Mae Goes Home - It Sounds Like a Children's Book

We were certainly glad to be home! The nurses and all their help was great, but our own bed was better. -T

Little girl/Big World
Is there a baby in there with all of Aunt Randy's blankets?

She almost looks chubby here.

Twice in a row she looks chubby!

She's pretty fun when she's awake

Uh oh...future sports fan in the family?

I would have to say YES...touchdown!

We like it when she sleeps too

Baby Schlenk Becomes Mae Judith

So, we made an executive decision and went against the voting. Instead of Samara, we decided on Mae Judith. So, what was an routine pregnancy checkup for Lindsey turned into a crazy 24 hours. Who would have thought Mae J would have come so quickly when we thought for sure she'd go past her October 15th due date. The timeline went as follows:

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Lindsey Doctor's Appointment, 1/2cm dilated: 10:00am
Labor started: 12:00pm
Minor contractions: 12:00pm - 8:00pm
Contractions become a little more instense: 8:00pm - 11:00pm
Heavier contractions: 11:00pm

Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Todd went to bed: 12:00am
Todd woke up to big time contractions (not mine, but I could hear the results of them): 2:45am
Came to Hospital: 4am
Admitted: 4:30am at 3cm
Epidural: 5:30am
5cm: 6:30am
Broke Water (8cm): 8:25am
Lindsey puts on makeup: 8:45am
Given Pitocin to speed up contractions: 10:05am
10cm/Ready to Push: 11:00
Mae Judith Schlensker: Born 11:19a.m.

Ready to go...just another day for Lindsey!

First picture out of the womb

Mae with Mom

Mae with Dad
Proud father moment

We were sticking out tongues at each other, but we could never really capture it

Proud Mama
Did she really just give birth or did the stork actually deliver this one straight to the room?
Hopefully this whole tongue thing won't be a theme for her all through childhood
Our little family

Mae...up close and personal

If only you could get a baby to smile!

We love the plates of her skull that looks like a hair thingy...what are those things called? I guess I need to learn my female accessory items before too long.

"Mom and baby are doing well"

Our little Mae J

Well this is just straight cute!

Love this girl!

Let's go home girls!
My girls...ready to go home!

Voting Closed

Thanks for voting! We had a girl so it looks like based on your votes we will name our daughter Samara! Thanks for your help!

Samara
3 (42%)

Laquesha
2 (28%)

Something that rhymes with Rylee or Kylie
0 (0%)

Sandra Bullock
1 (14%)

I have another suggestion that I'll e-mail you
1 (14%)

Cut me Mick!

They said to keep my stitches in for 10-14 days. By day 12, I noticed the skin was growing up and around my stitches, so after my running was done for the week, on day 13, I had my hot nurse take them out. I was expecting the worst, but reality wasn't bad at all. I was tough...I told her if she had to just to cut me..."Cut me, Lindsey!" She was phenomenol...and well again, looked amazing! -T

"T: Tell me when it's over!" "L: I've already done 3!" "T: Oh really, I didn't even know you started."

TLC

Well this just looks like I have zits or poison ivy with stiches in it.

No blood = Good

It feels weird

Project Fence - All Phases Complete (Mostly)

We finished the fence! Just like the kitchen though, there are some minor details that might never get done, but for its general purpose - all three phases of the fence project are complete! Now we can just throw our kids in the backyard and not have to worry about them ever. -T

What made my thumbs totally raw the last week, became not only very simple, but almost fun! Totally bitter.

Double gate - complete - Backyard view
Front yard view

Single gate complete - backyard view

Front yard view

Our last major project before the circus comes to town

Project Fence Phase 3 - Educated Guesses, Or Just Guesses

We continued on the fence this week working Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. Wednesday, we put the top rail on the right fence and then put the gate posts in for the double gate on the other side, as well as put one section of top rail on. We ran into a few issues. The first was the fact that tying into our neighbors fence was not really possible since it was a corner post for them and had 4 tension bands at the top of the post. We love our neighbors though and they said they didn't care if we took the cap off to put our top rail there and then somehow glue the post topper back on. So, that's what we did. The next issue was the double gate was missing the latch. Instead of wasting time waiting, we just did our best guess of where the latch would hit just right. Eeesh. Saturday, we found we were DEAD ON with the latch! We put the last two posts up, did the top rail for it, finished the double gate and did the big section of chainlink on the opposite side. -T

Be sure you notice Todd's jeans!
After Todd sliced his leg working on the roof, his dad said,
"That's why you wear pants."
When my dad found out Todd had sliced his leg, he said,
"That's why you wear pants."
All this time I've never understood why my dad works out in the
yard--sweating profusely as we like to say--in jeans. Now we know. Thanks, Dads. You continue to teach us so much.
-L

Top Rail On

This is why we love our neighbors...a four foot fence wouldn't have worked if we had to go underneath.

Hmmm...I don't think it's level...this is us guesstimating

I always wondered what I would look like without a head and with a ghost behind me...now I know!

The single gate latch was 2 inches from the post, so...common sense said to do the double gate two inches from each other.




And on Saturday morning...we were right!
Putting up the chainlink

Detaching it at the end was rough - the instructions (which we read later) made it sound very easy. The way I did it was NOT easy and my thumbs were raw after this.

Just the tiny section to the house needs to be done and this side is finished!

Nesting

I get lots of emails from "What to Expect" with updates on the baby's development, advice for me, and every once in a while something for "Dad." This one came the other day:

For Dad During Pregnancy
New Dad To Be Instincts
Funny, that overstuffed closet never bothered you before, but now you just have to organize it. And that cabinet over there really needs clearing out. Not to mention the basement…. Congratulations, your nesting instincts (dads have them, too, throughout the animal kingdom) have kicked in. Don't be surprised to suddenly find the energy (and the enthusiasm) for compulsive cleaning, painting, and organizing. Run (and dust) with it — it's nature's way of assuring that you'll have a comfy, clean nest for your baby when you all come home. Plus, at 37 weeks pregnant, it keeps your mind off your pre-delivery jitters. Your partner may be in nesting overdrive, too, but don't let her overdo it. (Keep her off ladders, okay?) On the other hand, fatigue may be her overriding instinct right now.

So it turns out Todd has been nesting WAY longer than I have!

Now might also be a good time to mention that yesterday after finishing the dinner dishes, Todd began pushing the new stroller around. First around the spot where he was standing, then throughout the downstairs in a great big circle. Over and over in the great big circle. It was interesting because I believe we were still in a conversation the whole time. Finally I changed the subject:
"Are you having fun?"
"Yeah, I'm playing house. I'm the dad."
There's really nothing else to say about this. -L