date night

here we are before our date last night (i promise my stomach is not that big still, it was the dress ;)

nana and poppy babysat sadie while we went to eat at outback steakhouse. it was fun to get dressed up and have some alone time. but it was really strange being at dinner, not pregnant and without a baby!

we split the chicken and ribs and had the chocolate thunder from down under for dessert. yum!

and here we are after getting home...

sadie slept so good last night, which was SO refreshing because the previous 2 nights, her tummy hurt and she would not sleep in her bed all night long. but last night was great and we HOPE it continues that way ;)

enjoy your sunday!

2 week check up

here we are before sadie's 2 week check up!

she's doing great. gaining weight and looking good...

and when you're a brand new (slightly paranoid) parent, it is SO nice to have a wonderful, laid back pediatrician who reassures you that everything's fine.

can i just tell you what wonderful dinners we've had the past 2 weeks? i can't wait to see what we're eating each night...it's quite exciting!

tonight is my aunt vicki's homemade lasagna, salad, green beans, garlic toast, and banana pudding. don't you want to come over?!

i {heart} target

i went to target today, and it was so fantastic!! mom and sadie stayed in the car while i leisurely shopped for some clothes, a few groceries, and lots of baby stuff.

gorgeous sunny day + sadie sleeping 4 hours straight last night=happiness

here we are before leaving for target...

i stopped by mike's bank to say hi and get some money, and all the tellers were upset i didn't bring sadie in to see them! i don't know when you took your babies out in public, but i'm thinking it will be another 2 weeks before i do.

on a different note-are you watching american idol? i have really loved the guest judges this season. such a good idea! and LOST starts in a few days!!! i can't wait.

happy tuesday everybody!

honest monday

1. i can't imagine sadie not being here now

2. breastfeeding is one of the hardest things to do...ever

3. sleep deprivation and giving birth causes random bouts of sobbing
4.it's okay to not have it together all the time

5. being a mom is a beautiful thing

sleep sweet sleep

just today i finally feel a little like myself again! sleep deprivation does crazy things to you, huh?! i haven't been able to form a coherent sentence in 6 days, but today i actually feel a little rested and i think i'm making sense again. haha!

miss sadie is doing great. we don't seem to get tired of snuggling and kissing her. she is just the sweetest, most lovable baby!

and i can't believe i haven't posted a picture of her and her daddy...mike has been so wonderful and helpful this week. i'm so thankful he took a week off of work so our little family could be together. doesn't he look proud?
happy friday (it is friday right?)

so grateful

this was the view from our backyard of the sunset last night. it was just gorgeous and makes me think how beautiful life and creation is!mike and i are overwhelmed with gratitude for all the help, good wishes, food, flowers, and gifts we have received these last few days. what a wonderful thing it is to have such loving family and friends. my mom, susanne, jennifer, and kali were so much encouragement during labor and delivery. mike's parents were so helpful too! we appreciate the visits of friends in the hospital and at home, and we have had dinners provided for us each night which we are so thankful for.

here is sadie with her nana right before leaving the hospital! i need to get one with her and her nama too (mike's mom)

and here are sadie and I with zia

2nd day at home

hi! our second day at home has gone really well. sadie is the sweetest baby and hardly ever cries (so far ;) she loves to eat and be held. we couldn't ask for a more precious little girl! here we are right after her first sponge bath at home!

introducing...

sadie isabella schmidt sadie was born on saturday, jan. 16th at 5:20pm

she weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces

and is 20.5 inches long

my water broke at about 11 am, i got my epidural at about 1:30 pm, started pushing at 4, and had her at 5:20. super fast!! and she is so worth it!

we are in love and enjoying this awesome time in our lives!

to see her first real pictures, go here!

update...

about 1:15pm, i started having contractions. we started timing them at 2, and they came every 3-6 minutes for an hour and a half, so we went to the hospital. the nurse checked me and i'm already dilated to a 4-5 from a 3 this morning. so the dr. said to monitor me for an hour and check my progress again. after an hour of laying still on my back, i hadn't dilated any further, so they SENT ME HOME! what??

so now i'm just relaxing at home and waiting. the nurse said to wait until i can't walk and am crying!
i'll try to update if anything else happens in the next day or so!

39 week appt.

i had my 39 week appt. this morning...i've gained a total of 27 pounds, and i'm dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced! wahoo! that would explain the sharp, stabbing cervical pains i'm having when she moves...you know i've felt wonderful my whole pregnancy, but last night i was almost in tears because i was in such pain and couldn't get comfy. it's all worth it though!

so this was my last visit to my dr. b...so exciting! if i haven't gone into labor by next wednesday, jan. 20th, i'm scheduled to be induced at 5:30am. i can't believe after so much waiting, it's finally here, and we'll get to see sadie bella in less than a week!!

so ready

we took another self-timer picture last night...i think we're both smiling real smiles this time {wink}

we have our 39 week appt. tommorrow morning. when people ask when i'm due, it's so cool to be able to say 'next week!' even though dr. b told me to stay away from the discovery channel right now (haha), i can't help but watch a baby story and bringing home baby every day. today's episode was about a girl who wanted her mom to be there for the delivery, but she was flying in from another state and got there like 5 minutes too late! the girl had an epidural but was complaining of a horrible burning when the baby crowned...ummm hello? i thought the whole purpose of the epidural is so you don't feel a lot of pain. okay, i just can't think about that anymore right now.

and i think i've NESTED as much as humanly possible. i've got sadie's bag in the car with 3 or 4 different outfits, bows, hats, blankets, and a toy. also in the car is my labor bag, the boppy, and my suitcase is in my closet packed except for makeup and hair products. my closets are organized, the laundry is done, my hair is freshly highlighted. all i have left to do is buy more groceries for next week.

here is her play yard and bouncer in our room

and her swing in the living room
okay, sadie, you can come out anytime now!

fake?

mike said i should blog about fake stuff this morning, so i am.

when i told him i was posting this self-timer picture of us, he asked how it turned out. i told him it was good, but he was doing his fake smile. he said "i know i was, but with all the pressure of the self-timer i just couldn't smile my real smile " pretty funny huh?! then he told me it was kind of like my fake laugh. i have a fake laugh. i use it quite often. sometimes i don't even know i'm doing it and other people tell me "you're doing your fake laugh danielle." i like to think it's my way of being polite and courteous to others. even when i don't think something is funny, i give a little chuckle. or to fill a silence, sometimes i giggle.

and fake labor...i've been having a lot of it lately. mainly horrible period cramps in my back and braxton hicks contractions. but i think sadie understands she needs to wait until after wednesday to come because mama's gotta get her roots touched up. i refuse to have dark roots in pictures! and i've given susanne serious instructions to put bronzer and lip gloss on me when i start pushing! (you think i'm kidding? no.)

so here is our picture. i still think it turned out pretty good! this week i'm determined to get a few more pics of us together before we become parents...


last night, we had sarah and eric over for hot chocolate, snacks , and blokus. it was so much fun, but again, i didn't take any pictures!

and last night was the season premiere of chuck-one of the best shows ever! so we're going to watch it tonight. so excited. plus american idol starts tommorrow. i can't decide if i want to devote 6 hours a week to this or not. mike says he's not watching because they did paula wrong.

if you haven't ever seen chuck, promise me you'll watch it!

happy monday ;)

weekend so far...

i hope you are having a great sunday! we have had a good weekend...friday night we went to red lobster with mom and les. have you tried their woodfire grilled shrimp? so good.

today mom and i showed an almost 100 year old home that had so much character and natural light (do i sound like the silly realtors on househunters? hehe) but it was such a cool house with wood paneling everywhere and gorgeous trees on the property. here i am yesterday morning at 38 weeks! after showing the house, we went to julie's baby shower. it was so cute! animal themed with little animals as centerpieces and precious chocolate dipped oreo cookies with animal faces for the favors.

bethenie made this cake. it was beautiful and tasted so good! i am quite impressed!

here's the food and snacks table that i helped myself to a couple of times ;)

julie, bethenie, and olivia. she's due with her baby boy, max sawyer, just 2 weeks after me!

after the shower, we went to tim and kali's new house for fajitas. i didn't get any pictures because i was so tired by that time, plus i wore pajamas over there, so not a good combo for pics! but the fajitas were delish and we had choc. chip cookies for dessert- a personal favorite!

this morning started off a little rough...i hate waking up and already feeling bad/tired/achy/swollen. so i was a bit emotional this morning (poor sweet mike) but the biscuit sandwich he made for me seemed to make things much better!

this is part of the little surprise i was working on last week. i had mike's monogram engraved on a memory box with cuff links inside that say 'dad'

and i went to practically pikasso and painted him a coffee mug...it says 'daddy 2010' on the front and 'love danielle & sadie' on the back

we just got cooper and henry groomed, and i just love snuggling with them when they are all clean. the camera scares them a little, can you tell?

and we continue to receive such beautiful gifts for sadie from friends and clients. this little girl is going to be set with clothes, shoes, and toys for a long time!

the forecast is COLD

i am dreaming of warm weather. i am not a winter person at all. the layers upon layers of clothing needed to just get out the door...it makes me hot and itchy before i even leave the house. so as we are watching the weather channel and seeing that the wind chill is going to be -5 degrees in the morning, i am thinking of summer. summer is so great; no layers of clothes, you can live in sundresses and flip flops and if you get hot, you can jump in the pool!

these are pics of us in palm springs. we went here in the summer of '08 and it was so hot! even a little hot for me. like 110-115 degrees hot! i am hoping to go on a fun trip this summer, probably a lot closer to home, but maybe renting a beach house for a few days. i can't wait for sadie to be a little water baby...i hope she will be like her mommy and daddy!

totally off subject, but i'm thinking of some new goals for 2010. a few things i want to change this year and some new things to implement in my life...

*relax and enjoy each moment-i am usually so busy planning or organizing or scheduling things in my head that i miss out on just living in the present. this is especially important to me right now because i want to enjoy each second with sadie and be ok with a messy house, loads of laundry to do, etc...

*be a better friend-call more often, plan more fun things to do, take more time to listen

*de-stress-take a tip from my sister and try not to think too much! i overthink most everything, but i already feel freer just being determined to quit thinking :)

*closely follow a personal and family bible study schedule-why do we let the most important things get pushed to the back sometimes? make it fun and interesting, not just something to get through

*focus on our family-together, mike and i have decided to focus on our new little family of 3 and not let everyone else's drama or problems fill our time and minds

it's a new year that will be one of the most exciting in my life. i can't wait!

crafty

i thought i was going to start my new hobby of finger knitting, but when i got to hobby lobby and saw all the cute crochet hooks, i decided i would crochet instead. i love this bamboo handle crochet hook and the pretty wool i got! i'm attempting to make a scarf, but haven't quite figured out how to make all the rows the same size yet. hehe! but i can do a double stitch like a pro now. i'll show you the finished project if it's not too terrible looking.

i've also worked on another crafty project this week but it's a surprise for someone, so i'll have to wait until next week to show it you.

and i took this pic because my little snowmen in my mudroom just make me happy.

maybe we'll get to see some actual snow that sticks on the ground this week!

i'm off to make green chile enchiladas and to wash my icky hair. (is it just me or when you're hair is dirty do you feel yucky all over?!)

pretty things

hi. here i am at 37 weeks.

i found a couple of really pretty things i'm dreaming of for spring.

how nice to be able to wear real clothes again, with no stretch or elastic in them.

i love this sweet 50s inspired pink and black jacket from anthro.

pair it with a black tank and some skinny jeans for a cute fresh look.

this breezy dress with some round toe heels would be great.

this picture makes me want to get my hair cut into a bob and watch thoroughly modern millie.

deep thoughts

this is what we had for dinner last night. turkey, provolone, red pepper, and pesto paninis. i was going to make them on thursday night, but mike brought home stuff for steaks and baked potatoes, and i sure wasn't going to argue with about him cooking! then friday night, my mom had us over for yummy hamburgers and a game of blokus. have you played blokus? we're pretty much addicted. so last night i finally made the paninis and they were good.

today was such a nice day! our lesson at the meeting today was about prayer. what kind of attitude we should have when we pray, what we should pray for, and self-examination as to what our prayers show about us. i was thinking, i have a tendency to become pretty selfish in my prayers. i mean i pray for other people who are going through trials, but a lot of the time i pray for personal concerns. i want to focus more on praying for the coming of God's kingdom and even praying for people i may not feel that close to...that i can work in harmony with my prayers to reach out and be a better friend to them. and to remember to say prayers of thanksgiving too! i know that's a deep subject but it's what was on my heart today.

now back to food...hehe! we had plans to eat at chuy's for an early dinner. i really didn't care what i ate for dinner, i totally just wanted the fried ice cream. but for some reason, our new chuy's does not have fried ice cream. what?? so i had to settle for a sopapilla with a side of vanilla ice cream. not the same, but still good. oh and i had the appetizer plate for my dinner-chicken flautas, quesadillas, nachos, and queso. so healthy right?!

i am now in my flannel pajama bottoms and mike's 15 year old sweatshirt that we both race to the closet to put on when it's cold. it is the best, most perfectly soft sweatshirt ever and it makes me very happy. we are supposed to get some really chilly weather here this week. like in the 20s, which is cold for central texas! i'm looking forward to drinking hot chocolate and reading, plus i'm starting a new hobby this week...finger knitting. i've been inspired to try it, so we'll see how it goes.

happy sunday to you!