Pro Newborn Pics!

We got a few of her pictures back!! Britney is an AMAZING photographer!

Aaaaand we're back!

Ok, first of all I know the blog looks terrible but I wanted to get a post up and quit trying to fix it :)

Well as everyone knows, little Azalea is here and is going to be one month old on Wednesday! Time FLIES! Jordan heads back to work tomorrow (nooo!) and it'll be just me and Azzie during the days until I go back to work on 12/6 (but I'm in denial about that for now).

Azzie was 9lbs 10oz at her last doc appt and 23 inches long! She's a little piglet and is such a happy little girl- yes we know how lucky we are! Most of the time I don't even realize when she wakes up at night for a while because she doesn't cry, she just lays in her crib looking around and making little happy noises until I wake up and feed her. We've taken a lot of little trips to see family over the last month and a few little trips to the prairie preserve and the forest preserve in Geneva to really take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather, so here is a giant photo montage of the last month :)

A couple of photos right after she was born:

The doggies love her, the pug is her constant protector:

Trip to Ithaca and Uncle Johns Cider Mill:

Uncle Jon holding her, she just stared at him the whole time:

Azzie and her Great Grandma:
A day trip to the forest preserve in Geneva:

Grandpa Rod holding Azzie:
And Grandma JoAnne!
Grandpa Rod corrupting her already.....

2nd cousin Hannah holding her:
Leighanna, Linda, and Jacob Bongard holding her


Funny face :)

Fast asleep in her Moby wrap:

And some more funny:

We will have pro newborn pics up soon, our lovely friends Britney and Jarrod took some when we went to Rockford to visit last week. I can't wait to see them because I know they will look amazing!

The big 3-0

Sunday marked the start of my 30th week of pregnancy....

Ohhhh my gosh. Scary!

Time is flying by now and I'm starting to get into panic mode trying to get everything figured out and ready for little Azzies arrival. The nursery accent wall was painted last week, so we were finally able to start moving things in there and placing them, but there is still a LOT to do! Last weekend Jordan and our friend Jarrod worked on screenprinting the Lorax characters- which turned out fabulously! I cannot wait to get everything done, it's going to look just awesome!

Here's a peek at the star of the room, Mr. Lorax himself!

Last week I had my last monthly appointment and now I'm on to bi-weekly appointments with my midwife. Everything went great last week, my blood pressure looked good, I found out my blood glucose levels that they took at last appointment and they were great, and Azzies heart rate was nice and strong in the upper 130s. The midwife felt her position and to my relief, she is head down- I hope she stays that way!

Her movements have just gotten so crazy,I feel her wiggling around all day, but when she's really active (mid morning and in the evenings usually), I can see her knees poking out of my stomach as she stretches out and excercises! I always thought that this kind of movement would scare the crap out of me, but now that I'm so used to her being there, it's just funny :)

And finally, 30 weeks, 2 days:

24 Weeks!

I realized today that it's been way too long since I updated this!! Azzie turned 24 weeks yesterday! She's getting quite big and strong- Jordan can even feel her kicks now! These are the pics I've taken since I've last updated:

The ribbon is a travelling ribbon that the girls in my online Due Date Club (everyone is due in Sept/Oct) are doing, we send it to one person at a time and take a picture with it. This little ribbon is going around the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia! I'm jealous!

We went camping over Memorial day weekend and I was suprisingly comfortable- the air mattress was a life saver- even with 2 fussy little dogs :) The boys went swimming and I went floating on my little raft. It was quite relaxing.

Here's Bosco in the camping chair he stole when nobody was looking and other camping pics:

Overall, I've been feeling great! I'm soooo glad it's finally summer and I can go float in the pool in my spare time. We are heading up to Minnesota this weekend to go visit my extended family for my Cousins graduation party- I haven't been up there in about 9 years so it's about time! I'm very excited to see everyone again. The 8 hour drive will be less than awesome, but oh well :)

I promise to update sooner next time!

Alecia

Azzies Nursery

This weekend we made the obligatory pre-parenthood trip to Ikea for the Nursery. We of course promised ourselves we wouldn't buy anything quite yet (of course we did), but were just planning. We are planning on doing a Lorax (Dr. Suess) themed nursery. It has always been my favorite Suess book and I think it's one of the most important lessons for a child to learn.

Luckily we have all sorts of crafty people that are able to help us with this project. My Father is making the toy box, which will look like the well in the book. Also, our friends Jared and Brittany do screen printing and are able to help us get the characters printed for the room. We found an amazing deal on a grass green shag rug, and had to scoop it up right then. Everything else we took pictures of to put together a mock up of how we want the nursery to look. Jordan is quite skilled with photoshop and put this together last night.

The dresser and changing area will be on the opposite wall. We've got our work cut out for us, but we can't wait to make it happen!

Our Little Azalea....

Is a WILD WOMAN already! She would not stop moving and kicking when the tech was trying to measure everything, but as soon as we go to look for the boy or girl parts- BAM she falls asleep with her legs crossed. We're in for a handful :)

BUT after me moving around a bit, she finally woke up, and we got this lovely shot that confirmed what I had suspected for a while now:

Her full name is Azalea ( a-ZAYL-yah) Loriann (after my mother) Alton. We will call her Azzie for short. If you're not familiar, Azalea is a flower:

...And there is also an adorable Louis Armstrong song about a girl named Azalea (has a long intro but stick with it- it's so cute, Jordan has already determined it to be the father-daughter dance song at her wedding :) ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLt18wjcfkI

She's gotten SO BIG since we saw her last 2 months ago, you can really see her facial features now, and of course her awesome dance moves. She's going to be a dancer like her mama was, she's already practicing :) )

Most importantly, everything looked perfect. We're so grateful to have made it this far with no problems! Jordan keeps telling me not to wish the summer away but it's hard when A) I will be a whale this summer and B) We will get to meet Azzie in the Fall!

Baby and The Beasts

This weekend we decided to start getting the dogs used to the idea of a baby being in the house. We've been doing some research on dog training in preparation for a new baby and the common theme is to get a baby doll and get the dogs used to it being in the infant seats and with us holding it.

They are good boys, we are not worried about them eating the baby, it's more a problem with them being TOO excited about the little one and either licking its face off or getting jealous of us holding it instead of them. Oatie is used to being held like a baby on the couch- it's how he gets his belly rubs in:

Bosco is still very much the baby of the family and cries/talks to us/whacks us with his paw when his brother is getting attention instead of him, so we need to make sure he's used to us holding a baby so that he doesn't whack baby when he gets jealous.

So far, they are both doing rather well! They are curious of this weirdly animated and slightly creepy thing in the tiny seat, but they haven't tried to play tug with it, so that's encouraging :)

In other news- Our gender ultrasound is on Thursday! We can't wait!