She's Growing Up So Fast

Annalie is finally napping, and I am finally blogging. Annalie is now almost 7 months old. We were at the doctor's office this morning due to a funny head movement that Annalie does. I thought that it might be an ear infection, but the doctor said she just has a funny habit. In fact, Annalie is quite healthy. She is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. I call her "compact." She is now getting up on her hands and knees and army crawls. She is sitting up on her own, sleeping through the night and eating solid foods. Her favorite food, weirdly enough: peas. It is amazing to see the daily changes. Here are some pictures from the last couple of months.

Her first time sitting on grass. She didn't know what to think of it.
Eating carrots. One of her favorites, but not mine. They are so messy and tough to clean.

She always looks so surprised when I take her picture.

Love ya, baby girl!

Blogging...A Monthly Thing

As Annalie sleeps after 4 shots from the doctor today, I decided I would do some blogging. Annalie is 4 months old and remains in the 50% percentile for weight and height. She is rolling over in both directions and grabbing anything that gets close to her. She has a little butterfly that hangs from her car seat. Last Friday night, we were driving home from small group and we heard this buzzing/vibrating noise coming from the back seat. Sure enough, Annalie reached for her butterfly and was pulling on it to make the noise. Now she pulls on it the entertain herself anytime she is in her car seat. It's so cute.

She is testing us at night now. At 3 months, she was sleeping through the night, but now she wakes up every couple of hours. We are starting to let her cry it out which has been really hard, but last night, it worked. Despite the fact that she has had her moments, I have really enjoyed the time that I have with her. It is hard to think about going back to work next year. I have an interview for a science teacher position on Friday. Please pray that it goes well and that I will not be too nervous. Thanks.

Here are some more random pictures.

Napping with Daddy.

So...I'm Not Very Good at Blogging

I realize I have not blogged in over 2 months. Annalie is now 3 months and 1 week old. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is such a good little girl and we are enjoying her immensely.

Some of milestones she has hit so far:

• Right now she has a cold and is having a difficult time sleeping through the night because of it. Pre-cold, though, she was sleeping through the night.
  

She rolls over from her tummy to her back (6 wks. old). She is attempting to roll from her back to her tummy, but doesn't have it quite yet.

She reaches for her toys.

She is very observant

She cooes, laughs, and smiles all the time. The first time she laughed was for Grandma. Now she laughs when her tummy is tickled with kisses, and when I dance with her.

She loves her book, Mimi's Toes. Actually, she likes all books. She sits intently while we read to her.

She started to notice Jada, my parent's dog, but doesn't like when Jada tries to give her kisses. Oh, on a side note, we have taught Jada how to bring Annalie's dirty diapers to the garbage. It's great

She loves being able to sit up and see everything. We put her in her Bumbo and Exersaucer for the first time this week and she loves them.

Every morning when we go get her from her crib, she smiles the biggest smiles, stretches, and talks away. It is the best part of Tony's and my day. Sometimes if Annalie is not awake before Tony has to leave for work, The will ask if he can wake her up.

Annalie is our little "Pumkin Pie," "Peanut," "Love Bug," "Bugogee" (Tony's nickname for her. Don't ask me where he came up with that one.), and many others. We love her so much and are so blessed that God gave her to us.

Happy 3 month birthday, Little One.

A Baby Story

I thought I would take some time to recall the story of how Annalie came into the world. 41 weeks into my pregnancy, I finally went into labor. Contractions started Sunday afternoon, but were not very regular, so I thought that nothing was happening. I tried to rest throughout the day and when it came time to go to youth group, I was ready to go, but then thought that I might be a distraction, and decided to stay home. In the few hours that Tony was gone, the contractions started to become more regular and were about 7 min. apart. When Tony finally came home I let him know that I was very confident that I was in labor and would be having the baby soon. Tony stayed up with me through the night as my contractions continued to get closer and closer together. By 2:30 in the morning, I knew that it was time to get to the hospital.


The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever and there were red lights the entire way. When we finally arrived at the hospital, we walked in through the emergency room entrance and the guard at the door told us to check in with the emergency room. She did not realize that I was pregnant and in labor until we started walking towards the ER check-in. She then said, "Oh, you're pregnant!" I said, "Yes, we need to get to Labor and Delivery." She apologized and directed us where to go. When we got to Labor and Delivery, the nurses could immediately tell that I was pretty far along and got me into a room immediately. My contractions by this point were 2-3 minutes apart. They were so surprised that I lasted so long at home. The doctor came in to check me and found that I was hardly dilated but almost completely effaced. I was so disappointed. I thought for sure I was dilated more than a finger tip! So, the nurses asked me if I wanted to walk or lay down. I decided to walk.


After walking for a half hour, we headed back to the room and waited...and waited. I think they put me on Pitocin at some point. By 1:00 in the afternoon, my doctor finally arrived and broke my water. He said he would be back in two hours to check on my progress. Two hours was 30 minutes too long. By 2:00 I was in desperate need to get my baby out!! I didn't make any demands of anyone until that point. I insisted that I needed a doctor and that I needed to push. At first, the nurse didn't believe me, but then saw that I was truly ready to go. She called for a doctor to come, but no one came. Finally, my dad had to go out and yell at the hospital staff for someone to help. When they saw the urgency in my dad's plea, they came running. Within minutes there were 4 or 5 doctors in my room prepping me for delivery. Within 30 minutes Annalie was out! My doctor didn't make it in time. In fact, he got to the room a couple minutes after she was born.

Annalie Grace born Nov. 3 @ 2:36 pm. Weighing 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 in. long

Annalie came out with her big eyes wide open and so alert. It was amazing. She was beautiful! Now, two weeks old, she is such a joy. Still alert as ever. I have to say that I am glad that I did not get an epidural. The contractions were definitely painful, but pushing was by far the best part. It my be too early to say, but next time, give me the drugs!

Will Annalie Ever Arrive?

There have been no new developments in the past week to report on. When I went to the doctor last Friday he said he would be surprised if anything happened this week. Well, I'm hoping he is wrong. I feel like this pregnancy has gone on forever and can't wait for Annalie to finally get here. Her room is ready, the car seat is in the car, my bags are packed. I keep watching A Baby Story on t.v which is freaking me out and I'm hoping I will be able to deliver without an epidural. We'll see. I'm about to head out for a long walk to see if that helps move things along a little faster. I've taken some pictures of the nursery. Envision me in the chair, gliding back and forth waiting, and pray that Annalie arrives safe and healthy soon.

The Mud

So this weekend was extremely rainy, and the rain flooded all of the streets by our house. On Saturday, Tony and I decided to venture out on foot to assess the damage. We walked behind our house to Central Rd. It was comletely flooded with 2 or 3 cars stalled out right in the middle of the street, yet while we watched, two other cars decided to venture in. I'm not sure why they thought that they would be ok when there were clearly other cars stalled out. Anyway, one car made it half way through and then turned around and made it out ok. The other one, a van, stalled. We're not sure what the people ended up doing, but in the time that we were there, no one got out of the van. I think they decided to wait for the van to start up agian. By this point, Tony was on the other side of a flowing stream of water that he crossed using a piece of narrow wood. I decided to stay on the high ground so I wouldn't get dirty. That turned out to be a good decision.
All summer there has been a construction crew widening the expressway behind our house. They just finished the work and had put in new sod along a steep hill that backs up to our house. With the flood, though, there were huge patches of grass and mud that ended up in piles at the bottom of the hill. Well, guess where Tony was walking?...at the base of the hill. His flip flops kept getting lost in the mud, so he was trying to find a place to cross over the stream so he won't lose his shoes. I suggested he go up a little ways on the hill because where I was standing, it looked like a better place to cross the stream. Oops! He took a step and sunk into the mud up to his thighs. My first thought was, I'm going to have to rescue him from going under. I thought about a moose I once saw on Animal Planet that had to be rescued from a mudslide using a rope that was lassoed around its neck. Thankfully, he didn't sink any deeper, and I didn't need a rope to rescue him. Poor Tony. As he struggled to get his legs unstuck, my fear turned to laughter. It was the funniest thing to watch him try to get out of the mud. I so wish I had a camera with me. My story is not nearly as funny as some pictures would be. Oh well, it was the highlight of my day!

Tony's Triathlon

On Saturday, Tony ran his second Olympic length triathlon in Lake Geneva. It was a great day for a race...a little chilly in the morning, though. My parents came up to help me cheer him on and my dad was able to take a lot of pictures. Here are a few from that race. Tony came in 39th out of 350+ racers. He was hoping to place in his age division, but ended up being 6 seconds short of the 3rd place winner. He did awesome!!

While we waited to see Tony at each leg of the race, my dad took some pictures of me. He told me that for now I will be the model, but when the baby comes, I'm out.