The best and worst day of my life

Wow... I just realized my last post was over a month ago! Since a lot has changed since then, this post may be a little long.
 Let's start with the most important and best news of our lives... our baby is here! Marla Rae Schmidt was born on December 26, 2010. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is perfect and the new center of our lives.  
See?  I told you... perfect.

Now... how did we get here?The last few weeks of my pregnancy were wrought with misery, unfortunately. This was mostly unrelated to the pregnancy and almost entirely due to a massive cold that I caught early in December. I should say it started as a cold, but I quickly learned that I never knew what a cold was until I was 37 weeks pregnant. Silly me. It escalated into one upper respiratory infection after another (ear, sinus, throat). After a trip to urgent care, three separate trips to the ENT, two rounds of antibiotics, tubes in my ears, several days home from work, and countless pregnancy-approved drugs and remedies, I finally started feeling halfway human again, just in time for the holidays. 
Getting close to delivery! 39 weeks pregnant.

Here comes the exciting part. On Christmas Eve morning, I began having sporadic contractions. REAL contractions, not just the Braxton Hicks ones that I barely even noticed. The contractions intensified on Christmas Day, but quit after a while. I was up most of that night and began timing the contractions at 6:00 am on the 26th. I decided to do some housework and was emptying the dishwasher when my water broke! I woke Jeff up with the news... I've never seen him move so fast. He leapt out of bed, grabbed his wallet, threw on some jeans, and was ready to go. We got to the hospital by 7:00 am and were checked into a labor/delivery room. Labor throughout the morning was fairly manageable. Because my water had broken, they didn't want to check my cervix until they absolutely had to in order to minimize the chance of introducing bacteria into the birth canal. So Jeff and I watched movies while I contracted away, blissfully unaware of my progress. 
Here I am in labor. Notice how I'm still smiling? (That didn't last long.)

 By the time mid-afternoon came, I was in quite a bit of pain and assumed I must be almost ready to start pushing. No such luck. The doctor put me at four centimeters. I decided to prepare for my epidural by letting them get an IV with fluids started. Unfortunately, I went from four to eight centimeters so quickly that I sort of missed my window for the epidural, so I decided to skip the drugs. This ended up being a big mistake in my opinion, but whatever. At least I know for next time.

Speaking of next time... I'm pretty sure that in the middle of labor I told Jeff there would never BE a next time. I also did a lot of other things that I swore I would never do during labor. Like scream (a lot). And beg. And cry. And plead God for mercy. And tell the doctor, nurses, and anyone who would listen to just GET. IT. OUT. NOW. It was the most surreal, painful, and indescribable experience of my life. The medical staff called it a straightforward and "textbook" delivery. Straightforward??? If that's the case, I don't want to know what a difficult labor is like. Looking back, I'm proud of myself for surviving, and amazed that women go through this "straightforward" experience every day. I never gave my mother (and all mothers) enough credit until now.

I'll get to the part that made it all worthwhile. Our daughter was born at 6:56 pm. She came out pink, healthy, and with a great set of lungs. Both Jeff and I were utterly amazed that we could have made such a perfect baby.

From now on, I'm guessing most of my blog posts will be devoted to Marla and everything that makes her special. Here are a few things to help you get to know her:

1. She is named for two of her great-grandfathers: Jeff's Grandpa Marland Schmidt and my Grandpa Raymond Terwilliger.
2. She loves to snuggle and be walked around and hates baths and sitting still for any amount of time.
3. She nurses like a champ and is gaining lots of weight to prove it.
4. She gets the hiccups about three times a day, but takes it all in stride.
5. She has Jeff's big feet and my long fingers.
6. She sleeps well at night, but keeps us awake with various newborn noises that we're not accustomed to yet, along with some grunting and straining that the doctor has attributed to gas.
7. She is a tough cookie, as evidenced by her ability to stay healthy despite both Jeff and myself getting the flu shortly after arriving home from the hospital (thank goodness for Grandma Pam's help!).
8. She scowls just like her mommy and eats just like her daddy.
9. She is very alert and bright-eyed while she's awake, which seems to be a LOT.
10. She is nothing that we expected and more than we ever hoped for. :)
 Lots more pictures to come, but here's one of my favorites, taken a few days after her birth.

Welcome to the world, Marla Rae!

Showered in love and cute pink stuff

Until a few weeks ago, we had nothing in the way of baby products and I'd been feeling pretty unprepared for this whole parenthood thing. That all changed after a couple of baby showers, thrown by my mom, sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. It's amazing what a bunch of women and a few carloads of gifts can do to bolster your confidence!

The first shower was held in Minnesota. My mom and sister put together a fantastic party, and it was great to see so many of my friends and family. I didn't have a chance to take many pictures of the actual shower, just before and after. Here are some highlights:

The centerpieces were cute little stuffed animals which match the nursery PERFECTLY.

They made little diapers out of napkins and filled them with mints:

Alisa decorated with baby clothes on a clothesline. Adorable!

The cake was supposed to represent a baby with a combination of both Jeff's and my qualities, but somehow the Packer/football theme seemed to overtake the literature theme. Typical.

My friend Jodi is pregnant and due shortly after me. The babies wanted to chat, so here they are, probably gossiping about all the cake we ate.

Grandma Pam, aka Party Planner #1:

Auntie Alisa, aka Party Planner #2:

Jeff's mom and sister threw a shower the following weekend. This too was a great success, despite some crappy weather. Again, I didn't take enough pictures to capture the awesome-ness of it all.

Susie had a cake made with baby pictures of Jeff and myself. It's a great way to guess what Baby Schmidt might look like. My prediction? Dimples.

Auntie Dana:

Grandma Susie:

Dana delivered her son Brennan in June. When he was born, I remember thinking how far away December seemed. How did the time fly so quickly?? Anyway, he's pretty pumped about meeting his new cousin. I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Thanks to the generosity of our family and friends, we have pretty much everything we need (and more) for the baby now! The nursery is still a work in progress, but it's getting closer. It feels good to be more prepared, if only physically. As for the emotional preparation, well... I still have four weeks...

Thanks everyone!

Betsy's Adventure

As many of you know, Betsy ran away earlier this month. Some of Jeff's friends had come to Eau Claire from Minneapolis to surprise him. When they burst into the house, the front door didn't shut and in all the chaos Betsy escaped. Thus ensued a frantic search over the next day and a half. To say the least, we were devastated. Betsy has run away before, but has never been gone for more than a few minutes. We drove around Eau Claire, talked to the neighbors, called Animal Control and the Humane Association, posted lost dog notices online, and came up with nothing. Her name is on her tag and she's microchipped, but we didn't get a call from anyone. Nobody seemed to have seen her anywhere.

I was starting to lose hope after Jeff and I drove around searching on the second night she was gone, still with no results. I woke up several times that night to go to the bathroom. Each time, I went into the living room and checked for any sign of Betsy. At 3:00 a.m., I stumbled into the living room and was shocked to see her out on the deck, shivering and scratching at the patio door! Somehow, after being off-grid for 30-some hours, Betsy had made her own way home. She was limping a little and was VERY tired, but recovered within a couple of days and is now back to her perky little self.

Resting after her escape. What a stinker.

Since her return, we've asked Betsy about her little excursion, where she went and what she did, but she's not giving anything away. We've also chided her extensively about all the worry she caused, but she doesn't seem very remorseful. The entire experience has given us a glimpse of the emotional ups and downs that will inevitably come with parenthood. I don't know how we'll handle the stress, quite frankly. For now, we figured out a good way to contain Betsy in the baby's new play yard. :)

 

Officer in Training

It's been an eventful month. I'm going to do my best to summarize in a few posts.

I went to Washington, D.C. early in November for a conference. There wasn't much time for sight seeing, but I managed to walk around the Capitol a bit and take a few pictures.

We also took tours of the Capitol and the White House, both of which were really interesting. Cameras weren't allowed in the White House, which is too bad, since I saw a member of the first family in person, a mere 10 feet away. That's right... I saw Bo, the First Dog! He's just as adorable up close as on TV, and seemed totally unfazed by the crowd of admirers. I guess he's adjusted to his celebrity status.

The best part of the trip was being able to see my friend Dana, who lives in the area. She's pregnant with a baby girl too, so we made sure the babies got some time to hang out and chat, fetus to fetus. It was pretty clear to us that they're going to be great friends.

Baby Schmidt didn't go unnoticed by the locals in D.C. In between meetings with our Wisconsin legislators, I was walking near the Capitol when a machine gun-armed police officer stopped me. I racked my brain, wondering what federal law I'd broken and how I'd talk my way out of it. Fortunately, he just wanted to give me this super cool badge for the baby:

She looks good as a federal cop, doesn't she?

On the flight home, I realized that between work trips and vacations, Baby Schmidt has taken 10 plane rides and visited six different states in utero. I'll be sticking close to home for a while now, but I'm hoping the traveling has instilled a sense of adventure in our baby!

Goodbye, Friday night lights. See you next fall.

Last night was North's final football game of the season.  Not only did they WIN, but they played an outstanding game, with a final score of 54 to 22.  Way to go, Huskies!  What a great way to end the season.  I'm so proud of Jeff and all the work he's done to develop some great players. 

Pre-game huddle:

The proud coaching staff:



The wide receivers that Jeff coached:

Coach Schmidt with his two biggest fans (his wife and his mom): 

We're sad to see the end of the football season, but I'm glad to be getting a husband back for a few weeks.  Then it's on to basketball!

Dog = baby's best friend

I know what you've all been thinking since Jeff and I announced that we're having a baby: what will happen to Betsy??  How will she adjust?  Will she be jealous?  How will we possibly be able to continue coddling and spoiling her in the manner in which she's become accustomed?  Believe me, we've asked ourselves the same questions.  Frankly, I'm a little worried that the baby will have absolutely no idea that Betsy requires constant love and attention and might even expect that we devote more of our time and energy to her, rather than the dog.  Babies have some nerve, don't they?

A few weeks ago I watched our nephew, Brennan, and was eager to see Betsy's reaction to an infant in our home.  She was extremely interested in him, and even though she was a little clingy and anxious, I was pleased that she didn't try to tear his arm off or anything.  She actually tried to play with him a little (unbeknownst to him).

Can you tell which one is the baby here?

    
Betsy: "Fine, we can share the couch... for now."
Brennan: "What the heck IS this thing?"

Keep your fingers crossed that Betsy and our baby will be buddies.  Otherwise, it's off to a new home... for the baby, that is.  Only kidding.  I think. :)

Thirty

My birthday was last month.  It's not bad enough that I had to wear a bathing suit while pregnant, I also had to turn 30 without consuming any alcohol.  My child has no idea what kind of sacrifices I'm making for her.  Fortunately, I was able to compensate with some delicious Coldstone cake, courtesy of my husband.

Also, my friend Jodi got me this awesome maternity t-shirt!



Speaking of which, I'm officially 30 weeks into growing the person inside me.  Meaning she will make an appearance in about 10 weeks.  Meaning I'm freaking out just a little.  Here's a pregnancy update:

1) Baby Schmidt can now open her eyes and sense light/dark, weighs about three pounds, and is putting on fat quickly.
2) Bending over, walking, and getting up from the couch is starting to get uncomfortable at best and downright awkward at worst.
3) For the first time in my life, I'm consistently warm.  Even warmer than Jeff!  The other day he asked if we should turn on the heat and I thought he must be joking.  He wasn't.
4) The baby moves All. The. Time.  In the past month or so, her movements have evolved from sweet little kicks and nudges to what I can only assume are escape attempts.  I'm surprised I don't have bruises, the way she bounces around in there. 
5) I recently thought it would be fun to measure my belly.  Don't ask me why I thought that would be fun.  Suffice it to say that, in my doctor's words, I'm "growing very well."

There you have it.  30 years old and 30 weeks pregnant!