Pictures

Here is a link to the pictures/webnursery for Danica. These pictures were taken the day we left the hospital.

http://www.our365.com/newbornportraits/babydetail.aspx?BirthId=7a239743-38ea-4623-aee5-03193e6961f0

Let me know if you have trouble getting into it and I will send you the email that should allow you to see the pictures because I have to say she is a pretty darn cute baby. :)

updates

I have learned one very important thing--newborns do not make blogging easy. Its much harder to find time to tell you all what is going on around Danica's schedule--but we are working it out.

I have to say I am very lucky--Corey is very hands-on and helpful. He really tries to make sure that I get as much sleep/rest as possible. And he only complains a little (and usually very jokingly) about having to change diapers. :)

But here are some pictures--the flowers are part of an arrangement that Corey's mom and step-dad sent to us after she was born. They are so beautiful!! And I thought it would be fun to share them (for like 2 seconds while I snapped a picture) with Danica.

We also went to our first doctor's appointment--and Danica passed with flying colors. But I will have a funny story to tell when she is older because the first thing she did was pee all over the exam table--and I am not exaggerating it was almost the entire table. So I guess we all know what she thinks of doctors, offices, and appointments. :)

Day 3 (belated) with more pictures

Danica spend the majority of her time under ultraviolet lights in order to fight the jaundice. So the pictures I got were all from the special care nursery. It was the hardest thing in the world to see her in there and not have her in the hospital room so we could hold her and look at her whenever we wanted. But we both agreed that the only way we were going to get her home with us was to let her be under those lights as much as possible. So we were very strong and kept the feeding times to 30 minutes so we could get her back under the lights as much as possible. But we did take a few pictures--we looked at them during the times we couldn't be with her. :)

The thing that makes me smile about these pictures is that Corey was still trying to convince me that Danica was not going to have him wrapped around her little finger--but honestly you look at these pictures and you know Corey is a goner. :)

More updates

Here are some pictures from Day 2 of Danica's life. We are both feeling better. Danica showed signs of Jaundise, so she spent most of the day under the uv lights. But we did get to see her every three hours for feedings. And you can see that these feedings were the highlight of Corey's day--yep she is going to have him wrapped around her finger no matter how much he keeps telling me she won't. :) I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that we decided to do that baby shower after she was born--that way everyone can meet her at the same time. :)

Introduction

Danica Mabel Bouchard was born on October 22, 2008 at 8:17 in the morning. She was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 20 inches long.

And we have been telling everyone that she was delivered by FedEx. Corey had to drive me to the hospital in the FedEx truck because the contractions started coming while he was still working--and he wasn't going to have time to get back to the terminal and drive home.


And she has so much hair--that is the first thing that everyone notices when they meet her.

Here is one of her first pictures--Corey took some pictures as soon as they moved her to the warmer and started cleaning her up.

This seems to be one of her favorite things to do--put her hand in her face. We have been commenting that we have so many ultrasound pictures where she had her hand in her face in the exact same way. :)
Corey took this picture when I first got to hold Danica. Isn't she beautiful?
And this is Corey's favorite thing to do with Danica--hold her. When he is in the room she spends very little time in the crib. He can get her to quiet down and sleep quicker than anyone. And I am pretty sure she has him wrapped around her finger. :)

Doctor's update AKA the Waiting Game is Winding Down

So my doctor's appointment today was--well I would say fun but then you all would know I was lying because honestly when are they fun? So I will say it was encouraging--at least now I am starting to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and a day that Danica will greet the world. According to my doctor, Danica's day will be Thursday, October 23rd. Corey and I will be going to the hospital on Wednesday night to start the induction, but they don't anticipate her arriving until Thursday.

So hopefully we will have a post full of pictures for everyone by Friday. :)

Waiting Game

I have to say that today I was really hoping to be busy--really busy--you know in the hospital. But alas as of 5:45 pm it does not appear to be our day. So instead Corey and I did a little bit of walking and took a couple of pictures. I guess this way we will always remember what we looked like the day we thought we would be having a baby. Of course I am not sure how I feel about the picture of me by myself--I feel like I am as big as the house behind me. Maybe thats why I don't have many belly pictures to show. :)

But I have another doctor's appointment on Monday, so I guess we will see what new information that brings. :)

Tag--I'm It

Okay my friend just tagged me--and since now is not the time to put things off I thought I would do it now.


3 Names You Go by...

Umm pretty much its only Shanan


3 Restaurants

Joe's Farm Grill--which luckily my coworkers love too when we want to celebrate something
Rubios--which my coworkers love when we just want to have lunch (that was where we went when they wanted me out of the office to set up my surprise baby shower.) :)
Anything Mexican Food--which is particularly hard for Corey because that is not his favorite type of food. :)



3 Trips to Plan on This Year

Honestly who gets to take three trips in a year? If I get to leave Phoenix it will probably be to go to the family reunion in Northern AZ. And that is really the only plan I have. I know its sad.



3 Things I Want Badly

A healthy baby
A painless (or at least less painful) delivery
The economy to get out of the toliet



3 Pets I've had

Actually I grew up with a lot of pets--most notably Zorro (my grandparent's dog).
Wishbone (my dad and my dog)
Brandy (Corey and my cat--you have heard a lot about her though if you have read anything on here).



3 Things I did Yesterday

Work
Ate
Slept
(yes my life is really that exciting now--if I make it to 8pm thats a long day for me).



3 Things I Ate Today

Cheerios (my current favorite breakfast)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Strawberries...yum



3 Fears

Bugs (okay maybe not a fear but really something I would rather Corey handle)
Having the baby at work (one of my coworkers will kill me if she is born at work)
And I can't think of any others--I know what a boring cop-out



3 Things I Plan on Doing Today

Work
Go to Evening with ASU program (sounded like a much better idea 2 weeks ago when I was asked)
Sleep
(again my life is so interesting right now)



3 Things I Plan on Doing Tomorrow (I know you will all be shocked by this)

Work
Take my friend out for his birthday lunch with my coworkers
Sleep
(but this weekend I might get my hair cut--I put might in front of everything now).



3 Favorite Holidays

St. Patrick's day (anniversary of when Corey and I met)
Thanksgiving (its always fun to have dinner with the family)
Christmas (especially when my cousins come from Portland) :)


3 Favorite Beverages

Since I got pregnant--
water
yellow snow from QT (really not as bad as it sounds)
lemonade with a little sprite

Before I got pregnant--Diet Coke was practically all I drank.


3 People I Tag

umm I will leave this open. If you feel like playing along then I just tagged you :)

Doctor's update

After waiting an hour after my scheduled appointment--no I am not a little annoyed with my doctor--I finally got to have my appointment. Anyway, I found out today that I am 1 cm diulated and Danica has started to drop. So any day now--or next week--we could have our baby.

Fun Stuff for Danica

Since I am sure my dad will start reminding me that I have not been blogging lately, I decided to post pictures today of some more of the fun things that Danica has gotten lately.

Saturday I had to work the Education Fair on our campus. It was a lot of fun getting to see a lot of my students participate in the professional development. Plus I got to find out about a lot of the educational and fun things to take kids to once Danica gets older--actually in most cases I found out that the places Grandma and Dad used to take Heather and me to have changed names. For instance, Mesa Southwest Museum is now called something like Arizona Museum of Natural History--I thought it had closed. So I was very excited to find out about all the things Corey and I will be able to take Danica to in the future. :)

But I also go to buy Danica books--and get them signed by the author. It was so exciting. And the books are very Arizona focused which will be great since Danica will be a fifth generation Arizona native. Plus the book "Don't Call Me Pig!" was named something like best children's book by the governor not too long ago.

Having Arizona-focused children's books for Danica made me think that I needed to find some books in honor of Corey being from Massachusettes. I am trying to get the book "Make Way for Ducklings" which I found out is the state children's book of Massachusettes. There are statues in Boston to commerate it and everything--so I will probably have to order it online so Danica has something very Massachusettes as well.

And yesterday we had the Cousin's Dinner. Aunt Shirley had more wonderful gifts for Danica. The Pooh blanket may be my favorite, but I made sure that everyone got to see the back of Danica's halloween outfit since I think that was Aunt Shirley's favorite thing. :)

Today I go to my weekly doctor's appointment so I will probably be updating everyone later today--but I wanted to make sure everyone got to see some of the fun stuff that Danica has gotten lately.

Belated Thanks

Okay I have finally had a chance to take some pictures of some of the cute things people have gotten Danica lately so I could share them with everyone. I am hoping this is my last really overwhelmingly busy week at work--by the end of the day I will have driven to Coolidge three times in three days and that takes a lot out of a pregnant woman. But next week should be better. :)

Anyway, my Aunt Shirley and my dad helped Corey and I get the Pack n' Play that could double as a bassinet. So Danica has a temporary bed in our room. Now I am not sure how excited Corey is about the new addition to the room--the only place we could put it was on his side of the room. So when Danica wakes up Corey will have to get up to hand her to me. I have never been so glad to have my dresser on my side of the room. hehe.

I was so excited to find a Pack n' Play that complimented the colors in Danica's room and was Winnie the Pooh. So when she is done using it as a bassinet it will be a great play pen for her that compliments a lot of the things she has gotten already. :)

And Corey's mom finished a beautiful knitted blanket for Danica. Aren't the little flowers on it precious?
So overall I have to say that Danica did really well this week. She got some beautiful gifts. Belated thanks to everyone since I haven't been able to blog until now.