My Outing with Maddy

When I heard about Denny's giving away their "Grand Slam" breakfast for FREE across America only on February 3, 2008 - I decided that Maddy and I had to have a day out together :) 

I figured it would be busier early because people would want to go before work. So we went at about 10:30 a.m. That turned out to be a good time, because I only had to wait about 15-20 minutes. The inside lobby was FULL and there were a few people out the door. But it turns out that carrying a new baby in a car seat gets you in the warmth FAST and gets you an automatic seat in the lobby while you are waiting :) I brought some paperwork with me that I had to fill out and I just worked on that while Maddy looked around. 

We got our own little booth. When I sat down, I looked out the window and the line had wrapped the whole way around the restaurant. I totally should have gotten a picture. It was seriously snowing and freezing cold out, but people were totally waiting out there!

They didn't allow any changes to the meal, but you could get your eggs the way you wanted them. It was funny because EVERYONE was there for the "Grand Slam" breakfast so as soon as she asked how I would like my eggs and if I would like coffee - she literally walked away from the table, poured my coffee, picked up the plate from the kitchen and walked back to my table with everything. And the food was fresh off the grill! Maddy was so good too. We had such a nice time together - and you certainly cannot beat FREE!

After that, we decided to stop by Starbucks to see Tim. Everyone kept stopping to talk to us and see the baby. Amazing how total strangers will come up to you to and talk to you when you have a baby. Oh and yes, that is an iced Chai Latte in my hand - also FREE! 

Tim buckling her back up for me. It was nice seeing him in the middle of the day where he works.

His boss offered to get a family picture of us. 

Now I am back home and need to do some serious laundry and cleaning!

Valentine's Day Question

Well, it is 4 am and Maddy is wanting some "awake time" so I thought I would change my background and do a little post. I decided to do a Valentine's background. Valentine's day is such a fun holiday- a time to remember those you love :) I always loved handing out Valentines to all of my friends at school.  I know Valentine's day is still a little less than a month away, but I was wondering how and if you plan on celebrating the day. Are you one who enjoys planning the day yourself or would you rather your significant other surprise you? 

I tend to drive Tim crazy on this one. I usually like for him to surprise me on special occasions (although sometimes I do enjoy surprising him too!) But then I usually bug him for days on end prior to the day asking what we are going to do. He usually responds, "Don't worry about it. I've got it all under control". Which if you know my husband, either means 1.) He really does have it all planned out already and just doesn't want to tell me or 2.) I have been too busy to think about it -but I will get to it before the actual day  ;) -haha - I love you sweetie!

I just thought this needed a picture - so here is one of Tim and I in VA in 2005

Most of the time Valentine's Day for us is not a major event. We save those for our Anniversary :) On V-Day, we usually go out for a nice meal together and then often buy a combined gift for our home. Our first year we got ourselves a coffee table from Pier 1 (I know - romantic, right?). But decorating our home is something we really enjoy doing together.

Just for kicks, I thought it would be interesting to link to the past posts I have done on Valentine's day.

V-Day 2007

V-Day 2008

So how about you? Any plans brewing in your head yet? Who usually does the planning?

Oh and I couldn't go without posting a new pic of our little peanut :)

4 Weeks Old and She is Smiling :)

This is Maddy yesterday on the day she turned one month old. I was talking to her and she could not stop smiling. Now she does it almost every time we talk to her (as long as she has a full belly and a clean diaper :)

We are just loving on this little girl. She is so fun to have around - I think we will keep her :)

She has been so good so far. She pretty much cries only when she needs something. And the last two nights she has slept fro 5 1/2 - 6 hours straight! I am not really holding my breath waiting for this to stick. She is still pretty young. But it's still great to see it start. 

We are so happy that she is gaining weight and is as healthy as ever!  God has been so good to give us this sweet baby girl.

A Challenge to pray during this season of Change

On Sunday our pastor encouraged our church body to watch the inauguration events today- which I agree, everyone should if he is able. This is a historic day in our nation. He also challenged us to say a small prayer each time that we heard the name Barack Obama (which should be quite often :) We were encouraged to pray for our nation, our new president, Rick Warren as he prays for our nation, and the lost souls around us. I decided to take up this challenge (as much as is possible with a needy 4 week old baby :)

Inauguration ceremony:

Runs from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. ET.  Program is as follows:

Call to order and welcoming remarks — Dianne Feinstein.

Invocation — Pastor Rick Warren.

Musical selection — Aretha Franklin.

Oath of office administered to vice-president-elect Joe Biden.

Musical selection — John Williams, featuring Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, Anthony McGill.

Oath of office administered to president-elect Barack Obama by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Inaugural address.

Poem — Elizabeth Alexander.

Benediction — Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.

National anthem.

I have also recently been thinking about Romans 13 in light of the friendly transition of powers in our nation. I am encouraged that God is sovereign, and that he has established Barack Obama's authority over our nation. I choose to respect, honor, show thanks, and pray for that authority. He will need much wisdom and strength in the days ahead. 

Rom. 13:1    Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  

Rom. 13:6     This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.  7 Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. 

Madison's Birth Journal and the Days Following

As most of you know, on December 22, 2008 I went in for a scheduled induction at 11 a.m. because I was 8 days overdue and my amniotic fluid was beginning to get lower.  The one favor that I asked of Tim prior to that day was that he keep a journal of the times and changes of my labor and delivery. I knew that I would not be able to remember all of the details of the day as things got more intense.  The following is an exact copy of that journal that Tim kept for me on his computer as things progressed. Since I have some men readers, I will not write out all of the details in between each step along the way. But if you are one of those ladies who are interested in the gritty details, like I always am (to Tim's embarrassment :)   you are more than welcome to e-mail me (juliebaylor@gmail.com) or facebook message me about the experience.

Madison's Delivery

11:00 Registration at the Hospital

11:15 Getting settled and changed in the room

11:40 Hooked up to all the monitors -- blood drawn, sugar water making peanut lively!

12:15 watching TV, more blood drawn, Pitocin starts - dilated

 to 2 cm

12:30 Dad goes to steak and shake

1:30 Dr. Bacalar breaks Julie's water; 3 cm and 80% effaced

3:00 After bathroom break, Julie looses lots of water -- contractions begin to be extremely painful

3:10 We start breathing together

3:20 Julie starts crying; Tim calls for epidural

3:45 Julie gets an epidural

4:15 Dilated to 4 cm; 90% effaced -- feeling much better

4:33 Dilated to 5 cm; 100% effaced; -1 position

5:15 Julie beginning to feel pressure from peanut, decides to try to take a small nap; Tim to dinner

5:45 Julie is 6-7 cm dilated; julie put on oxygen because maddy's heart rate was irregular, probably because of rapid descent

7:35 9 cm and in a +1 position; Drs. think maddy will be here in about half an hour.  Julie is still feeling good but peanut is bearing down on mommy.

7:56 Preparing to push

9:15 Episiotomy

9:25 Vacuum

9:27 Madison is born!  21.5 inches and 7 lbs. 11 oz.  Happy Birthday Maddy!

I can hardly believe that Maddy will be 3 weeks old on Monday. We have certainly enjoyed our time getting to know her and love her more each day! The first few nights were quite difficult. She screamed a lot and we still didn't know what would soothe her, so we were a little stressed and very tired :)  But each night has gotten easier and we are settling into a little groove now. She is eating and sleeping very well. Now just to get her to do more of her sleeping at night :) She actually has had some really great nights (sometimes 4-6 hours at a stretch). But that is definitely not consistently. She has some rough nights too.  Overall though, we are just really loving being parents. We had no idea how much we would love it! 

Tim has been back to work and will start back up with school this week. He only has one class one day a week this semester and will spend the rest of his time writing his MDiv thesis, working for the church, and for Starbucks. He has taken to fatherhood wonderfully. He is such a help to me! I have already started pumping and we have introduced a bottle, since I will have to go back to work mid-march and I would like to continue giving her breast milk. So he is able to help with about a feeding a day to let me take a long nap.

 

We are just loving every day with her and are so thankful to the Lord for her safe arrival, her current health, and for the blessing that she is to our family!

Madison Hope has arrived!

We would like to joyfully announce the safe delivery of our sweet baby girl,
Madison Hope Baylor

She was born on December 22, 2008
She weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces
She was 21.5 inches long

We are so thankful to the Lord for His love and grace!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours!

Happy 28th Birthday Tim!

It's Tim's Birthday and I just wanted to say again how much I love and admire him. He has worked so hard for our family this semester. He has worked 15+ hours a week for our church, 20+ hours a week for Starbucks, and then took 15 graduate credits at Trinity. He has been amazing! It came down to the wire here at the end - he had big exam last Monday and a huge paper due today - on top of that he ended up working 80 hours at Starbucks in 10 days to keep insurance for himself and Maddy. But he pushed through and finished it all. This was basically his last semester of classes. Next semester he will go to one class at TEDS, while he writes his Thesis. The end is in sight!

All that to say, I am so proud of my husband. He is a hardworking man who I know will be a great father to our little Maddy (provided she ever comes ;) - I know this because he is already a fantastic husband! Happy Birthday babe!

Tim was really craving ribs, so on the recommendation of someone from our church we tried this place:

We had a really great time just relaxing and catching up after such a busy semester

As you can see, Tim really enjoyed his ribs :)

We got a seat right by the cozy, warm fireplace

On our way home, we stopped by the Cheesecake Factory to grab dessert to eat while we watched "The Office"

Tim chose their HUGE chocolate cake - his favorite. It was seriously good! Both of us together could not even finish it off. The rest is in the fridge right now, and knowing my cravings lately, it may be gone come morning ;)

All and all we had a really nice time together. Even though it has been a little frustrating waiting for Maddy, I am thankful that Tim was able to finish up his semester and that we have gotten a little bit of time to spend together. God is truly so good!

We go in for the ultrasound tomorrow at 11:45am to see the size of Maddy and where the amniotic fluid is at. Then at 12:15pm we will see the doctor to check if I am dilated anymore and discuss our options. So if you could, pray for wisdom :)

Still Waiting...but now with an end in sight

Well, I went to the doctor's office today and he said that I was 1 cm dilated and that things seem to be progressing. I was excited to hear that! He said that if by Friday she has not come, we will do an ultrasound to check her size and the level of amniotic fluid. At that point we will discuss the possibility of being induced. Soo, we shall see!

Here are some of the things that I have been doing around the house while waiting (let's just say I have been NESTING!)

Bags are packed (except for last minute things we'll have to throw in)

I labeled everything in my pantry --haha I kind of went nuts - but it was so much fun!

All of Maddy's laundry is is washed and folded.

I baked coconut macaroons to freeze for the holidays when family comes.

Brownie cookies...

Chocolate chip, pecan Coffee cake for Tim (he said it would help him through the end of his semester :)

Stuffed shells to freeze for a meal after the baby

Presents are all wrapped and mailed (to family in PA)

The tree is up and decorated!

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care... in hopes that sweet Maddy soon will appear!

Nursery Pictures

Yesterday I put the final touches on Maddy's room. I had some MAJOR nesting energy yesterday. I was busy around the house all day long! It feels good to have it all organized and clean.

This is an adorable sign that Scott and Lindsay Logan found and bought for us. Tim and I love it!

This is the Olivia Set from Target - color is a little hard to see, but it is
pink, off-white, and brown.

This is my favorite - this little corner. I am sure I will spending a lot of time there! Lindsay found this glider for me on Craigslist. I bought it from a very nice, well-to-do couple in our area for $50! It was a horrible color, so my twin sister Rachael made some slip covers for me! Didn't she do a great job?

Here is a picture with the flash - so you can see the colors a bit better.

I finally got her closet organized. It is actually a combination of our things and her things - nothing like living in a tiny apartment. I had to do some serious rearranging!

Well, now I am ready. As you can see by my ticker - I am past my "due date". I went to the doctor on Monday and he did not see any changes yet. He actually surprised me, because he said that my due date was actually the 14th! I was like, "What? The early ultrasound had said it would be December 9th" I swear that early on - he agreed that December 9th was the due date and hasn't mentioned any other date since then. --oh well. So anyways, I guess I am trying to put things in perspective and be willing to wait if I need to. It's just hard if you have had one day in your head for sometime and then it suddenly changes. I have another appointment on Monday the 15th - so we will see what is going on then.

It is Finished!

I finished my last day with my students yesterday and then met with parents today for progress reports and to introduce my maternity substitute. I can hardly believe that I am finished until March 16th! In Early November I was in tears, thinking that I would never make it. This has definitely been one of my most difficult classes and just an all around difficult teaching experience. But God is so good. He carried me through. I am feeling very confident in my substitute that she will do a great job and have them where I need them to be when I return.

Funny, I texted my mom and said, "I am finished!" and she said, good now go put your feet up and get some rest! I replied, "I don't know if I remember how, but I will try". I don't think it has hit me yet that I don't have to lesson plan this weekend, respond to parent e-mails, or grade papers! What WILL I do with myself? There are a few things that I would like to accomplish still before Maddy arrives: wash and fold one more load of baby clothes, put up the curtains in her room, straighten the nursery and get a few pics, organize my Christmas card addresses, pick up around the house, and decorate the Christmas tree. I actually purchased our tree at Home Depot LAST Saturday for $15 - and it is a gorgeous tree! But it is still sitting in our living room (in a stand with water) undecorated. Tim and I have been so crazy busy. Hahah! So I guess now I have time to do some decorating this weekend :)

Here is a free photo I got taken at Babies R Us - I was about 39 weeks here - crazy how close I am getting!

I would ask that if you could pray for Tim. He has a major paper, an exam, and reading to be done by the 17th of December and he just found out from Starbucks that he has to have a total of 240 hours of work put in (for this quarter) at Starbucks by December 15th in order to keep insurance for himself (and baby Maddy). We originially thought the deadline was December 30th, so he was going to reach that no problem. Long story short - he has to work an outrageous number of hours this next week just to keep insurance. On top of that, he still has church things to deal with for our college group and quite a bit of school work left to do. He he so amazing! He has not even complained about it to me. He is just willing to do whatever it takes to care for our family. What an amazing husband I have!

He even found time to put together Maddy's crib and Changing table.There were like a gizillion pieces - he is so patient! I would have totally flipped out!

This is a picture of Tim with our sweet niece, Sadie Baylor. I know is going to be a great Dad!

Fun at Woodfield Mall

This past week, Katie Barker and I went out to the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg to do a little Christmas shopping and just enjoy the holiday decorations and atmosphere. We had such a fun time.

Here are some of the beautiful decorations. The mall is just so huge and the central area is just gorgeous!
This area is like a little North Pole Wonderland... so cute.

So we went into the MASSIVE Bath and Body Works store. Seriously, it had like 3 separate wings to it. We were in there forever... but we didn't even realize it. They had this deal going on that you could by 7 of the large lotions, sprays or body washes for $35 and then you would get the 8th one free. So we each picked out 4 that we liked... and then Katie had 4 coupons ($10 off if you spent $30, home fragrance free with purchase and so on) so basically we got $125 worth of merchandise for $27 ! We each only paid like $13.50! What a deal!!!

After that we stopped by an A&W to get a root beer float. And by that point it was like 8:30pm and we were exhausted! So we were a little zany to say the least:)

This one of the two of us was taken by a "bus boy" at the restaurant. He did not speak English and we were using my camera phone because we had both forgotten our cameras... so anyways, it quite the funny experience.

All in all we had a great time. It was a good way to kick of the holiday season and to spend some time with a good friend :)

37 Weeks and Counting

Well, here I am at 37 weeks. I can hardly believe that I am almost at the end of this journey of pregnancy. I have been feeling pretty good still. It's just getting a little painful to walk around too much and of course I am exhausted at the end of every day. But it is good to be able to see the "light at the end of the tunnel". I am seeing my doctor weekly now and he told me yesterday that she as head down and all looks good. So I am very excited about that. That is something I was specifically praying about.

I only have 2 more weeks of teaching at HFLS. (3 days this week 4 days next week) so only 7 more teaching days! I can hardly believe it. It will be nice to be finished and hopefully to have a few days of quiet at home before Maddy comes. Tim has asked me to wait until the 17th(the end of his semester). I am not sure I want to wait that long, but we will see :)

I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving Holiday this year. We will miss not being home with family, but we are celebrating with another family at our church and will be helping to host some of the college kids in our group from church. I love the holidays. I am looking forward to getting my tree the day after Thanksgiving and setting up all of my Christmas decorations!

Obama Victory is an Inspiration

I know some of my more conservative readers might automatically think, what in the world is she talking about? Let me explain. Although I do not align myself with all that Barack Obama stands for, I am thankful for the inspiration that he has been in winning this National Election. I have a unique perspective on how this President-elect has impacted specifically the African-American community. As many of you know, I teach at a school on the west-side of Chicago.  The demographic is 100% African-American. Although this has been somewhat of a challenging transition for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of teaching in such a culturally different area (especially compared to my previous job in VA Beach).

The day after the election, students were heard shouting "Obama - Obama- Obama!" in the school hallways. There was a sensation of new hope that came with this new day in American History. Our principal gave an inspiring speech about how there are no excuses left for why anyone cannot become everything that they dream to become. She shared how Obama was not handed everything he got; he worked hard for it. Students were reminded that they need to take advantage of their education and not make any excuses about why they cannot succeed. They have no reason to say now, that their life is too hard or society is against them. Barack Obama has proven that America is a country where any person (no matter their race, gender, or religious views) can have the "American Dream".  What an encouragement! I am personally encouraged with seeing how far our nation has come in the civil rights movement. This truly has been an historic election. One I am sure we will remember for many years to come.  

I want to end with one little interaction between our Chaplain (pastor Hunter) and the students. I wish I would have video taped it, but this is how it went:

Mr Hunter: Good Morning Holy Family!

Students : Cheer and yell, Good morning Mr. Hunter!

Mr. Hunter: I heard a rumor! (in loud excited voice)

Students: A rumor? (in excitement and anticipation)

Mr. Hunter: Yea, I heard a rumor!

Students: A rumor?!  

Mr. Hunter: Yea, that the next President of the United states looks just like YOU!

Students: Loud clapping, cheering, stomping, hooting and hollering!!!!

I am encouraged that these students have a positive African-American role model that doesn't bounce a ball or bust a rhyme. They have someone before them that has applied himself, by getting  a great education and is having an historic impact on our nation and world.