It's a girl!

She's here!

Emily Ryann Donovan was born at 12:31 AM on Saturday, February 17th via c-section. She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She is aboslutely perfect, and is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined! Ryan is doing well, trying to catch up on his sleep. He has been a great support to me, and he is very excited. I am recovering well, and can't seem to sleep at all, except when I nodd off while feeding Emily. :-)

Thank you for all your prayers!

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39 weeks, 4 days

Man, I am just about too tired to write much of anything. I have really enjoyed working at home, and napping...it has been nice.

I have still been getting stuff done, which feels great! I took the car to Scruffy Ducks today so they could wash it and vacuum it and clean all the stuff I didn't feel like cleaning. There was so much dog hair in there, and we only took the dog for a ride twice!! But now it is clean and it feels great!

Also, we got a bill the other day for the registration renewal for our piece-o-crap van. I think I mentioned in a much older post all the things that were wrong with it, which led to our purchasing the Kia. Anyway, we decided to save ourselves a little money and donate it to charity. This did mean, however, that we would have to clean it out, and that was a chore! Well, it would have been, except that my totally amazing husband did it all before I even got home today, so I didn't really have to do anything! I love him!! They are picking up the van tomorrow, and I get the lovely duty of turning in the plates and cancelling the insurance. It really will be a burden off our backs, and it will save us a little money. We haven't been driving it since we got the Kia, and have had no plans to do so either, so it really is just wasting space. It is nice to get it out of the way and move on!

OK, now to move onto baby related stuff, my last appointment was on Tuesday. They checked my blood pressure 3 times this visit! Normally they only check it twice - first in the chair and then they have me lay on my left side for a few minutes. It is always on the 'high side of normal' at first, and then it goes down after I lay down for a minute, but it scared me because they checked it three times. They didn't say anything about it though, so that made me feel better. The doctor said he wanted to schedule me for an induction in case the baby doesn't come by Sunday, which is her due date. He is concerned about my blood pressure, he said I am not pre-eclamptic yet, but if I get there he will want to deliver me immediately. So I really need to take it easy so it doesn't get high. Anyway, they scheduled me for induction on Monday, the 19th! That means that I will definitely have my baby next week, and that is such a relief!!

I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait!!

If only I had a penny for every time I have said that in the past nine months!!

38 weeks, 4 days

I have been so distracted! I just looked over my most recent posts and realised how much I haven't written about. I think the 'fear' is officially gone now. I am excited, beyond excited, about the arrival of this baby. I am ready.

I have no worries about finances anymore. We finally worked out a system with my job that both my bosses and I are satisfied with. I will be working from home now (in fact, I already have been for 2 weeks, but more on that in a minute). I will be working less hours, but they gave me a wonderful raise, so my pay cut is only 25%. It makes a little strain on us, but it is doable, and I will be looking for supplemental income as well. Also, Ryan got a little raise as well, and God has definitely been providing us with everything we need, and then some. I have been so relieved.

It has been wonderful working from home. Two doctor's visits ago, my doctor told me to go ahead and start working from home. My blood pressure has been on the "high side of normal," he said, and they always had me lay down on my side and recheck it, and it went down. He said my blood pressure is fine when I am "chilling out" and that is what he wants me to do. So that is what I have been doing.

Backing up just a little, I have definitely been through the nesting phase. I finally unpacked my boxes, and cleaned up our bedroom. Ryan did the 20 or so loads of laundry to help with that...and I have been organizing and decorating. My mom and I reupholstered my dining room chairs and they look great! We bought a new ceiling fan for the bedroom and are going to be repainting our bathrooms. We just haven't gotten to that yet. I also cleaned out our office (for the most part) and set it up for me to work from home.

The nursery is finished! The only thing we don't have is our dresser, which my coworkers said they were going to get for me, and I am just kind of waiting for that...I washed most of her clothes and blankets already, and folded and sorted them out. I took some pictures of the pretty little nursery, and am going to them up on www.ryanandann.com. I am so excited to bring her home to it, though I know she won't care about it at all.

My next appointment is Tuesday, if the baby doesn't come before then!

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Note the baskets where my dresser will go...