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!

baby update

I felt a lot of changes early in the week, but nothing new in the past few days. So no real update here--she could be born tonight or she could hang around for two more weeks. So now I'll just complain for a moment. Annabelle has been pressing on my sciatic nerve for a month, and since she has dropped it has gotten worse instead of better. It doesn't really hurt, but my leg will just fall asleep at random times and I have to catch myself so I don't fall. It's a weird feeling and it happens several times a day now. Ugh. To balance out my whining, my wrist is better and I can breathe more easily now because I don't have as much pressure on my lungs. I'm at that stage that every woman who has had a baby knows--just trying to make it through the last few weeks. I need to post another picture. I'm seriously gigantic.

Rebekah speaks Spanish

I've taught Rebekah a few words in Spanish from the time she started talking, but she would only say them when we specifically asked her to, which wasn't very often. She also has a talking doll that we switch over to Spanish mode from time to time. We haven't spent time deliberately trying to teach her Spanish or doing specific activities and drills--I think she is too young for that kind of learning and I prefer to incorporate learning into play, like songs and games and educational toys. But she never really showed interest in Spanish and I didn't push her.

Now she has started watching Dora and Diego cartoons--and she LOVES them--and her friend at school lives in a bilingual household, so she is hearing Spanish used in context in several different places. In the past two weeks, she has started spontaneously speaking Spanish! She has been counting in Spanish, and when she plays with her friend Clarissa she uses Spanish words sometimes. I'm glad I know Spanish so I can understand the words she is using. Shannon has been talking about learning Spanish ever since we moved to Texas, and now he says he better get on it or Rebekah is going to learn it before he is. It also makes me want to brush up on my conversational skills to continue encouraging Rebekah. Language skills will help her in so many other areas of learning, so it's great that she's on her way to being at least somewhat bilingual at an early age--it's easier for her little sponge of a brain to learn it than it is for us!

more baby updates

At my appointment today things were much the same as last week, but the baby has moved down. I tested positive for group B strep, which means I'll have to get antibiotics during labor and we might have to stay an extra day in the hospital. Nothing to worry about. We've scheduled an induction for April 12, but hopefully Annabelle will make her entrance on her own before that. I managed to injure my wrist yesterday, so I hope that she'll wait at least a couple more days and let me heal. Speaking of which, I should stop typing now.

baby update

I'll have a lot of posts with this title as we count down the days. Last night I had a lot of painful contractions, but I learned with Rebekah that that doesn't necessarily mean that the baby is coming. I'm a lot more patient this time because I learned that labor symptoms can go on for weeks, and it's terrible frustrating to keep thinking the baby could arrive "any minute now." For those who weren't keeping up back then, even my doctor thought Rebekah was coming several weeks early and gave me medication to stop contractions. But she hung on and was only one week early. So here we are again, but much more realistic this time. I think I brought the contractions on myself last night because I overdid it yesterday, running around all over the place working and buying groceries and playing in the flowers and probably not drinking enough water. I'm going to have to take it easier the next couple of weeks, which I realized when I tried to paint the crib this weekend. Guess what--there is no way I can get on my hands and knees and paint a crib with this giant belly! I should have done that task at least three months ago. Our next doctor's appt is on Tuesday, and we'll probably schedule an induction. We are not planning to induce early, but if Annabelle makes it to her due date, we'll induce then.

Last month at my doctor's appt, a medical student working with my OB told me that a recent study showed that expectant mothers can predict the weight of their baby more accurately than doctors. My doc hasn't predicted Annabelle's size, but I will. She's big. My belly is pretty full now and she doesn't have much room to move around. I think that at this point she's about seven pounds. Next week, she'll be up to eight pounds. And if she is born on or after her due date, she will be close to nine pounds. We'll see if I'm right. Anyone else want to make a prediction?

Texas wildflowers

baby update

Annabelle is getting ready to arrive. I am dilated 1 cm. We'll just have to wait and see.

Sewing for the girls (not just mine!)

Yesterday I took a couple of hours (really, it only took a couple of hours--I'm getting better at this!) to make some things for Rebekah and Annabelle. I found some great fabric for super easy sundresses, and I got carried away. I started these on Saturday, and spent a lot more time trying to get the sizes right--not easy to convince a two-year-old to stand still for a fitting! But once I had a prototype, the rest went smoothly. I actually made SEVEN--three for Rebekah, two for Gracie and Siera so that all three girls can match when we get together this summer, and a top for me so Rebekah and I can match. I also bought some pink gingham for Annabelle, but I won't be making her dress until I see how big she is. I know it's cheesy, but I couldn't resist the mother/daughters ensemble. I'm hoping that I can wear my top before and after the baby is born--it will be a good transition piece until I can wear my regular clothes again.

I also made Annabelle a lovie blanket to play with. I think she will like the high contrast of the white background and bright dots. I hope she'll get attached to it as a security object because I have enough of that fabric to make another one just like it. And I made her a bright red swaddling blanket. I found this fabric around Valentine's Day and loved it--how often do you see a red baby blanket?

Daddy's first ponytail

Soon-to-be-Daddy of two girls, Shannon decided it was time to learn how to do little girls' hair. Here's his first attempt. Not bad, considering his big fingers and her thin hair. His second one was much better, and we actually took her out in public with it :) I think he'll do just fine.

baby name

In case I haven't told you yet, the baby's name will definitely be Annabelle Shannon. Of course, that is assuming she's a girl--a friend from church had a baby last week and they had predicted the wrong sex. You never really know until the baby is in your arms!

Bekah and Granmommy

Moving along

Annabelle is growing, growing, growing. All the measurements are where they should be and everything seems to be going fine. I had a wonderful baby shower a couple of weeks ago and got some things I wanted and never bought when Rebekah was a baby. We also got lots of adorable baby clothes and bibs, and there seemed to be a theme of yellow giraffes! The best part about it was celebrating with my friends. I've been so busy and I'm not taking any time off work, so it was nice to stop and just do baby things for a while.