melted smoosh

at long last, our Sweetpea has arrived! we are overjoyed to announce the birth of our daughter, Margaret Kathleen. our sweet Greta weighed 7 lbs, 5 ounces and was 20 inches long. she is happy, healthy, and has us both wrapped around her perfect little fingers :) she did keep us waiting, though, arriving ten days past her due date and after two days of early labor that felt like twenty! i had been having mild contractions starting the week before her due date, some of which would come 5-7 minutes apart for over an hour and had me thinking that we'd be seeing some real action soon. November 17 came and went without any fanfare. at my 41 week visit with the midwives, they did a nonstress test (which she passed with flying colors!) and we started to talk induction. at this point, Mom had already been in town for a few weeks and was scheduled to fly back to Seattle on November 30. i knew how devastated we both would be if she missed Sweetpea's birth, so i asked the midwife what ou

bump watch: sweetpea is officially head down, thank goodness! annnd apparently not quite ready to debut in the outside world yet. i'm trying to relax and just enjoy these last days of pregnancy, but we're getting pretty impatient to meet this little one!  sweet pea: is more active than ever the last few days, with lots of kicks and squirms. at my 39 week appointment, baby landed a sucker punch right against the doppler wand that made the midwife jump (and made me laugh!).  image credit from  W hat to Expect When You're Expecting best moment:  finding out for sure that sweetpea is vertex (aka head down), as that's a prerequisite for delivering at the midwife center as opposed to a hospital birth. it's been quite the mental challenge trying to make informed decisions about our birth preferences, while still holding everything loosely knowing that the birthing process is unpredictable, and in the end, our goal is to have a baby, ho

bump watch:  dropping on down! and hopefully head first. at my appointment last week, the midwife couldn't definitively feel the baby's head, and so i'll be getting an ultrasound this week to rule out breech position. i thought i had gotten pretty good at identifying baby's back and butt, but there has been so much wriggling around the last few days that i just end up more confused. plus, i think Sweetpea's getting sick of all the poking -- every time i feel what i think might be a head (or a knee! or a foot!), baby moves again!  sweet pea: just keeps on  cooking! brain development is still going strong, which will help baby with easier breastfeeding and motor skills. i'm so excited to actually meet this little one!  image credit from  W hat to Expect When You're Expecting best moment: Mom's here! she arrived on Saturday night, and it's such a relief to have her here. and the nursery is finally done! we're rea

bump watch: i don't think sweetpea has fully dropped yet, but the bump definitely looks a little lower this week. things are moving the right direction!  sweet pea:  is the size of ... A BABY!!! thanks to the hilarious Amy at pregnant chicken  for pointing out that at this stage of development, the produce comparisons are pretty useless. the midwives estimate that our particular baby weighs about 7 pounds now, and are predicting an 8 pound birth weight if baby comes near the due date (only 14 days to go!). i'll be curious to see if they're right, since birth weight predictions made by ultrasound are notoriously inaccurate, but they are basing their estimate off of direct palpation.  image credit from  W hat to Expect When You're Expecting best moment:  this is long overdue, but at the end of september, Sabrina and Becca threw the most adorable Sweet Pea-themed shower! every detail was planned out, from the cupcakes decorated wit