Jonah's Nursery

Jonah Bear!!

Walking into his nursery

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The beautiful curtains and ties my mom made!

Diaper stacker also made by mom.

Jonah's special crib that Mimi and Papa bought him. Thanks so much I love it!

And the beautiful changing table is from Great-grandma and Great-grandpa Soriente. Thank you I love it so much!!!!!

My friend Lisa made these pom poms for a  baby shower she threw for us and I had great plans to use them in the nursery.

My mother the seamstress made these pillows.

For Jonah's name I used the left over fabric to pull it all together and glued it onto wood letters.

I got this great decal for the wall from Trendypeas.com.  The pictures on the wall above the changing table are from there as well.

Some of the vibrant colors of fabric I picked out for his bedding.

And the quilt my mom made. I think we need to go into business and sell this stuff on esty!

The bumper pad my mom also made!

I also used leftover fabric to cover his lamp.

I am finally getting around to posting a new blog.  Our family has been world travelers for the past three weeks.  We spent two wonderful weeks with family in Montana and then headed off to Chicago for five days for the ASA conference where Tim presented a poster for UNC.  I am going to post pictures of Jonah's nursery since the little guy is now 9 weeks old and I am finally getting around to doing it!  I will then get some new pictures up of him since he has changed so much!

Jonah's Birth Story

I decided I had better get this written and posted before I forgot everything.  Everyone told me that I will soon forget the details and everything about your labor once your sweet precious bundle arrives, so here it goes, I'm pretty sure I still remember everything just fine!
       So we were invited to our dear friends, the Joseph's, house on Sunday the 7th.  Tim had worked a moon lighting shift that day, and I had stayed home from church.  He was tired, and I was just not feeling myself.  I had been kind of stir crazy all day, but had no desire to go anywhere or get out of the house.  So we both were going to stay in Sunday night, but then convinced each other it would be fun, plus we love the Josephs, Redings and of course Dr. Cotton and we thought it would be nice for a night of fun with our friends!  We had a big meal of burgers, Texas Ribs, dips, drinks, and yummy dessert.  It was a fun evening had by all.  I was feeling fine, but still just not feeling myself.  Everyone had been telling me about Braxton Hicks, but I really was not completely sure what they were.  After looking them up when we got home I figured I was having them all day.  My stomach was seriously constantly hard, but not hurting, I just thought it was weird, but didn't think anything of it.
       That night we both went to bed, and by midnight I was up and awake.  I still was just not feeling right.  My stomach was still hard, I was uncomfortable, I had reflux for the first time, but no contractions or signs of labor I thought...
       At 3:15 am I woke up to my underwear being soaked.  I thought oh boy I just lost my mucous plug.  Now for those of you who have or have not gone through labor I am telling the details because I think every bit is important.  I immediately jumped out of bed and for the first time thought "I think I am in labor!"  I calmly changed my underwear and went back to bed.  I didn't want to wake Tim up until I was good and sure this was the real thing.  Then about 5 minutes later I soaked another pair of underwear.  Ok now I was a bit freaked out, this was it.  I woke Tim up whom had slept through everything and told him, I think this is it.  He rolled back over and started to drift off to sleep when he realized what I had just told him and then flew out of bed to begin packing his overnight bag!!  We got everything together and headed downstairs where Tim decided he had better start timing my contractions.  They were about 5-7 minutes apart and were starting to hurt.  I was sure sweet Jonah was on his way, but was still afraid with this being my first pregnancy that if I got to the hospital they would check me and tell me I was not even dilated and send me home.  So I started to look up the phone number to call the on call doc when I stood up to get my phone my water broke!!!!  I rushed to the bathroom, had Tim go upstairs and get me some new clothes so we could get to the hospital.
       We made it to UNC Women's Hospital in record time.  I think Tim might had ran a couple of red lights and was going 65 in a 45.  He wanted to get me there.  I was chuckling to myself in between contractions laughing at the speed demon!
       We got to the hospital and Tim dropped me off so he could go park the car.  I walked into the huge hospital which was empty at this time since it was 4:15 in the morning.  Even the poor residents had not arrived to hospital to begin their long day of work.  I walked past the security desk which had 3 security guards sitting around laughing.  I calmly asked them how to check into the Labor and Delivery floor.  They promptly/nervously instructed me to go right up to the 4th floor, they would take care of me right away there.  I have never seen three grown men more nervous then they were looking at the big pregnant lady asking for L&D!
       I think I called Tim 15 times just to see where he was. The poor guy had to walk a long ways from the parking deck with my overnight bag (which was very full and heavy), the camera, his big bag for work, and I am sure a few other things.  He met me downstairs and just as we were getting on the elevator, more fluid came gushing out.  So now my shorts were soaked.  We got to the 4th floor and got all checked in, and as we were checking in nurses were walking past me with a sweet smile on their face saying "oh look at the poor girl, her water broke, we need to get her to a room."
      So off we went to our room, we were staying.  It was now about 4:30 and we were getting settled in.  The nurse came in and got all my information, started my IV, and now we wait.  We called our parents to let them know the status and finally had a moment to sit and take it all in.
      They checked me at about 5am and said I was only 1 cm dilated, but by this point my contractions were 3 minutes apart and were hurting.  They were not unbearable, but uncomfortable.   Now since Tim is an anesthesia resident they got things rolling pretty quickly for the epidural.  Before I knew it the anesthesiologist was rolling the cart in to get my epidural started.  Now can you believe me only being 1 cm dilated they would do an epidural, well they did.  Dr. Roundtree did a great job and I was now pain free.  After a few hours the epidural started making me itch so the gave me nubaine, a drug to help with itching, and that helped, but I started to get nauseous.  So I called the nurse and she gave me phenergan.  After the phenergan I slept for like 3 hours.  I know crazy huh, laboring but sleeping through every contraction.  About 10 am they checked me and I had not really progressed much so they started pitocin.  Things started to move along, but still kinda slow.  Laura, Tim, and friends that stopped by here and there were all chatting waiting for the time to come.  They finally checked me somewhere around 3ish and I was 9 cm dilated!  Finally some progress.  I started pushing around 4:50 and by 6:21 pm Jonah Gabriel Erpelding was born.  The labor all day was fine and I felt great with the epidural, but by the time I started pushing it had started to wear off, and boy was the pushing painful.  But I had two great coaches, Tim and Laura, and a handful of wonderful nurses.  So the overall process was a good one.  I feel like my delivery went well and mommyhood is wonderful.  Well time to get Jonah up from his nap.  I will be posting more pictures soon.

Jonah Gabriel Erpelding

The night I went into Labor!!  The Josephs invited us over for dinner and we had delicious ribs, burgers, avocado, dip,and more.  I was contracting all night, but was not feeling them, my stomach was just constantly hard.  But that night at 3 am little Jonah said it was time!! 

A very happy and excited daddy.

I had to show you the trauma Jonah went through to join us.  He was pretty tired and had a good size cone head.  But then every hour he just kept getting cuter and cuter!

Our precious bundle of joy!

Our first family photo as a family of three.

Jonah's ride home from the hospital.  I was a nervous wreck.  I had Jonah 4 days early so my mom had not yet come.  She was getting in this night at 6:30 and I think I cried a dozen times before I was discharged.  I was so nervous about taking him home and was just needing some encouragement.  Tim was great and was by my side the whole time, I do think he was a little nervous because I was crying so much, I was just tired, emotional, and really ready to get home.

Our first bath

LOVE!!!

Papa and Muzzie

My perfect little boy!

Well this post is long over due, but with being a new mommy, sleep deprivation, family visits, and adjusting to life I'm finally sitting down to post of pictures of the most precious baby on earth!  Jonah Gabriel Erpelding was born August 8th, 2011 at 6:21 pm weighing in at 7lbs and 7 oz, 19.25 in long.  We are thrilled to be a family of three and being a stay-at-home mom is everything I thought it would be, perfect!!!  I love this little boy more than anything else and am so blessed he is healthy and doing great.  So here are some pictures.  These are pictures from the day he was born to about 2 weeks old.  I will post more of him and family and show you some of the shots we got for his birth announcements.   

A Few of my Favorite Things

Time is drawing near for the arrival of our little boy!  I can't believe it, we only have 3.5 weeks to go.  We have narrowed the name down to I think three names at this time and we will make the final decision when he arrives!  I was looking back over the past 8 months and wanted to blog about a few of my favorite things during pregnancy.

1.  Tomato Soup-  I craved tomato soup like it was my last chance to have it.  Tomato soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I remember one of my co-workers paying close attention to what I was eating one morning.  She questioned why I was eating it I quickly informed her it was because we had no food in the house!  I'm not really sure she believed me!
2.  A reason to decorate-  So I have found a new love for decorating.  Since we moved into our house two years ago, four rooms have been repainted and re-decorated.  I have enjoyed decorating our sweet little boy's room.  I picked out all the fabric and my mom made all the bedding and curtains.  I keep telling you pictures will be posted soon. They will!  We just ordered our glider rocker and it should be here the end of the week!  Then I will finally put some pictures up.
3. Straws- Since being pregnant, I have craved fluids, any kind of drink, but with a straw.  My main squeeze is an Arnold Palmer, but to make it even more exciting I always drink it with a straw. Tim jokes with me because you can find at any random time of day somewhere scattered throughout the house an average of 5 glasses all with straws in them.  I feel that I drink so much more and enjoy drinking if I have a straw, crazy but true!
4. Pillows-  I didn't need that many pillows to sleep with until I hit the third trimester.  Now I have four of them and I need every single one.  I snuggle them all around me and rotate from side-to-side throughout the night.  I think Tim might enjoy sleeping in the guestroom more, just because I take up so much space in bed with all my needed pillows, he is a trooper!
5. My Fan- I have to have my fan to sleep! Tim and slept with a fan before for the noise, but it has nothing to do with the noise now.  I need the fan to stay cool.  It is on high, blaring at all times of the day.  It's summer time in North Carolina and I am 8 months pregnant, enough said!
6. Organizing-  I was a little OCD before the pregnancy, but since little one is on the way, wow I am in crazy clean mode.  I have organized and re-organized the guest closet, organized and re-organized his closet, and organized and re-organized every other closet.  I just love to throw away, combine, and compact anything and everything I can.  Writing about this makes me want to go see what else I might be able to organize tonight!  So if you come and visit, everything will be in it's place!
7. Baby Balm- I got a great gift  from my dear cousin Sonneri.  It's called Burt's Bees Belly Balm. I have been using it since the day I was sure I had a" belly bump" and was convinced I was starting to show:) But it is great and keeps my belly so smooth. And I am convinced, that after using it religiously, because of that exact product, I don't have any stretch marks!  My belly is soft and round as can be!
8. Iced Coffee- So I did really good the first two trimesters.  I was one of those that said I would not have any caffeine at all while pregnant.  That went out the door as I approached the hot, sticky summer months of the south.  I found a new love for iced coffee!  I think the majority of my spending money these last few months have gone to Dunkin Donuts!  Unfortunately Dunkin is right on my way to work, literally on the way!  So by passing that sweet sign and smell of coffee every morning drew me in.  Now I don't stop every morning, but I do treat myself often!

So those are a few of my favorite things.  So far pregnancy number one has gone well and I am on my way to having this little guy sooner then later!

Baby Shower!!

So I finally sat down at the computer and updated my blog.  Yes, I know it has been since April, sad. But with working full time, summer finally here, and being 8 months pregnant it does not leave much time for blogging.  But in six weeks baby boy will be here and maybe I will have more time???  Anyway here are some pictures from the baby shower my sister Laura and dear friend Katie threw me!

So one of the games for the baby shower was to remember all 10 items hanging on this clothes line.  When everyone sat down before opening presents my sister handed out cards to write down the items. It was fun to see who was observant and who was not.  Some people got almost all of them and some people did not even know there was a clothes line with sweet little boy things hanging!!

Here is the cake.  This cake is a duplicate of what the baby invitations looked like.  Very cute idea Lar!

And over near the drinks were all these different blue candies. They were party favors for all the guests.

The spread.  Very good!

So we were not really sure at the beginning of the pregnancy if we were going to find out the sex.  I had in my mind what I wanted for the nursery and went to work right away finding fabrics and paint colors I thought would be a good for either a boy or a girl.  After looking around and having a blast planning I found these "Amy Butler" fabrics in the above picture.  I fell in love with the fabric and instantly knew what I wanted to do with the nursery.  And so my mom being the most excellent seamstress that she is made the quilt, diaper stacker, bumper, and curtains.  Thanks mom, I love it.  Nursery pictures coming soon!

Thanks Laura and Katie for a perfect shower!

And it was so special to have my mom there to be a part of it!

So fun!

Love my friends!

Hannah Boo testing out the frosting!   I think it was a go!

 

Our 18 week ultrasound

And here are those pictures I promised.  Our tech told us that he was snug up again the placenta as you  can see in the first picture.  As she went on with the scan he started moving around a lot and waking up.  So this last picture is him closer up a little farther away from the placenta.  He was ready for a nap after the wonderful show he put on for us.  Here is sweet Baby Boy Erpelding!

It's A BOY!!!!

We had our ultrasound on Tuesday which confirmed we are having a precious little boy.  I can't even explain the feeling of joy and happiness when you see your baby up on the monitor and smile and think that God created that special baby boy.  Tim held my hand as the ultrasound tech moved the machine across my belly.  She explained everything she was looking at, reassured us that everything looked normal, and walked us through every picture and body part.  I smiled at Tim as we both guessed what the sex was.  It was very obvious and I was proud of myself that I could see it!  I could see a twinkle in his eye when yes the tech did confirm that indeed it was a boy.  There was a part of me that was so overwhelmed with joy that my sweet, hard working, loving husband was getting his first boy.  I'm still in awe and amazement that we created that little boy together and will continue to be, and look forward to the day when we get to hold that baby in our arms.  We have a disc with the pictures of the baby and I will load pictures tonight when I get home from work.  I just wanted to get the news out that, yes it is a baby boy!!! 

The Baby To Be

With the news of Baby E to be arriving August 12th, my blog has suffered tremendously.  I know I have said before that I am going to get better about blogging.  I keep promising to do better, but as you can see I have failed miserably, sad but true! But on a better note, WHO CARES!  We are going to have a baby!!  I have been wanting to blog about the baby and now is the time to start.
   Tim and I found out December 8th that we were going to be parents.  Wow what a happy day that was!!!  But lets go back a few days/weeks to share the full story.
    We started talking about starting a family late summer of last year.  We were back and forth as to if we were ready, were we financially stable, was it time?  We had had two wonderful years of marriage together and were all settled into life in North Carolina, but was it time?  With an agreement of starting to try in October it was decided.  Tim and I were going for it.  So that was that, October it was.
   We had the joy of going to Tim's cousins wedding the first weekend in November.  Meghan and Daniel were getting married November 6th so we took a long four day weekend to head down to Charleston and be a part of the big day.  All was well, good time with family, good food and drinks, and a beautiful wedding, but I was two days late... Really could this be it?  I told Tim and we both got so excited but then so nervous, what if I really was pregnant.  With our hopes up and spirits high I got my period two days late.  Bummer, this was not it.  But oh well we only tried once.  Lets wait for the next month.
  We decided to go to Western North Carolina with our friends Will and Emily, to Will's family cabin.  We packed our bags Friday morning (December 3rd) and headed out about 3:00 that afternoon for the long, fun, five hour drive.  Will and Emily provided us with walkie talkies which made the trip so much fun.  We are all in medicine, Will and Tim and doctors, and Emily and I the nurses, so we talked about funny patient stories, co-workers, close calls, and more.  We arrived at the cabin that evening in time to get a nice warm fire started and our bags unpacked.  The weekend was a fun one with hikes during the days, and trip to the Biltmore for their Christmas light display, and lots of games with hot chocolate by the fire.  Then it was back to work Monday morning.
  I woke up Monday morning telling my self to calm down.  Once again I was late, but this time I was four days late.  Telling myself not to get worked up, this just happened last month.  So I went about my business trying to ignore, but still thinking about it at all times.
   Tuesday morning rolls around and I'm five days late.  OK this is a big deal.  So that night after work I headed to Target, picked up some toilet paper, Christmas candy, and a pregnancy test.  I was going to take it.  Tim was late call, so he would not be getting home until 8:00 that night.   I headed up to my bathroom, peed on the stick, and immediately it was positive.  I calmly put the stick on the counter and then got in shower thinking the stick was not working, nope this is really not it.   Thirty minutes later I got out of the shower and the stick was bright blue with a large positive sign, it was really positive.  Now I needed a clever way to tell Tim we were expecting.  I finally came up with an idea to wrap the pregnancy stick up as a gift and give it to him that night.  So when he got home I told him I had gotten an early Christmas present for him that I wanted him to open it that night.  I gave him the pretty wrapped present with a huge smile on my face.  He was tired and not really into the whole gift thing at the moment so when he opened it he looked at me was was like "holy crap" and thew the present across the room.  We then laughed about the reaction and then I cried because he was so happy.  And that's how it all happened, and Baby E came to be...