10 Days Old

To celebrate Elizabeth Rose Stevens being 10 days old, we took her out of the house and brought her to the Carter's house for a photo shoot. She may not be able to express it, but I think she likes baby Sawyer already! Tysha did an amazing job capturing her fun newborn moments!

Elizabeth Rose Stevens Has Arrived!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!! Elizabeth Rose Stevens was born on Oct. 30 at 4:15 PM. She weighed in at 7lbs 15 ounces.

She is such a beautiful, healthy little girl and we are so happy that she finally made her debut!
Dave is a proud Daddy and has been taking good care of Mommy and baby since the birth. Here she is immediately after being born. The nurse is giving her her first bath! She is less than an hour old and you can even see in the picture how alert and happy she is! Everyone was surprised to see her opening and focusing her eyes so well.

Elizabeth and I had a great time together in the hospital. Lots of cuddling and recovering from what was a big ordeal for both of us!

The next day was Halloween and all three of us were feeling better and rested. So we celebrated the holiday in the hospital. Elizabeth dressed up as a little black kitty!

At the end of Halloween day, mom and baby were feeling good so we decided to head home. We dressed her in a warm fuzzy going home outfit to protect her from her first exposure to cold Seattle weather!

Halloween night Linda stayed the night with us and was a huge help! Then my mom arrived Sat. and will be here to support us until the 13th. What great moms!

We are so excited to have Elizabeth as the newest member of the family. She is such a sweet little gift. They always say that you don't realize how amazing parenthood is until you've done it, and so far what "they say" is right on. We are loving it!!!

Belly Shots

Well, here I am in the last week before my due date, anticipating the arrival of my little Elizabeth. Dave and I are both very anxious and ready for her to be born! Over the past two weeks I have had continuous prelabor contractions and even my doctor is surprised that she has not been born yet! Apparently strong contractions every 4 minutes for 1 min length over hour long periods does NOT mean for me that the baby is coming!

Despite our anticipation for her arrival, I am very happy that she did not come too early. So, until she's ready I will continue to prepare for her coming. 3 more days til D-Day!! However, I am not holding my breath that it will happen by that date!

In these last few weeks of pregnancy I have been more uncomfortable, my appearance has changed rapidly, and my appetite is continually fluctuating.

So, Dave has taken on some similar sympathy trials brought on by braces!! So now we can suffer together! He has definitely been uncomfortable with sore teeth, his appearance and smile was rapidly changed, and the poor guy's appetite fluctuates after each appt. when they tighten the bands.

If you take a close look at his teeth you will notice they are perfectly straight. He actually had braces in high school, stopped wearing his retainer, and since then his back teeth have moved into a non- functional, pain causing relationship. So, the only solution was a second round of braces! So when he gets them off in a year, his teeth will appear exactly the same. BUT he will be free of tooth pain and chronic problems!

I think he looks great with braces! He looks pretty excited about it though, huh?

Baby Showers!

This past week I had two baby showers- one with family and friends over the weekend and one during the week with my friends at work. I am so excited for Elizabeth to enter this world and it was such a great feeling to have so many people join me in this excitement. Its nice to have such good support from friends and fam at this special time.

The family drove all the way to Seattle to make it to the shower! It was fun having you!

Merritt, Carli, Rebekah, Jaime, and Jenny all put forth a great group effort to make the baby shower amazing. Tons of yummy food, games, and fun! Jenny let us all in to her beautiful Queen Anne home- all morning people who didnt know her were asking me who owned this gorgeous home. This is me opening my gifts in front of an audience- a kind of awkward experience I have to say. I get really nervous with all those eyes on me! Big thanks from Lizzy and I- such cute stuff! She's gonna love it all!

On Wednesday, we took some time off from working and had a baby shower at the dental office! Yes, I am still working. I have four days left and am looking forward to staying at home with Lizzy but I have to say it makes me sad to think I won't be seeing my dental office peeps anymore.
The baby shower was a lot of fun with cute baby shower games, good food, gifts, and fun. The beautiful cupcakes look like they come from a bakery but Sheryl, the office manager, actually made them from scratch! They taste as good as they look too.

We couldn't get Dr. Park to join in on the cutesie shower games but he showed up for the food :)

It was really sweet of my office friends to put that party together- I've been really lucky to have such great coworkers and they will be missed!

Tour of Elizabeth's Nursery

Allow me to take you on a tour of Elizabeth's nursery.

The matching, custom made, curtains; toy bag; bedding; bumper pad; and dust ruffle were made with love by my mom, AKA Grandma. It turned out more beautiful than I imagined- hooray!Here is Elizabeth's almost completed crib ensemble. Very pink and very cute! Notice there are two blankets inside of varying sizes. The one on top is tiny and travel sized, while the one below is great for her to lay out on at home. The only missing piece is the matching mobile that my mother is currently working on. Its a literal race against the clock for her right now. Will she be able to complete it before Lizzy decides she's coming into the world for good?

Jamie, my sister in law, recently helped me make these decorative letters to hang on the wall. She mostly made them while I watched....is she creative and crafty or what?
This gorgeous, (not to mention intricate and very likely super complicated to make), log cabin style pieced quilt was made for Elizabeth with love by Linda, AKA Grammy. Its hard to see in a picture but every little piece of this quilt was made with careful detail. From the tiny squares to the cherries shaped label on the back. I know Lizzy will love cuddling up in it.

Of all the furniture, I decided we were not going to scrimp on the rocking chair. I figure this is where Lizzie and I will soon be spending all our days and nights so it better be comfortable! Dave and I went to every furniture store in town, sat down on EVERY rocker/recliner and this one won the contest of being the absolute most comfy of them all!

Last of all, the pic on the right is the changing table. Notice the cute blanket draping over the top of it, made by Angie, one of Dave's dental school class mates.

Also, notice the adorable halloween outfits on the bottom shelf that are just waiting to be worn by Elizabeth. I'm pretty sure at this point that she will be a Halloween baby after all!

AND THIS CONCLUDES THE TOUR OF ELIZABETH'S NURSERY!!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO PUT SO MUCH WORK INTO ALL OF THESE ADORABLE ITEMS!!! Mom, Linda, Jamie, and even Dave who helped me set it all up!

Preterm Labor!!

This picture may lead you to believe that little Elizabeth has arrived, but look again and notice that there is no baby!! Last night Dave and I were at our 3rd birth class at Swedish Hospital and an hour into it, I started to have contractions every 5 minutes, then every 3 minutes with increasing intensity. So upon further confirmation from the birth instructor, we decided it would be a good idea to head upstairs to the birthing unit! Fortunately, my doctor was on call and already at the hospital to see another patient who was giving birth! They then hooked me up to some monitors that measured the baby's heart rate and the contraction strength. The nurse was very surprised and said that i was having full blown, strong labor contractions. The doctor and I decided that even though the baby would be fine, it would be best to wait a couple weeks before allowing her to enter the world. So she stuck me with a little Terbutaline and it instantly stopped the process.

So I waved farewell, for now, to my cozy hospital room and I have been doing well ever since! I figure it was a good trial run for the actual big day and it made me think of all the things I still need to get ready. I also got to see how awesome and supportive Dave would be during it all- he's a very good massage therapist.

Currently, I am not on bed rest and am working (easier,shorter shifts). However, if I have any more symptoms I will have to be banned to my bed....lets hope it doesnt come to that.

Childbirth Classes!

I think the baby dropped lower today! The picture above was taken just a couple days after the picture below and I feel like my shape is totally different. Its very slight in the pictures but I definitely notice a change in how things feel! I think the shift actually made me look smaller!

This week we started our 6 week childbirth classes! Dave and I headed over to Ballard Swedish Hospital for our first class and we were extremely impressed with the hospital. The first class was pretty basic, learning about anatomy, nutrition, etc. So, we snuck out midway through the class for a quick peak at the birthing center. These birthing rooms were not like any hospital room I have EVER seen. They were huge, clean suites with rocking chairs, couches, a bed for the spouse as well as the mother, and even refridgerators. It really got me excited for the big day!

Amusing side note: We met all the nurses in the birthing unit and they were all very friendly. One of them immediately approached us and asked us "Excuse me, but are you LDS?" When we told her we were, she said that she attends a ward in Puyallup and she just knew that we were LDS by the "spirit about us."
It really made me laugh because Dave and I will do that to people sometimes too. Its like people in the LDS church have radar to detect each other or something haha.