Thanksgiving

We had a blast visiting Sean's family for Thanksgiving. Though our trip started out with a crazy flight filled with lots of spitting up drama, the week turned out peaceful and fun.We went on walk/runs on the beach each morning. I only participated on Thanksgiving day, but it was so much fun. Rosalie especially loved searching for sea shells that Linda laid out for her to find.

Making a sand pile.

Ruth's first time at the beach, snuggling with Gammy, she was so little.

Rosalie, with Pops in the back ground.

Rosalie loves her sister, giving her kisses.

This is what Rosalie calls hugs, she snuggles her cheek up next to Ruth's.

Enjoying the sunset on the beach one evening. Isn't it beautiful?

Picking up rocks.

Our ghetto girl in her diaper.

Ruth enjoyed the sunset as well.

At the animal farm, feeding the bunny...

holding the guinea pigs...

and riding the horses.

Ruth enjoyed snuggling at the animal farm.

Riding the train,

Sean loved it,

and so did Rosalie.

She also loved playing in the corn box.

Rosalie had so much fun playing with her cousin Ellie, here they are enjoying a cousin breakfast. They played so well together the whole week, we hardly saw her while we were there.

Lounging by the pool in the back yard. Rosalie wanted to swim, but it was not quite warm enough.

It was a really great week to get to see family and relax. We had fun, and it was great for Rosalie to get to know her cousins Alice and Ellie. There are so many stories from that week, but I figured I would just post the fun pictures.

Ruth's first 2 weeks and a few other firsts

For her first week at home we started out wating for the pediatrician to clear us so we could leave the hospital, we were finally able to leave around 2pm. Then we took Ruth on her first car ride to Costco, where she went shopping for a few essentials for the first time. Then we went home for a relaxing weekend with just Sean and Ruth and I, while Rosalie stayed in Austin and visited grandma. Rosalie had an amazing time, then came back to us on Monday with grandma.

Sean worked that week and my mom stayed with us and helped around the house. It was nice having her here to entertain Rosalie so that I could once again adjust to having a new baby around. Grandma took us all to Ruth's first trip to chick fil a. Then she took Rosalie to play at toys r us, and to Walmart, and to the butterfly museum. It was a good week, Ruth didn't get too smothered by her sister. Sometime during that week Ruth got her first bath, but it was undocumented. So her second bath has all the pictures, and you will notice her umbilical cord had fallen off by that point, it fell of really early.

all snuggled in her towel after her bathfirst bath together, it was chaos

Rosalie loves to "hold" Ruth, she asks for it all day long.

For Ruth's second week Sean had paternity leave. The first day after my mom left was chaos. Ruth had her first blow out diaper, and her first huge spit up which required me to do a lot of laundry, and Rosalie fell asleep in panties in my bed, and that gave me some laundry to do as well. I spent the whole day doing laundry and feeding a baby every hour( or so it seemed). After that is settled down a bit, Sean took Rosalie to the gym and to run errands every day to ware her out, he also took her on a date to the movies, she was so excited. We had Ruth's first dr appointment and she weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 oz. gaining weight like a champ. She eats so often that it makes sense that she wo use gain fast. Those weeks went by so fast, it is crazy how much they grow in such a short amount of time. We are still trying to figure out how to juggle these two cute girls, but it is fun.

One thing Rosalie did during Sean's paternity leave was to go on her first movie date, she went with Sean to see Puss in Boots and she absolutely loved it.

Some things we had learned about Ruth at this point:

She has pretty curly hair when it gets wet.

Her eyes look like they will be blue.

She loves to eat, and can't seem to fall asleep without nursing, which will be a challenge to get over.

She seems a little mixed up about night an day.

She loves to eat.

She doesn't mind the constant kisses from her sister.

She loves to sleep with her head tilted back at an odd angle.

She falls asleep during tummy time every time, she likes to sleep on her tummy I guess.

And there are more things we are learning each day, we love her.

Of the pictures below, can you guess which one is Rosalie?

this one is Rosalie of course, but they sure do look a lot alike. Not so much in these pictures, but I will post some where they are identical later.

Halloween

I know this is late, but I had to post some of our festivities because this is the first year that Rosalie was really into it.

First we went to our ward Halloween trunk or treat and she dressed in her pumpkin costume, she even wore the hat the whole time. She loved saying trick or treat and getting the candy and then would say thank you. It was really cute, she did not like the dark hallway set up for the haunted classroom and got a little scared when we walked past that, but the people in costume did not even phase her. After that she ate candy the whole way home in the car, so I hid it from her the next day, and she kept telling me that the ghost had stolen her candy, something she learned from an episode of Little Einsteins.

The next day we went to our apartment complex party and she dressed up as a sea horse. I did not get many good pictures because she is not very cooperative sometimes, but she definitely looked adorable.

Then we went to the Boo at the Zoo and tric or treated at the zoo and walked around and saw the animals. She took the sea horse costume with her but decided that she did not want to wear it, but we had a good time anyways.

On actual Halloween day we spent it with her in her witch costume, and went to buy pumpkins and carved them that night. She was so excited to put fire in the pumpkin because we had just watched an episode of special agent oso where they carved pumpkins and put candles inside. She really enjoyed the entire process and so did we. It is really fun doing the holidays with toddlers who are so excited and love discovering the whole new traditions.

her witch costume, minus the hat

scooping guts, she loved and hated this part, it was funny how grossed out she was, but kept doing it

getting out the guts

wearing her hat to carve the pumpkins

carving the pumpkins

our masterpieces

Ruth's Birth

I went to my regular appointment on the 2nd and the Dr. stirred things up, but I felt fine. I had a few contractions, but nothing major so I didn't expect to go into labor. I even got scheduled to be induced by the 4th if I didn't have her. I was just so anxious to meet her. I was feeling fine physically, just a little tired. It was kind of a crazy day, I had to get rides from two different people to get to my dr appointment and home, because our 2nd car was in the shop and Sean had to work at a client. So Sarah, my good friend that picked me up, and I went to lunch with Rosalie. After that I came home took a nap and did some laundry and made dinner. Around 8:30 when I was putting Rosalie to bed I started getting contractions around 7 minutes apart. I kept thinking they would go away, because I had been having contractions every evening around that time. They were a little more painful, but not unmanageable, and I could easily talk through them. We went to bed around 10:30, Sean asked how I was doing and I told him I was sure it would go away and I would be fine. I couldn't sleep though, every time I would start to fall asleep I would get a contraction, so I laid on the heating pad for a bit to try and relax, and that didn't help, so I got in the shower and tried to relax. But at that point it was midnight and they were like 3.5 minutes apart and not going away. My contractions weren't regular, some would be 3.5 minutes apart and some would be 5 or 7, so I just kept telling myself it would stop.

Well at 1 I packed things up and woke Sean up and told him it wasn't stopping and we probably needed to go to the hospital. I called Sarah, who I had asked in advance if I went into labor in the middle of the night if I could call her. Amazingly she was still awake because her husband was in California for work and because of the time difference she stayed up late talking to him on the phone. So she was at our house within 10 minutes and we set off for the hospital.

We arrived around 1:40 AM to an obnoxious desk lady who would not get off the phone to admit us, she made me fill out more paperwork (what is the point of pre-registration if you have to fill out the same stuff when you get there in labor?) and once that was finished she showed me to the labor and delivery room. There we waited for the nurses to come and check us in and all of that fun stuff. The contractions weren't terrible, but I was soooooooo tired and they would not let me fall asleep. I did not want to have a baby in the middle of the night because I didn't want to be tired, but I didn't really get to choose. Finally the nurses got everything sorted out and ready, and around 3 I finally got an epidural so that I could get some sleep. This time it worked on both sides, but it was different. I could move my legs still and feel them, but I think he got it too high or something because it made my arms kind of heavy and my chest was really itchy from it. Sean and I got some sleep at that point, maybe around 2 hours, and it wasn't really sleep so much as just some rest.

My mom and sister arrived around 5:30 and were in the waiting room, then my water broke at 5:45, it was so weird. It was a loud popping sound, and made Sean wake up and ask what happened. We got the nurses and they took care of things, then my mom and sister came in and waited with us, since there was no going back to sleep at that point. I think I was only a 7 when my water broke, then things went pretty fast. At that point my epidural was no longer working and I could feel a ton of pressure with every contraction, and by pressure I mean it was really uncomfortable. They came in at 6:15 to check my progress and I was a 10 and then I stared feeling like pushing, but the Dr wasn't there yet, and the on call Dr was no where to be found. This is when the real pain started, and I was told not to push. How can they tell you not to push when your body just wants to push and get the baby out. I waited for like 20 to 25 minutes of "not pushing" in a serious amount of pain. And the Dr. finally arrived and suited up. Once they got me all set up to push the Dr said just go for it don't even wait for a contraction, and I pushed twice and out she came. It HURT! I was shaking and semi-crying at that point. But I managed to do it. And seriously I have no faith in epidurals, that is 2 times now that something didn't work out right.

Anyways, I was so relieved that she was out and after that everything is kind of a blur. It was 6:57 when she was born, so Sean called Sarah to check on Rosalie, and of course she was up early that day. So he left to go pick her up while I tried to feed Ruth. For some reason right after Sean left and before they gave Ruth back to me, I just broke down into uncontrollable tears, I just could not stop crying, I think it was a combination of things, the pain, the emotion of her finally being here, exhaustion, and relief. Then they handed her back to me, and a funny thing, the nurses just unsnapped my gown without asking and handed me the baby, and my mom and sister were trying to take pictures, so if I look naked, I'm not, the gown is on, just unsnapped, and I couldn't really move to fix it because of the blood pressure cuff and the iv and the baby. It was funny.

Then they took Ruth up to the nursery and took me up to my mother baby room. And Ruth stayed in the nursery most of the day waiting for the pediatrician to come check her out and to get her bath. It stunk because my dad was flying through Houston and was able to come to the hospital between flights, but was not able to see Ruth because she was still in the nursery.

It took forever to get out of the hospital on Saturday, but we finally got home, Rosalie stayed with my parents in Austin for the weekend, and we were able to recover a bit. It was really nice and peaceful, and we are so glad Ruth is part of our family.

She weighed in at 6 lbs 2 oz. and was 20.5 inches long born at 6:57 AM, she has brown hair that looks like it has some curl in it, and her eyes look like they will be blue or green, but not brown because they are too light for that. We love her so much already!

This past week

Well last week I went to my dr appointment and was having a regular day, picked Rosalie up from the sitter and did a couple of things and came home to find we had been broken into. They took all of our electronics and some jewelry and a few random things. It shattered our happy little world. I had been getting everything ready for baby and felt that the house was finally in order and settled and was ready for her to come any day. Luckily she is still hanging out in my belly so that we could pick up the pieces and re-organize. I have had a roller coaster of emotions, hours where I cry uncontrollably, hours where I'm fuming mad, and hours of acceptance, normal emotions of grief.

This last year has beena really bizarre one for our family, we have had trials from all ends of the spectrum but we are still managing. It hasn't been easy, but I'm so grateful for the things we have, and right now I'm so grateful that baby Ruth is about to join our family. She is going to bring joy and happiness that only a new angel from heaven can bring, and I can't wait to meet her. I have anxiety about how I can handle two kids, but I think this will be one of the greatest blessings for us and for Rosalie to have a sister. I know this started out a bit negative, but i had to get through that in order to move on. I'm grateful for my husband who works so hard and supports us, I'm grateful for the love and support we received from our family and friends through this crazy time, and I'm grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have that gives me strength through trials.

The dr said Ruth will probably be here by November 4th and we just can't wait, I have a list of things I want to get done, and I hope to take Rosalie trick or treating, she has so many costumes and looks cute in all of them, once I can I will post pictures of those. For now there are no pictures for my blog, but soon.