What Comes Down Must Go Up...

First Shopping Day with Nana

For literally months, we were counting down the months, weeks, days until Annabelle's arrival. And now here we are, counting up the days and weeks since her birth. It seems nearly impossible that she's been here for 4 weeks already, but she has been as of yesterday.

These have easily been the busiest, happiest four weeks of my life. They've been so full of firsts, I can hardly believe it. First bath, first time to visit Daddy at work, first Sunday to go to church, there are just so many! I'm trying to remember to take pictures of all of her firsts, hopefully I haven't missed anything yet. 

One of the best firsts so far has been her first time to sleep through the night! I just knew that we would end up paying for my practically perfect pregnancy with a horrible experience after delivery, but that hasn't been the case at all! She's only had 2 "all nighters" since we brought her home and at 2 weeks 6 days old, Annabelle slept all the way through the night! Most nights she wakes only once around 2:30, so I certainly can't complain about that!! 

I'm already saddened at how quickly she's growing and noticing little things she's already growing out of doing. At her 2 week appointment, she had gained back all the weight that she lost after birth, plus one ounce to be a perfect, even 8 pounds. She's much more alert with every day that passes. She loves her bouncy seat and her swing, but more than anything, she loves her Daddy's chest! There is absolutely no place she'd rather be, and I just love that (so does her Daddy!)!! We're taking photos like crazy to help us remember all of these wonderful little moments and as my memory is not very cooperative right now, I'll just let the photos tell the story of our sweet little daughter's first 4 weeks!!!

Our First Walk: 9/26/10

First trip to the zoo: 10/16/10

Four Weeks Old: 10/15/10

First Trip to Nana's: 10/10/10

First Sunday to go to Church 10/10/10

First Time in Crib

First Time in Swing

Just a little cuddle

First Visit with the girls: 9/23/10

First Trip Out: 09/22/10 (Costco!)

First Tub Bath: 10/04/10

First day of Chelsea v Arsenal! AND Chelsea won 2-nil.

FIVE generations 09/26/10

First Visit to CSC to see Daddy

We can't wait to keep celebrating firsts with our little Annabelle!

Our Birth Story

Since we had pre-planned a day for our c-section, we were lucky enough to be able to have Brandi Pitts, a fantastic photographer, there with us to capture it all. She arrived early enough to catch some of the nerves and excitement of the day then photographed our family seeing Annabelle for the first time and even took our first "family photo"! She just put up a slideshow of some of the photos that I just thought I'd share, along with a few of the ones I have on our computer.
Here is the link to the slideshow:
http://www.brandipitts.com/index2.php#/rgallery2/1/

We were both just thrilled with the way the photos turned out, I'm so glad to have them to help me remember everything about the day as it already seems like ages ago and is all such a blur already!

Sophia Annabelle Sperring

She's here! I thought that I'd be much quicker at writing about our new little daughter, but as it turns out, being a mommy is a bit time consuming! SO, I'll go back 9 days to Friday, September 17!

Nana & Sister just before c-section

Our sweet Sophia Annabelle (to be called Annabelle) came into the world at 8:58 AM on September 17 with 10 perfect little fingers, 10 tiny little toes, deep dark blue eyes and even a little bit of dark hair. She was 7 pounds 15 ounces and 20 inches long, but had dropped to 7 pounds 5 ounces the next morning as she apparently swallowed quite a lot of amniotic fluid on the way out!! In the eyes of her mommy and daddy, she's absolute perfection!!! We delivered at Centennial and just a word about the staff and nurses: incredible! I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but every single person who laid a hand on Annabelle or me went above and beyond anything I ever expected! So, just in case any of you read this, THANK YOU! We had a scheduled c-section planned so that she could arrive during a time that Steve was able to be out of the hospital for a couple days with us. I went back and forth over whether or not a c/s was the right thing to do, but as it turns out our stubborn little girl had the cord around her head, was high up in my abdomen and turned sideways! My OB said I had already shown great "mother's intuition" with this decision, as he felt there was no chance she would ever have been in position to make the exit on her own! Also because of the scheduled section, my phenomenal hubby was able to arrange for both my mom and Kimmie to be in the OR with us! Kimmie was "shadowing" the CRNA for the procedure, so from the time I left our room until her birth, she never had to leave, even when Steve wasn't allowed! No one can ever know the comfort this gave me! And having mom there to see her granddaughter enter the world: priceless! And of course, with Steve holding my hand every second, that was easily the most memorable and special morning of my life!!!

Meeting my daughter

Annabelle meeting her INCREDIBLE daddy

Her Birthday! Daddy had this teddy delivered to her!

Our Family, Day 2

Annabelle & Nana

Annabelle & GrandPop

Day 3

Going home day

I must say that I knew Steve was already a great father, but he has been even more incredible that I ever thought possible! Just this morning, he scooped Annabelle up out of her bassinet, changed her dirty diaper and fed her so that I could sleep a bit longer!!!

Her first night home

This past week we've spent lots of time adjusting to having a new little person in the house, but every minute has been pure bliss for us all and we truly can't believe how blessed we are to have this baby girl join our already fabulous family!!

Our Furry Firstborn

It's so incredibly hard to believe that we now have just over a week until our sweet little baby girl's due date. We're pretty sure we have everything ready for her arrival, so now we're just waiting! Everybody pretty much knows, though, that Annabelle isn't really going to be my very firstborn, we already have the sweetest, most loving sweet girl in the world (even if she is furry), Macy! So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to gush over her for a bit, before her sister comes along and totally steals the show!

I'm sure that most people think that we are completely insane when it comes to Macy, but for nearly 5 years, she's been our baby! And it isn't just for no reason, either. I could go on and on with stories about this sweet little Maltese, but I'll just stick to the one that made me realize a few days ago that she needs her own post.

The day she joined our family

See the tiny bone!

As we've been rushing about making sure everything is ready for Annabelle, we've been trying really hard to include Macy as well. We've learned that if we let her see stuffed animals and blankets, she's much less interested in them then if we try to keep them from her. She really just wants to be kept in the loop. As I've gradually been getting my suitcase ready for the hospital, I've been a bit surprised it hasn't upset her because normally once we take a suitcase out of the closet, she gets very fussy as she knows it means we're about to leave her for a little while, which she hates! I started thinking though that since I've kept in the guest room and have been gradually filling it, she hadn't even noticed it was there. Not true, apparently. On Tuesday when I added something else to the bag, I noticed that some of my perfect folding seemed to be a bit scrumpled and as I straightened it, I realized why. This sweet little Macy whose biggest prize are her tiny little rawhide bones, had put one in my bag, and "buried" it in some of my clothes! How much sweeter does it get than that? Not sure if she's hoping to come with me or if just wants to make sure I have something to make me think of her, but either way, it completely melted my heart!

When she was a "baby"

This is a few years ago...little Diva!

Still a puppy

Just a few days ago...she was playing and fell asleep

With her BFFs

And she loves Christmas!

Halloween 2 years ago

Typical Macy taking over the bed!

She could not love her Daddy more!

Sweet Macy waiting for Annabelle...just like us!

To some people, I'm sure she's "just a dog", but to us, she's a furry little baby who watches TV, snuggles in bed while we read and has more love to give than you can even imagine! And that's why we consider her our furry firstborn!