Recent 'Going-ons'

I thought I'd write a little update on how the past 3 weeks have been going. I'd forgotten how sleep-deprived you get with a newborn! ...and how you learn to function when you're waking up every 3-4 hours in the night. Lily is a great helper. She just wants to love on her sister, but she's still learning how to be soft - like not to cover her face up with a blanket... And Lily can act up a lot and get into things she knows she's not supposed to - especially when I can't do anything about it at the time! But she's learning and getting better. Hannah is a really good baby. She rarely cries for no reason, she eats well (and very quickly - more on that later), she's learning how to put herself to sleep, and she sleeps at night! Of course, she wakes up to eat at night, but she goes right back to sleep. Not everything is always perfect - we definitely have our bad nights, but in general, things are good!

Christian, Jonny's brother, and his family came to visit this past weekend from New Mexico. They have 3 kids - the youngest is just 15 months older than Lily. We all had a great time hanging out, and Lily loved playing with the kids. I took a few action shots of Jonny, Bella & Victoria jumping onto the love sac:

Bella


Victoria


Doesn't it look like Lily is levitating?!


Jonny being silly...


Lily dancing to Guitar Hero. She puts her hands in the air and shakes her bootie. It's really cute!


Lily and Christian kissing



Hannah also had her 2 weeks appointment on Monday. I was really worried about her gaining weight because she would only eat for 5-10 minutes. The doctor said that at the 2 week appointment they look for them to gain back to their birth weight. Hannah was discharged from the hospital at 6 lbs 15 oz, so she should've gained back to at least 7 lbs 4 oz. Well, she weighed 8 lbs 2 oz! And she had already grown an inch! Her weight, height and head circumference were all around the 50th %ile. So she's just an average-sized baby! The doctor said not to worry about her eating - obviously she's just efficient, as she's gaining the weight that she needs to!



Hannah smiles a LOT in her sleep!!

Introducing...

Hannah Rose! She arrived on Sunday morning at 8:00am. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19.5 in long. No one can agree on who she looks more like, so you'll have to decide that for yourself. She has the same nose as Lily (which may be a mix of Jonny's and mine), I think she has Jonny's eyes, Jonny's bootie (Lily has mine), and we can't figure out who she inherited her fingers and toes from. They are so long and skinny! And her fingernails are so girly! Here are a few pictures:











(You can see some more pictures if you click on the Flickr photos on the left.) So far, she's been great! She sleeps a lot, as most newborns do...she actually sleeps so much that it has been very difficult to wake her up to eat. But she's getting better. She's also had her days and nights mixed up, but last night was pretty good! Hopefully it will just get better!

I am so glad that things were able to go as I had planned and hoped! I had been really nervous for labor & delivery again, since Lily's was so long and...unpleasant, to say the least. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do it unmedicated again. So here's a little how it went: I woke up on Sunday around 2:45am with contractions, and at 4:45 I decided that they were strong enough to wake Jonny up. We called the midwife - who was Abby that morning, and she said that we could labor at home as long as we wanted and just to come in to the hospital (she was already there). So Andrew & Brittney were here by 5:15. We talked with them for about almost and hour when I decided it was time to go to the hospital. We got there, and in triage the nurse told me I was a 6 almost 7! We hurried over to the L&D room in between contractions (which were quite strong at this point). Abby showed up shortly after and told me there was a CNM student who she had working with her. So Honey came in and basically took over. But she was amazing! She's been a homebirth midwife for 10 years so she has had a lot of experience. Anyway, that was around 6:30, and at around 7:45 they said I could start pushing! And at 8:00am, Hannah was born! They brought her up on my chest (in all her gooeyness), and Jonny cut the cord a couple minutes later. It was short and a LOT more manageable than I had ever hoped! Everything went perfectly. Our stay in the hospital was only a little more than 24 hours - we were quite anxious to get home.

I am recovering so well...at least compared to my recovery with Lily. I can get up and down by myself, carry Hannah around, pick Lily up, pretty much do everything on my own. It's wonderful! Thanks for all of your prayers when things weren't looking good, and all of your congratulations. We love you all!