She's here!  Too precious for words, Natalie Kate Mattson was born on September 7, 2005 at 2:19 pm.  She weighed a mere 7 lbs, 4ozs at birth, and measured 20 inches long.  We were happily released from the hospital about 24 hours later, and are now home and settling into life as we haven't yet known it.  I know frustrations and slight insanity must await us in the near future, but for now it is pretty much pure joy to be a family of four and finally getting to know our little girl in person.  Micah has given her tons of sweet little smacking kisses, and has yet to inflict any damage in his exuberance to hold her and touch her face, hands or hair.  Greg has absolutely fallen in love with his baby girl, and I'm sure it's obvious from the tone of this post that I am about as hopeless.  We'll try to update as we take more pics, but here are our favorites so far. 

My appointment did go well - doc said I could quit taking the medicine when I am 36 weeks complete - tomorrow! :)  Although this was a relief to hear, we are still going to be playing the waiting game to find out when our daughter will make her entrance.  The doctor warned that too often just when you stop trying to hold labor off, the contractions fade away and you hear nothing more for weeks.  My doctor had already been planning to schedule an induction in about two weeks in hopes of, "catching this one before she gets to ten pounds." (her words)  So I suppose one way or another, we will be having a baby in the very near future (I keep telling myself).  I have taken my last pill, so I dearly hope to have to wake Greg up in the night or call him at work tomorrow.  Still praying for God's timing and a bit of contentment. 

         As usual, it has been a while since I have found time to post.  Now that we have gotten past most of the craziness that is summer plans and goals, I have a chance to take a breath, and update this occasional story of our lives.  Alexis Mireille Bourgeois did in fact make an appearance.  Pictures of this little beauty can be seen on her family's blog.  Rashell (Greg's sister) and Christopher were married without a hitch (very fond of puns) yesterday.  This was quite a triumph, given that one of the bridesmaids (I) was not only 8 months pregnant, but also in the midst of labor.  
         Ten days ago, Greg & I went to the hospital with contractions 2 to 3 minutes apart.  Because I was 6 weeks early, they gave me a shot to stop the contractions, which proved ineffective.  I was sent home with 3 pills of the same (actually an asthma medicine), also expected to stop labor, also ineffective.  After a few days of taking this medicine every 4 hours (and still having strong contractions at less regular intervals), I was given a new prescription - this time a blood pressure medication - which thankfully I only take every 6 hours.  It does seem to lessen the contractions, although they return for a few minutes 3 hours into the dose, and of course when the medicine wears off.  All that to say, the last ten days has been both interesting and frustrating.  We are extremely thankful to God that we were both able to attend (and stand up in) the wedding, and even return to LR in time to witness the baptism (today) of Aithne Grace Emmons (14 months).  I have a doctor's visit tomorrow, and we are hoping she can tell us something of when to expect this little girl, who should now be well within a good range of birth weight and development (particularly in light of her brother weighing 10 lbs. at birth).  Until then, God bless. 

Hello again.  I guess a lot has happened since I last posted - and then not so much.  We are still not sure if we might be changing jobs/locations in the near future, but we now know that Greg can stay here if he chooses (good news).  We are waiting to hear from an ongoing interview that may or may not turn into a job offer.  For now we are acting on what we know (or rather, what we don't) and working to make a place for our little girl (Natalie, due in September) here in LR. 

The last few days I have been in a nesting fit.  I don't know how valid this supposed pregnancy symptom is, but I do know that I have just about turned our house upside down trying to create a feminine space for Natalie.    The crib, bunk beds, changing table, glider rocker and ottoman, quilt rack, rocking eyeore, and drapes have all changed locations in order to allow Little Miss to be surrounded by tiny old fashioned floral prints instead of monkeys and giraffes (without repainting, which I had first planned to do).  I know she doesn't care what the room looks like, so I guess ultimately I am doing all of this for my own pleasure, but it is so adorable!  Outside of the decorating, my house is staying cleaner and neater than it ever has (seemingly without a great deal of effort), and I keep finding projects ("Maybe I could think of a new way to organize the cereal boxes...") that seem to need attention. 

Although a lot of what I have given my attention to lately has been tedious, I am relieved that I have something to distract me from the desire to have the baby as soon as possible.  I remember the last month of Micah's pregnancy being excruciatingly slow, and although I am not that far yet, I can already feel tinges of impatience.  It helps a lot to have Micah running around trying to figure life out, because I can actually lose track of what week in the pregnancy I am, and forget to count the days till my next doctor visit. 

Plenty of distractions do await in the next three months, the most significant being my sister-in-law's marriage (August 20th) and the impending birth of Alexis Mireille Bourgeois!  For updates on this, check out The Bourgs' Site.

Needing sleep.  The peace of Christ be with you.  Night.

cruises are a great way to vacation - very relaxing.  the weather did not exactly cooperate (we had some pretty rough seas and didn't see the sun too often), but it was still a great trip.  micah made lots of friends and got tons of positive attention from the crew (many of whom have small children they don't see very regularly), and natalie made her opinion of rocky boat travel very clear with random kicks and punches.  Thankfully, none of us got very sick, and it did not rain or storm while we were in port. 

Greg had his interview on Friday and should hear within a week how that went.  We still could be moving sometime in the near future, but we found out (finally) from the corps that his current job is still going to be available for him.  Strange how unexpected security can be just as disrupting as thinking we didn't have it.