Anna's 2 week appointment

Anna is growing like a weed! She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces yesterday at her appointment (one week before she was 7lbs. 13 ounces). She was also 21 inches long (she's grown an inch and a half since birth). Her head circumference was 14 inches long! She's quite the eater!

Here are her percentiles:
weight 75%
height 88%
head circumference: 70%

Her big brother has always been anywhere from 20% - 50% in weight. We have a big girl on our hands! Looking back at Drew's eating habits from day one we should have known that eating was going to be our biggest challenge with him. He's still only eating one of 5 meals each meal time. I think Anna will be a good eater or at least I hope so!

Anna also started some medication for acid reflux yesterday. We are hoping it helps with her projectile vomiting and her discomfort in the evenings. Acid reflux is something both sides of my family has dealt with so we are hoping that the medicine will help and eventually she won't have to be on it!

That is all for now!

More Pictures & Some Updates

Here are the kids getting ready to head out for an outing (notice Drew's cheesy smile).

We've been busy around here adjusting to our "new normal." Things are going well. We've gotten out of the house everyday this week. I've even taken the two kids out on my own. On Tuesday we went to Babies R Us & Sam's Club and yesterday we went to the grocery store and Hallmark. The key is parking by the carts and putting the kids directly in a cart before walking into the store. When we went to Hallmark yesterday I had Anna in the stroller that her car seat snaps into and Drew walked with me. He didn't touch one thing! We talked about it all the way to the store to prepare him and he was a perfect angel. Now granted we were in there about 5 minutes only!

It is fun seeing how Drew and Anna are different. Drew slept for longer periods of time at this age (in fact we had to wake him up to eat) and Anna is waking up about every 2-3 hours to eat at night, but she is a much better eater! She's been gaining so much faster than Drew ever did. We got tomorrow for her 2 week appointment. So far Anna seems fairly laid back like Drew...let's hope that sticks! She does love to be held and it is hard holding her all the time with big brother around!

Here's is Anna's sleeping schedule (it has been fairly consistent the last week or so.
10:30 put her down
1:00 or 1:30 get up and eat
4:00 or 4:30 get up and eat
6:30 or 7:00 get up and eat

I tried to take some newborn pictures of Anna (I think we'll wait until she's 3 months to get some professional ones done...although I'd love to get some done now).

Look at that crazy hair!

I love this silly face.

Here is Anna sleeping soundly in mom & dad's bed. Something we NEVER did with Drew!
baby Drew

so big!

tired girl

Funny story from today:
Drew was talking to Anna (he gets right in her face) and she did one of her projectile vomits (she's done this about 5 times - YUCK!). Drew was less than impressed and in fact began crying. So I had to strip him down and Anna down and then give Anna a bath. Here are some pictures of my two nakey kids. Looking at them side by side it is really quite amazing how much they change in 2 years and 5 months. Drew weighed less than Anna when he was her age!

Home for a Week Now

Well we've been home a week now and boy have our lives changed! Things are rocky at times, but I think we are starting to get some things figured out. I am starting to adjust to the lack of sleep and can't wait for the day I get a 5 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep! The first two nights were horrible, but since then Anna is doing much better. Some nights she'll do great in her crib and other nights we give up and put her in bed with us. Whatever works at this point is our motto around here, we are just trying to survive!

Drew loves his baby sister and loves hugging on her whenever he can. As the days have gone by we've noticed a few jealous moments, but it is all expected, right? Overall though we are very pleased on how he's adjusted!

We've had a lot of help between the two sets of grandparents. We have also had many meals brought to us by family and friends and they couldn't be more appreciated!

Mike and I have ventured out a few times this weekend with the two kids (yes even in the snow)! I still haven't taken the two of them out by myself and maybe I'll have the opportunity soon, although I'm a bit nervous!

Here are Anna's weight stats:
3-12-10 birth 7 lbs 7.6 ounces
3-15-10 7 lbs 2 ounces
3-19-10 7 lbs 13 ounces

This weight gain is HUGE to me! With Drew I spent much of my time worrying because he was a very slow gainer. So when they told me she gained 11 ounces in 4 days I about fell over. I'm a very proud mama!

Looking a bit like her big brother here!

My Irish babies

Holding baby sister

Loving on A!

Kissing Anna Mae
Bright eyed purple girl
Kiss Me I'm Irish (red tinted hair and all)
first bath
wide awake
Looking at the fish

The Thoughts Behind the Name

As most of you know it took us quite some time to come up with Anna's name. We just struggled with agreeing on a perfect first name. Now looking at Anna I can't imagine calling her anything different! All along we were pretty sure on the middle name. She gets her middle name from my grandma (Dorothy Mae). We kept the middle name a secret from my mom until she first met Anna, b/c I knew she'd be so surprised! Her first and middle name flow so well together, I have a feeling she'll be called Anna Mae on a regular basis!

Now we do have to clear up a couple things. Mike and I were not going with the theme of "A" names. It just worked that way. Our kids' middle names also rhyme and that wasn't a planned thing we just thought it was important they were both named after a family member. So there you have it our thoughts behind our names!

Anna Mae Howell's Birth Story

I am posting this mainly so I won't forget the details of Anna's birth. So when some day she wants to know I'll have the details to share!

On March 11^th I had one of my normal weekly appointments. I was 3cm dilated and 70% effaced. My doctor asked me what I wanted to do. We talked about induction, which Mike and I were fine with since Drew’s induction went so smoothly! So then she asked me when we wanted to schedule it, she mentioned anytime the next week, then I asked her about the next day. She said sure! So we were scheduled for on Friday, March 12^th.

I called Mike right away and we both made a ton of calls. I went to work and had a hard time concentrating on grading writing assessments (we didn’t have kids that day it was a teacher grading day). That night we were packing bags and getting Drew & Patton ready. Mike took her to Toots and Pa’s house while I cleaned the house.

Of course there wasn’t much sleep going on that night for me. The morning finally came and we all got up and got ready. We drove Drew to the hospital where we met my mom. She took him while we got settled in at the hospital. Things didn’t get started quite as quick as we would have liked. The nurses were waiting on my doctor’s orders. At 8:40 they started the Pitocin and a bit after 9 my doctor came by and broke my water.

Around 11 I asked for the epidural. I wasn’t in horrible pain, but I had discussed it with the nurse that I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss an opportunity to get one since second labors typically progress much faster. When I asked for it, I was third in line to get one, but shortly after it was my turn. A student put my epidural in and a doctor was there by her side. I felt some stinging down my legs and they tried to adjust it. The next thing I know I’m being to hold still and the student says, “take it all out.” I was trying to hang in there and be brave and luckily the doctor checked her work and everything was fine. The stinging went away and all was well. I was instantly tired and ready to rest. I started feeling nauseous and the nurse checked my blood pressure. It was low so they gave me some meds and I felt better shortly after that.

I was checked at 1:50 and I was 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced. At 2:15 I started having more feeling in my legs and got another dose through my epidural. At about 2:30 I started feeling the pressure and wanted to push we had to wait until my doctor got back, she had left not long ago and had headed back to the office (across the street). At 2:50 I finally got to push, my doctor was there and ready. I pushed for about 30 minutes and ended up watching a lot of the delivery (there was a mirror overhead). I was never planning on watching it but I’m glad I did, what a miracle! The pushing was very tiring. Anna came out with the cord around her neck, luckily it was loosely around the neck. Dr. Wright cut the cord before she came all the way out. Mike got to cut another part of the cord after she was out. She was placed directly on my chest and we got to admire her. We were shocked by the amount of hair she had.

After she got cleaned up Mike went out and got Drew and brought him in for a few minutes of alone time. He took right to Anna. We then let the flood gates open and the grandparents came swarming in.

Drew singing Twinkle Twinkle to Anna

I just love this video of Drew singing to Anna. He truly loves his little sister!

Introducing Anna Mae Howell

Our baby girl was born yesterday at 3:22pm. She weighed 7.76 pounds and was 19.5 inches long! Her head measured 13.25 inches.

Her big brother was very excited to meet her and was so cute with her. He just wanted to hug on her the whole time and he loved holding her!

Here are a ton of pictures from Anna's first day:

Our nurse, Darbie, Dr. Wright, mom and Anna

meeting baby sister

hugging baby sister

holding baby sister
mom and her TWO babies

Here we are a family of four now!
Pretty hair after first bath
all clean

2 years 5 months

We just put our little guy to bed the last time as an only child! We can't believe that tomorrow is the day this little boy is going to be a big brother. He's been our one and only for 2 years and 5 months today and we can't believe tomorrow that will change! We are so lucky to have him in our lives and we feel so blessed to have him as our first child! He's paved the way of parenthood for us and his little sister has a lot to live up to (don't worry we'll love her regardless).

Tonight we put him to bed as normal knowing that it was a special night for us. An emotional night if we let us ourselves think too much (which we are trying hard not to). Drew picked out a book as usual and of all books he chose he picked "On the Night You Were Born." If you know the book, you know how ironic it is that he picked that book on the last night of being any only child. He's been so stuck on two other books and we haven't read anything but those two in a long time. So it was just a sign!

This has been another month of growth for Drew. He's becoming such a boy these days. He's constantly running, jumping, shooting, falling over on purpose, etc. His vocabulary continues to grow leaps and bounds every day!

Here are some of his latest sayings...

Drew – "Mom I want to tell you something….lay me down to sleep" (part of his prayers)

We were driving in the car this past month sometime and all of a sudden we hear Drew say, "Something is wrong." We never figured out what he was trying to say, but he sure got our attention and I think that was his whole plan.

Drew - "Mom I got to tell you a secret."

Mom - "Ok what is it?"

Drew - "abcdefghijk"

One night Drew jumped on daddy and then said “I didn’t mean to.”

Drew – "Mom can you take my sockies off?"

Mom - "Sure."

Drew - "Pat wants to lick my toesies."

Gross I know!

Mom – "We are going to go pick out a present for you to give to your baby sister."

Drew – "Let’s get a BIG one, I think she likes "Batman."

We were at grocery store last weekend and we were waiting on the guy that was bagging our grocercies.

Drew – "Mom they got our nannas." (He was worried they were going to take our bananas.)

Drew - “Mom you my best mom ever in the world.” (I am guessing he heard his buddies Sammy or Will say that to their mommy that day when he was over there...I've got to ask my friend, Patsy about this one. Regardless it melted my heart.)

The same night he told me I was his best mom ever in the world, he told me I had a big tushy....at least I'm currently 9 months pregnant so I have an excuse!

A month from today our Drew baby will be 2.5 years old! Wow!

Pictures

Here are some new pictures from this past weekend and the beginning of this week:

eating ice creamhappy boybreakfast time
trying to block the sun with mom's sunglasses

feeding Frosty
loving Frosty

going for a run
tball
so cute
playing in his circle...he loves making circles lately
silly boy in the circle
another circle in progress
my boys hanging out
silly boy

We are on countdown mode right now. Baby girl is due in 6 days! I go to the doctor Thursday morning and will probably set an induction date at that point if she isn't here before. We are still hoping I'll go into labor on my own this Thursday the 11th (of course we know we have no control over it). Mike likes the idea of having her on a Thursday it works well with his work schedule. Drew was born on an 11th, so that would be neat if both kids were and it is also my dad's birthday. So cross your fingers for us that she comes on Thursday! Today would have been a great day too since it my grandfather's 89th birthday, but considering it is about 9:15pm right now I don't think we are going to make it!38 weeks 5 days

39 weeks