More Pictures from hospital

I can't believe it's taken me so long to get more pictures up of Farrah. Actually, I can believe it.

Farrah is as beautiful as she is sweet and soooo cuddly!! Bella continues to be sweet to her; and soft. She does say "put baby down" when she wants me to play sometimes but otherwise has handled the change well.

Here are some cute pictures from the hospital:





Nana and GDaddy:

GG:


Official Weight:


Fuzzy head of hair:



Sweet Feet:


Love these pictures:

Bella meeting Farrah

We arrived home Saturday at lunch. Complete with our parents, decorations and a yummy brunch that Chris' dad fixed. Here's the video of Bella. I love her reaction. She continues to be great at home with Farrah!



The Birth Story is below. We have some great shots Chris took at the hospital, hopefully I'll get them up soon!

Birth Story

So much I could write/jab about, but I thought I'd get out the birth story quickly before I forget things. Plus, finding the time to blog with two is a little hard!

Basically, I loved the induction. LOVED IT. Bella's birth was amazing and wonderful because it was my first. So memorable. But incredibly long and all the nervousness that goes along with giving birth for the first time. This was nice to have it planned and it went smoothly and quick! Thanks for all the prayers; that no doubt were answered perfectly.

Think I'll do this in a timeline.

Nov 19th:

1:30am: Chris and I finally go to sleep. We were nervously cleaning, finally packing, and snacking on Twizzlers like they were going out of style.

4:30: I got up to shower and get ready

5:45: My parents arrive to hang with Bella

6:30: We arrive at the hospital. We do paperwork and get comfortable in the Labor and Delivery room. It was like checking into a hotel, much different than being brought in via wheelchair and in pain.

7:00: I get the monitors on for Farrah's heart rate and the contraction monitor (in which we see I'm having contractions 6 min apart already). Once I see them on the screen, I could correlate the tightening feeling. So that was cool that my body was kinda ready anyhow. I also get the IV put in.

7:30: I start getting the Pitocin

8:30: Doctor Seigel comes to check on me. I'm at 2 cm; she breaks my water. Already things were moving way faster than I had expected!

Family visits. Rest. Family visits. Contractions are starting to make me uncomfortable and quickly.

11:00ish: Epidural. Heaven.

12:45: Doctor comes by to check on progress. (I haven't been checked for dilation again until now) I'm at 7-8 cm! Doctor says early afternoon baby! The rest of the family rush down as not to miss anything.

1:00: I kinda feel the urge to push. I didn't feel this with Bella, so I wasn't sure if it was the right feeling that people talk about or not. I tell the nurse (and I should say, we had an awesome nurse) and she says I'm at 10cm and we'll check again at 1:30.

1:45: She lets me push once and says, "Um, let me get the doctor"

1:50: Doctor runs in, literally out of breath (my doctor is in the building next door) Doctor Seigel is wonderful, too!

1:56: 3 pushes, Farrah is here!

I am like, "I just had a baby?"

It was so different this time! I honestly thought I would have a baby that night. Crazy!

Farrah is amazing. A perfect bundle of joy!!! My first reaction was that she looked a lot like Bella. They still favor each other a lot, but when we get some more pictures up, I'll tell you who I think she looks like...

Farrah Kate is just precious. I am in LOVE all over again. God is so good.

Ever Wondered How to Swaddle A Baby?

An instructional video c/o Katie and Julie. A very bored Katie and Julie. A window into our world.

Late-Night Farrah

Here's little Farrah last night. She's a champ, and looks like Bella when she sleeps, but not so much awake. Can't wait to see what she looks like a week from now, when the swelling and red skin dissipate a bit.

Katie is doing great, feeling great, and is already moving around exponentially more than she did last time. Thankful to God for all the blessings.

Friends, some have asked about visiting, and unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that we can accept non-family visitors. Because of the H1N1 flu, visitation has been greatly-restricted. Just ask my brother, Brian, who walked in for ten seconds, and was all but thrown out by "Devil Nurse," who actually turned out to be a pretty nice lady in the end. We'll have to do home visitation instead...

Farrah Kate Green

1:56pm, 7lbs, 8oz., 20"

From LABOR Day - Farrah

Farrah Kate Green

She's Here. She's beautiful. Still waiting on weight and length. Time was 1:56pm.

Momma is doing remarkably well.

From LABOR Day - Farrah

LABOR Day - 1:30pm

10CM!!

We're at 10cm, but casually waiting for the doctor to return, with her staff, before pushing. All of you 2 o'clock-hour guessers are on to something. We'll start pushing somewhere around 2pm.

More to come...next update may be the baby's stats!

LABOR Day - 12:45pm

8CM!!!

Whoa, Katie is rocking and rolling. Looks like an early afternoon baby! Checking with the Dr. at 1:30pm, and we'll probably start pushing.

From LABOR Day - Farrah

LABOR Day - 10:45am

Still progressing. Contractions are hanging around 2 minutes apart. Getting way more painful. Waiting for Dr. Siegel to return for her next visit. In the mean time, I've been keeping her (annoyed) entertained with Christmas Music, especially The Chipmunks. I don't think she likes it.

Katie just ordered the epidural. No more pain in a few minutes.

Here's a video of the room environment about an hour ago...

LABOR Day - 7:45am

Dr. Siegel just came in and broke Katie's water and upped the pitocin. Katie is at 2cm. Funny enough, she was having contractions six minutes apart before we even arrived, but because she's a trooper, she didn't even know.

The doc thinks Farrah will be about 8.5 lbs. Good times. Here's a little video so you can sit in the room with us.

LABOR Day - 6:00am

6:00am

From LABOR Day - Farrah

It's about 6:00am, and this is already so different than when Katie had Bella. First, Katie didn't have contractions for two solid days before we arrived at the hospital. Second, it's like checking into a hotel. Gregg and Julie were at the house at 5:30am to help get Bella off to school this morning (oh, and Bella slept in her big girl bed for the first time last night).

We're both very relaxed, and more importantly, Katie is completely comfortable. We're getting settled in the room, and getting ready for the day. Praying for a noon delivery. HAHA!

Zoo with our Big Girl

Friday we took Bella to the Zoo. I keep trying to eat up each moment with "just the three of us!" Bella loves the zoo, and loved showing daddy the birds, g-raffs (giraffes), zebras and elephants.

But I also think she could love a park with just hand washing stations. The girl would wash, dry, wash, dry, wash, dry. Loves it.

We rode on the back of the train for the first time (faces backwards).

It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and weekend, and we are so thankful for our soon-to-be Big Sister!

The Countdown is On!

So, I am getting induced at 6am on Thursday morning!

Chris, who documented so well with Bella (click here to see!!), will be the communicator for all of you interested! He did so well last time. We read through these the other night, and he was like, "I gotta do that again!" So be checking the blog Thursday for updates :)

Now for a little fun -- Guess the following questions by commenting on this post. Let's see who wins / gets the closest!

1) Time Farrah will be born
2) Birth Weight
3) Birth Height
4) Who will she look like? (just for fun)

Bella was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21" long - born at 8:36 on a Thursday night...

Sprinkles

I have such great friends.

Our small group girls threw me a surprise "sprinkle" a few weeks ago. We showed up to group and the girls took me out to Everybody's Pizza and had some super cute gifts and diapers for Farrah. (While the boys stayed back and babysat the kiddos!) They are so great. (Pictures to come!)

Last weekend, my best friends hosted a sprinkle at Morgan's house - we got together with husbands and watched the game. They even had a theme:


The food was soooo good. So good in fact, Morgan ran out of her yummy chili! :) They decorated so cute. I didn't expect all of that. I felt so loved by both groups. And I love just hanging with them.

Here are some shots from last weekend. We took pictures a little late, so we missed some folks being in the pictures. But thank you to all that gave us diapers and wipes!!! I feel so prepared now :)

"About to Pop" Decorations:


With Morgan's cute tissue balls:


Some of the girls!

Melissa, Kristy, Morgan, Me, Kelly and Chelsie.

And the boys playing frisbee:

Wiggles

Last Sunday, Bella and I went with Amanda and Noah to see the Wiggles!

Now, one of the best parts is how we got these tickets... My mom heard on the radio that a certain car dealership was giving tickets away if you test drove their car. Who better to do this than my Granddaddy? He loved it, and loved being able to give them to Bella! :)

I didn't bring our camera, and snuck in our FLIP camera b/c the tickets said no video recording. But then, the Wiggles guy was like, "Feel free to take as many videos as you want!!" I did so, but it's hard to catch stuff in the dark. Here are a couple of Bella and Noah getting down:





And when we left, Bella told Noah, "Hold Hands!" And they held hands the whole way out. I think Noah was a little puzzled. It was awesome!!!



What a fun, memorable time - Bella's first concert! :)

38 week appt

I had my 38 week appt today, as well as an ultrasound.

We are still good to go on the induction date of Nov 19th! Yay! 9 days away....

Farrah is measuring about 7 lbs 7 oz according to the ultrasound (which was off by 7 oz with Bella) and everything looks perfect!

These pictures were not as great, but I wanted to add it anyhow. Both of her little feet are on my right side, which totally makes sense as that is where she likes to kick me ALL afternoon and evenings! (She is so still into late in the morning... maybe she'll be a good sleeper-inner) :)

Oh, and I asked, "She's still a girl, right??" :) Because I never had confirmed after that 20 week appt... and she is. :)

Ahhhhhhhh - choooooooooo

Ode to 37 weeks

I am not sure what ode means. It's just the title that came to me.

I turned 37 weeks on Wednesday. Counting the days until my Nov 19th induction! We also go to the doc on Tuesday for another ultrasound. I just love those. Getting a little glimpse of what the baby looks like... I can't wait to see her for real!!

I think she's a little cramped in there! I had contractions early this morning for about 3 hours. Strange. I guess when I woke up with them in the night, and moaned and groaned, and I even did a hot bath - I expected them to continue. I was thinking about all I needed to do since I had not packed and my house is a MESS!! But then, about 7am I got back to sleep and they stopped. I am thankful I have a little more time. :)

And when I say our house is a mess, I don't mean our usual Katie/Chris/Bella mess (which is bad in itself) I mean sheetrock dust tracked everywhere type of mess. We are wrapping up a big renovation / addition on the back of the house. I should say, I am helping pick out stuff (paint, fixtures) but Chris is a workhorse. The room is now painted and he's still back there working on installing lights... he's such a great husband. He probably also enjoys the quietness back there. I love him.

With the addition, the girls' room got a new closet!!! It is awesome. I love that there is so much room and it's so organized!!! We are getting flooring this week. And last will be finishing up the new laundry/mud room. Fun stuff. It looks so great.

Family has been so good to us. Helping us clean, install attic stairs & attic floor... cleaning the house, and watching Bella. So thankful for family.

I do have to say the second pregnancy has been much harder than the first. I seriously don't remember having ANY pain the first time around until contractions started! This time around, Chris has probably had his fill of my complaining. He puts up with it well. :) I have just been "ready" for about 10 weeks now!! A little impatient. And therefore, I feel like it's all I talk about. Sorry friends.

Even with frequent potty stops, all the pain, and body changing that happens, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Looking forward to Christmas this year and my new white tree! I bought it last year after Christmas - and I think I'll put it in the new room. It's going to be a girl theme!!! White tree with hot pink ornaments! Can't wait to be cuddled up at Christmas with my sweet hubby and two beautifully sweet girls! So blessed.

Pumpkin Carving

Last Sunday, we carved a pumpkin. Not a lot of planning behind the event or the pumpkin... Chris and I just went for it.










Crazy to me how much she's grown in a year!! Speaking of, she just had her 2 yr check up, and she's 3 ft tall!