Say Cheese!

Melanie's favorite time of day is morning.  We don't really know who she got that from, because it sure didn't come naturally from her mother or me.  We've been trying to take advantage of this time by playing with her while she is so alert.  We were playing with her Monday morning and she got really tickled and started smiling at us!  Big thing for us since we've been on the lookout for anything resembling a smile for over a week.  Since she was in such a good mood we sat her up in her little bumbo chair and started snapping.  We did our best to capture a few fleeting images.  A couple of the best shots are out of focus, but that's what happens when you try to catch a childs reaction on a camera with red-eye reduction on.  We shot a couple yesterday on my camera and they came out a little more in focus.  For some reason the shots on my camera made her hair look a little redder than on Joanna's.  It makes Joanna happy to see the red hair come out since she think Melanie has so few of her features.  I see Joanna all over her face, but don't question a mothers instincts.  Just look at that little booger, ain't she cute?

 

While all of this is very entertaining for us, Melanie was getting bored. 

Sweet Dreams

Melanie slept throught the night last night!  She ate at 10:30, and didn't wake up to eat again until 5:00.  I woke up at 3:00 and started to worry that something was wrong.  I peeked in on her, and made sure she was still breathing, then I went back to sleep.  Who knows if we'll be as lucky tonight.  But, it was really cool that it happened at all!  Here's a couple of pictures we took last night.

Melanie - Month One

Well if we thought it was hard to find time to post new entries before...now its seems almost impossible!  I do have a lot of time that I'm sitting on the couch now, though...feeding and rocking Melanie.  I guess I just have to learn how to type with one hand!  Things are going good here.  Melanie is growing, slowly but surely. She's a petite little thing!  You can tell that she feels a little heavier, though, and her face and legs look a little chubbier.  Mark went back to work again this week, after having been off for 2 weeks.  After two weeks back at work, he'll have another two weeks off around Christmas.  Having him here was great.  My mom went home after a couple weeks with us, then we went to Auburn the week of Thanksgiving.  Once we got home, it was great having Mark here at home with me.  He did some work around the house, like running electricity to our crawlspace/basement.  Now we have a second refrigerator down there and overhead lighting.  That's Mark's "man-space", so he's happy to finally have good lighting to work by.  So, he was working, but if I needed him to hold Melanie or watch her while I ran out of the house, he was available.  Now, it's just me, Melanie and the dogs.  We're doing pretty good.  I just have to let go of the idea of getting much done.  It's definitely all about her, and not about me being able to get chores done around the house.  Daisy and Lucy are feeling kind of neglected.  Lucy still gets to sleep in the bed (of course!), but other than that, they're playing second fiddle.  A crying baby takes precedence over a crying dog.  Daisy has taken her frustration out on us a couple of times, though.  Twice, we've left the house to go to the grocery store, and she's managed to pull bags of bottles down off the counter to try to eat them.  Not too much damage was done, though, once she figured out it wasn't cookies.  So, here are a few more pictures we've taken of Melanie this past month.  Enjoy!

It's a Girl!

Melanie Jean Joyner arrived this afternoon at 4:41 pm weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  She has a full head of light brown hair, ten fingers, ten toes, and eyes that melt my heart.  She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen............

Mother and daughter are both doing great.  Joanna was able to feed her minutes after the birth and just finished her second feeding this evening.........so far so good.  Now, let's see if we can get some sleep tonight!

Thanks to all of you who have been thinking of us, helping us, and guiding us along this journey.  Though it has just begun we feel like so much has already been accomplished.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love-Mark, Joanna, and Melanie

Labor Day

6 AM-

Good morning world, we're gonna be parents today!  Joanna and I are waking up here at northside hospital in a fog from a short restless night numb from the sleep aids.  Joanna had a couple ambien before bed and I had advil PM.  Man that stuff works well.........scary 

Joanna is hanging in there.  She has been having very mild contraction since Friday afternoon when we got here.  Though she couldn't feel them yesterday, through the night they have been increasing in strength and are now mildly noticable.  Her cervix is measuring 5cm this morning which is a good sign as she had progressed through the night.  The nurse just came in and started the petocin.  Which should really get things going........not long now

Joanna has asked several times "when can we start the epidural?"  "How long will it take to get the epidural started?"  "If I go into labor, will it be too late for the petocin?"  She's a little nervous about the pain, if you can't tell.  We both tend to jointly reply "NO" when any of the nurses ask if we want to go "natural".  I know I know, no pain no gain, right......wrong

12 PM-

Joanna is now dialated 8cm!.....not long now.  She got her epdiural this morning and has been very comfortable laying in the bed since.  We've even gotten a couple naps in.  I think I've seen more of ESPN's gameday today than I have all year!  Joanna is handling all this in stride.  As matter of fact she just told the nurse "this is fun".  Maybe it's the drugs, I don't know, but this doesn't exactly seem like fun to me.  Beautiful experience, yes.  Memorable event, most certainly, but fun?.............

2 PM-

Time to push.......Joanna is fully dialated, Melanie is in position, and it's time to push. Joanna's body has done all the work it can do on it's own without her pushing.  Time to cowgirl up and push this baby out!

Showers!

Last weekend we had our 4th and final shower at Shannon's house.  Now we can say that we have everything we need for our new little arrival.  Now, it's just a waiting game until she decides to make her appearance.  I hope it's soon though, because my ankles won't be able to take much more.  Right now, it looks like I have a thick pipe for a leg that runs straight down into my foot...no ankle bones can be seen.  This weekend we have a wedding to go to (Chris Carney), and I hope they're okay with me wearing flip flops with my dress.  Because that's about all my feet will fit into!  The showers started a few weeks ago in Auburn with my family at Debbie Hamby's house.  That's where we loaded up on all our Auburn baby gear.  Melanie got her first cheerleader outfit, and she got a matching Auburn stroller.   We got a ton of stuff, and I don't know how we made it home with it all. 

Just a few days after that, we  had a shower at my office.  We were really surprised with all the gifts we got there!  I guess I was just expecting to have some cake and for everyone to chip in on a gift, but everyone went out and got baby presents for us.  I guess people just like to shop for babies!  We don't have any pictures from this one.  Mark came to the shower, but we forgot to bring our camera.  The next shower we had was at Gabby and Liz's house.  This one was with our friends here in Atlanta.  Kelly had never met Gabby before, but they worked together to throw a beautiful shower!  This one was especially fun for me, because I got to drink fake beer! 

Finally, we had the shower at Shannon's house with Mark's family this past weekend.  We got some really adoreable outfits, and we even got two homemade baby blankets!  We played the game where everyone has to guess my belly size.  Mark was way off...which he should have gotten in trouble for!  The winner was Wesley.  He guessed almost exactly right!  I'm still not sure how he did that.  He must have had some help! 

      

 

So, a big thank you goes out to everyone helped us get ready for Melanie by throwing all these showers.   It's so nice to have family and friends that want to help us out.  We're so lucky to have you all!  The album with pictures from all the showers is over on the left.  Next time we post, we hope to be proud parents!

"Homework"

For a while this summer, people kept asking us if we had Melanie's room ready.  Well, a big part of getting her room ready was finding a place for all the stuff that was in there already.  We were using that room as an office.  We had a large desk with our computer stuff on it and a huge rolling bookshelf that dominated the room.  Luckily, for Christmas we got a laptop.  So, we were able to get rid of the desk and the desktop computer pretty easily.  The next thing we needed was a place to put all of our books.  We've always had this weird space in our bedroom that no furniture would really fit in.  So, Mark decided to build a built-in bookcase there.  It took a while to finish, but it really turned out great.   

   

A few weeks ago, we also decided to take the plunge and get our bathtub fixed, once and for all.  Pretty soon after Mark bought this house, we could tell that the previous owners had tried to "re-finish" the bathtub by putting this glaze stuff on the tub to make it look new.  The glaze started chipping off, and really just made the tub look even worse that it did before.  There were also places where the grout had worn out of the cracks, and it looked like dark moldy lines.  It really bugged me, since I'm the one who likes to take baths.  With Melanie coming, we wanted to do something to fix the tub for her as well.  The main problem with doing anything in the bathroom, is that it's our only one.  If we went through a renovation, like we did with the kitchen, we would be without a bathroom for quite a while.  We could not think of a way to make that work, so Mark contacted Re-Bath, and the guy came out to the house to tell us about it.  Well, after hearing about the product, Mark and I were sold.  One of the biggest selling points was that if  they found any water damage in the walls, when they went to install the new walls, they would cover the cost for any repairs.  Also, the work that was done was guaranteed for the life of our house.  So, if there ever is any water damage, leaks, etc., then they would come out and take care of any repairs.  Finally, and most importantly, their work was guaranteed to be finished in one day.  So, we wouldn't be without our shower at all.  It cost more than we had hoped to pay, but we're really happy with the results.   

 

Peek-A-Boo

Melanie isn't even here yet and she's already playing games with us.  Her newest game is peek-a-boo (when she's not pressing on Joanna's sciatic nerve and making her right leg go numb).  We went to the doctor Tuesday for our last ultrasound after he cancelled on us last Thursday due to an emergency C-section.  After seeing the great 3D images in the office, Joanna and I really had our hopes up of seeing this perfect picture of our baby still in the womb.  If it sounds or even looks too good to be true......it usually is.  We got more of a sneek peek than the full view.  Melanie wasn't moving around too much during the ultrasound and had her hands right in front of her face the whole time.  Joanna wished that she had sipped on a coke to get some caffeine in her before we went in, but hindsight is 20-20.   

The great news in all of this is that Joanna and Melanie are doing great!  Joanna's recent bloodwork came back with flying colors, her weight is right on track, and she is brimming with anticipation.  Melanie's heart rate is strong, legs are long, and she is breathing in the womb.  I wasn't aware that some babies actually start breathing in the womb and some don't...........There's so much that I have to learn.  Melanie weighed 3lbs. 1oz. and is on track to be 7lbs. 5oz. at term.  Things are looking great so far!

Trey's Birthday 2007

For Trey's birthday (August 10th), we went out to eat at Kevin Rathbun's Steak.  I think we all agreed that it was the best steak we'd ever had!  I gotta do what I can to get little Melanie some iron!  Who do you think looks more pregnant, me or Trey???  That Sunday, I was 28 weeks pregnant. 

   

We went to the doctor last Thursday for my Glucose Test, and to do another 3-D Ultrasound.  The doctor that does the ultrasounds got called away for an emergency C-Section earlier that day, and wasn't able to get back in time for our appointment.  We didn't get a phone call, because he thought he was going to make it back, but then wasn't able to.  So, our track record with this guy isn't so great.  We're just glad he's not our regular doctor.  So, we're re-scheduled for an appointment tomorrow.  Hopefully, we'll get some good pictures of Melanie's face this time!  On Wednesday, Mark will take the picture to work and scan it, and we'll post it as soon as we can.

"The Belly" 26 weeks

For those who were dying to know...this was last Friday, July 27th.  That Sunday, I was 26 weeks pregnant.

Babymooniversary

We've been trying to save as many of our vacation days as we can to use when Melanie arrives in November.  Well, we made it to the middle of July and finally decided to take at least one day to celebrate our aniversary (good excuse).  July 23rd marked two years together!  Time really does fly by.  It seems like just yesterday we were all wearing fancy clothes, sweating like crazy under the pavillion on the hottest day of the year.  What a great day that was! 

For our anniversary, Elaine and Steve said we could go down to stay at their beach house.  We left Thursday night after work and got there pretty late, but it was worth it to wake up at the beach.  The weather was pretty good to us.  It was a little overcast on Friday, but breezy.  Saturday was beautiful.  We went to the beach to work on our burns both days.  Saturday night, we took an idea from Drew and Amy (who were also celebrating their anniversary that weekend), and went to Baytowne Wharf for dinner.  Baytowne Wharf is a little resort community with shops and restaurants that's within Sandestin Golf and Beach resort.  It was so much fun!  We just wish we had gone over there earlier, so we would have more time to visit the shops.

We walked around for a little while and took some pictures while the light was still good.  Then, we went to Poppy's Seafood Factory for dinner.  They had live music and two huge decks with a great view of the bay.  Mark had the King Crab Legs, and I had the Red Snapper with Shrimp and Crab Meat...yum!  An hour later, when Mark finished his crab legs, we tried to walk off our dinner a little around the wharf.  We then decided to get a little crazy and head back to Destin for some miniature golf at Big Kahuna's.  I guess we were itching to sweat some more, in honor of our anniversary!  It turns out that this is one of the things that I'm actually able to beat Mark at!  I took him down in an eighteen hole sweaty grudge match. 

On Sunday, we pretty much just packed up and went home, with a stop by Silver Sands Factory Outlet mall on our way out.  What trip to Florida wouldn't be complete without some outlet mall shopping?  Besides, isn't the second year anniversary gift cotton anyway?  It was a short weekend, but we seemed to pack a lot in.  We knew we had to enjoy it, because this will probably be our last vacation for a long time without kids.  It will all be very different from here on out! 

Regarding our baby news...I had a doctor's appointment last week.  I got to hear the heartbeat again, which was pretty cool.  They also gave me my paperwork for the hospital, so we could look that over and get it ready.  We'll be delivering at Northside Hospital, which delivers more babies annually than any other hospital in the nation.  Hopefully, that means they'll know what they're doing when our time comes!  I finally started feeling the baby move a few weeks ago.  Mark's even gotten to feel her move, and if you watch my belly, you can see her moving too.  That's been very reassuring to us.  If we can feel her moving around, then we feel like she must be doing ok.  Our next appointment is in three weeks, and we'll have another 3D ultrasound where we'll get to see her face for the first time!  I'll be 28 weeks then.  We'll be sure to post some pictures of that once we have them.  As for the pictures from our beach trip, they're posted in a new album to the left....enjoy! 

And The Verdict Is...

Well, after referring to the baby in my belly as a "he" for the past 20 weeks, we can finally start calling it a "SHE"!  Mark and I went to the doctor yesterday, and finally got to solve the big mystery.  We're having a girl!  From the very beginning, we thought we were having a boy.  Everyone I talked to at work, everyone at the dentist office, the Chinese Astrology website, etc., all thought we were going to have a boy.  Our friend Katherine, who works at Pregnancy and Newborn magazine gave us a free gender prediction test (normally retails for about $30.00) called Intelligender.  It was a urine test that is best taken in the morning, just like a pregnancy test.  If it turns green within 15 minutes, it's a boy, and if it turns orange it's a girl.  Ours turned green immediately, so that only fueled our fire for thinking this was going to be a boy.  I had a doctor's appointment the following week, so I tentatively told her about it to see what she thought.  I thought she was going to make me feel like an idiot for bring it up, but she didn't.  She said she'd heard of tests like that being somewhat accurate.  And, she said she was more likely to believe it because it said boy...because if it said girl, who's to know if it's not just picking up on my hormones or something.  Anyway, so we had our minds made up that this was going to be a boy.  We got to the doctor's office 15 minutes early, because we were both so excited.  They took my blood pressure right away, and the nurse asked me if we had gotten stuck in traffic, because my it was higher than normal.  I said no...that I was just extremely excited.  I had also had a few sips of coke to get a slight sugar buzz before going back there, so hopefully we would wake the baby up.  We wanted to make sure we would get her into a good position so we could see what we were going to have.  So, then we waited...and waited...and waited...an hour later, they finally called us back there.  By that time Mark and I were pretty ticked off.  Unfortunately, the excitement had turned sour.  I had my appointment with the regular OBGYN first, since the Ultrasound OBGYN was still backed up.  Then, we went back to see Dr. Moore.  Once we got the picture up on the screen, we weren't mad anymore.  It's so fascinating to actually see this thing move around inside me (which I'm still not really feeling, by the way).  He checked out the heart to make sure the chambers were separated as they should be, he measured and said that the baby was about 13 oz, and he checked the face for abnormalities (like cleft palate) and saw that everything was as it should be.  Finally, he got to the big news, and asked if we had a guess.  Of course, we said boy...and he said nope...it's a girl.  Immediately, he started shutting everything down and taking notes.  Mark said...are you sure?  The doctor said yes, and kept on packing it up.  Then, Mark said...are you sure you got a good look? (because he didn't seem to take very long to decide)  The doctor said, he hadn't been wrong in 7 years with someone at week 20...so we decided that he must know what he's talking about.  Needless to say, we're thrilled either way.  We know just how lucky we are to be blessed with this.  Now, we've got a long wait ahead until we actually get to meet her! 

p.s. recognition goes to Jean...for being one of the only people to guess that this would be a girl!   

First Contact

Well, the picture pretty much says it all....we're having a jellybean!

We had the first ultrasound at 7 1/2 weeks and could see little more than the beating heart right in the middle of the picture.  That's when we knew it was for real.......

Joanna is 18 weeks along and finally starting to show.  Her face is glowing from the increased blood flow and her body has crested atop the hormonal roller coaster (momentarily).  Things are good as we curiously anticipate whatever it is we created.  Our next appointment is in two weeks to find out the sex.  That's one thing Joanna and I never debated.  We wanted to know what we were having the day we found out.  We've each flip flopped about what we think it is............its 50/50 at this point.  The chinese astrology website says boy, intelligender says boy, but miss Jean is holding down the girl vote.

The next ultrasound was at 12 weeks and it gave us a much better look at what we were dealing with.  Two arms, two legs, ten fingers, that's something we could understand.  It was hard to believe how much had happened in the 4 1/2 weeks since the last time we peeked in.  See you in two weeks!

 

Ok, now that you've seen what's on the inside...............wanna see the sweet exterior?  Joanna really isn't showing that much, but she certainly feels bigger.  Not dramatic, just a plump "after the holidays" version of Joanna.  I can't wait to see the full bump!

Ole!

Mom, Dad, Dorothy and Ernie had a Cinco de Mayo party this past weekend.  Here's some pics!