Anderson Powell Wood

August 13, 2013

7:53 p.m.

7lbs. 5oz. 

20 inches

As mentioned in my previous post, we were scheduled to be induced Tuesday, August 13. Although induction wasn't the picture perfect idea of how things would go, we felt like it was the best decision for us. We were to arrive at the hospital by 7. Yes, we even had the girls in tow. Here is our last picture as a family of four. They were so eager and excited to meet their baby brother!

Upon arriving at the hospital we got checked in. It took them forever to get all of my IV's and blood work, but after 5 tries it was finally done (worst part of labor by the way). They didn't get me started on pitocin until about 8:40 if I remember correctly. That could be completely wrong...not sure. Any way about it, it took a while to get things started. The waiting then began. I had been having some mild contractions for a while. They started me off slow and gradually bumped up the dose. Monday at my appointment I was told I was 2.5-3 cm dilated. When I checked in Tuesday the doctor on call told me I was 2 cm....not what a laboring mama wants to hear. :) The next time he checked me about lunch he said I was about 3 cm. We waited for the anesthesiologist to come and give my epidural so that they could break my water. At this point, I had been having pretty consistent contractions that were building, but nothing that was unbearable. I have to say, this was probably my most painless delivery just since they gave me the epidural so early. I had lots of sweet family and friends to visit with throughout the day. I, of course, was worried sick about the girls who had been so patiently waiting. Everyone kept assuring me that they were fine. Luckily they had a lot of things/people to entertain them. So we just waited and waited.

My blood pressure dropped a few times and there were some dips in the baby's heart rate so they would have to slow down the pitocin. It wasn't anything terribly scary like when I had Payton, but it did slow things down a little. If I remember correctly I was checked again twice that afternoon, last at around 5:00 and was still 4cm. At this point I was so frustrated. I really wasn't in pain at all, I was just ready to get it over with. My main concern continued to be how the girls were holding up and knowing that time was ticking as far as their patience could withstand. I was really second guessing being induced at this point and worried he wasn't ready. I prayed for patience and peace and got myself under control. :)

I didn't mention that I had the sweetest nurses. Unfortunately I labored the entire way through my first nurses shift, so I had to switch at 6:00. Vicki, Jeremy, and Beth took the girls to McDonald's for dinner and play time so I was relieved knowing they were fine for a while. Around 6:45 I told my nurse that I was worried my epidural was wearing off because I was all of a sudden feeling my contractions. It wasn't unbearable, but I was feeling the contractions where I wasn't before. She told me it was probably just the initial dose had worn off and reassured me that it was still intact. After feeling contractions and pressure, they finally got the dr. in there to check me about 7:20. He told us that I was completely dilated! Praise the LORD!!! They called and got the girls back to the hospital to make sure they were there in time. I waited patiently for everyone to get set up and in no time, baby boy made his entrance and was born at 7:53. 

Daddy getting ready to cut the cord.

Sweet baby boy! He had the sweetest cry that I will never forget!

One happy mama!

Right after he was born the nurse was a little concerned with his breathing but his oxygen was 100% and his lungs sounded clear. She guessed it was just because he came so quickly. Thankfully everything has been good since!

Proud mommy and daddy!

Dr. Litsey delivered him and Payton. There was also a doctoral student who assisted.

Finally holding my baby boy after a very long day!

My fabulous nurse who was there during the delivery.

Everyone was so ready to meet our little guy! It was a long 13 hour wait for many of them!

I was so ready to see my sweet girls! From what I hear they were precious angels all day and I was ready to get some hugs and kisses from them.

Proud big sisters were so ready to get their hands on him and give kisses.

When Harper walked walked in the room she immediately pointed at him saying, "Baby Bruder!!! I want to hold you!" Melts this mama's heart!

Our new family of 5!!!

The entourage flooded the room ready to meet him shortly after the girls had their chance.

Great Bamama was determined to be there when her great grandson was born, even if that meant sitting in a waiting room for 13 hours. 

Sweet boy actually wasn't named until about an hour before we left the hospital, so at this point we were still referring to him as "baby brother." As you can tell, he is one blessed little guy to have so many people anxiously awaiting his arrival! We are so thankful for a healthy baby and smooth (though not so fast) delivery!

Tomorrow is the big day!

If all goes as planned, we will officially become a family of 5 tomorrow!!! It hasn't really sunk in yet and I'm not sure when it will. We are scheduled to be induced at   7 AM. Although being induced isn't necessarily my choice of how things would pan out, I can feel my maternity leave ticking away as we speak. I was 1 cm at my 35-37 week checks. Finally at 38 weeks I was 2cm and today (at 39 weeks) I was 2.5-3cm. Hopefully since he has continued to progress and I have had inconsistent contractions for some time now it won't make for too hard of a day. 

Sweet baby brother still doesn't have a name. Jonathan thinks I have it all planned in my head, but I really don't! Hopefully when we see him something will fit perfectly. The girls are super excited, especially Payton since she seems to get it all a little more. She has been asking me for weeks when baby brother was going to come out of my belly, so when I told her today that we will get to meet him tomorrow she was elated. I have no doubt that both of those sweet girls will make the best big sisters ever! Hopefully this time tomorrow night we will be holding our new bundle of joy! 

Let the countdown begin!

We're now officially less than a month away from the arrival of baby boy! I've been working like crazy this past week to wash clothes, clean the house, and organize everything. Thanks to a sweet friend and sister in law, he actually has some clothes to wear. I even got all of the baby toys washed and assembled. We are ready! He still doesn't have a name and his poor room is pretty bare. If anyone feels the desire to come decorate, please come see us!

The uncertainty of my due date is driving me crazy. Basically, I could be anywhere from 36 to 39 weeks at this point. Officially I'm 36. At 35.5 weeks I was almost 1 cm, 50% effaced, and he's definitely head down. He's a wild man doing jumping jacks and I've had some mild contractions, but obviously nothing too exciting. We've been staying super busy around here trying to squeeze in as much fun, play dates, trip to Callaway, etc as possible before those activities get a tad more difficult in a few weeks. Payton is having a hard time understanding that we don't know exactly when baby brother will be born. I just tell her we are waiting on God to surprise us! All in all, baby brother is welcome anytime (as long as he's fully developed)! We can't wait to become a family of 5!

Lemonade Stand Party

We celebrated Harper's 2nd birthday with a lemonade theme party. After torrential rains for 5 days prior to the party, we were worried that we would be in search of Noah's Ark to make a party happen. By the grace of God, it stopped raining just in time for the party and held off the entire 2 hours. Immediately following the party it started raining again. Our original plan was to have it in the backyard, but since our yard was mush, it was moved to the garage and driveway. Everything worked out perfectly and the kids had fun, which is all the really matters.

The birthday girl was ready for her "paty". I don't think she knew exactly how much fun was in store for her, but she loved it the minute everyone started showing up.

All dressed in her swimsuit ready to play! Our water shy baby showed no reservations playing in it during the party.

She especially loved the little slide going into the baby pool.

We had lots of family and friends to help us celebrate our sweet girl's big day!

We can make the garage look cute, right?

The big kids loved the slide that Ella and Colton let us borrow.

Happy Birthday time!

After the party Harper kept asking to open her presents. Some of the family (who graciously helped us clean up might I add!!!!) stuck around to watch her.

She couldn't quite believe the presents were for her. Of course big sister loved most of them also and encouraged Harper to share!

Harper's 2nd birthday party turned out perfectly. Although the invitation said "Sweet lemonade & Sunshine" at least we didn't have sweet lemonade and downpours. Thank you so much to everyone who helped her celebrate. She is getting to be such a big girl!

Harper Lynn is TWO years old!

Harper's actual birthday was Tuesday. We aren't celebrating until Saturday for her party, but we did have a lot of events to help us celebrate birthday week. Some of our sweet friends came over Monday for a play date and surprised her with a little party. They won't be able to make it to her party on Saturday, so they wanted to celebrate with her. Harper loved the attention while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her. It was so thoughtful of them!

Tuesday on her actual birthday we ended up having lunch at Burger King. I wanted to do something that I knew she would enjoy and she loves their playground. Nana, Bamama, Grandaddy, Ella, Vicki, Grady, and Nanny all ended up joining us. She had quite the little party there! The girls played for over an hour and enjoyed some ice cream as a dessert treat.

 That night we went back to Nana's house to eat pizza (one of Harper's favorite foods). We sang Happy Birthday (again) and she blew out her candles on her brownie knowing exactly what to do! I just adore these pictures below. I have mentioned several times how she has so many facial expressions. I feel like I finally captured some of them on camera. She is too funny!

Harper went to her 2 year old check up yesterday and was such a big girl! She was hesitant at the very beginning to step on the scale but after that she was so brave! She let Dr. Williams listen to her heart, look in her ears, and mouth, etc. We took our Doc McStuffins doctor kit with us for Harper and Payton to play with while we were waiting. Maybe that helped??? She had to get one shot and she didn't even whimper! What a big girl.

Weight: 25 lbs. 5 oz. - 50% 

Height: 34.75 in. - 75%

Head: 19.75 in. -98% (of course!)

(Telling us she was 2 years old!)

Favorite foods these days: pizza, fruit (especially strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and grapes), yogurt pops, MILK (the girls loves some milk), cheese, chicken, any type of bread

Personality: She is quite the spunky little thing. If she gets hurt she usually stands right up and says, "I okay!" She can be absolutely hilarious! She knows how to make everyone laugh for sure. Her spunkiness can turn the corner also. She is strong-willed, determine to be her own self (not her sister's shadow), likes to say NO. She's not quite the dare devil that Payton has always been. She likes to check out a situation for a while before she is willing to jump in. After that, she usually loves it but it has to be on her own time. Last weekend we went to Ava's birthday party at the splash pad. She had to walk the perimeter of the splash pad for half of the party before she was convinced it was okay to play. After that, you couldn't get her off of it. Unfortunately, she has become quite familiar with time out this summer. She's definitely smart enough to understand the concept because after telling her she's going to time out, she starts screaming whatever you have asked her to do in an attempt to bargain getting out of time out. It's getting better!

Smart girl: One thing we discussed with Dr. Williams yesterday was her speech. At her last appointment I was very concerned because she had very few words that she was saying consistently. Now she has just taken off and putting together sentences all the time. I think this goes back to her little personality of taking everything in. She was just waiting until she was ready, and now she hasn't slowed down with it.  She knows all of her basic colors and some shapes including: square, circle, triangle, star, etc. She loves to count and is actually pretty good! We have 17 stairs in our house so we constantly count them when we go up and down. I won't say that she is 100% accurate, but she's pretty good until she gets to about 14. We are beginning to work on letters but she is slowly getting there. Maybe I feel confident to say that she knows A and H. She has also learned her birthday this month.

Size: She wears anything from 18-24 months and 2T, depending on what we have clean. :) She is definitely tall and thin. She's wearing size 5 shoes. Her hair has finally grown out and now requires a bow at all times. It even has a little curl on the end when the summertime humidity hits it.

Big girl: She has been sleeping in a big girl bed like a champ since the end of April. She naps about 2.5-4 hours in the afternoon. She is very independent often saying "My turn" when she wants to do something on her own. Whether that be snap the car seat, put on shoes, brush her hair and teeth, the list goes on. She has gotten much better about asking for help when she does realize she can't do the said task on her own rather than just pitching a royal fit! Although we were no where near wanting to potty train, she kept giving us clues that she may be ready. I feel like we may have started a little early with Payton and I didn't want to make that same mistake again. After trying for a day and a half and our success to failure ratio being 1:13, we decided maybe we should wait a while longer! Although I think she's physically ready, she's just not that interested in yet. As mentioned, until her little strong personality decides she's ready, it is only going to be a battle.

Favorite phrases: 

(I've added a lot of these as I sit here listening to her and Payton play)

"Hey, Mommy!"

"Hey, Daddy!"

"Watch this!" 

"Get tummy."

"What you doin?"

"I want kiss. I want hug" (especially when putting her in bed at night)

"That tickles."

"That cute."

"I love you."

She has  been saying "Thank you" for several months now and it is so precious. Just this week she started saying "Yes, mam!" and "No, mam!" Now we just have to get Yes, sir and No, sir. I have to say she uses great manners!

I honestly do think that she will make a fabulous big sister. As mentioned in a previous post, she has taken very well to babies we have been around. She will say, "Hey Baby ______!" "He/she cute!"However she can also be clingy at times so we will see when that cute baby is in our house 24/7 how that goes!

Favorite books: Her book she got the last day of school with her friend's pictures that follows the pattern of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She has a nursery rhyme book that we read almost every night. 

Favorite songs: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC's

Favorite activities: The girl just about skips everywhere she goes. She also loves jumping (on the ground or trampoline), playing baby dolls, cooking in her play kitchen, blowing bubbles, reading books, etc. We're working on trying to make her a water girl because she's not quite a fan yet.

This girl is such a joy to our family. We can always count on her to make us laugh or give us loves just when we need it. We are so thankful that God designed her to be such a perfect gift to fit perfectly into our family.

As I finished up this post, I couldn't help but think that July 4th was the day we brought her home from the hospital. With the second child, we were out and about that evening to celebrate with family and even pulled the car up to the fireworks to let Payton watch them for a minute. I can't believe that's been 2 years ago! We love you Harper Lynn!

Bubbles

These girls love to go outside and blow bubbles. Sweet Harper couldn't blow a single bubble at the beginning of the summer but she is quite the pro now.

This was one afternoon after the girls had napped when we were just enjoying the sunshine before daddy got home from work.

Sweet girls!

33 Weeks

It's hard to imagine that baby brother will be here in 7 weeks or less. We are so excited for his arrival, but no where near ready! Payton has been insisting that we need pacifiers for baby brother for months (just like she did with Harper). We bought some last weekend so maybe we can check one thing off the list??? His wardrobe is slowly building, but his room is yet to be finished (or really even started) and he obviously still has no name. We have been around several babies in the past few weeks and both of the girls have taken so well to them (even if I was holding them and giving them lots of attention). I feel like we had prepared Payton much more at the point as to what to expect and how to treat the baby, but I think Harper might just jump into the natural role of being a great big sister like Payton. My appointments have been going very well and his heart rate usually stays around 160ish. We are so thankful that he appears to be growing strong and healthy. I would be lying if I said I wasn't beginning to get a little uncomfortable and tired, especially in this summer heat. Of course it's worth every second! Sleep has really become a struggle lately. I thought maybe it was because I usually nap or rest when the girls nap in the afternoons, but I still seem to have trouble sleeping even when I don't so I've decided to enjoy the naps while I can. I seem to get better rest then compared to an attempt of a full nights sleep. Baby boy seems to be a wild man, especially at night. We'll see if that's any indication of his personality when he gets here. I'm also thinking he might be pretty tall since I can feel him jabbing my hip and rib cage all at the same time!

This picture was back around 31 weeks I think. Trust me, I've grown a lot since!

So I guess in 46 days or less we will be a family of 5! Hopefully we can get in gear and get some things together before then!