Well, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Happy New Year's celebration tonight! I think I'll be in bed early, but Anika will probably have me up at the stroke of midnight for a little party of our own.
Anika Lynn was born on Sunday at 2:53 in the morning. The labor was hard, but short. I started having real contractions at 11:30 Saturday night and by the time I couldn't handle it anymore and we got to the hospital it was 1:00 am. They admitted me and once they checked me I was dilated to 4 1/2 centimeters. My doctor was already there and I told him to get it over with, so he broke my water for me. I didn't have any time to get any kind of medication because I got to push about 15-20 minutes later. Then...out she came at 2:53...only just over 3 hours of labor! Yeah. I'm so glad to be done being pregnant and to begin our new life. Life will be different now! It is taking some time to get used to, but I'm sure we'll find a routine again soon. Anika is a great little baby. She hardly ever cries...except right when it is my bedtime. I'm breastfeeding and my milk just came in today, so hopefully that will help that out a bit.
She had her first doctor appointment today. All seems to be well with her. Kelby and Tegan LOVE their little sister. They both love to hold her and look at her. Once when Tegan was holding her she said, "She's my best friend." Kelby looks so joyful when she talks about her little sister.
Christmas was also wonderful. The week before Christmas was really low-key since I hadn't planned much not knowing when the baby would be born. Mike was home for much of it because he took a few days off. We went to the Lights of Christmas on the Sunday before Christmas. The girls LOVE that event. Kelby had remembered it from the year before earlier in the month. She said, "Are we going to the place with all the lights and Santa and the horsey ride again?"...so we just had to go. There's a petting zoo and all kinds of things for the girls to enjoy there. Santa was a big hit. We were sure Tegan wouldn't have anything to do with him, but she went to him fine and so did Kelby. Kelby rode a big horse, but Tegan didn't like it as much. She only made it half way around the circle when Mike had to take her down and walk the rest of the way with her.
On Christmas Eve we got all packed up and drove up into the mountains to find some snow. Little did we know that we would receive our own snow a week later (we woke up to snow this morning). There's a ski resort about an hour and a half away from here, so that's were we went. There's a nice sledding bowl there. Kelby had so much fun!!! She did not want to come out of the snow at all. Tegan liked it a bit, but was ready to go after only a few minutes. We found a tiny hill that the girls could sled on and had about an hour of fun in the snow. After hot chocolate and cookies, we headed home. The girls took a nap and then I made us some clam chowder for dinner...I just have to have clam chowder on Christmas eve in honor of Christmas's past. Then the girls went over to play with Gramma Debbie while Mike and I went to the Christmas Eve service at church. In the morning the girls got up and opened up their gifts from Santa...he did bring "talking horses" and they were very happy. That was just the beginning of the present fest that day. We went to Mike's parents house for brunch right away and opened more gifts that morning. The girls really enjoyed playing with Emma and Naomi that morning. At about noon my parents were in town, so we went home and welcomed them. We opened some more presents then, but it didn't take long to realize that the girls had just had too much of that for a while. They weren't very appreciative anymore and were getting cranky...so everyone took a nap. We had a delicious dinner of prime rib, twice baked potatoes and sauted mushrooms that evening. Then, finally after dinner we let the girls open the rest of their presents. They got so many wonderful things! It is so fun to watch them. They really do enjoy everything they got now that they've had more time to appreciate it all.
We enjoyed having Gramma and Grampa Morrow here. They watched the girls and let us go to the Lord of the Rings on the day after Christmas...and were quite handy to have here when we went into labor! I'm glad they got to see Anika before they had to go home. It has been a wonderful season this year. I'm anxious to see what "real life" will be like now...but we don't have to go there until next week after all the New Year's fun. It's been nice to have Mike home lately. We might have to work on one project this weekend...you should see the mess my garage is right now!
I'll try to take it easy though. We have wonderful women from my MOPS group bringing us meals for a week. That has been so wonderful for me. Mike's been taking care of the rest. Well, God bless you all and Happy New Year!
