Emma Jane McCulloch

Well I am a mother! I just noticed that I went into labor just hours after posting my last blog..

Emma Jane was born May 22nd at 7:20 pm. She was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 19 1/2 inches of cuteness. Wow.. what a whirlwind of emotions! Our lives are changed forever and I am so grateful! She is two weeks old today and she already seems like she is growing and changing.

I couldn't have asked for much more throughout my labor and delivery (okay I could. .. It really hurt and was pretty terrible! ) But we really feel blessed and that everything went okay. I woke up about 5:00 Thursday morning with contractions in my back. John and I went on a walk and then came home and laid down to see if they would go away, but they just got worse so we knew we were going to have a baby! We were in and out of triage at the hospital while I was in early labor. We spent two hours walking at a park and then three hours at home (actually cleaning!) until I drank some rasberry tea and took a warm shower which put me into active labor. ..my contractions were suddenly a lot more intense and evey 2-3 minutes apart (not to mention still in my lower back!) Here's us at the park.. you can tell that I am not in too much pain .. yet..

So we get back to the hospital and soon after my water breaks and there is meconium in it. I was worried about it but the doctors seemed to be okay with it. At this point I am really hurting.. all still in my back. Once we were in the delivery room I pretty much hung out on the bed leaning over my big exercise ball. I was trying to get the pressure off my back. John would push and rub really hard on it which did help most of the time...It all seems like a whirlwind now. .. I'm not sure how long we were in the delivery room.. but I started pushing around 6:30 and about 45 minutes later she was born. I did it all with out any pain medications.. It was really hard but I'm glad I did it. It was the most amazing day. So exhausting but the best thing ever! John and I just sobbed right after she was born. It was incredible. It is amazing how you can love someone so much!

She is healthy and beautiful and such a joy. They did say it looked like she had the meconium for a while, so it's a good thing she came 10 days early. We feel so blessed. .. with all my blood pressure stuff and preeclamsia worries I did great. Literally as soon as she came out my blood pressure went back to normal. So no worries there. John's mom, Nancy came to help out with the labor and delivery (really to be our doula) and I am so glad she was there. She was awesome. I know if her and John were not there I would have had that epidural (and probably 10 extra hours of labor). I really feel like I have a great sence of accomplishment after that.

Doesn't he look like a brand-new father? I love this picture. He is so good with her and loves her so much. I'm so grateful for him.

In this picture we are both feeling happy that labor and delivery is over! :

She was a little jaundice so I would put her in the sun for a little bit every day. She is doing a lot better now. It's amazing how protective I am over her and how much there is to worry about her already! Thank goodness breastfeeding has been getting better everyday...

I love this picture.. Emma likes to have here hands by her face when she sleeps. It's adorable. She sleeps a LOT! Even a lot a night.. which is great but I wake up on my own worrying that she needs to eat..

She is just amazing and so much fun. She has all this soft brown hair and blue eyes and the cutest little mouth! She also has John's feet! (Sorry Emma) She smiles in her sleep and it just melts my heart. I am seriously in love with her. :)

Thank you everyone for all your visits and calls and dinners and gifts and support! We love you!

11 Days and counting

Okay I know we have not posted in so long! It has been such a busy month ! John did pretty good on his finals and he is back to his happy self again! We got the mario cart game for the wii and the indiana jones trilogy.. he is my happy 5 year old again. I love it. Too bad summer school starts in a couple of weeks..
Yea, I have only 11 days left until my due date. Somedays I feel terrible and "know" that labor is right around the corner and then I wake up the next day feeling great and still pregnant! My mom really does not want her to come early because she'll miss the birth.. but i'm playing selfish.. we want her to come now! I'm just so excited! I've been doing some "nesting" this afternoon and it smells like baby powder in this room and I love it. At my last appointment (last thursday morning) I was dialated to "not quite a 2" and 50% effaced and the baby was posited at a -1. soo.. that means it could be soon.. or a long time. But that night (so almost a week ago) I THINK I lost my mucous plug. How do you know for sure? I read that means labor could come in 2 days or 2 weeks. ha! Well I am doing all the self- labor inducing things.. except the castor oil. Maybe I'll try it if I get desperate. ..
An update on the house shopping. .. We have been looking at more houses and searching for the perfect house at the perfect price (which is actually realllllly hard to come by we are finding). The house we put an offer on is not available to us.. We found out after a week of waiting that because of the prior owner's situation our type of loan cannot buy that house. LAME! We did find one that we LOVE. It's perfect. Except the lady wants 30K more than we want to pay. :( I think we are going to make an offer anyways though. I'm getting a little stressed about it all .. but know I shouldn't . I really know Heavenly Father knows what is best and is watching out for us. Everything will work out how it should . We'll post some pictures soon .. and hopefully some pictures of our new house!!

42 days..

Yep.. only 6 weeks left until my due date. Woa.. John and I started taking our "prep for birthing" class. It is actually pretty good. I've been trying to exercise and do the stretches and exercises that are supposed to get me and the baby ready for labor and delivery. It'll be here before we know it! We are getting really excited and nervous all the time.
We have been apartment managers for about a year and half now.. and it started out great.. and because of different things (mainly a new owner and apartment management group) the apartments are turing.. south. We are seriously embarresed sometimes to say we are managers here.. we really have no power or authority to get things done for people.. and so things are not getting done and it's really frustrating needless to say. Well because of all this we are looking into buying a house again. We really don't know how much longer we will live in Albuquerque..but the possibility is there that John's job at Sandia could turn into a long-term career.. I really don't want to move out east so it would be great if we could stay here. We also know that if we do end up staying in Albuquerque we would move to Tijeras.. which is a the foot of the mountains east of the city. Beautiful and away from the city. So we are really looking into that possibility and getting excited about it. We are also looking into buying land have having a manufactured home made for us. Does anyone have any experience with manufactured homes? We don't know much about them. There is a company here in town that does them.. and it is different that a mobile home.. but i'm not sure how different.. so we will see about that.. We have a lot to look into and a lot of praying to do. I'm not sure if I ward will ever forgive us for moving out though.. I guess our ward was just demoted to a branch because we don't have enough active priesthood leaders. So sad.
Well things have been busy and good. This is the worst time for john and school. He always loses his motivation and homework discipline every semester around this time. Hopefully he'll get back on it soon. :)

John got Tagged

I got tagged. Here's the stuff

10 years ago....

10 years ago.... hmm.... I was living in scenic (not) stinky (true) Portales NM. It really was stinky we were literally surrounded by dairy farms. On days it rained the school would lift the no open flames ban so that teachers could light incense and smell-good-so-students-didn't-puke-in-class-candles. AND I got my DRIVERS LICENSE!!! Also I played football, not well, but I played. And yeah that pretty much sums up that year.. oh yeah I got to experience Corporal Punishment first hand at my school. Good times were had by all.

5 Things on My To Do List

1. Love Angela everyday with all my heart
2. HOMEWORK!!! (This will be on here for the forseeable future)
3. Be a good dad (WHOA!!!!!!)
4. Find all the gold brick on my star wars lego game
5. Finish the Book of Mormon, I meant to finish before I started work... then I hit 2nd Nephi

5 Snacks I love

1. DP
2. Chips and Salsa
3. Sonic Ice
4. Root Beer
5. Chocolate Covered Cockroaches

5 Places I have lived (Chronological)

1 Norman OK
2 Albuquerque NM
3 Farmington NM
4. Gold Canyon AZ
5. Farmington NM
(sorry this only brings me to the age of like 9... but only 5 were requested so the rest of my life will remain a mystery)

If I were a billionaire....

Honestly not a ton would change. We wouldn't be managing this apartment and we would have a hot tub. I would probably take the same classes. Scouts would be great because we would never do another fundraiser again! But I am completely happy with my life. Well, Angela and ______ and I would travel more often to more exotic places but that is all that would change.

5 Jobs (By coolness factor)

1. Sandia National Labs
2. Apartment Manager
3. Farmer
4. Stone Mason
5. WWF

7 Things You Don't Know About Me....

See this is tough "you" is pretty vague... If "you" happens to be Angela, David, Ganes or Max sorry nothing new. But let's see if I can't do somethings that will catch everyone off guard

1. I got two gold stars for a drawing I made of my bird, Rosebud, in 2nd grade
2. I got a blue ribbon in pole bending on horseback in 3rd grade (I never did better than like 48th on barrels)
3. I hate cauliflower... in any form really... well actually cauliflower compost is fine by me.
4. I experienced the 24th of October 1997 twice by crossing the international date line.
5. My normally drab imagination suddenly becomes alive in the morning when I try to convince Angela and myself why it is absolutely imperative that I stay in bed... it hasn't worked yet.
6. For my third birthday party I got exactly what I wanted... a ride on the AmTrak
7. I have travled at mach .86 my plane left late but arrived early

So this is me... I hope you enjoyed it

8 weeks and counting...

Well things are busy like always here in Albuquerque.. work and scouts and doctors appointments... and taxes (yikes!) John just recently started a job at Sandia National Labs for the Department of Energy in nuclear radiation detection. It is a great job and pays well and will give him great experience. This will be his full-time job for the summer too. So we can buy diapers.. yay! I will be taking over more of the apartment managment stuff... yikes.. But we really feel very blessed that he got this job.

Speaking of blessings.. I had my "big" appointment with the perinatologist last friday and that went really well. I've been having weekly fetal assessments on fridays and they have all been great. They are grading the baby on a 10 point scale for different things and so far (after about a month and a half) she is an A+ baby. It's awesome to get to see her move around with the ultrasound every week. This week they actually could tell that she has hair on her head! That is a shocker to me! I was bald until I was like one years old!

Here is one of the better pictures we've been able to get of her face.. we haven't seen it very much at all.. i guess she wants to surprise us.. she looks so sleepy.. just like her mom!

However.. I think that most ultrasound pictures don't really look anything like the real baby.. for example.. this is cute but the angle makes her look like an alien!

Speaking of aliens.. she is a VERY acive baby, which is so wonderful and makes me really happy..but today she is seriously moving soo much! She was head down for a couple of weeks and I'm pretty sure she flipped over today at lunch while i was on the phone with John and I really feels like she is trying to climb out of my belly! Well check out these buff soccer legs! See what I have to deal with!!

We only have 8 weeks (minus a couple of days) until my due date. I have been soooo exhausted the last few days I wonder how I am going to make it.. and keep working and doing everything else.. I am really ready to hybernate! I also have been having these anxiety dreams that the baby is born and we have just the things we currently have.. so we have no diaper wipes and no crib mattress (the crib is all put together.. just no mattress yet..we'll get there) and I don't know how to install the car seat.. I really need to figure out the car seat because I have a dream about that like every night! Haha.. We are really excited to be parents. We can't wait to meet her and get to know her for the rest of her life.

P.S. For all you "The Office" fans.. they are back on air this week (this Thursday night on NBC). It's the only show we really watch... it's the best.

Baby Booming

Well it's been a little while since I have posted. Life is busy and great! We have baby stuff and bags of diapers pilled up in our apartment now waiting to be organized and it is inducing baby filled dreams. Last night I dreamt she was born 8 pounds and 0 ounces and looks like John.

We have baby stuff piled up because I had my baby shower last Saturday. Horray! It was such a great shower. My awesome mom, sisters and little brother all came down for the weekend. It was so much fun. I got some awesome stuff too! We are getting so excited for her to be born. We still have so much to do and I feel like I still have so much I need to learn!! Here are some pictures from the weekend. Most of these are on Easter Sunday.

Here is my wonderful, crazy family.

I really love this one: :)

Great news! Truman is awake! Megan bonded with him this weekend. :)

Here he is eating off Megan's plate. yum celery..

MOre great news.. I can still see my feet!!!!

barely...

I got Tagged.. Twice!

10 Years ago
I was just finishing up the last semester of my eighth grade. Something you probably didn't know was I was actually expelled from school this semester so I was kind of home-schooling.. myself. I also hung out with my 5 year old brother a lot. But I would say that what I was really up to was a lot of CHANGE. I was finally learning from my mistakes, changing friends and really growing up and gaining a real testimony for the first time.

5 Things on my to do list
Transform our messy office into a beautiful baby room
Get my visiting teaching done
Finally mend all of John's ripped jeans
Organize my pictures for scrap booking
Read the Old Testament

5 Snacks I love
candy/ice-cream/cookies
fruit
bell peppers with cream cheese
granola bars
yogurt

5 Places I've lived
Cedar City, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Kingman, Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona
Albuquerque, New Mexico

What would I do if I suddenly became a Billionaire
Travel.. and take my family (the Shupes) with me. I would also get John a plane and a sailboat, be a stay at home mom, open a hot-sprins spa/bed and breakfast (like 10 Thousand Waves in Sante Fe), and build multiple summer homes (close to family, in Vallecito Colorado, Hawaii, Hava Supai, Cinque Terra Italy... and other beautiful summer places)

5 Jobs I've had
Office assistant for a Podiatrist (foot doctor)
Financial Aid Assistant at NAU
Computer Lab Aide at NAU
Dairy Queen (for one day! I hated it!)
Dental Hygienist

7 Things you probably don't know...random/weird facts about me :
(this one covers both people that tagged me) :)

1. I am notorious for doing way too many things at once. I'll have a few hours and start seven projects, getting nothing really accomplished and sometimes making an even bigger mess!

2. I love to buy books. I have shelves full! I love to buy them but don't have or really make the time to read all of the books I have! And it takes me so long to get though a book because I am seriously reading like 8 books right now..I'll just read them a little here and there. I keep saying that someday I'll read them all!

3. I am actually kind of nervous about being a mom. I have always imagined it and known I have wanted to be a mother.. but of course never pictured how I would be.. who would be my husband.. what would I be like.. and now that I am here I feel like I don't know what the heck I am doing and I'll be this awkward person who is supposed to nurture and raise a child when I cannot even take care of myself!

4. This is similar to the book thing.. but I love buying scrap booking supplies even though I haven't actually completed a scrapbook page in probably more than two years.. I will get better about that though! I have committed myself to scrap booking for my daughter so she (and I) will have her life documented.

5. I become so much more dramatic and whiny (woe is me exaggerations) around John. We actually both do it to each other.. pouty lips and all.. and at our institute class we just learned that this is a form of abuse through manipulating your couple to give you sympathy.. haha. we'll keep doing it I'm sure!

6. I LOVE Spring and Summer... I seriously get soo excited this time of year when it starts to warm up and start planning summer hiking and camping and road trips. It's like I become alive again. I would never work a day at all in the summer if I didn't have to. I would have picnics and take naps in the sun everyday instead.

7. I have always wanted to be a runner. A really good, fit, avid runner. I really wanted to do cross country in high school, but was afraid to push myself that hard. I've wanted to run marathons but have never pushed myself to do the training.. but I have ran enough to know the runners "high" and still want to be runner. But why don't I do it? Why don't I push through the hard miles and finally loose my extra weight and become this awesome, addicted runner? I guess I am lazy.. and would rather take naps in the sun.


Now I tag: Bob, Rachel Jensen, Niki, Becky and Kami