Howdy, this is Travis posting up a quick note on Allison’s blog.

Allison is doing well and recovering nicely. She’s already been up on her feet once today. The little one is doing well also. She was born at 7:24 this morning and weighed 7 lbs 5oz and 20 1/4″ long. Everything went as good as we could hope with no problems whatsoever.

The name we decided on is Arwen Serena Almand.

Hopefully tomorrow Allison will feel up to making her own post.

Stay tuned.

So, my doc appt. this past Thursday went well. Everything still looks good. I could technically go into labor at anytime as I’m already a bit dilated, but we are still scheduled for the 17th.

Everything else is looking good still, I’m getting a bit scared and worried as usual, but I think its just because everyone keeps asking me if I’m ready? I am ready, but I’m not looking forward to the surgery part! And I don’t mind people asking, its just a me thing I guess.
We are taking Anya for a special family day today. We are going to take her to lunch and to see some reindeer and to Build A Bear! This will be her first Build a bear that she’s actually done. She loves to go into the store but she’s never made a bear before!
Keep checking our sites on Wednesday as Travis will be making posts and updates from the hospital on the arrival on Baby Girl Almand #2! And yes, we will reveal the name then as well!

So, it looks like the 17th will be our scheduled day to have the baby, which is my brother’s birthday; I figured another niece was a good birthday present for him this year!

The doc says everything looks fine still with the little one. Of course, I’m getting a bit more nervous, but overall I’m doing well. I still have this nasal congestion which is really annoying and especially challenging at night, but it too shall pass. Apparently this is called rhinitis of pregnancy, which is a constant nasal congestion until you have the baby.
I finally got my breast pump, which I am really excited about, from my best buddy Serena. She sent it to me as a baby gift! The pump is manual, but has excellent reviews so I’m looking forward to using it. Now, the challenge will be finding the mother’s milk tea that I’ll need to drink to increase my supply faster. Of course, nursing is another thing that makes me nervous, I hope it goes well and this baby adapts to nursing as well as Anya did. I’m pretty determined, as I was with Anya, so I’m sure I’ll stick with it as long as the baby’s willing and able! We had to supplement Anya the first few weeks and I really don’t want to do that this time, although we do have some formula already just in case it is needed. The mother’s milk tea you should be able to find in most drug stores, but in small towns it might be challenging, especially as it seems there are not many Moms around here who breast feed. Hopefully, if I can’t find it this week, I can get my Mom and Dad to visit the natural market where they live and they can pick some up for me.
I took the Pet Photos with Santa yesterday at the Cullman Animal Shelter, and while I think the photos came out fine, I’m not overly excited about the images I got, I’ve gotten picky! The background ended up looking a bit funny in the photos and it was hard to incorporate the tree and and all the decorations, with the animals and Santa, but the main thing is that it was for a good cause and helped out the shelter. Me the photographer is being a bit of a critic! I decided to go with the silk finish paper though which is a great looking professional quality paper, so the clients are getting good quality. And the photos were a tax deductible donation so that’s always a plus too!
I feel like I’m getting to be a better photographer, but I’ve really come to the conclusion that I like to take the non traditional studio photos. I would prefer to use natural light! I still love my camera though. I really need that MD 80 battery pack though, so the batteries will last longer for my shoots, plus I like the look of the camera with the pack attached!
We are putting up Christmas decorations in the house today and trying to decide if we are going to decorate the exterior any this year…that’s more up to Travis.
We also watched the movie Wanted yesterday with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. I have to say we really enjoyed it. It was a fun action movie. Pretty violent, but had a decent storyline. I’d give it 3 and a half stars. Definitely worth the money to rent and enjoy an evening of mindless entertainment, bang em up shoot em up style movie!