She's FINALLY here!

We are pleased to introduce our precious little girl... :)

Jenna Marie Borton!

She was born on Friday, January 2nd at 1:32 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces and is 21 inches long.

On Thursday evening (Jan 1) around 8:00 pm I started noticing my contractions were becoming more consistent and were about 7 minutes apart. By 10:30 pm they were 4 minutes apart, so Drew and I headed to the hospital.

The nurse checked me out and I was only 4-5 cm dilated (the same amount I was that Tuesday at my doctor appt), so the doctor wanted us to stay for 2 hours and then be checked out again. If I had progressed, they were going to admit us, but if I had not, they were going to send us home. So we waited 2 hours, and around 1:30am she informed us that we were going home since I hadn't dilated anymore. However, she noticed some inconsistencies with the baby's heartbeat on the monitor, so the doctor requested that we stay overnight. Then around 5am the nurse checked me again. I was a full 5 cm dilated, and soon after was admitted to the hospital as being "in labor." By about 9:00am I was at 6 cm and then by 11:40a I was at 8cm. At this point the contractions were VERY intense and I was debating about getting an epidural. I decided to wait another 1/2 hour until the nurse checked me again to see if I had progressed. If I had, I was going to go for it without any medication; however, if I had not progressed, I was going to go for the meds!! Thankfully the labor progressed quickly and by 12:20p I was at 9cm, and then by about 1:00p I was at 10cm. Baby Jenna arrived at 1:32pm...yeah!!


Here are a few pictures from our time in the hospital...

More pictures of Jenna's first week and a half to come!

Jenna's Room

Well, we have Jenna's room all ready for her! Now it's just a matter of waiting...and waiting...and waiting for her arrival. I have to say, Drew and I are getting pretty impatient. We're ready to meet our little girl.

We were thinking she might make her debut over the past few days, but I guess it's not the right time yet. I've been doing what I can to get this labor started - going on lots of walks, cleaning (a lady at work said I needed to get on my hands and knees and scrub the floors)...I even got a pedicure (thanks Drew and Chris for the great Christmas gift!) and had the lady massage an area of my foot that *supposedly* brings on labor. I guess she'll come when she's ready and when it's God's timing.

In other news, we had a wonderful Christmas together and with family. We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family Monday, my dad's side on Thursday, my immediate family on Friday, and Drew and my Christmas on Christmas morning. I got Drew a jersey and pants for his dirt bike and he got me a CRICUT! A Cricut is a machine that cuts out letters and shapes - perfect for scrapbooking and projects. He completely surprised me!!

We couldn't leave Bailey out. He got some Scooby Snacks in his stocking.

Happy Thanksgiving

Drew's mom, sister, brother-in-law, and brother all flew to beautiful Troy, Ohio for Thanksgiving (and Christmas). It was so nice having the entire family together again. We had a great time together hanging out and just catching up. We also got a Christmas tree and decorated it so we could celebrate Christmas too.

The women cooked a delicious Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings.

Christmas tree hunting...Chris found the perfect tree

Bailey was all ready to celebrate Christmas. Brian got him the Santa hat...too funny!

Wow! So much has happened lately that I haven't been very good about updating. First of all, here are some pics from when Cathy and Chris flew out in October to help us paint Jenna's room.

Cathy did a wonderful job painting our chair rail

Drew and Chris primed the walls and did about 99% of the painting. I helped a little...

Drew and Chris also installed an overhead fan since it can get pretty warm upstairs in the summertime.

About a week ago, Drew and I put up the border in the room.

We actually don't have any pictures yet of the finished room. That's probably because I want everything to be in it's place for the picture and I just haven't had time to do that yet. Plus we've had three showers and I'm still working on getting everything put away from them. My friends from church threw us a shower...here are some pictures from that:

The second shower was thrown by my sister over Thanksgiving weekend. It was a family shower, which was perfect because Drew's mom and sister were in town as well as my cousins so the whole family was there. We had a great time. I don't the pictures of that yet, but I'll post them when I get them.

My third shower was actually thrown by my students at school...actually, the parent of one of my students organized it, but the students really enjoyed throwing a surprise party for me. They did a great job of keeping it a secret too! The parent who threw the shower was there and also took some pictures, so I'll post those also when I get them from her.

Drew and I have been very blessed with great friends and family who have already showered our little one with so many gifts. We're excited to welcome our little girl into the world...soon. Only about 4 weeks to go!

Ultrasound at 32 weeks

Kristin had an ultrasound on Wed. of last week to check and make sure that Jenna was healthy and growing well. The measurements they took all came back normal, and they estimated her weight at 4lbs 13oz, which is the 75th percentile. The estimates can be high or low by up to a pound, though, so we're not really reading too much into that. The ultrasound tech took a measurement of her femur, though, and said it looked like she was going to be fairly long. Who would have thought? :)

Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound - it was so fun getting to see Jenna, especially in 3-D. The first picture is the best. The second one she looks bored out of her mind. The 2-D picture is kind of cool, too - while watching her on that view, we could actually see her stick her tongue out. I hope that's not a sign!

Wow, only 6 1/2 weeks left! I can't believe it...

Our new fireplace (finally!)

Well, we finally finished our fireplace! I guess it's been about a month and a half since it's been done, but I just haven't written anything about it. :) Kristin and I (along with our neighbor) built our backyard fence last summer, but that's the extent of home project experience that we've had. This was a daunting project to say the least, but I had another neighbor down the street who encouraged me to go for it. He had put a fireplace in his house that looked very similar to what I wanted, so I knew he'd be able to help if we got in a jam. Plus, he had a bunch of tools that he let me borrow. Definitly couldn't have done it without him!

Other than installing the actual fireplace unit (e.g., setting up the fire box, punching a hole through the wall for exhaust, and running the gas line), Kristin and I did it all ourselves. It was a great learning experience, and has given me confidence to do more projects like that in the future. Next up, a deck! Maybe... :)

Here are the before, during, and after pictures...

7th month pregnancy pics

I'll have to make this quick...Drew and I need to wolf down some dinner and then head to a 2-hour birthing class tonight. :)

Here are my most recent pregnancy pics from the last week of my 7th month. I'm now officially in my 8th month - can you believe it?! In fact, I only have 7 1/2 weeks until my due date. Wow!

Tomorrow Drew and I have an ultrasound to check on Jenna. My belly measured a little small at my last doctor appointment so they just want to take some measurements and make sure she's doing alright. We're a little nervous, but also excited to be able to see her again. So pretty soon I'll have some more pictures to post of our little baby girl at 32 weeks.

Also, COMING SOON...pics from when Cathy and Chris were in town to help us paint Jenna's room. It's now painted and we're hopefully going to put the border up within the next week.