One Week Old!

Myles is a week old now! It has been the best week of my life. First of all, he's an angel of a baby - eats well, sleeps well, poops and pees well (for those of you who don't have babies, just know this is a very good thing). He has a cute tiny cry, not too loud or high pitched. I love his little ears and his huge little feet.

My recovery has also been very smooth and relatively easy, so that made the week go by easier. We've even been on a couple of walks. It's nice to have some of the pregnancy discomfort gone. I can bend over again! And lay on my stomach!

Also making this week great is having my mom here. She has helped us with the baby, lending her experience, which makes the whole first week much less scary. She has helped organize and clean the house, putting up pictures and mirrors on the walls - which had previously been bare. She sewed a quilt! which I've been meaning to do forever (as in, I've had the kit for at least 7 years). Curtains were hemmed and sewed, hooks for towels put up, and a hundred other little things that make our house much more homey. And she made minestrone soup for us - I LOVE Mom's minestrone soup! I'll sure miss having her around when she flies back to Utah tomorrow. Love you, Mom!

Without further ado,
the part of the blog you've all been waiting for,
the very reason you even came to the blog today...

Myles! One week old!

His "one week old" photo shoot. 

His cute big feet! I think the line across the big toe is interesting.
Featured on both feet. 

He loves to chill out in the sitting burp position.
He's happy to just sit there and look around.

Checking out Grandma and Grandpa Briscoe.
Dad managed to have a long layover on his way home from a business
trip so he could meet his newest grandson. 

Just cute. Alert and skeptical, apparently. 

Some more one week photo shoot.

Cooperating for the camera - for the moment. 

Introducing Myles Thatcher Smith

What an amazing day it's been! That doesn't even come close to describing how I feel today but I don't know that there are any adequate words. Besides exhausted and thrilled. 

And of course, everything was worth it because we ended up with an absolutely beautiful little boy. 8 lbs flat, 21 and 1/4 inches long.  

Here's a bunch of pictures!

Maternity Photo Shoot Pre-view

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. I'm really excited for them, even if I don't love my hair. I didn't realize how humid it would be that day! Thanks to Kara and Rich for the fun shirts! Thanks to Toni Asay for the photos.

Also, I think this baby is coming. Like, today!

Jessica's Laws of Advanced Pregnancy Physics

1. Objects on the floor will stay on the floor unless acted by a force that is not Jessica.

2. The effort to get off a couch, bed, or comfortable chair is approximately Mass x 400 normal effort.

Actually, I just like the first one. Chase has been a good sport and laughed at me many times this week as I moan the fate of the dropped thing which I cannot possibly pick up. Except when I can.

I'm just about 40 weeks. The baby has dropped right onto my bladder (yay!), and I have experienced frequent but painless contractions. Other than that, no signs of imminent labor. But I can dream, right? I'd be happy if he came right on his due date, or maybe Wednesday or Thursday. I still have several things I'd like to get done tomorrow, but if they don't happen, we'll survive. Hopefully.

Chase and I had a photoshoot session on Saturday. I had realized that while there are several pictures of me being all pregnant (obviously, since most of them are represented in the blog here), we didn't really have any of Chase and me together while I'm pregnant. So that happened. It was fun. We spent all Saturday together as a kind of super-date Saturday. Photo shoot, breakfast picnic, a little hike, the chiropracter, naps, dinner, picking Kara and Rich up from the airport as they got home from Europe - just a fun day. When I get the pictures back I'll post some of them. Yay for being cute pregnant!

Fortune Telling

I forgot to post this earlier.

Last Friday we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with the Roos'. We were highly entertained by Chase's and my fortune cookies.

Chase's might be the most accurate future-fortune I've ever seen.

Mine was a little more alarming. 

Luckily, that "something different" didn't include going into labor.

We just appreciated how appropriate (and in my case, alarming) our fortunes were. Yay for fortune cookies!

Imminent Arrival

It seems like the time for Baby to join us is very close. We're now into August, the month of his birth! I finished up my last (official) week of work. I'll still be doing some coordinating and scheduling for them, but via phone and email, not going on site. I hit up some consignment and garage sales this week, so I'm feeling pretty prepared as far as material things go. A few contractions here and there, but nothing painful or really all that noticeable. Just warming things up, I guess.

Yet despite all the feelings of "soon," I also know that these last two or more weeks are going to take forever to pass by. Definitely getting to the point of uncomfortable sleeping (what's the point of telling an extremely pregnant woman to sleep while she can before the baby comes? I don't know about others, but I'm not sleeping all that well these days. Bathroom trips, trying to find a comfortable position, taking huge amounts of effort to change sleeping positions, having the baby kick around while you're trying to fall asleep...it's not so easy to get beauty rest).

I'm also making lots of plans of things to get done before the baby comes, and knowing I'll either get it done in the first three days and go crazy with waiting, or that I won't get hardly anything on my list done because I'm too busy enjoying not going to work every day. Washing the baby clothes and blankets, making freezer meals, getting the house cleaned and the nursery put together. I might even break out the sewing machine! Hair appointment and shopping and visiting friends while it's still relatively easy. Lots to do. I hope.

Anyhoo, here's a picture of me at my last day of work. I'm sure glad I'm done with that - even my large shirts aren't fitting very well now!

And Kathy and Keith Roos (aka Mama and Papa) took us to dinner the other night to celebrate Chase's graduation and our soon-to-be newest family member. I love those two!

A big weekend

This was a pretty eventful weekend. On Saturday, Chase and I attended a childbirth class from the hospital. It was ALL day long, from 9am-4pm. I felt like I didn't learn too much that I didn't know already, but it was good to hear it from a more dependable source than blogs from pinterest. I did learn that I actually have felt a few contractions already. My doctor has been asking at the last several appointments if I'd experienced any contractions yet, and my answer was always no. But the class instructor explained that a contraction may just feel like my whole stomach is hard, instead of just where the baby's back or bottom is. Nothing painful or serious, it's just interesting.

My dad flew into Atlanta on Saturday also, so we got to spend some time with him on Saturday evening and Sunday. We spent our time going to Ikea (Chase had never been to any Ikea before), eating dinner at the cafeteria, and buying a daybed. We had a lot of fun trying to fit it into our Nissan. Chase and Dad had some nice bonding time putting it together.

Obviously we're still working on the nursery. At least I got the gifts and clothes sorted.