Pic of the Day

So I just typed out my entire birth story and the draft did not save. Ugh! Here is a pic of the big guy from today to tide us through until I can get time/energy to write more.

5/27 Gunnar Photos

Aunt Natalie was kind enough to come visit us at the hospital May 27th and got some great pics and a video. Here is a link: Picasa link

Gunnar Jack London HAS ARRIVED

Here is a pic from right after he was born on May 26th at 5:26pm in Portland Oregon:


He weighed in at a whopping 5lb 10oz and was 18 inches long. We are so thrilled!

Backyard Beasts

Nick and I spotted these cool critters outside the kitchen window yesterday:

We have seen the woodpecker several times in the same area and think there may be a nest nearby.

The finches have recently arrived and this one is especially bright and beautiful.


This is all the nature shots you will get until this rain and cold stop!

Handmade Beauty

I have been very blessed with boxes of goodies still showing up periodically for Gunnar. Tons of hand me down clothes, duplicates from other friends' registries etc.. And then these beauties from my aunt:



These are two blankets that she wove herself. Yep, that's right she MADE THEM. On her loom. My aunt is one of those amazing women who can mud her own drywall, windsurf and yes even weave. Amazing! The pics do not even do them enough justice. They are beautiful!

Portland Baby Shower

This past Sunday was my baby shower in Portland. My very gracious girlfriend offered up her house and we had a blast!

The theme of my shower was sustainability and my friends made me a cloth diaper cake:


I was super excited to receive this moses basket. All my girlfriends rave about theirs!

It also came with 2 lullaby cds - one of Willie Nelson and the other Johnny Cash instrumentals. Thanks Natalie!

We played the guess the muddy diaper game to identify the melted candy bar. Here I am going that extra mile and giving mine a good sniff:


We had awesome cupcakes which were a huge hit (as were the rest of the yummies!):


I offered to do all the clean up:


It really was a wonderful shower. So many friends came and we so very generous! Last night I finally got a chance to sit down and read the wishes from my wish tree and they were amazing. Gunnar is a very lucky guy!

Eggs And Other Related Items

Here is the latest pic of the broilers:

We have been lovingly referring to them as the pterodactyls as they are true freaks of nature! Now they they have most of their adult feathers they are not quite as hideous. About two more weeks to go and they will be headed to the big chicken coop in the sky. I must say they have a pretty sweet (though short) life. You can see the mobile coop Nick built so we can keep them on fresh grass plus with this nice weather they are getting to spend most of the day outside.

We had some friends over yesterday and I got to break in my new deviled egg holder. After balancing deviled eggs on plates in the car for Christmas I was super excited to find this at GoodWill:

It is a pewter deviled egg holder that I scored for just $2. LOVE THAT! The eggs and platter were both a big hit.

36.5 Weeks

As you can see I do have a very good reason for neglecting posts lately. I have been very busy growing this baby!




The latest pregnancy update is that I spent Thursday and Friday in Labor and Delivery for monitoring. My blood pressure is very sensitive to stress and anxiety and has been inching up as I near the end of the pregnancy. Thursday when I took a reading myself I was in the "way too high" range so the midwife on call said I should come in. After five hours of observation, exams, blood draws and urine catches I was sent home with instructions to recheck Friday.

Friday am bright and early I was back for an in office blood pressure check and once again the numbers were too high. I had such a wonderful nurse who really did her best to not stress me out but at this point all the not stressing is really stressing me out. Again the midwife on call wanted me admitted for observation. My nurse said "you know what the Docs would do (induce)". To which I replied "That is why I see the midwives!". The thing that I love so much about the midwives is that we discuss the situation from best to worst case scenario and decide to take it one step at a time.

Again, catches, draws and monitoring for HOURS. Great news though in the end I was again released. The good news is that my body is not showing any signs of stress (no protein in my urine or symptoms of preclampsia) and Gunnar is happy as can be. He is super active and rolling around in more than enough fluid.

The current plan is to buy me as much time as possible (being to a full 40 weeks being ideal) with bi weekly non stress fetal testing and amniotic monitoring. I have been officially told to stop working.

Nick and I have finally learned our lesson though and the car seat is now in the car, I am packing a bag today and there are signs all over the place on how to care for the animals in our absence.

I really do have to give a huge thank you to my wonderful husband. I have always known that he is amazing but he has truly been my rock these past few days. Coming from someone who tends to think that I can be my own rock, I assure you that means a lot. He is a wonderful advocate for me in the hospital and a great task master at home really taking over and making me relax. I have always known I am very blessed in many areas of my life but he truly is the greatest and I am so very lucky.

Okay, enough of that!

Cinco De Mayo Nieve

I woke to snow on my apple blossoms this morning:


Definitely dreaming of Mexican beaches and mojitos today!

Day One Down

Yesterday was our first of our 3 day childbirth class series. It was a lot of talking and most of it was things that we had covered before in other classes or books. The various laboring positions were the most helpful and that was the last thing we did! Nick has been such a trooper and even though I know he is longing for the "good old days" of 1950 with a waiting room and cigar he will be amazing. I bet he may even surprise himself.

The funniest past was when we were all watching the birthing video and it comes to the pinnacle where the woman gives birth and some guy yelled out "Oh my God!". Uhm, someone may be in a little over their head!