Easter Egg Tree

Brady has spent a lot of time at daycare since Hadley joined the family, but over spring break he stayed home and played with us (and us includes Grandma).  Unfortunately the weather was cold and rainy most of the week, so we spent A LOT of time playing chase inside.  It was a favorite game, and it worked out because it wore him (and let's be honest, us) out.  Grandma is so awesome and brought all kinds of fun activities to do also.  One of the favorites was hide the egg, but the most fun was the egg tree.  Thanks, Grandma, for being so awesome!

Hadley Meets Brady (And Everyone Else)

 Brady fell in love with baby Hadley almost as instantly as we did!  I was very nervous how he would do with a sister, but he being an awesome big brother came natural to him! There has been no shortage of kisses, hugs, snuggles, etc from the first meeting.  The first few weeks he mostly referred to her as "my baby" but now he sometimes calls her by her actual name.  He is a pretty good helper and fairly patient when I am taking care of Hadley, especially during feedings.  I feel so lucky at the smooth transition this big brother has had.

And of course Hadley met the rest of the family too.  Only I don't have pictures of everyone.  Grandma documented about every second with pictures though, so if you feel you need more, go to her :)  Here she is with "Crapa" (we are not sure why, but this is how Brady says Grandpa.  He says Grandma just fine!)

 Grandma Bell came and stayed a night with us.  She was gracious enough to take night duty with Hadley so Quentin and I could get some rest.

 Grandpa Bell came and stayed a night also.  Brady had a blast with him and I put him to work :)  While he was here Quentin and Randy installed a peep hole in my front door and hung shelves in the laundry room for me.  There are plenty more projects for the next time :)

1 month

Can you believe this adorable girl is 1 month old? I can't.  I think time goes by even faster with the second child.  I think since she was born a little early she slept away about the first 3 weeks, but it looks like that is over.  She is still a good baby.  Doesn't cry much.  Still working on sleeping at night though :)

Welcome Hadley!

There I was, 37 weeks pregnant, uncomfortable, unsure how I would survive the next few weeks at work.  I had resigned myself to the likelihood that little miss Hadley would follow her brother's example and make us wait until well after her expected arrival time.  I even went to Hobby Lobby and bought stuff to start a new project on Saturday.  Saturday night I felt a little off and went to bed but hardly slept.  Sunday I had to work so I dragged myself out of bed in the morning and got all ready to go.  Before I walked out the door I told Quentin to make sure the hospital bags were packed.  Luckily work was fairly slow, but that morning we x-rayed a larger patient that we had to roll onto her side to get our cassette under her.  My coworker joked that it would send me into labor. And perhaps it did. A few short hours later, around 10:30, I got up to go to the bathroom at work and *gush* my water broke!  I continued on to the bathroom because I wasn't quite sure what to do, and let's be honest...when you gotta go, you gotta go, especially during pregnancy.  So I walked out of the bathroom, kindly informed my coworkers that my water broke and I was headed home, and changed into some hospital scrubs (too bad I didn't have extra underwear with me!)  Quentin and Brady were at church, so I called Quentin and told him I was headed home and he should finish his lesson and then come home too.  I asked him if he had packed the hospital bags (may I add that everything was laid out, ready to go, he just needed to get the suitcase and put stuff in).  There was a slight pause before he said "Well I didn't think you meant it would happen today!"  Surprise!  Brady was thrilled that he got to go home to Grandma's because Grandma's house is the best! Here's my last belly shot before the hospital:

 My contractions hadn't started, so I wasn't really in a huge rush to get to the hospital.  Mostly I was tired and wanted to relax before the real fun began.  When Quentin got home I was just laying in bed, and he came in frantically throwing things in the suit case.  He kept asking if I was ok and ready to go.  Much to his dismay I told him I was not going yet.  I really did not want pitocin, and I knew the clock started as soon as I got to the hospital.  So I made Quentin get me a burger, we ate, went on a walk, watched a movie and then I agreed to go to the hospital even though contractions still hadn't started.  We got there around 5 and got checked in.  They asked if I wanted to start the pitocin and I respectfully declined.  We spent a good deal of time walking the halls to try and get things going, but to no avail.  Dr. Trammell was the Dr. on call and he advised me to again to start the pitocin.  To avoid an unnecessary C-section, I finally consented and we started that around 10:00.  The rest of the labor was pretty similar to Brady's.  I was doing great for a while, and then they kept increasing the pitocin and eventually, around 11:30 I caved and asked for my epidural. They came fairly quickly and the whole thing was done a little after Except this time it only numbed my right side.  It took the edge off, but there was still PLENTY of feeling there.  They had said this was a possibility and there was some way they could correct it, but I had to wait 20 min or so to make sure it didn't correct itself.  Only I started throwing up and so they checked my cervix and there was no time for any correction, it was time to push!  And I guess once she decided it was time, she was ready (which is lucky for my only half-numbed body) so I pushed through 3 contractions and Hadley made her debut at 12:39am.  We were surprised to see all her dark hair and were instantly in love!  She weighed a whopping 6 lbs 9 oz, was 20 in long and so sweet.  She is the perfect addition to our little family and we are so blessed to have her.  And I am so grateful she did not make me wait longer :)

A clear example of the Bell nose (Quentin still does not understand what this means):

 She is seriously so snuggly!  And she loves to be held like this.  All the time.

 You can't really see it well, but the nurse put a little black and gold bow in her hair.  It was her first bow and looked adorable, of course.

Stay tuned for more Hadley.  And Brady.