Almost 2 weeks old!

I can't believe Alyssa is almost two weeks old! We had to move her out of our room last night because she won't stop making her cute little baby noises!! She is SOUND asleep, but grunts all night long. So we moved her out (I really wasn't ready for it, but Randy decided we needed some sleep) and she slept almost the entire night! She didn't wake up until 4:30am, got up to eat, then went back to sleep until 6:30, ate, then woke up at 8:30! I can handle a schedule like that!!! She is growing SO fast. I wish I knew how much she weighed right now. I would guess somewhere in the 10 lbs. range. Her umbilical cord fell off last week (much earlier than my other kids, but that is because it got ripped when we were trying to figure out how to get the clamp off of it that the hospital had left on!), so she got a big kid bath!

The kids are doing REALLY well with her. I'll find Luke laying on the floor next to her talking to her or kissing her. He really likes her. Kate still thinks she's the best thing in the world. She is still trying to figure out this only milk diet. She asked me yesterday if Alyssa could drink water. She was really confused that Alyssa couldn't even drink water yet! She is very interested in looking in Alyssa's mouth to see no teeth (she and Luke are so close, she can't remember Luke without teeth). It's so fun seeing her figure these things out!


Luke loves to watch Kate play on starfall.com. I'm sure he could do the games about as well as she could!


Kate is learning how to climb trees.


Luke is all boy. He always has a stick and loves to poke things, especially ant hills. He is OBSESSED with ants. Walks are a bit of a challenge because he stops at every anthill. In Louisiana, that's about every two feet.


Alyssa and Dad all snuggled up.


Alyssa's first big kid bath.


Kate is always the mother; Luke's just in it for the cool toys. :)


Immediately after church both Kate and Luke ran in to find Alyssa. It is so cute to me how much they both love her!

Baby Alyssa

It's taken me forever, but here she is!!! Alyssa Carolyn arrived on Tuesday, April 7th at 11:15am. My labor was short and to the point! Three and a half hours (only 45 minutes of hard contractions) after my pitocin started, she was born!!! She was 8 lbs. 7 oz. and 21" long. She is the best baby I've ever seen!!!! We are so happy to have her here!!!

Here are lots of pictures. I posted so many mainly for me, since this is my journal of sorts. Shows how great I am at keeping up a journal. Enjoy them! We're sure enjoying her!!!



One vernix covered little girl! I think she would have stayed in there for a really long time!

It was so fun, I'd never gotten to hold one of my babies this quickly!


This is the first one of our kids that Randy got to cut their cord.


One proud Daddy!!!


8 lbs. 7 oz. 21" long. If only they'd weighed her before she peed everywhere right after she was born. I would have gotten a few more ounces!!


Making sure there are ten fingers and ten toes!


Kate's first time to see Alyssa. She was more concerned about me being in bed and why I didn't want to get up. Alyssa was not quite two hours old.


She already knew what to do the second she got Alyssa in her arms: Give her lots of kisses!


Such a pretty baby! She was about two hours old and still not dressed yet. We really did bring clothes for her. We were just having so much fun holding her.


Kate was excited to take pictures of Alyssa with her own camera.


Truly the world's best big sister!

Our first almost family picture. Luke was taking a nap, so he didn't get to see Alyssa until the next day.




4 hours old.


Peacefully sleeping, as usual.


Daddy is already teaching us to make funny faces.


Alyssa's first bath-- almost 24 hours old. She slept through the night her first night!


Ready to go home!!


Luke's first look at her-- He said, "Oh, Alyssa's out of Mom's tummy" like it was just how he expected it.


Then on to more important matters, like watching whatever movie was on in the car.


All three kids together for the first time. Luke doesn't care about anything except the movie.


Randy trying to get everyone in from the car. It was nap time for Luke-- this is why we didn't interrupt his nap the day before to come to the hospital.



Kate was dying to hold her the second we got inside.


The three girls together. I'll be thrilled to lose the fat baby face!!!


Kate wanted to tuck Alyssa in with her own pink blankey.


A bit of a size difference with both girls in Alyssa's crib. She won't be sleeping there for a few months.


Two sisters, already the best of friends.


Kate was fascinated with Alyssa getting in her jamas. Kate is really sure Alyssa is the coolest doll.


Already the little mother.


The tail of the tornado that hit our neighborhood on Thursday night. The damage around our neighborhood is pretty impressive, although no houses were damaged.


Easter egg hunt on Saturday with Grandma Todd



Our attempt at Easter pictures. Kate and Alyssa have matching Easter dresses. I'm having way too much fun having two girls to put in matching clothes!!!



The closest we got to getting everyone looking in the same place at the same time. Even Alyssa looked!


We tried our best!!!

No news means nothing exciting

So I'm 40 weeks today. Hurray, right? Wrong. I'm SO done being pregnant, I feel like I'm going to burst!!!!! Last Tuesday/Wednesday, after having 17 hours straight of regular contractions, I really thought that was it. Wrong again. I went to the doctor, had a non-stress test done, just to have him tell me I'm having contractions every ten minutes (really, I hadn't noticed. I only had been awake since 1am they were so uncomfortable!), but not dilating from them. I was very hopeful that I would have her this weekend. But to no avail, it's Sunday night, and no end in sight. I have an appointment first thing in the morning. She is still SOOOOOO high that I know nothing is happening soon. When I have her, I'm sure everyone will hear me yelling for joy. Until then, I would say I'm enjoying sleeping through the night, but I'm not doing that either. I'm resigned to the fact that she'll be born April 15th. That's the "no-later-than" date that Randy has given me before he wants me to get induced. Here we go! 10 more days until then!

Irony. . .

We bought a new camera, because I was panicked about the idea of not having one this close to my due date with Alyssa. Then a couple of days ago I was cleaning out my car (which I had done multiple times to look for my camera), and there was my camera under an umbrella. Great, now what?! I guess this means lots of pictures at the hospital!

Here's our update. I was dilated 1 1/2 cm at my appointment last week. HURRAY! That is more than I've ever done, and to be there at 37 1/2 weeks was amazing to me. I have another appointment today, so we'll see if there has been any progress. Randy was supposed to fly a 10 hour mission today, and I just had so much anxiety about it! The idea of me not being able to get a hold of him for 15 hours was just a little much for me. So he got off the mission. I know nothing is going to happen today, but I still feel much better now!

Kate asks daily if today is the day that Alyssa is coming. Our house is all ready to go. I have her bassinet set up in my room, baby swings up, bouncy seat out, everything washed and clean. Now we just need the baby to decide to come! Kate can be found just about at any given time with a stack of paper, markers, glitter glue, scissors, stapler, and a hole punch. She is content for HOURS with her art projects.

Luke seems to have picked up the art bug as well. He is VERY into drawing these days. Amazingly, for a two and a half year old, his pictures are very clear! He draws snowmen, tootles (from Mickey Mouse clubhouse), and smiley faces VERY well. I am amazed with what new pictures he comes up with. Right now he is sitting next to me coloring on my iPhone (with a drawing app, not really drawing ON my phone). My kids are definitely little techies. If they get a hold of either of our phones, they know how to turn on movies, how to find the drawing apps, how to start a game. . . Needless to say, mine has to be put away, or Luke would spend his day watching movies on my phone. That's education for ya!

Hopefully today's doctor's appointment will bring good news! Since my sister Sarah had her baby yesterday, I'm ready to go! I keep telling Alyssa that her cousin Tessa decided to come, so now it's her turn! I'm sure she won't come until April 20th, which is my "no later than date" from my doctor. We'll see if he sticks to that same date at my appointment today.

SO FRUSTRATING!

I'm really upset right now. . . I can't find my camera! I'm freaking out for two reasons: I can't stand the idea of being this close to having a baby and not having a camera! Plus, there were lots of pictures on it that needed to be put on my computer still (the danger of having a big memory card). So I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth. I've just been getting things ready for Alyssa to come (our room looks more like a baby nursery than a master bedroom). We moved Luke out of his crib into a twin sized bed. He's doing really well with it. It was rough for the first couple of days, but he seems to be very adjusted now. We moved the crib into Kate's room (I'm not ready to give up my upstairs playroom yet-- it sounds ridiculous to have them sharing a room when we have an extra bedroom upstairs, but she'll be in a bassinet in our room for a few months still.)

So that's it for us! I'm on weekly doctor's appointments now. My doctor is going to start checking me at my next one. My next-door-neighbor is due four days before me. We go to the same doctor; he already checked her, and she's dilated to 1cm. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it would be nice if I was, too!!! I SO hope I'll go into labor. I know that I'll at least have her by April 20th (that's the very last day he'll let me go before getting induced). So there's at least some sort of light at the end of the tunnel!!! I'm actually feeling remarkably well. No complaints! I just wish I could sleep through the night. I keep waking up for like 2 hours at a time each night.

I'll at least post again after my next appointment (Wednesday) if there is any progress.

Kate's Birthday

We had SO much fun at Kate's birthday party. I was absolutely worn out after our two days of celebration, but it was well worth it. She is STILL talking about her birthday party, now a week later.

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, which is a good thing. Alyssa has dropped at least four inches. I started noticing something was funny when all of a sudden my pants didn't fit. I thought that was odd, but just put on a different pair of pants (I chalked it up to too many Super Bowl snacks!). Then I went to rest my hands on my belly, right on top of her bum, and it wasn't there anymore! I started pushing around, and noticed that it was almost even with my belly button!!! Randy thought I was crazy. Then when he went to give me a hug this morning, he realized that my belly was very differently shaped than it had been. Hmm, guess I'm not crazy after all! We'll have to see what the doctor has to say tomorrow! I'm headed to Arizona all week next week for a grown up week by myself! Randy is taking the week off work and staying home with Kate and Luke. This baby needs to stay in for a while longer. I know she isn't ready to come out yet!



Here's my future Elder Todd. He looks so cute with his new haircut. He looks like a little missionary!


We celebrated Kate's birthday as a family on the day before for Family Home Evening. She requested fancy macaroni and cheese and roasted broccoli for her birthday dinner. She ate more broccoli than pasta, which obviously I wasn't complaining about.


Her new dress from Grandma Thomason. She loves it!


What was Luke doing while Sissy was opening up all of her boring girl birthday presents? He was reading books. When he realized there wasn't going to be much he would care about, he was gone. All boy!



Kate is in love with her singing birthday card that Grandma Thomason sent to her. It has "disappeared" for a while, because I was done hearing it. Noisy toys don't bother me much, but I heard that one a lot. I'm sure it will resurface again soon and Kate will be thrilled.

Luke went to work right away putting together a puzzle that Kate got.



Here's Kate in her birthday princess skirt. It is the most gigantic, pouffy thing, but it is SO cute on her!!!


This is our pink castle cake that had to have pink sprinkles and pink candles. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to. . . but she LOVED it, so that's what matters! It was the last thing I did to get ready for the party, and I was already beat my the time I started frosting it. Oh well!


The girls all made princess hats and princess necklaces at the party. Here's my cute birthday girl!


Kate loved opening presents two days in a row. What a fun birthday!