Today

I'm thankful for:
My husband :
who has been getting up with Natalie at 5:30, so that I can get a few more hours sleep.
who got up at 3am to sit/rock with Abigail since she decided not to sleep last night and I was about to lose it.
who is currently doing laundry so I can sit and rest.

The grandparents, aunt and uncles:
who have done and will do any little (or big) thing to help out, from bringing us food, to helping out with Natalie, to bringing us postage stamps and Sonic ice. :)

My church family:
who has been bringing us food every other day so we don't have to worry about cooking for 2 weeks.

The past few nights have been kind of rough. I'm trying to keep things in perspective because I know it could be much worse. Abby is not a big crier which is a big plus but she is eating every 2 hours, even through the night, which is making it a little difficult for momma to get some sleep. I think she may somewhat have her days and nights mixed up because she just didn't want to sleep at all last night.

After a night like last I'm trying to focus on enjoying this time because I know it goes oh so fast. But I do have to say I'm looking forward to some sleep that lasts longer than a couple of hours.

2 Week Check up

We went this morning for Abigail's 2 week check up. The girl is HALF an ounce shy of 8lbs. ( Her birth weight was 7lbs8oz) This is amazing to us because Natalie is such a skinny minnie and always on the very bottom of the weight percentage. She's 21 months and weighs 20lbs soaking wet. We figure at this rate, Abigail will outweigh Natalie in just a few more weeks. LOL.

Can you tell big sister loves her baby Sis??

Two Snap Shots

She rarely has her eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. But I managed to get a shot of her awake.



And another daddy/daughter moment I snuck up on.

WeekOne, Come and Gone

I can't get over how well I'm feeling. I'm almost afraid to say that for fear that I'll jinx it. I did really well with my first C-section with Natalie that I never expected to do even better this time around. I have had to make sure I keep a dose of Motrin and the occasional pain meds in my system, but dare I say I feel almost back to normal. Abigail has only woken up 2-3 times the past couple nights to eat, so I'm getting some decent sleep.

I attempted to take a few pictures yesterday with John and the baby. We just don't have good natural light in our house, so I've been debating investing in a good external flash. Here's a couple of the ones I took.



And when Daddy's in charge of bath time, this is what happens.


Natalie is adjusting really well, and loves her baby sister. Yesterday afternoon I had my Dr. Appt. to get my staples out. We left while Natalie was taking her nap. My mom said that when she got up, she went over to the baby glider where we've been letting Abigail sleep during the day. When she saw she wasn't in there she exclaimed, "Oh No!!"

And finally I'll leave you with a page I did yesterday. I saw this title on a page by Stephanie Howell, just right after her second little girl was born. This sentiment immediately comes to mind when I think of my family.

So Many Pictures!

I have soooo many pictures to go through from Friday, and by so many, I mean close to 600.

Not a glamorous shot, but a joyous one for sure.

And I really like this one, mainly because it's a cool perspective taken by my 8 yr old niece.

Our Girls

Things are going well. We're just enjoying these first days at home. Today's post is in pictures.











It's feeling good to be a mom.

We're still at the hospital but hoping to go home today.

A little more about what happened: I'm documenting this here for me more than anything. So the following may be a bit boring. :)

Originally I was scheduled for my C-section on the 20th, but Thursday the 12th was a rough day. I didn't feel well most of the day and had mild contractions and cramping all day long. About 5 o'clock that night it started getting a lot more intense. So much so that I knew we needed to just go to Labor and Delivery to check things out. When we got to the hospital I was just 1cm and 70% effaced, but I was still having regular contractions. They gave me medication that would slow down the contractions and if it wasn't true labor it would stop them. They slowed throughout the night but didn't stop completely, so my Dr. decided to go ahead and do the section.

This ended up being a very good thing because they discovered I had a uterine window, which basically mean I was getting a tear in my uterus. So I'm very thankful things played out like they did because if my uterus had of ruptured it would have been a very bad situation for the baby and for me. This does bring up concerns and precautions for any possible future pregnancies, but I'll get a chance to talk with my dr. more about it later.

I haven't downloaded any more of the pictures we've taken over the last couple days, but here's one more of Big Sister meeting Abigail.

Surprise!!

She wanted to prove that Friday the 13th is not bad luck at all!!


Abigail is here!
Born: 7:26am
7lbs 8oz
21 inches

I'll share more later! Here's a couple of pictures until then.

Weekend Recap

A very busy weekend around here. I'm gonna try to not be very wordy and just give some highlights with pictures.

Friday night was our monthly craft night with the girls. I actually got 3 pages done, which is pretty good for scrapping with friends. We usually do more talking and eating than scrapping.

My page for OLW this week. Got the background technique idea from EmilyMae Anderson.



June Sketch from DixiePieces:


Daddy's Girl Challenge at DixiePieces.



Saturday I had a few errands to run and John had to work, so my Mom kept Natalie for a few hours so I could go by myself and Natalie could get her nap. Quick funny story here: My last stop was at JCPenny's and I had been on my feet long enough and was feeling the pain of this extra 40 lbs I'm carrying around. So while I was checking out, I just sort of leaned forward over on the counter to rest my weight on it for a second. Well, not thinking how this might come across to the cashier, I totally freaked her out. She got this really panic look on her face and frantically says "Are you Ok?!" I must have really looked tired. Either that or she didn't want my water breaking on her floor.

That afternoon I went to a church congregational picnic with my parents. Natalie had a great time on the tractor ride and I got some really cute pics of her and my dad.




On Sunday we headed out to D&T's house for Alex's 3rd birthday. Telah really outdid herself with a carnival theme and I know a fun time was had by all!

Have You Seen These?

If you scrap with me, you already know that I'm slightly obsessed with a particular scrapbooking product. American Craft Thicker Letter Stickers show up on most of my pages. Today, they announced the release of these! A whole new set of fonts and colors with GLITTER.

I'm on the lookout for them already. Not sure when online stores are supposed to get them. If you're one of the scrappers that read my blog and happen to run across them, pretty please let me know. :)

Here's a layout I haven't posted yet that uses the first set of Glitter Thickers that they released in Jan/Feb of this year. So excited that they decided to do a bunch more!!

Ok, So I'm Biased

Took some quick shots of the girly today before she had a chance to take out the bow that was in her hair for all of 5 minutes.

And she is just the cutest thing EVER!

Tidbits from Today

• This pic pretty much describes our day today. Lazy and dazed. I can't get over how worn out I get doing the simplest of tasks. (Like walking from one end of the house to the other, or just taking Natalie to change her diaper). Side note: She has peepee'd in the potty twice this week! I really don't want to complain because so many more things could be making me miserable, it's just taking me by surprise because I wasn't this way at all with Natalie.

• We've been attempting to leave the TV off a little more, rather than just having it on just for the sake of it. Some days we do good, others we don't. One thing that I have noticed is that when we leave it off more Natalie will ask to watch her Elmo videos occasionally which she never did before. So that's what's she's doing in these pictures, watching Elmo's world.

• We can tell Natalie to kiss baby Abby and she'll come lift up my shirt and kiss my belly. I managed to get a shot of her doing that, but I don't really think you can tell that's what she's doing.

And here's another shot of the mammoth belly. :)