Our trip to Virginia
July 2005
We had such a nice time in Virginia July 3-10. The flights out there (LAX-Atlanta, Atlanta-Lynchburg) were relatively uneventful, and Nate slept most of the time. We arrived late on Sunday night and Nate met his grandfather and aunt for the first time (my mom and brother had already been out to California)! We spent the first three nights at Hanshill, my grandparents' summer house in the country. Jon, Nate, and I stayed in the air-conditioned cabin and stayed very comfortable (I was especially comfortable knowing Jon killed all of the camel crickets each night before I went to sleep).

The whole family (my grandparents, aunts, uncles, some cousins and their kids, etc.) came out to Hanshill for dinner on the 4th of July. Here is Nannie, Mama, Nate, and me:


This is my cousin's daughter, Ginna, walking in the yard at Hanshill with Jack:


Nate must have been exhausted from being handed around so much at the 4th of July party, because he slept through the night that night! I fed him at 10:00, and he didn't wake up until 6:00. That was glorious. In fact, he slept through the night (a little over 7 hours) two other nights during the trip.

We spent the days at Hanshill reading, relaxing, taking walks--not doing much, really! After the three nights out there, we spent the next three nights in town at my parents' house. The air conditioning and lack of bugs were very nice. :)





Nannie and Pop came for dinner one night:


A moth outside my parents' house (on Jon's finger):




On Saturday, July 9, we all drove to Charlotte (in a huge van my parents rented) to visit my dad's parents. It was neat to bring Nate to see them--he is their first great grandchild. We went to my dad's sister's house on Saturday night for a big party for Papa's 80th birthday. Then we stayed at Grandma and Papa's house on Saturday night and got up early Sunday to drive the 4 hours back to Lynchburg so we could catch our flight home.

We had a long layover in Atlanta (made even longer by several hours of delays--but Nate still did great). Here's Nate in the airport:




We had a great trip!

Here's a picture we took a couple of days ago that I love:


Today we looked at ourselves in the mirror and had some fun:

Nate started smiling (for real) about 10 days ago. It is so fun! Jon is the best at getting him to smile.

Here's his first real smile caught on camera:


Smiles with Dad (you can see his bandaids from his first shots):


In his carseat:


But he doesn't always smile...


We are heading to Virginia on Sunday for a week to visit my family. I'm praying the flights go well!

These pictures, which our friends Neil and Casey took, give a different perspective of Nate's birth from what I saw... :)

Here's Colleen listening at the door to hear Jon yell out that it was a boy:


Here's Jon triumphantly exiting the hospital room for the first time to tell everyone Nate was a boy and what his name, weight, height, etc. were:




Another of me in the hospital room:


It's hard to believe this was already over six weeks ago!

Here we are when Nate turned six weeks:

It's hard to believe that our baby is over 5 weeks old now! Nate's still mostly just sleeping, eating, crying (but not much), and getting bigger. We should start getting some interaction (like real smiles) from him in the coming days!

For our third anniversary, we dropped Nate off with Jon's parents and went to dinner at the Fish Market. Leaving Nate wasn't too difficult--I knew he was in good hands, and I was looking forward to some time with just Jon and me. I wondered if we would be able to talk about anything but Nate, but we did. It was nice!

The other day, Jon and I looked at each other and laughed as we realized our 3-year anniversary is in a few days. We had both not really been thinking about it. I think we will end up leaving Nate with his grandparents or some friends for a few hours and going out to dinner for our anniversary; I've really been missing sushi!

Things are still going well as we continue adjusting. Nate is still sleeping great at night, though he has gotten a bit fussier during the day since something is bothering his stomach. That something is something I'm eating--I just have to figure out what. I stopped eating dairy 4 days ago, but that isn't doing the trick, so I'm going to try something else next (either soda--because of the carbonation [but I barely have any soda anyway]--or acidic foods like orange juice and tomatoes). I started teaching flute lessons again this week and also started editing again. The flute lessons are great--just a half hour or hour and I'm done. The editing is a bit more stressful as I always feel like I have something hanging over my head when I have a job to be working on that isn't done. I did just finish a job today, and I have one more to work on, but it isn't as rushed. My goal is to work on editing just one to two hours a day when I have a job to do.

Time to sign off!

Staying home from work with Nate has been so great. I am amazed, though, at how little I actually get done during a full day! Not only do I feel very scatterbrained (a combination of the post-pregnancy hormone rollercoaster and general new mom-ness), but also there are just so many interruptions--either from Nate (not really an "interruption") or the phone or visitors or whatever. Once I start doing something (walking out the door to fold laundry, heading to the kitchen to put away a few things), I remember three things I need to do first, so I start to do one of those. Then it's time to feed Nate, a process that takes at least 45 minutes when all is said and done (feed, burp, change diaper, etc.). Then the process starts again, and before I know it, it's 5:00!

Here are some more pictures of my favorite little boy.







He's watching his mobile in this one:

So far, life with a baby is wonderful! People always warn about how difficult the first weeks are, how big of an adjustment it is, how little sleep you will get, etc., that they forget to include how wonderful the first weeks are, how you will discover 1,000 cute things about your baby (like how he heaves a big sigh after he sneezes, how his feet are long and skinny, how his eyes roll back in his head when he's full and happy, how you can get him to smile when he's almost asleep if you softly tickle his face), how you will find there is more love inside of you than you thought.

Nate is doing really well. He had his two-week checkup yesterday, and he has surpassed his birth weight (babies lose weight their first week, and the goal is for them to be back up to birth weight by week two); he now weighs 6 pounds 10 ounces. He's doing great at night, sleeping for 3.5- or 4-hour stints in between feedings. (He eats about every 2.5 or 3 hours during the day). We are loving life as parents and can't get enough of our Nate!

Nate's story
On Saturday, April 30 (the day after my last day of work), Jon and I decided to go out to dinner (Marie Callender's) just the two of us. Who knew it would be our last dinner as a two-person family? :) At dinner, I said to Jon, "You know, it could be any day now. I could have the baby tonight." We both sort of shrugged that off, though. I mean, we weren't ready! The room was a mess! I just finished with work! My due date was still three weeks away!

We got home from dinner around 8:30 p.m. and decided to continue working on the baby's room. Jon had moved the computer desk into our room earlier, and now we worked on transferring the equipment and cables, etc. I knelt on the floor and wiped all the dust off the cables. Kneeling while nine months pregnant isn't the most comfortable position, so after a few minutes I rose to my feet. This was around 9:00. That's when I felt something--like a gush. I waddled to the restroom while saying to Jon, "I think I just wet my pants!" That's when I realized what might have happened: my water broke! From the restroom I said the same to Jon, and he responded with... silence. "What?" he finally asked. The rest of the evening went by rather quickly: I finished packing the bag for the hospital, which I had started earlier that same day. I called my mom (it was past midnight there). At some point, we got in the car and drove to the hospital.

In triage at the hospital, the nurses did a test and confirmed that my water had broken; we were having a baby in the next 24 hours! They attached monitors to my belly--one to monitor the baby's heart rate and one to monitor my contractions. A nurse asked me, "Do you feel that?" but I didn't--I was having a contraction, but apparently it was very mild. These mild contractions continued coming--quite close together--while I was in triage and then after I was admitted. Slowly, they started getting stronger and I could actually feel them, but they were still mild. Because I didn't want to have to take medicine like Pitocin unless absolutely necessary, I tried to move labor along by walking the hallways in the hospital and rocking in a rocking chair in our hospital room (which was luxurious, by the way: large, with TV, VCR, whirlpool bathtub [which I couldn't use since my water had broken], places for two people to sleep in addition to the patient). Jon slept during some of this time.

By early Sunday morning, my contractions were a lot stronger but were still manageable; I could still talk through the pain. That's when I agreed to have some Pitocin. I knew that it is important to have the baby within 24 hours after the water has broken to avoid infection and other risks, and at the rate my labor was going, that didn't seem to be happening. I was started on the Pitocin (through IV), and the contractions got stronger. Much stronger. The doctor said that, once the pain got very intense, they would "check" me for the first time (the doctor does a quick internal exam to check dilation, effacement, and station). By noon, I was ready to be checked, as the pain had gotten pretty bad and I couldn't do any walking or talking through the contractions. The doctor did the exam and noted I was 4.5 centimeters dilated; then she asked, "Are you sure your water broke?" I looked at her in amazement. Yes, I was sure! The nurses had even done the lab test with the slide while I was in triage to confirm it! The doctor said that my water was, in fact, not broken. What had happened earlier had been a "high leak," but my main bag of waters had not broken. (Side note: we were told that we still should have come to the hospital.) This explained why my labor had been progressing so slowly. The doctor manually broke my water, which felt weird. And then, on came a monster contraction, then another. The combination of my (real) water breaking and all of the Pitocin they had been giving me made for some intense pain. This is when I requested the epidural.

The anesthesiologist was quick and efficient while I knelt on the edge of the bed and stayed still through two killer contractions for the numbing needle and the epidural. Ahh, sweet relief! Things progressed nicely from this point. I napped and watched the movie "Babe" for a couple of hours, made some phone calls, and visited with Scott and Kim and Jon's family. At around 5:00, the nurse checked me and said I was 8 centimeters and the baby was at +1 station. I'd be pushing soon! I was relaxed and excited. Jon and I figured this might be a good time to decide on names. Boy: we both mentioned that we had been leaning lately toward Nathaniel Shane as the boy name. That was pretty easy! Girl: of the three names we had picked, Jon's favorite was my number three, and my favorite was his number three. Hmm. We also couldn't really pick a middle name for a girl. Neither of us said it out loud, but I think we just knew it was a boy or at least had been thinking for so long that it was a boy that we just couldn't fathom it being a girl!

At 6:30, I was checked again and deemed ready to push. This was it! I had been feeling the contractions rather strongly--even through the epidural (this is normal, as the hospital gives "walking epidurals" so you can still feel your legs a bit and also still have sensation with the contractions, especially as the epidural wears off); I was even having to do some "focused breathing" through them. The pain was definitely not as bad as it had been around noon, though. So, at 6:30, with Jon on one side of me and the nurse on the other, I began pushing: 3 sets of 10 counts with each contraction. I liked pushing! It made the pain of the contraction almost nonexistent as I was focusing on something else. Jon was such a great support, too. He dabbed my face with a wet washcloth in between the contractions, and then he supported my head and one leg (a nurse supported the other) while I pushed. It was so cute--he also seemed to be holding his breath with me while I did the 10-counts. :) I pushed for an hour or so before the doctor came in and the room was prepped for delivery. With just a few more contractions and some major pushing, baby Nate was born! At 7:44 p.m., the doctor said, "It's a little.....Dad, what is it?" and Jon announced, "Boy!" They handed our son to me right away:


He was perfect! The nurse rubbed his back a bit while he was on my chest to get him to let out some more cries, and I cried myself as I held this soft, perfect little child.

Nathaniel Shane weighed in at 6 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 19 inches long, with a 9/9 on his APGARs. After he was measured and footprinted, I nursed him for the first time (with some help from my great nurse, Holly), and we enjoyed some time as a family.


My mom's flight arrived from Virginia into John Wayne just three hours after Nate was born; Scott picked her up and whisked her to the hospital, where she met her first grandchild. Nate had already had some visitors: Scott and Kim, Neil and Casey, Kevin and Amy, Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Ray, Aunt Jennifer, and Aunt Janel.

We spent Sunday and Monday nights in the hospital. I was able to get up and walk around within a few hours, and I have made a quick recovery and feel great! We all came home mid-day on Tuesday; here's Nate after his first car ride:


The pediatrician who checked Nate at the hospital told us he has jaundice. They checked his levels and told us we did not have to take home special lights to put him under, but I had to return to the pediatrician's office on Thursday to have him checked again (he was checked and was deemed OK! No special lights necessary, just "sunning" in indirect sunlight). Here is Nate sunning:


Here he is "fighting" the jaundice:


And here is the first time we caught a smile on camera! Babies don't socially smile yet at this age, but they still smile and it's still cute:


Last, here we are on Mother's Day:


Already, we are overwhelmed with love for this wonderful blessing!

Welcome to the world, Nathaniel Shane Varela
Born Sunday, May 1, at 7:44 p.m.
6 pounds, 8 ounces
19 inches long
...with a head full of beautiful dark hair

Pictures and more details coming soon. Mama, Daddy, and Baby are all doing great! :)

Thoughts as I say goodbye to work
1. I'm going to miss the daily activity/brain stimulation. It's satisfying taking a project from beginning to end, learning new things, picking up and using industry jargon without thinking anything of it. Realizing I'm going to miss this makes me thankful that I still have the freelance stuff I can do from home (when I'm ready). I plan on taking "leave" from editing until probably some time in June.

2. I'm not really going to miss anyone in particular. This is sad, I know, especially considering I've been here for 2 years. I am the only Christian in my department (of 15 people) and met very few other Christians in the company (and those I did meet weren't "buddy" material; although the male 45-year-old manager of the mail room is nice, I don't think a nice friendship was possible). And it isn't that I would have only become friends with other believers; I guess I'm just illustrating that I don't have much in common with anyone else. There are two girls I will miss, but our friendship is just surface.

3. I could have done more. Yes, my coworkers know that I'm a Christian, but I did not make enough of an effort to live that out daily or to be vocal about it. I spoke plainly and too often with those two friends about one of our fellow coworkers who frustrates us; I missed opportunities to talk about God, faith, and Christianity on general and person levels. I think I could always look back and think I could have done more, no matter the transition/life situation.

4. I am so excited! I'm right in the middle of a major life shift, moving on to something I've looked forward to for years. I never looked forward to being a proposal writer per se (though I did look forward to the idea of work in general--and I have enjoyed it). I'm excited to see what God has in store for us.

Today starts my last week of work!

Here's one of the pictures we had taken at Sears yesterday for our 3-year wedding anniversary and to celebrate the pregnancy in general (Jon is such an indulgent husband--he hates going to have his picture taken but does it for me without a word of complaint because he knows I like it):

Getting close
I feel good preparedness-wise for the baby after this weekend. Not only did I pick our pediatrician and notify both his office and my OB, but I also finished all of the pre-admission forms for the hospital and did several loads of baby-related laundry (washed all baby's clothes, blankets, and bed linens). I also wrote out a list of the other things we have left to do to be physically prepared for the baby (things left to buy, items left to set up, etc.).

Then on Saturday, after Jon put together the stroller and carseat, he and I decided to get started on the furniture rearranging we'd been planning: in order to move our computer desk from the baby's room into our bedroom, we have to move Jon's dresser to a different wall. In order to move his dresser, we have to move an antique writing desk out of our room. Instead of putting that writing desk, my favorite piece of furniture, in the garage, I wanted to work it into the living room, which was already kind of crowded in its current arrangement. Well, I had wanted to rearrange the living room anyway, because it is kind of closed off and doesn't have any room to lay down a blanket to put a baby:

(in this first picture you can also see Jon's dresser in our bedroom, which is what originally had to be moved so we could put the computer desk there)


We figured, since we were going to move around the furniture, we might as well put down the rug underlay that we never put down underneath the rug. We moved every piece of furniture out of the living room (including the bookshelf, which had to be emptied). I'm not supposed to do heavy lifting, so Jon did most all of this by himself. We put down the rug pad and the rug, vacuuming accumulated under-furniture dust along the way. Then Jon decided we needed to put new felt-bottomed feet on the couches, as the metal ones on them had been scratching the tile floors, so he went to Home Depot while I sat around feeling useless. ;) ...Do you see how this very small project of moving the computer desk into our bedroom turned into much more than we had been planning?! So, 6 hours and a Home Depot trip later, our living room is rearranged, the writing desk is out of our bedroom, and the computer desk and dresser are still in their original places. We'll do those next.
Here are the new pictures (and, yes, the dresser still in the wrong place):

I went on our church's annual women's retreat this weekend, and I loved it. Three other "younger" women went, too (by younger, I just mean that we don't have kids yet. So I guess I barely fit into this category), and we roomed together, staying up extremely late on both Friday and Saturday nights just talking. The speaker for the weekend was excellent--possibly controversial in some of her points (especially about birth control, which she believes should not be used)--but overall I really loved her main messages: the world really devalues the roles of wife and mother, telling women that being "just a wife and mother" is not enough. However, these are our God-given, God-created roles. God calls us to these roles as our primary ministry on earth. As a woman, my spheres of influence are first inside the home (husband, children, the physical house) then move outside the home (church, community). As parents, we raise children with the purpose of adding to the army of God. These ideas certainly don't jive with what most people in the world (and, frankly, in the church) believe/teach, but I really enjoyed thinking and hearing about them this weekend, and I agree with them. I am a child of God, a wife, and a mother, and that is enough.

As requested, here are some pictures...
From two weeks ago in the baby's room:


From one week ago wearing my favorite paint-covered pants:

I always used to wonder why my friends, toward the end of their pregnancies, said they wanted to be "done" with being pregnant. I'd think to myself, "But they're getting to wear such cute clothes, and their tummies look so cute, and they're getting so much more sleep right now than they will when the baby comes, and don't they want to hold on to these last weeks of being just husband and wife?" Now, I think I'm beginning to see.

The clothes: I could chuck my maternity pants out the window. I'm fine with the shirts--I still like those--but the very limited selection of pants I have to wear to work (one pair of now tight-fitting khakis, one pair black, and one pair grey that we just bought this past weekend) is getting annoying.

The tummy: Sure, I can see the cuteness factor. I like my tummy still (but ask me again when the stretch marks start forming and I may give a different answer); it's the swollen ankles/feet/hands, legs, face, and the rest of me that are getting old... not to mention the fact that carrying around ("waddling around" is more like it) an extra 30+ pounds isn't the easiest thing on one's body. :)

The sleep: I'm still of the same opinion when it comes to the sleep. I love and cherish my sleep, and even getting up two or three times a night to go to the bathroom like I'm doing now is nothing compared to what I know those first few weeks/months (years?) are going to be like with the baby.

The last few weeks of just husband and wife: Although I know I'm going to look back and reminisce with fondness about what it was like to be just the two of us--how relaxing our life was--I now understand, because of the other factors (clothes, tummy, so much anticipation) and because this baby is going to be such a blessing, the feeling of just wanting to be done!

This past Sunday after church was over, Jon found an envelope tucked into his Bible, addressed to JOHN AND KATIE VARELA. Inside was a short typed note (also in all caps) and $200 in cash!--no signature or anything. The typed note says something like, "Hope you can use this for something for the baby--maybe a crib or a glider!" We have no idea who it’s from--but it’s someone who at least knows the couple of things we still have to buy for the baby’s room. I haven't spent too much brain time trying to figure out who might be the giver(s), since they want to be anonymous, but I can't figure out if perhaps they purposely misspelled Jon's name in order to throw us off. :) But then they mentioned the crib and glider, making it obvious that they know us enough to know we need those things... Neat, huh?

I gave my notice (as in, I'm not coming back) to my boss today. I was going to do it this Friday, which is exactly 4 weeks before what I anticipate will be my last day (April 29), but I decided to do it today instead because tomorrow is the baby shower the department is throwing for me. I guess I just didn't want to go to the boss the day after this nice shower and say, "Thanks for the party. I quit." Anyway, she took the news relatively well--I can't imagine she was too surprised--and we decided we/she will probably tell the rest of the department some time next week. The semi-nice thing is that, since another proposal writer quit a couple of weeks ago (which in and of itself is a bad thing, leaving the department short yet another person when I go, but overall is a good thing since he was, frankly, a poor proposal writer), my boss has already started interviewing prospective proposal writers.

I was nervous to talk to my boss, but after it was over I realized I was more nervous in general about the finality of it: I'm actually quitting! I hadn’t had to think about it too much ‘til now. I won't be working anymore...because I will have a kid! This is going to be a huge change...

Sorry about the two-week hiatus in blogging. Things have been nice and busy at work, which leaves little time for dawdling on the internet!

We've had a nice couple of weeks, doing the same old same old during the week (work, flute lessons, etc.) and having relaxing weekends. We went out to a nice dinner at Five Crowns this past Friday night with Scott and Kim--that was a special treat. We went over to Phil and Katrina's house on Saturday evening, and the guys played Settlers for hours while Katrina and I hung out (we felt like an old married couple being so tired after staying out until 1:30). For Easter yesterday, we went to Kim's parents' house in La Mirada and enjoyed a great time--and a delicious meal--with Scott, Kim, their kids, Kim's parents, her uncle and grandmother, and Dustin and Lissa.

Saturday 3/26 marked 32 weeks--that's 8 months. I've been starting to feel a bit uncomfortable in general with all this weight in one place, but I'm still feeling good overall. On Saturday night when we were at Phil and Katrina's, I swelled up like a balloon! I think it was because we stayed up so late and it was a bit hot in their place. Good thing I had taken my wedding rings off and put them on my pinky. My feet and ankles didn't even look like my own. The swelling went down a little bit by morning, but I still don't look like myself. I might be this way through the end! Even Jon noticed when he held my hand, and then I told him to look at my feet and he just about jumped. ;)

Weekend in Laguna
Our "get-away" weekend was great. The bed and breakfast was very nice, and we would definitely enjoy staying there again. It had an "old-fashioned" feel in keeping with the history of the original house, which was built in the 1920s. The breakfast both mornings was delicious, and they also serve “refreshments” each evening from 5:00 to 7:00, so we had appetizers (cheese, crackers, vegetables, dip, wine, etc.) both nights before we went out to dinner. On Friday night, Jon had made reservations for the Cedar Creek Inn. He got lamb, and I had pork--both were delicious. We enjoyed talking and just spending time with each other; we marveled about how it felt like we were on vacation and "far away" from home, when we were really only about 10 minutes from home! After our long dinner, we headed back to the B&B and lit a fire in the fireplace. After breakfast on Saturday, we walked around the gardens and grounds at the Montage Hotel (further south on PCH--it was really pretty), walked around downtown Laguna a lot, had coffee, searched for a restaurant some other guests had told us about (The Sundried Tomato--we found it and made reservations for dinner), ate some pizza, and then went back to our suite and watched a movie (“Philadelphia Story”) and read our books. Neil and Casey came down and had dinner with us at The Sundried Tomato (now one of my new favorite restaurants, because the cream of sundried tomato soup was absolutely delicious) and also came back to the B&B with us to look around. So all in all, it was a very relaxing, low-key weekend--I loved it! We went home Sunday at about 11:00 and did things around the house for the rest of the day.

Although we didn't bring our camera with us, Jon did take a couple of pictures with his phone--maybe I can post those.

Baby shower #2
Sunday, March 6 was my second baby shower, hosted by my good friend Casey. It was so lovely and so special! I arrived with Kim a few minutes before 12:30, just as Lucy and her friend Michelle were getting there (they had gone to Mission Hills church for the morning). The other guests were my college roommate Katrina (she helped Casey host), Liz, Colleen (mother-in-law), Jennifer (sister-in-law), Shiloh, Lissa, Amy, and Kristan. Casey took a picture of me with each guest, and she had each guest fill out a scrapbook page she had pre-made--she's going to put each picture with its corresponding page, and then I'll have a nice baby shower scrapbook! We had a delicious homemade lunch of pasta salad, vegetables with dip, delectable herb/parmesan-filled tomato halves (made especially with me in mind), potato salad, ham, warm crusty bread rolls, salad with mandarin oranges, and pound cake with strawberries and blueberries for dessert. We played several fun games organized by Katrina, including the one where guests break off the length of streamer they think will fit around my stomach (I think Lucy's was the longest! Kristan's length was exactly right, so she won).

Then I opened all of the wonderful gifts: this baby bathtub with a little robe, rubber ducky, and bath toys; a monitor (excellent for us since our two bedrooms are on opposite ends of the house; a health and grooming kit I'd picked out; this Snugli carrier like the one Ricci has; a bunch of cute little learning books from Colleen and Jennifer; several very cute outfits, onesies, socks, and shirts; things for help feeding the baby (milk storage kit, etc.); blankets; a sweet card and check from my aunt; and more! Then came the "surprise gifts"--things I definitely hadn't been expecting:

--a gift from Nannie! Lucy brought it with her, but I didn't know. Nannie had made several cute, fluffy blankets--I think there are six or seven of them. All of them but one are white with different stitching along the outside (one blue, one pink, two different greens, etc.). Then one blanket is of a multi-colored fabric with corresponding multi-colored stitching. Now I know what Nannie has been sewing for the past several months when she mentioned sewing over e-mail. :)
--a gift from Nell! This wasn't as much of a surprise, because I did know she sent the gift, but it was still special. She sent an adorable soft-cover book and--how perfect--a froggy dish set (baby's first cup, bowl, spoon, etc.). A little background: in high school and into college, I ended up with a sort of frog collection, and it all started with several very cute little frog figurines Nell gave me one year. Thank you Nell!!!
--a gift from my parents. I thought my mom would probably send something, but I didn't know it would be in such a huge box--that thing must have been over 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide by 5 feet long. When I first started opening it, I thought it was a joke, because I reached in to start taking out the newspaper stuffed in the box and couldn't feel anything but newspaper. But then I saw it: it was the rocking horse that was mine as a child! That my dad made for me! That our family friend painted for me! I had no idea my mom had even saved it all these years. I'm very glad to have it--it looks so cute in the baby's room.
--a gift from Casey. Now that isn't a surprise, but the gift itself was: the most adorable crocheted hat I think I've ever seen. It has a removable flower (remove if the baby is a boy). I didn't even remember that Casey could crochet, so I wasn't expecting such a sweet gift. Everyone in the room "oohed and ahhed." :)

After the gifts, this special shower was finished. Thank you Casey!

Woah! I just viewed our blog with Mozilla Firefox (we have this on our home computer now), and it looks horrible! The fonts are messed up, and a lot of it is green. Does it look this way to anyone else? I've always used Internet Explorer. Now, on to the post:

Ashley asked if we have settled on names for the baby, but we still haven't. We have kind of stalled at three girl names and two boy names (included below with their meanings):

Girl:
Emiline (nickname Emmy) (hardworking)
Claire (clear, bright)
Anne (gracious)

Boy:
Nathaniel (nickname Nate) (gift of God)
Benjamin (nickname Ben) (son of my right hand)

I've toyed around with different first-middle name combinations:
Emiline Grace. Claire Louise. Anne Elizabeth. Emiline Anne. Benjamin Ray. Nathaniel Shane. Benjamin Reagan.

I wouldn't be too upset if we went to the hospital still with no final decision made--one or two boy names and one or two girl names would be fine with me. We could decide the name after we met the baby. :) Feel free to "vote" on your favorites!

Oh, and since my comments get deleted after a couple of months, I thought I'd include the tidbits I told in some comments below:

One thing I have noticed is how I'm unaware of exactly how big I am. In the past week, I have closed a door on myself (thought I was standing far enough back from the door, but when it went to close, it hit my belly and stopped) and scraped against a dirty car (thought I could squeeze sideways in between two cars in a parking lot, but my belly was too big and got pushed up against the sideview mirror). The usual distances/measurements I subconsciously know are right for my size body just don't work anymore!