Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving

Sitting here with a squishy baby in my lap proves that I don't have to look far for something to be thankful for. In fact, I am completely engulfed by people to be thankful for. And on Thanksgiving this year we got to see most of them!!

The Cisneros family stopped by in the morning. Brian and Everett had not had a chance to meet Sadie yet.  Everett was not super interested, but Brian was adequately smitten.
Climbing on Daddy/John was more fun.
Then Julie taught Everett to play Candyland.  It was pretty awesome.  I think Andy was disagreeing with her interpretation of the rules.
After our friends left and we had a nice nap, it was off to Justin and Audrey's house for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was so awesome of them to host this year. Everything was delicious and the company was wonderful.

Aunt Arlene has been sick, so she and Uncle Hal had not met Sadie yet.  Uncle Hal got snuggles from Julie while Arlene held Sadie.
Julie and cousin Lauren got a little silly.
Such a beautiful family!!
Yup, we are pretty lucky.
This Memere has got her hands full!
 
4 cousins. Its hard to get any of them to be still.
Me and my beautiful niece.  She was wearing the dress that Julie wore on her first Thanksgiving. I kind of doubt it will fit Sadie next year, but we may have to try.
After we were completely stuffed we headed off to Grandma Hazel's for dessert. (ok, our second round of dessert since I couldn't pass up my mom's amazing pecan pie)

Uncle Ted was another that hadn't met Sadie, so he got some good time in with her.
Julie and Andy worked on some snowman crafts that we had brought.  The had lots of fun with Grandpa Mel helping them.
Aunt Sharron and Grandpa invaded Ted, but he didn't mind sharing.
Yes, so much to be thankful for.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Feast

The kids have been super excited about their Thanksgiving celebration at their school. They call it "The Feast". They were excited for us to come eat with them, to show off their sister and teach us their new songs.

Andy especially loves singing in class. Or out of class. Or anytime he gets the chance.
He painted a funny owl hat.
And of course he ate all his lunch.
Since we split up and John had the camera, we didn't get any shots of Julie singing, just of her eating with her featherless turkey hat.  ha!
And yes, Sadie came too! The kids were excited to show her off. She slept most of the time, but that didn't keep Julie and Andy from dragging all their friends over to see her. 

This evening, however, she was wide awake and taking it all in.
She even got read to by her favorite big sister.  I think this will be one of my favorite pictures for many years to come.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Sadie Josephine Hunter

Sadie was born at 7:51pm on November 17th, 2011. She is the most mellow, content, quiet little girl!!

On Wednesday, November 16th, we headed into the hospital to get labor going. The doctor knew she was a big girl and my blood pressure was a little unstable. So we went in and they started me on some medicine to help things along. Both John and I got some sleep that night and contractions started getting really regular about 8 am. I labored along until about 2 pm when the doctor came back and broke my water. The epidural was a necessity pretty soon after that.

Once the epidural was in, I felt fabulous, and pretty much went straight to sleep.

At about 6:45, Christina, Brian and Everett stopped by to say hello. I was feeling great and enjoying their visit.  Then I started to feel a little pain. And a little more. And then a lot more.

By 7:15, I kicked out our visitors and started making John rub my back and get the nurse.  I had been checked just an hour before and was only at 5, so I had no idea what was going on.  I told the nurse she needed to check me again. She obliged even though I don't think she believed it was necessary.  But it was! I was complete and she ran out to call the doctor who was about 20 minutes away.

I hung on for the 20 minutes, and just as I started questioning if the doctor was ever going to get there, he showed up.  He got all set up and I pushed 1.4 times (Dr's words, not mine) and Sadie Josephine was here!

She came out screaming with a full head of dark hair.

And she has been calm and peaceful ever since.


We enjoyed her for a few minutes then called the kids to tell them they had a new sister. John put them on speaker and they were overjoyed to hear the news.  The second Sadie heard Julie and Andy's voice, she twisted and turned to try to find them.  Her eyes weren't open, but she knew those voices and she was going to find them!  Julie's first response was, "Daddy, tell Mommy and Sadie that I love her!"  The whole room melted.

She got all cleaned up, and so did I.  The nurse took her and weighed her. She was a whopping 8lbs 14ozs. When they first put her on my chest, I was guessing 7 1/2lbs. She seemed so small! I was wrong!!  They said she was 20 inches long, but the next morning the pediatrician said she was more like 21-21.5 inches. 

Luckily, since she was born so fast, Christina hadn't left the area.  She was Sadie's first visitor.  Followed closely by Uncle Justin.  We were still in shock and baby bliss land at this point, so there were no pictures.

But by the time Grandpa Mel and Grandma CC were there, the camera was clicking.
And Grammy and Pop-pop stopped in.
First thing the next morning, after a lovely night sleep (seriously, I had to wake her up to feed her!) my mom came in to meet her. I was still half asleep and John had gone to take over with the kids, so I got no pictures. This was also the time that the pediatrician came in to give her the once over. He almost instantly gave her the OK to go home.

These pictures aren't all in order. But this was the next morning when the kids came to meet her.  They fell in love and were so proud to be big kids at the hospital taking care of their baby sissy.  Julie was amazed that my tummy was not "super big" any more!

They loved everything about her.
Especially holding her.
And being the BIG brother.
And giving her kisses.  Andy keeps saying, over and over, "Sadie, you are so beautiful."  or "Mommy, Sadie is beautiful!"
Aunt Sharon and Auntie Audrey came a little later in the afternoon and got some snuggles.
And we got a shot of Christina when she came back.
Then it was time to get dressed and start getting ready to go home!! Hooray!

Uncle Justin stopped by to see us off.

Once we arrived home, there were a few people excited to see us. We could barely walk in the door before Julie was on the couch ready to hold Sadie.
And Julie was very excited that Sadie was hungry.


Then it was Andy's turn.
Even when she was passed off to Memere, he couldn't keep his hands off of her.
But we finally got a great Memere shot!

Sadie did great her first night home.  She let us sleep and actually woke up and cried when she was hungry for the first time! She had never let us know she was hungry, so that exciting, even if it was at 2 am.

When Julie woke up she went right over to Sadie's dresser and picked out her outfit for the day. Complete with onsie, pants, sweatshirt, hat and socks.
When everyone was dressed the kids had some cartoon time while Memere made us pancakes.

We are so happy Sadie is here. Everyone loves her so much and she has been an Angel so far.   The kids have been loving helpers, we could not ask for a sweeter little family.


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sadie's Quilt

I just finished a quilt for the new babe!

It is all washed, dried and ready for use.

I love how soft and snuggly it turned out.

Can't wait to watch my little girl drool all over it.