Still Waiting...

Just wanted to give everyone an update on Natalie. She is still waiting for baby to arrive, and trying to distract herself. I thought it would be fun for people to comment with little pieces of advice for her or even just a best of luck message. She is a faithful "Life on Birch Street" reader! I also included some cute pictures of her from 2 weeks ago. I will get to see her tomorrow so I will take a few more to add.

Little Sister...

So Exciting! My little sister Natalie...who isn't so little, she is 20, is going to have her baby any day. I think I might be more excited/anxious than she is. It must be my maternal/sisterly instinct kicking up but I literally could barely sleep last night because I just kept waiting for the phone to ring. I know she will be amazing and Jonathan too!

Last Friday she was 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced (which means the "ball" is rolling), Sunday and Monday she finally started feeling some contractions but they weren't painful (yet) and were pretty far apart. Maybe today will be the big day!

I will keep you all posted.

M

Summer in Our Backyard!

photos by Ty

House Projects

Ty working on painting the baby room!

Here is the room with out furniture...baby steps.

Ed (ty's dad) came down and helped him mount & wire his new T.V.

Lazy Saturdays

I thought I would write really quickly before I jump in the shower to get ready for the day (yes at 2 pm!). There are a few things that I have grown to absolutely love, one being having nothing to do on Saturday. Ty's friend Joe from Texas was suppose to be here this weekend, but unfortunately was hurt pretty badly in a wake boarding accident so he stayed home. As bummed as we were to find that out, it left us both with a Saturday completely free of anything to do. The old Molly would have definitely ran errands, and kept myself busy all day long. Instead I slept in (or laid in bed) until 9:20 a.m., lazily made breakfast, watched some music videos w/ Ty, looked at a few garage sales, stopped by our local re-sale store, went on a walk, searched the Internet for fun baby stuff, and watered my flowers. Some of you are probably wondering why I would write this out, really it is just to prove to those who know me well that I really can relax and be lazy.

So now I am going to get ready because my dad is BBQing in S-town before the big Sheridan Days Parade. I haven't been to Sheridan Days in approximately 8-10 years, so I am bound to have some fabulous stories (maybe even a picture or two) when I return. Oh...Ty has never been to Sheridan Days, which is the little "festival" (i.e. carnies, fried food, beer garden, parade) in my hometown. Boy is he in for a treat! Don't get me wrong, I love my little town, but events like this bring out the true townies and some of the best reminiscent people watching around.

Happy Saturday!

32 weeks...

As you can see above I am definitely growing! There are times when I catch myself staring at my belly in the mirror in amazement. It is so crazy that it just keeps growing and I still have 8 weeks to go. We had a pretty crazy weekend, but it was so great to see everyone. After Tory's shower on Saturday we headed north to Seattle for the graduation celebration of 3 of Ty's cousins. We haven't seen most of his family since last summer so it was great to catch up and just spend a little time with everyone. Both Erin and Brock were able to make it so we were all together for about 24 hours.

While we were there Ty celebrated his first father's day. It was pretty fun. We had brunch with everyone and then all the guys (Ty, his dad, several uncles, and grandpa Wendell) open little gifts. Ty received a few baby outfits, a I love my dad baby tee, and a dad book.

Baby is doing well...moving a lot, and making sleeping a challenge. The baby is about 4 pounds and 18 inches from head to toe. From this point on the baby is putting on lots of padding for the journey outside of the womb.

Tory's Shower

Last Saturday was Tory's wedding shower in Portland at Elephants Deli on NW 22nd, which is a super cute place for you locals. There were about 25 people there including lots of old friends and Dave's mom, sister and grandma from NY. Games were played, lots of beautiful gifts, great food, but mostly it was great to catch up and visit with everyone.

31 weeks and counting... (cont'd)

So, I (Ty) have been having some weird dreams lately. Those of you who know me understand that I can be a bit more emotional and/or excitable than most guys. At times I wish I had a little more of my father in me, but it is very apparent that I have more of my mother, which is usually a good thing I think... I love you, Mom... All that said, I woke up the other night crying because I had a dream that our baby was already 4 months old and I felt like time was going too fast. I had to peek under the sheets to make sure I was still the dad in this household...
We went up to Seattle this weekend to celebrate some of my cousins' graduation from high school, which was such a blast. It was kind of like a mini family reunion, and Holmstrom (Ty's mom's side of the family) reunions are legendary. I found myself more than once looking around and being so thankful that I get to bring Baby into a world and a life that will always be surrounded by family and friends that I never get enough of. Pretty cool.
As Molly said, Baby is moving around a lot. Just this week I really started to feel more "shifts" than kicks, and we are now able to tell the difference between a head or a little bottom and hands or feet. Another little fun fact, Baby can now distinguish between Molly's voice and my voice. I will say, though, that I have a hard time coming up with things to say to Baby. I think maybe I should start reading stories or something, because as of now it consists of, "Hi. What are you doing in there? Do you have all your fingers and toes? I hope so. How about we listen to some Dave?" Then I attempt to sing... Any suggestions would be helpful...

31 weeks and counting

Ty thinks the naked belly pictures are so funny. Every time he takes one for me he starts hysterically laughing...they are pretty funny. So I am officially in my third trimester, which basically means the home stretch. It is crazy to think that in 9 weeks (if I am lucky) we will be holding sweet pea!

Being 31 weeks (aka almost 8 months) is feeling pretty good. Don't get me wrong my belly is big, I have constant acid reflux, and sleeping with a basketball strapped to your stomach is a challenge but I really feel good. I have enough energy to do what I need to do, I can eat whatever I want, and people are really nice to preggos.

Here is what is up with sweet pea...

3.5 lbs, 16.5 inches long, and moving around like playing in Euro Cup! This baby is picking up steam the longer it cooks...which makes me a little nervous for the next 2 months. Sometimes the baby kicks so hard my entire belly shakes, and last weekend it kicked so hard it woke Ty up in the early morning. A few other cool facts 1. Bones are fully developed 2. Baby's eyes respond to light

TMI...

Whoa....we had our first childbirth class on Wednesday night and let me tell you they put it all out there. As if the photos in the book aren't graphic enough, they have life sized models to really drive the point home. As I was watching the nurse explain the birthing process with the use of the life sized models I thought to myself "This is never going to happen". She promptly said as though reading my mind, "you are all pregnant which means the baby has to be born"...right.

I definitely started to get nervous simply sitting in the waiting room waiting for class to start. Here is a brief overview of our class make up...As I am sitting there feeling a bit light-headed and mildly panicky in walks a girl I know who is 18 (graduated from HS the Saturday before) and her boyfriend. I begin thinking oh my goodness I am way to old to be taking a class on birthing a child, I should freaking know what is going on I am almost 30 years old! Then a few couples that are similar in age walk in and I start to feel a little better. As they are moving our class to a new room I notice a couple that had to be in their late 30's maybe even 40 and then I thought to myself, holy crap I am way way to young to be having a child. Moral of my story, I clearly have a little more anxiety about this whole process that I thought.

As the night went on I did start to relax a little bit and people were asking really good questions. The funniest had to be the 40 year old dad (this is their first baby) who asked the nurse "so like does the doctor go up there and yank the baby out?" His wife just looked down at the floor and shook her head. After that I didn't feel quite so unprepared. I also didn't want Ty to ask any questions without asking me first...I am sure that I will lighten up a little next week.

Sick Day

Over the last weekend Ty was feeling pretty ill and I wasn't too far behind. I guess they call it a summer cold, which has to be the worst thing ever. The only saving grace was the here in fabulous Oregon it is still rainy and cold in the first week of June. I felt well enough to go to work, and Ty made an attempt on Monday to go in but came home a few hours later. He was pretty much bed ridden for the next three days. Two trips to the doctor's office, 3 perscriptions, and several boxes of tissue later he felt well enought to head to work on Thursday. Not the way you would like to kick of the summer but hopefully it will be the last round of illness at our house for a while.

Little Sister

Natalie, Karen (mom), & Me

Grandma Rena, Aunt Susan, & Natalie

My little sister Natalie is also preggers if I haven't mentioned that before, due June 26th! She is in the home stretch and happy to be there. As you can see she is still looking beautiful and like she swallowed a watermelon. Her legs, arms and face haven't changed at all.


My mom and I threw her a baby shower today at my house. The weather said 72 and sunny all week, so it was going to be a really sweet backyard afternoon gathering. Instead of 72 and sunny, it was 60 and overcast! So we crammed 24 people into our little house on birch street. It was a bit crowded, but cozy.


Natalie and baby received a lot of wonderful gifts from everyone. My favorite was the U of O duck slippers and a little black fleece jacket with a duck logo. I teased Natalie that it had the wrong name on the card that it was really for me.