Having fun!

So we've tried putting Avelyn down on her play set, but she NEVER would lay there and enjoy it. Well, today I decided to try it again because I noticed she's picking up on more visual things lately. She absolutely loved it! She sat there and watched everything for a solid 15 minutes. Avelyn has also started to smile a little bit and coo. I have to say, I've been waiting for that to happen and she just melts my heart every time she does it. I have a video but it won't post on here. If you are my friend on Facebook, you can see it there. Sorry for the inconvience.
My little girl will be turning 1 month old this Thursday! Where in the world did the time go???? Next thing I know, she'll be crawling, then walking, then running, & then running away from me! I'm not ready for that. I'm enjoying every little bit I get with her because I know these moments are fleeting.
Jeff, my in-laws, and I took Avelyn to the circus this weekend. It obviously takes a lot to amuse my little one. She slept through the WHOLE thing! We enjoyed it though. Definitely for kids though. Here's a couple of pictures:

My Sweet Precious Avelyn

Well, Avelyn Marie McLendon finally arrived on July 20, 2009 at 4:30pm. She's actually the heaviest of all of the Lowman grandchildren weighing in at 7 lbs. 6 oz., but is the shortest at only 19 inches. What can I say, she's a healthy baby. I got "induced" on Saturday (July 18th) evening, but really wasn't. When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to all the monitors and were about to insert the cervadil. They discovered though that I was already contracting and contracting hard so they were afraid to do anything. Fortunate for me, I wasn't feeling any of them! So the next morning around 6am, they checked me and I was 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced. The doctor on-call made the decision to just try potocin. Around 12pm, I had regressed and completely closed up and off the potocin I went! After she discussed it with the other doctors, she made the decision to use the cervadil at 3pm. On Monday morning at 3am, they got me back on the potocin. My doctor (who is absolutely wonderful!) came in at 8am and I was back to 1 cm 50% effaced. She broke my water and said I could have my epidural when ever I wanted. Mind you this whole time I've been having contractions and not feeling a thing! About 5 minutes later, I was begging for the epidural. My labor went so fast! I was pushing by 3:45 and had her at 4:30pm on the dot that same day.
My dear husband, Jeff, was amazing through this whole thing. He helped me push, cut her cord, and was just so emotional. I know my husband loves me, but to see the love he had all of the sudden for his daughter just overwhelmed me. Let me just say, she's a mini replica of Jeff.
Now my beautiful Avelyn is 2 weeks old and now 8 lbs. As I'm typing this, she's sitting her next to me and I just can't look away from her. She's just so precious and the sweetest thing. Yes, we have our trials at night time and getting her to sleep. Apparently she's a night owl like her mommy was. Yeah for me! My favorite moments with her is while she's sleeping and dreaming. I know it's because of gas, but when she starts smiling, it just cracks me up. She has so many little gas faces, it's adorable.
I haven't taken any pictures since her first week. Such a bad mommy! As soon as I do, I promise to post them!


Jeff's parents, Mike & Ann. This is their first grandchild! Can't you tell?


Don't I look like daddy?

It's about time!

Jeff and I went to the doctor today. 2nd time in a week because of my high blood pressure. I've always had the same BP throughout my entire pregnancy, but I guess in the last 2 weeks my bottom number has increased 20 points (or whatever) so...they have decided to go ahead and induce me on Sunday. I'm a little nervous! Very excited though. They did go ahead and do a sonogram to check on Avelyn and make sure she has enough fluid and was considered full term. She certainly is! We also got a chance to see her sweet little face! We hadn't seen it since she was 20 weeks and here she was at almost 39 weeks! It's very hard to tell who she looks like though. I think she'll come out with my nose. Gosh, how I feel sorry for her! :)
The way Jeff and I figured it, is at least this way we can get prepared. We don't have to worry about timing contractions or my water breaking or heaven forbid...him be out of town on work! That was always my biggest fear. So here's what they're going to do: tomorrow we go to the hospital (Harris Methodist Dowtown)at 6pm and they'll start with Cervadil to soften my cervix and then on Sunday, if things didn't naturally progress, they'll use potosin (sp?) and start inducing me. I really hope that we're able to do this vaginally and don't end up with a C-section. I know though that several people who get induced end up with a c-section because their just not ready. Please pray that doesn't happen in my case. But as long as she's ok, I'll do what ever the doc tells me too!
Well...next post...Avelyn!!!!

Hello All & Waiting!

So I have finally caved in and created a blog to let everyone know what's going on in the McLendon household. Here's the newest information on our little bundle of joy:

Avelyn (our soon-to-be daughter) will NOT COME OUT!!! I'm currently at 37 1/2 weeks and had my second check up to see if we've made any progress. I've gone nowhere! Nada, zip, zilch, zero. In fact the doctor now thinks that I will easily go passed my due date of July 27th. My grandmother has jinxed me! Don't get me wrong, I love my Grandma Peggy, but she made Avelyn this beautiful quilt and on the back, put July 2009. Watch me easily go into August now. Ugh!! But that's OK...according to Dr. Robbins, Avelyn isn't even 6 lbs yet. So she needs just a little bit more baking. She certainly feels bigger than that to me! I will say that I have had a very relatively easy pregnancy. Yes, we had difficulty conceiving her, but I've been so fortunate and couldn't ask for anything better. So in the mean time...we'll keep waiting and dreaming of our precious little girl.

Since I've been out of school, the only thing I've done is work on VBS stuff for church and work on Avelyn's room. Here are some pictures:

Her name & the painting above her crib were made by me.


Cute little dragonflies my aunt bought for me for my shower. They look so cute in her room!

The bow holder was made by my friend Andrea & my friend Marsha, bought her the cute little "Time Out" chair (although I don't know how much Avelyn will appreciate it, I personally love it!).


To the right of her closet is a growth chart my friend Jaci made for her. I have such talented friends & family!

Nana K made her the blanket on the chair.

Her many clothes! We almost have to dip into another closet!

This was her daddy's special project. He did all of the decorating!

Jeff even made the display boxes.



So that's it in a nutshell for now! See 'ya later!