Looking for our Wish Lists? Here they are.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008





Lillian Ashleigh






Lillian joined us on 1-23-08 at 8:56 p.m. via c-section. She weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. She was perfectly healthy and had an apgar score of 8 at birth. We both left the hospital on Saturday. Lilly weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces when we left the hospital.


She had her first pedi visit on Monday and she was up to 5 pounds, 6 ounces and he said everything looked great. She has to go back in two weeks.


Lilly loves to sleep.........if someone is holding her. She is getting used to a pacifier and is starting to get the hint that when she puts her thumb in her mouth someone takes it out. She loves to be curled all up but is stretching more and more and starting to gain some strength to push people away or pull them closer. She loves to wear hats and hates to be nekkid.


She is so much fun and we're all enjoying her immensly. I will put some pictures on here, but more are on our picasa web site. I am updating the picasa site regularly but this blog will probably be pretty sparce for awhile---we're kinda busy with other stuff :-)

Friday, January 18, 2008

A state of emergency

The half hour show I was watching on tv has had a constant icon in the upper left corner of the screen, a constant ticker at the bottom of the screen and the show has been interrupted twice now (22 minutes in) with warnings of this breaking news.....

We are in a state of "winter storm warning".

Even if one thought this was overkill, one might think the message was justified, IF....

It were not followed by the words "1-2 inches of snow are expected within the next 48 hours, no accumulation is expected."

Yes, I would definintly call that a winter storm warning worthy of constant announcement....

only in Virginia.


UPDATE AS OF SUNDAY MORNING: We received MAYBE 5 flakes of snow total yesterday, mixed in with the constant rain. This morning is bright and sunshiney, no sign of the "state of emergency" this state was expecting. Big surprise! I wonder what everyone will do with all those extra gallons of water and logs they stocked up on on Friday??

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

It's looking very much like Lillian will be a January baby.

The doc released me from the hospital this afternoon with strict orders for complete bedrest and going either to his office or the hospital every other day for testing. He said he wishes me to hold out to 36 weeks (next Friday, the 25th) and then he will induce. However he said if I gain any weight or my swelling increases at all between now and then we will deliver immediately.

This is all almost over, and our Lilly will be here. THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, January 14, 2008

In the hospital...

I saw the doc this morning. As of Friday I had gained 11 pounds in two weeks and he was freaked out about my swelling (as I have been for awhile). As of this morning, I have gained three additional pounds of water since Friday.

Lillian's heartbeat is fine, I'm only having the same minor contractions, I'm only dialated to one (same for a month now), my bloodpressure, blood and urine are all fine. The only issue is the huge water retention/weight gain.

So he's decided to admit me to the hospital, not to induce labor, just to poke me incessently for a while. He said he's thinking three days right now and we'll see after that.

He does not want to take her until 36 weeks now, although he told me 34 before. I'm 34 weeks and 4 days now.

I'm fine, just very very annoyed to have to go in just to be poked rather than have a baby. R is working his normal schedule 2pm-11pm so he can take time when she actually arrives. I will have my cell phone with me-no email access though.

Thats all for now.Stace

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

We Made It!

We had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad trip. Not due to any pregnancy or health concerns though thankfully. We were supposed to leave Norfolk at 5:40pm and arrive in Chicago at 7:00pm. Instead we left Norfolk at 4:00pm and arrived in Chicago (via Dulles in DC, two cancelled flights and three airplanes) at 4:00am. Needless to say, we WILL NOT EVER AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON be flying United again. And United will be hearing from me.

However, we did eventually arrive in Chicago, and amazingly, so did all three pieces of our luggage. Mom and Dad Shipp were there to pick us up and drive us to the hotel we were staying at (over 2 hours away from the airport) and we were able to get two or three hours of sleep before spending a fantastic day and a half with Dad Shipp's side of the family.

On Sunday, we drove back from Chicago and had Christmas at Mom and Dad Shipp's house with them and Kyle and Kristen. We got lots of baby stuff and an AMAZING rug from my Aunt Bettie that my Great Aunt Mae made.

On New Years Eve we had lunch at Rugerro's (YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY) and ran some quick errands. Richard went with his parents to see I am Ledgend and I went with mom to see PS I Love You (not nearly as good as the book). Then we all met up at Richard's grandparents house for a New Year's Eve party.

This morning, we started out 2008 with a good 9 inches of snow outside and Richard is estatic. I'm just wondering how that's going to work out with the flip flops I have that are the only shoes that fit my feet.....we'll see.