A few pics...

Here are a few pictures from the night Avalee was born...birth story coming soon!

Oops! I didn't even have a bag packed when my water broke! Running down the list of suggested items to bring!
5:30ish May 26, 2011



In labour--many thanks to my amazing sister-in-law/doula extraordinaire Emily!





IT'S A GIRL!
Avalee Waulker, born May 26, 2011 at 6:16 p.m.



Immediately after birth...

Proud Daddy!

Like all girls, she wasn't too enthusiastic about getting on the scale...8 lbs 6 oz!

Like father, like daughter!
You tell me who you think she looks like?!

My Mom holding Avalee for the first time.

Being wrapped up all cozy warm.

Baby toes...need I say more?



Four days old and relaxing on the couch. 



Avalee Waulker has arrived!

Friends and Family,

After much anticipation, we are proud to announce, "IT'S A GIRL!"

Avalee Waulker decided to make her way into the world on Thursday, May 26 at 6:16 p.m.  She weighed in at 8 lbs. 6 oz. and 20.25 in. long with a 35 cm. head.  "Avalee" is pronouced just like it reads, "Ava" + "Lee."

My water broke on Thursday morning at 5:15 a.m.  We made it to Savannah to The Midwife Group & Birth Center around 7:45, saw the midwife on-call, checked into a hotel upon her recommendation, and waited for contractions to start.  They did around 9:30 and quickly started to pick up in intensity and speed.  By 11 or so, we were back at the Birth Center, and I was 3-4 cm. dilated.  We labored in an exam room for almost 2 hours while they cleaned up the two birthing rooms from the other two babies they'd already delivered that morning.  My Mom and sister-in-law/doula extraordinaire Emily arrived within 20 minutes of each other around lunch time.  I was blessed with a very gentle, though intense labour.  I definitely could not have done it without my excellent support team (Travis, Mom, and Emily) to help with my relaxation cues, keep Gatorade in my system, and let me death glare them during surges :-).  Though it wasn't in the original plan, I did end up pushing for about 1 hr. 45 min., but it got us little Avalee in the end.

The first name "Ava" had always been the top of our girls name list, but we were a little disappointed with its recent resurgence in popularity.  As a kind of compromise to get what we wanted, but not have a "common" name, we decided to combine the planned first and middle names "Ava" and "Lee" (my and my grandmother's middle name) to get "Avalee."  As for "Waulker," that's an old family name on my side, as well as my Mom and sister's middle name.  Plus now her name has the added bonus of being the same initials (A.W.T) as Travis's Dad!  We're going to definitely say that was intentional, rather than a happy coincidence :-) but we were pretty psyched about it once it was pointed out to us!

I will write up a more complete birth story over the weekend--I just haven't had time yet, and we were so eager to share our news with all of you!

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from Avalee's first few days. Enjoy!

Just a few hours old!

YAWWWWWWWWN! 16 hours old!

Yawning is exhausting!

3 days old!

4 days old!

Mini-Babymoon to Tybee Island

Well, it's a miracle we're still married.

Just kidding.

But in all seriousness, after the stress of pulling off my first solo recital (Vidalia Ballet had an incredibly successful end-of-year performance on May 7), Travis and I seriously needed a get away. A personal day. A mental health break.  And luckily, now that my studio is closed for the summer and I'm only working on Mondays at Statesboro School of Dance, we were able to take off on a whim!

So Tuesday, May 10, we pulled the beach chairs and towels out of the attic, packed a cooler with adult libations for Travis and Powerade for me and Baby T, and headed to Tybee Island.

We arrived around 10 a.m. and claimed our little spot.  It. was. the. most. perfect. beach. day. ever. !.

The water was chilly as you waded in, but once submerged it becamse quite comfortable.  In fact, I spent the majority of my time in the water--the feeling of weightlessness and the rock and flow of the ocean took all the pressure of my ever-growing belly off!  It felt amazing!  We had a delicious lunch (kicking myself for not getting pictures of that!) at Bernie's--Trav slurped down a dozen raw oysters on the half-shell (I *cringed*!); I wolfed down a half-pound of peel and eat shrimp; and we shared a truly yummy order of cheese fries!  After that we hit the beach for a couple more hours before heading home.  It was amazing the leave Statesboro and our currently-in-process-of-massively-changing lives for a day, and it made me realize that there is an upside to living in Statesboro, besides it being cheap--you're only a little over an hour from the beach!

The view from our little spot on the beach!

Tybee Island, GA
May 10, 2011

The pier at Tybee Island, GA

37 weeks 3 days
18 days until Baby T's Due Date!
19 lbs later and somehow, miraculously "fitting" into my pre-pregnancy bikini :-)

Trav taking the first, very chilly dip of the day.

The water was kinda cold until you got fully submerged!

Ah, the good life...on the beach, nobody cares if you have a beer at 11 a.m.

Chillaxin' and gettin' Baby T some in utero Vitamin D!

Posing for the last pics of the day...
37 weeks 3 days

A little less flattering, but we had to have a side shot to see the Baby T bump.
37 weeks 3 days

The last shots before heading home...

"Hurry up and take it...I hate posing."

Alright, Baby T, we're in no hurry to evict you--yet! 18 days until you're due date!

Found an awesome blog...

So, lately I have begun to get a little nervous.

No, it's not what you think--giving birth does not scare me.  I am actually looking forward to the birthing process.  I'll have excellent support, and I truly feel that I've done everything one can do to prepare for a hithertofore unimaginable, unencountered, incomprehensible and unique situation.

I'm more nervous about whether or not I'll be a good parent.  After spending many, many years babysitting my brother A.P. and sister Sey Sey, and then getting to do the mom-thing, however briefly, of getting up during the night, etc. with Kai when he first entered our family and both of my parent were working full-time, I feel more realistically prepared than many first-timers are.  But I've also had people telling my my entire life what a good Mom I'd be one day.

That's a lot of pressure.

And speaking of pressure, Baby T seems to be doing well and right on schedule.  I'll be 37 weeks on Saturday, and therefore eligible to have my birth at The Birth Center!  Baby T is head-down and pretty low--I've had several people comment on my descending tummy LOL and the spot where Baby T used to be lodged in my ribs is pretty soft now.  I just need to survive my Vidalia Ballet recital on Saturday, and then Baby T is free to do whatever he or she wants :-)

Anyway, I stumbled across the most awesome website/blog/Tumblr-thingy today and thought I'd share. 

"Message With A Bottle" is a Tumblr kept by a stay at home dad and freelance writer who uses Post-It Notes to inject humor and sanity into his toddler-driven life.  He posts a picture each day of one of his Post-Its, and the link below is to a collection of his 50 most popular notes. Here's a sample, but please click the link and enjoy!

Message With A Bottle

Vidalia Ballet Baby Shower

My Vidalia Ballet Baby Shower was Sunday, April 10, and Baby T and I had a blast!  I am so grateful to my Vidalia dance family for their caring and thoughtfulness.  The shower was wonderful--great company, great food, and great loot!  Now I just have to finish Baby T's room, so that we have somewhere to put it all!

My dancers!

Yum!

Opening gifts in the biggest chair ever!

Because I am a terrible blog updater...

As promised, oh, sometime back around December, I am now uploading the video of us telling Travis's family that we're pregnant.  We decided that having a video of everyone's reaction would be fun, so we told everyone we'd like to take a family photo.  Travis set the camera to record and traded "Say Cheese!" for "Everybody say, 'Brii's Pregnant!'" and the rest is, as they say, history.  Please note that Trav may have harrassed his family one too many time, as his Dad's first response was a skeptical, "Is this true?"  :-)

Kids and Pregnancy

As most of you know, I spend the majority of my time with children ages 2 1/2 - 18--add to that three siblings, the youngest of which turned six a few weeks ago, and you can pretty safely assume that I know a lot about the lives of my dance student's families and the funny things children will say.  Since announcing my pregnancy in November, I've had the pleasure of learning a lot from these children about the way they interpret and understand pregnancy.  In fact, these little comments have been one of the greatest highlights of my pregnancy, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share them with you, as well as preserve them for posterity--or sibling-related future rehearsal dinner blackmail :-)

Hope you enjoy these anecdotes as much as I do and did...

*During one Ballet I (2nd & 3rd graders) level class shortly after Thanksgiving, one little girl kept dashing over to touch my belly in between every combination. So sweet!

*At the end of our first class after the Thanksgiving break, one of my five-year-old students L. came up to me and said, quietly, "Ms. Brii, my Mommy says you're going to have a baby."
"You're going to have a baby?!" many of the others chorused.
Most of them seemed excited, grinning, and running up to hug me, but one little girl had a bit more to say.
"You're going to have a baby?!" E. said loudly, throwing her arms out to her sides and leaning forward with huge, round, incredulous eyes. "You are going to be in THE WORST PAIN OF YOUR ENTIRE LIFE!"
[I would like to take this opportunity to say that I almost died right then and there. After telling her mother about how E. cracked us up that day, I found out that her older sister had just gotten braces that day and after a lot of complaining about how much they hurt, the mother said, 'Honey, when you have a baby, that's when you'll be in the worst pain of your entire life.' Apparently E. was listening!]

*When my Mom and siblings came to visit in mid-February, everyone tried to prepare my almost-six-year-old brother for how different my body was going to look. I had not seen him since Christmas when  I really wasn't showing yet. So when they arrived, one of the first things my Mom said to him was, "See Ba's big belly?"
He kind of shrugged, and said, "Yeah, but it's not very huge."
I felt terrible for not living up to his expectations of my enormous belly! ;-)

*Later that weekend, my little bro sat on the floor while I lay on the sofa, both of us watching as Baby T's ninja kicks made my belly jump and twitch.
With each kick, in the high, squeaky voice, Kai would squeal, "Let me out! Let me out!"

*My Dad reported to me that at the dinner table a day or two after my little brother's visit to Statesboro, Kai sat, shaking his head and muttering, "How is that baby gonna fit through a bellybutton?"

*One day in late February, while trying to finish up some choreography with my Ballet II (3rd-5th grade level) class, I kept having a brain freezes about what step I wanted to do next.
"Ms. Brii's brain just isn't working today!" I exclaimed in frustration.
"Why not?!" one of my students said, "You have two brains!"
Confused, one of the other teachers and I looked at each other and then said, "No...you have two halves to your brain." We thought maybe she was confused about the hemispheres concept.
"No. You have two brains," she said matter-of-factly. "Your brain and the baby's brain!"
It's hard to argue with that, but apparently, I'm not using my full pregnancy brain power!

*I spent a great weekend visitng my family in late-March for two sibling birthdays, but as it always does, Sunday rolled around and I had to head back to the Boro. My little brother rode with me to my Mom's house so that I could say "goodbye" and he could hang out for the afternoon. In the car, I got to hear Kai's thoughts on family planning.
"Ba, I wish I lived closer to you so I could see Baby T anytime I want."
"I know, but you'll still get to see Baby T a lot, and after school gets out and Baby T is first born, you and Dad will come down to visit and meet the baby."
"How are you going to tell if it's a boy or a girl?"
Hmmm. Tough territory to navigate. "Um...we'll know when it's born," I said. I think I'll leave that convo up to my Dad.
"Are you going to look at it's thing that it pees with?"
No arguing with that. "Well...yeah..."
"Cuz boys have longs ones and girls have little ones."
Smile.

*And Mom and Dad, you might want to get on some really good, long-term vitamins, because you're going to need to be around until you're about 100...Kai has some serious plans for the future...
"When I grow up, I've going to grow five babies! My Dad has four, but I'm going to grow five."