Welcoming Hannah Elsie Dickinson!

Our newest Little Lady has arrived! Hannah Elsie Dickinson was born Wednesday, May 16th at 7:35 pm at UTMB. Another BOI (Born on the island, for the non Galvestonian folk)! She weighed in at 7lbs 4 oz and 19 inches long. She is such a beautiful little angel and has added a whole new world back into our home!

This labor was not without it's challenges though. (If you don't enjoy birth stories, then please skip to the next section of the post.) My worst fears didn't come true. Hannah was born safely in the hospital and not in my living room. But some of my other fears were definitely faced. And now I feel I will not be so patient with doctors when they don't take my experience seriously.
After having fairly steady and increasingly intense contractions all morning, I decided it was time to head in to the hospital. David was at work and in a surgery, but he had a feeling that he would need to run home that day and so he didn't scrub in. He was able to get home in about 15 minutes and was definitely in more of a panic than me. Lydia had only been down for her nap a little bit, but was ready to move when we told her that it was time for baby sister to come out. She went over to a friend's house for the rest of the day and that night (Thanks again Stormie and Jer!).
We got to the hospital about 2:30 pm and were put into a triage room. I was only dilated to a 2 at this point and 50% effaced. But my doctor decided to keep me at the hospital since my contractions were only 5 minutes apart and planned to induce me. His plan was to deliver me in the morning when he came back to work. He had experienced my rapid progression when I had Lydia (reminder: dilated from a 3 to a 10 in 30 minutes), yet he still doubted it would happen again. Stupid doctor! He moved me to a labor and delivery room and, after me begging, agreed to give me an epidural if I had progressed to at least a 3 at 6pm. At about 5:30 the pain was getting unbearable. The contractions were coming about every 3 minutes and were very challenging to stay focused through. So, they gave me some pain medicine in my IV. I will never opt for that ever again! It left me extremely light headed and disoriented. It did numb the pain slightly, but not enough to be worth it. At 6:15 the nurses checked me again. They told me I was dilated completely. So, the resident checked me. He agreed that I had dilated a lot, but was still an 8 and needed to wait a little longer. So, the on call doctor came (it was 7pm by this point). He told me that I was only dilated to a 6 and it would still be a few hours. The resident had set up all of his delivery materials and, just as quickly, put them away. Meanwhile, I was desperately begging for my epidural and was losing even more of my focus. The anesthesiologist performed his fasted epidural ever (he was very proud of himself) and gave me my punch button. However, the contractions and pressure was so intense by this point that the epidural was not able to take any control over it. I still felt every little bit of pain. And I was incredibly frustrated by this point. How could everybody tell me that I was dilated so differently and then the doctor completely push me off like that! I already felt like I was ready to push tis baby out! But, the doctor left as quickly as he came to do some other work on another floor. Within 15 minutes of him leaving I felt an incredible desire to go to the bathroom. I began screaming so that everybody in the hallway could hear me that my baby was coming out. The nurses and resident quickly returned and I was checked again. It was confirmed that the baby was indeed crowned and ready to come out. After a few contractions of trying to refrain from pushing until the doctor returned, I was given permission to start going. What a relief! As awful as the contractions were, it was even worse trying to not push when your body is fighting so hard against you! After about 5 more contractions and 15 minutes, Hannah was born. I wish I could say it was as tender a moment as when Lydia was born. But, after having experienced so much pain and frustration, I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep! But I could still feel the needles stabbing me as the doctor sewed my small tears back up (they ended up giving me a local anesthetic because I kept cringing). Apparently the epidural never did kick in. I will never willingly go through a natural labor! But, I do plan to prepare myself more next time in case I have to go through that again. Lindsay and Kiersten, I may be asking you soon about the hypnotherapy stuff! I needed a better way to relax and focus through the contractions. Poor David almost got his fingers broken off because that was the only way I knew to control my pain!

But, despite the frustrations and pains, our little angel was born. First 2 things I noticed when holding her was her hair (so beautiful, dark and full!) and that she had a strong resemblance to her beautiful sister, Lydia. That was also the moment that I looked at David and said in a hopeful voice, "So, Hannah Elsie?" David couldn't argue with me any longer and he was locked in. So, I got my little Elsie! I'm so excited! But I'm even more excited to have Hannah in our home. I had forgotten how precious and fragile newborns are. I love holding her and cuddling her when she falls asleep. I love watching her dark eyes take in everything for the first time. I love her huge grins and occasional chuckles as she dreams of sweet things. I love how silky soft her dark hair is. I love how she curls up into a ball when she's comfortable.

Lydia got to meet Hannah for the first time the next morning. At first she was incredibly shy and unsure of approaching us. After a minute of encouragement, she came over to see her new baby sister. She timidly held her for a minute and gave her a couple kisses. But then was ready to go back to Miyah's house. That is how Lydia's interactions have been with Hannah so far. She'll come over and give Hannah a snuggly or a kiss. But then she's ready to go do her other things. My mom, sister and brother came into town to help a little on Saturday, and then took Lydia back to San Antonio with them Monday morning. She seems to be having a lot of fun there and may not want to come back home on Saturday. I'm glad that she was able to get away and get the attention that she needs during this stressful week. But it doesn't keep me from missing my little Princess like crazy! It's so quiet without her here! Well, all except my nights. Those have definitely become more eventful and busy. Hannah seems to think that the night time is the time to be awake and feed. But the days are quiet and uneventful. I'm looking forward to a big hug and kiss from my princess when she returns! I just pray that she is able to continue feeling as special and important upon her return as she did before Hannah was born. These two little ladies are the lights in my life. I want them to know how special, beautiful and wonderful they are. I'm excited to be their mother!

So, welcome to our family Hannah! We are so excited to have you here and to get to know you better!

And one more picture, just because I miss my little Princess right now! We celebrated David's birthday early this year at Fisherman's Wharf. Lydia loved looking into the bay at all of the fish! And she loved hamming up all of the pictures.

You've Had A Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Lydia is now officially 2 years old! Part of me wants to shout "Hooray!", but another part of me is sad. She seems to have grown up overnight. Everyone always told me to treasure each moment possible because it goes by so fast. And I feel like I really tried to, but there just doesn't seem to be enough moments before they grow up! Each stage has had its amazing moments (coupled with the trying ones, but we'll try to forget those.) And she has grown into a beautiful, sweet little lady. I've always considered her to be quite spunky and opinionated, and that has grown even more. But so has her sweetness, her cuddliness, and her desire to share everything with the world around her.

I couldn't possibly name all of the new things that she has done and developed since last time I wrote about her, but here are a few of the highlights:

*She loves to take care of her babies. She now keeps her babies in bed with her, makes sure they have their own blankets, and feeds them a bottle before she will go to sleep. Sometimes she thinks that bedtime means bedtime for her babies, not for her. And this results in some fun 2-year old tantrums. But she loves her babies. Hopefully this means that she will be excited to help take care of her baby sister soon!

*She talks up a storm! I couldn't possibly name all of the words that she can say now, and she's saying new ones everyday. She constantly amazes me with the things that she knows. My favorite words that she says right now are "hadoo" (hiding), "Dove you" (I love you), and "kiss it" (referred to when she needs a kiss on some obscure owwie). Probably my least favorite one right now is "No yike it" (I don't like it). This phrase is used quite frequently lately and refers to almost anything I feed her before she's even tasted it. She'll even say it to the tried and true foods that she's always liked. Sigh. Mealtimes seem to be a battleground lately. Oh, and one of my favorite things that she does lately is say her own prayers. We help her in saying them, but instead of repeating us like she used to, she adds her own commentary. Most of the time they involve praying that Daddy will come home, or blessing someone in our family. It's very sweet.

*She is taking the reigns in her potty-training progress. We bought her a couple of potty seats to go in our bathrooms and she has been taking it from there. She tells us quite frequently when she needs to go potty and we don't have to change her diaper very often. She almost always goes #2 in the potty (I guess she's realized how much more comfortable it is not carrying that around anymore). We've bought her several pairs of panties and we will go full gear as soon as I have a stool that will help her reach the toilet on her own. My guess is that she'll be trained within a month. Hooray! I won't have to buy diapers for 2 kids at the same time!

*Here are some of her favorites:

Favorite food: hmmm...I could toss out several of those. Among the top would be pizza, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, apples, oranges, bananas (or other fruit), broccoli (surprising, huh?), edimame beans (double surprise?), corn on the cob, and, of course, anything sweet.

Favorite Songs: Old McDonald, My Hands, and Personal Penguin (Sandra Boynton)

Favorite Toys: Nothing could possibly replace Pooh, but her babies do come into a close second. Her other favorites are her kitchen/play food & dishes, games (Cootie, Mancala, Hungry Hippos & HiHo Cherry-O) and books.

Favorite Movies: Most anything we put on at the moment. She especially enjoys "Goge" (Curious George), "Tigga" (any of the Winnie the Pooh movies), and the "Boods" ("Birds" aka Rio). Though she doesn't complain when we stick in most any other animated movie.

Other random things to note:

*Lydia is developing a little bit of phobia to anything messy. For example, if anything gets on her hands, then she panics until it gets cleaned off. If anything spills or gets a couple drops on the floor, she has to have it cleaned up. If there are a couple of fuzzies floating ni the bathtub then she will panic and can't get in until they've been removed. It hasn't ever gotten out of control and we've learned to just provide her with a napkin at mealtimes. Right now it's more in the funny and sometimes roll your eyes phase.

*Her stats right now are 36 inches tall (95th percentile) and 29 1/2 lbs (75th percentile). She's very tall for her age and it sure shows when she's with all her friends who are mostly a little older than her.

To celebrate Lydia's birthday, we threw a birthday party with a bunch of her friends. (Conveniently her birthday landed on a Saturday this year.) Of course, this was monkey themed. This little lady LOVES monkeys! So, I made a monkey cake, monkey/banana/jungle decorations, and a cute outfit for her with a monkey on the shirt. We played "Hot Banana". This was kinda like hot potato, except we gave each kid a prize as they got out. And then we took the kids on a jungle safari. Unfortunately it was raining bad and we couldn't do it outside, so we improvised in Lydia's room instead. We set up jungle animals around the room and each kid was given a paper with a picture of each of the animals. As they found the animals they got to color them on their paper. Then we sang Happy Birthday and Lydia blew out her candle. It took her a few tries to get enough of a blow to actually put out the flame, but she enjoyed it thoroughly. Then she opened all of her presents. I think in the future we'll get her less presents on her birthday if we have a party, because she got more than enough from all of her friends and family (Thanks so much!). She loved it though and didn't get upset when her friends wanted to join in the excitement of unwrapping the gifts.

After a yummy breakfast, Lydia opened her family gifts. This is her pretty new dress from G&G Anderson. So cute!

You may not be able to tell from this picture, but she loves to play games and was really excited for her new ones!

Lydia was also in love with her new addition to her kitchen! She has been playing with this constantly since she opened it. Thanks G&G Anderson!

Lydia's cute birthday cake! My cake decorating class paid off! I'm really proud of it!

Lydia and David doing the Jungle Safari around her bedroom. She enjoyed identifying and coloring each of the animals. I was impressed with how well she did!

Very softly blowing out her candle.

And then opening her presents at her birthday party (with the help of some friends:).

After her friends all left, Lydia cuddled up on the couch with her new pizza and all the accessories. I don't quite understand the cuddliness of it all, but apparently it made sense to her. Maybe a midnight snack?

After a much needed nap, Lydia got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa Anderson on the phone as they sang Happy Birthday. Then we went to McDonald's for dinner (kids this age sure are easy!) and (the real excitement) went to the new Petsmart on the island to get her a fish. We hadn't realized though that you should have the filter running in your tank for at least a day before putting the fish in it, so we got all the supplies and just admired the fish. Right now Lydia looks in the tank for the fish and can't understand why she can't find them. We'll go get her some this week :).

Overall, I think that she had a very exciting birthday! We loved spending the day celebrating our Little Princess and are so excited for many years to come! Happy Birthday Sweet Lydia!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm finally catching it all up! Hooray! I just updated all of our pictures in Picassa, so please feel free to take a look and see more in depth of what we've been up to. It's taken a while to get it this far because I've been updating 6 months of pictures. Yuck! I hope I never lose my computer again! We do have some more pictures on David's computer from our parents' cameras over vacations. But I'm still working on loading those to my computer. These pictures will give you the general idea at least of what we've been doing.

Part 1: November activities & Thanksgiving

The weather was beautiful for most of November and allowed for a lot of time to be spent outside. Lydia loves to ride her bike. She can't quite reach the pedals yet, but she enjoys Daddy pushing her around anyway.

The 1st weekend of each November is the Motorcycle Ralley in Galveston. We decided to take a gander at it all this year rather than just recieving the downside of Harley's revving their engines all night long. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the cool gadgets out there. We were just a little bit out of place though. This street is just a small sampling of the bikes in Galveston that weekend. All of the streets were lined like this. More people are on the island during this weekend than any tourist day in the summer. Quite the event!

Lydia enjoyed making her apple turkey. Though, she enjoyed eating it even more!

The week before Thanksgiving, Lydia and I were able to join my parents and Neil for a trip to El Paso. Lydia had never gotten to meet my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson before, so we decided to take the chance while we had it. Unfortunately she got sick while we were there and didn't want much to do with anyone but me most of the time, but they enjoyed meeting their Great Grand-daughter anyway.

One day when we were in El Paso, we decided we needed to get out and enjoy some fresh air. So, we took a trip to the zoo. It was fun to see all the animals and walk around.

We kept telling Lydia to stretch out her arms like the monkey, but all she wanted to do was hug it. It was cute.

Unfortunately the carousel was closed down, but Lydia was still happy to sit on the tiger.

My parents and Neil came back with Lydia and I to Galveston for Thanksgiving so that we could include David in our festivities. After a yummy meal and some much needed rest, we decorated a gingerbread house with Lydia and Neil. I think we did a pretty good job!

We all went to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens. It was a beautiful night to go and the lights were amazing. Lydia got so excited for each one!

And, of course, we couldn't have my parents in Galveston and not take at least one walk on the beach! Lydia quickly discovered that she loved hanging out with Grandma the most! She was always looking for things in the water and that was where Lydia wanted to be too! They were such cute little friends!

Part 2: December Pre-Christmas Vacation

Santa made sure to visit at our Ward Christmas Party. Lydia loved watching him from a distance as all of the other kids went to talk to him. However, the closest she would get to him was a stretched out high-five. Working on it a little at a time.

Most of my November and December were spent working Christmas gifts. I will do a post on all of my projects soon. Promise! This was one of my projects. Before we left for visits with Grandparents, we had our own little Christmas. This was Lydia's big gift from us. Lydia was so excited to get her own little kitchen for Christmas! She loves to do whatever I'm doing and I'm happy to say that now, instead of pulling up a chair to help me cook on the hot stove, she goes to her own little kitchen and cooks up some amazing gourmet food! She is also modeling one of her cute little aprons in this picture.

I also got a wonderful gift of my new computer which I love using. The only thing that would make it better would be a comfy chair to sit in, but don't tell David I said that! He'll complain that I sold our old one before we left Provo and then immediately start looking for a new one.

Part 3: Christmas vacation: Andersons part 1

Our first stop on our Christmas vacation was to San Antonio to visit my parents, Neil and Eric and Kiersten who came out from San Diego. We enjoyed a couple relaxing days with them and were able to finish up all of our shopping and do some fun baking. Lydia loved playing the piano with Grandma and Uncle Eric whenever the opportunity arose. She always accompanied it with her beautiful little voice. She is going to be quite the performer one day!

Our last night before we left San Antonio (for the 1st time) we did a little Christmas together complete with caroling, stories and presents. Lydia was excited to get some food to go along with her kitchen set and immediately began preparing meals for everybody. David got some much needed tools and I was excited to get a brand new flat iron (the one I've been using was a hand me down from my sister and was never quite what I needed).

Part 4: Christmas Vacation with the Dickinsons

Okay, so this picture isn't really with the Dickinsons. We were able to steal 1/2 a day away and go see my Grandma Matthews in Issaquah. This is our 3 out of 4 generation picture. Next time we need to drag my mom to Washington with us so that we can get the full deal. It was fun to see my grandma. She is such an energetic, happy and caring woman.

We took a few minutes to see my Grandpa Matthews new headstone. It was beautiful. Perfect for him with Mt. Rainier on it and the caption "You are the wind beneath my wings". Lydia loved walking around the cemetary and admiring all the headstones and pretty flowers.

We spend part of a day at Pike Place Market with David's family. I have fond memories of going there as a child with my family. And it never disappoints me when I see them throwing the fish around and tasting all the wonderful nuts! Lydia loves seeing all the exciting things there too! I had though that she may get bored easy, but she was enthrawled the whole time!

That night we went to the Point Defiance Zoo to see the lights. Once again, Lydia loves lights and gets excited for them. It took me several shots to get this picture, but it sure was worth all the effort! Such a beautiful happy girl!

Christmas morning (the real one). It took a lot to get Lydia to stand there for a picture when she desperately wanted to plow into all those beautifully wrapped presents! It was a nice Christmas and I wish I could say like all my friends that the spirit was felt so much stronger because we were able to go to church. But the truth is, that was probably the most challenging sacrament meeting I have ever had with Lydia. I was to the point of tears. I actually gave in a spent a lot of it in the Lobby with her (and that's saying quite a bit because I'm very opposed to letting Lydia think that is acceptable). But, by the time all the excitement over opening presents had cooled down and I had a little time to rest, things got better and it ended up being a pleasant Christmas after all. And sweet Lydia was having a rough trip too. As we found out later that week, she was sick with Fifth Disease and was really having a hard time. Poor girl! (And for those who know about Fifth Disease and pregnancy: I'm okay. My brother had it when I was little and I built up the necessary antibodies for it. So, the baby is doing good.)

Lydia loved Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson's cat, Herckie. This is a sampling of the loving she gave that poor cat. Fortunately, he was very patient with it all and took it like a champ. I think that he was very happy when Lydia went home.

Lydia also loved getting to play with her cousin Sophie who is just 6 months older than her. They were the perfect little duo and were always getting into mischief!

Grandma Dickinson with all of her grandkids: Sophie, Noah and Lydia.

Part 5: Back to San Antonio with the Andersons

Being back in Texas felt amazing after weathering the cold of Washington! I have to say that I am built for warm weather and (as we learned on this trip) so is Lydia. It was both sad and funny when Lydia would cry and say "ouch" when her hands got the slightest bit cold from being outside in Washington!

Anyhow, after getting back to San Antonio, realizing that Lydia had been sick with Fifth Disease for the whole week, being on the phone with nurses on what to do, and then getting some much needed rest, we got outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We spent one day touring the San Antonio missions (minus the Alamo). They were all beautiful and unique in their own ways. Some were restored more than others. It was my first time getting to see them all and enjoyed it a lot.

One of Lydia's favorite parts about the missions were the rock gardens. She loved throwing the rocks and collecting them. My mom joked that she would also have a lunchbox full of rocks one day (like somebody else she knew).
This was Lydia by the time we reached the final mission. Such a sweet little angel!

That night we had fun playing with the parachute and eating my dad's dutch oven cooking.

On the morning before we left San Antonio we took a hike in Government Canyon. It was very beautiful and felt so good to be outdoors! This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! Lydia loves her Daddy so much!

Grandpa found Lydia her own little walking stick. She had a lot of fun hiking like Grandpa!

And that sums up our trips and some of our fun over the last couple of months. I know it was long, but you made it! Life has been busy, but exciting! Now I'm very excited for some much needed rest, organization time, catching up on things (like blogging), and starting some fun new projects!

It's (another) girl!

Despite my confidence that I was definitely having a boy this time, I was proven wrong. We went on Monday to get the fun ultrasound for our baby # 2 and were told that we were having another little girl! I asked the nurse a couple times if she was sure, and she pointed everything out to me very slowly. Apparently I should never make a guess again as to what people (including myself) will be having! I have been wrong every time as of late.

Even though I was wrong, I am so thrilled to have another little girl! I have fallen in love with ruffles and bows with Lydia and am excited to have another little girl to dress up. Plus we have several of the little girl essentials already (this is important considering we are still pushing through med school) and Lydia can have a playmate to cook in her new little kitchen with and sing and dance with. David is excited too, even though he is realizing that he will really be out-numbered with another girl running around. He was hoping for a wrestling buddy. But I think he felt better when I pointed out how much Lydia loves wrestling around with him.

We took Lydia with us to this ultrasound in hopes that it would help her understand a little of what is going on. I'm not sure how successful that was. She was excited to see the baby on the screen, but got bored after a while of all the necessary measurements and wanted to get up on the bed with me. After we were all done, Lydia climbed up on the bed, put the towel over her stomach and asked to see the baby in her tummy. I wish I had been able to pull out the camera fast enough. It was cute. She now points to my belly and tells me there's a baby in it. However, it is always followed by pointing her her belly also and telling me about her baby. Sigh. I don't think she'll fully understand it until her world has changed forever. She is enjoying all the excitement though and that's enough. She'll be a great big sister!

Here's a couple pics from our ultrasound. We expect this one to be a great gymnist because of how her feet were kicking herself in the head for most of the ultrasound. Too fun!

Those are her feet up above her head.

And I'll be posting more updates soon! I got a wonderful new computer for Christmas and can now update all of my pictures so much easier! Things don't take several days to complete anymore! Hooray!