Meeting Baby Girl

Introducing Mae Jean Stelsel!

We welcomed Mae about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. We went to the hospital for a scheduled induction bright and early on Wednesday, December 3. Although we checked in at 7:00 a.m. and were ready to get things rolling, I didn't actually see the doctor until 11:00 because he was in surgery. So David and I ended up hanging out in my hospital room for 4 hours for no reason. We did get to catch up on our reading though! :)

When my doctor came in at 11:00, he started the Pitocin. By then I was at 2-3 cm dilated already. When he came back at 2:30, I had made it to 4 cm, so my doctor broke my water (which is just as yucky as it sounds). I had the epidural at 3:45 (5 cm), and by 8:35 I was ready to start pushing. After 3 minutes and 1.5 pushes, she was here! 

Mae Jean was born at 8:47 p.m. on Dec. 3 at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20.5 inches long. We are so in love with her!

38 weeks and headed to the hospital

Thanksgiving

We had another great Thanksgiving with all of the families. David and I hosted for the first time, so it was nice to have everyone over to our house for a change. We enjoyed a delicious feast, watched some good football, and had a great time kicking back and catching up with each other.

We knew this would be the last family get-together before baby girl arrived, so that made it a little more special (for me, at least).

After Thanksgiving, I had some help getting the house decorated for Christmas. It was a hectic holiday weekend, but I enjoyed every moment.

Family photo :)

37 weeks and 25 weeks

Setting up the creche with Ford

Jolly Days at the Children's Museum

mommy and i went to the children's museum over the weekend with my friend madelyn and her mommy (our mommies used to work together, and we were born 2 days apart!). it was the first day of their Christmas exhibit: Jolly Days Winter Wonderland. santa hadn't arrived yet (he doesn't come to indy until after thanksgiving), but madelyn and i had fun playing in all the areas.

first, we went ice fishing. our mommies helped us hook a fish, and then we carried them around on our pole.

then we cooked special treats in the big chef's kitchen. i need one of these at my house. the kitchen had everything, even a huge baker's oven. i was very careful not to touch the oven racks when i put my cookie sheet in because mommy always says the oven was hot. but this one must not have been on yet because it didn't feel too hot to me. i was also careful to put on my oven mitts without mommy even asking me to.

next we played in the snow castle, which was my favorite in the Christmas exhibit area because it had a slide and places to climb and peek out windows. i liked to hide in the castle and pop up to peek out at mommy. and it was tall so i felt really high!

while we were playing on the snow castle it started to get really busy with lots of kids, so our mommies took us to a different area in the museum that is a favorite of mine: playscape. i love playscape because there are lots of contraptions with balls and a big enclosed climbing area. there are also sand tables where madelyn and i would sit and shovel sand and dump, shovel and dump, shovel and dump. mommy liked that area a lot because there were stools where she could sit (silly mommy).

i had so much fun at the museum with madelyn. i hope i can go back soon, but mommy said it might be our last big outing before baby sister comes. daddy keeps telling me baby sister will be here very soon, and i'm really excited about it. i like to give her kisses in mommy's belly. i hope she lets me give her kisses when she's outside mommy's belly too. stay tuned for the big announcement -- i'm told we'll get to meet her soon after thanksgiving! :)

Baby Update + Ford Singing

*VIDEO*
I'm almost 35 weeks and baby's looking great! Here are her latest photos (the countdown is on!!). :)

And here she is from the outside. :)

27 weeks

30 weeks

32 weeks

34 weeks

And because I can't get enough of my cutie pie, here's Ford singing some songs before bed. He's still learning the words, obviously. :)

Baby Girl's Room

There's nothing more exciting than seeing my vision come together for our daughter's room. Well, ok, there are a few things more exciting -- like anticipating her arrival -- but until that day, it's the prep work that goes into her arrival that gets me jazzed.

Over the weekend my mom and Beverly came up to put all the pieces together for the nursery. I've been planning her room for months with inspiration boards on Pinterest and lots of shopping shopping shopping. Beverly so graciously made the bed skirt and curtains for the room, which took a full 2-3 days in itself, and I could not be happier with how it's turned out! It's perfection. I still have a few projects in the works, and we haven't moved her chair from Ford's room to hers yet, but baby girl's nursery is just about complete.