Here she is!

Rémy Noel Plagge

December 21, 2007

7 lb 10 oz

Tomorrow's the Big Day

We're inducing tomorrow at 7:00 am. More to come later....

Walking the Malls

I wonder how many malls I'll walk before Remy is born...

For the past 3 days I've walked the Stonebriar mall for about half of the day. Annie went with me yesterday and Walker the two days before. Walker's brother, Brandon is in town with his wife April and son Braedon and we all went to Northpark last night to see the trains.

I think this afternoon the day is nice enough that we can put Truffle on her leash and walk through the neighborhood.

Saturday I had very consistent contractions (between 3-5 minutes for about 4 or 5 hours) and called the doctor who instructed me to come to the hospital. They put me in a room, strapped monitors on my belly and watched me for an hour or more. I am having real and consistent contractions, they just aren't intense enough to cause her to make any progress...and I am dilated a little more. The nurse said come back when I can't talk. She also said my official due date was the 16th...so she's full term and now overdue. I'm kind of glad they didn't tell me the 16th in the beginning because I'm not sure if I would have taken school this semester.

For now I'm enjoying all the window shopping, Christmas music, time off from work and visiting with family and friends. I appreciate all the calls and emails and messages from all of you. It's so nice to know how loved we are by our friends and family...we can't wait to call you all very soon with good news.

Gage's Surgery

Another email from Elaine about Gage's status:


Hello Family and Friends-Thank you all for your prayers and phone calls concerning Gage. I apologize for not calling many of you back but am a bit overwhelmed and hope that you know how much I appreciate your concern. I wanted to let all of you know that Gage's surgery, removal of his entire colon (they call it J-Pouch), went well according to the doctors. He has suffered a tremendous amount of pain. He is also having some complications with recovery and has been throwing up the past two nights- which is VERY painful since his entire abdomen area was operated on. Please, please continue to pray for him and his healing. Pray for the doctors, nurses, and our entire family. We have spent most days with the family at the hospital but have also had car trouble (Guy's car), I have finals, and I now have a yucky sinus infection so please pray the Lord's protection and provision for all of us as we hope for this to be a wonderful transformation for Gage's health and life. He is at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. Thank you again for the prayers and concerns and for those of you that have called, I will try to get back with you once finals are finished (the 21st). Love all of you!

In Him,

Elaine

Let me out!

This isn't me, and I know it's probably photoshopped, but I couldn't resist posting it.

Gage's Surgery

Gage had the J-pouch surgery yesterday which removed his colon. They started at about 4:30 yesterday and it took about 5 hours. It was successful, but today he is in a great deal of pain. He is expected to be in the hospital another week or so before he can go home. He'll spend 6 more weeks recovering at home and then it will take about a year for his body to fully adjust. Please pray for his speedy recovery.

9 more to go!

Well, I guess we'd better get our naps in while we can. The doctor appointment today revealed that I'm fully effaced and 1 cm dilated. Just 9 cm keeping Remy from this world. They said if I want her real soon to go and walk around the mall and if I want to wait then just go home and put my feet up.

For today I'm putting my feet up, making some hot chocolate, turning up the heater and cracking open my Geology and Math books for the last time before tomorrow's finals. Maybe Friday we'll hit the mall and start the walking!

Button Memorial UMC

in Little Elm will host their annual Live Nativity Journey with 45 actors, llamas, horses, cows, goats and about 1500 people who participate in the reenacting of the journey to Jerusalem for the census to be taken. The Nativity Journey begins at the Methodist church and participants make about 20 stops along the way meeting shepherds, a marketplace, Roman soldiers, an innkeeper, etc. This year it is on December 15th & 16th from 6:30 to 9:30. I think if I haven't delivered yet Walker and I are going to try and make it to this. It sounds like a unique spin on the live nativity idea.

More information about the event and the church can be found at

http://www.livenativity.org/

Update on Gage

Another message from Elaine last night. Please continue to keep him in your prayers:

As many of you know, Guy's brother, Gage, has been ill with ulcerative colitis for about five years. The past five months, he has not been able to leave the house at all and has been very weak and ill. Last week he and his doctors decided they are going to go ahead and remove his colon on December 11th. In the meantime, he became violently ill yesterday following a colonoscopy and is therefore in the hospital for the next week prior to his surgery and will then be in the hospital for the week following surgery, as it is a major procedure. Since he is so weak right now, they want to try to get him well before they do surgery. Please pray for him and our family as we are trusting that the Lord is going to heal him physically and allow him to begin to live life again. Thank you all for your prayers!

In Him,

Guy and Elaine

Last pictures

Here are the last pictures we'll see of baby Remy in the womb...next time we'll have real live pictures. She was sucking her thumb the entire 10-15 minutes of the sonogram. We couldn't get a clear picture of just her face, but she's gained a lot of good fatty deposits and it looks like she's going to be quite attached to that thumb of hers!

At the weekly visit today I had effaced quite a bit more but still no dilation. I was sick 2 days last week and couldn't keep anything down...so I had lost a couple of pounds, but they weren't concerned. Blood pressure was good, her heart rate was normal. And actually when they were using the fetal heart monitor to check her heart rate she kept kicking the probe!

Monday night I had contractions about every hour-keeping me up all night. Dr. says that when they are every 5 minutes for 2 hours straight, that's when to come to the hospital.

We picked out a pediatrician and signed up for the cord blood banking, we've packed our bags and put them in the car, checked most things off our 'to do' list...in our minds we're ready to embark on this new challenge called parenthood.

I go on maternity leave as of Tuesday the 11th and my last day of school is the 13th, which is also Walker's last day of work before his 'paternity' leave. Now we've started counting down the days until our big, little Christmas gift arrives!

Countdown

16 days until baby is due
3 more days of work
1 week left of school
1 biology project due
5 final exams (1 tomorrow, 1 friday, 3 next week)
1 Christmas party
2 gatherings with friends
1001 licks from Truffle

let's just get through the next 2 weeks.