Sisterly resemblance?

Just a bit.

Betti is home!

And we are all thrilled. Especially Marion, who is enamored with her "bootiful baby sister."


I think we'll keep her.

Just one little piece missing now

I was discharged from the hospital today. Typical recovery time in the hospital here for a c-section is a full week. However, since I feel pretty good and my time in the hospital was being spent sitting on my butt surfing the net instead of bonding with my new baby, I decided to ask my doctor to release me. And he agreed.

So I am home now and Betti is not.

But there is hope that she will be with us soon. Since going to the other hospital for observation very early Friday morning, Betti has been all over the place. Saturday night was a bad night, with her needing to be put back on continuous oxygen. Last night was an excellent night. They removed her oxygen and feeding tube. She has continued to improve and stabilize today, breathing on her own. Betti has a little bit of jaundice but nothing too bad. If she continues on this course, she should be coming home with us tomorrow!

In the meantime, Marion's been hanging out with Grammie and Brian's been super dad and husband. Sure it's been a little crazy, but what isn't these days? At this point, I'm hoping for a little more craziness in the form of a six pounder on her way home tomorrow.

My turn

I'm so jealous

Brian visiting Betti last night.

My contribution's in the syringe. :-)

And now, introducing Betti!

Brian waiting a very long time for me to get my spinal so he could join me in the OR. Watch out McDreamy.

Getting pinker and just adorable!

Proud papa.

I got to hold her briefly, which was really great.

Her chariot awaits.

Ready for her ride to the other hospital for observation.


Brian, Grammie, and Marion got to visit Betti this morning and I called to check up on her. She is doing really well! They have taken her off oxygen and she is holding her own. It looks like she will be back with me this weekend!!! In big sister news, Marion is in awe of her "little baby Betti sister" and loved touching Betti's back. I think I may have a great little helper on my hands!

We are proud to announce the arrival of...

our beautiful daughter, Bettina Lynn!

Betti arrived last night, weighing 2.85 kgs and measuring 46 cm long. She is a tiny little thing and, because of that, has been transfered to a local hospital to be observed for low oxygen levels in her blood. She looked great last night when she left so we are hopeful for her swift return!

The short version of a story goes soemthing like this: Our normal day turned into a crazy one yesterday when I started having contractions around 1 pm. I was resting and drinking water and instead of them going away, they became more frequent and stronger.

We went into the hospital around 4 pm and the contractions started coming regularly and were rather strong. So, after much discussion, my doctor, Brian, and I decided to do the c-section last night.

The long story will be written soon, I'm sure. I have a lot I want to write about the experience!

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that Betti is here, the guessing game is officially over (Congratulations Ms Lisa!!!!), and ask for prayers that Betti comes back from her little excursion soon!

We start 'em young here

When you grow up in a household where you are told to go weed because "that is why we had kids", you are bound to introduce chores to your own children pretty early.

The only difference between Marion and I? Marion does things with style.

The chocolate milkshake update

Thank you to all of you who suggested chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream! I plead pregnancy brain on not thinking of that one myself. Now I am on the hunt for plain chocolate sauce though. I have Nutella, but I don't think I'm ready for a hazelnut milkshake.

I'm dealing with chocolate chunks in the meantime. :-)

You don't realize you miss something until you can't find it

I've been craving chocolate milkshakes. Really badly. As in, I want one NOW!

Homeade always tastes better and satisfies the craving quickly. However, I have run into a little bit of a problem.

I can't find chocolate ice cream without chocolate chunks.

Weird, right?

Now, I don't normally discriminate against chocolate ice cream. But sometimes a girl doesn't want chocolate chunks in her milkshake. Chocolate chunks ruin things in this scenario. I end up chewing my milkshake. I want to drink it.

I started this mission at Migros. I noticed the chocolate chunks on the front of the ice cream container but I didn't care. I needed the milkshake that badly.

Today I continued my mission at Coop. I was delighted to find Coop brand chocolate ice cream with no chunks in it! Yay!!!! And then I got home and opened the darn thing. Chocolate chunks galore. I was foiled by a misleading picture on the container.

Two stores down, no success.

If you know where the chocolate ice cream without chocolate chunks is, please let me know. I could really use a smooth chocolate milkshake.

Pregnant and uncomfortable

I am officially more pregnant with this baby than I ever was with Marion. I passed that milestone on Sunday at 11 am.

Now I understand being uncomfortable at the end of a pregnancy. I roll everywhere. I have a hard time getting out of chairs that are too low. I get terrible heartburn at night which sometimes leads to visting the porcelain goddess. We resolved this issue by using the adjustable Ikea bed slats. I now sleep at an angle and put up with my husband laughing at my geriatric-ness every night.

Blah blah blah, typical stuff, I know. But now I feel part of the pregnancy club, the one I missed the first time around when I gave birth five weeks early.

Yay for being part of the club! Now let's get this baby out already.

Arosa

All went well at my 35 week appointment on Friday so off we went to Arosa for Brian's company ski weekend! Just driving away from our town felt like a little adventure after I have had to cancel three trips during this pregnancy. Trips away are good for the soul.

We arrived in Chur in no time and made our way up the road to Arosa. Apparently this road is rather well known because of the many sharp turns. We had to stop halfway through because Marion was complaining that her belly hurt and I was making myself a little nauseous. I can only imagine how sick I would have felt had Brian been driving!

Luckily we made it to Arosa and our hotel without anyone puking. And without getting stuck in the snow, a double bonus considering how much they had. And then we made it to our hotel room, where we were greeted with the following view.


It didn't even matter to me that I was not allowed to go up the lifts when I was waking up to that all weekend!

Friday night we headed into town to get pizza at a local restaurant. Arosa is a cute town with what looked like great shopping. All of the stores were closed when we walked by. Or skated by, depending on your definition. It was very slippery. So slippery that someone fell while carrying another little someone back down to our hotel after dinner.

After that, I decided to just hang out at the hotel the rest of the weekend with Brian's coworkers and their families (the ones who weren't skiing).

Saturday morning, Marion went sledding with her Daddy. We purchased some goggles for her, which she loved. And then we went outside to wait for the hotel shuttle bus to take them to the lifts. Marion thought she had hit the jackpot- look at all that snow!

They came back later with different reports of their morning. Brian said it was insufferable- halfway down Marion decided she didn't want to sled anymore and he had to walk down the mountain with her. Marion said she went sledding with Daddy and wanted to go again!

Brian headed back out after lunch and enjoyed some skiing after nine years of not being on slopes. Amazingly enough, he survived the experience with just some sore muscles.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and getting to know some of the families from Brian's work better.

It was a really good weekend and all of us enjoyed it. We all needed the time away from home and it was great to see the mountains before spring gets here!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends!

Updates

Well, we spoke with our management company about our concerns. After some back and forth, we now have our final bill and it is a QUARTER of the first one! What a difference, thank goodness!

On the pregnancy front, I am closing in on 35 weeks this Saturday. I'm experiencing all of the typical third trimester fun stuff- braxton hicks, not being able to get comfortable, etc. Oh, and I still puke every morning. Fun, fun!

My next appointment is tomorrow morning. We are hoping for the all clear so that we can go on a little trip this weekend. Please knock on some wood or do whatever you do- I need a little get away! I feel like I've been on pregnancy lock down for 8 months!

I'll close with a little pic of me at 34 weeks (from last Saturday). I actually put some make-up on and got dressed up for a shower for two of my friends. We all left the husbands and kids at home and had a wonderful time!