Finally...Pictures!!!

Please excuse my tardiness in posting pictures of our beautiful new babe. If Rowan is sleeping, Niev is being demanding and if Niev is sleeping....well, that means I am trying to snooze as well (Rowan tries to prevent this of course!).

When I went in for my doctor's appointment, he checked me and I had not progressed in any area. I made an appointment for the following Monday. Although I still didn't feel ready for a new baby, I was very discouraged leaving the doctor's office. (I wasn't even dialated to a one and the baby really had not dropped.) On Thursday night just past midnight, I kept waking up with slight belly pains, but I was so drowsy that I didn't realize that they were contractions and just kept thinking I was trying to fart. Finally at 5 a.m., I realize that I am having contractions, but they are about 10-20 minutes apart (just enough to be annoying as you still can't sleep much, but very mild on the pain scale). When I wake up Friday morning after a horrible night's sleep, I still can't tell if it is the real thing or just fake contractions. I finally call Ian in from work at about noon and ask him to start timing the contractions for me. We madly start cleaning the house (it was a disaster and I would have been very embarassed if my mom saw my house in that much of a mess!). By 3 p.m., I am to the point of not being able to walk, but the contractions are only 10 minutes apart (although consistent). We went to the hospital and after waiting, what seemed like an hour, they finally checked me and I was dialated to a SIX! I ordered a epidural (love those things), but they said it would probably be about an hour. They gave me some Newbane (spelling???) to take the edge off and it made me so dizzy I couldn't even open my eyes. I also was very sleepy from not getting much rest. They gave me the epidural, checked me again and I was already at a 10, but they wanted to wait for some of the Newbane to wear off so me and baby would be more alert. Finally after waiting for over half an hour, I started pushing. Pushed for 11 minutes (a total of about four pushes), much better compared to the three hours+ of pushing with Niev and a beautiful little girl was in my arms.

Adjustment has been trying and tiring, but Niev loves her baby sister, I am glad to be recovering well and Ian is completely overwhelmed with work, church callings and trying to help out around the house. Rowan is starting to adjust to this planet, but still is quite a screamer. We are enjoying spending time together as a family. I am not a very good newborn mom so I might not post very consistently because I will be ticked off most the time due to the fact that for the next three months or so I will not sleep well or get a hot meal seeing as Rowan seems to always know when food is on the table and she wants her share!

Rowan Ainsley has arrived!

Niev would like to introduce her new baby sister, Rowan Ainsley Strawn, who was born Friday, December 12 at 5:23 p.m. Mommy and baby are at home doing well. Pictures coming soon!

She's a girl!

No we haven't had our baby, but Niev is starting to actually let me keep a clip/rubberband in her hair! She actually looks like a girl. Lately, I have had SEVERAL people tell me what a cute boy I have so I decided to put my foot down and actually FORCE her to wear a rubberband on Sunday. I told her we couldn't leave for church unless she let me do her hair. Then I mentioned how adorable she was with her hair fixed and continued to tell her that she couldn't take it out until church was over. Of course, I expected to pick her up from nursery with her hair a disaster, but to my surprise, she actually had kept it in. (As soon as we got in the car, she ripped it out, but HEY, beggars can't be choosers...she does listen...church was over!)

Since Sunday, she has let me do her hair almost every day. She may not keep it in, but at least it is progress.

Before:

After (this is after she pulled her sweatshirt over her head, so it isn't pristine, but you get the idea):
As you can see, I am not a girly-girl and have no clue how to do kids' hair. I don't even know how to my own hair unless it is really short!

By the way, I lost my mucus plug today. That is one step closer to having this baby girl. (I know it's gross; they really need to come up with another name for that gush! It wouldn't be so gross to talk about if it was disguised by another name.)

Let the Christmas celebration COMMENSE!

What is with Ward/Church Christmas Parties and no Santa! Can I tell you how frustrated I am with wards that think that you can't have a Christ-centered Christmas and have Santa come at the end of the party!

As you can tell we had our ward Christmas party this last weekend. It was a dinner, small program and then the bishop handed out candy to the kids. I was very disappointed in the no-show of Santa for many reasons: 1) Where else can you get a FREE picture of Santa? 2) Isn't Christmas also supposed to be fun? 3) What is a Christmas celebration without mention of both Christ and Santa? (Can't they just be friends?) 4) Santa is what get kids very excited about Christmas and I had been telling Niev all day long that she would see Santa that night! I was very bummed to say the least. People should know not to disappoint a pregnant woman!

On Saturday, Ian truly took the entire day off!!! So we went Christmas tree hunting and went to see if we could find Santa. (Our real estate agency had invited Santa to their office for a few hours to take pictures.) We drove by the agency's office and there was a line that would have taken WAY too long to get through. I thought for sure I would be disappointed again in no free picture with Niev and Santa. Off we went to find a Christmas tree. We were so excited to graduate this year from a 3-4 foot tree to now a 6-7 foot tree. Niev seemed a bit confused by the process and the chainsaw definitely freaked her out, but we found a beauty of a tree!
Ian checked by the office to see if the line had died down at all and we were in luck! There were only two people left in line! I could hardly contain my excitement to see Niev totally freak out at this weird bearded guy showing no skin on his entire face, trying to hold her. I really do love the "crying on Santa's lap" pictures. I think they are just about the greatest thing around. Here it is in all its glory:
And just so you don't think that I also have a slight appreciation for the typical "I am cute on Santa's lap" picture:
She at least wasn't totally grimacing.

Back home we went with a Christmas tree on top of our car and pictures of Santa done!

We then spent the evening decorating the tree and getting out our Christmas decorations. Niev found this very exciting!
She found many uses for our advent calendar wreath: sitting on it, wearing it as a hat, throwing it like a frisbee, etc. She really did look like a post-pregnancy woman sitting on those inflatable donuts that make your bum not hurt so bad.

Daddy and Niev putting the star on top of the tree:
Oh, sad star!!!

Niev was very "helpful" in decorating the tree.She thought the balls should bounce and that if you stuff the ornaments far enough towards the middle of the tree, they wouldn't fall off. Overall it was a very fun-filled Christmas celebration!

Overwhelmed

My gracious mother-in-law has offered to get me a baby sling/carrier for Christmas and has turned the buying over to me so that I get just what I want. I thought, "Okay, that should be easy enough." WRONG! I quickly found out that a baby sling is not just an easy buy. There are way TOO many options! I need advice/opinions/reviews from you moms out there (even you secret blog stalkers). Where did you get your sling? What did you love and hate about your sling? Is a sling something you would get again? What do I need to know about buying a sling? Was your husband able to use your sling too? etc. These are the questions that I need answering! I've done some research but I get overwhelmed with all the options and I don't want to make a wrong choice. Let me know what advice you have. Thanks!

Baby update

So many of you have mentioned to me that you wanted pics of me huge, fat and pregnant so here they are. This was taken about four weeks ago, so I have grown considerably. At one of my doctor visits I had gained four pounds in a two weeks period and then the next week, I had gained two more pounds. Then Thanksgiving week, I didn't go walking at all with my friends and had Thanksgiving...I lost a pound! The doctor says this baby is measuring small and since then I feel that I might go late. I'm due in one week and that is just weird. It seems forever ago that we found out it was a girl, but then I don't feel ready to have two! Ready or not here she comes!

The shadows make it look really weird. Sorry, it's the only picture I have...