Christmas 2008

Welcome Alia!!!

going home

with daddy in my cute little outfit

" border=0>

concentrating on something

Daddy is great at bouncing Alia to sleep

pretty eyes

our BIG girl!

There was a LOT of waiting!!

Welcome Alia!

After exactly 41 weeks of pregnancy and 45 hours in the hospital, Alia Catherine Douglas was born on Sunday, December 21st at 3:10am. She weighed a whopping 8 pounds and 15 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.

Mommy and Daddy had a long wait for Alia!!! We went into the hospital at 6:00am on Friday and after hours on Pitocin, labor was NOT kicking in at all. So, the doctor's decided to take me off of it and give my body a break for a while. Later that night they tried a different medication. Jason and I killed time by watching movies, tv and playing Trivial Pursuit (he won). By 4:00am on Saturday I was finally in labor. To make a long story short .... after a bunch of pain, an epidural and a whole lot of waiting it became apparent that Alia was going to have to be born by c-section. I was pretty upset at first but so excited that after all of that waiting we were finally going to meet our little baby girl.

Jason was able to stay right with Alia from the second she was born, and was there when they weighed her and gave her her first bath. I was in recovery and with them about 30-40 minutes later. We were in the hospital for 3 more days and were finally able to come home together as a family of 3 on Christmas Eve. Alia is absolutely amazing and the best Christmas present that anyone could ever ask for!!!!

Thanksgiving

Jason and I enjoyed our last Thanksgiving as a family of two. On Thursday, we put up our Christmas tree and made a mini-Thanksgiving dinner. We have been known to overdo it in the past and tried to keep it simple this year. On Friday we got up and did a little shopping and then headed out to our favorite bed and breakfast place at the coast ... Sand Lake Country Inn. Being that I am 38 weeks pregnant now, we were a little worried that Alia Catherine would decide to come while we were almost 2 hours away from the hospital. We took our hospital bags and car seat with us everywhere we went just in case. Friday night we had dinner at the local brew pub, The Pelican and then went back relaxed and played some Scattegories. On Saturday, we had an amazing breakfast and then went into Lincoln City for shopping, dinner and the movie Four Christmases. Sunday we got up, had breakfast, checked out and then went to the beach for a walk to enjoy a beautiful day. It was a wonderful weekend!

38 weeks
A gorgeous day on the beach.

Our last holiday as a family of two!

Thanksgiving dinner

35 weeks

At my 34 week appointment, my belly was measuring a little small, so the doctor sent me in to have an ultrasound to measure Alia to make sure that she was growing as she should. Everything was normal and Alia was measuring right on track! Here is one of the pictures from the ultrasound. You can tell that things are getting pretty squishy in there. In this picture she is looking right at you. The little bubbly-looking things by her cheek is actually the umbilical cord.

Jason and I are feeling pretty ready for Alia's arrival now. We have all of the important things that we need and her bedroom is ready and waiting for her. We have only 5 weeks left (although I think she might come a little early). Time has gone by so fast, but I think these last 5 weeks are going to be the longest of the entire pregnancy. Alia has taken to doing karate practice whenever mommy tries to sleep!

Baby Shower

This weekend three of my amazing friends (Tracy, LeighAnn and Jamie) threw a baby shower for me. We had so much fun! It was great to have some quality girl time. Alia was completely spoiled. Look at the super cute shirts that Tracy made for her. I am so lucky to have such amazing and caring friends!!!!

Tracy and I with the super cute shirts she made.

LeighAnn, Jamie and I

The dance girls ... Tracy, Donna, Desiree, Me, Marlene, Betsy

Simone, Me, Jan & Donna

Happy Halloween!

Jason and I had a relatively low key Halloween this year. On the 30th we carved our pumpkins .... without stencils this year and it was certainly interesting! On Halloween night Jason made dinner, we handed out candy and then turned out our light at 7:30 when the Blazer game started. It was an awesome game and they won at the very last second! On November 1st we went to a Halloween party where the theme was "good vs. evil". We tossed around a few ideas but nothing really grabbed us. In the end, we decided to go as a Blazer fan (good) and a Laker fan (evil). It was great because we got to be totally comfortable for the night.

The Zoo

One of our "date nights" was a Sunday morning at the Oregon Zoo. We decided to get a zoo membership so that once Alia arrives I can take her to the zoo whenever I want, for however long I want. It is a great way to get outside and exercise and enjoy a beautiful day (when we have them). We thought it might also be nice for when we have visitors in town. The newest attraction at the zoo is a baby elephant that was born in August. He is super cute!

32 Weeks!

This is what my 32 week pregnant belly looks like! 32 weeks down and about 8 more to go ... although I wouldn't be sad if she wanted to come a couple of days early. I have been feeling pretty good lately, but definitely more tired than usual. Alia is wriggling around in my belly a lot and gets the hiccups almost everyday!

She has a name!!!!!

After MUCH thought and consideration, our baby girl finally has a name:

Alia Catherine

Below is a video tour of her bedroom and a picture of her name hanging above the crib.

Ultrasound - 30 weeks

We had an ultrasound this morning and were able to see our little baby girl again. I absolutely love ultrasounds! I could sit there and stare at her cuteness forever. Today's ultrasound was just a quick one, but we did get a great look at our little girl sucking her thumb. If you look closely at this picture, you can see that it is a profile shot of her with her thumb in her mouth.

How cute is that??

Blazer Game

Last night, Jason and I went to the very first Blazer pre-season game at the Rose Garden. It turned out to be a VERY exciting win for the home team. (If you don't know about Greg Oden and Rudy Fernandez .... I highly recommend looking them up.) The crowd was into the game like it was the middle of the season. We are totally bummed that we won't be making it to as many games as we did last year, but tickets are much harder to come by and after December we are going to be pretty busy! The game was so much fun and I am so happy that basketball season is finally here. GO BLAZERS!!

Date Night!

For our anniversary (in June) Jason got me tickets to see the ballet. The ballet was on Wednesday, September 24 in downtown Portland. So, we decided to make a night of it. We went out for a great Italian dinner and then headed to the theater. It was called the "Lines Ballet" and was very contemporary. There was one male dancer that was amazing to watch! He looked about 8 feet tall on stage and was freaky flexible. It was very neat!

We had such a great time that we decided to do one date night a week until the baby comes. We are going to try to squeeze in all kinds of fun Portland activities before we would need a babysitter to do them. Next week, we are headed to a Portland State football game downtown at PGE Park. Despite the fact that I went to school there and Jason used to live a few blocks from PGE, neither of us have ever been to a game.

McKinley Baby Shower

An adorable outfit from my friend Jamie

Angela and I with our cute baby shower cake

Totally adorable sundress outfit with matching shoes :)

My former co-workers at McKinley were kind enough to throw a baby shower for me on Monday, September 22. I had a double shower with another lady (Angela) that is also having a little girl, but she is due in October. It was a ton of fun and I was able to see and hang out with some great friends that I don't get to see much anymore. I was totally spoiled rotten! Baby Girl Douglas received a ton of adorable outfits, blankets, burp cloths, toys, a diaper pail and other important baby necessities. We are so lucky!

28 Weeks!

28 weeks down and only 12 to go and things are progressing just as they should be. As you can see, I am slowly but surely developing a belly and there is one, very wiggly, baby in there! I am officially in the 3rd trimester now and am actually starting to feel like it. I have noticed my energy level go down a bit and my lower back pain increase quite a bit. I finally caved in and bought a Snoogle ... which is a giant pregnancy body pillow. I thought they were a waste of money until I borrowed one from a friend and slept fabulously with no aches and pains in the morning. We are working on the baby's room and have just about everything in place now. Just a few more details. I promise to post pictures when things are looking more complete.

The question on every one's mind is ..."So, do you have a name picked out yet?" ... and the answer to that is NOPE! Jason and I are still completely and totally stuck. Our two favorite names are still Lucy and Alia, but we are also keeping an open mind in case another name strikes us. We are at the point where we are thinking that we might just have to wait until we meet our little one and see what she looks like to help us decide!

Cute Baby Stuff

An outfit that mommy and daddy picked out!

These are some of my baby shoes that we are passing down.

Two of the MANY outfits that Grammy picked out for baby girl!

Our little girl is already managing to fill up a closet! Mommy and Daddy have had a hard time resisting picking up some cute things here and there. Pictured above is one of 3 outfits that we got for her this weekend at our favorite children's clothing store, Carter's. Grammy (my mom) sent a big bag of clothes for next summer and some shoes that used to belong to me. She is going to be one very cute, stylish and well-dressed little girl!

24 Weeks

Well, I have now completed 60% of pregnancy. Only 16 more weeks until our due date. We are getting so excited! We purchased our travel system last week from Babies R Us. We had a 20% off coupon and some gift card money left, so it was a steal. We actually had a lot of fun putting it together. It was super easy to assembly and is really easy to use. We both kind of wanted to take the stroller outside for a walk, but thought that the neighbors might think that we had completely lost our minds. So, we decided against it. We did have some fun racing it up and down the hallway in our house though.

Tom Petty Concert

On Jason's last weekend before returning to work he went to the Tom Petty concert up at the Gorge in Washington with a couple of buddies. The Gorge is a BEAUTIFUL venue for a concert. It is literally out in the middle of nowhere, so everyone just camps out for the night. The guys didn't even bother to take tents with them. They threw down their sleeping bags and put up a canopy of some kind I think. Jason said that the concert was amazing but completely crowded. You can probably see from the pictures, that everything is lawn seating so you get a beautiful view of the gorge and a great sunset while enjoying the show. He had a really good time.

Portland Beavers Game

As one of our last events for sabbatical, we went to a Portland Beavers baseball game downtown. We managed to score free tickets, which was pretty cool. It was a super hot day, but by the time the game got started things started to cool down and we were able to enjoy the game!

Still dancing ... sort of!

The pregnant ladies (Tracy and Me)

Great friends! Girls from the 2002 Blazer Dancer Team!

On August 16th I helped out with the tryouts for the new Lumberjax Dance Team. I danced for the team last year, but this year I taught one of the dances that the auditioning girls had to perform. Considering that I was 23 weeks pregnant, I thought I did a really good job :) However, I was sore for about 5 days afterwards. Don't worry, I didn't really leap or do anything silly, just a lot of flinging my hair around :) It felt great to dance again, even if it was only for a few hours!