Mikayla has arrived

Sorry for the very long delay between posts, but any of you who have kids understand that our schedule is no longer our own. Anyhow, here is the update and photos that many have been asking for.

Our daughter, Mikayla Grace Herrbach was born on August 18, 2009 at 5:46 p.m. She was 7 weeks early and weighed in at 3 pounds 9 ounces. She was 17 inches long. As of todays post she is 4 pounds 7 ounces and growing fast. She is still in the Noenatal Intensive Care Unit here in Renown Hospital, but she should be going home with us soon.

Mikayla is advancing much faster than any of the doctors or nurses were guessing, so that is quite a blessing. She has been upgraded to nipple feedings for every feeding now which is the last thing she needs to be able to do before she goes home. If she can keep this up for a few days and continue to gain weight, we will be able to bring her home.

Here are som more pictures:

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The day after the golf tournaments in Monterey, Chris and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was cool getting to see all the different sea animals, both in the tanks and from the telescopes on the observation deck. We saw a bunch of sea otters in the bay rolling themselves up in seaweed to anchor themselves so they could sleep. We got to touch seastars and I touched a sea cucumber (very weird). We say itty bitty seahorses and seahorses that were atleast half a foot long. It was a great trip and I hope we will get to go back when I am able to be out and about more.

This was a 12 lb. lobster that was caught by a fisherman and donated to the aquarium about 3 months ago. He couldn't get himself to eat this big boy.

One of the seahorse tanks. It was hard to get a good picture of the seahorses since he actually swim quite fast.
Just a bunch of colorful fish. The one that is orange with one bright pink square is so strange. Don't even know what kind it it, but I like it.

Hey its Dorie from "Finding Nemo"!!!

Cool fish

This is a Cuddle Fish. They look so depressed and I sure wouldn't want to cuddle with one of these.

These are little eels that bury themselves in the sand.

A big black fish...I don't know what it was but it was willing to sit still for a picture.

I love the Jelly Fish tanks. They are so beautiful....I wouldn't want to swim with them but I like to look.

I love the colors of these Jelly Fish

Ahhhh!!! They're attacking Chris!!

These are very little Jelly Fish that light up and vibrate with color.

Same jellies as above picture.

I really like the markings of maroone on this one.

Chris' golf tournament

Chris and three other guys from Lake Almanor West golf course qualified in a tournament to go play at Bayonet and Poppy Hills golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula. I went along for the ride and stayed at the hotel while they had their tournament each day. The weather was beautiful and cool feeling. It was foggy each morning and by mid afternoon the fog would start to roll back in. Chris and the other guys had a great time and were able to go see the famous Pebble Beach golf course and the US Open trophy.

The bay from Pebble Beach Golf Course. There are just a FEW seagulls there.

This is what Chris had to hit his golf ball into at the Bayonet Golf Course. Amazing he was able to even find his ball after hitting it. Makes for a little bit difficult round, but fun.
Chris and his friend, Dave, at Pebble Beach Golf Course. They were like kids getting to go to their favorite toy store. So funny to see....

This will be Chris' some day, just wait and see.

View from the 18th tee at Pebble Beach looking at the clubhouse. Very beautiful area. Too bad I only saw it from pictures but am so glad Chris got to go there.

My wonderful husband on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach Golf Course.

Chris teeing off at Bayonet...hit this one about 290 and split the fairway.

28 weeks

Just a couple of pictures of Chris and I when I was 28 weeks pregnant (currently 32 weeks pregnant). Chris was warming up on the driving range before heading out to play golf with a few long time friends of his, the Van Elderens.

Yeah I was big then...bigger now, Yikes!!

Catch up

This is a bit late but life has been crazy around the Herrbach house. Here are some pictures of our new house since we've moved in. We have a lot of work to do but with our little girl coming it has been put on hold. We have plans to landscape the front and backyards, put up a fence around the backyard and much more. Boxes are slowly getting unpacked and the mistakes that were done during construction are getting fixed by Chris. He already did a wonderful job with the master closet. We have been blessed with a great house in a nice neighborhood and soon we will have our little daughter to bring home to it.

Our guard dog by our front door

The back of our house with our temporary fence line. Chris is currently working on putting up the wood fence while I am in the hospital.
Our dogs enjoying their new yard. They'll love it when they get the whole yard to play in.

The front yard. Chris has been adding fill dirt to level out the ground before putting in a lawn and sprinklers.

The front of the house.

The dining room Kitchen from the dining room.

The kitchen

Living room from kitchen

Living room. Bedrooms are down the hall on the right side of this photo.

The nursery has been storage, but Chris' mom and sister said they will help get it ready before I come home with our little girl....whenever that might be.

Guest bathroom.

The newly remodeled master closet. Chris did a great job!!

Other side of closet.

Master bedroom looking at the entrance to the master bathroom.

Can't forget the king of the house...Putter the Great!!

Its a GIRL!!!

Well we have been told that we are having a baby GIRL!! On Friday the 15th we went to Lassen Radiology and were able to see our little girl squirm all over the place. Apparently she really likes TCBY frozen yogurt cause she was VERY active after I ate it. We saw her sucking her thumb, laying like a little froggy then hop up so her little bottom was up in the air and her head and feet were down. She rolled back and forth and waved at the camera for us. It was so cool to watch her move around and see what she is actually doing when I feel those little bumps of hers inside me. We have been asked to come back on June 12 to do a second look to make sure our little girl didn't sprout any other appendages in those 4 weeks. Though the views that we saw, it looks pretty clear that we are having a girl and not a boy! :)

Profile of baby girl Herrbach

Another profile of her
View of her spine with her head down

Little girl Herrbach waving at the camera

Baby Herrbach 15 weeks 3 days

Here our the newest pictures of baby Herrbach at 15 weeks 3 days. The doctor still can not tell if it is a boy or girl but we have a detailed ultrasound appointment May 15 at the hospital with a special tech person, not my regular doctor. They say we will be able to find out then what it is :) Hooray!! For now all you get to see are the bone structure pictures (which are a bit creepy looking. LOL!!) of our little one.

I started feeling baby "kicking" on sunday, but found out that those "kicks" are actually our little boxer punching me with its fists. It puts its arms above the head and starts wacking at me! (we saw our baby doing this while these pictures were taken) Very weird feeling. They are still not strong enough for Chris to feel them.

Head on left with arms above head. Picture cuts off at mid torso.

Head on left, very defined skull bones. Left fist in top of picture.
Close-up Baby Herrbach giving us the evil eye :) You can see the lens of the eye in the left eye socket. Creepy looking picture.....I love it!!

Waving its arms above its head again. Trying to hit mommy!!

Kinda hard to see, but these are the feet. Look to the left side of the dark circle, those are two little feet.