The Gonzalez Family

Here are a few pictures that were taken in the hospital. Our little baby boy, Michael Israel Gonzalez, was born on Saturday, January 17th at 1:32 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long. We are so thankful that he arrived safely. Both Mommy and baby are doing well.

Well, I'm now officially 6 days past my due date. I've been able to keep a good attitude, but I have been feeling VERY tired. I'm trying to focus on getting my rest and getting the last couple of things done before the baby comes. I wouldn't mind if he were to come this weekend, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm pretty sure it'll be Monday before he decides to show up when we give him a little push, but you never know what might happen! :-)

I'm now 3 days past my due date and I had my last doctor's appointment today. I still haven't made any progress at all, so the doctor scheduled a date for me to be induced....and January 19th is the date! My little sister, Jessica, is excited because the 19th is her birthday and so she might get to share her birthday with her new little nephew. Of course the baby could still come at anytime, but at least I know it won't be longer than another week. So...as long as the baby doesn't decide to change the time table and come early he will officially be here on the 19th!! I feel kind of relieved, because now I will have time to get some last minute preparations done before he comes.

Today we went up to Primary Children's hospital to visit my cousin Jeff and his wife, Amber and to see their baby girl, Ali, who is in the NICU. Ali was born in Pocatello on December 12th and was flown to Salt Lake shortly after her birth because she has pulmonary hypertension. Her condition has been really up and down, but she has been doing really well this weekend. They were able to take Baby Ali off her ventilator yesterday. She is soooo beautiful and tiny. Her skin is so soft and it was so cute to feel her little toes would curl around my finger. She weighs just over 8 lbs and she weighed 7 lbs 8 oz when she was born. It's crazy to think that Amber and I almost had the same due date for our babies. She was originally due on January 6th and I was due on January 8th. The doctor's had planned to induce her on December 29th but the baby decided to come early...at about 36 1/2 weeks. It was great to see Jeff and Amber. They are so upbeat and positive and Jeff totally crack...

Well, today was my official due date and I'm still going strong. I feel great and I have lots of energy. I've been really blessed to have such a smooth pregnancy. I never thought that I would work all the way up until my due date, but I worked 11 hours yesterday and then I worked a full 8-hour day today. I have been waiting for two orders to come in before I could start my leave and I got one of the orders yesterday morning. I finally received my last order today and got it submitted at 4:00 pm and it feels so great to finally be done!! Now I can just relax and focus on making the final preparations before the baby arrives. There's still no sign that the baby is coming anytime soon although I have been feeling sharp pains in my lower back and hip joints that just started last night. I was in a lot of pain last night so I called my aunt who is a nurse to make sure I wasn't in labor. She told me it's nothing to worry about and it's just the pressure of the baby be...

So, I am quickly approaching my due date...the official due date is Friday, the 9th, but my original one was tomorrow, so I'm sticking with that one. There are no signs that this baby is coming anytime soon, so I am preparing myself for a long wait. Surprisingly, it hasn't been hard to wait because I've had so many things to do and I've kept busy at work and home. I wouldn't mind if he took another week to get here, but I'm not counting on it! I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so I will post another update later today if there's any news.

The big project this weekend was getting the baby's nursery set up. Now that the holidays are behind us, we finally were able to set aside some time to get the baby's room ready. My cousin Peter and his wife Chrizelle came over to help us paint. It was so great to have their help because lately I do not have as much energy as I used to! (Surprise, surprise) My co-workers at Oracle all pitched in and bought us the most beautiful baby crib for the nursery. I absolutely love it! It was a totally unexpected and very generous gift. It was one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me and I was really touched. I'm so lucky that I get to work with such great people!! We finally got the crib set up and we moved the changing table into the room. We got the walls mostly painted and we are going to be adding pinstripes this week. Israel's brother, Daniel, is going to help us install a chair rail this week and we still have to put up the curtains...so we're a...