Mommy and Baby Napping

Here is a sweet pic of Mommy and Isaac. One more here.

Welcome Isaac David Diamond

We welcomed Isaac David Diamond into the world today at 4:17a.m. Isaac tipped the scales at 9lbs 13oz! Both Baby and Mommy are resting well now. Laura is about to enjoy breakfast and Isaac is taking a snooze after a busy morning being bathed, poked and prodded.

Isaac has a full head of hair - which is dark brown with a hint of red, his Daddy's feet and Mommy's ears. He looks remarkably like his big brother Noah!

We thank God for our precious little boy!

Here are a few pics - more on the way.

Plan C

And then there's plan C. It's Friday, and we're not in the hospital, so things have changed. At my OB appointment yesterday it was determined that I'm progressing along on my own, and my induction was moved to Monday (11/2). However, the doctor didn't think that I'll make it to Monday because I'll go into labor on my own before then. So, we're still waiting! I currently think that we're going t0 have a Halloween baby...we'll find out soon.

Waiting for Little Brother

We're going to meet our baby boy this week and we're all so excited! Grammy and Grandad arrive tomorrow to take care of Noah while we're in the hospital. We've nested like crazy all weekend, and everything is clean, organized, sorted, and dog-hair free for at least a few days. We're as ready as we can be!

We have two plans for the week: Plan A is that I'll go into labor with the help of acupuncture. It worked perfectly when Noah was born, so chances are that it should work this time too. I have an appointment on Tuesday afternoon, which means baby boy could be born as early as Wednesday morning. Plan B is that my OB will induce me on my due date, which is Friday.

Either way, we'll meet our baby boy this week. We can't wait to hold him in our arms and look at his little face and tell him we love him.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

We all had fun picking out our own pumpkins at the Boy Scout pumpkin patch. As usual, we also took a lot of pictures! We ended up picking out a Daddy, Mommy, Noah and Baby pumpkin, and they're doing a great job of decorating our front porch. Noah goes to look at them every day, and he likes to arrange them in order by size. Today, he took the baby pumpkin, gave it a hug and then held it up to my belly to show baby. It was a very sweet moment!

Sweet Emma

Well, we've had quite the week with Emma. On Monday, she went in for her annual exam which included routine blood work. When her tests came back, they showed a dangerously high level of liver enzymes (should normally be below 100, but they were at 4,300). We took her back in to the vet on Friday so they could do a liver ultrasound. We were so sad to hear that her liver is very diseased - it looks "moth-eaten" on both sides and is filled with large cysts. She maybe has one-third of her liver still functioning. Her official diagnosis is liver cancer.

The surprising thing about all this news is that she has never seemed sick and it has never crossed our mind that something might be wrong with her. She is getting old (10.5 years) and slowing down, but no signs of sickness. So, there's nothing we can do to treat this, which is a blessing in a way that we don't have to struggle over treatment options and possible surgery/recovery one week before our baby boy is due.

The vet said that Emma's health could deteriorate quickly, or she might remain well for a while longer. It's really impossible to know. Of course, Matt and I are so sad at this news, but the thing that breaks our hearts is to think about how much Noah loves his dog. Noah spent the entire day on Friday asking, "Where's Emma?" and he kept saying, "Daddy bring Emma home" because he was looking forward to them both pulling up in Daddy's car.

Now that we know her diagnosis, we're petting her more and giving her more hugs and even a few table scraps. She's a good dog, and we know we do have some more good days with her, so we're just going to enjoy them.

The Great Clean-Out

Ahh, nesting... What is it about expecting a newborn that creates the need to clean everything? Whatever creates that need, this is the perfect weekend for it. It's cold and rainy and we don't have many plans. So, Noah helped us clean out the pantry and coat closet, and Matt reorganized them both (and the kitchen junk drawer) while Noah was napping. We found some old candy from Halloween 2008, so that might give you an indication of how long it's been since we've done this. Next up, Matt is going to pressure wash the front porch so we can put out a few fall decorations. Still on the agenda is cleaning out the nursery closet, finish washing baby clothes and putting them away. Not too bad! Here's a couple more pictures from today.

Peek-A-Boo!

Here is the sweetest little glimpse of baby boy's face! I couldn't wait to share it with you! I am 37.5 weeks pregnant now, so baby boy will be joining us in about two weeks! I had a doctor's appointment today so that they could check to see if I'm having contractions. Baby boy was too active during the tests, so they decided to do an ultrasound instead. Everything looks perfect - baby boy measures perfectly and currently weighs 7lb 6oz. I could see him practicing breathing and playing with the umbilical cord. The cutest moment was when he yawned really wide then smacked his lips a few times. We can't wait to meet you in person, baby boy!!

Fire Station Open House

Fire trucks are one of Noah's absolute favorite things, so we were so excited to take him to the open house at the new Cornelius fire station. He's been to our neighborhood fire station before, and he saw fire trucks close-up on July 4th, but today was different. Something about the firetrucks was quite scary to him. I've read that two-year-olds can suddenly become afraid of familiar things, so maybe that was what happened. And, the trucks are really huge and can be pretty overwhelming. Noah did like being at the fire station, but we were there for quite a while before he wanted to go near the trucks. You can see from the pictures that he looks quite tortured in some of them! Then, after we had been there for a while, he became quite brave and started walking around by himself and exploring.

Cookies For Grammy

Noah and I had fun making Cranberry Hootycreek cookies to send to Grammy for her birthday. Noah measured every ingredient by himself (with just a little help from me, but don't tell him!), whisked them together and helped add them to the mixer. He helped scoop out cookies for the first tray and liked looking in the oven to watch them bake. After the first tray, he usually considers his work done and goes off to play. He's really becoming quite the little cook! Here's a few more pictures.