Welcome to Lillian Mae Basque...

We would like to announce the arrival of our little girl!!!

Lillian Mae was born at 3:59 this morning. She weighs in at 6 pounds and 10 ounces, is 20 inches long, and is doing great - had a grip on daddy's finger within minutes. Mama is doing well and we are going to be in the hospital getting to know each other better and remembering how to change infant diapers until Friday. Keep your fingers crossed that daddy gets the poopiest ones!

More pics after the jump...

BGB Update: 36 weeks

36 weeks last Friday! Simon was born at 37 weeks, so we are very ready for Baby Girl Basque to come any time. Twice a week we are going to the doctor to make sure everyone stays healthy and at this point if I start showing signs of preeclampsia than we will get to see our little girl early. I'm officially on Maternity Leave as of Friday, so I will be able to rest up and finish all the little things that aren't essential but would be nice to have done before she is born.

Little girl has settled down quite a bit in my belly since she is officially running out of room. She is head down (as she should be right now) and generally likes to stay on either the right side or the left side so she is pretty easy to feel from the outside. Unfortunately for my ribs that is also a good angle for her to stretch out her legs and try to break free. I've heard that it's really cool to feel her little feet moving, but, honestly, from the inside it doesn't feel as cool. 

36 Weeks

36 Weeks.

Photographer Simon in his new outfit

I asked Simon to stand still so I could take a picture of him in his new outfit and he bargained with me that if I took pictures of him then he should get to take pictures of me. So below are my pictures of him wearing his new shirt from Gaga and Papa Basque and new jeans from Auntie Colleen. Further below are Simon's pictures of me. He even took a couple of baby sister. He easily took 50 pictures, so I just included a couple.

Mama making breakfast (34 weeks)

Most pictures looked like this or were just floor.
It does a great job showing his perspective!

Picture of Baby Sister (34 weeks)

Would have been the best if it weren't so blurry!

BGB Update: Hiccups

Baby Girl Basque has had a serious case of hiccups all morning. She is really calm about the whole situation... I only feel the hiccup and very little other movement so maybe she's sleeping through them? I remember Simon having hiccups pretty regularly and he would thrash about which made me think he hated it. This is one of the first times I've felt her hiccups and it is so calm it took me a while to figure out what it was. Still feels pretty darn weird!

BGB Update: 30 weeks 5 days

It has been a rough couple weeks with everyone in the household getting a quick cold except for me who was sick for a few weeks. I just couldn't shake the sniffles and coughing. Finally I'm feeling a bit better, but after having been sick for so long am seriously feeling the difference in my mobility and endurance. Thankfully Alan and Simon were great about stepping up while I was down - Alan covering all the Simon/cooking/cleaning duties and Simon being a very good listener when it is just the two of us. I'm lucky to have such good men in my life!

Thankfully, our little girl is still doing great. We are already 30 weeks, which means she'll be here in less than 9 weeks (since we are planning a c-section for 39 weeks on Nov 1st, not the normal 40 weeks on her due date Nov 8). She is about the size of a large cabbage this week and weighs in at around 3 pounds. We went last week for another growth ultrasound and she is doing wonderfully, growing exactly as expected. I always feel her moving a ton and during the entire ultrasound she was bent at the waist with her toes touching her forehead but was waving her arms about like crazy. It was great fun watching her legs twitch and feeling her kicks. I think she is going to be rowdy! 

The crib, cradle and dresser/changing table are all here and ready to be put together and cleaned. We are planning on doing that and moving things around to make space upstairs this weekend when Colleen and Joe come by for what they think is a string-free dinner... little do they know I am very sneaky.  After that we just need to get a crib mattress for her and a glider for me - but both of those are not required for the first few weeks so no pressure. I even have a color scheme planned for her room. She will have the front room which will stay blue, but I'm going to use purple, pink and green to make it a bit lighter and more fun. I found a great set of butterfly sheets that I'm modeling the colors after and I'm knitting her a baby blanket of pink, purple and gray that should work well in there too. With white wood and a gray glider her room will be beautiful! 

Emily & BGB at 30 weeks, 5 days.

Emily & BGB at 30 weeks, 5 days.

BGB Baby Shower!

Last weekend my Wonderful Sister Colleen threw us a Baby Shower. Even more than the coordination required for a normal baby shower, Colleen decided that Alan deserved something special too and made it a Surprise Baby Shower for him and invited the out of town family! Alan had absolutely no idea (because we are all such great secret keepers).

Bart, Kiki, Ken, Cindy, and Lisa all flew into town and helped Colleen set up the house for the shower. We were even surprised by a visit from Chris, Erika, Casey and Darby from Madison! Our Chicago friends also made a strong showing and it ended up we were surrounded by all the love and well wishes you could hope for. It was a pretty wonderful day. Thank you, Colleen!

Family, Friends, Balloons, Cake AND Presents - my kind of party!

The Sweeney Contingent

The Basque Contingent

Full story and tons of pictures after the jump....

BGB 25 Week Visit: Heartbeats

Last Thursday we went in to my doctor to get our first Growth Ultrasound. Our little girl is doing great and growing strong. We got a couple more pictures of almost all of her and this is the last time she'll be small enough to fit mostly in one ultrasound picture. We are 25 weeks and will be doing growth ultrasounds every 4 weeks or so, meaning we have about 2 or 3 before we get to hold her! We talked to the doctor again to confirm the c-section date. If we can wait long enough she will be born at 11am on Friday, November 1st. Other than that it's just keep doing what we're doing because all is going well.

Like every other time we've done an ultrasound she moved around most of the time we were in the room, but that's a sign that she's growing strong arms and legs. In addition it is really fun to watch her moving around so much and we felt like we were really getting to know her. Most of the time she was curled up into a ball with her hands in front of her face, so I wonder if she's going to end up as a tiny little side sleeper?

We brought Simon to this ultrasound so he could see a picture of his little sister and hear her heartbeat. Happily Jenn came a long and watched him in the waiting room while we talked to the doctor before the appointment so we could focus on her. Then when it came time for the ultrasound Alan brought Simon in and we watched the pictures. We expected Simon to tire of it pretty quickly but he stayed the whole time. Asking the technician over and over to do the "Heartbeat again? Please?" We listened to the heartbeat a bunch of times and Simon became pretty entranced by the idea. Later that night Alan taught Simon how to listen to his own heartbeat (hand on his chest) and how to listen to other people's heartbeat (ear against their chest). Simon has been listening to lots of heartbeats the past few days.

Profile and her fist close to her chin. 

Both hands up in front of face - it looked like she was rubbing her eyes.

Remembering the heartbeat of his little sister.

BGB Update: Kick Kick Kick

We are now 6 months along (24 weeks) and BGB is the size of a grapefruit. She feels so very active to me that I was surprised that Alan didn't feel her kick until she was 21 weeks (the first week of July). Today was another big milestone, Alan SAW her kick. When she is active, if you give a little push to the belly sometimes she will kick right back. Alan did that today and she seriously kicked back and made my whole tummy jump. 

Things are going great on my end. I'm not sick or dizzy like I was for the first 20 weeks. I still get light headed if I move too fast, but a far cry from feeling it constantly. I feel much more pregnant than I felt at 6 months with Simon. I think it is because I popped so early, but I get tired rather quickly and generally don't move very fast. I am able to pick up Simon for short periods again which makes us both happy. My heartburn is awful and when we go for our next dr visit and ultrasound (next week!) I will check in about. Despite the 90 degree and super-humid weather I have had no swelling, which is awesome. 

We are starting to guess when she is going to make her appearance. She is due Nov 8 and I have a c-section planned Nov 1 (so Nov 1 is the latest she'll come). I think October 18th for no good reason at all. Any other guesses?

Here are a couple pictures from 4th of July weekend. Karen is due the day after I am and we were comparing bumps. Both of us are 22 weeks in these pictures.

BGB 20 Week Ultrasound

We went to the doctor on Monday and did our 20 week ultrasound for BGB. She is doing wonderfully and very healthy. She was moving a lot still but the technician said that was actually better because then we would be able to get all the shots we needed. BGB was practicing her dramatic gestures - back of hand against forehead - and generally wiggling all about. It was great fun to watch. 

Strong profile.

Strong foot, hand is the blob by the arrow, it's coming in...

Holding her foot with her hand.

Hanging Up Hangers

The other afternoon we pulled some hangers from the basement and I rinsed them in the shower to get any dust off and left them in there to dry. The next morning I pulled them out of the shower before I took my shower, intending to hang them up after I finished getting myself and Simon ready.

Simon took one look at my pile of hangers and promptly started hanging them up for me.  Which is totally awesome, because honestly I was dreading the leaning over to pick them up (because of the dizzies that still get me when I lean over or move up and down). It was also completely adorable as he kept up a running monolog of what he was doing.  One of the hangers was different, so he put it over on the table.

Here are my videos of him hanging, he'd done about half by the time I started recording. They make me laugh every time.

BGB Update - 17 weeks

I'm now 17 weeks and am very noticeably pregnant. I'm into my second trimester and the next big goal is 20 weeks, the official half way point.  Unfortunately I'm still feeling sick pretty regularly. I am light headed and dizzy and feel nauseous a few times a day, which is an improvement over feeling nauseated constantly. Things are getting better, just not as quickly as I'd like!

We had our 16 week check up on Tuesday and the doctor said all my symptoms are still completely normal and would be normal even if they lasted the whole pregnancy (lets hope not though). Then she went to listen for the heartbeat but she couldn't find it! We were pretty nervous as we moved to a room with an ultrasound machine and I reassured Alan that I'd just felt her moving earlier that day. When we got setup on the ultrasound, the doctor still had trouble finding a heartbeat... not because it wasn't there, but because our little girl was moving so much the doctor couldn't pin her down! We finally got the heartbeat count but never got a clear enough look for a picture.

I thought I was imagining that she moves more than Simon, or maybe I thought I was just better at telling it was baby moving? Regardless, I wasn't imagining it, she is a little lap swimmer. My Olympic hopeful.

Mother's Day News = BGB

We are expecting Baby Girl Basque (BGB) to join our family in the Fall!!

Simon is very excited to have a baby sister and is already talking about sharing some of his toys with her. He has even told some folks about the new baby in Mama's belly. He is most excited to hold her, but does usually mention to us that babies cry, whenever we talk about babies.

She is officially due on Nov 8, but because Simon was 3 weeks early we are expecting her to join us around the middle of October. I am already showing, it happened much faster this time around! And I've had terrible morning sickness, unfortunately like the first time (I had hoped that too would be different). We will continue to give updates as we learn anything new. Alan and I are really excited!