Little Alivia's Here

I have been so wrapped up in the joy and busy roll of a new mom again, and I wouldn't change it for anything. It's so wonderful to have our little princess here. Jason and I are adjusting to life with two kids- I don't know how many times I've looked at him and said, "I can't believe she's here and we have another little girl!" It's almost surreal.
I've had some really tiring moments as any new mommy would, especially after a night of cluster feeding. We stayed with Jason's family the first few nights up until Christmas day and it was so wonderful to have the care and support of Jason's parent's. Leslie and Jason tag teamed the little girls on Christmas Eve so I could get some MUCH needed sleep. The night before was the hardest as she had really kicked in her appetite and my milk hadn't quite come in yet. They supplemented a couple of night feeds so I could sleep and pump instead and it was great to be able to recoup from the exhaustion.
Since then the feeding has gone really well and nursing isn't nearly as stressful as I remember it being in the beginning with Brooklynn. Again, with all the learning curves with the first baby things just seemed a lot harder.
On the note of things not being as stressful, it's just a lot easier on many levels this time around. Alivia is a great baby. She is feeding great and loves to sleep. I have been able to rule out the foods early on that would cause her to be colic (again found out the hard way with Brooklynn).
I think Heavenly Father knows the order that your babies need to come to you. I think Brooklynn was resilient enough to put up with me not really knowing much first time around, and that Alivia would be a good transition baby from one to two.
I have been trying to be accurate when I tell people about my labor and delivery with Alivia and for the most part I'd say it went pretty good. I was induced last time around so I can't really compare the two experiences... but if I was to compare this time was a lot better- especially the recovery part. With Brooklynn I had a much harder recovery. This time around I have been a lot more comfortable right away, and I wasn't delirious from morphine when Alivia was born which I really preferred. I was able to hold her and look at her and be completely "with it" so to speak.
Okay so things started off on Tuesday at around 4am. We had gone to Jay's parent's early that night for FHE and the topic of "when this baby will come" was discussed and I overheard my father in-law quietly say, "there is no way this baby is coming before Christmas." Well I think it's safe to say that Alivia wanted to prove him wrong. I also told them that I had a full moon on my side that night, plus lunar eclipse so maybe a baby would come a lot sooner than everyone thought- I was right!
So I started to time contractions right away because they felt different than the ones I'd been having randomly for the past week. They were actual cramps and I noticed them happening pretty consecutively. I knew I wasn't going to be going to the hospital anytime soon so I tried to fall back asleep after an hour of timing contractions that were 5-6 mins apart and surprisingly I fell asleep. I woke Jason up at 7:30am and told him we'd have to go to the hospital that day and he was surprised and said, "well we should start timing contractions" so I showed him my notes and the twenty-odd contractions I had already timed- he was pretty shocked that this was for real. So we hung around the house and packed our bags and called his sister's over to our house to watch Brooklynn. We went to the hospital around 11am. They admitted me right away and I was 4cm dilated (it was actually really quiet there-who plans to have babies at Christmas right?) They broke my water around 2pm and I had her at 5:24pm. I spent most of my time in the shower and I'd say the last hour or so before she was born I was trying to go as long as I could with no pain medication. I felt I was really starting to loose it and the pain was so unbearable that I asked for an epidural. The nurse wanted to check me before but I was in so much pain I couldn't lay down. I was in so much pain because she was starting to crown, and my body was starting to push on it's own. I got an epidural at 4:40pm and was pushing at 4:45pm, so needless to say it didn't take effect...
I was so shocked when she was born at how little she was. I really thought she was going to be a big baby for some reason, but she was so tiny and precious. She is a little mini of her dad, their baby photos look soo similar. However, she has a little bum chin like her mom and Brooklynn.
Because it was so quiet at the hospital we were able to to stay in the delivery room and have visitors. The nurses were so nice and relaxed with us. We even scored a private room that night too. I don't know if I could have asked for things to work out any better.
Alivia has brought such a wonderful spirit with her and into our home and family. I'm excited to see her grow with her big sister and become the best of friends.

Our Terrific Troll

A week ago my sister Amanda aka Troll, aka Auntie Amanda/ Auntie Troll (she has a few titles around here and Brooklynn knows her by all of them- haha!) took Brooklynn for the WHOLE day. She watched her literally from 9-9. She discovered in that time how much energy, how much she can eat and just how much fun she capable of having and needless to say had some good ol' bonding time with our little princess. Princess, is probably the best title for her considering that day Brooklynn was spoiled rotten by her Auntie! I hope I don't leave anything out as I backtrack the events. It started off by going to Cora's for breakfast-yum! Then they played at Tommy Kay Play, went back to her Auntie's house for lunch and a 3 hour nap that they took together, then she went to Five Guys for dinner, Oh- did I mention she played and ate with all of Amanda's roommates? Well, she did and getting all that sweet attention can make her day like nothing else all on it's own. After Five Guys for dinner she went to IKEA with Amanda and her roommates (we all know IKEA is fun too) than she came back to our house while Jason and I were at our ward Christmas party. She got to play some more, stay up late and then get put to bed.
It was absolutely amazing for Jason and I to have that day off from parental duties to tackle our home and check a ton of stuff off our to do lists (mentioned in previous post).
I had been waiting for Amanda to send me photos she took of their day together so I could dedicate a post to it. Finally, I have them!

Amanda has set the bar pretty high even for myself to compete with. Thanks again for giving her such an awesome day. We can't thank you enough :)

~December~

Ward Christmas Party. Dec 4, 2010 and almost 38 weeks pregnant.

This was a couple nights ago. Random but I'm throwing it in there because it's halarious. This is the worst she's ever been and I gave her cereal before bed because she didn't have a big dinner. Needless to say she had to have a bath and didn't get to bed until way to late!

Here I am Dec 12, 2010. The 10 day countdown (give or take, I KNOW!)

We are slowly but surely checking things off our list(s) to prepare for our baby girl and Christmas. I've really tried to not get overwhelmed and I think it's working better than I thought. I haven't signed myself up for much and with that I've kept my sanity. My biggest battle is cleaning. I have been slowly purging our house the last month. I gave my sister like two garbage bags full of stuff. We've purchased a new couch, which I LOVE, gutted and painted our bedroom. I've been washing and organizing all the baby stuff that I put away too. We've come quite far in a short amount of time, and with all this being done my house is staying(somewhat) a little more organized.
Christmas is small for us this year. My wonderful husbands agreed with me that our couch was our Christmas gift. I feel bad if he's settling for something I wanted most but he's just that sweet. In reality, even though he hasn't out right admitted it to me, I think he's more than happy with that purchase too. He's been able to comfortably host many "gaming nights" on it with his friends. It's a sectional and much more space efficient for our place and it's safe to say he's been able to take advantage of that!
I guess it's time to maybe take some bets as to when this baby will come. I know it might be wishful thinking but I really do think that she will come early. I'm actually going to go ahead and bet/hope she is here on or around the 14th. Yes, that's in two days! My reasons for justifying this is that I have another appointment on the 13th, and they are going to see if they can't stretch me out a bit... (sorry if that sounds graphic) My doctor did it a week ago and when I stood up I was scared to walk. It made that big of a difference right than and there but slowly I felt kind of the same the day after. I've been having random contractions at night and I never had that with Brooklynn, last night they were even painful but I only had 4 or 5. Anyways when I factor all this in AND the fact my baby, according to my last ultrasound is pushing 7lbs or more already it leaves me a little confident that she might debut a lot sooner. I also picked the 14th because Brooklynn was April 14th, maybe that day will be good to me again :)