Aubrey's first bath

Aubrey had her first bath and seemed to enjoy being immersed in the warm water!
We can only hope this trend continues!

It was the "Sweetest" gift.....

John and I went to a wedding on Friday, October 16th. The bride, a friend of ours from softball kept teasing us that her sister is a physicians assistant and if I went into labor at their wedding I would be in good hands. Nothing happened at the wedding, but once we got home.....boy oh boy....er....girl, I mean.

We went to bed around midnight and at 2am I started to have contractions. Thinking they were braxton hicks, I just waited it out since all the pain was in the front. Most of my braxton hicks were lasting about 1 hour, so when the contractions continued past 3am, started to get stronger and then alternate front to back, I had a feeling that this was real labor. From 3am until 4am John timed them and when they became 6 minutes apart, he called the doctor who told us to head to Royal Oak Beaumont. We packed the bag and jumped in the car. Luckily it was very early Saturday morning, so the traffic was light, the weather was decent. We arrived around 5am where I was wisked away to triage. I was dilated to a 3. They monitored me for a while and moved me up to Labor and Delivery when I reached 5. OMG---this is REALLY happening!! I held on just a while longer before asking for the epidural. Ok, I may not have asked, but I don't think I screamed for it either. Ok, thru CLENCHED teeth I demanded it! LOL! After that was done (and it hurt, let me tell ya)John called our parents to let them know that the baby was coming and they rushed to the hospital. The next few hours were pretty quiet, me laying in bed, dealing with the contractions that were so much more managable, our parents hanging out in the room, John and I texting our friends. The nurse sent John and my parents for some food since I wasn't allowed to eat and she didn't think it was fair for them to eat in front of me (thank you nurse Carol!). Before they left I was dilated to a 6. They were gone for just over 1 hour and I shot to a 9.5! Yikes! Where is John???? I gave him 5 more minutes and then I was calling him. He and our parents came back and it was show time! I kicked our parents out of the room---John's mom and my dad left pretty fast, my mom actually wanted to stay for the birth. For those of you who know my mom, this is no surprise to you. For those of you who don't know her, still shouldn't be a surprise to you. She loves this kind of stuff. I know, gross. But, I didn't allow it and I am glad that I didn't. I started pushing at 2pm and all the medical staff started to come in, lights were coming out of the ceiling, trays with gauze and equipment came rolling in. It was pretty intense. A few times while I was pushing I would let out a scream or a grunt and the doctor, Dr. Charfoos had to tell me that I was wasting energy and that I needed to not make so much noise and focus on getting the baby out. Yes Sir, Ma'am! She's one to not sugar coat stuff, which I can appreciate, but geez lady....I am pushing a watermelon thru a small hole, give me a break here! I beared down and pushed and pushed and at 3:11pm Aubrey Lyn Sopala was born, weighing in at 6lbs, 15oz, 20 inches long. It was the most unbelievable experience of my life. I could not believe what had just happened, what I had just done. What I now know I am capable of. AMAZING. John announced to me that it was a girl and I had to ask him to say that again because we were all pretty sure it was a boy! We were definitely shocked that it was a girl, but soooooo happy! We didn't care either way, as long as it was healthy. One cool thing about this day is that it was Sweetest Day!!! It's a Hallmark holiday for those of us in the midwest, kind of like Valentine's Day in the fall. My dad told my mom on the way to the hosptial that if I delivered on this day that it would be a girl! And he was right!!! What a "sweet" gift!

I should mention that I did have preeclampsia and elevated blood pressure which led to some of the things below.

After delivering Aubrey it took quite a while for the placenta to come out and I had torn high up. The epidural was starting to wear off, so while screaming in pain, the doctor ordered up another round. Thank God for that....it took LONGER to deliver the placenta and stitch me up then it did to deliver Aubrey. I won't get into any more details...you get the gyst. Yuck.

That first night we were so tired from being up since 2am that we had Aubrey go to the nursery. I was hooked up to an IV with 4 bags hanging from it, a blood pressure cuff that went off every 2 hours and compression braces on my legs that alternatly went off every minute or so. How's a girl to sleep???? I had to stay in labor and delivery that night and thankfully within 12 hours my levels had all gone down, so we were able to move to the postpartum floor at 6am the next morning. And, I could finally eat! Yay!!! The new room was nicer, the bed was more comfy and John had a pull out recliner he could sleep on. Unfortunately when it gets dark and quiet in the hosptial, all the squeaks come out of the beds and it's not as nice as you really think it is. So.....Sunday night wasn't all that great either. Luckily I had a great nurse Monday morning and she moved everything along so we could get out of there! We left Monday around noon to start our new adventure at home.

It's weird driving in a car with a baby for the first time. We've now done it a few times back and forth to the doctor, so it's becoming a little bit less stressful! Aubrey has jaundice so we've been to the doc 3x this week getting her checked. Luckily her bili levels are coming down so we shouldn't have to go back to the hospital to put her under the lights.

This week has FLOWN by. John is home with me for 2 weeks. Week 1 is now done and gone. I hope next week doesn't go by as fast. I don't know what I will do while he is at work! If anyone has some time, call me!!! LOL!!!

We are getting to know our little girl and are totally in love. I cannot believe she is already here, as I thought for sure I was going to go late. It's so weird how your instincts kick in when you have a child to take care of! Wow....I am a MOM! So cool.....

Here are some pics from our first week as a family! We'll be posting new pics and writing as much as we can. I do post to Facebook alot, so if you are not friends with me, look me up!!!

Thank you to everyone for their well wishes, their cards, gifts, visits at the hospital, etc. We love you all!

36 week checkup!

I went to the doctor today for my 36 week checkup. I am dialated 1/2 centimeter! Whoo hoo! I know it's not much, but it's something and it's very exciting! The doctor said that I am measuring big, but it's on the big side of normal, so everything is just fine. I am now on weekly appointments, so I will finally be reunited with my doctor, Dr.Migdal beginning next week! I have 27 days left.....time sure has gone by fast. I mean it when I say that, even though most people probably don't believe me. I have been very lucky to have had such a great pregnancy....it's been a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to meet our little punkin.

We lacked motivation last weekend so we didn't do what I wanted to get done, so this weekend will for sure be a baby weekend. My husband is a procrastinator, and it's rubbing off on me these days and that is NOT good! :0) I can't wait to post pics of the baby's room!

BNP Media baby shower

My co-workers threw me a baby shower on October 1, 2009 at Bahama Breeze. We got our swing, a beautiful diaper cake (that I don't want to take apart!), a Red Wings onesie from Aunt Amy and some toys from Mrs. Rene. Jill, Scott and Kristina worked on the favors together, which turned out to be Hershey bars wrapped with a cute, cute wrapper (see pic!). They were adorable. I plan on putting one in the scrapbook we got at our other shower (the wrapper, not the chocolate--that will be long gone!).

Thank you to those who planned it, for those that came out after work and for all of you that donated towards the gift. We really apppreciate your thoughtfulness! :0)

Baby Shower!

Our baby shower was on Saturday, September 26th at The Gazebo in Warren. We had a great turnout (76 people), great food and received many, many wonderful gifts. We are very blessed to have so many generous friends and family.

I am not a pastel pink and blue kind of person. From the start I knew that our shower would be end of summer/beginning of fall, so I decided I wanted a fall themed baby shower. Everything that would normally be pink and/or blue was either red, yellow, orange, green, etc. NO PINK OR BLUE ALLOWED! The favors were the apples, the centerpieces were HUGE mums, and the cake was a cascade of cupcakes, some decorated with sunflowers on them, some with just frosting and the small cake on top had fall colored stripes and a baby in a peapod on the top with a sunflower umbrella over it. LOVED IT! My best friend, Lisa, is a cake decorator in Traverse City and she designed all of it for me. She did a wonderful job, and the cupcakes were AMAZING!

We dipped and decorated 107 apples, thinking we would have plenty leftover for ourselves after the shower. NOPE! We ended up with 6! It's a huge compliment to all of us who decorated them a few days before because at a lot of weddings and showers people either forget or do not want the favors, so they are left behind, money wasted. At least we knew that people were going to eat them, or give them to someone who would eat them.

Thank you to everyone who came to the shower, we hope you had a great time!!!

Making apples for the baby shower

Our baby shower was on September 26th, so instead of going with pink and blue favors, I decided that I wanted to dip apples in caramel and chocolate, decorate them and bag them up for my guests. On September 23rd an Army of about 8 gathered at our church social hall for an evening of apple dipping and decorating. After a rough start, we finally got into a groove and started dipping and decorating. What a great time! It was so cool that no two were alike and that everyone there was able to dip and decorate their way, whether it be with fancy swirls and stripes or just dipping and throwing some sprinkles on. Some had more chocolate then others; some were dipped in all 3 kinds of chocolate and some had more caramel then chocolate. We even had two "junior" helpers, Samantha Yost (almost 6) and Lilah Nagel (2 1/2), The girls probably ate more decorations then what they put on the apples, but they had fun and that's all that mattered! Here are a couple of pics of our helpers and all of our handy work.