Santa

On Saturday we took the girls to see Santa. Kaylin was so excited. She couldn't wait to show Lauren how to sit on his lap. She couldn't wait to get a candy cane. She couldn't wait to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas this year... a new baby cousin. It's a good thing she's meeting her new baby cousin on Christmas (Kelsey's baby) and that Eric's brother's wife is due in the spring. I'm glad Santa was able to pull that one off. Kaylin was excited up until we actually SAW Santa. As you can see, Kaylin did not show Lauren how to sit on Santa's lap:

She did, however, tell Santa from across the room what she wants for Christmas. And he did give her a candy cane. So she got two out of three. Maybe next year she'll be in a picture with Santa.

We did, however, convince Kaylin to stand outside the Santa House for a picture. As you can see, she was no longer super excited to be there:

Apparently someone ate the legs off of the gingerbread man. Maybe the Santa House was also used in Hansel and Gretel?

When we got in the car to go home, Kaylin informed us that she wanted to go see Santa. Right. Maybe next year.

Kaylin was more than happy to pose for pictures at home, as long as she got to hold "Baby Lauren".

Thank you to Ellie and Ryanne for the cute Santa dresses!

Feet

Brandon took a picture of our feet after Kaylin was born and we loved it so much that we have a big version of it hanging up upstairs in our house. We had to take a new one of the four of us.

Eric, Lauren, Kaylin, Brianne

Here's the one of Eric, Kaylin, and my feet when Kaylin was first born:

Lauren

Yesterday evening the Greens came over to take pictures of Lauren. It's a good thing we have such nice, creative, talented friends :-).

Afterward, we (meaning Laura) played around with some editing. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Real Christmas

This is a beautiful telling of the Christmas story. A neighborhood in Bountiful, Utah chose to decorate their homes with scriptures and artwork depicting the birth of Christ. It is really touching and I appreciated the reminder of what we're really celebrating next week.

Bountiful Nativity a Work of Art - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Costco vs. Sam's Club

I need some advice. After 4+ years without a Costco membership, I'm thinking about getting a membership to either Costco or Sam's Club. Do any of you have any opinions about which store is better, Costco or Sam's Club? I'm mostly interested in the selection and quality of products. I've read a lot online about prices, which generally seem to be about the same for grocery items with Sam's Club winning out by just a bit. Also, if you have any opinion about their prices or selection as compared to Winco, that would be great too.

If you're local, do you have an opinion about our stores' particular customer service, wait times in line, employees, etc.?

Thanks!

My own photo shoot

...more pictures...

Kaylin asks to hold Lauren all of the time. As you can see, she loves her little sister.

I figured out that if Kaylin uses the boppy pillow, she can hold Lauren on her own. Eric or I always sit right next to her since she's still pretty unpredictable.

Lauren got dressed up to go to Grammy and Grandpa's for dinner.

Eric thought it was cute how Lauren was folding her arms.

Pictures of Lauren

I've been asked for more pictures. So here you go...

We took this right before leaving the hospital on Monday.

Arriving at home. We don't use the front door and I didn't carry the carseat at all, this was just posed by Eric :-).

For the most part, Kaylin has been loving Lauren. She is so excited whenever she is awake, which isn't often yet. She wants to share her toys and play with her. So far we've been able to keep Kaylin happy by telling her to show Lauren her toys and to perform for her.

Flexing her muscles.


My cute family.

She's Here!

We watched a movie at the Greens' on Saturday night. We got home around 11:30 pm and my water broke the minute I walked in the house. I don't even think I'd taken my shoes off yet. I called the hospital and they told me to go ahead and come in. I wasn't having very bad contractions so I was a little nervous about how long this process could take.

Eric's mom came over to stay with Kaylin and we arrived at the hospital around 12:45 am on Sunday.

The nurse got me all situated in my room. I was still feeling pretty good and I wasn't having any major contractions.

Last picture of me pregnant!

At 2:00 am I was almost 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. The test about whether or not my water broke came back negative, but we knew it was wrong. The nurse said she could feel that it was broken and I definitely knew that I was leaking fluid :-). Later it was much more obvious, I won't gross you out, though :-). So then they decided to get me on my medications and fluids. By this point I was shaking uncontrollably. The nurse said it was because I was going into labor quickly and my hormones were going crazy.

At 2:30 am the poor nurses blew three blood veins trying to get my IV in. Not fun.

At 3:45 my midwife and I decided that I should have an epidural. My contractions were coming faster and stronger, but the main reason was to try to lower my blood pressure. It had been really high all night.

The epidural worked, but not for the blood pressure. I had to go on magnesium sulfate for preeclampsia. That stuff is nasty and makes me sick. I had to be on it for 24 hours after delivery.

By 5 am I was 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced, and feeling NOTHING. It was fabulous. I was feeling sick so they gave me some medicine to help with that which also put me to sleep.

At 8:45 they basically woke me up to say it was time to go. I was so tired. The epidural worked so well that I didn't know where/how/when to push. The other drug had me totally drowsy. We went on that way for 45 minutes.

We decided to stop the epidural and to put me on pitocin to make the contractions closer together, they were coming around 4 or 5 minutes apart and the pitocin would bring them to 2-3 minutes.

At 10:20 am I started pushing again. This time I could tell what needed to be done, and our baby girl was born 14 minutes later.

Lauren Frances was born on 12/6/09 (all divisible by 3, how cool is that? ha, that's the math nerd in me :-)) at 10:34 am. She weighed 7 pounds and was 18.5 inches long. Her middle name is in honor of Eric's grandma.

Nana (my mom) made Lauren this adorable hat!

We're all doing really well. Lauren has mostly been sleeping, no surprise there. Eric got a lot of rest last night which I am happy about. Me on the other hand, not so much sleep. They took me off the magnesium a little early (YEA!) so I am starting to feel a lot better.

...Still here...

Just in case you're wondering.

I'm getting annoyed. It's still before my due date, so I guess I shouldn't complain yet.

Funny story from this morning:

K: Mommy, I want presents from Santa.

Me: What do you have to do to get presents from Santa?

K: I have to be a big boy.

Hmmmmm.... I guess we need to work on that one.

Garden d'Lights

Kaylin has been LOVING all of the Christmas lights this year. We just need to convince Eric to put some up on our house.

We called up some friends and took the girls to see the Garden d'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Kaylin had a blast. She loved holding hands with her friend, Kylie, and dragging her all over to see the lights. We went on the perfect night. It was dry and 45 degrees, the next night was in the low 30s and it's supposed to be that low for the next couple of weeks.

We had a great time and we will definitely have to take Kaylin again next year.

39 Weeks!

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant!

I had my 39 week appointment today. I am 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. My midwife said that the baby's head is really low and that she feels "smaller than average" and will probably be about the size of Kaylin (she was 6 lb 8 oz). She stripped my membranes in hopes that the hormones will do their job faster. We'll see how that goes.

I put a poll on my right sidebar. You can vote on when you think I will have this baby. The poll closes on Thursday the 3rd at 11:59 pm. If the baby comes before the poll closes, don't change your vote! :-) If you want to be more specific, like a time of day, then put it in the comments. In case it makes a difference, Kaylin was born 3 days early and at my 39 week appointment I think I was 2 cm dilated. My official due date is December 7.

I put up some Christmas decorations today, including our stockings. Kaylin was so excited. She was quite distraught that "baby sister's" stocking doesn't have an initial like everyone else. She kept saying, "There's no letter! What are we going to do?" She decided that we should put an "S" on the stocking for "sister" since the baby doesn't have a name yet. We'd better get on that.

Baby shower!

Kristina threw me a FABULOUS baby shower on Saturday. I told her that I didn't need one, since I'm having another girl, but she insisted. I didn't complain :-). We had a great time.

We played the game where you sift through a bowl of uncooked rice and safety pins with your eyes closed and try to pick out the safety pins. It was actually pretty tough.

Pam, Stephanie, Toni, and Aubrey

Carly and me. My eyes are closed on purpose, it was my turn for the game.

Angela, Krista, and Stephanie holding Bosten (Krista's one month old).

Opening presents and modeling the "body bib" from Angela. I think I might use the bibs until I have this baby ;-).

Kim and me with the AMAZING princess and the pea quilt she made. If you look closely you can see a little green "pea" button near the bottom.

Thanks everyone for a great shower.