Blogger Failure

I thought I would do a much better job than what I have done so far in keeping up with my blog since the baby. I just have not been able to find the time! It seems we have had constant visitors or been gone for the entire summer and now we go back to work next week already! I will try to update you on some highlights of our summer and on Annabelle's growth during it before the busyness of school begins. I only have a few minutes now because Annabelle is taking a long nap for once! I uploaded a bunch of pics to facebook, and now I am getting started on here. I sure do miss having more than 30 min-an hour chunks of time to get a task done!

Grace and her boyfriend, Mike, came to visit us for a week. They flew into San Fran, and we picked them up and spent the day there. Mike hadn't been there before so we wanted to show him around a bit. We went to see Golden Gate, Pier 39, and Alcatraz. In all the times I've been to SF, I have actually never been to Alcatraz, so that was especially fun for me :). I was a little disappointed that I couldn't go walk on/in the old buildings surrounding the prison that they go on in The Rock, but oh well :-P.

They came back with us to our house for the week. We mostly hung out, but we did have a picnic one day at a park, and spent one day in Yosemite. We took Annabelle on her first hike! She loved being in her moby wrap and looking around at everything, but of course, she spent most of her time in there sleeping. We had a great day, but the worst car ride home ever! With stopping several times to calm Annabelle down or feed her, construction, and park traffic, it took us about 4 hours instead of 2 to get home, ugh. Annabelle has decided not to like the car very much, so that made for some long, loud drives.

I will try to add some pics on here later, but the baby is awake now, so here is a link to the facebbook album that has some pics in it for now.

Underground Gardens

When my parents were here, we went to these cool underground gardens in Fresno on Memorial Day weekend. This guy dug all these tunnels and rooms underground (in his spare time) to stay cool in the summer (can you imagine living in Fresno with 100-115 degree heat in the summer and having no AC?) and pretty much live in. He was a citrus fruit grower before he came to the US, so he wanted to experiment with growing citrus trees "underground"... meaning in underground courtyards that had sky lights or were open on top to let the sunlight in. He did it though; pretty impressive to grow citrus trees 15 feet into the ground.

Other pics from when my parents were here...

Milestones...

First time in her Bumbo seat. It says it's for infants who can hold their heads up (which she does really well for a little while...), butt apparently it's also for tiny little peanuts who can use the backrest as a head rest!

One week old

One month old!

Practicing that head holding

She started with a few smiles at 3 weeks... but now at 5 weeks, she has lots of them!

Annabelle and Mommy and Daddy love the Moby wrap to put her to sleep or just to hang out in while getting things done around the house!

Sometimes she decides she wants to be a big girl and face out to see everything, but then mommy has to help when her little neck gets tired of holding her head up :)

Visitors

Life has been a whirl wind around here! Matt's family was here for the week last week, and we had a great time with them. Annabelle got endless Grandma and Grandpa cuddles, that's for sure! We took a few excursions; one to visit more family in Visalia, one to a winery a little over an hour away, and one to Yosemite for a day. Annabelle did great in the car each time. But that

Cuddles with Grandma Kathy

Uncle Josh got a few cuddles in here and there... when he could get her away from G & G

4 Generations

Annabelle's first trip to Yosemite

Cuddles with Grandpa Mel

Click here to see more pics...

Introducing... Annabelle May Jonkman!

This post is long overdue... but here it is anyways :).

On Monday, May 16 (my due date!), the usual contractions that I had been having throughout the day each day started to get a little more uncomfortable. They were coming more regularly, so I started timing them around 3 pm and they were about 10 minutes apart at that point. By 5:30 or 6, I was having to get up and walk and breath through them as they were getting a lot stronger. We ended up going into the hospital around 7 when the contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. I was still only 3 cm, but 90% effaced and at zero station. So, pretty much, the baby had already been really low (we had known that for a while from our last few doctors visits), but I just needed to dilate more. She came really fast for a first baby because she was here by midnight (12:01, to be exact). We had a few bumps along the way with her head having trouble getting around my pelvic bones and her heart rate dropping during contractions, but all in all, she came out healthy and perfect. She even started crying all on her own the instant she was out!

Stats: Born 12:01, May 17, 2011... 7 pounds 6 ounces, 20.5 inches, dark brown hair (I am SO happy that she has hair!).

We instantly noticed her beautiful big lips and chubby cheekies :). We later noticed how much she looks like her daddy! She is the most beautiful little girl ever and we absolutely adore her!

Lookin a lot like Daddy here!

At our hospital, they normally like first time moms to stay 48 hours after giving birth... however we managed to get them to OK us to go by late morning on Wednesday (instead of Thursday morning).

Leaving the hospital

Oh, and my mom got here on Saturday the 14th, just in time to do some shopping and visit with me before the baby and then she got to be here for Annabelle's birth. And am I ever glad that she was there! She was the best help we could ask for... from helping me with breathing during contractions, to cooking, cleaning, and even doing sewing projects for me! Not to mention helping with Annabelle and giving me extra sleep; what a blessing! My dad came on the Thursday before Memorial Day and was a big help with Grandpa time as well.

Annabelle is doing well... we are still working on getting her birth weight up, but she is otherwise very healthy and more and more alert everyday. She is sleeping more and more at night also! She has gone from 1-3 hours at a time for many days, to 2 nights of 3+ hours, 2 nights of 4+ hours, 2 nights of 5+ hours, and now one night of 7 hours, wow! I hope this keeps up!

Quick Update

A quick update before heading to bed to rest up for my last week of work... that's right, whether she's here or not, I won't be working past this week. I know I have most things in order, but I still feel like I'm leaving my class and my kiddos hanging! I'm sure once Annabelle comes I won't hardly think twice about it though :). The nursery is set, last minute paper work and plans are done for school, and now we are just waiting. The doc didn't have much news for us last week, he said this coming week he will check me to see how things are looking. But baby is down and those "practice" contractions are coming more often, so it can't be too long now, we hope! It was an exhausting week last week with 80s and 90s every day also, but this week is already looking cooler, which is good news for me.

Here is a picture of the bird mobile that I made for Annabelle's crib. Well, I didn't really make the whole thing. I bought the mobile (which included that green fabric for the arm), took off the attachments, and made these birdies out of felt instead.

Matt made shish kabobs for me today!

I finally crocheted something for Annabelle, not until the last minute, but better late then never!

Green Light

Dearest baby Annabelle, you have a green light from mama to come anytime now!

I can't believe it's Friday already of our break, but I have to say that I am feeling pretty accomplished with my to-do lists! My sub plans and lessons are in order, my classroom is tidied up a bit and desks are rearranged for one last time, all of my grading except for one last thing (which I should get to this weekend) is up to date, and I got a fair amount of my paper work / professional documentation type stuff out of the way also. At home we have Annabelle's room as ready as it is going to be (all it needs is curtains, which my mom will probably be making when she comes out in a couple of weeks! and birdies for her mobile, which she won't be using for a while anyways), the carpets are cleaned, thank you notes are written, the car seat is in the car, birthing classes are finished, and the hospital bag is packed (or as packed as it can be aside from adding in a few last minute toiletries and items that I still need in the next couple weeks). So a couple small school items, and I am not quite as far on crocheting as I'd like to be, but other than that, I have conquered the to-dos and am now feeling good and ready for Annabelle to come whenever she wants :).

We went to the doctor on Tuesday but left with little more info than we had before. He hadn't received the report from the ultrasound yet, so he went off of what we told him and then did a quick check on his ultrasound also. He measured the amniotic fluid on there and said it was lower also, but just fine. He didn't really say a whole lot else or give any indication of her coming soon. I am hoping he does an internal exam to check me next week and give us something more to go on.

I am definitely more and more ready for her to be born! I don't have too much to complain about; I know that I have it pretty easy. I am not super big, don't have much swelling or water retention, I haven't been hardly sick at all, and can move around relatively well yet. But still... I am ready to be done peeing every 2 seconds, waking up several times a night to pee some more or hoist myself to turn over because my hips are sore, and having my ribs jabbed (so much sometimes that it wakes me up!). And I know, I know... please don't tell me, "You'd better get used to the not sleeping," because really, who gets used to that? And also, I would much rather get up to feed and cuddle my little girl than for no good reason at all :-P.

I am hoping to relax a bit more this weekend before school starts up again and soak up a little sun while I'm at it :). I sat out in the yard a little bit yesterday, and was going to today, but it was super windy! We had nearly 30 mph winds with gusts up to almost 40 mph... all with clear blue skies and beautiful sunshine... rather strange weather if you ask me! It's supposed to die off by tomorrow though.