Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Baby Genevieve is here!

We are now home and recuperating. Feel free to call me, I'd love to hear from you and share my story. I'm going to add my birth story to the blog later, but for now here is an e-mail that Chad has sent to his colleagues at work on June 24th:

For those of you that play Halo, read on. For those of you that don’t, skip to the bottom for translation/additional details.

As the sun rose on a crisp summer Saturday morning in June, the rumblings of an impending battle started brewing in the south. As the day progressed skirmishes erupted between Master Chief’s SPARTAN brethren and the invading armies every few minutes. As the sun past high overhead, the attacks were almost constant requiring the urgent attention of the SPARTAN medical officers. For one brave soul, arrival at the medical corps couldn't’t have come soon enough. The pain of her condition would have been terrible, almost tearing her apart, save for her keen ability to focus her mental powers elsewhere. By evening, however, even her mental redirection had broken down and stimpaks had to be broken out to assist her. They worked for a while, but by the following morning, little energy remained in her to continue the fight. At 6:53 AM, surgeons moved in to bring forth a new generation of SPARTAN warrior.

Code named “Genevieve,” the new warrior is undergoing extensive testing. In holding her head high, she already displays the characteristic almost inhuman strength of the SPARTAN, but without her armor. The remainder of her MJOLNIR armor is currently being fabricated to fit her 18 ¼”, 6 lb. 9 oz. size. Testing has also revealed that the new generation of SPARTAN comes equipped with an infinite supply of biological sticky grenades capable of sending even the most hardened enemy fleeing for their life.

A photo of the new SPARTAN generation has leaked from the UNSC Top Secret files:



Translation
My wife started laboring Saturday morning (her actual due date), and we headed to the hospital 3 hours later with 2 minute contractions. We were using Hypnosis for Birth, which is a series of relaxation techniques to help reduce the level of pain. Unfortunately, the baby wasn’t cooperating. She was “sunny side up,” which is incredibly painful for the mother due to additional pressure on the tailbone. We had hoped to have an all-natural birth, but in the end, we had to accept an epidural. By 6:30 A.M., after 20 hours of labor, the last 3 of which were spent actively pushing, the baby had turned, but not enough. Exhausted and overwhelmed with pain despite the epidural, we found ourselves in the unfortunate position of requiring an unplanned C-section with a wedged baby. Genevieve Ella Willwerth was born at 6:53 A.M., Sunday, June 22. She was 18 ¼” and 6 lbs. 9 oz. She is very calm, very alert, sleeps for hours and hours on end (even through the night last night), and surprised us by holding her head up already. Mom is not doing nearly as well as Genevieve with pretty severe pain from the surgery, but she is managing. Oh, and Mom hasn’t changed a diaper yet…

Genevieve practicing her air guitar for Rock Band:




As you can see Genevieve has a touch of Jaundice, hopefully this will go away soon. Below is the message my dad sent out regarding Genevieve's arrival.
On Sunday, June 22 nd, after 18 hours of delay, Genevieve Ella Willwerth made her appearance into this world at valley Medical Hospital. The daughter of Dixie and Chad Willwerth, she weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 ozs. and measured 18 1/4" long. As you can see, all are doing (and looking ) great.

Click this link to see pictures: Genevieve

Friday, June 20, 2008

My message to my due date club

Up until today I was not ready at all for Genevieve's arrival. Now all my ducks are in a row. School is out, so I'm done with work. My in-laws flew into town last night. Everything is ready to go. Nobody thought I would make it do my due date because I'm so little (4'11"). My due date is tomorrow so I keep thinking, OK any time now. I haven't felt any contractions whatsoever. I am 70% effaced and 1 cm dilated, but I have been that way for over a week and half. I keep thinking, how do I get the message to her that we are ready now? :) I think it's crazy that I'm feeling this way and we aren't even to her due date yet. It just seems like everyone else has their baby before they even get to their due date. The longer it takes the more it seems surreal. It has been surreal enough as it is having this being living inside of me, but it seems more surreal now. It's like, hmmmm maybe she'll never come. Of course I know she will. It's just a strange feeling of the unknown and I have never done well with dealing with the unknown. Please send labor vibes my way. Everyone here is ready, we just need Genevieve to be ready. I guess she wants to make everyone sweat it out for her grand entrance.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Dr. Appointment

Had a doctor's appointment Wednesday, June 18th. Still 70% effaced and 1 centimeter dilated. Genevieve seems to be a lower. Looks like she'll still be hanging out a while. Chad's parents come into town tonight at 8:40. Lots to do before then. Last day of work today too. Woo hoo!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Baby Update

We had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday the 11th. Apparently at that time I was 70 % effaced and 1 cm dilated. Genevieve is in the vertex position (head down), low but not completely dropped. It looks like all systems are a go.

We made it to Avenue Q! If you ever get the chance to see this I highly recommend it. It is in town for a while longer. Keep in mind that even though this show has puppets, it is NOT for kids.





We celebrated Father's Day at Travis and Sarah's house. I'm so thankful that we have a day to celebrate my dad. I'm sure we take him for granted way to often. He truly is always there for us. We love you dad!
TJ sure is getting big. :)




It's gotten to the point where everyone I call I have to say up front, "This is not the baby call". Every one is waiting to hear "The baby call". Chad and I both feel like we finally have all our ducks in a row and now it's just a waiting game for Genevieve to come. Chad is working from home for here on out and I am taking half days or entire days off and Thursday is my last day of work. We are thankful she waited until we were ready, now we'll see how much longer we have to wait. She could come as late as July 5th! I can't imagine. But we will both be patient (no inductions unless she is past two weeks late) and wait because we know good things come to those who wait.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Happy Birthday to me

Honestly not too much has happened since my last blog entry, however I felt like it has been a while since I have blogged so it's probably time. June 2nd was my birthday. We celebrated with the family on June 1st. It was a weird birthday for me. It didn't really feel like my birthday. I think this is because everything has been revolved around getting ready for Genevieve's arrival that it felt weird to stop and take some time to celebrate my day. At any rate, we all got together to celebrate. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep to well that night. My stomach was very upset and I was up half the night. I went to work on the 2nd (my birthday) and was feeling very sluggish due to lack of sleep the night before. Mom took me out to lunch and she said afterwards that I didn't really seem like myself. I realize now that I probably wasn't feeling 100% then either. I got home from work and was feeling nauseous and yucky. Usually this is a sign that I need to eat something. So I tried to eat the only thing that sounded palatable at the time and that was chicken noodle soup. Well it didn't stay down for long. I must have caught a bug or something. This was very different from the nauseous I feel due to being pregnant. What a birthday present huh? I'm not sick all winter but my birthday comes around, well Happy Birthday to me. It wasn't too bad though, it only lasted about 24 hours. Chad came home that day with beautiful flowers. How sweet huh? Hmmm not really. He says, "I don't know who they are from". His grandparents sent me flowers for my birthday. It was very sweet of them. Also I got a Willow Tree figurine from Chad's parents called Cherish (see picture). Chad got me the new Sweeney Todd DVD, the collectors edition of Singing in the Rain and the Avenue Q CD (very funny). Thanks to Jennifer and Eric for the Borders gift cards, Travis, Sarah and TJ for the Olive garden gift card and to mom and dad for the spending money. Dad also presented to me a painting that he had done for the nursery. We love it! I'll need to grab a picture of that to add to the blog as well.









We had another ultrasound on the 4th. There wasn't really anything new at this appointment. The one picture we got was blurry and not worth posting. Everything still looks good. Baby's head is down and everything is as it should be. My puffy feet are permanently puffy regardless of how much I keep them up but some days are definitely better than others. I'm still sleeping pretty good but some nights I have to get up for a little bit because my hips are too sore. I really can't complain too much. Everyone keeps asking me if I am ready for Genevieve yet. I usually say I will be after everything at work gets squared away. Of course if she came today I would still be ready, it'll just be easier for me to relax after the 19th. I've been trying to take it easy as much as possible and have even worked a couple days from home which has help immensely. Thankfully there is only a week and a half left of school and I plan on taking a handful of those days off. This Wednesday we have an appointment with a pediatrician we are checking out. This upcoming weekend Chad has "Daddy Boot Camp" which he is looking forward to. We also have Avenue Q (see below), which I have been looking forward to for some time. I keep hoping we actually make it. We are in the window of time where I could deliver at any time. 80% of women deliver either two weeks before or two weeks after their due date.
AVENUE Q is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He soon discovers that the only neighborhood in his price range is Avenue Q; still, the neighbors seem nice. There's Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fianceƩ Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his roommate Rod -- a Republican investment banker who seems to have some sort of secret; an Internet addict called Trekkie Monster; and a very cute kindergarten teaching assistant named Kate. And would you believe the building's superintendent is Gary Coleman?!? (Yes, that Gary Coleman.) Together, Princeton and his new found friends struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life.
Keep your fingers crossed that Chad and I will get to go to Avenue Q. I'll let you know how it is. Wow it is just donning on me how close we really are to the due date. It's a scary thought, but we'll figure it out as we go like all parents do.