We're Home!

We had a nice time in the hospital with Anna, but are very happy that we were able to come home yesterday. For two parents with a toddler and a 3 day old baby, we are getting a fairly good amount of sleep and just really enjoying our new family. Anna continues to amaze us with how little and pretty she is. She's a really good baby and hardly cries at all. We hope that continues!!

Benjamin has been the really amazing one! He is always so sweet and loving, that I didn't think he would throw a lot of fits or anything. But I did think there was a chance he might be a little fussy, timid, or clingy to Dave and I. He hasn't though. When we got home yesterday, he was immediately this happy, full of energy little guy. He seemed so excited to have Dave and I home, it was like he was showing off for us! He acts like its perfectly normal for Anna to be here! He isn't timid around her and kisses her. He doesn't seem jealous or upset by her! And he is totally fine with me nursing Anna. He tells me she's hungry and needs more milk and sits with me while I feed her. It's soooooo sweet!!!!! Hopefully, all this continues!

Here are some pictures of our homecoming: Anna wearing the shirt Benjamin made for her!


All dressed up in her homecoming outfit! I bought this outfit with a cupcake on it because I've been calling her my little cupcake because she's so sweet!


All ready for her first car ride!

Let's go home!

As I got Anna out of the car seat, Benjamin was right there to give her a big hug....

And a kiss!

Benjamin used to stretch his arms over his head like this too! Anna keeps her legs tucked up like this all the time! It can make diaper changes somewhat challenging!

This balloon makes music and Benjamin enjoys it a lot!

This picture is priceless to me!

We put Anna in her bouncer while we ate dinner last night and she was so tiny in it! Every time she made a noise, Benjamin would go check on her!

So little!

Katie came up to meet her niece today!

Anna

Our little girl is here! Anna Faith was born yesterday, February 26th, at 2:02 pm. I was induced a little after 8 and she arrived about 6 hours later! It went a lot quicker than I thought it would! I was able to have her on my own and didn't have to have a c-section like I did with Benjamin, which I was so thankful for! So far the recovery is so much easier! Anna's doing really well too! She seems really little to us, she weighs 6 lb 13 oz and was 20 inches long. She has dark brown hair and blue eyes. A little round face. And long fingers and toes! She's really precious and we couldn't be happier! Thanks to all those who have been thinking about us and praying for us! We are so blessed! We hope to go home tomorrow and be with Benjamin more and start living like a little family of four! Here are some pictures from the past two days. I made them smaller, since I put quite a few on here....but you can just click on any of them and make them larger! Enjoy! We sure are!

Love,
Andee

Holding Daddy's finger!


I was so tired at this point, but so happy she was here!


Dave holding Anna for the first time!



Benjamin is a big brother! Meet the new happy family of four! He gave her kisses and kept calling her baby Anna! We're excited to take her home and see them together more!


Her feet and toes are about all that seems big on her!

Anna's first bath! Her hair is dark like Benjamin's was at first too! We think it will turn blonde like his did, because she has light eyebrows and eyelashes!

All clean and dressed up for the first time!

Adoring my little cupcake! (That's what I've been calling her and I got her a little cupcake outfit to come home in tomorrow!)

She already really loves her paci!

Daddy and Momma love you so much, Anna!

Daddy and Anna cuddling before bed last night!

She was really alert this afternoon, so we dressed her up and got some pictures of her with her eyes open!!!

One Week!!!!!

We went to the doctor today for the last time!! Yea! This time next week, we will be holding our little girl! We're so excited!

We went to the mall tonight to get some Chinese take-out. While we were waiting we walked around and Benjamin insisted on being the "big boy" and carrying a bag and both his and my coats! It was quite a sight! You gotta love the serious bed-head he had today too!

Benjamin Loves Anna and More.....

Benjamin and I made this shirt for Anna to come home from the hospital in the other day. He really got excited about making it and did a great job! Hopefully, he'll be more excited about her coming home since she'll be wearing the shirt he made! :)


This weekend I made Benjamin a little playhouse out of a box, complete with windows and door! He's really had a lot of fun with it! He especially likes it when the kitties go inside it!

This is a picture of me from a couple days ago. I wanted a picture of me in this outfit, since I'm wearing it in one of the few pictures I have of me pregnant with Benjamin. She'll be here exactly two weeks from today! Yea!


Benjamin was bursting with energy on Friday and had pulled all his two-year old tricks on me. So by the time Dave got home, I was pretty much done! Benjamin however was not! So we decided we needed to get him out of the house and let him burn off some energy. Since it was cold and dark, there's not many places he can go run around. So we took him to Chuck E Cheese, which he had fun at and was a completely different kid by the time we got home (thankfully!). They had a machine there that sketched a picture of you. I thought it was pretty neat! Benjamin was waving at the camera, so if you look at his hand, he has like 8 fingers!

On the way home from church, the sun was in Benjamin's eyes so he got to try out his new sunglasses. He was pretty pleased with the results!

Recent Benjamin Cuteness

I haven't been posting as much, so I thought I'd post a bunch of our recent pictures of our cutie-pie! Crazy to think, but there probably won't be too many more posts before Anna's here! Only 18 more days or sooner until she joins our family....yea!!!

This picture is from a couple weeks ago, when I was still on bed rest. Dave and Benjamin went to church without me this morning and so Dave dressed Benjamin on his own. He picked jeans, a t-shirt that was about 2 or 3 sizes too big, and a sweatshirt over it. After church, we took the sweatshirt off and we kept chuckling as we watched Benjamin playing with his jeans and big t-shirt. We thought he looked like such a big boy!


This one is also from when I was on bed rest. On days when my mom wasn't here to help me with Benjamin (thanks a million times over for your help mom!), I would have Benjamin take a nap with me in my bed that way he could just climb in on his own and I wouldn't have to lift him. This day, I couldn't get him to sleep in our bed, so he ended up passing out in the rocking chair with me. Dave came home to get some lunch and this is what he found!


One morning I looked over and there was Benjamin sitting on the couch watching his cartoons with his construction hat on that came with some of his tools. I thought it was so funny, especially since he had little construction worker jammies on! It makes us laugh too everytime he wears this hat, because it's about the only thing that exists that is too big for his gigantic head, so he has to hold it on his head the whole time or it falls off!


We had a nice surprise one afternoon. The doorbell rang and we had a big package. We opened it to find Benjamin's Sesame Street tool bench that we had sent back for a rebate since it fell into the lead paint recall. There was a letter that said they had checked it and it wasn't one that had been affected so Benjamin could go back to playing with it. It's been months since he's gotten to play with it and he was overjoyed! He has played with it numerous times on a daily basis since!

We were on our way out when we received the package. Dave was in the process of putting Benjamin's shoes on when the doorbell rang. Benjamin didn't seem to mind playing with his tool bench with only one shoe on! We had a hard time getting him to leave it. He kept shaking his head no at each of our pleas to get going and would say "This!" while pointing to the tools!

I even got some extra loving and affection during his happy/excited state at the return of his beloved toy!

I know this isn't Benjamin, but I thought this was a cute picture of Milo napping in the sun! As you'll see by the next picture, Benjamin was taking a nap at the time....which is the only time the cats feel secure enough to fall asleep on the floor or furniture where Benjamin would usually be in grabbing range!

Benjamin and Dave napping on a lazy Saturday afternoon! Aren't my two boys cute together all snuggled up!

Benjamin and I made brownies today. Afterwards, I let him eat some of the left-over batter...which he thouroughly enjoyed!

We went out to eat tonight and the restaurant we ate at was having family night where Benjamin got to see a magician do tricks, make balloon animals, and even got a huge bowl of ice cream for free! He was really excited about this bunny that the Magician made for him. He really liked the heart that the bunny's holding. Heart has become one of his favorite words now that we go to the doctor once a week and get to hear Anna's heartbeat. He say's Anna...Heartbeat...Doctor (these are the stacatto-like sentences that he is talking in now!) over and over on those days and then goes bum-bum, bum-bum! It's pretty cute!

Well that's all for now......I'm sure those of you that made it through this whole post are thinking it's definitely enough! (Except maybe for Kelly!) Hope all is well with all of you and that we'll be updating you with some pictures of our little girl in a couple of weeks!

Pictures

I'm off bed rest now! Yea! So we were finally able to go get Benjamin's 2 year pictures taken. I also wanted ones of all of us with my Anna belly! I was so impressed with how well Benjamin did. He was especially good during the pictures with Dave and I and did everything that he was asked to do! I think he was a little more intimitated about getting the pictures of just him, so we didn't get as big of smiles as he can give. But I was still so satisfied that I just had to post the pictures we got! I just took a picture with my camera of the two collages we got. You can click on them to make them bigger if you can't make them out.