Summer Update...

I have lots and lots of pics and video from our awesome summer! Once again we don't have internet at our house so I will be putting up posts when I am able. I am able to check my e-mail at my parent's house and every once in a while I will take the computer to Starbucks to use the free wi-fi there. Plus I am having too much fun being outside so I'm not doing much on the computer anyway! :) I promise I haven't gone away!

Oh summer...

Here is a little picture of what I have been up to! :)
I am just letting everyone know that we are now in LA after spending a week in Montana visiting Ruh's aunt and uncle and hiking in Glacier National Park. On Friday we will be heading from here to the High Sierras, Mammoth and Yosemite for more hiking! Most of my mom's side of the family will be in Mammoth so it is going to be a lot of fun! Once we get home to beautiful Western Washington I will be posting LOTS of pictures and video!

Daniel 1 Month Old

Daniel was one month this last Sunday July 12th. I can't believe it's already been a month! He is really starting to fill out his skin! :)

Little Video of Daniel Camping

Here is a little video of Daniel camping. It isn't that exciting but he is pretty cute! :)


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Daniel's First Camping Trip

So we haven't had internet for a while and it is getting pretty frustrating. So I am writing this post at Starbucks using the free wireless with my registered Starbucks card. I get 2 free hours everyday. Of course I won't be coming to Starbucks everyday to use the internet but I figure once a week is good. Daniel is at home with Daddy and I am getting a little time to myself. And Starbucks is a pretty nice place to go on the internet if I do say so myself. How many people can say they have a job that they enjoy going in to work even when they are on maternity leave?! All the girls are really excited to see me too but a little bummed I don't have Daniel with me. I have brought him in once and I will bring him in many more times I am sure.

But anyway, we went camping in the Cascades with Ruh's parents and my sis-in-law Ruhiyyih this past week. We made a bed for me in the back of our Rav4 and put Daniel in a Rubbermaid container to sleep in next to me. He and I stayed toasty and it made those middle of the night feedings a lot easier not being in a tent. The first couple of days were a little difficult and I was wondering what in the world I was doing but then I adjusted and it was a lot of fun. I am so glad Daniel and I went and I can't wait for our next camping trip.

Just a little video...

Here is a short little video of Daniel! He has the hiccups. He got them all the time when he was in my tummy and it seems like he still gets them all the time now! :)


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Daniel

Right now our internet is down so I can't post updates! I am at my mom's right now so I thought I would use her computer to let everyone know. I will have more pictures and the whole story up soon! :)

Daniel Robert Dannells

This morning at 1:30am my water broke and I went into intense labor with contractions about 2 minutes apart. We rushed to the hospital and Daniel was born via c-section at 4:46am! He is 6lbs 8oz and 19 inches long. We are both doing good! God is so good! More pictures and the entire story to come! :)

Lemon Skirt

Yesterday I made another skirt. This one is the same as the apple and pear one I made before. This was the third time I made this skirt so I whipped this one out pretty quickly! I also made a hair tie to match. I just love this fabric. I guess I am in to fruit right now too because I made the apple and pear skirt and now the lemon skirt. I also have some brown fabric that has more pears on it I plan on making this skirt out of. :)


It was very relaxing to spend a couple hours yesterday morning sewing after the day I had on Wednesday. I felt like I was able to unwind for a little bit. I was pretty sore and tired. My mom and I did a little shopping yesterday afternoon and I was walking a lot slower than usual. I have one more skirt I want to make before Daniel arrives on Tuesday because I have a feeling once he arrives I won't be sewing for a little while! :)

Turn, Baby, Turn and False Alarm

This last Tuesday I had my weekly doctor visit. For the past 9 months my doctor visits have been pretty uneventful. But this week the doctor did an internal exam and discovered that our little Daniel has decided to be heads up rather than heads down. He did a quick ultrasound to confirm that Daniel is most definitely breech. So he scheduled me for a version the very next morning. This is where he manually would try to turn Daniel by pushing on my stomach and maneuvering him around to the right spot.

My mom came with us the next morning and we had to be at the hospital at 7:30am to get checked in and have all my vitals taken. They put two little monitors on my tummy, one to monitor Daniel's heart rate and one to measure my contractions, which I have been having for a while now. We could also hear Daniel's heartbeat and it was just beating away as it should be. They put an IV in my hand but didn't actually hook me up to a bag or anything. It was just a precaution in case something went wrong or I went into labor and they would have to a c-section right then. I was given a shot of medicine that relaxed my uterus so it wouldn't contract while the doctor was trying to turn Daniel. The side effect of the medicine was feeling jittery and when you haven't had anything to eat since the night before (in case of emergency surgery) it wasn't a very good feeling and I felt a little nauseous too.

At about 9am the doctor came in and they did another ultrasound to see exactly how Daniel was positioned. The doctor showed me on the screen that Daniel was practicing breathing and his little lungs were going in and out. He is getting ready to be out here with us! That was neat to see.

The nurse stood on one side of me and the doctor on the other. They gooped up my whole stomach really good with ultrasound jelly. The doctor place one hand low on my belly and the other hand up high on Daniel's head. The nurse held my hand they told me I would feel a lot of pressure. The doctor started pushing really hard and at first all I felt was pressure which I can handle but then I started to feel some really sharp pains. I said something and he stopped for moment to let me relax and then he started again and again I felt sharp pain. He told me I was just feeling pressure but I told him that I was definitely feeling sharp pains. So I took a few more deep breaths and tried to relax my body. I tried doing the lamaze breathing technique I learned in the birthing class and it helped me to calm down but then when he started pushing again, this time even harder, the sharp pain felt like a knife cutting through the inside of my stomach and I let out a cry of pain and the doctor immediately stopped. He said he was not going to continue because Daniel was not moving and it shouldn't be that painful for me. He said that when they try to turn the baby a lot of times once they start the baby will just easily flip all on his own but sometimes the baby won't move at all and there is usually a reason for that and he doesn't want to force it especially if the baby is in my pelvis. He also said that sometimes the shape of the pelvis can cause the baby to be stuck.

They cleaned me up and hooked me back up to the baby heart rate monitor and Daniel was doing just fine. The doctor went to find the c-section schedule to see when they could schedule one for me. The nurse told me all kinds of exercises I can do at home to try and get Daniel to turn on his own. He is pretty stuck in there but I am still going to do the exercises just to see if he might turn.

They have me scheduled for a c-section this coming Tuesday the 16th. Which is Daniel's actual due date! I had friends and family make predictions of when they thought Daniel would be born about a week ago and no one predicted his actual due date! But there is still a chance I could into labor before then and I would go in and they would do a c-section. And there is a chance, a small one, but still a chance that he might turn on his own and we could have a normal delivery.

So after a very exhausting morning we headed home. That afternoon I went over to my friend Ruth's house and Hannah Waldock and Hannah Clark came too and brought their little ones with them. Ruth set up the kiddie pool in the back for Gabriel (3) and Tirzah (3) to play in. We enjoyed a relaxing visit and the medicine they gave me to relax my uterus wore off and my contractions started again. We were sitting around the table and I got up for some reason and looked at my chair. There was a little moist spot where I had been sitting. I made a comment and Hannah C. looked at the chair and said, "Did your water break?". I went to the bathroom and things were pretty moist but there was no big gush or anything. So I went back and sat down again and a little while later I got up again and once again there was the moist spot. The girls told me I should call the birthing center to see what they would want me to do. I am Group B Strep positive so if my water breaks I am immediately to go to the hospital so they can give me antibiotics. The birthing center told me to come back in because I had had a version that morning and maybe it was ruptured some membranes. So it was back to the hospital.

I headed home to grab Ruh and we dropped Daisy off at my parent's and picked up my mom. Ruh and my mom were sure we were going to have baby but I wasn't convinced. I said it wasn't going to be anything and they would send us home. They hooked me up to all the monitors again and after a little while a doctor came in to give me an exam. I had never seen this doctor but he had to do the exam because my doctor was busy. Oh boy, I wish my doctor had been the one to give me that exam. It was extremely painful and it lasted so long. I started cramping really bad and it was just unpleasant all around. And in the end they didn't find any amniotic fluid and they sent me home.

(So I had to include this picture because I thought it was hilarious!)

Needless to say I was exhausted by the time we got home and was very glad to have that day coming to an end.

All the pictures are actually from the second visit to the hospital that evening. My mom said she would just delete all those pictures she took but right before I went to bed I checked my e-mail and she had sent out an album of the "False Alarm". I am glad she kept them because technically this has all been part of the process of Daniel being born.

So I will keep on updating but right now it looks like he will be born via c-section on Tuesday June 16th! I was hoping to be able to experience a natural childbirth ( I still may be able to) but as long as he arrives healthy I am fine with whatever way he needs to come out! I know the Lord is in complete control!

My new favorite website...

Okay, so I just found my new favorite website! It's amazing! It's www.morecloth.com. You simply go to the website and click on one of the color bars and it will show you all the fabrics in that color range on sale on Etsy! You must try it! Say it with me, "FABULOUS!"! :)

Baby Bunting

I have been busy getting Daniel's room all ready for him. I have been washing and putting away all the wonderful clothes we have received from baby showers and washing bedding, blankets and receiving blankets. I bought some Winnie the Pooh prints and framed them. I spent some time on Ebay looking for Classic Pooh stuffed animals to find all of the Winnie the Pooh characters. I didn't find all of them but I did find some. But there was one wall left in Daniel's room, the biggest wall I might add, that was completely bare. So I started looking for ideas.

Well, I was browsing through a sewing book when I saw a picture of a bedroom and above the bed was a string of homemade bunting. It was a "eureka!" moment and I had found my idea. So I went to Joann's and found two different fabrics I thought would go good in Daniel's room. I didn't need to buy very much, just 1/2 yard of each. So yesterday and today I spent a couple hours cutting out and sewing. I was going to do each fabric as triangles but then decided it would be fun to have two different shapes. I cut out 8X8 inch squares of fabric and then folded and sewed them. It was so simple and easy and now that empty wall isn't so empty.

I am going to take more pictures of Daniel's finished room very soon and post them. There is one more little craft project I am making for his room first.

Baby Update

No Daniel yet! My due date isn't until June 16th but one can always hope he will come early. My last appointment was on Tuesday and I am 1 cm dilated and having very early labor contractions that are not painful at all. Most of the time I hardly even notice them when I am up and doing things. This week was to be my last week of work but the doctor told me to take this week off because my feet and ankles are swelling pretty bad and four hours is too long for me to be on my feet. I work at a drive-thru Starbucks and there really is no time to sit down. I do get a 10 minute break in there but he said that just wasn't enough.

My little guy is still moving around like crazy. They say a baby's movement should slow some at the end because they are running out of room. Not Daniel! I am sure he is running out of room but that's not keeping him from stretching, kicking and punching (and he likes to punch my bladder and other areas down there that aren't so comfortable!). He has dropped and his head is down so he doesn't do flips anymore but he is still moving. It's too cute when he stretches his legs out because it pushes his little bottom out! I love to sit there and pat it when he does that. I'm thinking I am going to have my hands full especially when he can start crawling and then when he starts walking!

Early Thursday morning I went in to the emergency room with a severe migraine. I had called the 24-hour nurse and she told me to go in just to get checked out and you really don't want to take any risks when you are pregnant. It was one of the worst migraines I have had. I can usually get in the shower or put an ice pack on my head to take the edge off the pain but nothing was even touching this one. They took my vitals and then hooked me up to an IV. They gave me an anit-nausea medication which relieved my nausea instantly. Then they gave me a narcotic for the pain. The first dose took the edge off the migraine but didn't take it away so they gave me another dose. The doctor said the only way it would effect Daniel is to make him groggy so if for some reason he had been born right then he would have been loopy but it wouldn't harm him in any way. Well, not my son! He was still moving around like normal! See, another example of how much energy my little guy has! He was drugged up and still moving around! I'm sure he was feeling the effects of the medicine but that didn't stop him. So anyway, they kept me there for a little while to watch me and then they sent me home. Needless to say I slept better than I have in months! I am really hoping and praying I don't get another migraine like that while I am pregnant.

I have my next appointment this Tuesday and he will check me again to see if I have progressed at all. I know you can stay dilated at a 1 or a 2 for a while so I am not expecting anything, I am just hoping!

Handmade Baby Gifts

I love all things homemade. There is something about the fact that someone took the time to create a little something by hand that makes the gift that much more special.

Linda Christensen always makes a adorable fleece blankets to give to new little ones.


Here are onsies Barb Lewis made for Kyra and Daniel. She simply bought plain white onsies and then added her own little decoration to them. So cute!




And here are the bibs I made for little Kyra.

A Baby Shower

Last night Ruth Rogers and Hannah Clark put on a baby shower for Hannah Waldock and I at church. Hannah W. was in Bangladesh when little Kyra was born so the church wasn't able to give her a baby shower until now. It was so much fun having a joint baby shower. Especially since she had a girl and I am having a boy. Everyone got to giggle over boy clothes and girl clothes. My mom did the wonderful devotional and you can read it on her blog Overcomer. My mom is amazing!

At the beginning we played a game and Hannah and I were the only participants. We had to close our eyes and allow different baby food to be put in our mouths. Then we had to guess what we thought the baby food was. It was sometimes rather disgusting but it was fun and in the end I got two wrong
(though technically I got three wrong) and she got three wrong so
we both got a little prize.

Here's little Kyra!

And here's Daniel all ready to come out and play!

Even Kyra's big sister Tirzah received a few presents.

Daisy enjoyed looking at all of Daniel's clothes. I think it is starting to sink in that she has a little brother who is going
to be here very soon! :)

Here is Ruth's little Leo and Hannah's Billy. What would a baby shower be without babies around?! You can view the whole album of shower photos (taken by my mom) here!

Thank you Ruth and Hannah for a lovely shower!