Hadley's First Month

Yesterday Hadley celebrated her one month birthday. She has been very busy eating and sleeping since we came home from the hospital. Grandma Julie and grandpa Dew stayed with us for her first 10 days to help out so we could get some extra rest. Uncle Corey visited from Utah in her first few days as well as Grandpa Joel. At her first doctors visit her weight came up to about 7 lbs and at her 10 day weight check she was over her birth weight at 7lbs 12 oz!  She has her 1 month well visit next week so I am interested to see how much she has grown. We took trips to the Indy Zoo, shopping, Ally's school, children's museum and a few restaurants this month. Hadley has a much more established routine early on, eating every 2.5-3 hours like clock work. Her sleepy times are mornings and her really hungry times are 8-10pm right before I put her in bed. During the day we spend time on the floor and in her swing and trying to take walks with Ella when the weather cooperates.

Ally loves her sister but at the same time she is still very independent and doesn't pay a ton of attention to her. She likes to touch her hands and kiss her head often. When she does want to talk to her she uses the funniest baby talk voice that cracks us up. The whole concept of nursing has been a little confusing for Ally but I think she has given up on trying to understand the science behind it and just accepts it as 'how babies get milk'. Ella is not too enthused with either sister and spends most of he day asleep on the couch. Having us home really gets her off schedule.

Overall, the second child has been a much more relaxed experience for us. It's hard to tell if that's Hadley's personality or our ability to know what to expect this time around. Here are some of the main differences we have noticed this time around with an infant:

• She nurses like a champ, which is the total opposite of my experince with Ally. Since she nurses until she feels full she then sleeps more which makes everyone happy.
• She rarely lets a wet diaper bother her. Either she really doesn't care or diaper technology has really improved over the last 3 years.
• I'm not as afraid to put her down when she is sleeping. I can get good sleep in two 3 hour stretches at night while she is in her crib and during the day I don't have to stress about putting her down to get a shower in. I am not afraid that every little movement or noise will wake her.
• Both Ally and Hadley seem to be able to sleep through anything. Ally has never woken up at night with Hadley's crying- not that she really does much of that.
• Hadley doesn't freak out while riding in the car. Sometimes she falls asleep but if not, she just looks around and hangs out. She has really only screamed one or two times in the car which is totally different from her sister.

Here are more photos from Hadley's birthday and her first month.

Hadley Grace Has Arrived

Its been a whirlwind and I am way behind in posting but its been for a great reason- Hadley has arrived!  She decided that there was no reason to wait those last few days  until her scheduled arrival time on March 27 and joined us at 12:49 pm on Saturday, March 23. 

I started feeling contractions at 3:30 am on Saturday morning while I was out sleeping in the reclining section of the couch. I wasn't sure if I would remember the feeling but it all came back very quickly. I was trying to sleep it off but they were pretty consistent at 10-12 minutes. During that time I downloaded about three different iPhone apps to time them just to be sure it was really happening. By 7 am I was positive so I let Karl know and called my OB. I thought I felt my water break but I wasn't sure since I was just out of the shower and it didn't happen with Ally. We started making calls to get Ally taken care of and headed to the hospital around 8:30. Contractions were still about 10 minutes apart.
At the hospital I got checked in and sure enough, test showed my water had broken but I was barely dilated. Based n my experience with Ally, we were not shocked and decided to opt for the c-section to keep the risks to a minimum. Karl's parents came to take Ally for the day so we didn't traumatized her further. She was already pretty unhappy that she might have to miss a friends party we planned to attend and was very confused about the idea of her sister arriving.

I was moved to my own room and waited for the doctors to arrive and be prepped for surgery. By noon I was making my way to the operating room. We talked a lot of basketball while things were happening and at 12:49 pm we heard the beautiful cries of our baby girl. She weighed in at 7 lbs 5 ounces and measured 19.5 inches long. She had great color and all of the nurses were commenting on how beautiful she was while Karl watched them clean her up. We all stayed in the OR together until it was time to head back to our room. We made lots of phone calls and sent texts to share the good news. We selected the name Hadley as her original first name and the middle name Grace after my great grandma. Later in the afternoon big sister Ally came to visit along with grandma Sharon, grandpa Henry and Grandpa Joel. Ally was instantly excited about her sister and was not disappointed at all that we didn't name her Gloria or Rapunzel. It's amazing how similar she looks to Ally and we love her already.

39 Week Update

I am way behind in my posting... this has been in my drafts for the last 3 weeks...

Today I have hit the 39 week mark and have no real progress to report.  I finished my last doctors visit and we are just waiting for something to happen. We now have the main things ready for her arrival as we put the crib back together and brought up and washed many of Ally's old baby clothes. I am having some issues with swelling in my hands and feet and have been very uncomfortable.  I've spent the last month or so sleeping in the reclining part of the couch in an effort to get more sleep but I am looking forward to getting back into my own bed. Only a few more days to go! Here is a picture of Karl's girls playing dress up before bed.