Two months flew by...

I'm on a roll! Here is Josephine's second month of life in pictures.

This is one of my favorite pictures. I have no idea what she's looking at but it made her smile :)

Here she is enjoying her play gym from IKEA

And wearing the cutest little terry romper with matching hippo blanket!

My tiny hippo is a sleepy hippo.

Despite loving her pacifier, Josephine has decided her thumb is quite soothing, as well.

Tummy time is a piece of cake!

Such a sweet smile. This melts my heart!

Two months! She's getting more and more interested in her surroundings...and her hippo chair!

One Month

Since I'm writing this well after the fact, this is what I have to say: I had a one month old! So much happened in the first month of Josephine's life. Here are a few moments I will never forget.

Josephine has her first milk mustache on Day 3 when my milk came in. She clearly enjoyed her first real meal!

Josephine's umbilical cord fell off on Day 7 so she got her first bath while daddy was still home.

Early on Day 9, Jake flew back to Afghanistan.

Love those cheeks! 

She makes some of the funniest faces I have ever seen!

She wasn't a big fan of tummy time but sure looks cute in her helicopter sleeper!

Penelope decided to try out what Josephine was doing all day. Got her all the attention, didn't it? She got a good belly rub for her effort!

Josephine is officially one month old! Thanks again to Uncle Ben and Aunt Liz for this most awesome hippo chair!

And THANK YOU to my mother for helping me out those first three weeks. I couldn't have done it without you!

Josephine Marie

On May 3, 2012 at 12:20 a.m., Josephine Marie was born via c-section after a very long induction that was going nowhere. She weighed 9 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 inches long. Jake had made it home from Afghanistan a few days earlier and was there to welcome her into the world because her mommy slept through the whole thing. Yup, that's right. I was so doped up on meds because the epidural wasn't working properly and just sheer exhaustion that I was out cold and didn't wake up until about an hour after Josephine was born. Oops.

Here I am meeting my precious girl for the first time in the hallway on our way to our room.
Photo courtesy of Volker Schmitt-Illert

Here we are again, getting to know one another a little better. This is the first time I held Josephine.
Photo courtesy of Volker Schmitt-Illert

Funny story. Jake and I are raising Josephine bilingually. During the pregnancy I really didn't speak German very much but when I first held Josephine I automatically started talking in German. No real reaction from Josephine and I thought that was normal for a newborn. Then I said something in English. Wow. Josephine's eyes opened and she looked at me. She recognized my voice! I really didn't believe that that was even possible until it actually happened!

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Considering how far away we are up here in Alaska, we had so many loved ones here for Josephine's debut. My dad, Jake's mom, and even my brother-in-law David! My mom flew out a few days later and we picked her up from the airport the day we were discharged from the hospital. I am so grateful for all the help, before and after Josephine arrived! That includes my sister-in-law Anna, who dropped everything to help me out for a few days after a surprise hospital stay back in February.

Would you look at that!

It's official. We got more snow this year than Anchorage has seen since the winter of 1954-55. It can stop snowing now. Seriously. STOP SNOWING!

Progress in the Nursery!

Since I'm making progress in the nursery I thought I'd post some pictures.

The crib has actually been up for a few months now. It's pretty even not put together :)

I managed to assemble it with a little help from Cricket and Penelope. I'm glad I got it done early because I know I would need more help now...my big belly would surely get in the way!

Don't you just love the crib sheet?

Since I only have a little over 4 weeks left until my due date, I thought it was about time I sewed some curtains for the nursery. With the amount of daylight we get here in the summer, in addition to just fabric, I needed blackout liner. What a hassle! It took me all afternoon to make these but it was so worth it!

I'm lucky I have such a big table. Made my life just a tad easier this afternoon.

And the end product! I'm kind of proud of myself :) I haven't touched my sewing machine in over a year and the curtains look pretty darn good! Oh, and I also put up the curtain rod...yes, I got up on a step stool at 35 weeks pregnant. I'm fine.

Now it's time to wash the rest of the clothes and put everything in its place. I'll post more pictures when everything is done, which will hopefully be before BabyG is born :)

33 Weeks

Today I hit 33 weeks and 3 days. At my appointment this morning BabyG was still head down and moving like crazy. Her heart rate was around 140 bpm. My belly measures exactly at 33.5 weeks, which is great! The ultrasound on Monday showed that BabyG is in the 87th percentile for weight at the moment...chunky baby!! We're not quite sure how much weight I've put on but the nurse said if it weren't for the big belly, she'd never know I was pregnant. She knows what a whale-sized momma wants to hear! Here is a current belly picture from last night.

Aurora Borealis

Two nights ago we got a great showing of the Aurora Borealis. Here are some of the pictures I got from our back yard!

The first two were taken with my regular camera and the third one is with the cell phone camera. I had to tweak them on the computer (just exposure) so the colors would show a little more. And of course everything is a little blurry because I don' have a tripod.

62 Days To Go!

With "just" under 9 weeks to go, I thought I'd post another belly picture. Here you go:

And since I don't think that picture does my ginormous belly justice, here's a bare belly shot for you! (No stretch marks yet!)

BabyG seems to be growing right on track and I'm curious to see how big she'll be at birth. I get a peek at her soon (no date set for the ultrasound) and I hope they'll take a quick picture of her. The ultrasound is technically just to check on the position of the placenta but I hope they'll take pity on the pregnant lady whose husband is deployed and give me that sneak peek. I'm sure they will!

I received a big box in the mail yesterday...and so started my somewhat unusual "baby shower". I called up DeLane and had her sign onto Skype. The box contained gifts galore for BabyG from DeLane and her girlfriends. I had as much fun unwrapping everything, as they had picking everything out, from what I've heard. I think I now have pretty much everything BabyG will need for the first couple of weeks...and then some, where clothing is concerned! She now also has a bunch of pink outfits :)

On another note, we have gotten a total of 119.9" of snow this winter. Another 13" and we'll beat the current record from the winter of 1954-55. That's a lot of snow!

Mr. Sandman, I'd like to request a visit...

I was prepared for not sleeping well at the end of this pregnancy and then not sleeping at all when BabyG finally makes her appearance. The fact that I'm not sleeping at 25 weeks, is just plain old mean! As most of you know, I treasure my sleep. I've been known to sleep 12 hours straight (or more). Last night I got a grand total of four hours and tossed and turned the rest of the night. So when I got up at around 6:30 a.m. I was far from well-rested. After talking to Jake on Skype for a little while, I got more or less comfortable on the couch with Cricket and Penelope...and slept for 3 hours. Now why wasn't that possible while I was comfortable in my bed? At night? This is what I woke up to:

I guess the girls decided I'd had enough sleep. I agree! I can't believe I slept ALL morning. I did the same thing a few nights ago but ended up sleeping an hour longer on the couch. I need more normal sleep! Tonight I will try warm milk and honey and see if that lulls me to sleep. What I really want is for Mr. Sandman to do his job, though. At 25 weeks I really don't need him playing hooky. Come on Mr. Sandman, get your butt in gear for me tonight!

Pretty in...beige??

I decided to do some shopping for BabyG today. I did very well. $68 for 10 items, all clearance. Poor girl is going to be wearing a lot of boy colors! She'll have to rely on gifts for anything pink! I can't help myself, though. For example, there was a beige onesie with a helicopter on it (I got two in different sizes!). How can I NOT buy that?! Or the cute sleeper with a baby giraffe on it. I'm a sucker for baby animals :) And the dark green cord overalls? LOVE those! I'm debating whether or not to take a picture of everything. It's dark in here and I'm tired from all the shopping... Well, here goes. Sorry about the quality.

Looking at the picture, it's not that bad! There's plenty of yellow... Did I mention that these are various sizes? I'm worried BabyG will be gargantuan coming out and won't be able to wear ANY newborn outfits but the two on the bottom right are newborn sleepers, just in case! I need to remember to buy plain white long sleeve onesies at some point!

So much snow...

Moving to Alaska I expected snow this winter. What I didn't expect was the amount of snow! It first started snowing around Halloween and I haven't really seen any grass since then. It's been so cold up here the last couple of months, it hasn't had a chance to melt down at all. That also means that my backyard is literally full of snow and my front yard has a huge mountain of snow from the driveway.

Here is the view from the back porch. The picture was taken a few weeks ago so imagine even MORE snow!

Cricket in the only trench they get to get to their potty spot. Again, the snow is even higher now.

And both Cricket and Penelope walking back to the house. I'll have to get some newer pictures soon.

We currently have a bunch of sun forecasted but it's supposed to stay well below freezing the entire time. I'm just glad we have sun!!

Big Belly

Well, here it is! My belly at 24 weeks and 3days. BabyG thinks the pants I'm wearing are too tight. I don't agree. I don't mind her constant kicking at all!

Starting the G Family

After well over a year, we were surprised to learn that Jake had knocked me up on our drive cross country back in August 2011. What a shock! Who knew, that the stress of a move and driving thousands of miles would result in something so wonderful?!

The same day we arrived at Fort Richardson, AK, August 25, 2011, we were surprised by this:

Wow! We were both initially a little hesitant to really believe that this was it but about three weeks later we saw this:

We heard a beautiful heartbeat and measured five days ahead. Little overachiever! The nurse agreed with my insistence that we keep the May 1, 2012 due date. Over the next couple of weeks we had two more ultrasounds to make sure this little peanut was growing correctly. Everything looked great and you can imagine how happy we both were and are!

Many weeks later, when I was 18 weeks pregnant, we saw this:

At that appointment we were also told the super exciting but not wholly unexpected news that we are expecting a little baby girl! I have to say, I was expecting it. Considering the MANY girls born on my side of the family, Jake didn't stand a chance with his wish for a boy!

Two and a half weeks after we found out that we're having a girl, Jake left for his deployment to Afghanistan. BabyG cooperated and made sure her daddy felt her kicking her momma real hard before he left.

I am now 24 weeks and 2 days pregnant and am enjoying my ever expanding belly. Jake gets daily belly pictures sent to his email and I'll post one here tomorrow. I just need to make sure to actually dress in more than sweats and a tshirt for a change!

From Alabama to Alaska

As all of you know, I'm a procrastinator. The champion of all procrastinators. I owe you all the rest of our trip up to Alaska and here it is. In pictures! I hope you enjoy this because it took me HOURS to put together!

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