Our baby girl was born two days ahead of my scheduled c-section (surprising!), and we are home from the hospital and enjoying our new baby girl. Her name is Elisabeth, and I’m absolutely in love.

She was 7lbs. 4oz. at birth and measured in at 20 inches in length. She is our smallest baby so far, but she is doing very well.

I’ll write more later as I have time. I just wanted to pop in to let you know that I did have the baby, all went well, and our family is adjusting well to life with a newborn.

Well, in less than 96 hours, I will have given birth to our 5th child. The time has finally arrived, and we are thrilled. I reached the point a couple of weeks ago where I decided that I was really ready for this pregnancy to end. I think it was about the time my weight decided to jump a couple of pounds and my back started to bother me again. I’ve also been having contractions and some other signs of that my body is getting ready for this pregnancy to be over, too.

This Friday, it will be! And we’ll be able to hold our new daughter in our arms. I can’t wait.

In the meantime, we’ve been busy getting things ready for Christmas, grocery shopping to make sure our fridge/freezer are stocked, cleaning and rearranging for the baby, and spending time together as a family.

I think we are just about ready. I have to finish up finals for 2 of my classes and submit a final project for a third class, and then I’ll be completely finished with the Fall semester at school. I should have this done by Thursday night. The following morning will be baby-time.

And here’s what else I’ve been up to:

:: Remember how I commented on not having found many baby blankets? I was blessed just today with plenty of blankets from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Very thankful!

:: I’ve gained 31 pounds – just over my goal. I wanted to stay under 30 pounds, but I honestly having been helping myself the last few weeks. I haven’t been walking like I had previously been, and we’ve eaten out a few times, which NEVER helps.

:: I’ll have my last non-stress test on Tuesday.

:: The stroller and car seat arrived via UPS. The pattern on the car seat is pleasantly more feminine than it appeared online.

:: After going back and forth about where the baby will sleep, we finally decided to purchase a simple, easy-on-the-budget crib. We’ve always been co-sleepers with our babies, but since our two youngest boys still end up in our bed almost every night, we thought that this was the best way to go. The crib is going to go right next to our bed so that I can easily place the baby in the crib to sleep, and she’ll easily be within arms reach.

:: I think we’ve decided that the baby’s name will be…..Elisabeth Grace. It’ll be Elisabeth for sure because we’ve been calling her by name lately and we even purchased an ornament at the mall with all of our names on it – including Elisabeth’s. That means the her first name absolutely must remain, Elisabeth.

:: I finally purchased a pack of newborn diapers and one package of size 1 diapers. They’re so tiny and cute.

:: I can’t believe I’ll be nursing again by the end of the week, and I’m hoping that I won’t have the excruciating pain I did with my last two children. I decided to pack my nursing cover this time around (I don’t know why I never did this before), and some Lanolin cream. Maybe if I get started early with the lanolin cream, I won’t be in so much pain. I know some people say that breastfeeding isn’t supposed to hurt, but I’ve only met ONE person in my life who ever said that it didn’t hurt for them in the beginning.

:: I’m just really happy to be able to meet our new daughter this week!

I have less than 2 weeks to go in this pregnancy, and time seems to be winding down rather quickly now. There’s no real sign of me going into labor on my own, so we’re making preparations to meet our new baby girl in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Here’s what life has been like:

:: I’ve gained 28 lbs. thus far – not too bad since we just celebrated Thanksgiving. I’ve been hoping to stay under 30 lbs. altogether.

:: We purchased a car seat and stroller thanks to generous friends. You can take a look at it on Target’s website. I paid just about $81 for it shipped and all, though, because it was 30% off when I bought it, and I used a $10 Target gift card that I had.

:: I’ve been having contractions, but not real ‘labor’ contractions. Shucks!

:: After more prayer and research, I’ve decided not to have my tubes tied at this time. I was almost sure I was going to go through the tubal ligation and told my doctor that I was 90% sure I wanted it, but have since decided not to. We’ve decided we are going to practice natural family planning with a method referred to me by a friend.

:: I’m back to being nauseous at times.

:: Some days, my energy level is great, and other days, I feel sapped of energy most of the day. Those are hard days.

:: I’m happy to find out that the hospital I’m staying in has wi-fi. Yay! I hope this means my room WILL have wi-fi. We’ll see. I’m going to have Ruben bring me my laptop either the first or second day I’m in the hospital. I’m hoping to actually write at least a few blog posts while I’m there.

:: I made a big shopping trip today to stock up on easy foods to prepare over the next weeks. As a result, our freezer is looking pretty good, but I’ll probably do one more big shop next week to make sure that we are well stocked and good to go for quick and easy meals after the baby is born.

:: I still only have 5 baby blankets (pictured ). I went through one last box in the garage hoping to find more but to no avail. I guess I’m going to have to give in and just buy more at prices I’d rather not. Oh well.

:: David, our youngest and the child who for almost 8 months denied there was a baby inside of me, have fully embraced the thought that there’s a baby in mommy’s tummy and he even tells others now. Finally!

:: We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with “just us” for the first part of the day. We had fun visiting extended family later on in the day.