Hannah Photo Shoots

Hannah is 2 1/2 weeks old now and we love her dearly already. So far she's been a pretty easy baby and seems to have a more mellow personality than Abigail. Hannah is giving us 3 hour stretches of sleep at night between feedings and doesn't have the day/night confusion like most newborns, so that's been a blessing. At her two week appointment yesterday, Hannah weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz , so she's gaining weight like a champ (gained a pound in one week) and is healthy. We are so very thankful that she didn't catch Abby's cold!

We've had a few newborn photo shoots thanks to my sister-in-love Tara and my friend Alison. Here are some photos from Hannah's first week shoot with Tara:

And here are some shots from our two sessions with Alison:

 Family Shots:

Thank you so much Tara and Alison!!! You are both so talented!

Introducing Hannah!

Hannah Callista Hart was born Saturday, March 9th at 8:49pm after 16 hours of labor. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 13 oz and was 20.5" long.

Birth Story (for those who have not already heard it):
My water broke at 4am Saturday morning and we headed to the hospital at 10am after we got Abigail situated with my parents. I wasn't having very regular contractions at that point, so after we checked in, they let us walk around the hospital for awhile to try to get things moving. By 3pm, I was still only at 3cm so they started me on pitocin (argh!). I decided at this point I was just going to make it as far as I could before getting the epidural since I knew they wanted the baby out 24 hours after my water broke and I didn't want to end up with a c-section for "failure to progress." David was an amazing coach and we tried lots of different positions and breathing techniques while laboring through my contractions. At 7pm, we got a new (AMAZING) nurse who checked and told me I was at 7cm. Because of our birth plan, the nurse knew I had originally wanted to try to make it without an epidural (I thought once pitocin started that it would be unlikely to happen that way), and she told me she thought I could do it and would help us get there. Things moved quickly at that point and after some severe pitocin/transition contractions, I went from 7cm to pushing in about 15 min. Four pushes later (and no epidural), Hannah was born! (I won't lie, there were about 10 minutes where I was thinking I was pretty stupid for not getting that epidural!) She was totally healthy and we got to enjoy a beautiful hour of skin-to-skin time with her. SUCH a different experience than when Abigail was born. It was exactly what we were hoping for. Thank you Lord! What a gift!

David helping me labor through transition contractions

 Meeting Hannah!

First Family of Four Picture

Abigail meeting her baby sister

Here are a few snapshots from her first week of life:

 

Daddy and his two girls

 First Bath

Resting with Daddy

Happy First Week of Life Little Precious!

Waiting for Hannah

David had last week off of work (ski week), so we tackled several household projects and enjoyed some family time together. First, we moved Abigail's new twin bed in her room and moved everything around so that the girls can eventually share a room (we'll keep Hannah in our room for a few months). Here's a look at the new set-up and her fun new trundle bed (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!)

We also moved around some furniture in our bedroom to make room for a bassinet. After our projects were completed and house was thoroughly cleaned, we went on some family outings. We spent one morning walking on the beach enjoying lunch.

 Another day we ventured to the California Science Center. We checked out the Endeavour, which was pretty amazing to see in person, and enjoyed the aquarium part of the center. Abigail loved watching the diver feed all the fish. Abigail also got to explore some family discovery rooms that resembled a children's museum. It was definitely a great activity all for just the cost of parking (and $2 a piece to see the Endeavour).

 

We're all just waiting now for Hannah's big arrival... I'm just praying I won't be super late again! Come baby girl, come!

Baby Shower and Pregnancy Pics

A couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-love Tara took some pregnancy photos for us...  We had to keep the photo shoot inside due to the rain, but we had a good time anyway. Here are a few of my favorites...

Thank you Tara! You can check out more of her work at www.tcengle.com.

Baby Shower

Some of my friends threw me a beautiful baby Shower on January 26th. Thank you to Becky, Alison, Kristen, and Felicia for all the hard work and creative touches you contributed to make it such a special, memorable event. I felt so loved! Tara captured some photos of the beautiful details at the shower. It was lovely! Thank you to everyone who was able to come!

 

 

Generous gifts and gracious friends... I am so blessed!