He's here!!

Introducing . . . NOAH JOHN PIQUETTE, born at 3:03 pm, Tuesday, July 31, 2007

As you can see, Noah is a beautiful baby boy! He weighed 7' 12", and is 20 1/2 inches long. The entire delivery went smoothly, and he has been called "healthy" by the pediatrician who assessed him after birth! We were able to see and hold him about 45 minutes after he was born, and that was really special.
Noah was moved to the NICU around 6:30 this evening to be monitored and reassessed regarding the intestinal enlargement discovered on ultrasound a few weeks ago and confirmed by x-ray this afternoon. He will probably have a few more tests done tomorrow before they decide what the details are and how to correct the problem. We'll let you know as we find out more. Thank you for all your calls, prayers, and support.

Oops!

False alarms are so annoying!! We just got word that the doctors want to wait and admit our birth mother on Monday evening at 6pm!!! We were just about to pull out of the driveway when they called, so at least we weren't on the road yet. So now we'll have one more weekend at home and leave Monday afternoon to hopefully meet our baby sometime late Monday night or Tuesday! Hang in there with us, we'll keep you posted...

Baby Shower!

The picture of the hostesses are (L to R): Cindy, Elise, Deanna, Kelli, me, Pam, and Ivie - wonderful friends who know how to throw a party! : )

The girls enjoyed opening the gifts! And my mom seems as happy about the arrival of her 8th grandchild as she was about each of the others - what a blessing!

Well, it took me a while, but here are a few pictures from the baby shower our church gave a couple of Sundays ago! Our sweet friends quickly put together a wonderful shower with great food (always important for me!) and millions of much-needed and much-appreciated gifts. It was so nice to celebrate with all of these ladies who mean so much to our family.

The phone call from our birth mother after her doctor's appointment today brought some exciting news - she will be admitted to the hospital next Thursday after her appointment to have her labor induced!!! Please pray for a smooth, easy, safe labor and delivery for her and for the baby. We'll probably travel Thursday, even though it's pretty safe to guess the baby won't really arrive til sometime on Friday. Wow - we're down to the last few days, and I think we're just about ready. So the answer to "Can you prepare for a baby in less than 2 months?" is "YES!" We have diapers, wipes, clothes, towels, a bassinet, a crib (Matthew bought it and set it up just the other night - it looks beautiful!), and tons of other baby items. Watch your inbox, because it looks like we'll be sending an actual baby picture soon!!

Making Progress

Well, the baby's room is now empty and blue, thanks to my mom arriving yesterday! I wish we had taken a "before" picture - surely they give awards for "most stuff cleaned out of one small room" on some TLC program!! The new paint looks great, now we just need to fill the room with baby things - YAY! Tomorrow is our garage sale (what else could we do with all that junk that used to be in the baby's room, but sell it!!), and we're hoping it will stay cool and cloudy - but not rainy - until the sale ends. Mama also inserted blue ribbon into the eyelet bassinet cover she made 13 years ago (!) when Mary Kathryn was born. It used to have green ribbon, but this situation really calls for blue : ) So she worked hard last night making it just right, and it is really beautiful. Things are coming together, and I think it's possible we'll be ready when the baby decides to arrive! Thanks for all of your prayers and support, it means so much to us. Who would have thought we'd be preparing a room for a baby the week before our 39th and 44th birthdays??? I'm thankful that God in His sovereignty knows what's best for us (and when), because we surely don't!

Blog start-up!

Hello everyone! I'm muddling through how to get this going, so hopefully you'll all receive this and understand how it works. As I mentioned on the initial email we sent, if you notice that I've forgotten anyone, just send me their email address and I can add them to the list. There are not currently any pictures on our blog site, but hopefully we'll figure that part out soon.



Our newest addition is due in just under 4 weeks!!! We're busily emptying what Claire calls the "junk" out of the baby's room and beginning to fill it with baby stuff. Both Mary Kathryn and Claire have enjoyed finding old, forgotten toys, pictures and various other items (that had mysteriously disappeared!) as we clean out the room - it's called several names: "the junk room", "Claire's old room", and now "the baby's room". My mom is arriving Thursday (thank goodness!) to help paint, organize, and generally keep me sane! Matthew painted the closet Saturday - it amazes me how 10 years of being used for basically nothing but storage can make the walls in a closet become so marked up and dirty!!! So now it's ready to store baby items - yay!



We haven't fully decided on a name for our little baby boy, but we'll let you know when it's final.
I guess it's possible that will be when he's born - sorry for the delay! The baby's birthmother has an unltrasound and Dr. appointment scheduled for this Thursday (July 5th) and the next 3 Fridays after that (July 13th, 20th, and 27th). If there's anything interesting to let you know about those appointments, I'll send along the information : )

We love you all and appreciate your interest!
Love,
Ashley for M, MK, and C