hello world!

We would like to share the exciting news of the arrival of our daugher Olive Suzanne Thiel. She was born on July 25, 2009 at 12:17 in the afternoon (just in time for lunch – that's my girl). Mother and baby are doing well and we will be staying at the hospital until mid day on Monday. We thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes as we went through the labor and delivery process and a special shout out to Erik, Sarah, and Bailey for watching our other - 4-legged furry baby.

and the stats:

6lbs 10oz

19.5in long

Oh and ...

The repair person fixed our refrigerator for a reasonable price and now it is functioning AND producing ice and water from the door!

Woo Hoo!

Another Appointment Down ... Another One Scheduled ...

Today we saw our doctor. Not much has changed since last week.

Things are happening - not too fast (in fact, some might say, very, very slowly) ... Baby Thiel could come tomorrow ... or some time next week ... or the following week.

Our doctor suggested that we schedule another appointment for next Tuesday (and we did). But as we left, she said, "Tonight is a good night for the baby to come. I'm on call."

So, we have no new information and are TRYING to be content with a "here, there, anywhere" answer ...

We'll let you know when Baby Thiel is here, whenever he or she decides to make an appearance ...

- H

New photos!

Our floors are done (but for a few things that are ours to finish). Baby Thiel's room is ALMOST complete. Other rooms in the house are also falling into place. Yay!!

A few photos of the baby's room:







A new letter:



And our first number:



While Baby Thiel's imminent arrival is overwhelming and exciting, Kyle and I have both moved from "not quite ready for baby" to "yes, we are ready for baby to be here!" (well, as ready as you can be to be first time parents, I'd imagine).

But Baby Thiel seems perfectly content in its current home. We do have an appointment with our doctor tomorrow - maybe that assessment will change. We'll let you know!

(Oh! and Kyle is meeting with a GE repair person tomorrow morning. Here's hoping he brings not TOO bad news!)

- H

When the first question you ask ...

the appliance repair company is "Do you work on refrigerator/freezers?," you do not expect the (very friendly) repair person to arrive, take a gander at your refrigerator, listen to your husband's explanations of its troubles, and tell you "We do not do THAT kind of work on refrigerator/freezers. I suggest that you ..."

Fun. But the noise stopped. Maybe the refrigerator/freezer is miraculously fixed. I don't really think so.

Our floors are in their final day - trim! So the last finish coat was applied yesterday and we can officially move furniture back to our second floor beginning TOMORROW!!! THIS is GOOD news.

- H

When you think someone is ...

tap-dancing in your kitchen and it turns out to be your refrigerator, it doesn't bode well for a) a restful night, b) the stock of food in your refrigerator, or c) your budget that doesn't necessarily include a new refrigerator at this time, thank-you-very-much. Shopping for appliances sounds like date night, right?

We'll have to wait and see what the repair person has to say tomorrow morning. Patience is hard.

- H

So ...

We went to the doc yesterday (our appointments are weekly, but not necessarily 7 days apart). Things continue to 'progress' but she gave no indication of when we might expect Baby Thiel to make his or her appearance other than reminding us that:

"90% of all babies are born within a 1-week window of their expected due date."

We'll see if we are 90% or 10% here in the next few days/weeks. Other than that, the baby's heart beat is strong, and it is favorably positioned. I, however, am more than ready to get rid of this lovely "bowling ball with legs" feeling that currently overwhelms me!

On to other things, our floors will receive the second of three coats of 'finish' today. The schedule sets forth tomorrow as the third finish coat and Friday as the day for trim. The transformation has really been amazing. So, if the schedule holds, we will be moving furniture up (or down if it is on the third floor) to the second floor this weekend. Very, very exciting. We may have photos of an assembled baby's room to post in the near future!!!

And finally, yesterday was our second anniversary. We didn't plan much as the uncertainty of baby and floors has made planning a bit hazardous. However, we went to dinner at a restaurant near us called Acero. Very very yummy Italian inspired food. Adding a glass of wine to savor through the meal would have been a wonderful splurge (next time!), but the food and company were splurge enough. Who knew that two years could fly so fast or bring so many wonderful things into our lives?! We did take in a movie last weekend as an added anniversary celebration (movies on weeknights are harder to swing, full time employment and all). The new Pixar flick 'Up' was wonderful, and a bit sentimental (I maintain this is NOT just my pregnancy hormones making another appearance).

Hoping to soon post fun pics of our home and little one ...

- H

stained and barking?

master bedroom
master bedroom (other direction)
the hallway into the nursery

as you can see and from heather's outburst below our floors have gone from red oak to red-red oak. it nicely matches the downstairs floors (our intent) and hopefully the remainder of the finishing process goes smoothly. hopefully the workers will show up monday morning to continue work on the stairs - there are 4 treads as yet not replaced. they are "pie" shaped and so require some special carpentry to complete. we are looking forward to the complete project.

ps: zoe is sleep-barking at my feet right now, its pretty darn cute.

Woooooo Hooooooo!!!!!!!

Our floors are stained, our floors are stained, our floors are stained!!!
Our floors are stained, our floors are stained, our floors are stained!!!
Our floors are stained, our floors are stained, our floors are stained!!!

(Still some work to do, but yyyaaayyy!!!!)

- H

Not much to report ...

We went to the doc yesterday. We're still in a bit of a doctor scramble since ours is out on maternity leave, but this woman was friendly and efficient. The baby's heartbeat is strong, its head is down, and my measurements are not unusual - although my belly seems stalled at 36.5cms. No one seems concerned about that.

All current signs point to the baby holding off until post-floor and post-all-star time. Very nice.

Oh and, today they are sanding the floors. I'm a bit worried about what I'll find when I get home, but hopefully it isn't too terribly dusty!

- H

Photos ...

The floor is progressing!

Our room



The landing



Baby Thiel's room



A new letter!

And so it begins ...

Now don't freak out and think that I'm blogging while the baby's arrival is imminent (though in some ways it might be considered imminent)...

The floor people arrived today!!! Mr. Champion (er, Kyle talked to him and I watched Zoe, so he is a company man today) arrived almost precisely at 8a so that he and a partner could start work asap. They will be in charge of the carpet removal and floor installation, and another team will arrive for the sanding, staining, sealing. But - woo hoo!!! - the ball has begun rolling.

... which also means that we are first floor dwellers (and the cats third floor dwellers). Our first floor looks like a very cluttered studio apartment. Everything we need (except the shower) is down there in order to minimize traffic upstairs. It took us quite some time to fall asleep last night; strange how in the same house we were sleeping in a 'different' bed. Zoe had a few moments of concern too, but seems to have adjusted. Similarly, the cats seem quite content with their AC-enhanced, Zoe-free zone.

And - according to the books and such - our pregnancy is officially full term! I totally don't get counting to 40 weeks if you consider 37 to be full term (and because you can't make something full-er, or more unique, or more alone, if you get my drift). But it is another milestone and we are happy to celebrate it!

And finally because we came home to realize that not only had the floor guys ripped out carpet, they had also started installing the floors ... a few photos:

Our bedroom - no furniture, with carpet.



The landing with some flooring.



More landing, more flooring


Progress, I say.

- H

doctor, doctor give me the news........

7 pounds - 2 oz (give or take a pound)

so sayeth the technician driven utrasound machine.......

heather and i made another trip to the doctor yesterday. now that we have breached the 36 week mark (see the monkey at the bottom of the page for the big countdown) we are going to be going in for a weekly visit. however, we have to change doctors because the woman we were seeing went into very very early labor herself (29 weeks!) and now is on maternity leave.  thankfully, the clinic we have been at has a large group of physicians that can help to manage the workload.  as noted above, we had another ultrasound and per usual baby thiel had no interest in smiling for the camera. we took away one image but do not think it is even worth scanning and uploading. if you really want to imagine the image stare at the text of this post, squint, and shake your head back and forth really fast.  

and the news of today our new front door was installed this morning. meaning one of the big daunting to-do's on the list gets a big o' fat check.

k