Disney - Part 3

Lucy and Nanny outside of the Hundred Acre Wood ride.
Annabelle with Daddy (she adores her daddy! - I can get her to smile at me while I'm smiling - but she'll just look at Daddy across the table and just smile and smile!)

Lucy and Daddy ready to ride Dumbo

Our resort at night

Cinderella's castle at night

All in all - we had a great time. Not relaxing, but it was a good trip. I was so thankful that Mom was there with us - Lucy loves her and it was fun for her to spend time with Nanny in their own room. We'll definitely go back but not for a few years! Lucy really liked the parks, but she was more interested in fountains, meeting characters, and feeding the birds. After about an hour at the park she asked if "we could go back to the hotel to swim." Very thankful for a good trip - it certainly is a magical place.

Disney Part 2

Our lovely room attendant, Nilda, took great care of us and even left us some cute animals (pictured here with Miss Annie). Lucy stayed with Nanny and loved it - they were next door to us. They had some swan towels every day and she also left some towels in Mickey's shape on the beds.
Our second day in Magic Kingdom, Lucy had an appointment at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique to get her hair, nails and makeup done for her birthday present. Here she is picking out her hair accessories with her Fairy Godmother-in-training.

Getting some finishing touches on her hair.

All is done! After this her Fairy Godmother-in-training put on a birthday sash and spun her around to look at herself in the big mirror. Her reaction?......she burst into tears and cried, "I don't like it!" Oh boy....I felt bad for her Fairy Godmother - but Lucy recovered - a photographer stopped her outside and took some shots of her next to Cinderella's fountain.

And what do you do when you get all princess-y? You meet Cinderella in her castle, of course, and have lunch with the princesses!

The castle was beautiful!

Lucy met all the princesses. Here she is with her favorite, Ariel.

Mommy and Daddy's favorite, Belle, came over and gave our Annabelle a kiss on the forehead.

Disney Part 1

Here are some starter pictures of our trip to Disney! We had a really good time - but truth be told - it was rough with a newborn! We planned this trip before Annabelle was born so it all looked "easy" then. But we were glad that we were able to take Lucy for her birthday and spend some good family time together. Our resort was amazing - we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. We we go again (in about 4 years!) I'd love to stay there again. The food court was ok - but the rooms, pool, and the resort grounds were just amazing. We had such a pretty view from our room (which we never got a picture of). The picture above is of Lucy in front of one of the Christmas trees in the resort lobby.
She was so excited to meet Daisey - and kept telling all the characters that "she missed them so much!"

Our newest cutie giving Daddy some lovin'.

Having a good day in Epcot - dressed as Snow White.

Stopping to pose with Nanny!

Annabelle rode around in style and this was the only way she would sleep. We couldn't get her to sleep in the carseat in the stroller. So I got to carry around 13 lbs. of baby for 6 whole days.

Our little family pic with Mickey and Minnie

Our first day we ate at the Crystal Palace and met Pooh Bear and his friends. The food was so amazing with such a variety. Definitely worth it to eat there.

Big Girl!

Happy 4 Months!

Miss Annie is growing! At her 4 month appointment she weighed in @ 13.7 lbs and is in the 80th %tile for length! Girlie is going to be tall! I was wondering why all her 3 month clothes were so loose around the top, but noticed that she was busting out of the bottom.

She is doing well and growing. She is much different from her sister. At this age Lucy was pushing up on her arms and playing with all her toys on the exersaucer. Annabelle absolutely hates tummy time (she face plants and even though we put her arms under her, she won't use them) and when we put her in the exersaucer she slumps over to one site and will either start to scream or begin to suck on the fabric. So we have to work on her upper body strength - and sadly that means we have to endure her screaming through all these activities. She's the happiest baby on her back. She giggles, coos and babbles - but since our ped said she is getting a flat spot on the back of her head - we need to get her off her back, other than sleeping.

She tried her first cereal today (barley, yum!). She didn't like it so much and was gagging a bit - because her silly Mommy didn't mix it properly and made it too thick. No wonder the poor thing was gagging. Tomorrow we'll be sure to give her the right consistency.

Annie is quite the fireball. She definitely has a temper to match her crazy hair. We love her to pieces, but wow does that crying and fussing get to us! We are definitely praying that she outgrows it and soon! Still trying to get her to learn to nap - we'll get there! (please say we'll get there!) and she is still waking up in the night for us. She was doing great for a while and getting up only once, but now she is getting up twice and then starting her day way too early for our liking. She is so exhausted from not napping, that she tries to turn her late nap @ 5:00 pm into her bedtime. We hate doing it - but we wake her up around 6-6:30 just so we can get her cleaned up and get another feeding in for the day.

We love this little girl! She's throwing us for a loop and she is one tough cookie - but we treasure her!

Happy Birthday, Lucy Mae!

So what are you going to do for your birthday?!
I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!

So Thankful!

Lots of fun stuff going on this Thanksgiving. This year the whole family came to my sister's house to enjoy the holiday. We had such a great time! I played Wii for the first time - and realized my sister is a better dancer than I am! She had more points than I did during our dance off. Good exercise though!





The girls put on a fashion show for us.

Lucy absolutely loved having Uncle Eric there.

Dean and Matt relaxing!

Lucy playing with Pappy while wearing her new Snow White nightgown

It's true - I'm a Twilight fan! One year ago - my wonderful friend Megan got me hooked. I made fun of people like me. Loved the books, then couldn't wait to watch the movies. I even conned Matthew into watching 2 of them with me. The most fun is when I got another friend into the books - and she ended up reading them in a matter of days. Then we watched the movies together so I could catch her up before Breaking Dawn came out. After that, we found out another of our friends had read the books and seen the movies. THEN - we got some more gals to jump on the wagon.

And then......you have a fun movie night with the girls - with dessert/discussion afterwards. So fun!

What a fun weekend we had! My sister, brother-in-law and niece came down from Michigan for a visit - and to finally meet Miss Annabelle. It was so nice to have visitors and to do some fun things while they were here.

On Saturday my sister and I took Lucy and Tallie to Disney on Ice. The girls had a great time! Pictures (hopefully) to come later - I'm a little slow at most things now since I don't have much time to do anything! I'm in pjs most days. If you want to see some pics of their visit, visit my sister's blog @ www.godsblessingstous.blogspot.com . She's more on it than I am.


So one rough thing that happened this weekend was Lucy woke up Saturday night around 10:30 with croup again. :( She also developed stridor as well. Our ped called in some steriods for her - Matt bundled her up and kept her on the porch to breathe in the cold air until we got her the meds. Poor thing - she is so congested now - coughing and so stuffed up with watering eyes. But thankfully the steroids are working and she can breathe better. Now we are working extra hard to keep her away from Annie so that she doesn't get sick. Prayers are always appreciated!


Great news though - and we're hoping it keeps happening! - Annabelle slept from 8pm-6am last night and went back to sleep until 7:30 am. So nice! She woke up so happy and sweetly smiling. She is such a sweet baby and will coo and "talk" to you. But she gets super tired easily. Trying to figure out this little one. She can be sweetly smiling at us, we'll pick her up, and her razor-like fingernails will run wild and she'll be scratching at us. Thus, the overtired state. And wow, does she get mad!

What's Been Going On Here!

We're tired! Seriously exhausted! Ok - we cannot complain a HEAP about Annie's sleeping. Most nights she is going to bed around 7:00-7:30 pm and waking around 2 or 4 am to eat. Then waking again around 6 or 7:00 am. (we prefer 7:00 - Matthew and I are NOT early risers at all - somehow our kids feel it's fun to wake us up super early). She sleeps great at night, and if I'm smart, I go to bed around 9ish and then I'll feel somewhat ok the next day.

What's not been great is daytime sleep. Lucy gave up the nap a few days after we brought Annabelle home from the hospital. She'd nap here and there, but finally just stopped. So we do make sure she has a "rest time" each day. She'll either rest/play in her bedroom or the basement. That gives me some time....well...not exactly. Annabelle naps about 10 min. at a time. I can get her so quiet and I'll put her down and she'll wake up about 10 min. later. I know this time is just crazy - usually they start to slightly get it together around 3 months. But right now I'd give anything for a good nap from her. I miss having some alone time with Lucy. But I know at some point Annabelle will start to nap well (at least praying she will!) and we'll get some time to just do some fun stuff.

so naps - when Annie does nap her fav place is the bouncy seat or the swing. That's the best I can do. And now we have to make sure she's in the kitchen most days with the fan over the stove on. White noise - I don't care what anyone says to me about "getting them used to the sounds of the house." What that means at this point is - I finally get Annie to sleep, lay her down, then in comes Lucy slamming a cabinet door or something. The Annie jumps and starts to cry and then it takes me 10 more min. to calm her down. When you spend so much time trying to get your fussy, overtired 2 month old to sleep - the last thing you need is for them to learn to sleep with a ton of noise around waking them up. So, when "sleep training" begins in this house at the lovely age of 3-4 months - we will be using a nice, quiet, darkened room with white noise. It worked perfectly for Lucy and she became an amazing sleeper. We'll go with it this round also. Naps in the car or naps of 15-30 min. don't cut it over here, esp. if we can be home to make sure naps are taken. NOT that this should work for everyone's family or lifestyle.....this is what works for us. Matt and I have always loved that Lucy napped so well and we never felt we (or she) was missing out on anything. What we got in exchange was a sweet, well-rested little girl.

Annie and Lucy are cute together. i can't wait to see how their relationship will blossom. I know they'll be some crazy stuff that happens - as it did with my sister! :) But I'm praying they will be the best of friends. My sister and I drive one another nuts - but we love each other deeply.

So for now - we're surviving! One day I'll realize that this man I share the house with is my husband and we'll chat once again about things NOT related to babies/kids. Right now our conversations go: "How long did she nap?" "What time did she wake up?" "When did she poop last?" "Did you change her diaper?" "Can you cut that hot dog for Lucy?" "Lucy needs to potty before we leave!"

Ah! The joys of parenting!!

First Preschool Field Trip

I'm 2 months old!!!!

This is my silly face!

Apparently, Annabelle doesn't like kisses as much as Lucy does.

This is a rarity these days! Most days she is taking 10 min. naps, then is so tired she is scratching my neck and chest while screaming. Her witching hour began last week right at that lovely 6 wk. mark. Anywhere between 5-6 pm Matt and I just watch and wait. She's got some lungs! That stage will pass......ug.....in about 8 more wks. maybe??? But for now, this pic shows her peaceful side. She's pretty adorable, huh?

Sleepover Party

Since we've had some limited mommy/daughter time, I thought it was a good idea to have a sleepover party in the basement. We got out the blowup bed by request (even though we have a perfectly good futon, popped some popcorn and put in a movie. Veggie Tales Christmas video - St. Nicholas. Another of Lucy's requests. We had some fun girl time! And since we were sleeping together, I got to go bed @ 8 pm! (bonus!)

Ringing Endorsement

Having a little one with a stuffy nose is not fun for anyone. No matter what we do - those bulb syringes do nothing for a baby's nose. When Lucy was little - I bought a BeBe Sounds nasal aspirator. This was supposed to successfully clear out her nose - but did not. And it made this crazy noise that sounds like you are pumping up your car tires, while playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Freaked her out!

Since Annabelle has her first cold - a friend told me about NoseFrida (aka the Snot Sucker). Sounds gross - but it's an amazing product! You do actually use your own mouth (via a tube) to suck out the snot from their nose. It works wonders!

First Smiles

Annabelle is now 10 lbs. and 22 in. long and smiling and cooing every day! Here's a few cutie pics of her - her little eyes are red/glassy since she has her first cold. You have to just love the crazy hair!

First Day of Preschool!

Being Silly!

She headed straight for the art area - of course! :)

After I picked her up today - her teacher said it's like she's been there her whole life. She's so comfortable - she ran up to me today and gave me very big hugs!

Sleepy Girl

Annabelle's favorite sleeping position!

Sisters!

Growing Up!

The other night Matthew put Lucy to bed just as he always does. I was feeding Annie and getting her settled. I heard Lucy calling, "Mommy!" in her sing-song voice. I gave Annie over to Matt and headed up to see what our girlie wanted. She said she just wanted to tell me something and whispered something in my ear - then kissed my cheek. I gave her some big kisses and a hug. Then she asked if I would sleep with her. This is something we gave up a few months ago in order to show her that she is a big girl. But I really wanted to! So I layed down with her for a few songs (she listens to music at bedtime). While I layed down with her - we chatted a little bit. Things got quiet - then she reached over and grabbed my hand. That's when the tears began to flow. As we layed there together and she held my hand, I just layed there and sobbed! I thought about her as small as Annabelle and just not believing that she was almost 4 years old. I wanted to lay there all night.

This past Sunday was her preschool open house. I'm just not ready! Lucy, however, is very ready. My neighbor - who really encouraged me to go to this preschool - was there and just telling me to look at her - how she was becoming so independent and how she was pulling on our arms to go see her classroom. I told my neighbor that I know that when she goes this week I will be a complete mess and end up crying/sobbing the whole time she's gone. She said, "That's ok - I did too!" I was shocked - Megan seems to be so put together - I never thought she'd be a mess the day her kids went to preschool - yet she assured me she cried with all 4 of them. Now I don't feel so silly.

Although I am not ready - I know Lucy is. The last few weeks she has shocked us with her reading capabilities. We were driving and she was reading words off of billboards. Then last week she was looking at her milk carton and said, "Mommy, that says 'good food for all.'" I looked at Matt and said, "Did you tell her that's what it said?" to which he said no! Today we were sitting in my dr's office and she wanted to read a book with me. As we were reading, she kept getting excited and saying, "I know that word! Oh - I know that one too!" crazy words that I never thought she would know - sweet, happy, jump! We ended up not reading the book but just picking out words that she knew. As a former teacher - it's exciting to me that she's so excited that she knows certain words.

This week is going to be a rough one for me. Prayers appreciated!! I know she has to grow up - but I know she'll always be my little girl. I'd love to keep her that way - but as Matt has said - we need to just look at her life and be joyful and excited to see how she will grow and watch as she experiences all these new things.

Here We Go!!

As she gets older and older, Lucy become more and more fun. It's so much fun to see how her likes and tastes are molding who she is. She absolutely LOVES art and music. She's not really a gal that plays with toys, other than puzzles (we have a whole basement full of toys and we can hardly ever get her to play with any of them!). She's also into "performing" for people. She loves to dance around and dress up. Every day she is in one of her dress up outfits or in a tutu (she says she can't dance w/o them). The above video is one of her favorites. She loves the Fresh Beat Band and when this comes on - she always says, "Hey! What's goin' on here?!" (I have no idea why!?) :) But then gets up and starts dancing - all the while telling me how she LOVES the new Marina character. If she doesn't have her dress up clothes on - or something that resembles a 'gown, ' then she just can't dance to it. She is starting to become more and more interested in what Cousin Tallie likes - including music. It's so much fun watching her grow up. I'm really hoping that at some point, Nick Jr. brings the Fresh Beat Band to Cinci so we can get to a concert - because Matt and I LOVE this song and end up dancing with Lucy most days also!

Annabelle Kate's Birth Story

We've been quite busy ! So that's our excuse for not getting on here to update! But I'm finally ready to share Annabelle's birth story!

Last Monday, Lucy and I went to Target for new jammies - she is getting to be so big and just doesn't fit in her 3T jammies anymore. Thanks to Aunt Pat, we finally had ONE pair that actually fit her well. But definitely needed more. We picked out a few fun things in the dollar section also! :) Thankfully, Lucy took a great nap that day. I layed down as well - and I felt crampy - but nothing unusual. I just took Tylenol and tried to sleep. By the time she woke up, I felt ok. I started to make dinner @ 5:00. While I was standing at the stove, I felt a 'pop!' and got a little wet. I ran to the bathroom thinking I had wet myself - but with each movement I'd leak a little more. I came back upstairs as my phone was ringing. Matt was calling to see if I wanted him to pick something up and I told him I think I needed him at home.

I called Nathalie, and she missed her gym time and headed for our house. I was not feeling any pain at all and actually felt pretty good! I sat Lucy down on my lap and explained again to her what we've been telling her for weeks - that when Mommy had to go to the hospital that Miss Nathalie was going to come to watch her. and.....she wasn't listening.....she kept looking past me to watch Wonder Pets. So....we knew she'd be fine. (and she is! She is such a good big sister!)

We got to the hospital around 7:00. I still felt fine. I went into triage - and the nurses were so much fun. She checked me and I was a 5 - and she asked, "Can you feel that?" Pretty much all I felt was her digging at me! She told me I was having a major contraction. Again, no pain - they were all pretty astonished that I was doing so well. (as was I - since with Lucy it was awful!) I got to my L&d room and was still doing great. After about a 1/2 hour - I started to feel some pain kicking in and ordered my epi. Glorious! :) My OB and nurses were joking and laughing with me since I was so calm and just chatting with them as I ate my ice chips. I did start to feel some pain around my hip even with the epi and ordered another injection, and wow! Everything went completely numb - all the way up to my chest. NOT a fun feeling. I don't mind the numb feeling, but completely NO feeling is not good.

By 11:00, I had progressed to 9 cm. They said I'd be ready in an hour. I was so set to beat the clock to midnight. At 11:45, I was checked again and fully dilated. My nurse said we'd do some practice pushes - I did 2....she yelled to stop. They grabbed my OB and set up - started pushing again @ 11:55 and had Annabelle @ 12:02. 7....min....of pushing!!! Not prepared for that! With Lucy it was 3 hours! It was an awesome delivery. Recovery was so great also - I didn't move out of that bed for 2 days after I had Lucy. This time, I was up and about right away. Sadly, right after i had Annabelle, i couldn't hold her - I was shaking so bad from the epi. But she had some great bonding time with Daddy.

Annabelle is a pretty easy baby thus far! I'm sure we'll update more on that later. Right now, we want to enjoy our new little one!

ETA: Contrary to popular belief - we did not use the middle name Kate because of "Prince William and Kate." Yes, I've been asked this question! Annabelle's only living great-grandparent is my grandmother, Leona Catherine. We chose Catherine, but decided to shorten it to Kate.

Sneak Peek

Annabelle decided she wanted to come a little early! We'll share more later, when there is a little more "time!" But here are the stats:

Annabelle Kate was born on August 23rd, 2011 @ 12:02 am. She weighed in @ 7 lbs. 8 oz and 20 in. long. She was born @ 38 wks. gestation. Like Mommy, she likes to get the show on the road!! Lucy is a wonderful big sister, who loves to give lots of hugs and kisses, but heads for her bedroom or basement when the screaming begins. (she hates loud noises!) We are all doing GREAT!!! Birth story to come soon!

Prayers for Caleb

I met Kristi in 2007 on a website called Babycenter - from there I joined a group called Christian Mommies 2007. Since then, we've had an amazing group of women on there that truly love and support one another - and yes, we even meet up in real life! Kristi (or KK as we call her) is such an amazing mother and friend - always ready with advice (she's a nurse) or a witty comeback, and has been my prayer partner now for a few months. Right now - Kristi and her family - esp. baby Caleb - really need your prayers. I'm always surprised how this girl can always keep it together - but even the best can break down at times. There's so much info to share - but for now - if you can go to her son Caleb's Caring Bridge webpage, please read up on what's going on and how you can pray for them.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/calebelston

37.1 weeks

So I've had a bit of a change since last week - now 3 cm and 80% effaced. I'm guessing 30% more is good?? My OB told me that she did not think I would go over as I did with Lucy. (very promising to me) I'm feeling pretty awful! Since everything looks favorable, she gave us the option of scheduling an induction. So Matt and I have a lot to think about - and I'll talk more with my 'favorite' OB next week about it. I've had some friends share their induction stories and both had great experiences with it.


Physically - feeling pretty awful! Lots of nausea and headaches which is something I didn't experience with Lucy. I try to go to bed around 9:30 - but I tend to lay there for about 2 hours before I finally fall asleep. AND I definitely cannot sleep without using ear plugs anymore. Sadly, I'll have to give those up when Annabelle gets here! When I swear she cannot get any lower, I feel more and more pain and pressure in my lower pelvis, making it so hard to walk at all - esp trying to keep up with Lucy or even going up the stairs for the millionth time to use the bathroom. BLAH! All Matt and I pray for most days for me is getting through just ONE more day - just ONE more day.


Tonight we had Pre-Annie Girl's Night Out at the Melting Pot. Just what I needed - to be with some of my best friends (just needed Kathy there -boooo). I really should have paid for everyone - because these girls have been amazing and helping me out more than anything the last few months. Yummy food - but cannot wait to do more fun things like this and NOT be so uncomfortable!! (and to be able to partake in the drink deals!)


One more joyful PLUS of this week - Sandra is back from her summer in MI! Finally got to see her tonight at our girl's night. She's the one that holds it all together for me!! Rejoicing that she is back in the same state!!

36.2 Weeks

This pic is for my friend Kathy who's been asking for a belly shot! Here she is! I feel my belly looks a LOT bigger due to the fact that I'm not wearing a maternity shirt. I had 2 people look at me today and say, "Wow, you're ready to pop!" No - not yet.....but hopefully. I had a witty comeback that someone told me to use - but I didn't really want to look at this gentleman and say, "yeah? Looks like I'm not the only one!"

Thank heavens! the weather has gotten better. It's been so nice to be outside more - even if it's just sitting on the front porch. Matt and Lucy keep active in the front yard while I swing. Tonight our neighbor across the street brought over her 2 granddaughters. They are the sweetest girls - and the 3 of them ran around our front yard for 30 min. yelling "pixie dust!" and doing tumblesets in the grass. (I'd give my right arm to do a tumbleset right now!) I walk as much as I can - but due to the way Annie is laying (not sure what body part it is) I get an awful cramp in between my thigh and lower abdomen and crouch over in pain multiple times while I'm walking. I could barely get through Bigg's today - people look at me in a frightened way thinking I'm heading into labor right then and there.

Monday's appointment didn't show much change - and my OB didn't gladly lie to me and tell me how I'll most likely go early. I didn't need to hear that I was still 3 cm. but now 50% - but that didn't mean anything - I could go overdue also. BLAH! Sis is coming next week to help out - so I'm hoping I'll get some more walking in (without the doubling over in pain).

So anyway - this week we got a few things out of the way. We had been wanting to get Lucy a big sister gift - and something for her to have while Mommy and Daddy have to be away from her. So, we bought her a recordable book from Hallmark called "All the Ways I Love You." Very sweet - Matt and I got to recording that this past weekend and wrapped it up for later. Yesterday, her "gift" from Annabelle came in the mail. Lucy always wants to play with our camera - so we got her a kid's digital camera which is pretty neat (I played with it for about a 1/2 hour last night!). So when she comes to visit Annabelle in the hospital, she'll get a gift from her little sister and get to take pictures.

Lots of things to keep us busy the next few days - then sis and niece come for a few days. It'll be nice to have people around to keep Lucy busy and just to chat with during the day since most of my gals are heading back to school here next week! How is it that all my helpers this summer were teachers??! A blessing for sure - but sad that it all has to end! :)