Annalise Joy Carpenter

I asked Jeremy to take a prego pic since I hadn't taken one in quite a while. And I am so glad I did as it turns out to by my last! I had a few contractions Monday evening but nothing significant. But early Tuesday morning I went into labor! I am so glad we decided to have the baby at home! I was only in labor for under 2 hours!

And now we have a beautiful baby girl- Annalise Joy. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz, was 20 in long, born at 2:50am. We are all so in love with her. She doesn't fuss and hardly makes a sqeak. I love content babies :) Chloe is in full "Big Sister" mode. Logan surprised me. I was nervous about how he would react to her. But he has been amazing! He hasn't been jealous at all. In fact, he wants to hold her all the time. We can hardly set her down because he goes over to "hold" her or check on her. Everything is about Baby or Nonnie. When Logan tries to say Annalise, it sounds like Nonnie.

We are all doing great- a little tired, but great! My midwife told me I had to stay home for a few days and rest (I think she knows me!). So I said I would. It has been hard and I am ready to get out of this house! It was especially hard to stay home today and miss Wordshop and Church. In fact, I was scheduled to teach Wordshop. That was the hardest activity to give up! But I do want to recover nicely so I stayed home.

And for the Baby Guessing contest, my friend Sarah won! She guessed the 21st, 7lbs, 2:30am. I will mail your goodies to you!!!! Congrats :)

Jeremy Lost His Christmas Present

Logan has officially taken over one of Jeremy's Christmas gifts! I think he played with it for almost 5 hours today- inside and outside! He has learned how to reload the darts and drags it around the house saying, "I shoot ________." Yesterday we were outside with it and I could hear him talking to himself muttering "I shoot ko-ee (Chloe)" over and over. But it wasn't as if he was telling her, it was more like a pep talk for himself!

Easter

Since I don't sleep much lately, I figure I might as well start my day early! Fortunately, I am able to take a nap in the afternoons. Otherwise, I am pretty cranky- just ask Chloe!!! Since we spend the day at church on Easter, we started having our Easter on Saturday. Saturday afternoon, the kids got their Easter baskets. My mom came over and we had an egg hunt and dinner. We didn't dye eggs this year but the kids didn't seem to mind. We made cupcakes instead. At least those will be eaten. Hard boiled eggs just get thrown out around here.

The kids got to hunt for dozens of plastic eggs- pink, purple, orange for Chloe; blue, green, yellow for Logan. This made it so much easier for me! They knew which eggs were theirs and I didn't have to remind Chloe to "let Logan find the easy ones!" There was very little candy this year. I know, it's no fun finding eggs without candy. They each had 10 pieces, which I thought was MORE than enough! Once Logan discovered what was in some of the eggs, he was done hunting. He was content to sit down with his handful of candy-filled eggs. And shove the candy in his mouth as fast as he could! Later Saturday night, I caught him "helping" Chloe open her eggs. Only he was sneaking her candy as well!

Chloe was in the Kids Choir for our Easter NW production. Someone made a comment to her that she did a great job in the 3rd service and she replied, "I was born to do this!" The kids performed first and were put on the stage WAY TOO EARLY! They had 5 minutes to just stand there. I am sure this was done so parents could get pictures, but 5 minutes is the equivalent to eternity for Chloe! So, of course, she entertained herself- and the other 2,700 people!

Yeesh, drama!

So over the past week I have been getting a couple of really strong contractions. Strong enough to stop me in my tracks and have me doubled over. They are not just the Braxton Hicks contractions. I know the difference :) My last midwife appointment was not so great :( My lab work came back and my hematocrit count is too low to have this baby at home or the Birth Center. Since a hospital birth is an absolute last resort, I now have to see a naturopathic doctor and get iron injections every other day. Let me just say OWWWWW!!!!! It's like getting a tetanus shot in your hip. Only I get to alternate sides every other day. So basically both sides.

The last advice of my Midwife was, "DO NOT go into labor!" So, we are praying that all these injections will raise my hematocrit count high enough to have this baby at home. And also that I don't go into labor too early! It is kind of nice because I have to take it easy over the next couple of weeks. It's either slow down or bed rest. I am not capable of bedrest, but I did promise to slow down!

I am not too disappointed in that, but it does mean that I have to miss the Hillsong United concert at church next week and a few other events. And I probably won't attend all of our Easter services. But I do have too many responsibilities at church to just not go. I hate rearranging my schedule. I don't want to miss anything, but I am going to be good and slow down like I promised. Guess I'm not Super Woman after all.

April

Time has flown by around here! You would think that with a baby on the way we would be slowing down! Not so much :) There is a 5-week Discipleship class at church that we teach at, premarital counseling, Couples' Communication coaching, 3 different Connect groups, Easter NW, Kids' Choir, Ironman, Hillsong United concert at church, I am teaching at our Women's Wordshop, various other department meetings- youth, women's ministry, etc- and of course our normal Wednesday youth services! And then in our spare time, Chloe has school and birthday parties, Logan needs to start potty-training, Jeremy has work to do, and we are in the middle of buying a house!

After looking at our calendar, we decided that this baby only has a convenient 3 day window to be born! Boy that would be nice- to come when we tell it! But we are really excited!!!! I have been going through boxes of baby things and getting the house ready. There are still a few items we need to round up for the actual delivery, but other than that we are just about set. We are shopping around for a bed for Logan so the baby will have the crib. Even though we are so close to moving, we are not going to start the habit of sleeping in our bed.

Logan got some big boy undies and has better control of his bladder now than he did a couple months ago. He still loves to flush the toilet and wash his hands. And he likes his "pie-man." We got him a Spiderman toilet seat to use. So hopefully....