First days at home.

Life has been pretty good - crazy, but good - with Sarah home and J adjusting to having a new little sister.

A little half smile while sleeping - check out that dimple! (She has one on the other side, too)


J being sweet to Sarah.


Hello there!


Balancing two is a little tricky, LOL!


Friends brought us dinner on Sunday night - they also brought J a Mr. Potato Head as a gift. He loves the lips - silly!


Grandma G came for a visit on Monday.


Shawn was outside using the grill on Monday evening so, while Sarah slept, J and I hung out with him outside. J started bringing me flowers and then JUMPED at the suggestion that he pick some for Sarah.
He ran back and forth as many times as I let him.



See her flowers?


How about now? What a sweetie.


We had baby back ribs for dinner - sooo good. J wasn't sure what to do at first! I laughed so hard when he started saying "Dada?" into his 'phone.'


There we go - that's how you eat a rib!


MEAT!! GRRRRR!


This morning was Sarah's follow up visit with the doctor. She isn't a huge fan of the carseat.


The dr's appt went great - she weighs 7lbs 8.5oz, from 8lbs 1oz at birth. It's about 6% of her body weight. The doctor thinks she's probably stopped losing weight and is now gaining it back considering how often she eats. She hated being in her diaper and checked out - poor thing! But now she's sleeping happily. Kim watched J while we were there so that was a huge help.

Sarah's name - a few people have asked how we picked her name. Sarah's always been one of my favorite names for a girl - it's just pretty and, being Biblical like Jeremiah, would 'go' along with his name. Shawn also didn't veto it, which was a great thing! Theresa was my Busia's middle name, also. She was my father's mom, and we were very close. I still miss her dearly and wanted to pass part of her name down to our daughter. The final thing that sealed the deal, so to speak, is that her initials are the same as Shawn's - STR. So I think he really liked that she'd have that in common with him - at least until she gets married and changes her name. (Which Shawn says is never happening!)

Sarah's story!

When I posted my last blog, I really was up because of my hands. But also because I was having contractions. They were 4 minutes apart but not painful and very short - like 30 seconds. By 530am they got more intense, so I called my mom and told her to head over. We didn't head to the hospital til 9am (arrived around 930am) because they just weren't that bad - but I was worried about a fast labor since J came so quickly!

We took lots of pics before we left.






Once we arrived at the hospital, things did not progress like I expected. It was much, much slower. Shawn and I guessed on time of birth, weight and length. Shawn guessed she'd be born at 3pm, weigh 7lbs 8oz and be 20 3/4" long. I guessed she'd be born at 330pm, weigh 6lbs 13oz and be 20" long. Well, we were quite wrong on the time. At 330pm I was 'barely' dilated to 4cm to my doctor broke my water. An hour later I got an epidural, but was only at 5 (the contractions felt much worse though!) Around 530pm, Sarah's heart rate started dropping with contractions. The nurse looked very concerned and put me on oxygen. I got scared - what mom wouldn't? But very soon after that, it was time to push! She came out very easily - like 2 pushes. The cord was wrapped around her neck so I guess that's what caused her heartrate to slow down. Once she was out, she was great. Screaming her perfect head off! She arrived at 610pm. We were both quite off on the times!

After the epidural - happy times!


I was sobbing when they gave her to me - she was gorgeous!


Warming up in my gown! So cute.


She's EIGHT pounds (and an ounce!) How is that possible??


Very proud daddy with his gorgeous daughter.


Look at her thighs! They are very muscular. All that kicking, I guess!


After a 4am feeding. She, unlike her big bro, is a great nurser! Yay!


She's a doll, right?


Breakfast was disappointing - I'm like "This is what you give a woman who is nursing and gave birth 12 hours ago?!?" I was seriously still starving afterwards. (FYI, lunch and dinner did make up for the measley breakfast)


J meets his sister for the first time. He definitely likes kissing her!


Daddy and his babies.


Shawn's trying to get J to look at Sarah's feet instead of trashing the hospital room. J was only interested for about .1 seconds.


Awwwwwwww.........


Grandma G came to visit!


So did Grandpa G!


Finally, it was time to leave! We don't like being at the hospital for long, either, Sarah. Cute outfit though!


That's better. Sweet Pea...


We left around 8pm Saturday night - so we were at the hospital almost 36 hours. Not bad. We'll see how our first night home with Sarah goes - our first night with J was a nightmare - hopefully we're better equipped this time!

Sarah Theresa

Chubby chubby

Mom, j, and Sarah

Getting washed up

Another pic

Plans and specs

Baby update #5

Getting close baby is almost ready to make her appearance. Next update should be the big one!

Baby update #4

Epidural finally in. Rachel is back to her cheerful self. She wants a coke and a sandwich.

Baby update # 3

Doctor just broke her water. Time for some drugs.

Baby update #2

Just made it to labor & delivery room. Hurry up and wait time. So far so good...and at this point Rachel is still talking to me ;)

Baby time

We're at the hospital. Time to meet sweet pea.

So it's Sweet Pea's due date...

and here I sit, updating the blog at 4am. I wish I was up due to contractions - I updated the blog on J's due date in the middle of the night because of them - but not so today. I couldn't sleep due to my numb hands, so I got up.

Here's the deal - I had an ultrasound yesterday to check SP's fluid levels. They are good, she's looking great and we got to see her very pudgy little face! Aww. If I don't go into labor this weekend, I have a non-stress test and another fluid check at the hospital Monday morning. Then a doctors appointment Tuesday morning to discuss induction. If she's okay in there, I want to wait til 41 weeks for induction - hopefully not longer than that. I would prefer to avoid induction if at all possible, even though I am extremely uncomfortable! My mom would love if she arrived on 3/31 - which just happens to be my mom's birthday, too. We shall see - she of course could still arrive today!


Shawn and I have been trying to enjoy the last few days of our family of three as much as possible. Jeremiah, now 21 months, is becoming such a little person. It's amazing to think that less than 2 years ago he was a helpless newborn - now he's anything BUT helpless. He does everything he can on his own and wants to be left to figure things out by himself. Even if you show him how to do something, he'd rather do it his way. (That's not typical toddler behavior, is it? Ha ha) He has also started using the potty - not regularly though. That's more my fault - I'm waaay too lazy at this point to be running to the bathroom with him every 15 minutes. I will commit once SP arrives and is not nursing every 2 hours. I think he's going to make a great big brother, once he gets over the jealousy of having to share the spotlight with another little one. He loves being the center of attention! I don't know where he gets that from.

Keep an eye on the blog! Updates will be here if and when she ever decides to make an appearance!

Less than a week!

Or at least I hope so! Things are going good on the baby front. I am feeling good - a bit tired, my tummy feels stretched to it's limit, but other than that, alright. I am having trouble sleeping due to major numbness in my hands - which doesn't affect me during the day too much, thankfully. But when I lay down my hands feel 'asleep' in minutes and they take forever to 'wake.' It's annoying!

You definitely want to keep an eye on the blog though - Shawn has set up his phone so we can post a pic of Sweet Pea shortly after she arrives. He was able to post a pic of J 12 minutes after he was born - we're going to see if he's able to 'beat' that record. :-) And, if you have facebook, you'll know even faster - I plan on updating when we head to the hospital and after she's born. But I won't be able to post a pic there, I have no idea how to do that. (Yes, I'm like 75 years old apparently)

Yesterday Shawn came home from work early to surprise us - but we weren't there! We ran to the store to pick up some last minute stuff for dinner. When we got home, though, it was so nice to have Daddy there and he even brought roses! Aww..


J has become very helpful lately - he helps me put on my shoes. It's really sweet.


And of course once I took the picture of him helping me with my shoes, I had to take a picture of him so he could see it. Cutie!


And here's my 39 week pregnant self.

The nursery...

Today (well technically yesterday as it's 330am Monday morning), Kim came over and helped me decorate Sweet Pea's room. It turned out really cute! There is another wall that has 2 shadowboxes plus a name plaque (currently blank) but I didn't take a pic since it was a bit incomplete.

Before:



After:

We (okay, Kim, I just barked orders) moved the cactus print and hung some art done by another friend, Brittany over the changing table.


Then the stickers! They technically aren't stickers because I don't know how you'd get them off the wall, but they sure were easy to put on. (I did help here)


Shot so you can see the crib better.


Kinda feel a little bad for SP - her room is clearly much smaller than J's and has less storage for clothes (he has a huge 6 drawer dresser, she only has the changing table plus a small 3 drawer dresser.) I just keep telling myself she won't really care til she's older - right?

11 days to go... :-)

Edited to add a couple more pics - here's the wall opposite the crib:


Shadowbox 1


Shadowbox 2 - I tried using stuff from the shower, cards, ribbon from the diaper cake, etc in both of them, just as a way to keep things as I'm in such a throwaway mood lately.


Oh and PS - I <3 child labor! (<3 = a heart)