Here is our daughter Phoebe. It is a girl. We just scheduled an ultra sound for Friday to determine sex, but instead, Phoebe decided to come out five weeks early. Phoebe is 4 lbs. 14 ounces. She is tiny, but she is doing very well. There should be no reason why she can't come home in a few days. 

From the clock above my head, it looks like this was taken an hour and a half before the baby was born. 

Here I am laboring. I am coaching from the chair. 

Here Leslie is after good medicine. She is contracting like crazy, but here she labors humanely. 

Leslie's water broke at 12:00 a.m., only 10 minutes after we had gone to sleep. She just made 35 weeks. Here she is before the pain and before the pain relief.

Grandpa Arnold putting carpet in the baby's room and our bedroom. He did the rest of the upstairs last week. It is in the 90s and we have no air. It will get fixed later today, but for now, here is the old man working in the heat. He has his pirate cap on to catch the sweat. Sorry Dad!

This is the baby's room with some clouds. Marla is going to paint some Dr. Seuss landscape on the walls.

Leslie and Henry practicing some more.

Leslie, her sister, her neice, and Henry walking around Yukich field.

Leslie is practicing for August.

So is Henry.

Les and I are painting the baby's room.

Shower

Today we had a surprise shower for Leslie. We didn't have our camera with us, so we will have to post pictures of it once we get them from others. She arrived a little late because she didn't she was going to her own shower. Earlier in the day, we went to the Printers' Row Book Fair. She walked around a lot downtown and was probably tired.

Leslie seemed to be totally surprised and happy. Thank you for the shower.

Les may write something later when Terra leaves and she isn't still teaching. But right now we are super busy.

Here is Les on her first swim as a pregnant woman.

Here I am getting rid of the old carpeting in the nursery. Finally getting started on the nursery.

This was taken at Leslie's cousin's house. We are at a graduation party. Les looks happy.

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We have been super busy. This is after a walk to the library and then to Les's parents' house.

27 weeks and 35 inches 

27 weeks--this belly is very comfortable 

side view --looks like Hitchcock's profile  

belly in full glory--check out the weird bellybutton 

28 weeks happy belly 

3.5 Months left

Wow this goes fast. Sorry we have been lax in posting. I can't believe Brett put a picture of our very messy room for everyone to see. Doesn't he know you are supposed to hide that sort of thing? We do hope to work on it over the weekend and get it going. Obviously time will dictate that we have to get it done. My belly is now 33 inches around, so I have expanded seven inches since conception--very strange. At least my chest is growing proportionately to my belly :) Thanks to my sister and Vicki Hoefler (Tyle) I got a few more maternity outfits to wear, so I should be all set. And speaking of maternity outfits--the one in the picture is just ok--I like the shirt and I like the pants, but I like them better in other combinations; I have some really cute maternity outfits, but the day we took the picture, I wasn't wearing one of the cuter ones. How sad. :) I really like what I am wearing today, but unfortunately, we won't be taking pictures today. I realize this may not be something all of you have the least interest in reading about, so I'll move on. I am still not experiencing discomfort or any other problems on a regular basis--I did, however, wake up with a bit of a cold, so I have that to look forward to for the next week or two. Other than that, I have a few little pains here and there--some weird feeling in my rib cage and lots of kicking and pushing, but nothing to complain about. I have been eating a lot more, though. It seems like if I am not busy, I am in the kitchen looking for food. I tend toward ice cream the most :). Tonight Brett and I are hosting the Senior Banquet for the Class of 2005. I am excited to see how much the kids enjoy it, but I am dreading the late night--I'd like a nap right now, but I can't go home to get one. Anyway, my next appointment is next Wednesday, like Brett said, so we'll see if anything has changed at that point. We'll also see about the ultrasound. Now I have to go get ready for the banquet.

Haven't updated in a while.

So we have been pretty busy with work and what not. I am finally getting around to updating the blog. New pictures added below. Leslie is feeling fine. She was supposed to have a doctor's appointment this evening, but her doctor went on maternity leave, so the new appointment is next week. The bad news: the old doctor hinted at possibly getting another ultra-sound. Now we probably get to wait until August to find out the gender.

Our short-term goal is to work on the nursery. We finally got rid of the big furniture. We now need to store all the hand-me-down baby clothes that are cluttering the floor in the room. After those are gone, I will remove the carpet. That should happen sometime this week.

Les had always mentioned that she wanted to do Dr. Seuss themed nursery. More proof that we are not very original: http://sheknows.com/about/look/182.htm

Les thinks we will be doing this, but for some reason, I don't think that either one of us is talented enough, but I am sure she will try to prove me wrong.

This is the future nursery. We got rid of the bed and the dresser. The room is a disaster. 

Close up of belly at the end of end of week 24. There is no belly button. 

Here is the close up of belly at week 24 from the side. 

Here is Leslie at 24 weeks. Tomorrow is the beginning of week 25.