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Tabitha's Homecoming


Who knew life could be this wonderful? It probably goes without saying that we are enjoying the heck out of our little one. Every day is a new and amazing adventure and they all seem to go by in a blink of an eye.

We left the hospital on Wednesday and have been parenting without experts for over 24 hours now. It's as much of a challenge as I thought it might be, but oh so rewarding. More photos here for you friends and family types.

We love all of the sweet comments from all of you. Thanks for them and the emails. We'll get back to you soon(ish).

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Birthin Baby

What you've been waiting for, right? The details. Well here you go. For those amongst you who are squeamish or whatever, skip this one.

Friday Morning dawned with a phone call from the hospital saying that they were all full and we'd need to call back at 8 to see if we could come in. The rest of the day pretty much followed this pattern. Finally, after a day of wating, we went out to dinner with Mom and Kelly. And then they called us in. We finshed dinner and got to the hospital around 10 PM.

They evaluated me and decided some cervix ripening was in order. So they gave me some meds and we settled in for the night. “Get some sleep,” they told me. This was a bit hard to do with the blood pressure cuff that automatically did a boa-constrictor on my arm every 15 minutes. They did another dose of the meds around 3 AM as well.

They must've worked because at 7 AM I had my first real labor contraction … with a “pop” – broken water. Kelly arrived on the scene shortly after this to witness the birth of her niece and spell my primary labor coach and add some sisterly love to the process.

For the next 5 hours, I labored on without meds, having fairly irregular contractions that were increasing in intensity somewhat. By noon, based on the availability of the anesthesiologist and the intensity of my pain, I opted for an epidural. Excellent choice, I must say. Continue reading “Birthin Baby”

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Welcome to the World


As some of you might've heard by now, we welcomed Ms. Tabitha Faye Nichols to the world this morning at 4:20 AM. As you might guess, it was something of a long journey, but needless to say, worth every moment of it. We are absolutely elated to have the newest member of our family here and so proud to call her our daughter. We have spent most of the day dozing off and on in our hospital room and learning how to be a family of three. We're so in love with her it's incredible. We'll share more later. Thanks for all of your emails and comments.

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Planned Induction

After being poked and prodded by the lovely nurses at my doc's office yesterday, Matt and I were sitting there chewing the fat and such when the doctor knocked and entered the room. After sundry pleasantries, she casually says, “I've scheduled you for induction on Friday morning.” My BP was good yesterday, but thanks to all of the ups and downs and proteins and swellings and whatnot, she wants to go ahead and get this thing moving along. So 8 AM on Friday we get the ball rolling.

After having time to let all of this sink in, I'm feeling pretty good about it. I like the “end in sight” aspect a lot, I must admit. So that's the deal. Think happy healthy delivery thoughts for us!! Continue reading “Planned Induction”

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Project #3 Complete

Sand. Varnish. Sand. Varnish. Sand. Varnish. It takes a while, but now it's done and we've got our very own butt-wiping station. As usual, my perfectionist hubby complained the entire time he was building it that it was hideous and plagued with flaws. He's still complaining a little, but was a bit more complimentary of his work last night when it was all done. We both came to the conclusion that we really like birch. It is so pretty when it's got just a clear varnish on it … almost iridescent (if wood can be so) and the grain is beautiful.

While we varnished, I watched like 8 eps of Martha and Rachael Ray (in about 3.5 hours). Even after all my love-spats with Tivo last year, I really do love it!! It is so handy for fast-forwarding through those commercials and the obnoxious segments where Martha shares all of her 8281763 beauty products with the audience and Rachael Ray has a schmaltz fest with err… whomever.

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Waiting Game

What's going on while we're playing this little waiting game …

* The weather has been sunny and clear (if a little chilly) the past couple of days. It's supposed to snow tomorrow though. Boo.

* Two eco links: plant 450 trees for $45 with Trees for the Future, clean water becomes child's play with play pumps.

* Matt is almost finished with a piece to go on top of the dresser for changing little one … it's basically a raised platform for the changing pad with a drawer underneath to hold changing supplies. We're going to put poly on it tonight (don't worry people, it's water-based and safe for pregnant women).

* I did (sorta) pack for the hospital this weekend. You can breathe easier now, Yvett.

* Every day that I work in construction, my skills for spreching Deutsch seem more and more useless. Why didn't I learn Spanish?

* Grey's Anatomy (which I haven't even been watching) was on for 2 hours last Thursday and so my Tivo didn't record The Office (which I watch w/o fail) or My name is Earl. I'm a little peeved.

* I bought the cute robot pendant from Imogen's Etsy site. I've had loads of compliments on it. Just $8.50 including shipping … you can't go wrong!

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Happy Feet


I had a very nice weekend. Friday we got together with my mom, sister and grandma and went to our neighborhood Italian restaurant. It was the first time we'd been there since it went under new management. Parts of it (the service, paticularly) were better than the original. Most of it was very similar. And parts of it (no pine-nut cookies) were not as good. They did give us samples of their bellinis. I had a sip or two … YUM. As soon as it gets warm, I want to go sit outside and enjoy a bellini.

Saturday we went to breakfast with my parents and Kelly and then mom and I spent the rest of the day hanging out, shopping and getting a mani (her)/pedi (me). My mom's sweet friend and nail tech, Judy, gave me a pedicure as a baby gift. I picked “Diggeriedo Your Nails” for the color and Judy put some orchid decals and rhinestones on my big toes. They look awesome (as you might be able to tell from the photo). Matt and Kelly took Loki to the dog park and then Matt went to the woodworking store. Saturday evening we got together with our friends and had meatballs and tortellini for dinner and hung around chatting. Continue reading “Happy Feet”

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Blessed Friday

Yay for Friday, that's all I can say. It's been a kinda weird week and I more feel like I've been floating through it as opposed to living in it. It's simulataneously gone really fast and really slow. On Wednesday, I couldn't believe it was only Wednesday, but every night when it gets to be about 8 (approx 1 hour before bed) I'm amazed that the day has gone by so quickly.

Confession time: I have not packed for the hospital yet (not for labor, not for post labor, not for Matt, not for little one). The car seat has not been taken to a firehouse to be installed properly. The pack 'n' play, where we plan to have her sleep the first few weeks (in our bedroom), has not been taken out of its box or assembled. I am still not caught-up on thank you notes. The house is a mess and I've been grumping at poor Matty to pick up his trash and put his dishes in the dishwasher almost relentlessly. Actually, I've been grumping in general quite a bit the past few days. I have very little energy at the moment to correct any of these situations. I also don't care a whole lot.

FYI: I will probably not be posting this weekend, so when you don't see any updates, this is planned and probably not because I'm in labor.

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Hanging in There

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that baby and I are doing fine and she's apparently going to hang in for a while yet. Yesterday was a sort of frustrating day. Actually, I should take that back. It was a frustrating morning followed by some R&R to recover from the frustrating morning. I won't get into details because I don't want to re-hash it in my mind and get annoyed all over again and besides, it would probably bore the pants off you. But that's the reason I didn't post anything yesterday.

Today I am boring. Actually I'll probably be quite boring until little one decides to make her grand appearance. Lately all I've been capable of is sleeping (still doing miraculously well at this), eating (mostly junk because I can't be bothered to cook right now and Matt is busy in his shop), working (at my job, not at fun/interesting things) and resting … with activities, such as they are. I've watched a little TV (Degrassi, Gilmore Girls and Scrubs re-runs yesterday, I believe) and read some books (historical romance I can't remember the name of and The Baby Whisperer) and I'm *this close* to being done (well caught-up anyhow) with thank-you notes.

I'll try to catch up on emails and blog-reading t'day. Thanks to you all for your notes and such.

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Not Yet!

No induction yet! My labs came back and I was on the low-side of normal for whatever they were testing for (protein I think). My ankles are back to normal too. Now I want her to hang on at least long enough so I can get my pedicure on Saturday. I'm also happy to have s'more time to get things in order at the office and at home. But I'll fully admit that I was a weeeee bit disappointed. I'm just so anxious to meet her!! Luckily I am still sleeping pretty well and I don't feel too uncomfy (most of the time). So I'll count my blessings and look forward to her arrival.

Interesting fact: my sister and I were both born two days after our due dates. Both of our due dates were the day before a full moon. Lil one's due date is likewise the day before a full moon.