A Family of Four!

After a few extra weeks of waiting, Haleigh Eileen Gillette finally decided to join us! She is such a precious little bundle of joy and I could sit and stare at her for hours on end. I know that at some point, I will want to look back and remember her birth story, so I will share it here. It won't take long...it was a quick process!

Thursday, March 6 I had an appointment with my OB...it was the same story: everything looks good, baby is healthy. You look good. We will continue to wait and see. Thursday night around 10:00 my hips started to hurt; over the next two hours the hip pain proceeded to get worse and went in that 'contraction-like' pain of coming on, increasing in intensity and then going away and happening every 2-4 minutes. Around midnight I woke my mom up and asked if contractions could happen in your hips. She didn't really know so I called my doctor and said something to the effect of "I don't know what this is, but it hurts, and I feel like I constantly have to go the bathroom." He said, "I think you should go to the hospital." So I woke Kyle up and we headed to the hospital. We arrived about 12:55; the admissions girl in the ER looked at us like we were crazy when we told here we were there to have a baby, but she found someone to escort us back to OB. I headed to the bathroom, my water broke, and then I climbed into bed. The nurse checked me and said we were at about 7 cm. At this point, the hip pain felt more like contractions, since I was now feeling it in my stomach as well. I asked for pain medicine and the nurse told me there wasn't time; "this baby is coming now" were her exact words. My response: "Like, before the doctor even gets here?" which was answered with a very convincing Yes. And with that, Haleigh came barreling into the world at 1:20 am. ("Barreling in" were the nurses words!) She weighed 7 lbs 10 ozs and is 21 1/2 inches long! They ever even had time to get an IV in or draw some labs!!

She was born with the cord around her neck, so they promptly cut that before she was out all the way; it was a bit scary (more so for Kyle who could see what was going on) because she was blue and not making any noise. But they gave her a little oxygen and she recovered quickly. And then the doctor arrived!! 

Kyle's parents arrived around 9 am and met up with my mom and Annaliese to meet the newest member of the family!

She has taken to nursing like a champ and is doing wonderfully! Annaliese likes to check on her and constantly wants to pet her and give kisses! I wouldn't say that we are anywhere near being adjusted to life as a family of four, but we are heading in that direction!

41 weeks...and still waiting

Given my family history of having babies early, my mom flew in on Feb. 19, just 3 days before Baby Girl #2's due date, fully expecting her to already be here! She was planning on coming to, of course, meet the newest grandbaby, but also to help out with Annaliese and the overall adjustment to having two little munchkins. Well, here we are, a week and a half later and we are still waiting for her arrival! (The doctor has reassured us that she is 'happy as a clam' and that we will just keep waiting until she decides she's ready!)

40 weeks

My mom has filled the time by nesting for me:) She declared last Monday a cleaning day and cleaned and did laundry all day...just so she could have the rest of the week to play with Annaliese! She's also been doing the dishes, staying up on the laundry, and keeping Annaliese entertained. It's been super helpful because I haven't been sleeping well, so I've been able to nap at least once a day! 

There has also been lots of baking going on. Auntie Kelsey gave Annaliese her own little mixer for Christmas and Annaliese loves stirring and mixing!! And Grandma, aka Baba, loves to bake...and we love to eat...so it's perfect!

 Apple Pie

 Sugar Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

And there were lots of other fun activities too!

 Blowing bubbles

 Watering the plants

 Playing with all the kitchen utensils and water...endless fun!

'Paper' Dolls...they are actually magnetic!!

 Reading stories\

Playing with pipe cleaners and making headbands and necklaces

  Annaliese and Baba watching the tractor plow the fields next door

Running around outside

We finally got some much-needed rain with left us with lots of mud puddles. Today, during a break in the rain, we headed outside to collect some eggs, take out the trash, and play a bit!

We've also spent time doing puzzles, watching Veggie-Tales, going shopping, and playing at the park. I'm sure we will have more pictures this week! 

New Tap Shoes!

Annaliese was recently given a pair of tap dancing shoes from a good friend of mine, Nancy. She loves dancing in general and frequently asks for Daddy to put on a song...and her dancing typically involves spinning around in circles! Wearing her tap shoes, though, makes dancing extra fun! She only gets to wear them occasionally, though, because the downstairs neighbors say they are quite loud!! 

My little Valentine!

Unfortunately, the day before Valentine's Day, Annaliese came down with another cold...the runny nose/sneezing/sound like you're coughing up a lung type of cough. She still acted pretty normal, but I didn't want to take her out anywhere fun since she hasn't quite mastered the 'cover-your-mouth-when-you-cough" thing. 

However, that didn't stop us from getting into the Valentine spirit! It was too bad that we didn't try on this outfit sooner though, because the shirt is definitely a onesie that snaps at her knees!! And the pants, well, those are quite a bit too big too! So we took a few pictures, in which Annaliese had her eyes closed in most of them, and then changed into our second option for the day. 

Outfit #2...a cute pink shirt with sequins on the bottom. And yes, it is warm enough to be outside in short sleeves and sandals!

Annaliese was very excited to find that there were two cards addressed to her in the mail. She had to carry them in from the mailbox and eagerly sat down to open them. 

I find her reading to be absolutely adorable! I could listen to her read a story for hours on end!!

When Kyle came home from work, he brought home balloons for us, which Annaliese loves!

These moments are far and few between for Kyle...Annaliese loves to play with him, but she will rarely sit and cuddle with him or let him just hold her for a minute. 

Fun with Friends!!

The last two weekends have been filled with get-togethers with friends...first to celebrate Holden (Jenn and Russ' little guy)'s birthday and the following weekend for the Superbowl. As far as Annaliese is concerned, since they were both with Holden, they were fantastic! She loves hanging out with him! Unfortunately, I didn't even get a picture of the two of them at his birthday!

 Having fun with bubbles!

 Leah babysits Annaliese and Holden on a regular basis...they love her and she is great with them!

Jenn's mom and dad were able to fly out from Wisconsin to help celebrate the occasion...Pop Pop was a big hit with the girls!!

In between the festivities, Annaliese and I were able to hang out at home...we had to give Auntie Kelsey a glimpse of what's too come with girls:)

Yep, that's right...Tigger has a bow, the cat has on shoes and socks, and the baby is fully dressed!

 And this is just a random picture that I thought was super cute...Kyle was stretching and Annaliese wanted to stretch too. She kept peeking at him to make sure he hadn't changed positions!

We also found time this week to go to the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero with Kate, Evan, and Eli. They live below us here in the barn. 

Annaliese, practicing how to stand on one leg like the flamingos!

 The tiger...they just fed him by placing food in various parts of the cage so we were able to watch him climb up and move all around the cage. Annaliese and Eli were fascinated with the tiger!

The meercats were also a big hit!

For the Superbowl, we headed back to Jenn and Russ' house to enjoy the game with good friends. There was lots of good food (naturally) and although we weren't that impressed with the game...Kyle started out cheering for the Broncos and by the end, was hoping that the Seahawks could score 50 points! 

 The ladies and the kids in the kitchen eating...and the guys watching the game:)

 Annaliese found Holden's new chair and was a big fan! It's just her size:)

Kyle playing with Holden and Annaliese