4 Days Old!

What an accomplishment... Alaina is now 4 days old. Harry and I actually high-fived yesterday morning because she lived though her first night at home. It's a little scary not having a team of nurses backing you up; luckily my mom and dad were here to lend a hand. Harry's mom and dad came in last night with dinner and talk of the outside world, which helped more than they know! Here are a few pictures we've snapped over the past few days.

Welcome to the World, Alaina!

Harry and I welcomed Alaina Joanne to our family on September 10, 2010 at 3:41 PM. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz and is 21 inches long. The whole family is doing well.

The Magical Story of Labor Day

Thank you, Cake Wrecks, for this post yesterday! It made me smile.

"The Magical Story of Labor Day"

Still waiting on Baby Girl. We have a doctor's appointment today so here's hoping for good news later today!

Still Hanging in There

Today is D-Day... and baby Thompson is still quite cozy in the womb. I guess she is going to take after her mom and be late (I was born 4 days late and I've already apologized to my mom; this is no fun).

Harry and I continue to wait. We are excited to meet our little girl and hope that maybe tomorrow, Labor Day, will bring about some real labor.

1 Day to Go!

I can't believe we are here... September 4... 1 day till the baby is due!

I can't believe it for many reasons. On December 30th I took a pregnancy test expecting the usual "Not Pregnant" to show up when, to my surprise, we got "Pregnant"!
I can't believe it because months ago I had a discussion with my doctor that I was worried she would come early because I'm so small (only 5'1") and Harry is so big (6'3") and there wouldn't be room for baby.
I can't believe it because most of my friends that have been pregnant with me have delivered early; this made me so nervous that I've had our bags packed since week 30! (Yep, that bag has been packed for 10 weeks!)
I can't believe it because soon we will be parents. I'm excited, terrified, happy, nervous, worried, and hopeful all at once.

Tomorrow is our official due date and it is also my grandmother, Mila's, birthday. I have a feeling grandma is up there somewhere pulling some strings so her great-granddaughter can share her birthday; I hope so. I really want to meet our little miracle and it would be nice to think of my grandma every year on her birthday. Come on grandma... help us out!

Grandma, me, Martha, Clay and Dad at Niagara Falls
(Mom was there... she was taking the picture, as always)

40 Weeks

Today is the first day of our 40th week of pregnancy... we made it!

Yesterday, I had my appointment to check on our progress and we got a good report. My blood pressure has gone down (thanks to the half days I took at work) so we don't have to have another appointment this week. Our little lady's heart rate was at 137 beats per minute, I'm 50% effaced but not dilated, and our little girl has dropped into -2 station (0 station is considered engaged). I'm also measuring 36 weeks and was measuring 37 weeks last Friday which confirms that baby girl has dropped some. For now, we continue to wait to meet our beautiful baby girl.

September

Today is September 1... only 4 days until our little one is due! We officially know the birth month and are anxiously awaiting the birth day. It looks like our little lady will have a blue sapphire for her birth stone.

Home, Home on the Range

Today, I only worked half a day in an attempt to get some rest and bring my blood pressure back done before our little one arrives (less than 1 week till my due date!). I'm not going to lie, it felt weird. I left school feeling fine, just very pregnant, and that's not going to change once I get home. I feel a little like I'm cheating, but it also feels great. I can focus on our little girl and that's what I need to do now. She's been moving up a storm this afternoon and that always makes me happy. I know she is healthy and happy as long as she is rolling around in there.

Phoebe and Joey are thrilled that I'm home and encourage me to take as many naps as possible. I'm not sure how they will feel once the baby arrives... only time will tell.

39 Weeks

Wednesday marked the beginning of our 39th week of pregnancy. I had my weekly check-up yesterday and am glad to report little girl is just fine. Her heart rate was 142 beats per minute and she is still nice and low and really seems to be enjoying life inside me. On the down side, my blood pressure is still on the rise and I still haven't dilated. I'm going to start going to the doctor twice a week so they can keep up with my blood pressure so I'll be back on Tuesday. The doctor told me that if I was making more progress, they would induce me on Tuesday so here is hoping that I start to dilate soon. Until then, in the words of my doctor, we "hurry up and wait".

Harry's First Triathlon

Yesterday, Harry and my best friend Joanne competed in their first ever triathlon. This was a major accomplishment for Harry for many reasons. First of all, Harry had never really learned how to swim; he could stay afloat and not drown, but he didn't know how to really swim. This summer he worked really hard and took a class from our local YMCA and learned how to swim. Second, as a diabetic, he had some obstacles to overcome while racing (he had to check his blood sugar at each transition and that slowed him down some and had to continue racing despite low blood sugars), and finally he was able to get the triathlon in all before Baby Thompson made her appearance (we were a little worried about this).

This is Harry's wave of swimmers. The triathletes had to begin the event by swimming 750 meters.

This is a zoomed in picture of the same image... I know this is Harry's wave because of the yellow swim caps.

This is Joanne's wave (note the royal blue swim caps).

After the swim, the triathletes participated in a 17 mile bike ride. I didn't get any pictures of this because I didn't make it over to the YMCA (I'm 9 months pregnant - I did what I could). It would have looked something like this...

This is Harry practicing transitions outside our house last week. He did have one little problem during the bike ride; he got a flat tire. It took him about 5 minutes to change his tire but Harry told me that that was a record time for him so things could have been worse.

Finally, after the bike ride, the triathletes ran 3.2 miles right past our house (which was very convenient for me). A lot of our friends and Harry's mom and dad came over for a little viewing party so he and Joanne had a lot of people cheering them on when they ran by.

Here they come! Joanne is in the white tank top in front and Harry is in the blue race jersey next to the truck. They ended up being able to run together because of Harry's flat tire.

There they go!! I wasn't able to get any closer pictures of Harry running because he stopped to give me a kiss. In hindsight, I should have given my camera to someone else. I'm very proud of both Harry and Joanne and I can't wait to participate in my first triathlon after the baby is born.

38 Weeks

Wednesday marked the beginning of our 38th week of pregnancy AND it was my first day back at school. I've been having some contractions this week but I'm not making much progress towards D-Day. Not to over share (but you don't have to read this if you don't want to) but my cervix is still closed despite the baby being very low in the birth canal. My blood pressure is also starting to rise, but my doctor wasn't worried yet (that's pretty normal towards the end of pregnancy and when teachers go back to work).

Until our little lady is ready to come out, we will continue to enjoy our pregnancy. She must be very happy inside so I must be doing a good job making her comfortable.

Tigers Meeting a Tiger

Friday night Harry and I went to dinner at my favorite restaurant, Eez, and to see "The Other Guys" (which was hilarious) when we stumbled upon a baby tiger. A local wildlife reserve brought 2 baby tigers (Jasmine was 12 months old and Sasha was 22 months old) to hang out at Birkdale Village to raise money for their organization. Harry and I, being a couple of Clemson Tigers, were pretty excited to see the baby tigers. We even paid $10 to get a picture of us feeding Jasmine.

This is Jasmine, they had just taken her bottle of kitten formula away from her to refill it. She is the "ornery" one, or so the handlers said.

Favorites from our Maternity Photo Shoot

The pictures from our maternity photo shoot with Magen Marie Photography are done and I'm thrilled with the results! We have 40 photos that are all beautiful. Below are a few of my favorites.

Yep, that's my stomach and my feet at the very bottom of the photo.


I love, love, love this shot!


This one makes me laugh.




It started to rain while we were taking photos so we stopped off for ice cream (fitting since I've eaten a ton of ice cream this pregnancy).

Hands Down... a Minor Problem

Pregnancy has many wonderful conditions that accompany it... I have been lucky to have a very smooth pregnancy. I have felt great, haven't gained too much weight, and have avoided many of the "other" pregnancy related conditions (the ones that you don't really want to talk about). The one condition I haven't been able to avoid is carpal tunnel syndrome. Who knew that pregnant ladies get carpal tunnel? I didn't, so when my right fingers went numb I made sure I talked to my doctor about it. As it turns out, the swelling in my wrist has put pressure on the carpal tunnel and has now made my entire right hand go numb. I used to think that carpal tunnel syndrome was made up (sorry anybody that suffers from this regularly) but after this pregnancy, I now know how uncomfortable and, frankly, how annoying it is.

I'm very much looking forward to feeling my hand again. Until then, it's funny to hear Harry say, "we're holding hands now, just in case you didn't know."

Open Water Swim

Two weeks from today, Harry will compete in his first ever triathlon. To help him prepare, he participated in his second open water swim on Lake Cornelius this morning. He swam the 750 meters in about 25 minutes and then quickly went out on an 18 mile bike ride.

the start of his heat

making progress

heading in (Harry is in the green cap)

He made it! We are just hoping that our Little Lady doesn't decide to make her appearance the day before or the day of the triathlon.

36 Weeks

Wednesday was the start of our 36th week of pregnancy. We had a doctor's appointment this week and our Little Lady's heart rate was 150 beats per minute and she was measuring right at 36 weeks.

Baby and I at 36 weeks

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."

Less than one month until "D-Day," or expected delivery day.

Photo Shoot Sneak Peeks

Harry and I are very lucky to be friends with the lovely Magen of Magen Marie Photography who took maternity shots of us last Sunday. She has released a few sneak peeks of our photo shoot and will be giving us the disk of the entire shoot very soon. Here are our sneak peek shots...

Things I Miss

Today, while standing in line at my local Starbucks waiting for my decaf venti Caramel Macchiato, the woman in front of me asked if I missed caffeine. Yes, yes I do; very much. It got me thinking about a post for today (see the above mentioned "Things I Miss") in no particular order...

caffeine
wearing my wedding/engagement ring
wine
seeing my feet
running
sitting comfortably
breathing normally
wearing pants with a real waist
sleeping on my stomach
going places without strangers talking to me about my stomach
not feeling guilty when I eat junk food


All that being said, the things I miss are all largely outweighed by what I'm looking forward to...

seeing our daughter for the first time
holding our daughter
taking our daughter for a walk
watching our daughter sleep
seeing our daughter smile
seeing our daughter with her grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins
reading a book to our daughter
watching our daughter discover new things
playing with our daughter

With only 37 days left in our pregnancy, I'm trying really hard to focus on enjoying every minute of it (even the occasional contraction). I think I will miss feeling our daughter move inside me so until she is born, I will stop thinking of what I miss and think about what I love about being pregnant and all that I am looking forward to.