It's a New Year

May the Force be with you.

2014 is looking to be an awesome year! Only a month in, and we've had a fare share of excitement already. 

By far the highlight for the whole year is the birth of little miss Delilah Rose! We love our tiny new sister and can't get enough of her snuggles. 

She came into the world on her own time, at 3 weeks 1 day early. It was 12 hours of labor, and only 3 of those hours spent at the hospital. The other 9 hours were spent at home, basically in denial that this was the real thing. LOL.

We were dialated to a seven when we were first checked by the triage nurse, and barely had enough time to get the blood drawn, approved, and epidural put in. The pain had mostly, but not all the way, subsided when it came time to push. It was perfect as I had some major relief, but still some feeling that I could focus the push and feel that unexplainable experience of head, shoulders and sweet relief of baby's final exit!

Our family's beautiful Baby D was 6 pounds even, 19 inches long (the same length as Chloe at birth at one week early), and healthy as can be. There was an extra day spent at the hospital to get the bilirubin count down, but jaundice is common, (C had it too), and we felt it better to be extra safe since D was on the cusp of preterm vs full-term. 

From my experience, I would definitely agree with all those who told me the second time is easier than the first. Time flew by this round of pregnancy, and delivery was MUCH easier and far less painful! Recovery has been great too. I credit the faster recovery to not breaking my tailbone this time around. That was not a fun experience to say the least.

Dad trying hard to open his eyes for the picture

Back to the fun in 2014, January  included Alyssa getting contact lenses (the jury is still out if she likes them) and Bryson getting Lasik on both of his eyes. Lots of optical visits in this house. LOL. Wouldn't fate have it that the weekend of Bryson having his surgery would be when Delilah arrived. Although in a lot of pain, with decreased vision, and on intense pain meds, Bryson was a trooper thru the deliver and was a great support to Momma. He made it thru delivery, and got to see D's beautiful face before his eyes gave out for the night. We are grateful for those little miracles.

Last weekend was the first public outing as a family of 4 all together. We went to the matinee showing of Frozen. Chloe did great sitting thru most of the movie with her snacks and drink. It wasn't until the last 15 minutes that she got restless and wanted to explore all the empty rows. And Delilah slept thru most of it, waking to nurse only once. Safe to say, this was a successful and enjoyable outing. We are looking forward to Winter being over so we can do more outside!

Making Hawaiian pizza, Mommy's favorite

Oma came to help for a week and a half after Delilah's birth. She was originally coming the last week of January, but was lucky enough to have transferable tickets that let her come much sooner. Chloe and Oma had a lot of fun together. They read stories, danced, and even made pizza together. It was wonderful to have Oma in town to help Chloe transition to life as a big sister.

There's possibly more blog worthy notes to write out, but Baby D has woken up hungry and is doing her "fish face" as we call it, pecking around searching for her latch. LOL. We'll have to catch up on December later too. Thanks for reading!

Our first picture as a family of 4!