And the winner is...

I realized that we never announced the winner of the baby prediction game from the Ohio baby shower.

Well, for those who were not there, people were asked to predict the baby's sex, birthdate, weight, and length. Tim and I made a rating system to decide who won this game. Each person was rewarded 4 points for guessing the correct sex, 3 for the correct date, 2 for the correct length (within 1/2 an inch) and 2 for the correct weight (within 3 ounces). And the winner is: Sarah Hales. She predicted we would have a girl (we did) on January 9th (only 1 day off!) and that she would weigh 8lbs 6oz (she was 8lbs 3oz) and would be 21 inches long (she was 21.5). Her prize? We named the baby after her! :)

Ah, Mondays.

I have decided that Monday is my favorite day of the week. I cannot put into words how nice it was to have Tim home all day! We spent some time visiting with a couple from church, and then we just relaxed at the house the rest of the afternoon.

Sarah is quickly becoming a daddy's girl, and I love to watch her and Tim interact. Yesterday he was whistling to her, and she was pursing her lips as if she were trying to whistle back. It was very cute.

We are still in the process of negotiating a bed time with Sarah. She seems to like 11 or 12, but I was thinking more along the lines of 8 or 9 at the latest! She likes to be walked to sleep - usually requiring about 15 or 20 minutes of walking before she is sleeping soundly enough to set down in her bassinet. I don't understand this, as she puts herself to sleep for all her naps. Why is bedtime different?

Well, I thought I would share some pictures that didn't make it into the "picture of the day" album.

Here's her "what then?" pose:

I love the faces she makes in her little swing. She really does enjoy it!

Her umbilical cord fell off Friday, so she had her first REAL bath on Saturday. It was a traumatic experience for all. Babies are slippery when wet!!!

Playing on her little gym that she got from Uncle Josh - there is a little zebra toy on there that she seems to enjoy looking at. I read that newborns are captivated by contrasting colors, so that's probably why.

The ever-changing Sarah

It has been hard to find time to blog lately! Little Sarah sure keeps our hands busy. She really is growing up quickly. I know you laugh about that - with her only being 2 weeks old and all. But she is changing every day. She now has a double chin, is showing more of a chin dimple, and is quickly outgrowing her newborn clothing.

We are waiting for our new diapers to arrive. We decided to go ahead and try the BumGenius cloth diapers. We have 2 that we have been trialing occasionally, and they seem to work well and hold up nicely. Hopefully that will remain the case!

I have been dealing with the baby blues a bit. Hopefully those will work themselves out soon! I realize everyone who has been through this can relate to how I'm feeling. Transitioning into parenthood is hard! Tim is being really supportive and helping me see reality when I get down about things. I sure love him. :)

Not much else is going on. Keep checking the facebook album for daily pictures of Sarah. I don't have time to post any on here right now, but I'll try to keep that one up to date!

Adjusting

Well, things have seemed to fall into somewhat of a pattern around here. Sarah is still a very easy-going baby, seeming only to cry when she is hungry. She sleeps a lot, of course, which allows me to actually get some things done around the house. We are all adjusting. She has been consistently sleeping 3 hours between feedings throughout the night, which is wonderful! I set my alarm, but she usually wakes me up about 15 minutes before that is set to go off. During the day she's more like 2-3 hours between feedings - we are still working on getting that figured out. Sometimes I can't tell if she just wants a pacifier to put herself to sleep, or if she is truly hungry.

I need to read up on developmental milestones for babies. I swear, she reacts when Tim is around. With me, it's like she's thinking "yeah, give me the food and let me sleep". With Tim, it's more like "let's play and I'll make lots of eye contact and smile at you". She doesn't really have control over smiling yet, but she sure seems to do it a lot when he's playing with her!

We are all still doing well. Tim and I are trying to catch up on sleep, but otherwise we are great! We love our little girl and are so happy to finally be able to hold her in our arms!

We started a new facebook photo album called "Sarah - Picture of the Day". I also put a link to it on the right hand side of the blog for future reference. Check it out every now and then for new pictures of her. I can't promise that it will be updated daily, but we will be taking a new daily picture of her...at least for a little while. :)

Well, little one is sleeping, so I should be taking a nap as well!

A week ago today...

It is hard to believe that it has already been one week since we headed into the hospital to be induced. Little did we know what the next 29 hours held in store! Here is Sarah's birth story - more of a timeline than anything.

7:00 Friday morning, January 9, 2009 - Tim and I arrived at the hospital to be induced.

8:00 am - Dr. Haupt arrived and administered Cytotec - a prostaglandin tablet intended to ripen the cervix. Still dilated at 2cm.

12:30 pm - Dr. Haupt arrived and adminstered second dose of Cytotec.

**Long, long day filled with lots of clear liquids consumed by Rachel and pacing around the hospital room - there is nothing to do on the labor and delivery floor.

1:00 am Saturday, January 10, 2009 - Pitocin drip initiated. Now dilated at 3cm.

2:30 am - My water broke! Gross. Reassured by the nurse that "now things will start happening more quickly".

2:45 am - Wow, contractions can be really painful. Tim was doing a great job of rubbing my back to get me through them, but some were becoming overpowering and I was losing my focus. Pain medication (Stadol) administered. Mmmmm...I love Stadol. Now dilated at 4cm. Able to sleep through several of the following contractions.

3:15 am - Dr. Haupt in to place a monitor to see the strength of my contractions - informed at this point that there was meconium in my water and that a NICU team would be at the delivery just in case.

5:00 am - Dilated at 5-6cm. Second dose of Stadol administered. I realized at this point that my desire to go through labor without an epidural just was not going to be possible. The nurse informed me that the anesthesiologist was in a c-section and would be up as soon as possible.

6:45 am - My favorite doctor EVER arrived and placed the epidural. What an odd sensation! Odd...but nice... Now dilated at 7 cm.

9:20 am - Dilated to 9.5cm - the nurse informed me that there was still a "rim" on my cervix, but we would start pushing in a little while anyway...can't remember the reason why...

10:40 am - Began pushing. This was strenuous work but not painful. Again, yay epidural!!!

12:30ish pm - Dr. Haupt notified of lack of progress with pushing. He came in and observed a few pushes, then discussed using vacuum extraction and possibly c-section if needed. I cried - after this long, we were discussing a c-section?! No way - this baby was coming out, and coming out soon!

1:09 pm - With the assistance of the vacuum and forceps, Sarah made her grand entrance into the world! We were overjoyed. She was actually THERE, healthy, and beautiful. The hospital staff informed us that her "cone-head" would look much better in a couple of hours. That cone head was pretty cute though. :)

I was informed later that there were staff waiting in the hall to take me down for a c-section. The nurse taking care of me that day told me that I was fortunate to have Dr. Haupt as my doctor - not many doctors are willing (or even know how) to use forceps anymore, and I would have been more likely to end up in a c-section. I'm a big fan of Dr. Haupt.

Here are some new pictures, since I know that's what you're waiting for anyway. :)