Learning so much in 3 Months

I was never a person who wanted to hold every little baby that I saw or adored all little children and thought that they were precious. Of course I always loved my family and my friends children but it was just different. Since I had Annaka I feel more warmly towards all children they are ALL precious in there own way and they all have a mother that loves them like I love Annaka and they were all these tiny little babies once that there mothers put so much love into. I also finally understand the "Mother's Club" that I heard about before I had my baby. Every time I see a pregnant woman I want to do whatever I can to help her out! I want to hug them and offer them any words of encouragement that I can. All ultrasounds melt my heart even if I don't know the person, that little person that God is growing inside of their mommy is just beautiful! I guess little miss Annaka has turned me into a big softy. I love being her mom, learning compassion, patience, learning to see things a little differently.

This month was an extremely busy one for our little angel. She was of course such a delight to Kyle and I. Even with all the traveling that Kyle had to do they still got lots of cuddle time in, which was important for both parties. I feel like it went by so fast! Maybe now that I am getting a little more sleep this is when time begins to fly by? I hope it doesn't fly by too fast!

So these are some milestones for our little sweetheart:

~First Basketball Game, the Blazers of course

~First airplane ride across the country to visit her Uncle and Auntie and cousins!

~Started making bubbles with her spit!

~Doing lots and lots of grabbing and bringing objects close to her face.

~Found her foot (Daddy saw this one not me)

~ROLLED OVER!!!! Rolled from her little tummy to her back.

~First babysitter that was not family, Thanks Tyler!

~Sleeping in crib more and we don't have to swaddle you anymore.

~Holding your sweet little head up all on your own.

~You can now sit in a sling facing out.

Annaka,

You are so much more alert. I have so much fun with you, we have tummy time and story time. We go for walks with our puppy when it is warm enough. I love how you are always looking at everything around you. You never miss anything! I think that you are going to be the silent type like your dad. Which means when you have something good to say you say it! You love to watch your daddy cook. You also love to chat with him, just today you were talking so much! You are so sweet and so happy we love you so much. Your Daddy and I love you more and more each day. We are already so proud of you and the things that you have accomplished. We love watching you grow into the young lady that God has given us. Your Daddy and I delight in you and in our family time. We could not be more grateful for the joy you bring into our lives. We love you sweet girl.

Forgetful Mother

I forgot a few things for Miss Annaka:

~First time she took a bottle

~Eating every 3-4 hours

~Slept 7 hours at night :)

~Loves her nightly bath

~Gets the hiccups pretty much everyday

~1st Cold

~Loves going on walks with Gus

Hopefully that is everything!!!

Two Months and Counting

Dear Annaka, I feel very tired this month. Your father has been traveling so I have been playing single mom for the past 3 weeks, hard work! Even though people have been visiting and I have visited people it is just not the same as having a partner. That is one thing that you want in a husband, if you decide you want to be married, someone who walks with you in life. Someone who isn't just along for the ride but someone who is engaged and invest in you and your family. This month I feel like you have had so many first and a lot of new things that I have discovered, lets see if I can remember them all.

~First sleep over, at Auntie Allison's

~First time you smiled back when we smiled at you

~First boo boo, Gus was trying to protect you from a sleeping Blazer and jumped over you and grazed your perfect little forehead

~You had your first date with Piper

~First time you slept through the night, THANK YOU!

~You began holding your head up all on your own

~You LOVE bath time

~You do much more cooing and ahing

~You have a favorite toy, Your Giraffe

~You fell asleep in your crib all on your own

~Your eyelashes are getting longer

~Uncle Nic and Auntie Allison babysat you

~You taught your mother 2 VERY important lessons: You taught me to tell my mother that I love her more often and that no matter what she will always love me more than I love her. That she is always trying her best to be the best mother that she can be. That she made sacrifices that didn't feel like sacrifices so that she could be the best mother possible. To tell her that I love her more and that I am thankful for all the nights she stayed up with me for all the selflessness that she has shown me. Not because she needs to hear it but because I lover her. That no matter how old I get she will always want to hear what I am thinking and that she always hopes that I need her. This lesson my dear sweet girl is one of the most important lessons I could ever learn, thank you. Number two, the dirty house will still be there after snuggle time, my friends will still be there when you have your own to hang out with, there will always be a job for me to work. You are only tiny once, you will not always want to snuggle and one day you will be too busy to tell me all about your day. So I am going to enjoy you, enjoy our time together and save the rest for another day.

I love you my dear sweet Annaka you have already made me a better person.

6 Weeks Old

So a very dear friend of mine, Lydia Rodriguez, suggested that I do a better job at updating our blog, that lots of people out there would like to see what we are up to. Most importantly it will give our beautiful baby girl, Annaka, something to look back on. She is right so hopefully I will do a MUCH better job at keeping this up than I have been. Some posts will be to you the reader and other post will be to Annaka. I guess which ever seems appropriate. I hope that you enjoy our lives as much as we do.

Annaka, Yesterday you were officially 6 weeks old! It has been a wonderful 6 weeks, you are such a sweet tempered, easy going baby. Not that I am surprised by that I always thought that you would be an easy going, fun, adorable child. Right now you are sleeping giving me some time to follow your Auntie Lydia's advice and keep up with our family blog.

What is going on with you: You can lift up your head and turn it from side to side, You smile A LOT and we love it, You are grabbing at things around you more often, You love your Daddy who has started calling you Blue Eyes the past couple weeks. You got your first scrape this week from Gus. He didn't mean to he thought that he was protecting you from Blazer, that was a bad start to a rough day for you, poor baby. You talk in your sleep a lot and make funny faces while you are sleeping. You are sleeping through the night, which means you are sleeping a 5 hour stretch, which Mommy and Daddy appreciate. Now if we can only figure out when that stretch begins we will be golden! You are always looking around discovering the world around you. You always look like you are thinking important thoughts, I can't wait to hear them all!

What a wonderful 6 weeks this has been we are tired of course but that won't last forever. Our house is messier than I would like it but there will be lots of time to clean it later. We don't go out as often as we did but everything and everyone will be there when we are ready. We love our new little bundle very much. Kyle is an amazing father that loves his little girl and has a way with her already that is precious and amazing to watch. There is no one else in the world that I would want by my side on this parenting journey.

Thanks for reading.

and then there were three...

I had my weekly doctor appointment and if I was not ready to go we were going to discuss my induction options. I remember feeling so nervous and scared, this whole time I had hoped and planned for a natural birth, or pure as my hypno birthing book liked to call it. So at my 42 week appointment, NOTHING I had not dilated anymore then the 3cm that I had at 40 weeks, so sad. So they scheduled me to go into the hospital the following day to have my baby, December 23rd 2011. I called the hospital that morning to see if they had room, they made room for me since I was so far along. Kyle and I arrived at the hospital around 9:30am.

I wanted to have the least invasive induction possible so that gave me misoprostol to soften my cervix in hopes I would then dilate with little intervention. You take a pill every four hours and after being settled in our room at about 3pm I had my first does, followed by a second does since after the first one I had still not dialated ANYMORE, our little lady had no interest in meeting face to face. So instead of offer another does Kyle and I deceided to sleep that night and try again in the morning. Since I had been in bed for the last 8 hours waiting for the misoprostol action I wanted to go for a walk before we went to bed for the night. So Kyle and I took a walk at about 10pm and settled ourselfs in for the night.

 

I tried to sleep for about an hour, but of course I was uncomfortable, being 42 weeks pregnant and all, and was having a few cramps. Nothing that had really been different than the last week. The nurse had offered me something to help me sleep but I thought I would tough it out. At midnight I rang our wonderful, sweet nurse Lauren, to let her know I was a little crampy and could not sleep. She suggested that I take a walk to see if it would pass. Sometimes the drug makes you think you are going into labor but then nothing. So I walked...

After about an hour I came back to the room. I was still "cramping" and didn't think I would be able to sleep. So Lauren said that she would check me to see if anything was happening but she thougth that it was still false labor and I had no idea, I was kinda hoping it was so I could get some sleep. I went into the bathroom and my water broke, I called out to Lauren "I think my water broke." Why I said I think I am not sure because I knew that was what happened, she didn't believe that it would happen that fast, she took a look at siad. "Oh yes, it did." So she checked me and I was at 5 cm.

From here on out it is all kind of a blurr of sitting in the shower, not wanted anyone to touch me and breathing (Thank you hypno birthing). From Midnight to about 3am I went from 5cm to pushing. I remember at one point thinking "If I want drugs it's now or never." I figured if I made it this far I could make it the rest of the way. Little did I know I had just been through the "easy" part.

Before I go on to the most magical part of the story I would just like to say that I think that everyone should have their babies at Wentworth Douglas Hospital. The staff, AMAZING they respected my wishes, I was never hooked up to any machines, I never had to stay in my bed, the nurses were encouraging and beyond supportive. I wish I could have all my babies there. Anyone who says a hospital is pushy, always wanting you to take drugs and encourages a un natural birth has never been to WDH. My midwife Laura was fantastic as well. I could not have asked for a better experience. My wish is for everyone to have that kind of experience.

Now comes that magical moment that we all see on TV that moment where you push that sweet little life out of you, all your hair stays in place, look lovingly on this new life that came out of you with a few only a swear words..... Oh wait this is NOT want happened at all!

I thankfully only pushed for 23 minutes which I am NOT complaining about, but it was anything but magical. I will spare you the details that were spared me since I couldn't see. I did not request a mirror, I needed no motivation to push. I wanted that girl OUT of me! Kyle says that I turned a color purple that he had no idea a living human could turn! And let me tell you my curly hair was looking pretty bad! We only took a couple pictures here that I will most likely not safe.

After 23 minutes we had our little crying, peeing baby girl. She cried for about 2 and a half hours which I hear is not typical. Then they took that screaming bundle of joy and did their thing, cleaned her off took her measurements. She was perfect and we were in love, tired but in love.

 

So this is how Annaka came into the world. Well it's the shorten version. I think that everything went perfect I would not have asked for a better situation. I hope you enjoyed reading this thanks for sticking with it.

If I haven't heard your story I would LOVE to! I love, love hearing about how these sweet babies are brought into this world. I love how everyone's stories are so different and how amazing the women I know are.  

Baby Shower Pictures

Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy!

It's a Girl

So Kyle and I, as always, wanted to find out the gender of our baby in a different way, be original, come up with a unheard of plan. And we did! We decided to have the ultrasound tech write the sex on a card and seal it. We would then pass it along to my sister who was throwing the shower. She would then plan the party for the appropriate sex AND tell all the guest the sex so that we would not end up with a ton of yellow and brown, ducks and monkeys. Not that those things are not adorable. So everyone knew what we were having before we did. People asked if that bothered us and my response was "I don't know, well see." But it didn't it was kind of like a game and Kyle and I are always up for games.

Kyle and I both talked about what we hoped for and to tell the truth we really didn't care. We had been hoping for a little bundle for quite some time at that point and when you have been waiting for what seems like forever you truly just want a happy healthy baby. Of course I felt a girl would be easier because I am one and it seemed at the time I would know what to do with a little girl easier than a little boy, I was wrong. Kyle felt the same about a boy. Little did we know that no matter what parts a baby has down below they are still a mystery to be solved.

The shower idea seemed to work, no one spilled the beans which was our biggest fear. My sister, mom and Melissa planning the shower. Many other wonderful family and friends helped by bring yummy food for all of us to enjoy! A friend of ours also took pictures as a gift. It was so much fun, and it felt so nice to have all of the people there that we love so much (minus some that could not make it because of distance). I do know that our reaction was not as people had hoped, when we entered the room we just both smiled with delight. There were no screams of "YAY", that just isn't really us, well in a large group like that. To tell the truth when we walked in and saw everyone staring at us I felt a little overwhelmed, I'm not one who likes to be the center of attention, even less so Kyle. I didn't really think that who "revealing" process through. Next time!

We not only wanted to be original with how we found out the sex of our baby but we also wanted to be original with the events activities. Since it was going to be a Jack and Jill we wanted everyone to have fun. We had a photo booth with props, a onesie decorating table, a well wishes/memory lane station and a party isn't complete with out a little competition. We had a baby food eating contest boys again girls which the boys won.

It was a great day I'm thankful for Mike who took pictures for us and my Aunt Caroline who took pictures of all the little details that I didn't really get to enjoy the day of. Kyle and I really enjoyed ourselves thanks to Allison, Mom and Melissa who worked so hard so that we could have a wonderful shower. Also thanks to everyone who came to our little lady's special day. It is a day that we will never forget.

I am already thinking of brilliant ways to find out the gender or baby number two one day. Sometimes I wonder if I missed my life calling to be a party planner.

I would call this shower an Unordinary Smith Adventure. :)