sorry!!

i am so sorry i havent put a picture of thalia up here! i think i deserve some slack though! ;o) here are a bunch from grandma donna. when yiayia gets back with my camera i will put more up.

things are going pretty well. she doesn't sleep much at night which has been tough but i know everyone goes through that. we had our first checkup yesterday and unfortunately thalia was still pretty jaundice and she had lost about 5 oz since discharge. so we had to go get her heel pricked :o(. she was a trooper though. her bilirubin was elevated but not high enough to re-admit her to the hospital. we had to go check it again today and it had come down slightly. we'll see what the doc says tomorrow when we go for her weight check. she has been eating better the past day or so though.

yiayia has been a tremendous help the past few days. we are very lucky and blessed to have her here for a few weeks!

okay, enough updates...on to the pictures...

she's here!!

after a grueling couple of days (we got to the hospital just before 9 on friday, got started with the induction around 11, and had baby thalia at 6:30 pm saturday!!), THALIA ELOISE PHILLIPS has arrived. she weighed 6lbs 14 oz and was 20 inches long. i thought i was being smart by bringing a camera that i thought would load onto my laptop so i can send you pictures but for some reason my laptop doesn't want to recognize the camera. i am going to see if i can steal some pics from steph's facebook page...nope just kidding. the hospital internet won't let me add a picture! what junk. when we get home tomorrow i promise lots and lots of pictures.

anyway, so now it is sunday night and we have survived our first full day of parenthood. the hospital staff has been really wonderful. and we are learning how to take care of this precious little gift (with a big set of lungs, i might add). chris is doing so well. he was fantastic during my labor and is being so attentive to thalia: talking to her and cuddling her. its really adorable.

so i know this is a tease because i don't have any pictures but at least you know that she is here and we are all doing really well. thanks for all the love and support!

love c, c, and t!!!

here we go!!

here it is...the last picture of me with a ginormous belly. we are on our way to the hospital. we'll keep you posted...so stay tuned and make sure you have your phones on you!!

reading instructions really can help!

so, aunt steffi came over on wednesday to henna my belly. she did a fantastic job free-handing the design with a marker (see below). then she went to mix the henna to trace over the market and lo and behold. right there in the instructions it says that the henna needed to be mixed 24 hours in advance!!! i guess the acids need to mingle with the ink to really pull it out or something. so instead of a brown henna belly, i ended up with a gorgeous pink and purple belly! i love it! but how funny is that?! check out the pictures below!

THANKS AUNT STEFFI!!!!

i'll keep you all posted!

love c, c, and bp

notes from the under belly

so i first must apologize for not having updated you in a week. i know this is my usual MO, but lots and lots has happened this week. i guess that's why i haven't written - we have been that busy. here are some things i have learned in the midst of all this foolishness:
1) it is probably not a good idea to go bowling if you are nine months pregnant (yes, it's true...i got second place on the second game!)
2) nesting has now expanded to include trying to reorganize all the music files on iTunes (i scrolled and clicked for so long that my right hand swelled up and i couldn't hardly bend my index finger!)
3) my mom is wonderful (for too many reasons to list here)

so let's review what has happened lately. chris and i made a cast of my belly! it turned out super great!! i'll take a picture of it once i paint it. chris did a great job and it was kind of fun. steph and my mom are supposed to henna my belly tonight but so far they are making cookies. i'll keep my fingers crossed but won't hold my breath.
my parents got into town on monday evening and have been so super helpful around the house. i am so glad and relieved to have them here. and i should have the baby before my dad has to leave which makes me pretty happy. see why...
i had my check up on monday. originally the doctor wanted me to just come back in next monday if i hadn't gone into labor yet and she would schedule an induction for sometime next week. she was concerned about the induction failing, making a c-section necessary. i told her i understand the risks but i have been having so many problems with my back that i thought i was worth the risk. for example, chris and i went out with steph, nikki and the boys the other day and i had to stand up half way through dinner because my back hurt so bad. i didn't work last week and that didn't help nearly as much as i expected/hoped it would. so my doc thought about it some more and decided that she would try to induce me later in the day this friday. well, it turns out the latest the hospital will allow inductions on fridays is 9am. surprisingly the doc still agreed to do it. she doesn't seem very confident that it will work but i think it will. plus the red wings play at 9pm on friday so that gives me motivation to get her into the world so she can watch her first wings game with my dad and me!! but either way i will be a mommy by the end of the weekend!

we definitely "nested" today! we got so much done it was ridiculous!! we finished putting the nursery together - pictures to come, for sure. we sterilized the bottles and pacifiers. my dad built my glider and the baby's new bookshelf. chris reorganized some of the kitchen counters. my dad and i got the car seat bases installed. it really was crazy. hopefully all this activity will get things moving soon. i would love to go into labor before friday morning. guess we'll just have to wait and see.

well, i guess that's it. like i said, i'll take a picture of the nursery and put it up here. along with my henna belly if we get it done. also, not to worry, but chris and i are bringing my laptop and our camera to the hospital so i will be able to post pictures when she gets here. deal?

oh, steph said she is ready to henna. toodles for now! more to come for sure.

love c, c, and bp

random picture time

bp's aunts playing games with her. find bp's elbow is quite popular tonight :o) and lots of fun if bp isn't in your belly.

New Poll Added!!

Check out the poll I added under the pictures on the right side. Vote on when you think I will go into labor. There isn't really a prize, aside from bragging rights that you guessed correctly :o)

it's official!

chris and i are officially ready to be parents!! ha! yeah right. but we did take our childbirth prep class on saturday, so that makes us slightly more officially ready. i am just glad that the baby didn't come before the class!! most of the stuff we already knew but there was some new stuff we learned. i was glad that we decided to take the class but 7 hours of sitting did not help my back, let me tell you! i guess the silver lining is that sitting in the class basically put me on disability a day or two sooner than i was planning. darn! ;o)

i had my checkup yesterday and everything is going fine. my doctor was slightly surprised that i was having somewhat frequent contractions, but they aren't strong enough to make serious progress yet. plus my body isn't quite ready if you catch my drift. but i am starting to dilate which at least is some progress. although now i think i have my mom a little nervous that i am going to go into labor before she and my dad get out here. but they are coming next monday and i seriously doubt that i will go into labor before then. although i did go with chris to the gym this morning and walked for a while. if nothing else, maybe gravity will help get the baby in the right place. i must admit that after nine months of not working out, even just walking for a half hour felt really great. i really miss working out...hopefully i will be able to get back into the swing of things after the baby gets here. yes, i realize most of you are laughing about the slim chance i have of having extra time to work out. but there are some things i can do at home that i am looking forward to trying. i'll keep you posted.

other than that, chris and i are getting some stuff done around the house this week and then my parents come next week and then my due date comes at the end of next week! i can't believe it is almost here already!!!

well, keep your fingers crossed that the baby comes soon, but not so soon that my mom and dad miss it! i promise a new belly pic and an update soon. have a great day!!

love, c, c, and bp

no worries

so everything is fine. my checkup was somewhat anti-climactic, but i am learning that no news really is good news when you are pregnant. my ob hooked me up to a monitor for about half an hour and the baby's heartrate was fine and her movements were good. i am still having the beginning of contractions but they aren't regular yet so i am still not in labor...though i promise to keep you all posted. the other good news is that my ob said she would fill out the paperwork next week for me to stay home from work for the last week or so, since i have been having so many problems with my back. so it's back to the doctor next monday to check on my progress. now it remains a waiting game.
like i said, i promise to keep you all posted. wish us luck this weekend - our childbirth class is saturday (nothing like waiting until the last minute huh?!) i'll let you know how it goes.
have a good day!
c, c, and bp

false alarm

so chris and i spent a majority of the middle of the day on thursday in the hospital. sorry that i didn't sugarcoat that for you :o) turns out babies don't really like when their mom's have 102 degree fevers, and neither does the mom's uterus. when we got to the hospital my heartrate was 130 and my blood pressure was all over the place...100/38, 84/49, 90/48. it stabilized around 90/50 after a couple hours. the baby's heartrate was in the upper 170s. normally it is supposed to be between 120 and 150. so i got hooked up to some monitors and got a huge surprise when the resident told me i was having pretty regular contractions. luckily for me i couldn't feel most of them. i guess its pretty common for the uterus to contract when the mom is dehydrated and has such a high fever. so they hooked me up to some iv fluids and gave me some tylenol (since that is pretty much the only thing i can take!) the doctor kind of freaked chris and i out a little bit when he said the nurse would do a pelvic exam to see if i was dilated and that if i was they would admit me!! luckily (or unfortunately, if you ask chris) the hydration did stop the contractions - i was only dilated to a 1 anyway. once the baby's heartrate came down they discharged me and told me to keep taking the tylenol and drinking lots of fluids.
so everything was okay for a little while. but then around 730 or so last night my fever spiked again and we had run out of tylenol. luckily aunt jen and uncle wj had some so wj ran it over to me (thank god for family that lives in your subdivision!!) because jen is sick with what chris and i have. so the entire phillips' clan has come down with and passed around the flu essentially. what a close family!! (it's really all grandpa mark's fault!!)
on the bright side, my fever is not nearly as high as it was yesterday. and i put a new picture up of me and auntie hadi from my shower a couple weeks ago. chris and i are both still pretty sick but hopefully two days off of work (i would have been snowed in today anyway actually) and relaxing all weekend will help. so keep us all in your prayers that we can get better soon and that i don't go into labor with whatever this virus is that i have because i don't think labor is going to be easy on its own, let alone when i can't breathe.
hope you had a better week than we did!! love you all!

c, c, and bp