Josephine Julia Lankford Has Arrived!!

Josephine, or Josie, as we call her, arrived at 7:34 pm on Wednesday, September 22nd. The labor part...going from 2 cm (which is what I was when we got to the hospital) all the way to 10cm wasn't bad at all (whoever invented epidurals should have a spot somewhere in some Hall of Fame somewhere). That part only took 5 and 1/2 hours. The delivery part...well...that was another thing entirely. All in all, 2 hours of pushing and a little extra help from the doctor for a sweet someone who didn't want to make that last little part of her journey into the world.

I'll spare you the details.

But our little Josie is here, all 8 lbs 5 ozs and 20 inches of her. I'll post some pictures soon...right now, I'm just figuring out how to feed her, what I'm supposed to be doing, and how to talk coherently with a little bit of sleep at night. But she's here and she's all ours!

Oh...and the name in case you're curious. Josephine is a name we both really liked. It's definitely recognizable as a name, but unique enough that she probably won't be the 4th Josephine in her school class. And we liked the name Josie, which is what we'll call her. We're not really that big into the meaning of names but as an added bonus, her name means "God will add". And truly, it was only God who could've added to our little family. Julia is because she was named in honor of my grandma, Vienno Julia Peura.

As I type, I'm remembering my grandma and I'm all choked up again. Oh...these blessed hormones or the lack of them now that I'm not pregnant anymore. Whatever it is...pray for Phil. :) He's truly been amazing through all of this. And he is such a natural with Josie. She loves to just lay in his arms and look up at him. I just love it!

4:30am On the Clock But a Smile on My Face

Up this morning for the second time around 4:30am for my inevitable couple of trips to the bathroom every night. If I can fall back asleep, I don't mind them. If I can't...well, then, it makes for an extra long day that usually includes a nap the following day. Why the smile on my face this morning as I crawled back into bed?

Because as I lay there willing myself to get back to sleep(which didn't happen, unfortunately), I hear Phil slowly breathing in and out next to me. And I remember that nine years ago this morning, God, without a doubt in my mind, intervened and allowed us these years together. And if that wasn't enough, nine years later, He's decided to add a sweet baby girl to our family.

I am incredibly blessed.

(And for all those waiting...no, nothing new on the baby front yet. The wait continues...)

Want A Peek at the Nursery?

Well, once again at least a month (or probably now, two months) have gone by without a post. Your wait is over. Have I been too busy? Not really. We finally got the camera battery recharged and bought new camera disc thingys (I'm such a techie) on our woefully unused camera so we're ready when the baby comes. Unused...because no, we don't sit around taking pictures of each other. Ready...because this past Friday we thought the baby might be coming and realized we were not camera ready. But more on that later. First...some pictures of the baby's new digs.

So much fun putting the room and bathroom together! But it's all ready and now that it's September...holy cow, it's September...I feel like she can come anytime. And as said above, we thought that might've been last Friday.

All throughout the morning and early afternoon I just didn't feel like the baby was moving around in her normal patterns. I felt uneasy and wondered if I should call the dr's office. I didn't necessarily want to be labeled with "first-time mom anxiety" along with a gentle eye rolling, but then decided, "Heck...I don't care what they think, I'm going to call." To my surprise, they told me to come to the hospital to get hooked up with some monitors just to check and make sure everything was okay.

Well...two and a half hours later, after they had put in an IV (oh, how that doesn't feel good) for fluids because I was a bit dehydrated, I was shocked to learn that apparently I was having contractions every 2 minutes apart since I had been hooked up. Uh...what? I didn't feel anything. I could see them on the monitor but wasn't feeling it. The dr. checked me (and let me just say here without going into too much detail...that is not a pleasant thing) and said I was 80% effaced and 2 cm.

Again...um, what? I had just gone for my normal dr. appt the day before and was 30% and completely closed. So apparently these contractions were doing something. They said if things progressed after a few more hours they were going to admit me and we were having the baby tonight. Uh...I didn't have my bag with me (at this point, I hadn't even packed a bag yet) and told them so. The cheerful response of my nurse? "Oh that's okay...all we need is your insurance card." So funny.

I called Phil to let him know what was going on and he got there about 6:30. The dr. coming in for the night shift just happened to be my regular dr. and he checked me again after 7:00. Nothing had progressed (except the puzzling regularity of these contractions, which darn it, I still really couldn't feel) so he said to just go on home. The nurse then when into a long discourse about how to time the contractions to know if and when we should come back if we needed to. I didn't want to point out the obvious, but my big question was how could I time them if I really couldn't feel them?

So...all that to say is I think I've been having contractions off and on since Friday night...still not completely sure if that's what it is or if it's just the baby moving, and just playing it by ear, I guess. I have my weekly appt with the dr. tomorrow morning so we'll see if anything has progressed. Is Baby Lankford (still not going to name her Philipina) going to wait until the 23rd to arrive? Bets are on, dates have been picked, (sorry Kristi, but Aug. 30th has come and gone) and Jared...bite your tongue for saying the 28th. We'll let you know! Oh...and for those of you have been wanting a pregnancy picture...here I am at almost 37 weeks.

Are You Kidding Me?

So I get this email yesterday with the subject line in all caps saying something about a proposed class action settlement. Thinking it was some scam from Nigeria or the like, I was going to just delete it, but I have to admit, I was a bit curious.
Turns out there's some class action settlement against Classmates.com which I think I was on years ago. Who needs that when you got Facebook? Anyway, I have now come to learn that Classmates. com may have violated my privacy rights by sending some emails that may have violated the law. Whoop de do...so some people may know the name of my high school and what year I graduated from. I have till August 17th to respond that I want to be included in the class action suit or let them know that I want to opt out of the settlement so I can "maintain my right to pursue my own claim".
And just what am I entitled to? What huge fortune awaits my response? If I submit a valid claim form, I am entitled to either a cash settlement of $3.00 or a $2.00 credit off a Gold Membership at Classmates.com. Seriously? People are actually going to do this? And some people are going to opt out so they can sue the pants off of Classmates.com?
The lawyers representing the people in this egregious breach of privacy are two guys out of Seattle and LA. You can rest easy, knowing it was stipulated that they will only receive up to 1.3 million dollars for representing the poor public whose rights were so violated.

Has It Been a Month, Already?

Well...you know what they say about good intentions. A whole month has passed since my last post. Seriously...where is the time going? I picked up Phil at the airport on Saturday and a couple of days ago here's the jist of our conversation:

Me: Do you realize that it's almost the end of June??
Phil: Yep.
Me: Then comes July and August.
Phil: Mmm Hmm.
Me: Then comes September!! She'll be here before we know it!!
Phil: Yep.

You know what they say about women talking a lot more than men, right? A classic case above. But really...she will be here before we know it.
I'm still feeling pretty good. (Although after today and tomorrow with temperatures hovering around 96, we'll see if that's still the case. Whoever invented air conditioners...bless you.) I think you can't miss that I'm pregnant (and just an aside here...who ever invented the word "prego" to say that someone's pregnant? That's a spaghetti sauce, not a dumb word for pregnant. It's like the word, hubby, for husband. But I digress...) but my friends say that people who don't know me, may not think so. Well, just great...so the majority of people in lower Bucks County may just think I'm chubby/fat. Marvelous. But I don't think you can miss it. A picture? Maybe. I feel silly taking a picture of my profile and then posting it. But maybe.
Names? We're still working on that. We've pretty much narrowed the list (which by the way, was my list which Phil promptly nixed most of) to three or so. I think we're going to wait until she's born to see if one "fits" her better than the others. Telling? Nope. We're waiting until she's born for that as well. First, since you already know it's a girl, then there's still some surprise as you wait to hear the name. And second, we're not sure we want to hear all the opinions about what people think about her name. If there's a cute little face attached to the name, you may not be so quick to say, "Ewww...why in the world did you pick that for a name?"
Never fear...our little list doesn't really have names that are what I consider to be, "out there." And looking through a baby name book...there are lots of names that are just "out there". Seriously...are there really little girls out there with names like Bathilda, Greekriana, Lefitray, Melibea, Peata, and Sedofa? Really??
Not much else is going on...just schlepping Phil back and forth to the airport for his trips. Our lease on the flat in London is up at the end of this month so as of July 1st, Phil will no longer be a resident of the UK and will be based back here at good ol' home with trips all through the summer. Planned out, he shouldn't be away more than 7-10 days at a time. Yippee! (Not that he's away...just at the length of the awayness.)
But if stuff does goes on...you'll see it here. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Because Wendy Asked Me To

My dear old friend, Wendy, included me on a list of Seven Things on her fabulous blog which I highly recommend. (www.partofmystory.blogspot.com) I tweaked it once I sat down and realized my mind was seriously blanking out. So...if it's okay with you, Schwendy...here goes.

Seven Things I Did Last Week When Visiting Mom and Dad in Ohio

1. ate mom's roast...Mmm...
2. played cards with mom (and then texted my sister with score updates thru-out the evening)
3. celebrated my dad's birthday with the fam and ate my dad's favorite cake...mom's Strawberry Torte Cream cake...oh my word.
4. went to some garage sales with mom
5. took some naps and generally lounged for a few days
6. me and mom met my oldest friend, Melissa and her mom for lunch at Panera
7. watched some hockey with dad

Such a good time with mom and dad. Saw my brother and his family as well when they came over for dad's birthday dinner. The older I get, the more I realize the gift God gave me when he put me in this family. Just love them!

I'm Still Alive and She's Kicking

I never thought I'd be one of those people. Someone who starts a blog, faithfully writes, starts to have months between posts, and then before you know it, it's been a year and a half since the last post. It's not that bad, but had to stop the downward slope. My fans (all three of you) have been clamoring for an update...so here goes.

She's kicking...that's right...we found out last week that we're having a little girl. So exciting!! She'll be the first girl on my side of the family and Grandma Peura has already sent 10 blankets/quilts that she's made. :) She'll be the warmest girl in the Northeast. We've ordered the nursery furniture, cleared out the bedroom that will become the nursery to get ready to paint, picked out the crib bedding, and are throwing around potential names. We're keeping the final name to ourselves until she's born, but for the lady who asked me this week if we're naming her Philipina...no, I can tell you right now that no, we're not.

Phil's still traveling much but getting home when he can. He was home last week when friends of ours from Australia came over to stay with us for the week. What a good time we had showing them the area... New York including a Broadway show (where I might add, that both Phil and I kept falling asleep in the middle of...sorry Phantom...he had jetlag and I'm pulling the pregnancy card), Philly, Lancaster, New Hope, a Phillies game (where I really felt the baby kicking or poking me. Phil said she was just using her finger to comment on how lousy the Phillies were playing the Mets that night...but no, not our sweet girl), eating a cheesteak, Rita's Water Ice, Tastycakes, pretzels, Chickies and Pete's crab fries. The whole experience. And the baby got her first gifts...a stuffed animal mascot of Sydney's rugby team and the tiniest little pair of Ugg boots that you've ever seen.

And just how much is Phil traveling? Just in the month of May he will head to Paris, then London, back home for a week, then Hong Kong, then Tokyo, then Singapore, back to Hong Kong, back to Paris, over to Tunisia, back to Paris, and then back home in early June. Whew!! Pretty soon his passport is going to feel like an encyclopedia with all the extra pages that have had to be added.

How have I been feeling? Actually...I can not complain! This has been a very easy pregnancy so far. I never got sick or felt like getting sick. So far...not much of anything the book says you may experience. Do I look pregnant? Hmm...depends on who you ask. I think I do...I can really only wear maternity jeans/pants now but am still in regular tee shirts. Most people think I don't. One of these days, I keep getting told (really...all the advice started weeks ago...whether wanted or not) one of these days I'm just going to pop out. I'm 20 weeks exactly today so I guess it should start happening soon.

That's it in a nutshell. I shall try and be more regular with my posts. It's just that my life at the moment is not that exciting. Example? Today's schedule...got up, ate a bowl of cereal, checked email, got a shower, finished cleaning out the closet, ate lunch, got the mail, looked at the grocery circulars, a little Facebook, sent out some emails, started to make a dessert for dinner out tomorrow but realized that I bought the wrong box of pudding, emptied the dishwasher, filled the dishwasher, went to the store to buy the right box of pudding, stopped at Peppi's to pick up a personal pizza for dinner, ate dinner, made the dessert for tomorrow night, watched a little Golden Girls reruns, updating the blog. See? Riveting. But I still promise to do better. My fans deserve nothing less.