One Week and Growing Fast

Aayla went in for her one week weight check on Friday morning, and she has already gained quite a bit! She was 8lbs. 10oz. at birth, dropped below 8lbs. in the hospital, and is already up to 9lbs. 4oz.! Hooray!
Here are some pictures at 10 days old (today) taken after church:


I know that I certainly am prejudiced, but isn't she adorable?!?

New Pictures

Mom before . . .
And after . . . very tired, but indescribably happy!
And baby makes three!

The Cutie!

Even at this young age she is a great thinker!

The Much Heralded Arrival!

On Friday the 21st, at 1:15pm Aayla Olivia was born! She was 8 pounds 10 ounces and 20.5 inches long at birth. Both her and her mother are doing fine. (By the way, her name is pronounced like Kayla without the K.) We just arrived home today, and we will post pictures later.

Please Pray. . .

Well, the baby has decided that he/she is not just yet ready to join the outside world! So, we will be going in to the hospital tomorrow morning to be induced. I know that this is a perfectly "normal" procedure, but I am still nervous about it. Also, if you are reading this tonight, please pray that I am able to sleep tonight. Sleep has been a precious commodity lately, and I am having a hard time "shutting down" my active mind to get to sleep at night - I am afraid tonight will be no different because I actually have something to ponder all night long!
Thanks to you all for your prayers and support, we hope to be able to post our long awaited news soon!

An End in Sight. . .

Well, they say no news is good news, but I think that would depend upon whom you ask. I wanted to post this to let you all know that Baby Ertl has not made an appearance yet - long absences from the blogosphere do cause people to wonder! There is (as the title of this post suggests) an end in sight for us though. At my appointment on Monday, my midwife scheduled me to be induced on Friday A.M. if I don't go into labor before then. The reason for the induction (or inducement - not sure which is actually correct), is the SUA. If not for that, she would not consider inducing until I was closer to 42 weeks.
The baby seems to be doing well. According to the NST - "good fetal movement" - let me tell you that they don't have to hook me up to a monitor for me to know that this baby has good fetal movement! My poor ribs can attest to the strength and frequency of the baby's jabs!
In other news, there really is no other news. I feel as though everything is "on hold" in a way. I don't really want to make plans for anything, lest the plans are ruined. Maybe reverse psychology would work here though - maybe if I make some grandious, outrageous plans, the baby will decide to make an appearance to thwart them. Or maybe I am desperately grasping at straws here! I know that God's timing is perfect and there is an end to this (although I have almost convinced myself, as I'm sure most pregnant women do, that I will be the first woman EVER to have a never-ending pregnancy!). So, I am attempting to patiently wait for that end!

Just the Two of Us. . .

Realized that we didn't have any pics of us together on here - so here you have it folks! This was taken a little while ago (notice the smaller baby belly, what a difference four more months makes!) - back in March when we had our second ultrasound.

Some Pictures While We Wait. . .

I finally got around to putting our most recent pics on the computer, so I thought I would post a few.
Mike digging out the T-Post in our backyard - it had enough cement to anchor a ship!
Latest belly pic - taken today.
Look at those darling puppy eyes!

One Week and Counting. . .

Well, the countdown continues. My visit with my midwife yesterday went well. The baby is doing well (an overachiever I am told, based on the activity on the NST). Really nothing new to report on that front. I asked the midwife when they would start considering induction - I'm not wanting to be induced, but I have been told that due to the SUA, they do not want me going too far beyond my due date. She said that if I do not go into labor by next Monday, they will consult with the doctor on how he feels we should proceed - so, we're praying hard for at least a contraction or two very soon (and hopefully a successful delivery this week)! I have two requests already for Friday of this week, and one for Monday of next week - are there others?!? I'll do my best!!!

I am absolutely convinced that this past week is the hottest one of my life! I was warned that this would occur, and I am thankful that I didn't feel too uncomfortable up until recently - but I am ready to move to Alaska! Mike thinks its funny (not in a cruel way, but rather ironic), because I am usually cold even in the middle of summer. This is only because he is such a warm-blooded critter that he finds it necessary for our house to feel like a walk-in freezer (Oh, how I would love to go to sleep in a walk-in freezer right about now)!

Can't really think of much else going on. Just playing the waiting game for now. I am also frantically trying to finish the baby afghan that I started months ago, but am now motivated enough to finish. At the rate I am going, I just may get it done in time, but we shall see.

General Update. . .

Well, I have been negligent at posting for long enough. Not much going on around here lately. We had a good July 4th weekend (yeah for the 4th being on Tuesday, since Mike got 2 vacation days out of it!). We spent alot of time "catching up" on sleep - funny, before I was pregnant, I could barely take naps; I sleep all the time now! We hung out with friends and just chilled in general.

Monday, I saw my midwife for my 38 weeks minus one day appt. Everything went really well. The appts. are a bit long since I have a NST (NonStress Test) at every visit, but it is definitely worth it to know that the baby is doing well. Contrary to what I had been told at previous visits, my midwife no longer believes me to be carrying the next Andre the Giant (several weeks back, I was warned that "this baby is a little on the large side. . ."). For awhile, I thought we may need to purchase a size 6 mos. take home outfit - but I suppose newborn will do after all!

Funny Story - my midwife told me that I friend of hers did a short-term missions trip to Africa. She was surprised to discover that babies don't wear diapers of any kind where she went. Apparently family members just learn to recognize the signs of impending danger and hold the baby away from themselves at the appropriate time. I'm sure there would be many "misses" early on, but you'd probably catch on to the baby's signals pretty quickly! Can't you just imagine how unusual it would be to see that in the states?!?

My poor Daisy-baby has had a rough time of it this whole weekend. Loud noises frighten her beyond measure, so obviously, the 4th is not a popular holiday with her. I was up with her until 5am Monday morning just trying to get her to calm down and settled enough to go outside for her business (I wouldn't normally have stayed up just because she was scared, but she hadn't been outside for at least 12 hours and eventually something has to give!). Between fireworks and thunderstorms, she is a nervous wreck still. To top it all off, I took her to the vet Wednesday for a booster shot. She actually snubbed the vet when he offered her a treat after giving her a shot - she would have none of it. So, once we were in the car, I offered her a treat (I wanted to know if it was the vet she didn't like, or if she was just upset). Sure enough, she took the treat with no problem! I've never seen her snub a person (besides me when she is being moody), and it is really funny since she is the most people-loving dog I have ever seen.

Approximately 12 days until Baby Ertl (if "Due Dates" can be trusted, and they can't), and we cannot decide on cloth versus disposable diapers. Thought that we had decided to use disposables, but now I'm not sure. Maybe we'll use the "African Method" above until we can decide! LOL!

Early morning! (for me)

I keep telling Kris that I feel like I have been out of the world for weeks. In reality it has only been three days. At work the first shift operator had a death in the family, so third shift and I (on second) had to work 12 hours to cover for him. Thursday night he didn't want to work 12 hours so I came in at 6:30am after getting off at 11:00 at night. I only got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep and then had to work another 12 till 7:00pm. FINALLY it is over! My 4 day weekend has commenced! Well, it started off with an early morning. Early when you stay up till 2am. Nathan, a good friend from highschool, and his wife were in town with their new baby! So we went out with them for brunch. It was really good to see them! It makes you feel really old when you sit around and talk about birth and kids!