first trip to church

Today we made our first trip to church since our baby shower four weeks ago, and I had to take pictures of the girls in their pretty dresses. Rebekah has a new dress from her great-grandmother, but Annabelle couldn't wear the one that matches it yet because it's still too big. In fact, all of Annabelle's clothes are still too big, even the newborn sized clothes. Rebekah also got to feed Annabelle a bottle today. When I nursed Annabelle later, Rebekah kept insisting that the baby likes the bottle better because she wanted to feed her again. She also wanted to give her a bath again even though she just had one last night. I've let Rebekah help take care of the baby as much as possible, and now she wants to take over!

flower update

The flower that Rebekah "made" bloomed yesterday.

Bekah's flower

Rebekah planted a pansy several weeks ago, and yesterday she was delighted to find a bud. She has been diligent in caring for it, and she is so proud. We'll share another photo when the bloom opens.

Growing baby

Annabelle had her two week check-up this week, and she is growing well. She weighed 8lbs. 14 oz--well over her birth weight and a full pound larger than her discharge weight taken at the hospital--and she is 21 and a half inches long. Her length is between the 90th and 95th percentile and her weight is around the 75th percentile. She's tall like her sister, and I'm sure her weight will shoot up to the 95th percentile in the coming months, too. Her umbilical stump finally fell off yesterday, and she has an outie belly button. It's cute :) It will probably go in eventually. When I have to take her with me to take Rebekah to school, Rebekah stands between Annabelle and the other kids protecting her baby sister. We won't let the other kids touch the baby, of course, but today one of them got the idea that if he washed his hands he could touch the baby. That led to a chain reaction, and all the little children were lining up to wash their hands, only to be told that they still couldn't touch the baby. Rebekah is a rock star now at school because she has a baby and she's the only one allowed to touch it.

Burrito Baby

The happiest baby on the block ;)

Lots of news

Last week was certainly eventful. Of course, Annabelle's birth was the most important, but I also got some good news from school. I received a $300 teaching award from my department and a $10,000 national scholarship to help with finishing my dissertation. I also found out last month that one of my essays is going to be published in a book next year. I still have some changes to make on that piece, so now that we're getting settled in with the girls I'm getting right back to work (while Annabelle naps, of course). It's a little overwhelming for all of these things to happen at once, but it is great news and I wanted to share it with you.

Baby face

Annabelle's pictures

Click here for Annabelle's pictures from the hospital.

More baby pics

Here's a few more pics of Rebekah and our little Annabelle.

Baby Annabelle is here!!!

Well, its been a busy couple of days for Sarah, so I decided to attempt this post so that she could rest. Annabelle arrived at 4:51pm on Easter Sunday. She weighed 8lbs. 4 1/2oz. and is 21 inches long. Mom is doing well and ready to go home tomorrow. I'm going to try to upload a couple of pictures for everyone. I hope it works. We will have more soon. Rebekah has been great about being a big sister. She is so excited about bringing her home.

Still hanging in

We're still waiting on Annabelle. This week after church our Sunday School class gave us a baby shower, and Rebekah opened all the presents with me. She wasn't jealous that the baby got all the presents--she just had fun opening them. My corsage was made of ruffled baby socks--I will definitely have to take it apart and see how it's made so I can recreate it.
I have another doctors appointment today and after that I am taking Rebekah for a special sibling tour of the hospital. She's been there a few times in the past several months to visit friends who had babies, so I hope that it will be fun and exciting and not scary for her. She already tells everyone that she has a baby sister, but she also says that she is a big brother. We've been reading "The Berenstain Bears' New Baby" and in that story, the brother bear gets a baby sister--so Rebekah is a big brother!