Our baby girl is here!

 

On Feb. 17th, I went to the hospital at 2AM with some cramping/contractions. After being there for 7 hours for observation, the doctor called it false labor and sent me home because there was no progression and the pain wasn't getting worse. Because I had been up for over 30 hrs, they gave me some Ambien on my way out the door. The Ambien made me forget a lot of what happened between leaving the hospital and getting home and going to bed, but apparently I was saying off-the-wall things and even threw up and laid on the bathroom floor to go to sleep, good thing Elijah was with me and got my semi-conscious bum to bed.
About 4 hours later, at 2:30pm, I woke up. IN PAIN. I quickly went to the bathroom and got in the tub. The contractions were coming every 3 minutes, and I could barely breathe through them. I figured if I could just relax, they'd go away (I was told just hours earlier I wasn't in labor, so why would anything change now?!). Shaved my legs, and the contractions were just getting worse with each one. Got dressed, got in the car at 3:10pm... the 20-minute drive to the hospital took 12 minutes (including parking)- I don't remember going that fast because I was hurting so bad, but I do remember Elijah's white knuckles on the steering wheel.
Still under the influence of Ambien, I hardly remember what happened afterwards... lots of people in my room, was dilated to a 6, then 20 mins later I was dilated to a 9, then felt the urge to push.... I was climbing up the bed, and a contraction hit and I pushed, and when my water broke, she rode the wave out (with a couple of other pushes to help). The doctor had to dive in over the bed to catch her- honestly, I think she had just barely enough time to put her gloves on!
Our sweet London Sofie arrived at 3:42pm weighing 8lbs and measuring 19.75". It was definitely the craziest delivery we've gone through!
We're so glad she's here; I had had it with this pregnancy! Twenty weeks worth of weekly progesterone shots and 11 weeks of modified and complete bedrest did the trick to keep me pregnant until I was full term. Not to mention the heartburn and the nasty hormonal migraines... She is so cute, it was worth it in the end :)

Family fun day

We went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum yesterday, playing tourists. It was so fun for the kids, they had a blast. We got to see the Discovery Space Shuttle, it was really neat! And all that walking still didn't put me into labor. I'm in serious trouble- this girl is even more stubborn than me.

Andrew is 2!

Ahhhh... sweet monkey boy. How is it that you are 2 years old already? I still treat you like a baby, but I know you aren't one anymore. You have such a sweet smile and I know all the girls will be falling for you one day!
Andrew had a good birthday. All year I was looking forward to making his cake from scratch and cooking all these yummy, complex finger foods for his party. Then I got sentenced to bedrest, so we had to do choose quick things to make. We had our awesome friends come over and had a small little get together. It was perfect! Small and simple, that's how we roll.

 

 

Poor kid got a cake with flowers on it. The grocery store didn't have any chocolate cake (per Andrew's request) that wasn't decorated like that. Oh well.

 

 

  

 

 

He LOVES his Spider Man boots. He doesn't even know what Spider Man is, but he loves that they light up. He even wanted to sleep with them on.

 

Best moments of 2012

This is a condensed version of what 2012 has been for us. I got busy with school and so many things happened that I completely ignored the blog and now I'm going to give you a break down of our busy year! Ready.... GO!

 

I attended the University of Louisville in the Spring semester. Sorry, no pictures of classrooms for you, I figured I'd save you from boredom. The only decent snow we got during the 2011-2012 winter in Kentucky was on our 7th wedding anniversary, in March. I was so disappointed it didn't snow more, but to make up for that, we survived a few tornadoes. THOSE were fun! Can't wait to go through another one again.

 

 

It's crazy we've been married for 7 years. Even more so, we've known each other for just over 10 years now. Time flies.

 

In April, Grandma Glazier came to visit us in Kentucky for Easter and Jacen's birthday. Jacen turned 4 (see my remarks above in regards to how time flies). Unbelievable. We held a little Cars birthday party for him and we had a lot of fun showing Grandma Glazier around the area.

 

 

 

 

After being away from my home country for over 12 years, the kids and I were able to go to Brazil for two weeks in April to see my family. That was such a great vacation... exhausting, but fun! I'll never travel internationally with two small kids by myself again (that was horrendous), but my dad and family helped me out with them while we were down there. Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

Jacen meeting great-grandpa Mourao for the first time.

 

Haven't seen them in so long!

 

A visit to Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens), the most famous park in Curitiba.

 

 

My dad and his wife Neiva with little Andrew.

 

Of course we had to go to the beach! We even visited our old beach house... brought lots of memories.

 

Met up with my childhood friends. #friendsforever

 

And met my half-sister, Liege, for the first time. She's beautiful!

I had so much fun! If it wasn't so expensive, I'd go back every year.

 





 Our situation wasn't the best in Kentucky and we made the decision to move in with Elijah's parents in Virginia right after the kids and I got back from vacation. He got a job and we moved about 2 weeks after we got back home. We're grateful for them taking us in :)

 

Then in June....

 

Greatest.Timing. Ever. NOT.

Anyway. In July I got accepted to George Mason University, so I spent the Fall semester there. Probably the worst university I've ever attended, but I thought the biology labs were pretty well funded. 

In October, we found out we were expecting a GIRL! Thank goodness, it was about time. I've been experiencing complications but that's not different than my other pregnancies. Comes with the territory, I guess. (I'm on bedrest now, so that's why I can blog again!)

 

 

 

Halloween was a lot of fun. I was still able to move around as I pleased at the time and Elijah and I took the kids out Trick or Treating. They each hauled candy to completely fill their buckets. I would have to say that was a successful year!

 

I don't think I have to explain what Andrew and Jacen were for Halloween, do I?

 

I guess I don't have pictures of Thanksgiving. Uncle Ken and aunt Myrt drove down from WV to celebrate it with us. Great food, and I thought I was going to roll out of my chair once the meal was over. Same for everyone else as well!

 

Then the kids and I decided we should write letters to Santa Claus this year. These are it:

 

 

The coolest thing was that Santa wrote back! It was amazing. Thank you, USPS!

 

Now that I'm on bedrest with enough issues to write a book, I hope that I can keep up with this blog better. Christmas is in 2 days and I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas as we remember the birth of our Savior and all the love He has for us.

 

Andrew turns 1!

Andrew turned one on New Years Eve 2011. We had a little party for him with our closest friends. He seemed to have a great time! And I made some Brazilian hors' deuvres and they were delicious!

 

 

 

Happy first birthday to our little monkey! He did not walk yet but was really good at crawling! My favorite part was that he was sleeping through the night and he's just always been such a sweetheart. Love you Andrew!