From Brown to Green...

Alright, for those of you that read the title and were expecting a detailed, chronological photo-journal of Annabelle's bowel movements, you will be sorely disappointed.  This post will only be tangentially related to our little one.  Mostly it's about a lot of hours spent over the weekend making the backyard more cohesive and inviting.

So we are little ashamed to admit that over the last two years we have basically let our dogs act like a horde of pillaging vikings in the backyard,  which gradually turned our lovely, green grass into what looked a raving lunatic systematically killed all the grass in the center of the yard as some sort of political statement for government satellites watching his every move. Okay well maybe not that extreme, but all the canine romping around really took a toll on the grass.

The previous summer we had spent the better part of a month designing and building our 2000+ gallon koi pond and water garden, but whenever you go in the backyard all you ever looked at was the giant patch of gray Florida "soil."  Thanks to our well-behaved infant and the extra help in town, we decided to finally tackle this project.  Since Laura "just gave birth," and Annabelle proved to be less than efficient with a shovel, it was up to my Mother and I to accomplish this.

Since Florida "top soil" is a mix of mostly sand, shells and discarded pieces of Disney rides with unacceptable fatality rates, we were forced to buy top soil to supplement.  So for everyone in Minnesota who is laughing right now, yes I purchased soil.  Two yards of it was dropped off in the driveway which I carted to the back in a wagon, by hand.  That might not seem like a lot, but it was a little wagon and two yards of top soil weighs about 4,000 pounds. I have no idea why we wait until the middle of the summer in Florida and choose to do these projects.

After we spread that and evened out the soil, I fertilized it with Milorganite and mixed it all in.  Luckily we got about an inch of rain that afternoon, so it we got to skip that step.  The next day the pallet of sod arrived.  After moving all the dirt the day before, 2,500 pounds of sod seemed to go very quickly.  My mother was kind enough to help in all this, so I took the mule job and she arranged the pieces and watered as I carried them in.  Once the sod was laid, we decided to finish the project that day and completed the rock path from the patio to the fire pit.  So off to the Home Depot I went to get 30 bags of rock.  And later that afternoon there were two very tired people desperately in need a hose-down to get into the house to shower:

But the backyard turned out great and now looks like this:

And after all that work, my mother was kind enough to get us a stone bench and bird bath! Thanks!

We have been exceedingly happy about the change and couldn't be more thankful for the help involved.

Side note: we are working on a Flickr account because we have had many requests for more and consistently updated baby pictures than is appropriate for the blog venue.  We will keep you posted on that and hopefully that will be up and running shortly. 

As always, thanks for reading!

Nathan (and Laura)

Oh okay, I'll post one more baby picture... :-)

I think this look is Blue Steel.

At long last...

Annabelle, only a couple minutes old, with eyes open

alert and searching for the voices she recognized.

Thursday night Laura started having stronger, more consistent contractions.  She had a feeling that this round that was about to start was the start of early labor and she was right.  She had a restless night trying to get sleep in bouts but not with great success.  Around 4am we were both up for the day.  The contractions were strong enough that she had to breathe through most of them and focus specifically on mitigating the pains.  At 5:30am they were around 5-6 minutes apart and we called our doula.  The doula arrived an hour later and we continued the birthing day with our normal routines for relaxation to help the labor progress: walking, birth ball, taking baths, resting when possible and general distraction.

At 12:30 pm the contractions were around 3 minutes apart and starting to get very strong.  We decided to start heading into the hospital as it was a 45 minute drive.  After some unexpected traffic jams we got to triage at 1:30pm.  The triage nurse wanted to make sure Laura was "actually in labor" because she was dealing with the contractions so well that they weren't convinced that she was dilated enough.  The astonished nurse announced after a examination that Laura was 8cm dilated!  The nurse couldn't believe it and immediately led us to labor & delivery.  We were there for 4 hours before the heavy pushing started, 30 minutes after that and our daughter was born at 5:56pm, Friday, July 15th. She was 7lbs 6 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.

Annabelle was born completely naturally; Laura did nothing but an absolutely amazing job.  Even in the throws of the final transition stage where people lose their minds and wish people dead or worse, she was polite and thankful to the doctors and nursing staff.  Although, we won't speak of the brief cursing bouts.   Even in the hardest, strongest contractions the cursing wasn't directed at anyone it was just an expressed out; she just needed to use a little sailor's tongue.

Her first swaddle.

Since the moment she decided to leave her liquid world, Annabelle has proved to be a wonderfully content baby.  We are trying to implement all the things we learned about newborn care in books such as "Happiest Baby on the Block," and other similar texts.  And so far so good.  She hasn't had any crying fits at all, not one.  Each time she wakes up all she does is get a little vocal just a "coo" or related quiet whimper.  Then we:

Feed. Swaddle. Swing/Sing to sleep.  Repeat.


After two nights in the hospital with every check perfect and every nap a solid two or more hours, we were discharged Sunday morning with many compliments to the baby's great temperament.  I would like to think this is more behavior from us, but I have a strong feeling that so far its a nice mix of nature and nurture.

I am sure there will be frequent updates to come but for now I am just going to finish the post with some more pictures  (I know that want you really want anyway) and try to get some sleep!

Thanks for reading,
Nathan (and Laura)

Cutest baby ever?

It may be Grandma's third grandchild, but I think she likes this one too.

New Grandpa.

Three Generations of McEwens

24 hours old and picking up her own head to look around.

New mother, enamored with her new daughter.

Finally all packed up, discharged and heading home.

Maybe the best picture of my two girls. :-)

Love this little girl.

The countdown continues...

So, here we are.  We made it until the very end of this pregnancy!  It is amazing how your prayers change from "stay in baby, stay in" to "come on out little lady this world is ready to meet you!"  We are so grateful to have gotten this far in the game with no complications and a perfectly healthy little baby that is going to grace our lives any day now.  I believe that this is the first true test of patience as a parent.  You try to fill the days with the mindless odds and ends that need to be complete before baby gets here and as my mother-in-law puts it "make sure you do something fun each and every day," but in the back of your mind you are constantly thinking is today going to be the day that my life is going to change forever?  Am I going to be woken up at 2am and shake Nate awake saying that it is time?  Well it didn't wake me up last night and even after a long walk this morning in this "awesome" Florida heat our little bean is still all cozied up in the wonderful home we've created for her for the last 9 months.

Truth be told my body has definitely been preparing for the exciting upcoming event even if it feels like it is taking forever to get here!  I also need to remind myself that she isn't technically due until Saturday so she isn't even being fashionably late yet.  As my doctor put it this past Tuesday for my weekly check-up: "Your body is completely ready to have this baby, you just need to start those contractions!"  What she means is that as of Tuesday I am 3-4cm dilated, 80% effaced, and the baby is at a -1 station.  For those not in the medical field that means that she is basically knocking on the door to the world but doesn't have anyone pushing her through the door yet.  As of this past Sunday I have stopped working for fear that my water will break while I am passing my morning meds to them, and I felt like working 12 hour shifts until I was 39 weeks pregnant was long enough.

Here are some answers to the most common questions I've been getting:
How are you feeling? Great, considering I'm 9 months pregnant in 95 degree crazy humid weather :)  I honestly can't complain, this baby has treated me well up until the end!

Are you scared?  Can any women say she's not scared going into the most life-altering event of her entire life?  I guess you can say that I'm scared but feeling as supported as I could have ever imagined.  Have you guys met my husband?  He is the most amazing, involved, compassionate, patient, and dedicated person I have ever met.  He is the one that is going to carry me through this and with him I have no doubt in my mind that this experience is going to be amazing!

Do you feel the baby moving?  ALL THE TIME.  This little baby is quite the acrobat.  She keeps me up at night reminding me that she is still around and she likes her little home :)

What are your dogs going to think?  We actually bought a crying baby doll a month back to test the waters.  Besides a few cocked heads, and a couple of whines that's about all the reaction we got from them which is great.  We are sure that with a few sniffs and licks they are all going to be amazing close "sisters."

So, that's the update of the moment everyone!  We will be sure to post something when our baby finally decides to make her debut!  We appreciate the support we've received from this blog and are so excited for you to meet our latest addition that has been hiding out for the last 9 months, we are so close!!

Laura