Four peas in a pod!

As most of you know by now, Audrey Lorraine was born on Tuesday, June 24th, at 11:54 am. She weighed in at 9 lbs 5 oz and measured 20 inches long. She is a beautiful, healthy baby girl! (When my OB pulled her out, she said, "Oh my goodness, you've just given birth to a 2 month old!".) So far, she appears to have a sweet disposition and is actually letting us get some sleep. Last night was our first night at home and she had four hour stretches between feedings twice!

Audrey is enamored of her big sister and I think the feeling is mutual. Ellie had adjusted well and just wants to give her baby sister kisses all day. We know that there will be challenges ahead, but for now we're pleasantly surprised at how smoothly things are going.

Lori and I are also doing well - nothing unites us more as a team than something like this. The C-section went very well and was easier than I expected, but I am still recovering and not able to do too much. My parents and Lori have thankfully taken over everything except feeding Audrey (and I know that someone would do that too if they could!).

Here are a few pictures from Audrey's birth and hospital stay. We will post more in the upcoming week when someone has a spare minute or more likely when someone is willing to give up an extra 10 minutes of sleep!

Beautiful Audrey

A happy Mama gets her first up-close peek at Audrey

Audrey with her mommy in the nursery about 30 minutes after she was born

Ellie takes a look at her baby sister

One of many kisses!

Audrey on her way out of the hospital

Ellie's "baby sista" is having a BIRTHDAY today

Well, today is the day!

Jana had an ultrasound done yesterday because they suspected the baby was very large.

She is.

At this point they say she is 9lbs, 11 oz. Give or take. Jana also has a bit more amniotic fluid than average which puts her at risk for hemorrhage - hence a scheduled C-section for today at around noon.

We have a short list of about 3 names for the baby. We will decide after she is born, depending on what name fits her! We might have to add "Bertha" to the list. :-)

Jana's parents spent the night last night. They are ready to help with Ellie.

That brings me to Ellie. When we told her that her baby sister was going to come tomorrow (today), she got quiet - her mood become sullen, kinda a mix between mad and sad. I asked her if she was excited that the baby was coming. She remained silent. Pouty. We asked her if she wanted her baby sister to stay inside mama, she said, "yes".

:-0

It is happening already!

Mama read to her and rocked her last night. I then popped in to sing to her our special song "you are my sunshine".

We reassured her as much as you can reassure a toddler. Last night she woke up shouting, "I want mommy! I want mommy!". I put her in bed with us, where upon she woke up very grouchy. Mad even. It makes me wonder if she had a dream about baby sister coming home!

Sigh.

So, we are ready, well we hope we are ready, for the big transition! We are all excited about our new one arriving today (well, except for ellie, perhaps). I can hardly wait to meet her.

Ellie doesn't know it yet, and she may not know it for a while, but today, I think her life-long best friend is about to enter the world.

Please say a prayer for Jana. She really didn't want to have a c-section and this extra fluid thing is a little bothersome.

Pictures soon.......

Love,

4 peas in a pod

39 weeks and headed to the hospital!

Birthday parties

Ellie had such a good time at the birthday parties yesterday, which was good because she talked about nothing else all morning beforehand! The first party was at our friends, the H's, house. They have four kids, two of whom happened to be born on the same day and those two were celebrating their 4th and 7th birthdays yesterday. Because there were lots of kids that Ellie didn't know and most were older than her, she was pretty shy and stuck by us most of the time. She loved the snow cones though!

The second party was for a friend of hers, P, from school. Ellie was so excited to see her teachers and her best friend, A, there. She had a great time and didn't want to leave! It was fun to see her there with her friends. She usually only sees them at school so we rarely get the opportunity to see how she interacts with her friends without paying attention to us or one of us being involved. She ran all over the back yard with A while they took turns telling each other what to do!

Ellie and A waiting in line for the pony rides. Ellie didn't know that there were going to be ponies there - we thought it would be more fun as a surprise. She was so excited!

After the rides were over, the ponies' caregivers taught the kids how to brush their hair.

Ellie and A playing all over the backyard...

They finished out the afternoon in the pool. We made Ellie get out to sing Happy Birthday to P, but once she got back in after that, there was no way she was getting out again for cake! She and her friends just spent the whole time splashing each other.

It was such a nice afternoon and made me wish that Ellie's birthday was in the summer! Hmmmm, maybe I'll have to figure out a way to have a November beach party...

OB appointment update

Well, I'm still pregnant!

There are 8 or 9 OB's in the practice that I use so for my visit today I saw someone that I've never seen before. We talked again about the size of the baby and I told him about my fears - I don't want a C-section if possible and I don't want to go through some of the problems that I had after delivering Ellie that made my recovery more difficult. To me, inducing now before the baby gains even more weight seems like the best option to decrease some of these possibilities. However, he explained to us that research has shown that inducing a birth due to the size of the baby actually results in a higher rate of C-sections. Who would have known?

The plan now is for me to go back on Monday for an ultrasound to get a good estimate of how big the baby really is. I think that this is to find out whether or not the baby is big enough that an induction is worth the risk of increasing the chances of a C-section. The other change is my plan for work. I worked the day before I was induced with Ellie so I had planned to work all of next week, but the OB changed this so that today was my last day of work. It can be unnerving to have your plans changed, but I'm realizing that this is not such a bad thing for me. Ellie will still be in school and I will truly be able to rest next week before the baby comes.

And most importantly, since I wasn't induced today, Ellie can still go to the two birthday parties tomorrow that she was invited to. One has pony rides so it would have been a tragedy to miss that :-)

I'll post another update after my ultrasound on Monday!

Tuesday update

Just some updates and a few pictures...

Today our little soccer star wore a real soccer uniform to school for a class party. Mimi and Boppa brought her back an official uniform when they were in Italy last year. She looked adorable in it and thought that she was so cool! It was impossible to get a good picture because she wouldn't sit still once she had it on.

And still no baby as of this evening! I'm having lots of contractions throughout the day but nothing regular. Today the small group that I work with had a luncheon to celebrate our little one's impending arrival as well as my co-workers impending marriage. It was a nice time to sit down and relax with the women I work with, which we are normally far too busy to do! They had lunch catered in for us and they gave Lori and I an incredibly generous gift card, which will come in handy in buying all those diapers! It was very much appreciated.

OB visit

At my OB visit today, I had my suspicions confirmed - this is one big baby.

My OB was feeling the baby and asked how big Ellie was when she was born. My response was, "I think I know where this is going!". I explained to her that Ellie was 8 lbs 9 oz and that I was concerned about how big this one would be. The OB said that she thinks this baby is about that big NOW. She went on to explain that at this point, babies gain about half a pound a week until birth. Now I was a math major so I quickly calculated that if this baby is already 8 1/2 lbs and I have 2 1/2 weeks until my due date....hmmm, I could have a 10 lb baby! When I asked her what I or we should do (because I really don't want to have a C-section if I can avoid it), she said, "Well, let's just hope you go into labor within the next week or so. We'll see where you are next Friday if the baby hasn't come yet."

Uh oh.

I can't have the baby next week! I still have 2 1/2 weeks left - they promised! I still have so much to do at work before I go on leave. For goodness sakes, I just left the paperwork with my OB today that I need completed so that I can actually take maternity leave. There is so much to be done around the house before the baby comes. There aren't enough meals in the freezer. I'm not ready to manage two little ones yet. I'm going to miss having tons of time with just Ellie. My mom doesn't finish school until the end of this week and we will need her help.

Double uh oh.

Realistically I know the baby will come when it's ready, 10 lbs or not. I also know that I will never be really ready for it to happen. So now with every Braxton-Hicks, I think, is this it???

And you know what? I'm really excited.

37 weeks...

...and counting!

Fantastic Find!

Dumpster diving. Garbage picking. No matter what you call it, we all know what it is. And we all know people who do it. Neither of us has ever done it before.

Until today.

We were driving down a main four-lane road in our town this morning on our way to work when Lori and I both noticed a quick blur out of the corner of our eye - is that a bassinet? did you see that? should we turn around? We turned around and pulled into the driveway of a home where we saw a wooden cradle bassinet sitting out with the trash. Lori told me to to check it out and see if it was in good shape. So I walked into someone's front yard to examine the bassinet. And sure enough it was in perfect shape!

We were both a little embarrassed to get out of the car and actually take it. I can only imagine what we looked like - a pregnant woman loading her station wagon with a bassinet from someone's trash! It barely fit in our trunk, but it did fit with a little shoving and maneuvering. After work this afternoon, we ran the fabric covers through the washer and dryer and then we disinfected (multiple times!) the plastic and wooden parts of the cradle itself. It now sits in our living room waiting for the baby girl who will use it. Ellie had already had a good time of "helping" us fix it and then rocking her baby in it. (After we took the screwdriver away, she said, "When I'm a grown up, I go to Home Depot by myself...and buy tools!")

It looks pretty good, doesn't it?? And I still can't believe that it was FREE!!

More weekend pictures

Ellie, Lori, and Mimi riding the carousel at the zoo. Ellie's smile only lasted for the time that the carousel was actually standing still! She was smiling when it started to move but by the time they had made their first rotation and I could see them again, she was in tears. She's been on carousels a few times so we're not sure what happened!

Playing outside on the deck

Ellie's pool at Mimi and Boppa's house had a leak so we couldn't fill it up this weekend. She loved playing in the inch of water we did put in though and she even tried to blow it back up!

Weekend fun

We spent this past weekend at Mimi and Boppa's house. As I think I've said before, we're trying to fit in lots of activities before the baby is born and I'm more housebound for several weeks. This was our last trip to Mimi and Boppa's house until after the baby and we had such a nice weekend visiting and being spoiled rotten! Ellie gets non-stop attention and play while her parents are able to relax and even take a nap.

On Saturday we all went to the Children's Museum, which was a lot of fun. Ellie's favorites were the sandbox, the pretend grocery store, and the pretend restaurant. We will definitely go back!

Ellie works on craft projects at the museum

Serving lunch at the diner

Driving the digger with Boppa

Ellie and Mimi play in the cool, clean sand.

Mimi and Boppa drive the fire truck in an attempt to get Ellie to climb aboard, too.

Ellie and Boppa watch themselves broadcast the news on TV.

Dr. Boppa checks Ellie's eyes...

and then Dr. Ellie checks Boppa's heart!

At Mimi and Boppa's house, Ellie discovered the stereo in the kitchen and insisted on music whenever we were in there...

Ellie singing the ABCs with Boppa accompanying her on the guitar...