Family Update

Just a little family update....
We are all doing really well. My mom and sister have been here all week and have truly been CHAMPS!! I could not have survived this week without them. I guess I forgot about the whole recovery process and it's been a lot different than I remember. My mom and sister have been waiting on me hand and foot, cleaning our house spotless and making wonderful and delicious dinners and desserts. They even painted my dining room! Now, you just don't get much better than that. Sadly, they left this morning. We miss them already. They have truly been our angels.
We have just a few pictures left from the hospital. This picture below captures what I have been doing all week. Snuggling is the best part of a newborn. They love it and you do too! It is just amazing how much I love this little guy. He is so preciouis!
It took several more hours to leave the hospital than we thought. It felt really nice to come home. My mom and sister had our house spotless with a big blue bow on the door to welcome Andrew home.

All strapped in, ready to go.

Aunt Kellie was so helpful all week. I can't wait to do this for her one day.

Anna loves to hold Andrew. She asks for him first thing when she wakes up from her naps. I think that she really does understand that he is her baby brother. It's fun to watch her interact with him.

Our ward did a trunk-or-treat last night. Josh took Elmo and they had a blast. We tried so hard to get a cute, smiling picture, but I don't think that Anna has ever been more defiant. She was not going to smile for a picture for anything. Well, I think we still got some pretty cute ones of her costume.

Andrew even dressed up, well sort of....

A friend of Josh's sent this adorable little Halloween outfit. It was fun to have him be festive too. I guess Andrew wasn't in the picture taking mood either.

Look at that little face!

This is a picture of Anna and Hannah at trunk-or-treat. They were stroller buddies as they went around getting all the candy. I think they were both in heaven.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Anna Meets Andrew

We were so excited for Anna to meet Andrew. It's amazing how much we missed our little girl throughout the day, even though we were so occupied with Andrew. Diana's family brought her to us yesterday evening and she LOVED Andrew!!! She cried so hard when the nurses came in to take him away for 20 minutes to do a hearing test. That girl LOVES babies and she LOVES Andrew! I really think she knows who he is. We point to Andrew and ask her who he is. She responds "Baby" or "Annew." She's going to be such a great big sister!

Here are some pictures of Anna holding Andrew for the first time.

She quickly pointed out that he has a mouth...

...and hair. She also pointed to his eyes but we were so busy telling her not to poke them out that we couldn't snap a picture.

Anna immediately went for the little blue suction thing (that's the technical name, I'm sure) and insisted that Andrew "eat." How do you explain to a one year old girl that a suction thing is not for eating and that, no, she can't try to jam it into his mouth?!

Andrew Gregory Lee!!!

Andrew Gregory Lee was born today at 12:17 PM. We are so excited to have him here! I feel like I'm looking down at Anna all over again. We love this little guy so much already!

So, here's how it all went down...

Around 10:00, the contractions started really picking up. By 10:30, Diana was more than ready for her epidural. The nurse called the anesthesiologist and he came just in time. I don't think Diana would have lasted much longer with those STRONG contractions! By 11:15, the epidural was in and the medicine was flowing and we all breathed a quick sigh of relief. The nurse then called in the OB resident to break Diana's water. We were all surprised that Diana was already 7 cm dilated!!! We couldn't believe it. The resident broke Diana's water and then the nurse told us she would check on us in an hour or so to see if she had progressed at all. Within 4 minutes, Diana was feeling serious pressure and was really worried the epidural wasn't working. So the nurse checked her again and she was completely ready to start pushing! FOUR MINUTES AFTER BREAKING THE WATER!!!! We were so surprised. Granny and I had only taken about 3 bites of lunch and we quickly put it away!

The nurse called our doctor, Dr. Smith, and she said she'd be here in 20 minutes. Diana didn't think she could wait 20 seconds let alone 20 minutes so they brought in a resident just in case. Luckily, with a little more pain medication, Diana was able to wait the 18 minutes it took Dr. Smith to arrive. At 12:00 PM, she started pushing and by 12:17, Andrew was born. He weighs 8 pounds, 11 ounces and is 21 and a half inches long. None of us could believe he was that big. Anna was 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 21 and a half inches long. Really...he is a replica of Anna!

Here's a first look at our new little guy. We love him so much!

We're at the Hospital!

We're finally here!! The hospital staff called us at 4:50 AM this morning and told us to come in. We thought they were going to call a little later than that, but we weren't complaining! We just can't wait for Andrew to get here. When we got here, they hooked Diana up to the monitors and her contractions were already 5 to 7 minutes apart, but not very strong. She was already dilated to 3 cm and was 80 percent effaced. We're hoping for a quick delivery!!! They started the Pitocin around 7:30 and right now it's 9:30. The contractions are getting a little stronger but still manageable...manageble enough for me to be at the computer for 5 minutes to blog this, I guess. Oh, wait... here comes another one...I gotta go!

Happy Halloween

We had a ward Halloween party today. Anna dressed up as Elmo. When we were looking for a costume, I was looking for fairies and Anna was looking at Elmo ONLY. She wouldn't let me pick up anything but Elmo so we decided that was her only option. It turned out pretty cute too. She wouldn't wear the head piece much but when she did, it looked great. We didn't get very good pictures but we'll have more to come soon.

This afternoon we worked on our pumpkins as a family. Anna painted for the first time ever. I have never seen her so calm and happy. I guess she was just in her element.

She was really happy all afternoon.

She even painted with two paint brushes.

What a masterpiece!

Josh and I carved a witch flying on a broom and it turned out really well. When we lit it up, Anna thought it was really fun.

When she stood up, she had a paint brush stuck to her bottom.

It took a long, long bath to get this girl clean.

Cute, huh?

Josh and I made some delicious caramel apples after Anna went to bed. It was part of our date night and I think they turned out really well. The best part was how yummy they were. Happy Halloween!!