4 Weeks Old Today!

We can't believe we've had Tyndell for 4 weeks already!  It has flown by - I guess this is only the start of that feeling.  And to think that she wasn't even supposed to be born yet!  Wow - for someone that should still be floating around in a big belly - I'd say we've made some big accomplishments and experienced a lot this month:

1. Being born; was in the hospital NICU for 11 days

2. Came home; survived meet and greet with the puppies!  Karma and Zen have become very protective of their baby sister and like to "check in" on her when she's sleeping.  

3. Celebrated Christmas with the Tyndell family - even Uncle Brandon came to visit!

4. Have been on Skype numerous times with the Ahrens family!

5.  Gained about 1 1/2 lbs since being born!  We are now about 6 lbs 8 oz!  Newborn size clothes are starting to fit finally!

6.  Learned to bottle feed well and are still trying to figure out breastfeeding (making progress today though!)

7.  Have enjoyed all the cool toys - vibrating chair, car seat, stroller, sling, crib, comfy chair, pack and play, and the softness of many blankets!  I don't think Tyndell hates trying any new toy!

8.  Have visited the doctor twice already!

9.  Enjoyed tummy time, bath time every other day (okay - she didn't like it at first but I think she does now - it has to sooth diaper rash, right?), story time, and walks to the park 

10. Tyndell has been to church twice! Granted she didn't hear the sermon since it was during feeding time, but that's ok.  

11.  Tyndell has also been to Babies R Us once - she was adamant to buy more diapers!

Well - that's just a summary of the last few weeks - it's been awesome!  We appreciate everyone's concerns and prayers for us!  Thanks!

When at Home - Make Faces

So now that we are home - we are pretty focused on our three-hour schedule - sleep, poop, eat, pump, repeat.  But somehow in the midst of each cycle, I usually get to see all these faces from Tyndell (I already posted these on facebook but wanted to put here for those of you that aren't able to see them there).  She is definitely very expressionistic already!  

When in NICU - What to Do?

So - when Tyndell was in the NICU for 11 days and we were trying to keep ourselves busy in anticipation of her homecoming, we got a few things done!  As horrible as it was that we couldn't bring her home right away, we hadn't quite finished all the little projects we wanted to do before she was born, so we took full advantage of the time.  These are things that we did to pass the time (mostly it was my parents that did the preparation! Thanks to them!):  my dad made a new and improved duck head for our mailbox, we cleaned out the garage and put things we didn't need on Craig's List, worked on my milk expression techniques, and got caught up on thank you notes and cleaning up Tyndell's room.  

Baby Modeling...

The other day, my friend, Karyn, who did my cool preggo photos last month, came over to the house and took a few shots of sweet little Tyndell - check out her blog post with the photos (see link at the right).  These turned out so beautiful!!  Thanks so much for capturing our little baby girl so early on, Karyn!    You rock!

Tyndell's Homecoming

We took Tyndell home yesterday (Dec. 21st) 11 days after being in the NICU!! We thought it might be sometime this week before Christmas, but were totally surprised when the nurses called us in the morning before we were about to go for a visit and said - "just bring the carseat - she's coming home!" Over the weekend, the doctors said it was ok to take out her feeding tube and try to do bottle feeds everytime to see if she could do it or if she'd get too tired. Well - she did so well and got back to her delivery weight, so that made for the decision. We got home about lunchtime yesterday and have just been focused on keeping Tyndell on her 3 hour feeding schedule. We are so excited to have her home with us finally. The hospital visit schedule was honestly very tiring and it's nice to not have to go back and forth anymore. Plus - we get to spend this whole Christmas week together and focus on our new family! We are so thankful!

Special shout out to Aunt Judy for the super cute duck outfit - we always wanted to use it for Tyndell's homecoming outfit - who can resist duck feet?

Introducing Tyndell Eve Ahrens!

Tyndell Eve was surprisingly born on Wednesday, December 10th at 8:42 am - 5 weeks early! She was 4 lbs, 15 oz and 18 inches long!

And the [insert "descriptive"] labor story starts with Tuesday being just a regular day - work, home, dinner - then right when I sat down at dinner, I thought..."hmmm...I think I just peed myself." So I went home to change and come back (we've been hanging out across the street from us a lot lately b/c my parents have been renting a house there! Thank goodness for their help!) to eat. Through dinner, things just didn't seem quite right (or dry for that matter) and when Jeff and I went back home, he said, "Well - I'm super tired and am going to turn in early." And I replied, "Um - I don't think I actually did pee myself....it keeps coming..." So we called the midwife and they confirmed that yes I just might have had my water break so we needed to go to the hospital to be sure. We arrived there about 9pm to find that it was true so I had to be induced right away to prevent infection even though I was so early. So after a couple of hours of preparation/cervix softening medication (whoa - can I write that here? Sorry if this is too descriptive...), I was already having contractions even though they thought it would take up to 12 hours initially. So - they began to give me pitocin at about 2:30am and I had contractions through the night. At about 7:30am - the contractions became really really intense and about 45 minutes later, my midwife confirmed that I had reached 10cm and that it wouldn't be long. I pushed from about 8:15am onward and our sweet girl came out 30 minutes later.

So - we were in the Boca Community Hospital from Tuesday night to Friday afternoon, but Tyndell cannot come home yet since she's a premie. We go back to the hospital's NICU about 3 times a day for the feedings, to hold her, and drop off what I've pumped that day (whoa?! can I write that too?!), but haven't heard yet when she will be home with us. Essentially - she has to stay under the UV light for a few days, be able to keep the feedings down and not need to supplement with an IV anymore, gain weight, and learn to either bottle or breastfeed well before coming home. She's doing better every time we visit her but it seems like it's just going to be a slow process for her to get out of NICU.

Other than hospital visits and finishing up the things we thought we'd still have a month to do before Tyndell being born, we've just been enjoying some family time and trying to get lots of rest. My parents are here til the end of March and Jeff's parents came down this weekend for a quick visit too so we're all together hanging out right now. Obviously - I'll try to do updates when we can, but it just depends on when Tyndell gets out of NICU.

Thanks for everyone's support, thoughts, texts, facebook posts, and prayers - they've been super encouraging during this time!

Thanksgiving Day 2008

Here are a couple of cute pics from Thanksgiving Day - we went over to our friends, Aaron and Shelley's, for an incredible feast! I had some other photos but my phone deleted them without my knowing - oh well! Anyway - these were some fun ones of me with Jeff and Shelley that I did manage to find again and wanted to share. Thanks again for a great day Getchells!

Belly Modeling...

My ultra cool girlfriend, Karyn, is a photographer that just happens to specialize in fun pregnancy photos, so naturally - we did a photoshoot to capture my roundness for all eternity. She put up some of the shots from our session on her blog so check it out if you like artsy, different prego photos. I think these will be fun to show our daughter when she's older. All my girlfriends with daughters say they love belly pictures when they get to be around 2 years old.

Just click on the link at the right for "Karyn's Photo Blog" and choose the blog option. If you have time, check out her regular website too because her family and wedding pictures are also gorgeous. Thanks so much, Karyn! You rock!

Week 31 Ultrasounds

So - I recently decided to change from my OB-GYN to a midwife (I won't get into the story) and during the transition appointments this week, I've had a couple of ultrasounds that I thought I would share. Usually I can't get them to scan very well but these came out ok - it's a profile (she looks like she's punching herself in the face!) and then a face view (although fuzzy if you stand away from it you can see her little eyes, nose, and mouth pretty well). These might be the last ultrasounds we have since we're only about 8 weeks away! She's already hanging out head down most of the time so that's a good sign. I am still feeling a few jabs here and there - Jeff claims she's doing the chicken dance and I'm feeling the elbows poke out.

PPE for the Belly!

One of our electrical engineers, Oneida, was at the construction site yesterday and decided to sacrifice her own safety for that of my belly! Thanks for your concern, Oneida! Good thing all the fluid in there provides for my personal protection equipment (PPE) requirement while at work...haha.

30 Weeks Today!

So this is somewhat what the little one looks like these days...all cramped inside and I can verify that her movements confirm the lack of space! I definitely feel a punch here and there that seems to say, "hello? Can you please move out of my way?!" I can't believe we're only 10 weeks away from our due date! This whole process has gone by so fast and I do feel incredibly lucky to have felt pretty decent most of the time. I will admit, though, that I'm starting to not sleep well, there are more frequent runs to the restroom again, and some swelling has begun in the ankles if I sit or stand too much (or maybe I need to finally give up wearing my pretty red platforms?). Anyway - she'll be coming very soon!!! Get excited to meet her! I know we are!

Backtracking in Austin

About a month ago, Jeff and I went to Austin, TX for the weekend to celebrate Danny and Diane getting married! It was a great time to catch up with some Michigan Tech friends, such as Danny, and we also caught up with Patrick and his lovely wife, Polina. We had a great time walking around Austin during the day and then attending the wedding at night. It was probaby one of the most unique weddings we've ever gone to - and it was done up right in the Southwest style - complete with spicy food, a marachi band (think Besame Mucho as the couple goes down the aisle in a cute backyard setting), and margaritas (and though I look like I've had a few in that picture - I guarantee I've been good and just had sleepy eyes!). Anyway - I hadn't posted these yet and wanted to share the fun weekend. Congrats again Danny & Diane!

Bumping Bumps

Here is a fun picture of me and my precious friend, Shelley, who is a few months prego behind me! I'm about 28 weeks right now and this is about a week old. The fun thing is that we are both having girls so they can be BFF!

Better Nursery Views

Here are some better pictures of the nursery....now you can get a better idea of the colors and see all our leaf/tree accents. Look at how her closet is already filling up and she hasn't even arrived yet! The first picture shows our cool bamboo floor from the puppies view!

Presenting a Peek at the Nursery

Bearing all technical difficulties aside (our internet has been down again and I took these with my new iPhone (side note - YESS!) and it doesn't have a flash, so I'm sneakily posting this over my lunch break) - these are a couple of views of the future Miss Ahrens' room! The furniture came in this past week and we picked up everything on Saturday with the awesome help of Glenn and his super van! So needless to say - we were way too excited to put it all together and get it in the room so some of you could have a peek. The colors don't come out too well in these pics and we still have to put these cool tree wall decals up, but you get the picture. Essentially - everything centers around the rug - trees/leaves theme, tangerine-ish/yellow walls, and green accents and just a little pink mixed in for good measure. We are super stoked about the green comfy chair too - it both glides and reclines and can make anyone feel at home. And one last shout out to Mom A. who made the pretty white blanket that is shown with the crib - I think "she who shall remain unnamed til born" will love it!

Anyway - hopefully - we will work beyond the Comcast drama again and I can post another belly pic soon - yep - we're growing like crazy.

Love for the Roseate Spoonbill

One of my co-workers looked out the window today and down below our office, in the canal in the middle of West Palm Beach, was a Roseate Spoonbill! I was so excited! I have never seen one of these protected birds outside of zoos and from what I hear, they are very rare in this area of Florida - usually seen in Tampa or further south in the Everglades. It was amazing to see this one just hanging out on its own so I had to find a cool photo of one online to share my excitement. Jeff and I have a photograph of one in our family room that we found at a local festival but it was so interesting to see this beauty in the urban wild! It is a great lesson that nature can find a way to survive.

Another Nerdy Update

Since I had to work all weekend and this is what I am thinking about - I thought I'd give you all a taste of what I get to stare at all day when I'm at the construction site that I refer to - isn't it lovely? I'm sure all of you are enthralled with biosolids processing interest! We also had a field staff photo taken this past week so you can see some of the peeps that I work with at the site - Brandon, Tessie, me, Dave (the boss man), John, and Darren. Dave likes to joke that I had to get pregnant to get out of working on this project...haha...could be true! I'll never tell!

And Family Prepares for a Girl!

Mom and Dad A. came down to visit us this past weekend and are staying for the whole coming week! We are all getting prepared for a little girl! Hooray! It's nice knowing the gender so we can get things prepared, such as the nursery. Jeff and I found out at 16 weeks surprisingly and had it reconfirmed this past week - now we are on week 22. It's amazing how fast the pregnancy has been going - and amazing how fast this little one grows. The other amazing thing is how random people feel free to say things like, "Wow - you are huge already! How are you going to make it to January?!" hmmm....awesome comments. So - as you can see - our house is a construction zone right now. Jeff and his dad have been working to flatten the ceiling away from its former popcorn-ness. And this week we will paint (a sweet tangerine color) and put in bamboo floors and crown moulding! They've also been re-wiring the room and hallway b/c for some reason, in 1978, it was cool to jimmy wire fans. How safe for my future daughter! ? Mom's job is to keep the pups out of the way of all the tools haha. Anyway - I will try to do some room updates as things progress - we are going for a "tree" theme - you will come to find out.

As a side comment - I just want to say that we've been fighting our internet/cable provider for the past 5 weeks and haven't had internet for a while so blogging and facebooking have been a bit null for us. Hopefully - the fix that happened yesterday won't hinder us any more. We are so addicted to the internet - you take it for granted having all this information available to you - and then poof! it's not working and drives you insane.

As another side comment - it's amazing that Jeff's parents are here with us - we've been praying his dad through several hospital visits and close calls the past month, but as you can see, he looks great and wanted to come down to help us out. We couldn't be more blessed! Thanks to everyone who has been thinking of him!