Noelle Marie

After being scheduled to be induced last Wednesday evening, my water broke on it's own at 2pm and within nine hours our daughter, Noelle Marie, was born.

She weighed 8lbs exactly and was 19 inches long. You can see more pictures of her here. You can read more about her at my sister's blog, here.

I think she is beautiful. I'm in love. I'm not sure how to write about this experience. So I'll save it for another day. I will just say, there are moments I'm not entirely sure I can go on, but God's presence is near and each day is miraculously better then the last. No one could have prepared me for the equal parts despair and joy which have saturated this experience.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all the love and support we've received. I am even more overwhelmed by the beautiful gift God has given us.

Scheduled to be Induced

I just got back from the doctor's office this morning, and he has mercifully scheduled me to be induced tonight at 9. Dwayne and I will arrive at the hospital by 8:30pm. The Taylor Tot was due a week ago today.

I think Dr. Kwon knew, before he ever set foot in the room that he was going to induce me. He has been saying all along that he didn't want to wait too long or let her get too big. He did a quick exam and then said, "That's it. You're ready. We've been patient, but it's time to get this show on the road."

I feel so relieved to have an end to the waiting. This past week has been miserable. I've been having contractions almost every night, but they never progressed into labor. However, they've been strong enough to keep me up at night, and keep me constantly on the edge of my seat wondering "Is this it? Is this it?"

I had hoped to go into labor naturally, but after a week of sleep deprivation, and constant anticipation, I'm excited to go to the hospital tonight!

Lord willing - the next time I blog, I will be showing you all a picture of our baby.

Update

There's no baby yet! But plenty of other things have been happening these days. For example, Dwayne ran the Manhattan Beach 10K Fun Run this past weekend.

He's been running three times a week about as long as I've been pregnant. So while I've managed to gain nearly 30 pounds over the last nine months, he has managed to lose 30.

Here were his specs:
Finished in 49 minutes.
Ran a 7.45 mile pace.
Ranked 657th out of 3700 runners.

I'm proud of him. He's now making plans to run other 10Ks this year, and has decided that it would be fun for me to run with him at next year's Fun Run.

Okay, babe. Whatever you say.

I personally swore off running shortly after college. Running has impressed itself upon me as something girl's do in college. I remember seeing girls up before class jogging along the side streets of IWU's campus. I still see girls out running around APU or LMU or Biola. Wherever there is a college campus there is always a girl trotting along a street, her ponytail bouncing in the sunlight.

My college roommates tried to get me to run with them. I never was very good at it, and never did enjoy it very much. But for the sake of my husband, because I love him, and because I know he enjoys doing stuff like this together - I've decided to at least think about running again. :-)