Photo Shoot

Tutu Fun

All dressed up

No special occasion, just because she's cute!

Mmmm Milk

Grandma and Daddy get to feed Minka!

Taylor and Sequoia chilling with Minka

And then there were three...

Since we have come home from the hospital Jareth and I have started to figure out life as the three of us.  Jareth is still very busy with work and studying but he comes home with open arms to see his daughter.  He has been an amazing Dad and husband taking care of Minka and I.  Minka loves to sleep and is such a calm baby!  She has not been picky about anything so far and has been very patient with me trying to learn the best tips and tricks to be Mom.  Her eyes are almost brown now, they turned from blue to gray and are starting to show more brown already.

Minka and I survived a small outing by ourselves.  We went to her first doctor appointment and she was given a very clean bill of health and weighs 7 lbs 2 oz.  By our two week appointment she should be back up to her birth weight or more by then.  The pediatrician was very pleased with her weight and health!

I have also been brave enough, with the help of all of Jareth's family, to go out to get a few other errands taken care of and to be able to take part in family day on post for Jareth.

Peanut M&M

Tootsies

Family Day

Today Jareth had a family day on post where all of the families were invited to watch their student fly a helicopter.  His class got to meet Minka and we had a fun day out watching him practice takeoffs, landings, and traffic patterns.

First Bath

Going Home

We were discharged from the hospital Wednesday morning after Minka and I were cleared to leave.  Here are a few pictures of her first day out in the world!

Ready to go home!

Welcome Home!

Pretty Lips

Joe Cool

Butterfly Wings

Family Portrait

Baby Guessing Game- Results

Congratulations to Grandma K for winning the baby guessing game!  To see how you placed check out the link below and search for the game BabyMinka.

Baby Guessing Game

More Pictures

For now she has blue eyes to accompany her long black hair.

She is very strong.  In this picture she is pushing back on Jareths hand. 

She is a very content, happy baby!

Showing off some rolls after a good meal!

Can't get enough??

First family picture! All happy and healthy!

Here I AMMMM!!!

Proud Grandparents!

Auntie Sequoia

Uncle Taylor

Checking out Poppa

Minka Mae's Birthday

Minka Mae Martinez

Born August 23rd at 8:26 am

7 lbs. 7 oz.

20 inches

2010 b.c. (Before Child)

We have had a busy week preparing to meet our little girl.  We finally decided on a truck, Jareth's parents safely made the journey to Alabama, and we finally got to meet our baby girl!

 Jareth's truck

Last dinner before going to the hospital.  There is nothing like fresh shrimp!

And we are ready to meet this baby!

Off to the hospital

The time has come.  We have enjoyed a few days with Jareth's family and now tonight we will be admitted to the hospital to follow the induction procedures.  At 6:00 pm we will first be given cervidil for 12 hours to prepare for contractions and labor.  Tomorrow morning we will be given pitocin, the medical form of the natural hormone oxytocin, to start contractions and encourage Minka to come on her own.  If that is successful Minka's birthday should be Monday August 23rd.  If there are complications or we do not respond to the medicine we may end up having a cesarean when necessary.

There will be cute pictures to update the blog soon!

All in a days fun!

Jareth's parents arrived safely yesterday evening.  We chatted for awhile before calling it a night.  Today we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, ran some errands, swam and napped, enjoyed the sun, made a fantastic dinner and relaxed in the evening.  It is just the start of all the excitement!

Fun in the pool!

Dinner- Yum!

Jareth topped off the day with surprising me with flowers!

Appointment Update

Our LAST appointment!! Wow it seems like I have been pregnant      f o r e v e r but everything will be happening so soon!  This appointment was fun because we were able to monitor the baby's heartbeat for 20 minutes and my uterus to see if I was having any contractions.  I had a small contraction which spiked Minka into a crazy rampage banging on everything she could find.  It was fun to feel her move a lot and watch her strong heartbeat.

Jareth also got me laughing so hard the monitor was reading crazy HUGE contractions and then I couldn't stop!  I tried to hold it back which only escalated the laughing into nearly peeing my pants and an embarrassing confession when the doctor came in.  We had to admit we were playing with the equipment :)

Our doctor checked for progress again and was very happy to tell us things are looking up!  Softening has begun and we are at 1 cm.  She touched the baby's head!  We have planned an induction at 5:30 pm Sunday to start cervidil and then pitocin to encourage contractions Monday morning....unless she decides to greet us before then!

Jareth's parents are almost here and we are excited for their arrival!  It will be fun to see familiar faces and have family around for some time.

More to come....

Baby Bump- Last one! Overdue!

We are now 40.5 weeks along and will meet our little girl very soon.  Here is the last pic of her calm and comfy in the womb!

Wrapping Up

My mind has been pretty busy anticipating our new arrival so I have put the blog on the back burner for now.  I will try to have another appointment update this week (the last one, yay!) but there are no guarantees there will be many posts before our baby girl arrives.

This weekend we had a fun time hosting dinner for four friends.  We have decided we only like being friends with people with names similar to ours.  The Marti's are a great couple we met right away when we got down here and we love them!  They are from UND and will be married in a couple months.  Jareth also has grown close to another student in his class, Jarrett.  Jarrett and his girlfriend hit the golf course with us on Saturday to enjoy a cool day, it was only 90 degrees!

We are feeling prepared for Minka with just a few small things we may need once she is here but for now I am excited, nervous, anxious, scared, and every emotion in between.  I thought I was pretty flexible with our "birth plan" but now I am realizing I have stronger feelings than I had recognized.  I guess we will just do what needs to be done and in the end enjoy greeting our much anticipated baby!!

Appointment Update

Today at my doctor appointment, I got to see Minka again.  She is getting so big and is growing very well.  She has cute chubby cheeks and weighs 7 lbs 1 oz, give or take 1 pound.  She has a strong heartbeat and looks pretty flexible with her toes right up by her face.

I still have not made much progress, almost one cm dilated.  My doctor won't let me go longer than one week overdue so we decided to let her have a few more days to see if she would like to come on her own and if not, we will be induced next Thursday or Friday.  Either way, we will be able to meet our little girl before next weekend!  So exciting!!

Bedroom- Complete

We ordered a new queen size memory foam bed for ourselves and I couldn't be more thrilled!!  I LOVE sleeping and our old bed was fine but our new bed is AWESOME!  I try to climb in whenever possible.  We now have our new bed set up and are ready to bring home baby!

Our new bed!

Minka's bed and my chair to rock and feed her!