Samantha's First Week

Samantha's first week has been a nice calm one in comparison to Hannah's first week at home. My mom came up and watched Hannah for us while we were in the hospital and then stayed with us for our first night and day home. She then left and Adam's mom came up to stay with us for 4 days. We relaxed, hung out, went out to breakfast, went out to lunch, had our first doctor's appt (where we found out Samantha weighs 6lbs 4oz after dropping to 5lbs 15oz upon release from the hospital...yay for gaining weight!), Adam's mom helped us with some organizing and Samantha had her first bath. I am still in shock how smooth things have gone...perhaps it is because I envisioned the worst all these months about having 2 kids that now this seems pretty good to me. Here are some pictures to document our first week:

Hanging out with big sister Hannah:


Hanging out with big sister Tulip:


Hanging out with the boys (On the left is Hannah's friend Sydney's dad "Eric" and her little brother "Ryan" who was born in July):


Hanging out with Mommy:


Hanging out with her Nali (Adam's mom):


The all important sleep:




Getting her first bath - Hannah and Daddy washed her and Mommy and Hannah dried her...Hannah is such a wonderful helper! :)

Welcome Samantha!

Samantha was born December 28th, 2008 at 6:49am. She weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. We barely made it to the hospital as I had my first contraction at around 5:30am and by the time we left the house about 10 minutes later my contractions were only about 1 minutes apart. We had an interesting car ride to the hospital as I was screaming in pain and Adam was trying to drive as fast as I was yelling at him to. :) We pulled up to the ER doorway, left the car there, and Adam ran pushing me through the maze that is the UC Med Center in a wheelchair as I continued to freak out that I was going to be delivering any minute. I swear it was like the movies. When we got into Labor and Delivery I was already 8cm dilated and a few minutes later I was in a delivery room, pushed about 4-5 times and out came Samantha! It all happened so fast we still can't believe it. Obviously since she came so fast I had no time for drugs...I was quite disappointed about that but I clearly did not have a choice...good times.
We came home on Tuesday and all has been well. Samantha is doing great and Hannah is a wonderful big sister. Tulip was a little concerned that she had another sister but is being super gentle when sniffing her or checking her out...she had plenty of practice with Hannah and I think she knows the rules. Here are some pictures for everyone to enjoy...Happy New Year!

Baby Samantha:


Hannah loving her new sister:


Happy Family:


The little yellow hat in these pictures was given to us at the hospital and was knitted by the residents at Eskaton Village Retirement Home which is where I use to work as an Activity Coordinator. I thought that was a really nice coincidence that her first little hat was knitted by the retirement home residence where I use to work and loved to work. Here is another picture of Samantha in it:

Exactly the same...ughhh!

Today I had my 39 1/2 week appt and guess what?!...nothing has changed! I am still only 1cm dialted, although my nurse was able to push me along to 2cm but said I could go back. I am no more effaced but Samantha's head is a little lower. My NP can't even believe that I am still pregnant and not really progressing towards what could possibly be labor. So next week if I am still pregnant on the 2nd of January and past my due date they would schedule a fetal monitoring test and then at 41 weeks I would get to pick my due date and I would be induced...let's hope she can come on her own b/c I do not want to be induced again. From my NP's approximate measurements Samantha is about 7 1/2-8lbs right now although I never trust these measurements. So on I suffer.

In Hannah news after about 2 months in her big girl room she has finally figured out that she can get out of bed on her own! For the last 2 months we have been amazed that she has not tried to get out of bed and continued to call us to come get her. Of course we had no problem with this but were laughing at how she just did not get it. Well on Monday I kept her home with me and after about 2 hours of napping (Hannah in her room and Tulip & I in the living room) Tulip and I hear a twisting of a door knob. I was a little shocked and even Tulip sat up b/c she was wondering what the noise was. Both of us went over to Hannah's door and waited until she figured out how to open the door and when the door finally opened there was Hannah standing with a big smile on her face and said "I got out of bed on my own and opened the door!". She was so proud of herself. I told her "You did!". Then she told me she even turned off her sound machine (we have an ocean sound machine to drown out noise in our house since our house is so small) all on her own...again so proud of herself. It was really cute. Since then she has gotten out of bed on her own several more times, always with a big smile and proud of herself but there are still times she calls us...she cracks us up.

I hope everyone had a good x-mas...we all got lots of goodies here, I guess we were good all year. I gave Adam the "Scene It - Seinfeld" game and we played it last night. That game rocks and it was so much fun...we can't wait to challenge Paul to a game.

I've gone backwards! WTF??!! (UPDATED WITH PICTURE AT THE BOTTOM)

O.K. so first I have to apologize for not updating...my internet has been up and down the last week and I have been really frustrated with my Internet Co. Apparently there is something interrupting the line and they cannot get AT & T out here until the 29th!!! So until then I may have the Internet and I may not...how incredibly frustrating!!! Anyone have a good Internet company they can recommend?

Second, when I went to the doctor on Thursday I had them check to see how I was progressing and I went from 2cm dilated before Thanksgiving back to 1cm!! WTF?!! How frustrating! My nurse did some scrapping thing that was suppose to help thin my membranes out and hopefully get things moving along but so far nothing yet and today is Monday! I have been walking around like crazy trying to walk Samantha out of me, and she is so low that I swear sometimes it feels like she is going to fall out but no labor yet. I have also been eating more spicy food...well I should say spicy for me, and nothing. Also highly recommended by many people including my nurse for getting labor going were relations with my husband, much to his happiness, but still nothing! So please, please, if anyone has any suggestions I would be happy to hear them to get Samantha on her way out into the world. I am quite uncomfortable.

Last, in my many attempts to walk Samantha out, we went to Arden Fair Mall on Saturday night to have dinner and visit with Santa Claus. Every year that we have gone to get our picture done there with Santa we could always take our own picture and not have to pay for a package, but after standing in line for 10 minutes we discovered that was not the case this year. Adam was ready to get out of line as the cheapest purchase was ONE 4X6 FOR $15 but seriously how do you tell a 3 year old that we are not going to stand in line anymore. So we got up to Santa about 1/2 hour later and I was very disappointed with him. He was quite grouchy...I told Hannah to tell him what she wants for x-mas and he says to me "Are you going to take a picture?"...I mean come on! Can you at least let the girl tell you what she wants and you can pretend to care and be interested, isn't that your job?! While the people working there were taking pictures I too was standing next to them taking some pictures with my digital camera. We were done quickly and then we had to get into another line to pick up our picture and pay for it. There was a large family in front of us and Adam got a bright idea that we could just leave right then b/c we didn't have the picture and so we didn't have to pay for it and he grabs Hannah and starts to leave! I of course was not happy with this idea but stupidly decided to try and follow Adam and sneak out simply b/c I was not happy with Santa's services. Hannah and Adam were gone in a flash but as soon as I tried I hear "MISS! OH MISS! YOU DIDN'T PAY!" being yelled at me. I was mortified!!! I quickly went back and told them that of course I was not trying to leave that my daughter simply just wanted to look at something around the corner b/c she had been in line for so long I thought I would take her over there real quick while the family in front of us was paying. The guy at the cash register said "You can't believe how many people try to leave without paying.". And I acting like I was shocked said "Of course we weren't doing that!". I paid my $15 and left mortified with my one picture and gave Adam the glaring eye when I finally caught up to him and Hannah for having to take the brunt of the embarassement for his idea. He felt that if we were not given the picture yet we were not stealing or trying to get away with anything...regardless I felt like a criminal! I just don't like how that feels, I am not use to it. So here is the $15 picture...I think it was worth it b/c Hannah looks cute...Merry Christmas!

Officially a longer pregnancy

So I have officially been pregnant longer with Samantha then I was with Hannah. This actually became official on Thursday I am just a little behind on blogging it...you know bed rest is such a busy job. :) Obviously I am sure the bed rest has a lot to do with the fact that I am still pregnant and per my nurse at my appt. on Thursday I can officially cease bed rest on Wednesday when I will be 38 weeks...yay! By then I will have been on bed rest for 3 weeks! I am shocked that I have been here for 2 1/2 weeks now...I never thought I would still be pregnant.

In other news Hannah has been wisked away by her grandparents until Monday. Adam's mom just left with her to Marin where she will be with Adam's mom until tomorrow afternoon. They are going to a performance of the Marin Nutracker where Hannah's cousin plays an angel. Then tomorrow afternoon my parents will pick her up and she will stay with them until Monday and my mom will take her to the Steinhart Aquarium and then drive her back up here on Monday. She will of course have a blast but Adam and I will really miss her. We have never had 2 nights to ourselves since she was born...yes I know it is strange...so I guess now is as good as time as any, that is unless Samantha decides to come this weekend. We shall see...I will keep you posted.

Superior Scribbler Award!

Tara has nominated my blog for a Superior Scribbler Award. I have never heard of it but I don't care it is an award and I am honored! Thanks Tara! :)

Now my job is to pass it along to 5 other bloggers who I think are worthy of it. I must admit I don't read too many blogs so this won't be too tough.

First I will pass this honor right back to Tara because I love to read about all the adventures the twins put her through and she has a great way of writing about it.

Next her husband Paul is a great blogger, although he has had a lack of updates lately on his blog and rather has been keeping us updated via his Twitter Account they are very funny and some in random ways.

Christina has adorable updates about her life with her little girl Ashley and always has great pictures or videos to go along with it.

My next nominee I actually don't even know. I kind of feel like a blog stalker but Christina's friend Kerry has a great blog that is linked on Christina's blog site. I stumbled across it towards the beginning of my pregnancy with Samantha and at the time Kerry had a 3 year old girl and a brand new baby girl and so I started reading her blog as "research" for what would soon be my life. It turns out Kerry is HILARIOUS and her stories are so great. Christina knows I am reading her friend's blog but I don't think that Kerry knows yet. I guess now that I have nominated her I am going to have to clue her into the fact that I keep up with her blog...I hope she doesn't think I am weird and rather finds it an honor. :)

Okay nominees, here are your rules:
1. Post the award on your blog
2. Link me for giving it to you
3. Link the originating post nominating you here.
4. Pass the award on to 5 more deserving people
5. Post these rules for your recipients



IN OTHER NEWS...

Our housecleaner, Sophia came today so I had to pack my bedrest butt up and trek over to a friend's house to lay on their couch for two hours so I wouldn't get in Sophia's way. I really didn't think that it would be that big of a deal but I was exhausted from that trek! Of course it was so worth it because coming home to a sparkling clean house was wonderful and on top of it Sophia baked us pork tamales and left them in our fridge...how nice is that?!!! We have the best housecleaner.

Last night we put Tulip and Hannah in front of the Christmas tree to try and capture a good picture for our Christmas card this year and we got a really good shot of our "evil" dog...



We thought it would be great to put "naughty" over Tulip's picture and "nice" over Hannah's. My parents neighbors hate Tulip b/c they think she is the devil's spaun so we also thought this would be a perfect picture for them...ha-ha. We got a good laugh from this picture. :)

P.S. I am so not tech saavy so putting all these links into this blog took a great amount of time and I must say I am proud of myself for doing it...even though it took me about an hour to do it!

Still pregnant...

It is Saturday aftenroon and low and behold I am still pregnant! I totally would have thought that by now I wouldn't be, but it is a good thing I am.

On Thursday I had my doctor's appt and she did an ultrasound to check to make sure Samantha's head was down. She was pretty sure it was she just wanted to make sure. Hannah helped her with the ultrasound and we instantly saw that her head is where it is suppose to be. But in addition to that we also saw Samantha sucking her thumb! It was the coolest thing! She was really sucking on her thumb like crazy too! I called my mom afterwards and told her "Samantha was going to town on her thumb" and from the back of the car Hannah says "Why was she going to town?". Too funny how an expression like that sounds really weird to a toddler.

She didn't check anything else because she didn't want to disturb anything or start any other process... :) So I have an appt next Thursday...if I make it to that point I will be 37 weeks. I never made it to this doctor's appt. with Hannah, my water broke the day before...so it should be interesting, I am really curious to see if I make it that long.