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.