Seven hours from waterbreak to birth. This little girl is quite the little speedster. It is amazing. Stacey will write more later, but here are a couple of pictures for now.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Halle Kate is Here!
Seven hours from waterbreak to birth. This little girl is quite the little speedster. It is amazing. Stacey will write more later, but here are a couple of pictures for now.
Eviction Unnecessary, Halle Kate Coming Out Voluntarily
Stacey's water broke around 9:40 pm tonight. By 11:10 we were at our hospital checking in to have our second girl. It is approaching 1:00 a.m., Stacey is getting an i.v. to put fluids into her body. The contractions are coming closer together, about five minutes apart and are pretty strong, but no change is other requirements for the baby to come.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Baby Halle's EVICTION NOTICE
I just put Matney down for a nap and have several things I'd love to accomplish while she's asleep so this will be quick. I went to the dr. today...which, thank you to Jared's parents who got up and came over early to stay with Matney, was MUCH more peaceful than our last visit when she pitched a fit the entire time...and nothing has changed. At this point I don't care anymore. If she doesn't come on her own by then she is EVICTED from this belly. We've got our papers to check into Northside on Friday morning and induce. So, if she shows up before then great and if not we should have a baby before Friday night. We won't know until Friday morning what time we can go to the hospital so there is no way to know what time I'll even start getting the medication. Last time with Matney from the time we started medicine to the time she was born was about 5 hours...which was really quick so we'll just have to wait and see! We'll keep the blog updated from here or from the hospital so check back for details.
And on a side note, I put the ugly piece of black fleece back in Matney's window at the end of last week and guess who is sleeping better? I'd taken it down about 2 weeks ago and LOVED having all the light in her room. She's got blinds and curtains with room darkening material on the back but that apparently isn't enough. Since I put it back up she's back to 2 naps a day AND sleeping until at least 7am. Her room can just look like a dark dungeon forever if it helps her sleep!
Friday, May 15, 2009
She looks so big!
Taking a picture of Matney is really hard to do. In the last week she's really taken off (walking) and catching her still is not easy. However, once I had her dressed I HAD to try to get a couple pictures. She was so cute and seems like such a big girl in a big girl outfit.
She got this dress for her birthday from our friend Leslie who always finds the cutest things. I found the shoes at Target last week and oh my! Cuteness!!!
Matney loves to walk in a circle, starting in the living room and going into the kitchen and around the island and table. This day she was DETERMINED to take Dog on her walk. So sweet.
No other baby updates. I have been going and going and feeling really good this pregnancy (minus the first 20 weeks of barfing) until the past couple days. I am exhausted and uncomfortable! I am at the point that even when I get comfortable enough to sleep I am up every hour to hour and half to go to the bathroom. Annoying. Once I'm up it takes me forever to fall asleep again...and then guess who has to go to the bathroom AGAIN?!?! ugh.
Matney has been waking up this week at 6am (or earlier) and only taking one 30 minute nap. It is all I can do to stay awake and keep her entertained. I realize that having a newborn means even less sleep but let's get this baby out and get going. The sooner we start the sooner she sleeps...PLEASE LORD let Halle be a normal, sleeping, nap-taking baby!!!
She got this dress for her birthday from our friend Leslie who always finds the cutest things. I found the shoes at Target last week and oh my! Cuteness!!!
Matney loves to walk in a circle, starting in the living room and going into the kitchen and around the island and table. This day she was DETERMINED to take Dog on her walk. So sweet.
No other baby updates. I have been going and going and feeling really good this pregnancy (minus the first 20 weeks of barfing) until the past couple days. I am exhausted and uncomfortable! I am at the point that even when I get comfortable enough to sleep I am up every hour to hour and half to go to the bathroom. Annoying. Once I'm up it takes me forever to fall asleep again...and then guess who has to go to the bathroom AGAIN?!?! ugh.
Matney has been waking up this week at 6am (or earlier) and only taking one 30 minute nap. It is all I can do to stay awake and keep her entertained. I realize that having a newborn means even less sleep but let's get this baby out and get going. The sooner we start the sooner she sleeps...PLEASE LORD let Halle be a normal, sleeping, nap-taking baby!!!
Cousins!
My cousin Christina, who came over last week, must have thought Matney and I were lots of fun because she came back again this week...with my cousin Shanna's daughter Katie. To help you follow my dad has 3 sisters and 2 of them had 4 kids each so there are 10 cousins. 6 girls all born within a couple years of each other and 4 boys that followed. We had great times together growing up. Shanna, Christina and I are the oldest 3 girls and we're all living in Atlanta. Right now Christina is keeping Shanna's daughter Katie during the week. So, Christina brought Katie up to play for the day and Shanna came up for dinner that night. Even though we live close it has been a long time since we were together and it was so nice to be with family. If we lived closer I'd beg Christina to come every day. I love being with her and Matney really enjoyed Katie being here.
I laughed with Christina walked up holding Katie because I knew that Matney had the outfit Katie was wearing. I changed her clothes before Shanna got here and gave them matching hairbows (of course). A navy bottom would crawl by and we'd have to look twice to see who it was!
The only time we had a small problem was when Katie wanted to see Dog. Matney shares most things well but not Dog. Poor Katie, she gave up and crawled off!
While Katie ate lunch Matney wanted to play with her feet. Matney thought it was hysterical...Katie was not a fan!
Sweet Katie!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Big Sis/Little Sis
I looked...and looked...and looked for Big Sister/Little Sister shirts for the girls and hadn't been able to find anything I liked. I found a couple cute Big Sister shirts but I couldn't find anything in a smaller size for M (come on people, some kids are born close together!). And then I couldn't find something that would match in Halle's size. Anyway, last weekend I came across a woman in Washington (yep, Washington) online. She customizes the shirts/dresses to be anything you want. I was sold! So, I picked the outfit style and color, the look of the kids on the front, their dress color, skin and hair color, style, etc. When I asked she even changed the smile and eyes on the big sister shirt because I didn't like any of the options. How nice was that? She makes a bow for the big sister and I had her specially make me a bow to match for the little sister too. How perfect are these?!?!?! I LOVE THEM! I can't wait to see Matney in this to come meet her little sister.
The only thing that bothers me is that Matney's name is written in black and Halle's is pink. I wonder why? Oh well, she made and shipped them in one week. I can't complain.
Sunday we enjoyed a quiet Mother's Day at home. We went to church and then came home and hung out together. Jared and Matney gave me flowers and lots of little containers of ice cream...easy to buy a gift for a really pregnant mama! There might have been several more flavors but I didn't take a picture before I started tasting. Friday night Jared kept Matney so that I could go out with the girls for dinner. Then Saturday morning my mom got me a gift card to get a pedicure so my friend Allison and I got our toes done and had a yummy breakfast...all while Jared kept Matney again. It was wonderful to spend Sunday at home with my family and to have some "last chance" girl time before there are 2 little ones at home.
The only thing that bothers me is that Matney's name is written in black and Halle's is pink. I wonder why? Oh well, she made and shipped them in one week. I can't complain.
Sunday we enjoyed a quiet Mother's Day at home. We went to church and then came home and hung out together. Jared and Matney gave me flowers and lots of little containers of ice cream...easy to buy a gift for a really pregnant mama! There might have been several more flavors but I didn't take a picture before I started tasting. Friday night Jared kept Matney so that I could go out with the girls for dinner. Then Saturday morning my mom got me a gift card to get a pedicure so my friend Allison and I got our toes done and had a yummy breakfast...all while Jared kept Matney again. It was wonderful to spend Sunday at home with my family and to have some "last chance" girl time before there are 2 little ones at home.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Matney wants a reminder!
Cleaning out his office was on Jared's to do list last weekend. Matney woke up while we were working and ended up in just her diaper crawling around. Don't remember where her clothes were. Anyway, she normally HATES anything sticky being near her but this morning she wanted tons of post-it labels and kept sticking them on her belly. I wonder what she wanted to remember...or maybe she was trying to remind us that she's here and we better not pay too much attention to her little sister!
Our internet has been going crazy since last week so while it is working for 10 minutes I figured I better post the Monday update (and then am going right to bed!). At the dr. this morning nothing changed from last week. Kind of disappointing but I reminded myself that we really do need her to wait until the end of next week. Timing wise with work schedules that would be prefect, especially since the holiday weekend would give Jared an extra day off. Anyway, we can induce this Friday the 15th or, if she doesn't come on her own, induce next Friday the 22nd. As easy as it was being induced with Matney I'd rather go into labor naturally so we're going to give her another 10 days and if she doesn't come out by the 22nd...she's EVICTED from this belly and we'll induce! So, at the latest you'll see pictures of Miss Halle Katherine Heald by the 22nd. The reality of that last sentence boggles my mind!
Our internet has been going crazy since last week so while it is working for 10 minutes I figured I better post the Monday update (and then am going right to bed!). At the dr. this morning nothing changed from last week. Kind of disappointing but I reminded myself that we really do need her to wait until the end of next week. Timing wise with work schedules that would be prefect, especially since the holiday weekend would give Jared an extra day off. Anyway, we can induce this Friday the 15th or, if she doesn't come on her own, induce next Friday the 22nd. As easy as it was being induced with Matney I'd rather go into labor naturally so we're going to give her another 10 days and if she doesn't come out by the 22nd...she's EVICTED from this belly and we'll induce! So, at the latest you'll see pictures of Miss Halle Katherine Heald by the 22nd. The reality of that last sentence boggles my mind!
Busy, Busy
We have been busy, busy here at the Heald house for the past couple weeks. Jared's been crazy with something at work. He didn't see daylight for a couple days. I don't know how he does it. Matney and I have crossed item after item off our to do list and I finally feel really good about what all we got done. I call it "hormonal nesting meets obsessive spring cleaning". Be glad you haven't been handed one of my to do lists!
One of the things I did was to make my own laundry detergent...again. Remember, I tried this when M was little and I never found a "recipe" that I liked. This time a woman I know passed this along and said it works great for her family. We spend so much money on laundry detergent and I know that number will only go up as the girls get bigger. Plus, I would like to "go green" whereever we can and the green detergents sold at the store totally not in the budget! I've tried it now for a week and am pleased with how it works. This one probably will be a keeper so I thought I'd pass the info along in case anyone else is interested. Total cost and time at the end.
You'll need one 5 gallon bucket, 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda...sold on the same row as other detergents), 1 bar of any soap you want (I used Ivory so that there was no smell or dye for Halle) and then it is optional to use an essential oil for fragrance. I have grapefruit seed extract from making wipes for M and put a few drops of that in.
Grate your bar of soap. My cheese grater has never been so clean. Add the soap to 4 cups of boiling water, a little at a time, until melted. If you want to add any oils put a couple drops in at this time.
When the soap is disolved add approx. 4 gallons of warm water to the bucket. Add your 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax stirring until disolved. When that is done stir in your soap mixture.
This is what it looks like. Leave the lid (if you have one) cracked to let the steam out and let it sit for 24 hours. It will turn into a gel and you use 3/4cup per load.
My ingredient total, plus the bucket, was less than $10 and I have enough to make about 5 more buckets. The lady that gave me the recipe had it all calculated out and I don't have that number with me but it is WAY CHEAPER than what we bought at Costco before. I timed how long it took to make. Start to finish with clean up was less than 20 minutes. Matney played with a bowl and other fun "kitchen toys" in the living room while I worked. Easy! Hope someone can use this. Let me know if you try it!!!
One of the things I did was to make my own laundry detergent...again. Remember, I tried this when M was little and I never found a "recipe" that I liked. This time a woman I know passed this along and said it works great for her family. We spend so much money on laundry detergent and I know that number will only go up as the girls get bigger. Plus, I would like to "go green" whereever we can and the green detergents sold at the store totally not in the budget! I've tried it now for a week and am pleased with how it works. This one probably will be a keeper so I thought I'd pass the info along in case anyone else is interested. Total cost and time at the end.
You'll need one 5 gallon bucket, 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Washing Soda (not baking soda...sold on the same row as other detergents), 1 bar of any soap you want (I used Ivory so that there was no smell or dye for Halle) and then it is optional to use an essential oil for fragrance. I have grapefruit seed extract from making wipes for M and put a few drops of that in.
Grate your bar of soap. My cheese grater has never been so clean. Add the soap to 4 cups of boiling water, a little at a time, until melted. If you want to add any oils put a couple drops in at this time.
When the soap is disolved add approx. 4 gallons of warm water to the bucket. Add your 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax stirring until disolved. When that is done stir in your soap mixture.
This is what it looks like. Leave the lid (if you have one) cracked to let the steam out and let it sit for 24 hours. It will turn into a gel and you use 3/4cup per load.
My ingredient total, plus the bucket, was less than $10 and I have enough to make about 5 more buckets. The lady that gave me the recipe had it all calculated out and I don't have that number with me but it is WAY CHEAPER than what we bought at Costco before. I timed how long it took to make. Start to finish with clean up was less than 20 minutes. Matney played with a bowl and other fun "kitchen toys" in the living room while I worked. Easy! Hope someone can use this. Let me know if you try it!!!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
PIGTAILS!
Jared has been asking more and more lately why I never have Matney's hair in pigtails since it is long enough. Honestly, because trying to get one rubber band in her hair is HARD. She doesn't sit still well at all! And, I'd need to part it that way as soon as she is out of the bath and I never remember. The more he asked the more I realized he was really hinting that he'd like to see some pigtails on his little girl. When I knew he was on the way home last week I gave her a bath and pulled her hair up. We meet him at the door and he loved them. She is pretty stinking cute...and they don't even have bows in these pictures.
In other news we're just trying to get things done. I have been carrying a notebook with pages and pages of lists for the past couple weeks and I think I'm down to 1 double page spread. Whoo hoo!!! My Aunt Kathy and cousin Christina came over Tuesday and hung out. Christina helped me get things on the wall in Halle's room and we could hear Matney squealing and laughing with Aunt K downstairs. Matney was WORN OUT by naptime that afternoon. Christina and I ran to Target and got the rest of everything on my list. She even noticed diapers on clearance that were just Matney's type and size. By the time we checked out things were falling out of the cart it was so full. But, Matney has diapers for the couple months...CHEAP!!! They brought stuff to cook us dinner and as Jared walked in the door that night they were handing us a warm, yummy dinner and walking out the door. It was great! We put M to bed and enjoyed a nice hot dinner (that I didn't cook which means Jared liked it) by ourselves. THANKS LADIES! Jared took the first bite and said, "they are welcome back anytime". We only live about an hour apart but rarely ever get together so it was great to see them.
We had our normal day at church yesterday, went to Costco today and are all stocked up. Crystal Light and Fiber One chocolate bars are "must haves" in this house and we have enough now for 2 months! The house is pretty picked up and I'm running some last minute errands tomorrow. Then our bags will be packed and we'll just be waiting on Halle Kate. Poor Jared left for work this morning about 3:45am and expects to be working past dark. It is great that he's able to get hours built up to take time off but I know he is exhausted. The plan for the weekend is to have NOTHING to do. We have been going and going so this weekend we reserved to just be here. I hope the weather is nice and we can spend most of our time outside.
Plus, Jared called a little while ago and said "why don't I come home early tomorrow to keep Matney and you call the girls to go out?". Um, DONE! Don't know where we will go or what we'll do but I am going to beg them (or their husbands if necessary) to come out with me!
In other news we're just trying to get things done. I have been carrying a notebook with pages and pages of lists for the past couple weeks and I think I'm down to 1 double page spread. Whoo hoo!!! My Aunt Kathy and cousin Christina came over Tuesday and hung out. Christina helped me get things on the wall in Halle's room and we could hear Matney squealing and laughing with Aunt K downstairs. Matney was WORN OUT by naptime that afternoon. Christina and I ran to Target and got the rest of everything on my list. She even noticed diapers on clearance that were just Matney's type and size. By the time we checked out things were falling out of the cart it was so full. But, Matney has diapers for the couple months...CHEAP!!! They brought stuff to cook us dinner and as Jared walked in the door that night they were handing us a warm, yummy dinner and walking out the door. It was great! We put M to bed and enjoyed a nice hot dinner (that I didn't cook which means Jared liked it) by ourselves. THANKS LADIES! Jared took the first bite and said, "they are welcome back anytime". We only live about an hour apart but rarely ever get together so it was great to see them.
We had our normal day at church yesterday, went to Costco today and are all stocked up. Crystal Light and Fiber One chocolate bars are "must haves" in this house and we have enough now for 2 months! The house is pretty picked up and I'm running some last minute errands tomorrow. Then our bags will be packed and we'll just be waiting on Halle Kate. Poor Jared left for work this morning about 3:45am and expects to be working past dark. It is great that he's able to get hours built up to take time off but I know he is exhausted. The plan for the weekend is to have NOTHING to do. We have been going and going so this weekend we reserved to just be here. I hope the weather is nice and we can spend most of our time outside.
Plus, Jared called a little while ago and said "why don't I come home early tomorrow to keep Matney and you call the girls to go out?". Um, DONE! Don't know where we will go or what we'll do but I am going to beg them (or their husbands if necessary) to come out with me!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Baby Watch '09
Baby update below but first some pics of Miss M. She is wearing a shirt she found in a box. It was mine when I was little and one of my favorite to put on my Cabbage Patch Kids. It really is too small for her but she demanded to wear it when she saw it had a kitty. She said "kitty" pointing to it over and over and trying to get it on her head so I finally gave in. Her belly kind of stretches that kitty out! After a couple hours I got it off her and put it on Dog. That worked for her and she carried him around checking out his shirt for a couple days. I have since stollen it back and put it in a box!
Her eye seems to be "fixed". We've been off the medicine since last Wednesday and she's only had 1 morning that it was crusty waking up. Otherwise, it is draining during the day so it looks like we won't have to go back. Thank goodness for answered prayers!
Crazy to think that it wasn't long ago we had baby watch '08 going as we waited on Matney! I went to the dr again this AM and it isn't looking like we'll be waiting on Halle Kate too much longer. I'll spare the details because I know there are some males reading this blog but for the females - last week we were 1cm and she was still sitting really high. I am now 2cm dialated, 50% effaced and she's dropped...ie, I can breathe again and things are moving right along! In fact, my Dr wrote Jared a "prescription" to get all that he needs to do done because he guesses he will have kiddo #2 by the 15th. We know that there is no way to totally know when she'll decide to make her appearance but compared to Matney she seems much more eager to come out and join the family.
Can I just say "AGH?!?!?!?!". I am really excited to meet her and for Miss M to have a sister. But, I am worried and feeling guilty about Matney. Many people have asked us if we're worried that we won't love a second child as much as we love M...and I have to say that that doesn't even cross my mind for a second. I know that we are almost more excited this time because we know how incredible having a child is, the love is already here. What bothers me is how this will change Matney's world. We spend HOURS on the floor reading books and crawling after one another each day. We walk in circles in the yard and spends tons of time brushing our hair, swinging, singing in the highchair...and a lot of that time, at least for a little while, is going to be greatly reduced. That I would miss one thing- one bath, one bottle, one good night kiss, one book, etc - with her makes me tear up. But, oh how we pray that these girls (and any future siblings) would grow up best friends. Ugh. I don't know. It must be hormones but it breaks my heart to imagine being without the alone time that she and I have had.
Anyway, we accomplished LOTS this weekend. I am working hard to finish up cleaning around here, getting things on the wall in Halle's room, run some last minute baby errands...and packing a bag for the hospital needs to fit in there somewhere, just thought about that! Pictures of Halle's room (and M's new "big girl room") to come soon. We'll keep the blog updated even if we're in the hospital so check back to see what's happening! While Matney is asleep I'm off to paint a few picture frames so that I can get them up tomorrow.
Her eye seems to be "fixed". We've been off the medicine since last Wednesday and she's only had 1 morning that it was crusty waking up. Otherwise, it is draining during the day so it looks like we won't have to go back. Thank goodness for answered prayers!
Crazy to think that it wasn't long ago we had baby watch '08 going as we waited on Matney! I went to the dr again this AM and it isn't looking like we'll be waiting on Halle Kate too much longer. I'll spare the details because I know there are some males reading this blog but for the females - last week we were 1cm and she was still sitting really high. I am now 2cm dialated, 50% effaced and she's dropped...ie, I can breathe again and things are moving right along! In fact, my Dr wrote Jared a "prescription" to get all that he needs to do done because he guesses he will have kiddo #2 by the 15th. We know that there is no way to totally know when she'll decide to make her appearance but compared to Matney she seems much more eager to come out and join the family.
Can I just say "AGH?!?!?!?!". I am really excited to meet her and for Miss M to have a sister. But, I am worried and feeling guilty about Matney. Many people have asked us if we're worried that we won't love a second child as much as we love M...and I have to say that that doesn't even cross my mind for a second. I know that we are almost more excited this time because we know how incredible having a child is, the love is already here. What bothers me is how this will change Matney's world. We spend HOURS on the floor reading books and crawling after one another each day. We walk in circles in the yard and spends tons of time brushing our hair, swinging, singing in the highchair...and a lot of that time, at least for a little while, is going to be greatly reduced. That I would miss one thing- one bath, one bottle, one good night kiss, one book, etc - with her makes me tear up. But, oh how we pray that these girls (and any future siblings) would grow up best friends. Ugh. I don't know. It must be hormones but it breaks my heart to imagine being without the alone time that she and I have had.
Anyway, we accomplished LOTS this weekend. I am working hard to finish up cleaning around here, getting things on the wall in Halle's room, run some last minute baby errands...and packing a bag for the hospital needs to fit in there somewhere, just thought about that! Pictures of Halle's room (and M's new "big girl room") to come soon. We'll keep the blog updated even if we're in the hospital so check back to see what's happening! While Matney is asleep I'm off to paint a few picture frames so that I can get them up tomorrow.
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