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!

Thankful for Great Friends....and Great Presents, too! (smile)

Another week has passed ridiculously quickly! Everyone told me that as our due date grew closer that time would drag out slower and slower...especially as I'm now more than 9 months pregnant in the hottest of part of the summer. But time has only gone faster now! I absolutely cannot believe that we are only 3 weeks away from our baby girl's due date, that her nursery is all finished and ready for her, blankies are washed and folded, and everything is ready to pack my bag! Not sure why I haven't actually packed it yet, but I'll get around to it. The most fabulous and fun part that has now come and gone: baby shower! 

Kristin, Tanisha, me, Becky & Hope

I've always known I'm very blessed to have the friends I have in my life, but never so much as last Saturday when some of the bestest friends a girl can have gathered to host/attend our baby shower! Hope (college roommate, general BFF, the Rachel to my Monica, or vice versa, depending on the day!), Kristin (another fabulous Belmont bestie), Tanisha (fantastic, dependable, great to have on your side, takes incredible care of those she loves) Becky (one of my preceptors when I became a nurse, polar opposite to me in the best way) and Kimmie (friend, yep, step-daughter but more like sisters because we are SO freakishly alike sometimes) all came together to host the most fabulous baby shower a girl could ever hope to have! The party took place at our house, which I must say is the BEST idea ever as it was soooo nice to just take everything up the stairs to the nursery rather than load a car, unload a car, etc! Plus, this pretty much forced Steve to be there for parts of it (which I know he enjoyed whether he'll actually admit it or not) and even Annabelle's brother in law, Clay, joined in on the fun (not sure he actually had the absolute greatest time ever, but there was food and it was extremely thoughtful of him to come). It was really fantastic to have family friends I've known literally my whole life, high school friends, college friends, friends I met through Steve, family and even my CMC friends whom I truly miss seeing all come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little Annabelle. It's a wonderful feeling in itself to be so excited about our baby girl, but to see so many others excited about her, too, really warms our hearts and brings tears to my eyes sometimes. I know that we are truly blessed to have these people in our lives, and for Annabelle to grow up having them in her life, too. 

Great-Granny, Mommy & Nana (to be)

Adorable gift from Kimmie & Clay

That's all the sentiment for now, my screen is going blurry on me, so I'll skip the rest of what I'm thinking, go with a big THANK YOU to everyone and move on to the photos!

Sweet little dress from
Annabelle's GREAT Granny!

Annabelle's Nana made this GORGEOUS bassinet for her!!!!

The Nursery Is Complete!

This has been maybe the best week I've ever had...ever! It started with Leigh Ann Agee & ended with a fabulous baby shower, but I'll save that for another post as I don't have photos yet!
I finally feel like our sweet baby girl can make her grand entrance as she now has a truly magical place to sleep! There are so many things going on right now that I never, ever in a million years imagined! The biggest is that if anyone had told me last August that in one year we would be only 4 weeks away from the birth of a sweet little baby, I would never have believed it! Sometimes I still have to look down at my ever so round belly just to make sure it's real, and of course other times, she makes her presence known all on her own reminding me just how real this is! Something else that I would have never imagined is that a nursery could be so perfect! And I can't take any credit for it at all! It's hard for some people to believe, but my hubby actually has incredible taste, especially when it comes to his girls. As I said before, his idea for the arrangement of the nursery ended up being perfect (after several of my failed ideas), he actually chose all but one piece of the furniture and, most importantly, he hired Leigh Ann Agee to paint the most beautiful room I've ever seen!!

Annabelle's nursery before Leigh Ann

Most everyone is aware of my obsession with Paris; both of us truly adore it there! So, naturally, I wanted Annabelle (now that her arrival is only 4 weeks away, I feel ok using her name, so that's it!) to have a nursery that reflected our favorite place. We initially planned to have an Eiffel Tower above her crib in the distance and to make the whole room look like a Parisian park. Leigh Ann loved the idea, but needed another focal point for the opposite wall, which my genius husband immediately thought should be a carousel as there is a gorgeous one right by the Eiffel Tower, as well as in the Tuileries Gardens & Luxembourg Gardens, which we also love! SO...that was the plan! Right up until Leigh Ann had the idea to do a canvas with the carousel so that one day when we move, we don't have to leave everything about her nursery behind on the walls. Genius!! SO, I then started emailing her some our favorite pics from Paris, and the next thing we know, she has painted a truly incredible oil that Annabelle can have in her room forever (or until she wants boys on the wall instead)! We both are totally in love with the painting and can't believe that she a) painted it from a photo so perfectly without ever visiting Paris or b) has never done oils before! I find it really unfair that one person is allowed SO much talent while I can't even draw a stick man!

Once the oil was finished and we decided where to put it, it was back to the drawing board for the space about the crib. I again started sorting through some of my fav pics of Paris and just let Leigh Ann choose what she felt like painting! I know that her taste far exceeds mine, so we would love anything she decided on! She ended up using a photo of another Parisian park, Place du Vosges, for above the crib. And I love that it's painted from a photo that I took! So I did have a tiny little part in Annabelle's nursery!

The rest of the room, we just asked that she paint whatever she felt like, and we love it all! I was initially totally against any animal that wouldn't be found in a park setting, but Steve & my mom both thought Annabelle needed some sleepy lambs on one wall (we had seen LA's sleepy lambs before), so I finally caved and let her paint the lambs, and I'm so glad I did! They have ended up being one of my favorite parts of the room! It helps that she wrote "bonne nuit" along with the lambs, which means "good night" in French!

So, that's the explanation of this week's painting of the nursery! I'm completely amazed every time I walk in, I feel like I'm seeing something that I haven't noticed before, so I'm just going to post a TON of pics to try to capture it all! Hopefully next weekend, Annabelle's bathroom will be finished, I can't wait to see what she comes up with for it!

I love the music notes!

Leigh Ann likes to paint "critters"!

My favorite is the baby duck at the end!

The sweet pic of Macy in the cabinet was a gift from Leigh Ann! Also an oil!

Annabelle's Nursery, complete with bassinet made by her Nana!