Ben's First Visitors

Grandma Jan

Grandpa Ron

Great Grandma Claudia
Andy's Aunt Carole
Papa Doug, Andy's step dad
Uncle Aaron (Andy's brother)
Great Grandpa Glenn
Awesome friend, Deb
and her husband, Jim, and son, Levi
Our friend Ami (9 months pregnant)
Gran Jeanne, Andy's mom
Auntie Rhonda

Announcing Benjamin Dylan!

After water broke - before we left for the hospital... (we stopped at school to add my last minute grades and sub plans)

Benjamin Dylan Clodfelter was born at 3:30AM on May25th. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long.

A Ben burrito!

We are now home. My parents are here and taking excellent care of all of us! I don't know what we would have done without them! I will post more pics as soon as Ben gets more alert and wide-eyed! We are all doing well. I will fill in more details soon when I have a moment - I just wanted to get some pics up for all to see!

News!

My water broke at 4:04 AM! We packed bags, showered, had a light breakfast, picked up around the house, and graded some last minute Ecology tests and now we are on our way to the hospital at about 7:15! Wish us luck! We'll call with news when we can - Can't wait to meet our new baby!

Pretty Toes,Ugly Feet at 38 plus weeks

Starting on Monday, my feet started swelling so bad that the only shoes I can wear are my TEVA-type adjustable strap sandals. Even with my nicer teacher clothes, I am now just wearing the weekend sandals. I couldn't stand my ugly toenails any longer seeing as I haven't touched my feet/ toenails since Spring Break, when I could reach them, so I went tonight and got my first ever pedicure. How luxurious - an awesome massage of the calves and feet and pretty pink polish!

Here are my hugely swollen feet (I can't believe I'm posting a pic of them...)



and the lovely toes.

My appointment today went fine - 110/73 blood pressure - Still the same on progress. Next appointment on Wed.

Just 3 days of school left - and a ton of work to clean up/ details of sub plans to write... I'll be crazy busy for the next few days, but trying hard to stay off of my feet. If I can put them up high, the swelling will go down a bit...

This weekend, and Monday we planted a bunch of perennials and put in the garden (onions, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini). It cooled down temperature wise here - back into the 60's...

I will post with any further updates as soon as I know anything...

38 weeks

The appointment went well. Progress remains the same as the last visit... but the baby has dropped a bit (-3). I asked the doctor how large the baby was - he does a quick feel of the belly and says "I'd say 8 - 8 1/2 pounds" with no smile or hint of this being a joke. I still have 2 weeks left - he's got to be kidding! I've heard that they usually err on the small side when making these estimates so as not to scare the mothers - so I'm thinking - OMG! Is it really more like 9 lbs or larger????

On the other hand, I'm still feeling pretty good - Tuesday, I was completely exhausted, but Wed and Thursday were much better. It's supposed to get up to 98 degrees tomorrow - Very crazy weather for Oregon this time of year. I'm not sure how my body will handle the heat. Our walnut tree doesn't even have its leaves yet to provide some shade for the house. We may be sleeping downstairs. We're planning on putting in the garden and doing some other yard work this weekend (in the cool AM/PM hours). Next appt on Tuesday, I think.

37 1/2 weeks

Well - I'm at 37 1/2 weeks now and still hanging in there. I had a hectic Mother's Day weekend. Saturday we put together the stroller and the Pack-n-Play, then Andy took off to head to Seattle for one last hurrah before baby. He went to a Mariners game with an old buddy from California. I, on the other hand, went to work to catch up on a ton of grading and to start the infamous "sub plans"... I spent about 4+ hours at school and felt much better when I left, but I still have a large lab report to grade for about 100 students. I'm going to put in some time on them tonight after a nice nap. On Sunday, I ran a bunch of errands that included a trip to JCPenny to order window treatments for the downstairs bathroom and the office, a stop at Cost Plus for an end table in the nursery, and a quick trip to Barnes and Noble for an infant-toddler care book. I also worked on packing "the bag" which I have found is quite difficult to do... I pretty much will have a list of the things to go in and just have to check them off as I put them in, once the time comes. I can't pack most of my toiletry items yet, since I use them everyday. We had a nice dinner with Andy's mom and family on Sunday, and made it home in time to crash for the evening. Andy did come through with a very nice Mother-to-be Day gift - A cool locket necklace with a spot for a tiny picture inside and some flowers and a book! Both of our moms had a cute little locket with pics of us when we were little - How thoughtful of him! My next appt is on Wed. - I'll do a new update then!

WARNING - Girl stuff ahead! At my last appt. on Thursday I was at 2 cm and 50% effaced! We'll see what Wed. brings...

36 1/2 weeks

Warning to EE or other squemish boys - don't read the first paragraph - girl stuff!

At my dr. visit last week (36 weeks) on Wed. I had the surprising news that I am 1 cm dialated. Not much, but at least there's some progress... (I didn't even know they checked this early) Just 9 cm to go... I also have a moderate rash on my torso/ arms that has been driving me crazy. I've tried some Benedryl, and it helps a bit, but it's still quite a nuisance. Other than that, I'm still feeling good!

Last weekend, I lined a basket for diapers - here's a pic.



I also lined the drawers of the dresser with wrapping paper and washed/ folded the clothes that we have in newborn/ 3 mos. sizes. The top drawer contains the 35 onesies...



This past weekend, we spent Saturday power washing various baby items and garbage cans, etc. We washed the car seat/ bases, bathtub, etc. Now I just have to reassemble them with their cushions and liners.

Sunday the weather was beautiful! We were weeding the rest of the big-leaf maple seedlings from the backyard when I noticed a starling that was carrying some nesting material toward our roof. I watched it for a bit and discovered that it was entering the soffit of the roof at an awkward spot that has no vinyl siding, and hopping inside the soffit about 20 feet and then emerging at a hole in the siding. Andy spent about 3 hours building a screen of chicken wire to keep the bird out of it's entrance hole and then pulled a huge amount of nesting material with an egg out of the soffit. Needless to say, I don't think the birds will be back.

We also had some time to go out to a Bridgeport Brewpub and Bakery in Portland with some friends that are also expecting! The boys had some beer and the preggos had desserts! Here's the gang: Ami/Riad, Doug/Maureen, Andy/Jen.

Here are the 3 preggos - Maureen - pregnant with twins due in mid-August, Ami - due on June 6 with her second and then me - officially due May 29th!

Next appt. is Thursday.