Practice makes perfect

So, it's been an eventful week since I last posted and there's lots to catch you all up on. First, the shower that my cousin Melanie and my mom threw for me was absolutely lovely and I got to see lots of my aunts and cousins that I haven't seen for a couple of months. We played a couple of cute games - match the girls name to the meaning and had a betting pool for when I'll deliver. All of the gifts were darling, some very special handmade gifts from my grandma and aunt Gini, some very necessary baby goodies, and lots of darling clothes. A special thank you to Melanie and to everyone else who joined us - it reminded me of what a special family I have.

There was also lots of action with Lucia/Celia last week. I had two bouts of pretty deceptive "practice labor" that had Andre and I and my parents pretty convinced that labor was imminent. The first started on Monday afternoon while mom and I were driving back from grocery shopping in Seattle. As excited as mom is about her first grandchild, when I started having contractions twenty minutes apart as we were driving over Snoqualmie Pass she was cursing me as she thought through what she'd do if this was real labor and went fast. But while the contractions got pretty regular and by Tuesday were coming about every ten minutes, they never got very hard and they just quit by Tuesday night when Andre and I went to sleep. The same thing happened on Thursday too. The benefit of all of this practice labor has been that it kicked Andre and I into high gear and got us to scratch the last few things off of our "before the baby comes" to do list. Andre tracked down some great relaxation tracks for during labor and made a playlist of music to play for the baby's arrival (mostly the second half of Abbey Road, starting with Here Comes the Sun). We got some help from my parent's friends Lizzie and Gary to finally install the car seat in the Subaru, and I buckled down and finished up some of the work that needed to be done in the nursery. It's still not quite finished, but I've been meaning to post a few pics of her room so you all can see where will be hanging out some for the first few months and where she'll sleep once she's too big for the bassinet in our room.

My mom and her friends were horrified by our paint choice and have been lobbying for something more pastelly for fear the bright lime green will stunt her development. I'm pretty fond of it and think it's a great contrast with the red and will be bright and cheery this winter when things get pretty grey around here. I completely ripped off my style guru Emily and ordered a Denyse Schmidt quilt called "Pretty Squares" that I do think is very pretty and has great greens, reds, and blues to work with. Andre picked out the poppy wall decals at Ikea on one of our trips after our move this summer. I must say that I was skeptical, but I think they look great over the crib. The last few touches we need to add are a rug (just found a great lime and cream shag jobby for cheap at Target), a wall of pictures of family over the book shelf by the changing table (working on it), and some new window coverings that my fabulous aunties Beth and Jan gave me as a shower gift (white "blackout" blinds to keep the room nice and dark for naps and a red valance to pull the room together). I'll post some more pictures when we've finished it.

My parents hosted the annual apple squeeze out on the farm this past weekend and there were lots of friends and family there. It was Andre and Molly's first experience making cider and they both dug in with gusto. Molly really loves apples and was lots of help cleaning up the discard pile. On Sunday a bunch of us went up and did the Icicle Gorge Trail hike (4 miles) and enjoyed the amazing fall colors. We were all hoping that might get labor going again, but no luck. It did wear dear Molly out, she passed out the minute we got back to the car and slept the 30 minutes back to the farm. I'm pretty sure that if we're all getting 4 miles in she's getting at least 8 miles running back and forth ahead and behind us off leash on the trail.

For those of you who've placed bets on the date of delivery or are just wondering about the status of things given our due date is this Friday, October 19th, here are the stats from our midwife visit on Monday evening:
2 cm dilated

pretty much fully effaced

-1 station

This means that everything is going pretty well with my cervix, and as our fabulous midwife says "it's nice and squishy" and ready for Lucia/Celia's exit. The -1 station means that she's about as low as she can go before the pushing stage of labor starts, and all of the practice labor last week has taken care of 2 cm of the 10 that my cervix will need to dilate before delivery. This still doesn't necessarily tell us anything about when she'll arrive - the average first pregnancy goes 41 and 1/7 weeks (which would put us at next Saturday, October 27). Let's all cross our fingers she comes sooner, but my new mantra is that every day is another day closer to her arrival and that's about all we know for sure. She'll be here anytime now (and I think whoever wins that due date pool should share the prize with me as I'll be the one doing all the work;)!

Inaugural Post

So, we've been meaning to get a blog started to help us stay in touch with all of our friends and family since we got married, and somehow we've never made it happen. Now that I've officially started maternity leave, I'm hoping I can get into the habit of posting updates and pictures regularly.
Right now, the big news is that the Stemm-Calderon clan will soon add a member when our first daughter is born this month. We're due October 19th, so she should be here in the next few weeks. Many of you have been asking whether we've settled on a name yet, and really, we're still deliberating. There's a poll to the right of this web page to get your vote on the two front runners. We're interested in your two cents, but really we're both pretty convinced we'll only know for sure once we meet her.
We've recently moved to Leavenworth, Washington and are really enjoying living some place with actual seasons (our condolences to all of you Houstonians). These pictures are from a hike my mom and I took up the Icicle Gorge Trail to see the leaves changing. We brought along her dog Odin and my puppy Molly. It was a gorgeous trail, and I made it all four miles although this baby is riding so low on my pubic boneI waddle more then I walk these days. Actually, walking a couple of times a day is one of the things I've loved most about our new home, and hopefully it may bring the baby along sooner rather than later.
Andre's been making a name for himself at Mission View Elementary down in Wenatchee where he's teaching 2nd grade bilingual. I'll get you all a picture of his class soon - they are absolutely darling. I met them this past week when I went to his school for the baby shower that his second grade team members and all of the staff at his school threw for us. They were so sweet and generous and it seems they all love Andre (as they should ;). We're headed over to Seattle tomorrow for a little Whole Foods and REI trip in the morning. Picture us putting on our Sunday's best and readying our horse-drawn carriage to head into town and go to the market - seriously, this is what it takes to get your hands on some organic produce and stylish gear. In the afternoon we're headed up to my cousin Jason and Melanie's house in Marysville for a baby shower with my family. I'll write with an update and pictures of our adventures on Monday.