Baby Tinsley is here!!

Well I have been a little busy the past few weeks!! Here is what we have been up to!
December 6th my dear friend Selina came over and took some maternity pictures of me so we could see how fat I got before giving birth to Tinsley. LOL! Here is one of our favorites.


December 8th we arrived at the hospital at 6pm and were admitted with all our bags in tow! The nurses got started on softening up my cervix and I was looking forward to getting a last good nights sleep, so I thought! I did not get any sleep and neither did Ethan, as soon as they gave me the pill it made my contractions come on strong! I was apparently already having some mild contractions when I arrived but I did not know it. They gave me a pain pill and I got a few hours of sleep but the next thing I knew it was Thursday morning and Dr. Moser was on her way to break my water and get labor started.

December 9th the nurse started my Pitocin about 6am, Dr Moser broke my water about 8am, and I was told to go ahead and get my epidural about 8:30. I was so glad I did!! Apparently getting the epidural relaxed me enough to let the Pitocin work quickly! At 9am I was 75% and a 2, the next thing we know it is 11:30 I am 100% and a 10! Dr. Moser told me to relax and labor down for an hour and they turned the Pitocin off, I started pushing at 1:00pm and finally delivered Tinsley Rose Gingras at 2:20 pm!! She weighed 8lb even and was 20 1/2 inches long.
She came out with her face upwards, they said I did really good because normally the baby's head will not come out that way and they have to do an emergency c-section. I was extremely relieved she was able to come out on her own and I did not have to have a c-section! Ethan was able to watch the entire birth and cut the cord! I have never felt such relief and happiness in my entire life! After the nurse cleaned her and I was able to feed her we let our visitors come see her! Ethan's mom, grandmother, sister, father, and my aunt were all in the waiting room patiently waiting to see her and get to hold her! We got to move down the hall to our postpartum room and had a few more visitors, and more alone time with our new bundle of joy.

December 11th we got to take Tinsley home, we packed up the room and all the goodies and made our way downstairs to buckle her in and slowly drive her home! I think Ethan was a nervous wreck driving her home for the first time. Our first night at home alone with our princess was a little scary! I don't think I slept at all! Every time she would make a coo, or grunt I woke up and just looked at her!

December 14th we had her first Dr appointment with Dr Hunt. She looked her over and said everything looked great, she had lost a few ounces but that was normal, but everything else looked great! Back home we went and we all took naps!

December 15th I had my postpartum appointment and they said I looked good, and sent me home, even thought i told the NP that I was having some shortness of breath when I would lay down. She said I was probably unlucky and I was getting a cold. She said to take it easy and I should be feeling better soon...

December 16th Ethan woke me up from my evening nap telling me he was going to take me to the ER, I did not think it was that bad so I convinced him to just take me to CareNow. Ethan's mom came over to watch Tinsley because we didn't want to take her with us since there would be sick people there. Good thing we didn't! They called the hospital and sent me straight to the ER! The Dr. at CareNow thought I may have a blood clot. That scared Ethan and me, so we drove back to the hospital I had just left a few days prior, without my new baby! They took blood, gave me a CAT scan, chest x-ray, an EKG, and an echocardiogram. They admitted me to the hospital and told me I have Postpartum Cardio Myopathy. Basically I had liquid in my lungs and around my heart and they were not working how they should. My heart was only closing 50% and in people my age it should close about 65%, that made my other organs not work as they should so I could not get all the liquids out of my body. They gave me a diuretic and almost immediately I started peeing out all the liquid, in a 24 hour time period I lost 20lbs!! Needless to say I started feeling a lot better! I got to go home on Friday night and I am doing good now. I have to monitor my blood pressure and weigh myself every day to make sure I don't start retaining water again, and in a few weeks I have to go back for another echo to see if getting the liquid out and the medicine is helping repair the damage from my pregnancy and giving birth.

December 19th I am feeling great, and Tinsley is doing so good! She sleeps about 75% of the time and I can not help but to hold her and give her kisses every chance I get!! As for Ethan, he is sick, and can not hold her or help me out right now, so that is a bummer but at least I know he is here if I really need him! Poor thing, I can tell he is jealous that mommy is getting all the love, but I promised as soon as he is feeling better I would share her with him! :)

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks! Enjoy!!

Overdue update

Well I have had doctors appointments every week and they are about the same each visit. We go in and we talk about how I am feeling, my blood work, they usually tell me I need to gain weight, and do a fast sonogram to check Tinsley's weight. My appointment on Nov. 10th the Dr told me I have an aging placenta so they have to check that every week too. My blood sugar is now under control since I have been taking medicine. I have started itching out of control, so Dr. Moser did a liver test and it came back normal. So there is nothing I can do but itch, take baths, and put on lotion! Oh what fun, at least I only have 7 days left!! December 8th can not get here fast enough!!

We went to Thanksgiving with Ethan's family at Trail Dust steak house in Arlington. Then we saw Unstoppable, I was a little skeptical about it because I thought it looked a lot like the movie Speed, however I was pleasantly surprised! It turned out to be a really good movie!! After the movie we went to his grandmothers and watched the Cowboys game, and had more snacks and desserts. I think I gained the weight I needed to for my next appointment!! :)

Then on Friday it was Ethan's birthday and we actually did nothing, I gave him his gift and we relaxed at home. Saturday we went to the Mav's game with our friends Greg and Amy, it was nice to get out and go to a game since we have not been all year. We also got to see our friend Clint who lives up north, that was a nice surprise. Oh Yah and the Mav's won!!

My last day at work was November 30th, and they had a going away lunch for me. It was nice, I really enjoyed my time at Republic Title. They are a really great group of women and I am sure I will be seeing them once Tinsley gets here! (I am going to have to show her off)

We will be going to the hospital on Wednesday December 8th at 6pm to start filling out paperwork and to get prepared for my induction on Thursday morning. I am very excited and a little nervous too. Luckily Ethan will be there by my side and that is comforting to me since he is my rock! Hopefully I have a fast easy labor! (Hey a girl can wish!!)

Room and Parties

We finally agreed on Tinsley's bedroom furniture. So we went to Lone Star Baby and Kid and picked it up and brought it home to put it together... and it all went together perfectly!! I just knew something would be missing or broken or scratched but to my surprise it was all in great shape and all in the box! YAH! We finally have a bed to bring our princess home to! We registered for bedding because I knew Ethan's mom wanted to buy us something "Fun", so we should get that in a week or so. Since the house is on the market Ethan does not want to paint the room, but
I am still working on that :)!



I have had a few baby showers, the ladies I play Bunco with threw me a little shower, it was great and I was so excited! Then the ladies I work with threw me a shower and invited some realtors and mortgage officers we work with. Such a nice feeling knowing there are people you have never met but talk to and email on a fairly regular basis that will drive across town to celebrate with you!

We also had my baby shower thrown by Ethan's mom, grandmother, and sister. We invited everyone so this was all or nothing... well I think I got everything!! LOL Tinsley has more clothes and shoes than I do now!! I got a lot of things we needed and a few beautiful extras, Ethan's grandmother crocheted me a beautiful blanket and his aunt knitted me a beautiful dress with matching shoes. We got almost everything we needed, and I only have to take a few things back, and that is a relief!

Can you tell where I was sitting when I unwrapped everything again? This is only half the living room!! There are about 6 more bags full of things!

Doctors appointments... oh the joy!

We have had a couple doctors appointments since our last blog... this is going to be a long update!!

We went to the Dr on 9/29 and I had to take the diabetes test along with our scheduled sonogram, our sonogram got cut short because our Dr had an emergency and had to go to delivery and check on a patient. I am totally fine with that because it shows she cares about her patients, I was fine and the other lady was having issues so she jetted off to check on her! I would totally want her to do the same thing with me!! We got the results of the test on 10/4 and I had failed the short test and needed to go back to the Dr the next day to take the three hour test, well I failed that one too! So on 10/11 Ethan and I went to a dietitian and I am now on a meal plan and I have to check my blood 4 times a day! It is a little stressful for me because I have never been good about obeying diets, but I have done really good and I am proud of myself! (probably because I would do anything to make sure we have a healthy baby!)

Since I have gestational diabetes I will be induced on December 9th to make sure Tinsley does not get too big for our birth plan. I am a little relieved that she has given me a date, because I am a planner I like to have things planned out! I have been getting a little stressed out trying to make sure I have everything ready for all of us when we go to the hospital and for when we come home. I know I am not going to be able to drive so I am trying to make a list so I have everything planned and ready!

We had our most recent Dr appointment last Wednesday 10/21 and we got to have a short "just for fun" sonogram... well we caught Tinsley sucking her thumb! I thought it was amazing and so did Ethan but when the nurse and doctor commented and started laughing out loud and making a huge deal out of it I almost started to cry! The doctor told us she had never caught a baby sucking their thumb in the womb. (I will attach some of the pictures so you can see) Ethan and I were also amazed at how detailed the 3D sonogram was and how beautiful our daughter is turning out to be. Do you agree?

28 Week Sono

It is confirmed we are having a GIRL! We had our 28 week 3d sonogram and we are definitely having a girl, and it is a good thing, because I have already purchased some of the cutest little pink things!! We purchased our stroller/car seat and put it together! That is however the only large purchase we have made. We are still looking at furniture and bedding but we can not seem to make up our minds on what we want.





I have attached some pictures so yall can see how fabulous I am looking these days! LOL and a picture of Ethan putting the stroller together!

Updates

OK, so far we've had 3 showings on the house, but no offers yet nor any feedback. We also had an open house and 2 potential buyers stopped by. So we're still maintaining and trying to keep things as clean as possible at all times. It's actually much easier to live without so much clutter, which we realize will be virtually impossible once Tinsley is born.

Speaking of which, we had our 24-week visit last week. Nothing new, pretty rudimentary stuff. We had another sonogram with the not-so-great machine, but it's free so we can't complain :)

As far as we know, Tinsley is doing great in there. Ashley's getting big and starting to feel the effects of summertime pregnancy.

We wish you well and thanks for reading.

Bitter Sweet...

Ethan and I have been doing things around the house for the past two weeks, we have not had a lot of us time, only fix the house time! Yesterday was finally the day, our realtor came over and put the For Sale sign in the yard. It is a bitter sweet feeling for me since I helped Ethan pick out this house five years ago, we have so many memories in this house we made a home. We got engaged, had parties, got married and conceived our first child (I know TMI). This home has a lot of memories that I know will be dear to my heart for a long time, and I know our next house will have even more memories. Maybe I am just being emotional because I am pregnant but I found myself a little saddened when I pulled up after work and the sign was there (not that it was not there when I left this morning). Our goal is to have the house sold and into a new house by Delivery Day... we can only hope this happens in this market!

Location, Location, Location, Price

So in order to get ready for Tinsley, we need to do a few things, not the least of which is to sell our house. We've disliked it for a while now (we don't like the 2-story aspect of it), but now we want to take advantage of historically low interest rates, but we don't want to refi since......we don't like the house. Also, we have quite a bit of room that we don't use (like around 800 sq. ft. of space) and Tinsley's arrival won't increase the usage by that much, so we need to downsize, which will help with the finances since Ashley's not gonna be working once Tinsley is in our lives.

Right now we're still finishing up a few things on the house to get it ready to sell. We plan to be on the market by next week. We'll likely stay in the same area since Keller has very good schools and we really like (and know) the area.

We hope to be sold and moved before Tinsley is born, but if not, we'll just wait until the new year.

Wish us luck!

Baby Girl

6:15 came very early for me since I am not a morning person, but since I knew I was going to find out the sex of our baby I woke up in a great mood! Ethan and I had breakfast and headed out to see Dr Moser. The apt was at 8 and by 8:30 we had our answer... we are going to be welcoming Tinsley Rose into the world mid December. After the appointment we headed to Shelley's office (Ethan's mom) in Bedford to let her "open her gift" and find out that she was going to have her first granddaughter! After she opened the box and discovered the onesie with "little princess" on it we called his sister and his grandmother. After I got to work I answered some emails and then updated my facebook status... shortly thereafter I was bombarded with emails and text messages. I am so grateful to all our friends and family for their support. We are super excited and I know as soon as Ethan lays his eyes on her he will be wrapped around her little finger!

We did get some pictures but they don't look that good. I will have to take pictures of our next few shopping extravaganzas!

17 weeks

Well now that our Internet is back up and running I can update our blog and read the gossip blogs!!

We had an appointment on July 7th, it was a normal 16 week check up and I happened to ask the nurse if she could or could not see anything. She said the machine she was using was the oldest in the office but she said if she had to guess... she would vote the baby was a girl. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she is indeed a girl. If something happens to appear we will be happy with a little boy too!

August 4th we find out if the baby will be Tinsley Rose or Connor William!

On another note my high school's 10-year reunion is this Friday and Saturday! A few of us girls have been planning it and we have done a few fundraisers to keep the costs down. I really hope a lot of people come since we have put so much time, energy and money into this!

3D Sonogram Pictures

Here are some pictures we got during our most recent visit to the doctor's office.

Video

This is the video from Mother's Day 2010 when we put the sonogram picture in Shelley's Mother's Day card.

Baby G

On April 17th we found out that we were starting a new chapter in our lives, the stick had two lines! That is right we found out I was pregnant! We sent out a few emails checking to see what Dr we should go to and what hospital was going to suit our needs then set our first appointment. On April 27th we had our first Doctors appointment and they let us know we were for sure with child. They set up an apt for May 6th and we had the first sonogram, that made it for real for me! To see that little teddy graham put a huge smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart! A couple weeks later we had another appointment so the Dr could run some tests and make sure everything was going as planned. We told Ethan's mom on Mothers day (as soon as I figure out how to post a video I will). That Monday we sent out an email to our friends and other family members that didn't know yet. We had some great responses and I appreciate all the advice I received!! On June 8th we got a 3D sonogram and that was amazing!! Our next appointment is on July 7th and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we get to find out the sex soon!

Everyone is doing it...

So this is what blogging looks like... I read a lot of blogs so I have finally decided to join this crazy blogging world!

A little about us, Ethan and I met at the roller skating rink in high school, we dated on and off during the summers since we went to different schools. Then we lost touch like most kids do. 8 years later we ran into each other at a pub I was working at, we went to dinner the next night and it was like we picked up where we left off. In 2005 we purchased our first home, in 2008 Ethan proposed, in 2009 we got married and now in 2010 we are going to have our first child!

I wanted to start a blog so that we can keep all our friends and family updated as often as we can, and this seems like the easiest way to do so. So if you would like to know what is going on in our little world just check back and we will update as much as we can!