Beatrice Rae DeMarr

Finally! :) We finally had the baby, and I am finally blogging about it! I've just been hanging out and taking it easy, not doing much. I know everyone is anxious for more pictures, and I have taken tons!! Now it's just deciding which ones to post... Here's a small sampling of Beatrice's first week :)





We've been home a week and a day now, and are finally starting to get into the groove of feeding/sleeping schedules... Everyone is adjusting very well. Amazingly Beatrice is only waking up once or twice a night! Maria is really enjoying helping out with Duncan, and she's doing a great job - he's enjoying it too. And they are both quite sweet on the baby :) Duncan is thrilled with her little piggies and will come up saying "mmmm," which means he wants to give the baby a kiss :) it's too cute.

Well, she really took her time getting here - She was 3 days overdue. I had a Dr's apt that day, and she stripped my membranes for the 3rd time and said that she wouldn't let me go more than a week overdue... I had a few contractions after the dr's apt, but they felt like the Braxton Hicks ones still... when I went to sleep that night I was having contractions, but I wasn't convinced they were the real thing... they were waking me up for quite a while, but I thought that I better wait until they were pretty painful.... so around 4am I had a pretty painful one that woke me up, I thought I'd better start timing them - they were 5 mins apart, so I thought I would hurry up and take a shower, which then they were coming about every 3 mins... I think we got to the hospital around 5am and they finally got around to checking me after about 45 mins and I was a little over 4cm dilated. It wasn't too long after that when it got to the point where I just couldn't handle the pain any longer - I needed pain medication right away. Strangely, they said that they could only give me the epidural and they were flying someone in - I'm guessing they were flying them in from Duluth, and I just thought there's no way I can wait that long! I knew from last time that they have shots they can give you... and I asked if there was anything they could give me temporarily, and the nurses said there wasn't... before that they had said that I needed to be dilated at least to a 5 before they could give me anything... so I was just praying that I was at least a 5. When the Dr got there she told them to go ahead and give me the shot - thank god! ;) They were just being stingy with it... Anyway, then she checked me a little after 7am and said that I was 9cm dilated! I think everyone was shocked! It was too late for a epidural, which after finding out how close I was, I wasn't upset about it at all. Too funny that Beatrice drug her feet all along and then all of a sudden decided she was in a big hurry! :) A few minutes later I said I had to push and the Dr said go right ahead because you're ready! That was at 7:20am - and she was born at 7:30! It amazed everyone that it was so quick. Before the Dr checked and said I was at a 9, I was telling Mike to remind me that I didn't want to do this again :) and I was really expecting it to drag on for hours and hours... but after the Dr checked and I was so close I told him I would definitely do it again! When I reached my pain tolerance limit with Duncan, I was still at least 10 hours away from delivery... I expected that this time it would go faster, but I never expected it to go that fast... I feel so lucky and blessed! For both the short labor and delivery and for the beautiful baby girl that we produced :)

NEW BABY!!!

Hello all. Baby Beatrice Rae DeMarr was born at 7:30am on August 14th, 2007. She is 7 lbs 5 oz, and 19 inches.

Still Cooking ;)

The baby must've decided to put on some extra layers of fat :) as she is still hanging out in there! We are planning on a longer walk today - taking the kids to the Wilderness Walk, hoping desperately that will do the trick and get things moving along! :) Luckily we are having a break in the weather - it was supposed to be in the 90s until tomorrow, but yesterday it was cooler and today again should be in the low 80s and the humidity is dropping. It was downright cold this am, and for the next week or so the overnight temps should be in the 40s and 50s! Getting time for that seasonal change...
I have a drs apt today at 4:30, so I guess we will see what happens then...

It's the end of the day on my due date and No Baby yet :)

Well, dr's apts are not magical. Of course I didn't think it would be... I've made a slight bit of progress, instead of being extremely close to being 3cm dilated, I was officially 3cm dilated... and the baby dropped further, as if she can get any lower ;) So my due date was today, and still been having contractions, but very sporadically - not consistent. I will have another drs apt on Monday, but I'm really seriously hoping to go into labor this weekend... that leaves tomorrow! ;) We went walking around tonight, to Wal-Mart and downtown Hayward - walked around in the candy store ;) and walked out with two bags of candy! ;) I think that was actually the first time I've been there since we moved here! Got a huge bag of taffy - they have like 50 flavors!! I had to grab a handful of every flavor that sounded good ;) which was probably close to half the flavors. Mom got some chocolate and maple fudge. We stopped and ate at Pizza Hut, and Duncan was too funny, he kept saying "I see Pizza"! Earlier this week when we ate in Radisson with Pat we gave him a pickle and he started talking to the couple eating near us - he said "did you see that pickle" he must have said it about 10 times - they just ignored him... how rude ;) Anyway, We all had a sugar feast when we got home! Duncan loved the fudge. He kept trying to grab it off the table. We got him some licorice, he gave his first piece to Sally and then his second piece absolutely disappeared. We'll probably find it a month from now in some place really odd... I'll probably have to grab a few pieces of taffy every trip I make to the potty tonight ;) and every night until I have this baby! I can't believe I've only gained 20lbs this time! I gained 60lbs with Duncan and didn't even snack in the middle of the night like I have been this time! That and having to have ice cream for desert every night before bed ;) But then again, I had only lost about half the weight I gained with Duncan before I got pregnant this time.
Well, anyway... just wanted to give an update... I'm just getting resigned for having to wait and wait and wait ;)

Ugh! ;)

Obviously I am still having those darn Braxton Hicks contractions... They went away when I went to bed last night... It was probably just all wishful thinking that they were the real ones... but the books do say that a lot of 2nd time moms go in with false labor - more than first timers... and probably because the braxton hicks can be stronger, more painful and I guess feel more like the real thing the second time around. How frustrating and disappointing though! I guess I probably will make it to my drs apt at 1:30 today. Grumble Grumble ;)
Everyone is getting anxious. All I can say is that for sure it will be within the next 2 weeks, since they don't really let you go beyond that... and she will have to come out sometime! She can't stay in there forever! ;)
I'm trying to keep myself occupied... which is increasingly difficult, especially since I should really be resting up for the big day - saving my energy... it's a lot harder to just sit around waiting for it to happen. Oh well ;) I will keep everyone posted.

Still Waiting!!

Just decided to do a quick update post :) since I haven't posted in a couple of days people are wondering ;) Still waiting for this stubborn baby to make an appearance! ;) Been having braxton hicks contractions for weeks now... but I think I'm starting to slowly have some real ones! Or maybe it's all just wishful thinking? They do feel different - they seem to be coming more from the top of my stomach. Maybe she's waiting for Emma's birthday. I know Emma would really like that. Of course earlier this week when we talked to Emma and she said she wanted her to be born on her b-day - I thought for sure it would be sooner, and that the 10th was just too far away, but now that's it's already the 9th, I could so deal with the 10th! I was so sure that I was not going to make it to my next dr's apt, which was supposed to be today, but they called yesterday and switched it to tomorrow... so there's still a chance I may not make it until tomorrow. Not that I'm really looking forward to the delivery part, but just really anxious to meet this little girl and bring her home! :)
Anyway, just wanted to give everyone an update. Hopefully you will all be getting a call with some news soon!!! :)

Famous Dave's Pic! and Lake Superior

We met Mike's brother Pat and his wife Terry Ann for lunch yesterday and they handed us this weeks 4 Seasons paper which had Famous Dave's on the front. I thought they were just showing it to us because Famous Dave is Terry's relative... but they finally had to point out to us that they are in the picture! There at the second table from the front is Pat, Terry Ann, Marlene, Leon, Ashley and Alyssa!! I can't believe we didn't notice that! ;) I had even looked at the paper at home. Pretty cool! :)

Mike drew me a picture on the fridge board today :) pretty funny, so I had to share it with everyone...

This past weekend we took mom and jamie up to Lake Superior to see the sights up there. It's sooo pretty ;) we also visited the new visitor's center there, which is really nice. Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip to the big lake ;)