Annie's 1st Christmas

Annie will be three weeks old tomorrow and just celebrated her 1st Christmas. We packed things up and headed to my parents for the weekend. We had a good time hanging out with our family and getting a break thanks to everyone. The weather was definately different, from snow to 55 degrees, to ice. I believe that my niece and nephew Lillian and James are the 1st to be able to sled down the driveway, due to the ice.

For the most part Annie did pretty well, Wednesday night was a little rough but Thursday and Friday went well.

Almost 2 weeks down

Well tomorrow will mark two weeks sense Annie was born. It has been the most interesting and hardest two weeks of our lives. Nothing we have ever done has required our attention all day, every day. Still we wouldn't trade this time for anything else, except maybe a full nights sleep. Annie continues to do well and is sleeping and eating better. We are all still figuring each other out with what works and doesn't, so we continue to learn. We did venture out as a family on Friday to our neighborhood small group. It was nice to be able to get out together and talk to our friends about our experiences and receive encouragement.

Hanging with Annie

Taking a snooze

Annie with Grandma Derringer

Hanging with my ladies

Well it is Day 4 of being home and I am discovering how much sleep is actually required to function. Apperently aroud 4 a night. Annie started out pretty fussey but seems to be improving every day. Nursing is going well and Annie just started to be able to sleep without someone holding her. We have been so greatful for friends and family for providing food and helping out. Thank you Mom for helping today, that was great. Below are a few more pics from the past few days.

Galadriel holding Annie ( in the background you can see their daughter, who just turned 1. It's interesting to see what Annie will be like in a year,)

Getting ready to go home

Well we got her home, Now what?

Annie with her Grandpa Stursma

Annie with her Great Grandpa and Grandma Stursma. (To Grandma's defense, Annie was getting hungry.)

Finally sleeping on her own

We're Home

Just thought I would quick post that Carol, Annie, and I got home this afternoon around 4:30. All three of us are trying to take it easy by hanging out in the living room. A little supper for Carol and I and a feeding for Annie. Carol is napping on the couch and Annie is asleep on the floor. It's nice to be home but a little scary, no nurses to help tonight.

Annie went through some tests today for her kidney and is showing some reflux. She will be on a small dose of antibiotics to keep her urine clean, this is to keep infections away from her kidney. We will have a follow in 2 weeks and see if anything has changed by then.

More new pics

Well it's Wednesday morning and Carol is busy feeding Annie. We are waiting to have one more test done to look at her kidney, and then so far the plan is to some time in the afternoon we will head home. We pray that the tests come back alright and things continue to go well.

Foot Prints

1st bath, as you can see, she loved it.

The Family

Annie with her Grandma

Annie with Aunt Angie

Baby Pics

She's here!!

Adrianna Danielle (Annie), Is here!! Annie was born at 8:02 pm, and weighed 8lbs 11 ounces. She is 20.5 inches long and doing well. Carol go roughed up by the delivery some, but is resting well. She pushed for about 3 hours and needed some help by the vac to get Annie out. Her head was a little tilted which made it difficult. I will try to get some pictures posted soon.

Love,
Dan & Carol

Labor Progress

Well we got to the hospital around 7:30 this morning. After getting settled in they started the induction around 10. Carol was already dialated enough that they decided to go ahead and break her water. She continues to have some strong, very regular contractions and hopefully will be able start pushing some time soon.

Last Pregnancy Picture

Well time is almost here. We will be going in tomorrow at 7:30 to start the induction. We pray that the delivery goes smoothly and quickly. With the pending delivery of our daughter we thought we better post one last picture of Carol pregnant. I can't believe it has been 8 months from when we found out Carol was pregnant to the evening before Carol goes into labor.

We appreciate all the support from all our family and friends up to this point and will definately appreciate any help after she is born.

I will try to post some updates through the day and post some pictures once she is born.

VerPloeg Baby Shower

We had a couples baby shower for Carol and I today on the VerPloeg side. It was a good time being able to visit with the family, and we got a lot of good gifts. We all fit in our cousin Andrea's condo, making it nice and cozy. Unfortunately the weather did get kind of bad by the end of the shower with things getting slick, so hopefully everyone was able to get home alright.

What's wrong with our geese?

It's going to be December tomorrow, it's snowing, and it's cold out. What are they waiting for? There were 100's of them in the field across the street this morning, just hanging out apperently waiting for the weather to get really bad before they head south.

Things to come

Today the realization of things to come came in two forms. One is that winter is just around the corner. It was nice that it did get up to 57 degrees today, but this is what welcomed us this morning.

It wasn't much, and had melted by the time that we got home from church, but it is coming.

With the changing season upon us our daughter arrival is getting closer every day. We anxiously await her arrival as Carol continues to get larger and more uncomfortable. Here is Carol at just about 38 weeks.

The last ultrasound

Well we had three appointments today. The 1st was Carol's regular OB appointment this morning, which went well. Carol was happy to hear that she was released from bed rest, but I think she was enjoying sleeping in. Since she finished 36 weeks they said she was in the clear and if she went into labor they would let her go.

The second appointment was with the pediatric kidney Dr, to go over what they will do once our daughter is born. They will pretty much will just run a few tests a day or two after she is born to see how things are flowing. This will determine if she is having any reflux and determine if she needs to go on some antibiotics. Other than that they couldn't really say anything, as their patient isn't born yet.

The 3rd appointment was the final ultrasound before she is born. Everything is looking great and she has really grown. By the ultrasounds estimation our daughter weighs 7 lbs right now. Carol was a little freaked because she still has a month left, but due to the babies position and Carol's progression, Dr. Drake was pretty certain Carol would go early.

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound.

This one is different. It shows her hair!

Foot & Fist

Carol at 36 weeks

Well its been awhile sense I posted a picture of Carol so here is her at 36 weeks. She is still on "bed rest" but hopefully will be released from that at her next appointment on Tuesday. She continues to get larger and her braxton hicks contractions seem to increase in the evening. I think we are pretty much ready for the little tike, house wise that is. As for personally, its hard to believe that she will be coming soon. I believe we have settled on a name, at least for know, and everyone will find out once she is born.

It doesn't seem that long ago that we found out she was pregnant, but on the other hand it seems like she has been pregnant forever. I don't think any 1st time parent thinks they are 100% ready for a child to be born. Everything is going to change, in a good way, but it will be quite an adjustment.

Its November, That means Water Slide!

Our neighbors decided to take advantage of the upper 70's weather today, on November 2nd, and get the water slide out. It seemed a little bit crazy but it was a beautiful warm day and the kids had a blast. Carol was not to happy that she couldn't go out and enjoy the day, but Jill kept her company for some of the afternoon.

It's Getting Closer

Well Carol may be doing a lot of this.


On her last appointment on Thursday Carol was informed that she was 1 to 2 centimeters dilated and that needed to go on bed rest until her next appointment. This was the 1st time they had checked this and as far as the doctor knows she has been this way for some time. But in the mean time they want her to be idle, and if nothing changes at her next appointment on Tuesday she will be free to go back to doing what ever she wants. For Carol's sake I hope that becomes the case.

It did freak me out a little bit (a lot) when she called me after her appointment telling me she was supposed to go to Methodist to have them check her out. The bag was not packed yet!

This situation has made the realization that our daughter may be coming sooner than expected, prompting me to finish up on the baby projects. The nursery is officially done. The crown molding is up, the changing table is done, and sheets and clothes are washed. Here is a short tour of the nursery.

Visiting the Fam

After Carol got done with her shower we packed the car and headed to Osky. My brother Jason and his family were visiting and it had been to long sense we had seen them. My sister Angie and her family were around as well. Unfortunately it was still to wet to harvest corn but we still had a good time visiting with each other.

Nephew James

Niece Lillian

Newest Member, Claire

Jason taking the kids for a ride

The combine, ready to go

Neighborhood Shower

This past weekend kept us busy with baby showers and seeing my family in Osky. Saturday started out with Carol having a baby shower with our neighbors hosted by Jill and Galadriel.

She received a lot of really nice gifts, which will all come in handy once our daughter arrives. Our neighborhood is something of a rarity, with having such a large group of friends around us. We are truly blessed to have some many people care about us within one block.

I think they had the camera on nightshot for these

Mean while, as Carol was having her baby shower I was putting the finishing touches on the changing table. It has a few flaws but I think it turned out pretty well, for being my first furniture project sense high school shop.