Daddy, stop being selfish...

Ashley just told me that I need to start putting more pictures on the web for everyone to see. Here are some more of my favorites from the first few days, narrated by Claire herself.


Jammin' to my ipod


I love to eat (nom nom nom)


And I love to sleep...


Raise your hand if you're ready to go home from the hospital!


Grandma loves to hold me. (She asked to be edited out of this picture).


Grandaddy loves to hold me too...


Dad, are you about done taking pictures?


My first time in the swing. Not sure if I like this or not...


Mom and Dad and I had our first dinner tonight as a family. This is my after dinner nap.

Claire - 44 hour update....

It's pretty amazing how much things can change in 2 days. Besides the general lack of sleep, everything has gone pretty smoothly for us. Claire has passed all of her tests with flying colors. It's kind of crazy because if she had just been born 6 hours later, she would've been a full 37 weeks old, and able to skip the extra tests she's been doing. But because she wasn't, we're not able to leave the hospital until tonight around 9pm. We're doing our best to get everything out of the way so that we can leave as soon as they let us go. Dad's been raiding the cabinets here trying to take everything he can find because he can't stop thinking, "I paid for all of this ridiculously expensive stuff, might as well take it."
Claire has been doing her part as well. She's doing her best to fill the diapers at the prescribed rate (gee... thanks sweetheart), and eating lots of food. She also passed her hearing test the first time with flying colors. I'm going to take the results home and put them up on the fridge.
Everyone say a little prayer for me this afternoon as I go down and attempt to get the car seat base in the car for the first time. It should be quite comical because I have absolutely no idea how in the world that's going to work. And before you ask, no, I'm not going to video that.

Claire is here!!!!!

Today has been one of the fastest days of my entire life. It seems like a few hours ago that Ashley and I woke up and walked the dogs and were off to run some errands like we normally do on the weekend. Ashley told me she was feeling some things she had not felt before, but dismissed it as just one of the weird things that women feel when they're pregnant. Throughout the morning though, it became more apparent that things were changing and it could be the day. She called the doctor and sure enough, he wanted us to come in to the hospital. Then time really seemed to speed up. We rushed home, grabbed the bag and walked the dogs, and then rushed down GA 400 to Northside Hospital. We got her admitted, they checked her and she was 3-4cm dilated and contracting like a champ. The next few hours were a real blur. They induced her, got the epidural in just in time, and the next thing i knew, Claire had arrived. We're so blessed and excited. She's only 5 hours old and so tiny!
We'll be posting more stories and pictures over the days and weeks to come. We look forward to sharing with all of you. Thanks so much for your love and support. It means more than we can say.


The first pic of the new family.


Our niece, Ansley, holding her new cousin.



Claire Isabella Edney
Born: 5/24/08 - 6:11pm
6lbs 2oz - 18"

No more bed rest....Yayayay! :o)

I am officially off bed rest and medication. I can't be more excited. I went for a 3.5 mile walk (waddle) today with my friend Emily and loved every aching minute of being in the sun exercising. Laying or sitting for a month (well most of the month) you really appreciate being able to get out and run errands, exercise and just being allowed to walk around the house when you want. I am officially 36 weeks as of yesterday. I suppose that is considered full term. How exciting! So we now play the waiting game. The baby could be here any minute. My due date is officially June 15th, so regardless it is almost here! Yikes! It has always seemed so far away. Now don't get me wrong, it has gone by slower for me than others most of the time but looking back it did go by fairly fast.

We did take some pictures of the nursery finally. So many people are curious as to how in the world we planned for this kid not knowing what the sex is. :o) Well here is a way it can be done. Just incorporate lots of colors! We had so much fun getting everything together for this little one. Fixing the room was a blast. We haven't painted the walls or anything. The whole bed rest shenanigans put a wrench in the nursery setting up process so we did what we could quickly.

Well I am going to watch some tv and go to bed. Have a great night!
~ash

New Life

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. Everywhere you look, it's green. It's not just any green either. It's that brand new green that you only see for a few weeks each year.
My dad was nice enough to help me start my first garden when he was down a couple weeks ago. It's nothing earth shattering really. A couple of tomato plants, a couple of pepper plants and a planter full of sweet basil and oregano. But it's my first, and I'm very excited about it. I've been watching my dad grow his own garden in North Carolina for years, so hopefully at this point, between him and my 1st grade Sunday school teacher Mrs. Henderson, I've picked up a thing or two and won't let these poor plants die.
Dad helped me prepare the ground by splitting "shovel time" with me. We had to dig through the infamous, and ridiculously hard, "Georgia red clay." After we got a few holes dug, we mixed in some nutrient rich garden soil. We folded that all in and then set out the plants. I also put a small wire fence around the area so that my lovely dogs don't kill it all. After a good watering, we were done. The picture above was taken Saturday. Things seem to be going well so far. The first little tomato has popped out and I think we'll be able to start using some of that basil in some recipes very soon.
Seeing that this weekend got me thinking about my little tomato that's on the way. The latest update is that Ashley is 34 weeks and a day, and is on her last few pills of Terbutaline. We go back to the doc on Thursday and we'll see what happens then, but at this point, we think she's going to be off the medicine for good and we'll be letting nature take its course starting this weekend. That means we could be parents sooner than we had previously thought. That's definitely exciting and terrifying stuff.
Thanks for the help in the garden, dad. I'm looking forward to sharing your green thumb secrets with the newest member of the family.

Last week on bed rest????

Could this be the last week on bed rest? We will find out Thursday. :o) My gracious, it sure was nice to lay around for about 24 hours, then it actually got pretty boring. Everyone keeps telling me I better rest up for the big event....the baby gets here and you won't sleep at all. I am not quite sure how to save my sleep. I am not getting any more than the usual 7-8 hours and by golly my poor body needs that now. How do I save the rest, IF I get more than 8 hours? Is there some way to bottle it up or pack it away for when the baby gets here that I am unaware of??? The funny thing is, I have been so excited to get off bed rest to get out and about and get some last minute things done but I am getting more and more worn down. It takes all I have in me to get through the day and that's just normal moving around. I am so uncomfortable these days! So I am not sure how much energy I will have if I was to get off bed rest. We shall see! :o)

Owww....I know this little one likes to park his/her rear end in my right-side ribs. Sheesh! Sitting and standing are quite painful when this is going on.

My mom and I realized yesterday that I do not have bottles yet. What in the world was I (I mean Bryan and I) thinking?? Unprepared much, Ash? So that will be my first trip out in awhile, to babys r us to get bottles and .....? I am sure there is something else important I forgot. We at least have a car seat to bring the baby home in. Thanks to my great friends Emily, Sara and Hollie (and their hubby's/fiances!) Where as before when we went into pre-term labor we had nothing. No car seat, no nursery, no diapers, nothing. Bryan was calling friends from the hospital lining up car seat borrowing. Wow, we are going to be parents....does that concern anyone but me?? :o)

Bryan just posted his blog on his garden. How exciting! It is our first garden. It is a good thing he is growing our food since the baby will be quite costly. Any suggestions on recipes using tomatoes, basil, oregano, and peppers....only? Basil sandwich anyone? Just kidding! I am so excited about Bryan's garden. I am so thankful he has a green thumb like his daddy. Hopefully our little one takes after him and not me in the outside growing department. I kill plastic plants, so it is quite pitiful.

Well I hope everyone has a great night.
Happy Sleeping!