Anna's Blessing Day

We went to Fallbrook to bless Anna last weekend. Anna is a good little traveler! We had fun seeing the family - here are some pictures...











Also, I'm very pleased to announce that I finally got my new car!! I LOVE IT!!





PS
I need some advice. Haylie has been potty trained for a year now, but for the last week has been having A LOT of accidents - everybody tells me it is because of the new baby. Does anybody have any tips for how to get her to snap out of it? I'm losing patience very quickly!! I've tried time out, and I took away her favorite baby doll - nothing has phased her....please help!

Time Flies

I can't believe Anna is 3 weeks old already. Time has gone by so quickly. We are adjusting to life - I am so grateful for the 2 weeks that I had help from my mom and my mother-in-law. The hardest part about being on my own is getting up in the morning and keeping up with Haylie. She is charged up and ready to go by 7:30 a.m. and I'm pooped from being up with Anna during the night....like I said - we're adjusting. Anyway, here are some pictures from the last couple weeks:

Anna ready for her first doctor's appointment


Me and Anna



Haylie helping Grandma Jo make a cake


So cute


Eric and his girls - I love this picture


Anna in a little outfit that I wore when I was a baby - taken on the quilt Grandma Jo made



Haylie spends a lot of time imitating everything I do with her baby doll

Baby Anna

Aaaah...no more feet in my ribs, no more heartburn, no more shortness of breath....I'm not pregnant anymore!!! Now there are a few other kinds of pain that I'm dealing with, but now I have a cute little baby to show for it! I thought I'd write this post about the day of the delivery - since it was a scheduled C-section, it was probably a little different than what most people experience when they go to the hospital to have a baby.

January 10, 2008
4:20 a.m. - wake up, shower, do hair and makeup, make myself pretty
5:10 a.m. - depart for hospital
5:30 a.m. - check in through emergency department - walk to labor and delivery floor and check into room
5:45 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. - monitor fetal heartbeat, get IV hooked up, answer questions, sign papers, try to rest, get shaved, let the anxiety build 'til I feel I'm about to burst, pray, etc. Eric sits and watches TV, hacks onto the hospital internet, keeps a calm, peaceful feeling in the room.
7:10 a.m. - anesthesiologist visits and discusses drug treatment, gives Mom permission to come into the OR along with Eric
7:20 a.m. - walk to OR where it is FREEZING cold while Eric and Mom put on their scrubs, get spinal anesthesia which didn't hurt nearly as badly as I thought it would, lose all feeling from the waist down, watch nurses prepare and count the surgical instruments, find out that my nurse's name is Anna (I thought that was a good omen)
7:30 a.m. - Dr. Illingworth and Dr. Harris are in place and cutting begins before Eric and Mom are even in the room! But don't worry - they didn't miss it...
7:42 a.m. - Anna comes into the world crying...my doctor was laughing because she was crying before her body was even out of me. All that was out was her head and she was already makin' noise! All I felt was some pressure where they pushed down on my stomach to help push her out. Dr. Harris brings her around the drape for me to see - something I didn't get to see last time - I passed out the moment I heard Haylie cry!

They took Anna over to get her cleaned up and Eric and Mom followed while they sewed me up. But Mom couldn't stay away - she really enjoyed watching them sew me up. She enjoys watching the shows on TV where they do surgeries. Not a woman with a weak stomach!! She was also fascinated to watch the nurses count all the instruments again and count the dirty rags, etc. to make sure nothing got left behind! Dr. Illingworth asked me how many more kids I want and said that my uterus looks good enough to hold a couple more babies and he said he threw in a few extra stitches to make sure it was extra strong. Kinda cool to know that he's seen inside there and can say for sure that it is safe to do it a couple more times.

~8:00 a.m. - I'm all sewn up and taken to recovery where I felt the feeling SLOWLY creep back into my legs. What a weird sensation. The nurse would check about every 15 minutes and ask me to wiggle my toes or bend my knees...when I could finally get my knees to bend, they took me to my room. Another nice thing about this time was that Mom and Eric got to be in the recovery room with me - when I had Haylie I was all alone (but so doped up I didn't really notice). So anyway, the time went by quickly and I was in my room by about 9:30 a.m. (I think). When we got to my room, I had to lift myself from one bed to the other - with the help of 2 nurses, of course. My legs were still pretty numb so I could move them, but I still couldn't feel them - so my brain told my legs to move, and they moved, but I couldn't actually FEEL them move...it was sooo weird watching my body move and knowing that I told it to move, but not actually FEELING it.

~10:45 a.m. - They finally bring Anna to me after I asked the nurse what was taking so long - "I WANT MY BABY!!" She didn't have any problems breathing or anything so I think the nurses were playing with her and didn't want to give her to me. :-)

C-section patients are given the priority for their own rooms, but when there are lots of babies being born, you get what you get. I was not fortunate enough to get my own room this time, but I was fortunate enough to get a semi-private room - a room that holds 3 patients, but the part of the room I was in was as big as the part that held the other 2 patients and there was a wall in between us, AND I got my own bathroom - so I could hear what was going on over there, but still felt a great deal of privacy. Eric could not stay the night this time, and I was disappointed by that, but it ended up being kinda nice - I got to send Anna to the nursery during the night and they would bring her to me when she needed to eat, then take her back when she was finished. The only down side to that was that I STILL didn't get any sleep due to my roommate's obnoxious snoring. AAAARGH!! So, I was prepared the second night. Earplugs. That did the trick. I slept wonderfully that night!

I can't believe what a different experience this has been. The recovery process has been 100 times better than last time. They let me go home a day earlier than last time because I was doing so well getting around. Anna is just as sweet as can be. She is so much like Haylie, I can hardly believe it. Not only does she look like Haylie but she behaves exactly as Haylie did too. She RARELY cries. When she is hungry, she "chirps" as Eric calls it, she wakes in the middle of the night to eat, then goes right back to sleep. I know that it may not last long, but I sure am enjoying it for now.

Haylie is adjusting well to being a big sister. She loves to look at Baby Anna in her bed and has even named her baby doll "Anna". She likes to throw away dirty diapers for us and she loves giving Anna kisses on her head. She has gotten a little more feisty over the last few days but hasn't shown any indication that she is jealous of Anna or resentful of her at all. I had to show her the "ouchy" on my tummy so that she would know to be careful with me and she has been very sensitive of that. She suddenly seems so big. I'm so grateful that my mom has been here with me to help out. And, Eric's mom is coming on Saturday after my mom leaves so I'll have even more help. I'm also grateful for Eric who gets up in the middle of the night with me since I still have a difficult time moving around. He's an expert midnight diaper-changer!

I feel so blessed.

Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kmetler/AnnaJennellMetler to see pictures.

Christmas Fun

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting about our Christmas...I think it just may have been my favorite Christmas EVER. Usually we travel down to San Diego to spend Christmas with either my parents or Eric's parents - which I love doing, but for the first time ever, we stayed in our own house this year. My parents came up on Christmas Eve and spent the week with us. I must have started nesting that week, because I was feeling rather ambitious about our Christmas dinner. We were going to do a very simple dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. But, I kept adding things to the list...so we ended up with an absolute feast. Turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, Lion House dinner rolls, potato sausage, cranberry sauce, and Danish Christmas cookies. Potato sausage is a recipe that Eric's mom makes that came from her mom, etc, etc. You have to actually stuff the sausage into the casings....I left that job to Eric....

We stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY!! It was sooo nice and relaxing.

And I believe the highlight of Haylie's Christmas was the kitchen she got and the food that Grandma Jo got to go with it...she even made her a little apron...and of course I had to show her how to wear it!! :-)

And then there was the Play Doh set that she has played with every day since...here she is holding Grandpa hostage with it...

And lastly, here is Haylie in her Christmas dress...I couldn't get her to stand still next to the tree, or take her thumb out of her mouth...but she still looked adorable, of course. :-)

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as I did and here's to a fantastic new year! (Let's hope!!)

PS

I probably won't be posting again before Thursday - so the next post I'll do will be to introduce you all to Baby Anna! :-)

Critters, Critters, Everywhere

Eric went Christmas caroling with the Young Men the other night (in the rain) and found this...



in the middle of the road...



I had no idea Fresno could produce frogs this big. And it is not a toad, it is a true American Bullfrog. I looked it up because as you know, I have a tiny obsession with frogs...



As you can see, Eric was BEAMING! (Are we not a match made in Heaven?) Haylie, on the other hand, screamed. She loves frogs and critters, but when she saw this thing jump across the floor (about 6ft at a time!) she got very scared. But then she warmed up to it and started touching its feet and then she wouldn't stop talking about it all night. She came home hopping across the floor saying "ribbit, ribbit". He gave the frog to a man in our ward who has a pond on his property - hopefully Mr. Hoppy will have a nice long life out there and stay off the road!

Then, there is the unexplained phenomenon of ladybugs inhabiting Haylie's room. I don't know how they get in - or where they are actually living, but ever since we moved into this house, we have found ladybugs living in her room. Sometimes we'll go months without seeing one, then all of a sudden, we'll find one every couple of days. She loves it! I usually catch it and let it crawl on her for a while, then put it in a jar for her to admire. We try to let it go before it dies in our little prison, but she gets very upset when she can't find it...

A lot can happen in 2 weeks...

The last 2 weeks have been a little crazy - in good ways and bad ways. Here's the rundown:


November 26 - Haylie started puking - couldn't hold anything down until the 28th, did fine until she puked again on the 1st. Got her back on the BRAT diet, did fine until she puked again on the 4th (and diarrhea too). Oh yeah, and Eric and I both woke up the morning of the 3rd feeling rotten - puking, etc. But lucky for us it only lasted 24 hours. So, two trips to the doctor with Haylie assuring us that it's just a virus and sometimes it just takes a while for the body to fight it, so I kept her on the BRAT diet because I was too afraid to let her eat anything else. On the 8th, we finally let her eat real food at our ward Christmas breakfast - and boy did she go to town on those pancakes! Anyway, she's been doing great until this morning - now it's diarrhea again but no vomiting. (Thank goodness). I'm not real sure what to do at this point - we're probably gonna have to take her in for a blood test to see if there is something more going on. Ugh.

Anyway, on to the good things: On December 1st my friends threw a small baby shower for me at the Spaghetti Factory. My parents drove up and surprised me! What an awesome surprise!

After the shower, we decided to go and get our Christmas tree - and get out all our decorations. Haylie had a blast decorating the tree with Grandpa Garry and Grandma Jo.

Haylie was so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa here - here are a couple shots of them enjoying each other's company - Haylie can hardly stand to be away from Grandpa Garry -





Testing out the timer on the new camera...not bad...





I was running out of ideas as to what I could feed Haylie considering that she was having trouble keeping ANYTHING down...so decided to try Jell-O - only she wouldn't touch it. Until Grandpa Garry showed her how yummy it is...and let her eat it with a cheese slicer...who could resist?




Monday morning my parents had planned on leaving mid-morning but flew out of here when Eric and I both felt sick - I don't blame them! Thank goodness they didn't catch it. But Haylie was very sad to see them go - luckily we get them again for Christmas!

And finally, Saturday we went the ward breakfast in our matching jammies and got to sit on Santa's lap. You may remember how that went down last year...



She was very excited to see him this year - but still a little apprehensive....but you gotta' give the girl credit...no tears!! She just sat stone-faced on his lap trying very hard to be brave. On the way home she even said "I had fun with Santa" - maybe next year she'll actually smile...:-)








Here's hoping that the next two weeks have a little more of the good and not so much of the bad...


P.S...I got my c-section date moved up to January 10th...less than 5 weeks to go!!!

Tagged Again...

I have a lot of things I want to write about - but I just don't have the energy right now. So, I just saw on my friend's blog that I have been tagged to tell 7 interesting things about myself, I figured that would be more fun to do than talk about the copious amounts of vomit that we've seen in this house in the last week and a half.

1. I have webbed toes. On both feet, my 2nd and 3rd toes are stuck together about 3/4 of the way up. No, this does not make me a good swimmer, as a matter of fact, I'm a terrible swimmer. It also makes it difficult to get a pedicure with those spongy things between my toes...but even so, I think I have darn cute feet.

2. I cannot cut my fingernails. I used to have a bad habit of biting them and I always hated that I had that habit, and always wanted long, beautiful nails. So, when I finally kicked the habit, I found it rather difficult to cut them. So I will either file them down, or let them grow until they break.

(this is harder than I thought...)

3. I like to shoot guns. When we go on vacation with Eric's family to Medicine Lake (in Northern California), I'm always on board to go shooting. I prefer handguns, and am actually a decent shot (most of the time).

4. I used to hate hot dogs - but craved them when I was pregnant with Haylie and now have no problem with them. I used to hate mustard, but have been putting it on my sandwiches during this pregnancy. Maybe my next pregnancy will cure my hatred for onions...no...I doubt it...

5. I dream of being on Wheel of Fortune - I'd love to go during "Family Week" with my dad - we would make a killing!!! I actually tried out last spring, they do a lottery and my name got picked, I got onstage and solved the puzzle before the other contestants - but they never called me. :-( Maybe someday.

6. I'm slightly allergic to cats, but love them anyway. But didn't have very good luck with them growing up. First there was Dusty, who got hit by a car - the poor girl came to our door crying to tell us that she just hit our cat. Then there was Oreo, who "ran away" which is code for "he got eaten by a coyote". Then Snickers who was victim of a hit and run. Then Mittens, who unfortunately got hit by a very large truck and we all witnessed it. Then Murphy, who happened to be narcoleptic. Ever heard of a narcoleptic cat? Well, he would fall asleep and it was impossible to wake him. He decided one day to curl up in the engine of our large family van for his afternoon nap and well, you can guess the rest. That was a bad day. Then there was Fuzzy, whose "fuzz" we found one morning on the neighbor's lawn. Darn coyotes. Fuzzy was the last cat. Dad refused to get any more after that as he was "tired of burying cats".

7. Random interesting facts: I love pickles - and pickled okra. mmmm. I'm not very patient. I'm a little lazy. I'm not good at cleaning. I love beef jerky. I hate shaving my legs. I love my freckles. I love being short. I'm scared of things that go bump in the night. I am afraid of alligator lizards...eeew... I'm very good at mini golf. I love bowling – my high score is 176. Sometimes I drink pickle juice. Root beer is my favorite soda. I'm a pretty good cook when I put my mind to it. I've never mowed the lawn. My favorite flowers are daisies. I hate shopping. I hate Valentines Day. I've never tried surfing - the ocean kinda scares me. I love video games. Spring and Autumn are my favorite seasons. I don’t like fruit pies, but love cream pies.

I've decided not to "tag" anyone this time - but if any of you decide to do it, lemme know so I can go see your answers!