Two Weeks of Learning

It's been 17 days, to be exact, since Morgan was brought into our family. We went from two and a cat....

This is us the morning of the c-section. Unlike some births, we sauntered to the car, had everything well packed, and mosey-ed to the hospital to check-in. Some would call this cheating, but I think they are jealous.




...to three and a cat.

The big day - we brought home our little Morgan! Yes, I was able to stand up straight two days after surgery, but barely and slowly. I'm happy to say that I'm pretty much back to normal minus a tender lower belly. No more waddling!




Things we have learned these last weeks from Morgan: patience, service, love, and sacrifice.

Things Cleo has learned: I am still the princess, they don't feed me as quickly in the mornings as they used to, there is more stuff to jump on, and the thing in the carrier makes funny noises.

We were blessed to have my mom with us the first week after Morgan was born and my step-dad Mark came up for a few days for a visit as well. Friends and family have cared for us this last week, spoiling us with visits and delicious meals. I haven't cooked in so long I might have forgotten how!

Every day is a new routine! And who knew that you could be so tired?? Chadwick is back at work and I'm taking a few months off before returning part-time. We're learning to be a little family, one day at a time. Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, phone calls, and visits. They have made the transition much easier!

Welcome Baby Hunt!

On Friday 2/26 we welcomed little Morgan Marie into the world. She weighed 6lb12oz and was 19 inches long. I am now home from the hospital and feeling sore, tired....and excited for life to keep going with this new family addition.

Chadwick has been amazing with her and my mom is in town for the week to care for the three of us and our cat. Some pictures are posted here: www.picasaweb.google.com/julieandchadwick/Welcome#. I'll get some on the blog when I'm feeling more energetic. If the link doesn't work, try the old copy-paste method.

Yay for parenthood and all that it brings!

My Numbers

My sister-in-law had the cutest blog one day of numbers in her life....here are a few of mine:

38:
Inches around the widest part of my mid-section. It's bigger than the little tape measure they sent with my "What To Expect" book!

10:
Toes who are happily manicured and painted a bright red. Thanks, Alexa, for that bit of joy!

8:
Hours until my mom comes into town. She'll be with us for a whole week!

5:
Days Chadwick has off to spend learning about parenting and sleepless nights with me.

1:
Day until I am scheduled for a c-section. We check into the hospital in the morning and should have a baby by the afternoon! The stubborn little thing is still breech....

Unknown:
Thoughts, prayers, and emails from friends and family saying they have been thinking about us. We're so blessed to have wonderful people in our lives!

Updates will follow after the birth of our Little Hunt. Let the journey continue!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy V-Day! It's such a Hallmark holiday, yet I have to admit to loving the flowers my hubby bought....the white rose in the middle is for Smudge. Chadwick is such a sweetheart!

I am now 37 weeks along and still round. As you can see below, the belly is about the size of a woman's basketball! I will be working full time all this week and then we'll see how things progress. I have a doctor's appointment every Tuesday until Smudge makes an appearance. Whee. Chadwick will be working all week as well since his dad and the other veterinarian at the practice are in Las Vegas for a conference - Dr. C. Hunt will be holding down the fort! I think he's pretty excited about it.

Our offer on our little duplex appears to be progressing well. The units passed their inspection, we've passed our financial inspections, and we're waiting to hear how the official appraisal went. Our tentative closing date is at the end of the month. I asked our lender if papers could be signed in the delivery room, and she said it wouldn't be the first time she's had to go to the hospital for paper signing! Let's hope we don't have to do it there....





We hope that everyone is well and send a huge hug on this lovey-dovey day!

Baby Things

Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a girly weekend with my Mom - she flew in Thursday night and left Monday morning. In between, we shopped until we dropped, attended a wonderful baby shower thrown by my co-workers, and had laughed until our sides hurt. Every morning and at least once during the day, Mom would stop, look at my belly and exclaim, "You look so pregnant!" Uh, I am....

This is a photo of the table centerpiece at the shower - Carley is super creative and now we have diapers and a fuzzy, green frog!


Unfortunately, so much running around wore me out and I came down with a head cold shortly after Mom left....which I have been battling since. Last week was the worst and I'm getting over it. I have not been able to taste my food for many days due to nose congestion; I tease Chadwick that since this pregnancy has taken my ability to sleep well at night (which I love to do) my other joy was eating. That, too, has been diminished because what's the fun if you can't taste the flavor?? He pointed out that he should be one of my joys in life and that all is not lost. He's right!!

This afternoon my joy and I spent a long time cutting tags off baby items and getting the nursery organized. It now looks like a functional room instead of this chaos.

I am 35 weeks and going strong. We're looking forward to being parents and Chadwick has been such a help in getting through my round-ness. We still don't have a clearer idea of the gender of the baby based on dreams and wives-tales. We'll just have to wait and see!

Miss Neds Says, "Happy New Year!"

It's about time to introduce you to Miss Neds, the skeleton dog living in our office that Chadwick pieced together during vet school. She was a female Labrador in life and has been fun to have in the house. She's the perfect dog!

Christmas was wonderful for us - we stayed in Boise and had a relaxing day, ate tons of good food and spent time with one another and Chadwick's family. Gifts received included a lovely little mouse for our Cleo (which she loves), a Garmin GPS, several ties, a sport coat, books, clothes, a portable Shop Vac, and several items for baby: crib bedding, a changing table, and a fabulous rocker glider.


Now we're pretty much set as far as the "big" items are concerned, minus Baby of course!





And did I mention that I chopped off my hair several weeks ago? It seems as though hormones kicked in; I've talked with several ladies who had drastic hair cuts during pregnancy. Belly goes out, hair gets chopped. I don't understand the connection, but this is about week 31. We also got a tripod for our camera, which we tried out for the following photo.





We hope that you had a great Christmas and a fun-filled upcoming year. It was certainly be a year of change for us!

December?!

Where has the time gone?? I know where October went, but November and most of December have come and gone without me knowing where exactly the days have gone.

The quickie version of what we have been up to: Julie's dad came up for the week of Thanksgiving - we relaxed, ate lots of turkey, and I put the guys to work stripping wallpaper and painting the room where baby will live after birth. The final product looks amazing!









For our Christmas present, Dad bought us a live tree! I was so excited; I haven't had a real tree since leaving for college. Turns out dorm and apartment life aren't conducive to the real deal. We were on the way home from the gym and saw the tree stand...I was driving the Echo so we strapped the little tree into the trunk and home we went! During that we we also had the chance to spend time with some good friends from our Pullman days, Jessica, her baby, and husband Chad. She gave me some pointers on being a new mom and we got a kick out of watching Cleo try and figure out what exactly a baby was all about. She wasn't real impressed with the baby herself, but thought the rattle toys were pretty nifty. Here is our little tree, and Cleo hiding underneath.


I made a trip to busy Las Vegas at the beginning of December to attend the American Association of Equine Practitioners conference - some of the seminars were great, I got to see old friends, and I now remember why I am glad not to be in school anymore (sitting in lectures all day can be so boring!). In addition to the several thousand of us horse vets, there were 27,000 marathon runners plus additional supporters, two other conferences, and the National Finals Rodeo crowd in town. It was a crowded place!!

And as a baby gender update - we have done several "old wives" tests to determine the gender of Baby Hunt....so far we're running 8 for a boy, 7 for a girl. It's a close race! Just to remind everyone, we are accepting guesses through February! Overall, it seems split as to whether people think boy or girl. Only time will tell! My latest profile last week at 28 weeks:

We're staying put for the holidays this year. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas and a happy new year!