Welcome Adam Louis Schwedler

Adam was born on Friday June 26th at 4:54 PM. We have a beautiful son! He was 7 pounds 8.8 oz and 20.5 inches long. Who knows where all of his dark hair came from? I'm so excited and happy to be a mother.
He had a rough start to life, but he is doing great now. The cord was wrapped around his neck, so when I started to push he went into distress. Thankfully with the first push he was crowning and we were able to get him out extremely fast. I was able to labor and deliver without pain meds, which is what I wanted. Below is our first family photo of the three of us (Adam had to stay in the nursery for a while after birth and be under an oxygen hood):

The hospital stay was a blur and went by super fast. We learned a lot and Adam is eating like a champ! Brockway handled us bringing home Adam really well. I can tell he's brought out her motherly instincts.

Waiting (40w2d)

It's been hard waiting past our due date for Baby Schwedler. Yesterday we thought for sure I was in labor. Contractions were strong and close together for a couple hours in the evening, but when I laid down on the couch to relax they started to get further apart. After watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother we decided to get ready for bed. Dave called the hospital and they thought there was a good chance I was in early labor and would be seeing them later in the night when the pain was too much to handle. Well I went to bed and had several contractions, the last thing I remember thinking was I'll never be able to sleep through these contractions... next thing I knew it was 4 am, I was awake from a leg cramp and my contractions were gone. Darn false labor, I thought today would be my baby's birthday!

Belly pic 40w1d:

So today I went to work extremely tired and crabby. Thankfully my mood improved when the sun came out. Tonight we took Brockway for a long 3 mile walk down by the river. It's so nice that the weather is finally cooler.

It's Baby's Due Date (40w0d)

I think we forgot to tell baby it's his/her due date though, because I'm not in labor yet. We went in for our weekly appointment this morning. I'm 4 cm and 80-90% effaced! Almost halfway there, but yet no labor. We started talking about scheduling an induction and then I freaked out and said let's give baby one more week before we schedule anything. I really want baby to decide when their birthday is going to be! It's only fitting that this baby is late, because I was 6 days late my mother keeps reminding me.

Happy Father's Day (39w6d)

I thought there was a good chance my husband would be a father today, but I'm not in labor now so probably no baby today. Tomorrow we see our doctor and we'll discuss inducing. I really hope this baby decides to come on it's own though.

What Changed? (39w1d)

On Saturday I felt great, and then on Sunday not so great. I started to feel uncomfortable, worn out and ready to be done. Up until Sunday I didn't care when the baby decided to come, now I want baby out. Dave was awesome though, he told me to lay down and relax and he cleaned up around the house. Each time he finished a task he would come to me and say what next?

On Monday we had our 39 week check up. I am 3 cm dialated, 25-50% effaced and at station -1/0. So things are moving along, but really who knows? I also measured 32 cm, which is smaller so baby probably dropped more this last week and the heart rate was 137-140. Right as Dr. K was leaving the office she said you don't have any big plans for the weekend, and I said we were planning on going to a wedding in the cities. She just shook her head no and said we should stick around Hutch. So we'll see if we see her next Monday for our 40 week appointment. We'll start talking about induction at next weeks appointment. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Today I had habanero sauce at lunch. I've heard that spicy food can make you go into labor. Maybe it will work?

Pictures are from 39 weeks, yesterday! I look tired, because it was a long exhausting day- but at least it ended with pie in the park and then a foot massage when we got home! My husband is awesome.

New Camera (38w5d)

Well no baby yet. 10 days to our due date! Our parents and Dave's sister now answer the phone when we call- "are you in labor?" And my product manager tells me everyday that he's so happy I'm still at work. Secretly I am happy that I'm still working and haven't had the baby. Don't get me wrong, we are prepared for this little one's arrival, I just don't think I'm to that uncomfortable get this baby out now feeling. I also would like to make it to the Thrall wedding on the 20th. So either this baby needs to be out now, or wait until after next weekend. It's supposed to get up to 80 next week, so we'll see how I feel after the heat comes through.

Yesterday I decided it was finally time to try swimming laps at the outdoor pool (usually I swim Wednesday's and Friday's, but it was too cold and rainy earlier in the week). The outdoor pool is a 25 meter pool and the indoor pool is a 25 yard pool. I never realized what a difference three feet could make. I'm still sore today! But it still feels good to get in the water and work out!


I now know what a braxton hick contraction feels like. I realized I was having them about a week and a half ago. Randomly my uterus gets all tight feeling like the baby is moving around, except the baby isn't moving around. They happen more often when I walk or am cleaning around the house. They don't hurt, but the tightening feeling distracts me. I think I made my friend Nicole nervous on our walk on Wednesday with the dogs. I had two contractions and with both of them I stopped walking until it was over.

We installed our car seat bases this week and had a county worker come inspect them. Neither one of us passed without some re-adjustments. Dave has the latch system in his car which makes instillation a breeze except he put his car seat in backwards. In my car I didn't know I could twist the seat belt to get the base tighter, so after we did that my car seat was also good to go. After realizing how much room the car seat will take up in my tiny little car (seriously the thing barely fits) we're starting to think about stimulating the economy with a car purchase when I'm done with maternity leave. There are pretty cross over hybrids that I like, I'm not sure I can drive a mini-van!

Well earlier this week I finally did some online research and decided what DSLR I wanted to purchase. Back in May Dave had asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day and I asked if it could be a really nice new expensive camera. He said yes. I'm just not happy with the quality of pictures with my point and shoot, so the baby is the perfect reason to upgrade! I picked out a Canon Rebel XS and we ordered it online on Tuesday and got it yesterday. Dave took these pictures of me and Brockway and they are so good! I could tell he was having fun, because normally he takes one picture and stops, but he kept taking pictures from different angles. The last picture is my favorite one!


Today we're off to the cities to do some last minute baby shopping and then go to my cousin Katrina's Grad Open house. I'm up early and I hope that I get some work done around the house before we leave, but I usually am lazy on Saturday mornings.

Sounds like a Girl (38w0d)

Today we started out the day at the doctors office. We had the first appointment of the day at 8:30. I was weighed and had my blood pressure checked by Angie (Dr. Krenik's nurse) and then put in a room to wait. After about ten minutes Angie came back and told us Dr. Krenik was in the hospital with a patient, so she would be running an hour behind. We had three choices: wait the hour, schedule an appointment for tomorrow or meet with Dr. Byron the on call doctor in urgent care today. I decided I'm here now- let's meet with Dr. Byron.

It was strange to meet with a male doctor, but he was extremely nice. We talked about how not much had changed since the last appointment a week earlier and my blood pressure and weight looked good. Then I got up on the table to be measured and check baby's heart rate. My belly was measuring 36 cm, which is the same as last week I think. Then we listened to baby's heart rate. It was hard to hear because of the bad doppler they had in the urgent care room, but it was 150 then baby moved and it went up to 167. Dr. Byron asked us if we knew the sex and I said no. He then said, "well sounds like a girl to me".

I can't believe I'm posting a picture of my naked belly at 38 weeks, but my hand did a pretty good job covering up the stretch marks. Trust me- they exist!

Shower # 3 (37w6d)

My third and final shower was yesterday. Steph and my mother threw the shower at my Aunt Bernie's house in Hugo. We of course had to bring Brockway to play with Jack, but much to our surprise Bernie and Jeff also had a new 6 month puppy named Jill. So cute! She's Jack's full sister, just from a different litter.

My dad (and I'm sure my mom helped) made all of the delicious food. We played pictonary pregnant/baby style and guess what candy bar made the fake poopy in the diaper game. Steph made a really cute diaper cake, but the strawberry pie and cup cakes tasted way better.

Most of my dad's family and mom's family made it to the shower. Plus some of my college friends. Two even drove from Illinois to come (you rock Kathleen and Rach)! We got a lot of stuff that was on my list of stuff to buy before the baby comes.

After the shower I went shopping with Steph, Rachel and Kathleen. They helped reduce the pain of picking out nursing bras. Then we met up with Dave, Tom, Jamie, Erin and her new boy Chris for dinner at a Greek restaurant in Eden Prairie. It was an awesome Saturday.

Today we re-arranged our room to make room for the Pack N Play for baby. It's strange to see a crib in our room, but we're ready for you baby!

Baby's Full Term (37w2d)

Well the baby was officially full term on Monday, meaning if I do go into labor I get to deliver here in Hutchinson! Yay! We had a doctors appointment on Monday. We found out the official results from ultrasound, baby was in the 49th percentile and everything looked great. I'm no longer measuring small, I was at 36 cm I think. Dr. Krenick said she doesn't typically do internal exams unless something has changed, so no news on dilation. Baby's heart rate was 137-145. And I tested negative for strep B.

Dave and I are both convinced the baby dropped last weekend (compare the pics below). I didn't think I could go to the bathroom more frequently than I was last week, but I am. I've also being told several times that I'm a lot bigger. And Monday morning I got the, you're still here comment. That's going to get soooo old.

35w2d:

37w2d:

Last Friday I got sick at work. I was really nauseous and called Dave to come take me home at 9:30in the morning. I took a long nap and by lunch time I felt a ton better, so I went back to work. All I could think is I'm not ready to be gone from work yet. So Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the day training my backups and feel much more prepared for maternity leave.

One last thing, Lora had her baby yesterday, a little boy named John David. That means that of the five pregnant ladies at work, four of them have had boys (I'm the fifth). Plus two out of the three men I work with who had pregnant wives had boys. Lora, Denise, Molly and I are all going to be sending our babies to the same daycare center, so if we manage to have a girl she'll be the only one in the infant room. But hey, she would have Michigan Tech odds, three boys to one girl!