Where to start?

The last four days have been amazing! We are so excited that our sweet girl is finally here. Everything went great during her delivery. We got started at the hospital with the induction around 7:30 and were holding her in our arms at 1:05. We have been totally in love with her ever since!


The three of us, with help from my mom, have survived our first day and a half at home. Matthew is great at changing diapers! He's actually so great that I only changed one the whole time we were in the hospital.

I was a little worried unnecessarily about how Mallory would do with all of the fireworks tonight...she and Matthew are both sleeping soundly with them going off in the neighborhood as I type. I can't think of a better way to spend New Years eve!

We only have about a million pictures of Mallory so far. Here are a few of our favorites so you can all see how precious she is. Enjoy!!!

Mallory Joy is Here!!!

Mallory Joy arrived yesterday, December 28 at 1:05 pm. She weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She is precious! Marcia and Mallory are doing great and headed home tomorrow. I am quite partial, but she is one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen. I love you Mallory! -Proud Aunt Anita

FRIDAY!

I got the call from my doctor this morning that Friday was going to be the big day!!! We have an appointment at the hospital at 5:30 am to be induced. Obviously, we're pretty excited!

Hopefully I'll post again before long with some pictures of our little Mallory. :)

NO NEWS

Just in case you are eagerly checking my blog today for news of Mallory's birth, here's my big exciting update. No baby today (at least by induction)! When I called the hospital at 5, the nurse said it looked they would probably be able to get me in today and they would call me. So I somehow went back to sleep. Finally when I hadn't heard anything shortly after 10, I called back to check and give them my cell number so I could leave the house and not go crazy sitting by the phone. The nurse told me then that I was next on the list. I felt pretty good about this news! Less than an hour later I got a call from my doctor. Apparently things didn't look as good as the nurse made it sound. Even though I was next on the list, they were too busy and it wasn't going to happen today. Surprisingly, I wasn't too disappointed by this. I think I was just relieved to know. So now we're just waiting for little Mallory to decide on her own when she would like to join us.

BECAUSE HOW CAN HE TELL ME NO THESE DAYS

Matthew and I were thinking positive tonight and decided to have a last date night before Mallory is hopefully born on Friday. We went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner. This is a special place for us because nine years ago Matthew took me there on our first date. I was a little worried going there because we hadn't been in years, but it didn't let us down. The fries were especially yummy!

Next we were killing some time and needed to do a little Christmas shopping. We took a gamble and went to Toy's R Us. That was an adventure. Things were a little shady there, but we survived.

Our next stop was going to be a movie but we couldn't decided on which. We were debating between American Gangster and Enchanted. Matthew offered me a deal. He said that if we went to Verizon and looked for me a new phone we could see Enchanted. How could I turn that down? So, we headed to Verizon where we got me a new almost free phone and got my monthly rate lowered too. After Verizon we had some time before the movie, so I suggested a trip to the slab for ice cream. Matthew usually isn't a big slab fan, but how could he really turn me down right now?

After our ice cream, we were right on time for the movie. Unfortunately, my perfect night got a little less perfect. As soon as we took our seats I realized that they were not very comfortable for a 38 week pregnant person. I sat there debating during the previews if I could make it or not. I decided no. Thankfully, they were nice enough to give us all $18 back for our tickets. So, here were are sitting on our comfortable couch watching Castaway. I guess we'll go to a movie again some day.

Is my husband great or what?

Check out my new phone...isn't it pretty!

CALL ME MARY

So we went to the doctor for my weekly check up this morning. We had talked to her last week about possibly inducing on Friday, so I was really hoping for that. After my exam today she said, "OK, get dressed and I'll make a call to labor and delivery." When she came back she did not have good news. There are 7 ladies past their due date in line before me to be induced on Friday. So, I'm on stand by for the stork. We can start calling Friday morning at 5:00 and hopefully these 7 ladies will have had their babies on their own by then or maybe Mallory will decide herself to pop. Until then, I'm Mary...pregnant and no room at the inn!

FUN WEEKEND!

This was the third weekend in a row that Matthew actually had a night off. This time, he had Friday night off so we could have a fun date. We did a little Christmas shopping, ate a yummy meal at Pappadeaux, and then went to a Third Day and Jars of Clay Christmas concert. Except for the climb all the way up the stairs to our balcony seats, it was great! I was seriously wiped out when we got to our seats. The usher that was showing us our seats obviously wasn't very observant that I was just a little pregnant. When she saw where our seats were, she took off so fast that Matthew even had trouble keeping up with her. After we finally got to sit down, I told Matthew I thought I might need some Gatorade and a GU! When I left to go to the bathroom and saw that there was an elevator, I was probably the happiest girl at the concert.

During the concert Third Day sang O Holy Night. O Holy Night always makes me think of Carol of Lights at Tech. For you non-Red Raiders, this is a tradition at Tech going back to the 50's I think. It is a big deal in Lubbock. People gather on the Tech campus and they light more than 25,000 Christmas lights. Part of the ceremony every year is a man singing O Holy Night. We have always made fun of the guy because he sings it in his best "opera man" style. Friday night it hit me what a big deal this is....on the campus of a public university, thousands of people gather each year to hear the singing of a song about the birth of Jesus. I hope and pray that this tradition will continue for years and years to come.

On Saturday I did almost all of my Christmas shopping. I figured since there are 12 days until my due date and less than that until Christmas it was time to get serious about my shopping. It was actually a very successful shopping day with a couple of funny sights. When I was at Linens N Things waiting in line I really felt that someone should tell the lady checking her pores in the magnifying mirror she was buying that she might want to wait until she at least got to the privacy of her car before doing something so personal. A little later I was at the mall. I noticed a booth selling wooden nativity scenes. The name of the booth was Star of David. The irony was too funny for me not to share.

This morning we went to church for what could be the last time as just the two of us. Tonight, I finally packed my bag for the hospital. Its pretty full, so I should be prepared even without leg warmers.

ALMOST THERE!

I'm thinking positive with my "Almost There" title. I'm now 37 weeks and can't wait to meet little Mallory.

Here's the latest picture of she and I plus the Christmas tree.

I think that just about everything is ready in Mallory's room. Matthew would still like a chair or rocker in there, but other than that this is pretty much it...except for her!

FAMILY TIME

We got to spend last Saturday with our college "family" plus some more family and friends while they showered our little Mallory. It was a great day spent with some of our favorite people.

Look, my plate of food almost covers up my belly. :)

All the girls...Krissy & Shannon. Sara, Anne, baby Caroline, me, & Tiffany.



The guys had to go outside and throw the football to balance out all the baby time inside. That's Matthew and Ben watching Sean go next door to get the ball that went over the fence.





Now some bits and pieces...

I was looking in a pregnancy book today for what to pack for the hospital. Two of the things the book recommended were coins for the phone and leg warmers in case it was cold. Anyone think I might need a newer book?

Today after work I went to Target and looked at the maternity clothes. They actually had a red velour track suit. Can anyone say Santa suit?