Dedication

Juliet was dedicated at church on Sunday. Joel and I decided to do baby dedication instead of infant baptism, because we see the dedication as our promise to raise her in a Christian home and she can make the decision to be baptized when she's older. :) Here are a few pictures from the day. It was wonderful. 

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."

-Deuteronomy 6:4-9

One Month!

My baby girl is already one month old! Wow!

Happy!

My baby girl is already 4 weeks old today and she smiled at me!

God is Able

We had a wonderful service at church yesterday. Our pastor talked about all of the amazing promises from God and how we need to have faith that God will follow through on his promises. We can't just believe in them when it's convenient or makes us comfortable, but at all times. We've been so blessed in our lives and sometimes wonder when the "ball is going to drop". Thanking and praising God for the great things He has done in our lives and praying he continues to bless us, our family and friends. 

We sang this song twice yesterday; one of my favorites, and a great reminder of the awesomeness of our God. 

God Is Able

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." -Psalm 55:22

Introducing...

Juliet Mary Dykema 

Our wonderful Christmas Blessing. :)

It's taken me almost 2 weeks to post this. I cannot believe my little peanut is almost 2 weeks old. It's amazing how much she grows and changes every day. I want to soak it all in. Before I know it, she'll be crawling and running all around. So, here's Juliet's story:

Here I was at 40 weeks. Very ready for our little one to make his/her arrival. Little did we know, it would only be a couple of more days. :)

On Tuesday, December 20, I headed to the hospital for a routine ultrasound and non-stress test. They make you have these done twice a week once you're overdue. At my ultrasound, they said my amniotic fluid was low. 0-5 is too low and 5-10 is borderline low. Mine was at 5.2, so once they saw that I was starting to have contractions on my non-stress test, the doctors decided they wanted to induce me to get my contractions stronger and get baby going. So, I headed home to eat, get Joel and get our bags together before heading back to the hospital at 6:30 that evening. 

The doctor started my induction around 10 p.m. I was able to rest for a while and the doctor came in to break my water at about 2:30 in the morning. This really got things going and I was ready for an epidural by 4 a.m. Seriously the best invention ever! Joel and I were able to sleep for a few hours before the real thing started going. 

Even with the epidural, I really started to feel the contractions around 11 a.m. on December 21. 

My doctor showed up around noon. I ended up pushing for about a half an hour and took a break for 45 minutes. Another hour and a half after that, Juliet was born at 3:02 p.m.

I cannot believe she's here!

I LOVE this picture of Joel. So emotional.

...and here come the tears. 

 I love this shot. :)

 My beautiful baby girl.

 Our wonderful doctor. She looks so happy!

 One proud daddy. She's going to have him wrapped around her finger. :)

 One of my favorites. This one's getting framed for sure!

Sweet pea.

 Making daddy proud!

 Snuggling with mommy.

 Our first family picture. :)

 Family picture on Christmas morning.

 Snuggle time with mommy after all those tiring Christmas parties. 

 Love this!

Torturing her with a photo shoot. :)

Hope you loved Juliet's story. It's only just beginning. I can't wait to experience so many things with her. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for our little family. Feeling beyond blessed right now. Happy New Year to you all. Wishing you the best in 2012!

Waiting

I'm hoping this is my last post until I'm officially holding my sweet little babe in my arms. Yesterday was my official due date, but I've read that only 5% of women actually have their baby on their due date, and I was over 3 weeks late for my mom. Therefor, I've accepted the fact that baby may be cooking for a bit longer (thankfully they won't let me go 3 weeks over though!) 

Right now, I'm so thankful for such an amazing pregnancy. I thank God that he has given me a fairly uneventful and smooth pregnancy. I know so many people who have struggled with getting pregnant and carrying healthy babies to full term and I'm so thankful that I've been able to do this. I would take a late baby any day over not being able to have a baby at all. Feeling so incredibly blessed right now. 

Leave

I am officially on winter break/maternity leave. I have to say, I think we timed this perfectly! I made it working all the way up until break began and will cherish my two weeks of break and 12 weeks of maternity leave that follow. It was really strange to tell my students, "See you in March." I still feel like I'm only going to be off for the next two weeks like everyone else, but I won't! 

I'll be 40 weeks tomorrow and cannot wait for this baby to be here! I've accepted the fact that baby will probably come on Christmas, but it would be nice if he/she was here before. This is probably the first time in my life that I'm hoping to feel some pain; contractions that is. :)

Come on Baby D.! We all want to meet you!