The big introduction!

Leah is a big sister!! Having 3 sisters myself, I am very excited to watch our girls grow and play together. I am sure there will be "moments" that seem too long where they bicker and irritate each other but mostly, they will be the best of friends!

At 22 months apart, Leah was a little too young to fully grasp what it meant to have a baby on the way. She would point to my belly to show us where the baby was. She loves to feed and rock her babies but we weren't exactly sure what her reaction would be to sharing mommy and daddy. We both let out a big sigh of relief when her 1st reaction was to hug her!

Our 1st family picture...........

Mallory meets Mommy and Daddy

After 10 weeks of bed rest, we were finally comfortable enough to stop the medication that was helping keep labor at bay and welcome our new bundle of joy. Would we have a son or daughter? Would he or she look like his/her big sister? Which name will we finally decide on? Just over 24 hours after taking the last dose of the medicine, the contractions increased in intensity and frequency. 9 1/2 hours later, Mallory Jo arrived with minimal complications. It's a GIRL!!!

Its a GIRL!!!

With 10 little fingers and 10 little toes, we welcome to this world MALLORY JO!! She was born on Sunday, May 2nd at 7:15 a.m.

Big Sister = Big Helper!

The day before Mallory was born, Leah was getting ready! She is going to be a great big sister to Mallory and big helper to mommy and daddy.

Sprout Update

We thought our little scare was over after the incident at 27 weeks but evidently Sprout is a little more impatient that we thought. I went back to the hospital at 33.5 weeks with contractions every 4 minutes. This time I was in pre-term labor and the doctors used a couple of doses of Terbutaline to slow down the contractions. Sprout also had two shots of steroids (24 hrs apart) for lung development just in case they couldn't put a stop to the labor. (On top of all of that, Grams was in Haiti during this time and we were afraid she was going to be out of the country during the arrival of her new grandbaby).

The contractions slowed down and I was released to go home, basically because Leah was at home and the doc was fully aware that I was not going to relax at the hospital if I was away from her. The kicker (and compromise) came with the instructions for bed rest! Considering I am an attorney with a case load, Leah is 21 months old and Jeff works nights - bed rest were the last 2 words we wanted to hear together. BUT...as a professional, there are few things more frustrating than advising a client of what he/she needs to do only to be ignored. Thankfully I am in a wonderful and supportive office filled with offers to help if needed as well as being surrounded by the most amazing family and friends. A couple meals have been delivered and the notes of prayer and encouragement have been pouring in. Jeff's mom was able to be here for a weekend to help with Leah and my mom has been a major blessing helping the rest of the time. Aside from all of the day to day help with Leah and keeping up the house, she has washed all of the baby clothes and helped us get Leah's things moved to her new room. Jeff had to work 76 hours this week and had been amazing -- still helping when he is not working or sleeping.

I will admit, I am NOT good at sitting still so this has not been easy. It seems much easier for me to just get up and do things myself than ask someone else to do it. BUT, I have focused on putting Sprout 1st and remembering that this time is not about me and what I want to do but about Sprout and what he or she needs.

I will be 36 weeks tomorrow and Sprout is continuing to grow. At this point, we are not very concerned if he or she decides to make an appearance. However, every day of incubation is another day of growing and we are hoping for as many as we can get. My sisters, Jewel and Jessie, are both leaving for missions trips the 1st week of May that will have them gone for several weeks. I know that they would love to meet their niece or nephew before they leave. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers! The prayers have been answered and we feel very blessed!

34 weeks

35 weeks

SLURP!

She just cracks us up. She is a little copycat. She saw me drink the milk out of my cereal bowl and now that is her favorite thing. She even stalks me when I am eating and climbs into my lap when I get close to the end of my cereal so she can have the milk. And I thought our dogs were beggars! Our cereal bowls have the built in straws so it makes easy work out of such a yummy task.

Leah had a bowl of veggie soup for dinner the other night and I had to take this video. She had to sip every bit of juice out of the bowl (and then kept refilling it with the juice from her fruit cup and drinking it, ha!)

Popsicles cure it all!

Unfortunately Leah got a throat bug. She woke up with a 102 temp on Friday morning so we took her to the doc. We originally thought it was an ear infection and didn't want her going all weekend without the antibiotics. It turns out it was a viral throat infection. She had little blisters in her throat and didn't want anything to do with food -- that is NOT Leah. Thankfully, popsicles cure everything!
Oh, and Peeps are soft too :)
Leah was better in less than 48 hours. I am pumped full of prenatal vitamins so the virus didn't come anywhere near me. Her daddy wasn't so lucky. He had it for a week with a fever that spiked all the way to 105.2!