Morgan's first outing

After Morgan was born I still had two weeks of class left and a week of finals. All of my professors were AWESOME and pretty much told me I could do whatever I wanted to make everything work. It was nice to not have that stress while trying to adjust to mommyhood. So when Morgan was four days old I just wanted to go to one class where we were having the final review. My mom and I drove down to Rochester and my mom hung out with Morgan while I went to class. Afterwords we stopped at Noodles and Company. So delicous. Very interesting trying to feed her in the back booth...

Going Home

On Saturday morning the pediatrician came and Morgan was all ready to go! We finished filling out all the paperwork and just had to wait for my midwife to come up and make sure I was good to go. Unfortunately Joey had a funeral to go to that afternoon so my parents came back to bring me and Morgan home.

My friends Allie and Jolene came up from Winona to spend the day with Morgan! They were there to greet us when we arrived back home. It had started snowing on our way home and later my cousin came over and said the roads were getting pretty bad. Since they already had a two hour ride in good weather (and Jolene another 2 back home to Madison) they decided it would be better for them to just spend the night.

Love love love this pic of Jo and Morgan

Allie and Morgan

It was great having so many people wanting to snuggle with Morgan so I could get a few naps.

The hospital day 2

After everyone left late Thursday night the nurse helped Joey change Morgan's first diaper and give her her first bath.

I didn't sleep much the first night, not from being kept up from a crying baby, just from wanting to snuggle all night :)

The next morning my parents came back along with my sister, who made it back from La Crosse the night/morning before a little too late to come visit. More friends stop by all the girls from the night before plus Amy and her sister Jen and Kelly and her mom. I really enjoyed ordering free room service, and it was delicious! I was ready to order lunch but then Joey and my dad were going to Chipotle so I couldn't turn that down! num

Later in the day all of my grandparents came down as well as my cousins Allie and Erin. After that Joey's sisters and their kids came to visit. Morgan's lucky to have 4 great cousins already!  

Grandpa Randy

Joey's parents- Nana and papa

Grandma Judie

Kel

Morgan Marie is here!

On Thursday the 17th of November I woke up around 7:30 am to what I thought might be my water breaking. I woke Joey up, but he decided it was nothing, mostly because I had been freaking out all week that it was going to break and I wasn't going to know it. But I woke up again about an hour later and decided to call my midwife. She told me it probably had broken, but since I wasn't having any contractions yet I could just labor at home for awhile. (I asked her if I could quick drive down to Rochester to give my presentation I had that day in class, but she just laughed at me..)

Before we left for the hospital



As we were getting ready to leave I remembered my health insurance card was in my wallet which I had left in my car...which just happened to be in the shop getting fixed. Oops. So we drove 20 minutes in the opposite direction to the Goodyear to get it out of my car. The mechanic's face was so priceless as he lowered the car down for me, when I told him calmly my water had broken and I needed to get my insurance card to go to the hospital. But of course my wallet was in there with no insurance card (still have no idea where it went). Luckily my mom's school was right down the road so I just took hers. Finally we were on our way.

We got to the hospital around 11 and they did the test to check to see if my water had broken. Just as the nurse was about to leave to bring the test to the lab I stood up and there was no question anymore that it was broken! I had my first contractions on the way to the hospital, but they weren't too bad yet. At the doctor the day before I was at 1 cm dilated and when I got to the hospital I was at a 3.

We got moved to our room and not too long after the contractions started getting a lot worse. At some point my mom and dad got there and Joey's mom, who works at St. Francis, stopped by on her lunch break. I was surprised how quickly everything was happening! The next time I got checked I was at a 5 so they told me I could get an epidural. YAY! I feel like the anesthesiologist was outside my door
waiting for me to ask because he got there so fast. I was pain free around 3pm. It was great just laying in bed as I saw the contractions getting bigger and I felt nothing. My midwife came in around 6:15 and said I was ready to push! It was not what I had pictured in my head, or like what you see in the movies. No screaming or pain and Joey even commented how it was weird I was talking and laughing in between contractions.

Morgan Marie Larson arrived at 6:44 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce and was 19 3/4 inches long. I feel so blessed and lucky that she arrived so healthy and with a pretty easy labor. Also thankful that Joey and my mom were in the room to help. I put my mom in charge of taking pictures in the delivery room, and we should have had a practice session with the camera before...oh well.

Joey cutting the cord

our first family photo

my little peanut

Then about ten minutes later (well it seemed like ten minutes) my room was full of visitors. The first night my dad, Joey's parents, my brother, my Aunt Penny, my cousins Teagan and Kayli, and my friends Kelsey, Jayme, Brittni, Lauren, and Brianna all came to visit baby Morgan.

Cheers to a beautiful healthy baby girl :) 



Nursery

I think the nursery is pretty much done, just need a baby now :) I searched a long time for a cute theme for the nursery and I am not a fan of the color brown, and I swear everything baby girl is pink and brown! I already had the purprle rug, curtains, and paint from my room in Winona last year, so I went to JoAnn and found the purple and green fabric for the valence and went from there.

Thanks to my dad for all of the painting!

lightswitch

The changing table from a consignment sale and repainted by my dad. The monkey pictures I found on Etsy and HAD to have them. Love them!! My dad picked up the letters last week and painted them to match as well.

I had already repainted the dresser drawers purple for my room last year, so my dad just repainted the white to match the crib and make it new. I knew that the dresser was the same one my mom used when I was a baby, but my grandma was over and said she got it from a neighbor when her and my grandpa got married (51 years ago)! We got the crib from my Grandma and she sanded it and my dad was able to paint it white. Love it! My aunt Lynn made the valence with the fabric I picked out and my mom made the crib skirt. Obviously I am very lucky to have such a crafty family!

I love love love this quote and was looking for a creative way to put it somewhere in the room. I ran into a cute framed picture on Etsy, but the lady wanted 35 dollars for it! I took hers as an inspiration and an hour on Photoshop later I came up with this.

Love the banner from my baby shower that my cousin Erin made!

Also love the "poms" that my cousin found on Etsy. The colors match perfectly!! Found the glider on Craigslist but it was a denim color so my grandma reupholstered it to match with the room.

Closet!!

Shower #3!

Last Saturday I had a baby shower thrown by my family. Everything was soooo cute and it was a lot of fun! I have family gatherings a lot with my family, but it was fun to just have all the girls! A big thank you to my Aunt Penny for hosting the party at her house, to my cousin Erin for all of her fabulous decorations, and my grandma for the adorable baby cake :)

 The diaper cake from Erin and my Grandma's cake

Still trying to figure out the perfect place to hang my new decorations in the nursery!

Grandma, me, my mom, my aunt penny, and cousin Teagan

Aunt Lynn, me, and Erin

Joey's sisters Sarah and Leah, mom Laurel, and niece Riley!

So thankful to have such a loving and supportive family. Morgan will be one spoiled little girl :)

Pumpkin Carving

Last week I spent a couple nights in Mankato visiting friends from high school. It was fun just hanging out.  Lauren and Brianna both didn't have class Wednesday so we went out for a nummy lunch and decided to carve pumpkins!

I forgot to take pictures of all of us with our pumpkins. I never got around to carving the other one, just some white spray paint...  

Also while in Mankato I found my new favorite store! We stopped at Hobby Lobby to get some spray paint for the pumpkins, but I got side tracked down the scrapbooking aisle, can't resist 50% off signs! Can't wait for baby to get here so I can start my new project!

Shower #2

Last Sunday my friends in Prior Lake hosted me a baby shower. All of my friends were home from school for Angellfest the night before so I'm glad everyone could make it! Thanks to Michelle for hosting the party at her house and Lauren and Kelsey (and their moms) for putting everything together beforehand, Kelly for all her help and making my favorite dessert :) and everyone for coming!

the hostesses :)

Winona Girls

Angellfest 2011

Angellfest is an Octoberfest celebration for brain tumor research in memory of my friend Marissa Angell. Last Saturday would have been her 22nd birthday. It's a good time to get together with friends and Marissa's family to celebrate her life and raise money so someday there will be a cure for brain cancer.

Maternity Photos

I am lucky that one of my girl friends is an amazing photographer and offered to take maternity photos. She was really excited to do her first "maternity shoot". Luckily the timing worked out perfectly and we had AMAZING fall weather. When she asked a couple weeks before I was worried about being cold, but that was not the case! We took the pictures out by Lake O'Dowd in Shakopee. She took a ton of pictures but here are my favorites :)

33 weeks 

The next day I had class, but all my classes can be taken in either Rochester or Winona so Meghan offered to come with on a road trip to Winona and wanted to take some more pictures! The drive went by much faster with good company :) Luckily fall is the best time to be in Winona so she found things to do while I was in class. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Day 2 up in the bluffs.

Thanks so much Meghan!!

Winona- Shower #1

My roommate last year in Winona and also a friend from Prior Lake, Jayme, threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago. We decided to have it on a Wednesday to save time on driving. I went there straight from class in Rochester Tuesday night and then went back to Rochester Thursday morning for class. It's a lot nicer drive from Rochester to Winona then from Rochester back home! Since it was a school night a lot of people were busy or could only come for a little bit but it ended up being a lot of fun!

Jayme and her roommate Cait, the wonderful hostesses of the evening

Some of the girls: My roomie sophomore and junior year Maria, Shay, Heather, Me, Jayme, and Cait

the "Nuk" game!