First week home

I'm trying to catch up on posts and photos. It's been quite a crazy week for us (more to come).

We have had lots of visitors over the past few weeks. Below are a few pics of some from the hospital.

Jeremy's mom, Betty, and Randy soon after delivery

Addie got a princess sleeping bag for being a big sister. She loves anything to do with Disney princesses! It has already come in handy! Addie's room is also the guest room now so my mom stayed in her room and she slept in her sleeping bag.

My parents came in town for a couple of hours to meet their new granddaughter.
Tara and her boys were in Tell City and came to the hospital for a quick visit on their way back home. Brady loves babies!

Kelly came to meet Kate. Kelly helped us out by coming to our house at 3:00 a.m. when we to the hospital (second time). She was there in the morning to hang out with Addie and get her to daycare. Kelly said Addie was super excited to hear that her baby sister was coming. Addie wore her Big Sister shirt to daycare, brought her babydoll for practice and told everyone "My baby is popping out today!" :) Thanks for all of your help, Kelly!

The first week home went really well. My mom came in for the week and our Sunday School class brought meals every other day. My recovery was still going well and Kate was doing well with feedings and sleep. Addie adjusted well, except for us dealing with the typical 3-year-old girl tantrums, attitude, talking back, emotions and not listening! Ha!



I love baby feet!

It has been sooooo nice to get out of the house in warmer weather (compared to Addie being born in February). Here is Kate's first walk. Her hair looks red when she is outside. We'll see what it ends up looking like and if it will be curly.


Hanging outside on a nice evening

Love this photo!

And I had to get one of her crying...:)

Labor and delivery story

Apparently my body likes to labor for a long time! My labor with Kate was just as long with Addison. It all started Sunday night/Monday morning when I thought my water had broken. We held off for a little bit, but decided to go into the hospital around 3:00 a.m. I was checked and was only 1 cm. My water had not broken despite having a lot of fluid. I had contractions, but they weren't very close together. They decided to send us home and we got back to the house around 6:00 a.m.

During one of my contractions at the hospital the baby's heartbeat had dropped so the doctor wanted me to come into the office to get an ultrasound to check on everything. I continued to have contractions, about 40 minutes apart, up until the late morning appt. Everything looked great with the baby at my appt. so they sent me home to continue to labor. Fun times! I was 2 cm at the office. I had contractions all day long, still not close together, but around 11:00 that night they really started to kick in. I had to take a long hot shower in the middle of the night to help with the pain, especially because I was having back labor. My contractions were about every 10-20 mins by then, but the intensity and pain was like nothing I had experienced before! We called the doctor even though I was supposed to wait until they were 7 minutes apart. We went back to hospital around 3:00 a.m. again. I was NOT going to be sent home this time if my life depended on it! When they checked me I was about 5 cm. No wonder I was in so much pain!!!

As soon as we got to the hospital the contractions got a lot closer together. By the time I was in my labor and delivery room I was 6 cm. The anesthesiologist finally got down to my room, but had a really hard to time getting the catheter of my epidural in. I had several contractions while she was doing it. Jeremy said the last contraction before the epidural kicked in was really high on the monitor and lasted a minute long. Ouch!!! She finally got it to work and I was 7 cm around 5:00 a.m. I went quickly to 8 cm. We thought I would be pushing soon and I would be having a morning baby again. Unfortunately my blood pressure dropped and my contractions almost stopped. We waited for hours for things to progress. Finally after several rounds of Pitocin they finally broke my water and I was eventually ready to push. I didn't have to push
very long and she was here!

They did kangaroo care at the hospital where they keep the baby in the delivery room for quite some time and encourage the mom and baby to be skin-to-skin for an hour. So nice! After they cleaned her up they brought her to me for skin-to-skin, but they quickly realized she was taking quick breaths. The nurse had to pat all over her chest and back until she "transitioned". Her coloring was much better along with her breathing.

We hadn't named Kate until after she was born. We were down to a few names and I told Jeremy it was his turn to name the baby since I had the final say on Addison Grace. He shocked me with "Kate" about 20 minutes after she was born, even though we both liked it, because he has loved the name Reese for years. Ellen is my middle name, my mom's middle name and my great-great-grandmother's middle name.

After Addie's delivery I got really sick to my stomach so they gave me medicine that made me pass out for a few hours. It was nice to enjoy some time in the delivery room and afterward with family this time around. Once I got up to my room I had immediately since it had be about 20 hours sent I last ate.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to write this down to document it all. Enjoy pictures below of the first hours of Kate's life! More updates and pics to come.


Here she is!

Much smaller than Addie. Addie was 8 lbs 7 oz while Kate was 7 lbs 4 oz. That surprised me! You can tell here that her coloring is bad.

Although her coloring wasn't right here yet, I think she looks a lot like Addison here.

Smitten already!

Cute feet!

She started sucking her thumb pretty soon after delivery. Too cute!

Big sister meeting her little sister

So sweet! It's crazy how much they look alike, well at least as babies.

Me and my girls!

Sisters!

When we found out that we were expecting our second girl, I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed. Jeremy actually handled the news better than I did. My mind immediately went to two hormonal teenage girls under the same roof. I think some of my feelings related to Addie's personality that can be so strong-willed, independent, sensitive and emotional. (One of her daycare workers says that her personality is "all girl".) I don't know why our minds like to jump ahead years and years from the present.

After the initial shock wore off and the news settled in I really got excited to have two girls. I was excited that we would have the same gender so they would play well together (hopefully!) and would probably be into similar things. Of course practically it was great since we could reuse so many items. But I was most excited that our kids would be SISTERS! I think every girl that doesn't have a sister grows up always wanting one. There is such a special bond with siblings, but you can definitely see that with sisters. I'm so excited to watch them grow up and witness their love for each other. Pictures below of two sisters and the beginning of their bond!



This one melts my heart and a picture I will remember for a long time!

More pics

Things are going well at home. Kate was back up to her birth weight at her one-week check-up on Tuesday. She was at 6 lbs 12 oz when we left the hospital...such a peanut! This means I can push her longer during her middle of the night feeding...that is if she cooperates. She is a really good baby, though. She really only cries when she wants her diaper changed or if she is hungry. I don't want to jinx myself though. Reality is definitely not set in yet. My mom just left today (Friday) and has been here since Sunday helping around the house. Our Sunday School class at church has been delivering meals every other day since Sunday and will do so over the next two weeks! It is so nice to have such a wonderful support system! We'll see how everything is once the newness goes away. We went on our first walk yesterday and my mom and I met my aunt and cousin for lunch on Wednesday. It feels so good to get out of the house!

Below are pictures taken in the hospital from our great friend, Jason. Check out his website at www.stillblissphoto.com. Enjoy!

We're home!

We're home! Unfortunately when we were getting ready to be discharged from the hospital Addie's daycare called to tell us she had a 102 fever. Ugh. Welcome to the world of two kids, huh? We were very bummed because we were looking forward to just being a family of four at home. We brought Addie home and let her watch a movie while we kept Kate in another room until Jeremy could take her to the doctor. We wanted Jeremy to pick her up from daycare because Addie has been passed around the past few days while we were at the hospital and every kid wants their mom or dad when they are sick. Of course it is just a virus, but we wanted to know what we should do with Addie now that Kate was home and only 2 days old. Addie is not supposed to get too close to the baby, but they can be in the same house. Poor thing! Addie just wants to love on her baby sister but doesn't quite understand, especially when the tylenol kicks in and she is feeling ok. It has been an obvious challenge. Today (Friday) Addie couldn't go to daycare because of the fever so Jeremy's mom is keeping her for the day so we don't have to worry about her getting in Kate's face all day. We're looking forward to Sunday when Addie will probably be over her fever and able to love on Kate.

Everything else is going really well. My recovery has been MUCH better than last time. I don't know if it is the second time around, a smaller baby (Addie was 8 lbs 7 oz) or because I labored so much naturally before getting an epidural (not the plan!). I do plan on blogging about my labor story just so I have it on record since the blog serves as a scrapbook for us. I was up walking around in the hospital room on Wednesday doing some things while last time I hardly could get out of bed the whole time. Nursing is also going MUCH better than last time. It took Addie and I about 2 weeks before everything was ok. It was a big challenge! I'm crossing my fingers that things continue to go smoothly.

Last night we had dinner as a family and when were saying prayers before dinner I started getting emotional. I feel so blessed to have two HEALTHY, beautiful children and a wonderful husband! I know a lot of people can't say the same thing so I count blessings everyday for such wonderful gifts from God.

More pics to come...until then enjoy the slideshow of the hospital pics. The hospital didn't use this service with Addie and the pictures are precious! We didn't order any because they were so expensive and we'll get some pics as a family, plus my friend Jason came to the hospital Wednesday night and took a bunch of cute photos. I'm excited to see them. Follow the instructions to see the gallery. We picked #6 of Kate yawning for the hospital website pic. So cute!

www.bellababyphotography.com
Click on "View my photos"
The login password is sgre0726angermeier

Enjoy!

Welcome to the world!

Our second daughter entered the world on Tuesday, July 26th. Kate Ellen was born at 2:05 p.m. and was 7 lbs 4 oz and 19.5 inches. After a really long and hard labor she was worth it all...she's perfect! She looks A LOT like Addison when she was just born. Addie loves being a big sister and we're looking forward to being a family of four at home! We go home tomorrow (Thursday) and I'll post more pics then. Thanks for all the wonderful calls, texts, emails, FB comments, etc. We are so blessed!

I'm here!

I'm back from a huge blog hiatus! I survived working and living in Lexington for the month while being very pregnant! I even survived a horrible stomach virus for about 3 of those days. Words can not describe how incredible Jeremy is for everything he does for our family normally, but especially during that month. He is a single dad and does everything without complaint. We had several friends and family help him out over the month. I don't think I even have posted on here, but he started a business, Paradigm Constructions Services LLC, in February while working only part-time at his job, New Directions Housing Corp. (I'll update more on that later.) He managed to stay afloat with his business during the month and be a single dad. It was very hard being away from my family, but the program went really well this year. Since Addie is older she had a tough time with me being gone and it was soooo hard leaving her when I got to come home or when they visited. She always screamed and cried when we left each other. Talk about tears being shed on my end, too!

I got home a little under two weeks ago and as soon as I got home it started to sink in that we will be bringing a new baby home anyday now! Since my life is on hold for that month I was very overwhelmed when I first got home thinking about all that needed to get done at work and at home before she is born. I've gotten a lot accomplished during the past two weeks, but also know that not everything has to been finished by the time she gets here.

This pregnancy is VERY different since Addison was born in February. This heat is awful and I have a hard time cooling off! My feet have been swelling the past couple of months and I now only wear flip flops (even at work) to keep them cooler to help with the swelling. On the plus side, I'm looking forward to being able to take walks and get out of the house with a newborn instead of being cooped up with one in the winter.

We moved Addie in a big girl bed in mid-May and we just have a couple of little things left to do before her room is completely finished. I'll post pictures once it is complete. The nursery is staying the same. Addie has done pretty good with the transition. She still takes a long time to fall asleep sometimes and wants to get out of bed for various reasons, but once she is asleep she never makes a peep and doesn't get out of her bed until the morning. It definitely could be worse.

We are getting really excited about meeting our little girl! She is a squirmer! Addie would stick her booty out all the time, but this one seems to squirm more. We are so eager to see what she looks like, how she will act, how Addie will be as a big sister and much more. And no, we still haven't picked a name. We're down to a few just like last time so stay tuned.

There is so much to update on here with things that have happened in our life over the past two months, but I don't know if I will be able to get it all on here before the baby is born. I'm 39 weeks today! Addison was two days early so this baby could make her debut very soon. I definitely am getting uncomfortable, especially at night.

Stay tuned for more updates, especially the BIG update when our new little girl enters the world. Much love to you all! Stay cool...if that is even possible!

Here I am at exactly 39 weeks. Yes, I am huge! A cashier in a store last Saturday called me, "Grande!" What am I supposed to say to that? And yes, my belly button is like a torpedo. Addie is always kissing on it. I think she thinks the baby will "pop" out of my belly button. :)