Zoie's Birth Story

I was glad Zoie came after we finished her room, but I wasn't expecting her to come just hours after my previous blog post. I was actually scheduled to be induced on Tuesday Jan 31st because my babies come so fast and I didn't want to deliver in the car or in the middle of the night and not be able to get in touch with a friend to watch our kids.

I was dilated to 3.5 cm on the Saturday before she came and I was mega uncomfortable, but still just expecting to be induced on Tuesday. Then on Monday morning (1/30) I woke up at 8:10am and noticed low back pain. So we called a friend over and got to the hospital by 9am. When the nurse checked me I was dilated to 9cm. The contractions were very close together, so I'm glad Chris was there. Something that helps me cope with the contractions is "Counter Pressure." When a contraction starts I ask Chris to jam a hand held massage claw into my lower back and I totally relax my body and it relieves the pain.

When I finally dilated to 10cm the contractions slowed down. In the past I have had an uncontrollable urge to push, but not this time. So I kept waiting and I never felt that urge. Because I'm impatient I asked the nurse if I could "get this show on the road" and just start pushing, she said that would be fine. Because I deliver my babies without epidurals I was in charge of when I pushed, which was nice to have some control. The first three pushes weren't very effective, but once I figured out "where" to push, the baby dropped and with three more pushes Zoie arrived! (From the time I realized I was in labor to when she was born was 3.5 hours.)

They rounded her weight to 8 pounds.

My recovery is going a lot better than my first deliveries and nursing started out a lot smoother than it has in the past. Zoie is such a delight and I am really enjoying getting to know her. She is 10 days old in the photo above and looks a lot like baby Grant.

Welcome Zoie Adele Anderson!

KaraLee and I (and Grant and Madelynn) welcomed baby Zoie Adele Anderson into our family on Monday, January 30, 2012 at 11:38am! She was born at 8 lbs and 20 inches (nice round numbers). I won't post the details of the labor and birth here, but suffice it to say that things went very well and KaraLee and Zoie are both doing great. :) I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Now We're Ready!

Now we are ready for baby #3! Chris and I finished her room last night at 11:00pm. People always ask whether or not I'm ready for another baby and before 11pm last night, my answer would have been "no." But now that she has a place to live, she is welcome to come anytime.

I thought I took a complete "Before" photo, but I can't find it anywhere. So here is a small shot of the baby's room. The entire room was this dark maroon color with brown trim.

We decided to paint the room a neutral light green and to install white bead board on the lower half. The bead board was actually a lot easier to install than we thought. I LOVE the way it turned out!

We replaced all the brown trim with white, replaced light switch and outlet plates and painted the original door white. Now we just need a baby to move in and decorate the place!

We are ready for our little baby to come, but I'm not sure the current baby is. Madelynn has had a hard time accepting that this isn't her crib anymore and someone smaller is coming to town. Poor little girl, maybe baby #3 can bring Madelynn a peace offering.

Just some things I don't want to forget

Grant loves to create!

Maddie loves to explore!

1.) Madelynn refers to Bert and Ernie as "Bernie"

2.) Grant pronounces Mustache as "Mush-stache"

3.) Chris was watching a BYU football game and told Maddie to say "Go Cougars." She raised her arms and yelled, "Go Lions!"

4.) Our van got stopped at a railroad crossing for a freight train. Grant asked us what types of things are shipped on freight trains. We talked about possible items (building materials, etc). Then I said, "maybe there are some hobos on the train." Grant's response: "Silly mom, hobos aren't real."

5.) I asked Grant what I should make for dinner and he suggested "Fa- zangna," I said ok, we can have lasagna. He corrected me by saying, "No I want 'FA-zangna.' It has milk, pepper, animal and hair."

6.) Grant has missed preschool because of the winter vacation. So I told him at the end of the vacation that the next day he would start up preschool again. He then said, "Oh good, I have missed preschool because of my migration."

7.) Often when we take off Maddie's diaper and she happens to escape, she'll turn and stick her bootie out and say "Skunk!"

8.) Whenever Madelynn sees something that is small or resembles a baby item, she'll put her hands on her face and say, "Oh, how cute!"

9.) When we were going through the nativity story before Christmas, we were talking about the characters. Grant pointed to one of the wisemen and said, "Who is that?" I told him that it is a wise man. Grant thought about that for a minute and then said, "Is that the same guy who built his house on a rock?"

We love these kids!