Happy One Month Birthday Nikelle

It is official! Nikelle is one month old today.

It is hard to believe that she has been in our life for one month. It just seems like yesterday that we found out we were going to have a baby. Life has had many changes in the last month. I think we are finally finding our way and adjusting to the changes.

I thought I would start out for telling you how Nikelle got her name. Some of you know, but some of you do not. So.....Nik and I have had this name decided for a while. We always used to joke about the funny names we would name our kids. Some of them was jeep, jetta, Barthamou, you get the point. Well, Nik's mom said that Justin could name one of his kids Justine so it would be like having his name (if it was a girl, instead of jr or something). We started combing our names and came up with Nikchelle, but it was to close to Michelle. We took a few letters out and got Nikelle. It is Nik's name plus the last part of mine.

Now for the middle name....Annlea (pronounced ann-lee). Nik and I struggled with this one and finally one night we sat down and listed both sides of the family and was trying to combine letters and names in some way. Nik's dad's middle name is lee and we were trying to think of how to carry part of the Gerritsen's after Nikelle got married. Well, almost two years ago, we both lost our close aunts. My aunt Ann was serving her mission in Flordia and past away from a car accident. His aunt past away a few months later after struggling with MS. Her middle name was Lea (Lee). Both of our aunts played a huge role in our life, and we started considering how to do this. Nik thought of Leann, but we wern't to sure. He later came up wit Annlea. When Nikelle was born we had to decide. Nik felt that Leann was an older name and liked how Annlea was different from everyone else, kinda like her first name. So, that is how Nikelle got her name. Now, Nikelle can grow up knowing she has her mom and dad's name and two very important peoples, in our life's, name to help complete it.
Now that we all know the history, and have become attached to cute little Nikelle, here is a slideshow to show how much our little princess has grown in one month! Enjoy!

Starting to see.....

Well, today I think it finally got official.....I feel like a mom. It is starting to sink in that I actually have a family of my own (haha). I know this is wierd, but I'm one of those people that think things will really never change. I know we grow up, but it is hard to see that things REALLY change. Get my drift? Well, sorry if you don't, but looking back it has already been a month since Nikelle was born. It has been almost a year since we found out that we were going to have a baby (in Jan). And today, when I went in to change Nikelle, I put on an outfit that was one of the first newborn outfits to fit her. Well, I think today will be the last time that she will wear it. It is starting to get a little small. She is still really small, but I thought I would put it in perspective for you. I laid her next to the elmo and well you can see....



She is starting to get so big so quick. Everyone always says they grow up quickly and I believe that, but I didn't think it would be this fast.

Little or Big Nikelle

If anyone knows Nik's mom, Beckie, or otherwise known as Grandma China, well she is crafty. I am so lucky to have a great mother in-law that is willing to help me as much as my own mom. So, she is into making these hats here lately and when Nikelle was born she made her one.........







as you can see it was a little small.
That is some skill....it is hard to get something to small for little Nikelle.

So, she gave another try, but was trying to make one for Nikelle's cousin, Aniston, because hers was to large. Well, now this one was a little tight on little tubby's head, so it fit Nikelle. Awwww isn't it adorable?!?!?






Also, I promised some pics of her cute room. Well, it is not all the way done, but here is the main idea.

Mclaren

Well, watching Nikelle grow made us think of Mclaren. I know!! Shes a dog. But, our animals are our kids too. She is four months old and actually is a pretty good puppy. She is still learning of course. But, Nik was arranging his pictures and here is Mclaren growing up. Oh the joys of having a puppy!

Nikelle and her 3rd week

Nikelle is 3 weeks old and growing!

Boy is Nikelle growing. She weighs 6 lbs 9 oz! She is about 20 in long. Since my camera finally decided to work today, I thought I would post some pics from her third week.

Here is Nikelle after a bath.....as long as she is wrapped like a "barrito" (as her dad says) she is happy. Believe me....you don't want to know what she sounds like when she is upset.

This is Nikelle being peaceful.....haha she is such a good baby! As you can tell she does not like her hands wrapped up. If they are not where she can fling them around, she will let you know. Gotta love the crazy hair!

Nikelle had her two week checkup this week. Here is her "flipper" after her PKU...poor baby!

Nikelle and her daddy, she is telling him a story. Gotta love the lazy Sunday's when dad and daughter can hang in their white t-shirts!

AND...of course I can not leave out our other kids. Here is Mclaren looking at the camera wondering what her dad is doing.

Nikelle Annlea Gerritsen has arrived!

She's finally here!
Nikelle was born on September 28th at 1:52 am. Here is a pic right after her bath with her dad!

Well, here's the story. Friday at work, before she was born, I felt the best I had in a long time. Everyone was saying this was going to be the weekend. But, at the doctor that Wednesday before I was barley thinning and I was not dilating. So, Saturday morning came around 5 am I woke up to some weird feelings. I just thought they were funny pains and didn't think to much about it. Well, after trying to go to sleep many times and waking up every 10 to 15 minutes I was wondering, but still did not think anything about it. Finally, I got up and tried to start my day. When my mom called I said, I might run to the hospital just to see what is going on. But, I still laid around and tried to do stuff.

Later that afternoon, Nik's mom and dad came by the house, and by now these funny pains were every 3 to 5 minutes. His mom suggested that we go to the hospital because she was pretty sure they were contractions. So up to the hospital we went.

I checked in and long behold I was dilated to a 3! I was still thinking they were going to send me home. About an hour later they came back and I was almost a 4 so they kept me. This was about 5 pm Saturday night. After I got the "happy shot" I wanted to sleep and I found out later on I said some pretty funny things, that I really don't remember, but Nikelle arrived finally.....weighing 5 lbs 10 oz! A long shot from the 7 or 8 lbs she was supposed to be. Things are calming down and getting back to normal, but life is getting more exciting.....