her knowledge was very helpful in reassuring me that everything was OK. It's one thing for the doctor to just say, OK, everything looks great, see you on Monday, but it was definitely more reassuring to me to have Lisa sit there and explain exactly what the testing was saying and doing and to get her opinion. Also, thanks to my other SIL, Janella, for watching all of our kids (all 4) while we were at the doctors. On Monday I go for another ultrasound to do a BPP - Biophysical Profile - to check the amniotic fluid levels again, the blood flow in the chord and the movements and heart rate. They are not going to do another growth scan on Monday with the ultrasound because it is too close together with the last one and the doctor said there would be no visible and significant change to compare it with last Tuesday's ultrasound. She said as long as things continue to be OK with the baby's health that they would probably not induce me till 39 weeks and she said this might just be a small baby with nothing else wrong. (I am hoping to have the baby at 38 1/2 weeks - but still crossing my fingers :) There you have it - the updated report. I now have a backseat in the van full of bags packed for me and the baby and also Lindsey to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. (My parents are hopefully returning late next Wednesday or on Thursday.) I'll keep you posted with any more updates. I'm now off to get more things marked off my list that weren't as crucial as others. I am now 36 wks & 4 days PG! Later!