Six Months

Jane was pretty excited about her half birthday. 

 Until she found out there wasn't going to be any cake. 

October

Jane loves to put her fingers in her mouth and nose.

She is figuring out how to roll and sit all by herself.

She had her first taste of rice cereal.

Her cousins came to play.

Jane loved her first time swimming!

Jamie and Jane went up to Cleveland while Jeff was at a conference in San Francisco.

She wasn't so sure about being an elephant for Halloween. 

But warmed up to the idea when she saw her friends were doing it too.

Grandparents

My parents came to visit us in Pittsburgh and we had so much fun! My dad got to meet baby Jane for the first time. She thought he was pretty funny. 

We saw some sites downtown, played games, went for walks, and mostly just played with the baby. 

We can't wait to see them again with the rest of our family at Christmas!

Laugh Practice

Someone has been practicing her laugh. It's still a work in progress, but I think she's getting the hang of it. :) It has been so fun to watch her grow and learn new tricks. I can't believe she will be four months old in a few days!

Smiles

We just can't get enough of this little girl's smiles!

Jane at Six Weeks

We just moved to Pittsburgh on Saturday and man it has been a lot of work! I don't know how we would have done it without my in-laws help. My mother-in-law, Jane, spent the whole week cleaning my last apartment, packing, cleaning our new apartment, and unpacking. Our new apartment has lots of space, but since the landlord let us in early there are a lot of things that still need to be fixed and cleaned. Since we are only here for a year, it is really tempting to use the extra room as storage space for all the things I don't want to unpack or find a place for. 

Jane is going to be seven weeks old on Friday! It's funny how it feels like she's been around forever, and at the same time I almost forget I have a child. She is such a good baby and has started to sleep longer in the night. It's fun to see her growing up already with all her new tricks. Our favorite trick right now is her smile. 

Baby Jane

It’s been almost a month since this little girl came into our family. The last few weeks have been a blur with little sleep, Jeff studying for the boards, and my recovery. The delivery went smoothly and I was induced the night of my due date. I had a pregnancy rash called PUPPPS that starts on your belly and spreads like crazy. Since it’s a hormonal rash you can’t do anything about it and only goes away after the baby comes out. I was basically going crazy trying not to itch. My doctor was nice enough to stop my suffering and was able to talk the hospital into admitting me even though they said they had no empty beds. We went in at midnight and sat in a waiting room with some very interesting people also waiting to be induced. Somehow they made room and we scored a very nice room with a couch that folded out into a bed for Jeff. At least one of us got some sleep that night. They gave me two rounds of Cytotec and in the morning started me on oxytocin. After a couple hours I got my epidural. I think that was my favorite part of the labor. It was almost instant relief from the intense pain of the contractions and all I wanted to do was take a nap. My doctor left for a couple hours to do a surgery at another hospital, which wasn’t a problem because I was only dilated to a three. He was planning on coming back and breaking my water to speed up the process. When he returned he was surprised to see that I was fully dilated and impressed with Jane’s full head of hair. They let me labor down for an hour and I started pushing around 4:30. After about ten contractions she came right out at 4:53 and was placed on me. It was amazing! All I could say was how weird it all was. She was 7 pounds 3 ounces and felt impossibly huge to have fit inside of me. I couldn’t believe she was actually my baby, especially with all that hair! Both our families have had nearly hairless babies and if I hadn’t seen her come out of me I wouldn’t have believed she was mine.

 

It was a lot of fun to have my mom and Melanie come visit. Melanie took the train from Chicago all night and stayed for a few days. I was lucky enough to have my mom come for almost two weeks. She was a ton of help and I was so sad to see her leave.

Jeff takes his big test on Friday, which will determine what specialties he can go into and where he can apply for residencies. We have a little over two weeks to find a place to live in Pittsburgh and pack up and move. Needless to say, life has been a little crazy.

37 Weeks

Here's a picture from last week. And I thought I was big in my last post. :) The good news is I only have two more weeks to go!

In other news, Jeff will be taking the boards a month after the baby comes and then we will be moving two weeks later to Pittsburgh. Jeff has a year of research built into his program and was offered an NIMH fellowship at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. After that we will move back to Cleveland for the last two years of medical school. We can't wait!

Cat Bed

The benefits of having a pregnant belly...

Hey girl, you huge!

I'll admit it. I haven't felt like posting pregnancy pictures because I feel so huge! I keep thinking of this song when I see my big belly.

This is me at 3o weeks. Only ten more to go!

Melanie's Wedding

Usually January is a depressing month. Christmas is over, its still winter, and you had to say goodbye to your family. Lucky for me my little sister decided January was a great month to get married. So after only being home for a few weeks I packed my bags and left for Washington.

We went to The Cheesecake Factory on the way home from the airport. You may notice my pregnant belly in this picture. One of the best things about being pregnant is after you eat too much at a restaurant you don't have to hold your stomach in. :)

Melanie got married in the Portland Temple and the weather was perfect!

My sister took her wedding pictures and they turned out gorgeous! Here is the link if you want to see more.

The dinner after the wedding.

We spent lots of time playing with Macsen and Allie.

Now that I'm home I should probably take down the Christmas decorations. It is almost Valentine's Day.