Ethan is Home

Our plans to be induced on Monday were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Ethan James Mellema! Born Friday, March 12 at 3:03pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 9oz, and measured 21.75in. We just took Ethan home for the first time. He's doing great. Here are some photos from the hospital.


Ethan had a few bumps on the ride out, resulting in some bruising on his head. I guess the nurses wanted to let the hospital staff know about it.

uh oh

Steve is sick. What timing :( Please pray that I don't get it and that he gets over it very quickly and can be clear-headed in time for the delivery. So far just looks like a bad cold, sore throat and general feeling yucky and he was able to sleep for several hours this afternoon so hopefully he'll rest and get over it quickly.

it's on

I'm on the hospital's schedule to be induced a week from today! It feels pretty surreal that this is my final week of being pregnant with this little guy. If you have any positive induction stories, I'd love to hear them :) Any induction horror stories can wait for a few weeks, haha.

Here I am at 38wks

Now I need to charge my camera battery, and start putting together a list of stuff that needs to go to the hospital with us. Should have had this done a while back, but better late than never. Oh, and install the car seat. I could totally relate to Jim and Pam carrying the entire car seat base and all, around with them. That's been us. (sorry if you're not a fan of that show!)

37 weeks

According to the weekly emails I get telling me about the development of the baby, I am now full term! And so, very fittingly, I started out the week waking up to contractions :) Early Tuesday morning I woke up to short contractions every 10ish minutes, and it went on that way for a whole 2.5 hours. After I got up and ate something they got really short and eventually went away. It definitely made me realize that this baby could truly come at any time! And also is kind of an answer to prayer, that even if I end up being induced, that I'd be ready for it anyway, and hopefully be an easy induction. We'll see in just 12 short days!

36 weeks

It seems like the last few days especially my level of comfort has dropped significantly. I am sure it's nothing compared to many people, there's really nothing in particular that's terrible it's just the combination of everything. And at my last few doctors appointments we've been talking about an induction on March 15 if baby does not come on his own before then. That's only 16 days away! So we're going to be busy getting all of his stuff in order before then... car seat installed, clothes washed and put away, etc.

Oh, and as an update on our house - we had a couple say that it's on their top 2 houses, they're still looking but they liked our house. So we decided that it's time to drop the price a bit to see if they will just make us an offer. It would be so great to get that off our minds soon.

photo shoot!

34 and 35

Ok, only 4.5 weeks to go! I know that's a rough estimate, but it certainly is getting close.

Here's me at 34 weeks

Here's me at 35 weeks

I certainly can't believe how big he's gotten over the past few weeks. He's starting to run out of room :) It's been a really fun and busy last few weeks too. My mom visited at the beginning of the month, and we got a lot done as well as had a lot of fun. She happens to be an excellent seamstress, so I put her to work making me some pj's and lounge wear. I figure that I'll be wearing sweats quite a bit for the next few months and it's nice to have some that fit me now too.

After our crafting, we had a little ladies brunch that turned into a family brunch/shower at an amazing restaurant downtown. My sister in law Laura made me a "blessing box" to fill with encouraging notes from friends and family members! I got to open up the notes and read each one as we ate, and I was overwhelmed by the touching notes that I received.

And then just this past weekend my good girlfriends from college drove up from Chicago and even further to spend the weekend with me before Baby Mellema arrives. I was amazed that they'd spend their Valentine's weekend on the road to see me, and loved having them over. My friend Holly also brought up her camera, and took some maternity shots which I'll be posting too! I'm blown away by her abilities, it was a blessing to have some professional shots to document my third trimester :)