He's here!

Our little bundle of joy is finally here....and 13 days early! What a surprise, and a good one!

Nolan Booe Engle

October 18, 2007

7 lbs., 18 inches long

For those of you that don't know, Booe is my maiden name. It was going
to be even cuter if he was born on Halloween!

Things are going well, we're all adjusting and trying to figure out our new routine. My mom is here this week to help out, which is a lifesaver. Brad has been wonderful, helping out with everything and being very patient with me. The breastfeeding is going okay, but it's not easy! At least I knew that going in, and we're halfway through the first week so that's good.

I'll post more later, it's time to feed Nolan.....again!

Almost there!

Only 2 more weeks!

I went to the doctor last Tuesday, but nothing had changed since the Thursday before. Except I had managed to gain another pound in 5 days! So I'm up to 21 pounds now. This picture is from last Saturday, 37 weeks 3 days.

We went out to dinner at the Flatiron Mall a couple of weekends ago, and were both really excited to see this in the parking lot:

It was super close, so we didn't have to walk far. I'll definitely be taking advantage of that this winter when it's cold!

My busy season at work is finally over! So for the next two weeks, I'll just be finishing up a few things before I leave and getting ready to be gone for a few months.

Brad and I put the car seat bases in both of our cars last night. We thought it would be pretty easy, but it took a little longer than expected! But they're both in there and ready to go when we leave for the hospital. Now if we only knew when that would be!

I go back to the doctor this Thursday, so hopefully something else will have changed by then. I've had a couple of very small contractions, but nothing to get too excited about. It was funny when it happened though - I was reading from one of my pregnancy books to Brad and had to stop reading when the contraction happened. It really freaked him out! Then a little while later, the same thing happened. He was so cute - he told me to drink a glass of water and change my position - something we learned in our childbirth class!! He was paying attention! But no more contractions since then, and that was almost a week ago. The anticipation is killing me!

Hopefully the Cliffster won't decide to come during one of the World Series games - GO ROCKIES!

Likes & Dislikes

Since this blog is really taking the place of me keeping a pregnancy journal, I decided I needed to make a list of my likes and dislikes of pregnancy:

DISLIKES (in no particular order)

1. Shopping for maternity clothes....especially when you're only 5'3"!

2. People who think it's okay to touch your belly without asking. And when they do ask and I say no, because that's my right, they act upset or offended.

3. When other mom's tell you a story and it begins with "I hate to tell you this but....". Actually, this is only a 'sort-of' dislike, because I do like hearing all the details, no matter how bad they are!

4. Not being able to bend over. Or forgetting and trying to bend over....it hurts!

5. Trying to put on socks with your foot propped up on the opposite leg. I still haven't figured out how to do this...my socks always end up crooked! Which leads me to #6.....

6. ....not being able to wear socks because your feet get swollen. At least it's still sort of warm enough to wear sandals or flip flops all the time.

7. Not being able to really hug Brad like I could before. Sometimes when you have a bad day, you just need a big hug, and it's hard to do with a torpedo belly! So we've resorted to the sideways hug....it'll have to do for another few weeks.

8. Being grumpy/mean at times when it's completely inappropriate. Like at work. Or when Brad (or anyone, but it's usually him) is being totally nice, but I just can't help but find one little thing to complain about because I think I might explode.

9. Being emotional with no explanation whatsoever. Like when we were watching one of the last espisodes of Scrubs. It's a comedy and I'm bawling!

10. Trying to figure out just how we're going to do this whole parenting thing and keep my marriage and all my other relationships going at the same time. People have been doing it forever, but it's just all the unknowns that get to me.

11. Not knowing when I'll go into labor, where I'll be when I go into labor, if/when my water will break, if Cliff will come early or late, etc. I'm a planner - the anticipation is killing me!

12. My family not being able to be at the hospital when he's born. But I'm going to need those extra couple of days with my mom once we get home! It's a trade off!

13. Working through two different busy seasons at work - one in my first trimester and one in my third trimester. We didn't plan it very well!

14. Going to the bathroom.....all the time!

LIKES (in no particular order)

1. Being able to share with other moms what it's like to be pregnant. Like knowing how it feels when the baby kicks, rolls, has the hiccups, etc. I think it's given me a stronger connection than before with my mom/sister/family/friends.

2. Having Brad feel Cliff kick and seeing the excitement on his face.

3. Having an all-time excuse to be tired, to eat more than normal, to be grumpy, to be emotional, to get out of doing something, to leave somewhere early, etc.

4. Knowing that in a few weeks I'll have this little miracle that we've been talking about for so long, and wondering who he'll look like (my guess is an Engle).

5. For 9 months, you don't have to worry about sucking in your gut! That's one thing that I'm really going to miss....not worrying about if I have a muffin top, or if something makes me look fat. As Brad told me the other day - "you're super duper pregnant, who cares!"

6. Keeping secrets! We found out we were pregnant when I was about 6-8 weeks along, but we didn't tell anyone until I hit the 12-week point. It was easier than I thought, and kind of fun that Brad and I were the only ones that knew. And keeping Cliff's real name a secret has been the most fun! I thought I would be really bad at it, but so far so good! It's funny how many people try to guess the name....or try to get one of us to slip and tell. We've pretty much had the name picked out since before we even knew if it was a boy or a girl, so I'm really proud of both of us for keeping it in this whole time!

7. When people ask me how I'm doing, it's like they really mean it since I'm pregnant. You know, you always say in passing "How are you?", but most of the time it's more small talk than anything. It's kind of nice that people actually want to know how I'm feeling. At least that's how I take it!

8. People don't seem to want to stand too close to me. Like I'm contagious or something! Except the other day in the elevator, this woman was definitely standing way too close to me for no reason....it was so weird and awkward! I've also noticed that people hold doors for me more often, and the funniest thing is when people walk through the revolving doors in my office building more slowly because I'm going through at the same time. I can still walk, people, I'm just pregnant!! haha

9. Going home after work and putting my feet up....and letting Brad cook dinner! Not that he doesn't cook dinner most of the time anyway, but I usually help him (or try to!), or at least sit in the kitchen and talk to him while he's cooking. But the last few weeks, I've had an excuse to just go lay on the couch. Might as well use it while I can!

10. This whole 'before the baby comes' deadline thing has been great! I made a list early this summer of all the things that "needed" to be done around the house before the baby gets here. Thanks to Brad and my parents, most of the list has been crossed off! We still haven't painted the hallway, but we did buy the paint! My guess is it's not going to get done until probably next summer sometime. Which is fine with me....I don't even want to take that on right now!

11. Seeing the amount of patience Brad has had with me while I'm prego - it can only mean he'll have that same patience with the baby, right?

12. Knowing what a great dad Brad is going to be....and hoping that I can be a great mom! We've had some pretty good examples, so hopefully we can follow in their footsteps!

13. Baby showers! We were lucky enough to have one in Indiana thrown by my family, and one in Colorado thrown by Brad's family. And another one this week - Brad's work is throwing us one on Thursday. They're so much fun!

14. Buying baby stuff....it's expensive, but who doesn't like to shop? Especially for cute little boy stuff!

Less than 4 weeks to go!

Here it is - the 36 week belly!

This is one of my four black maternity dresses that I wear to work. I'm to the point now where not a lot of my maternity clothes fit all that great, and I don't want to buy more, so I pretty much wear the same thing every week. And I don't even care! Comfort is the biggest issue right now....I've even given up wearing my dress shoes to work because having socks on at all is just not good. So I wear flip flops or sandals most of the time. Everyone understands, and even if they didn't, no one's going to say anything to a pregnant woman about what she's wearing not fitting into the dress code!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and I gained 2 more pounds! So I'm up to 20 so far with 3 1/2 weeks to go. I'm measuring right on target too. Yesterday was the first actual exam I had since we had the very first ultrasound way back in March. Let me tell you, it was NOT comfortable! But I found out that I'm 70% effaced. What does that mean? Your cervix has to be completely thin and dilated by the time you're ready to have the baby. Effaced is how thin your cervix is, and they tell you in percentages. Dilated is how big it is, and they tell you in centimeters. I'm not dilated at all, so being that much effaced doesn't really mean anything....at least to me it doesn't! The Cliffster is positioned with his head down already, so that's good news. My doctor was 98% sure he was head down, but she did a quick ultrasound anyway just to make sure. And the Cliffster is still a boy!! Brad and I were glad to be reassured because we'd kind of had some anxiety about that over the past week or so. I mean, what would we even do if he turned out to be a girl? Everything is blue/sports/boy....and it's all been washed already. But no need to worry about that anymore....it's been confirmed once again!

We went to our Baby Business class on Wednesday - basically we just filled out pre-admission forms and birth certificate forms. That way they'll only need to know the name once he gets here and we won't have to do it at the hospital. It's so funny - even random people try to get me to tell them his name, like the cashier at Old Navy the other night. Like I'm going to tell her when I haven't told anyone else!!

Tomorrow morning is our breastfeeding class. Hopefully it's pretty helpful. I've been getting tips from my sister-in-law Melissa since she breastfed both of her daughters, and from my friend Meghan who's a 1-week expert! By the way, congratulations to Meghan & Treg on Baby Olivia Jo born last week....we can't wait to meet her!

Things are going pretty well, I'm still feeling good for the most part. I'm pretty tired in the evening, but that's expected. My heartburn keeps getting worse, but once the baby drops I've read that it almost goes away completely. I'm very thankful that my feet aren't enormously swollen, and that I haven't gained so much weight I'm unrecognizable....thanks to Nurse Polly's constant reminders to watch what I eat and drinking plenty of water!

We'll keep you updated on Baby Cliff's progress and eventual arrival....for some reason I have a feeling he's going to come early, but we'll see! Start your birth date (and name, for that matter!) pool now, just in case!