Annie's first bath!

Getting ready to get her first sponge bath, happy and content...

She hates to be naked...
Did not love the experience...

She's here!!!

Name: Annie Lynne Millar
Birth date:1-11-11
weight: 8 lbs 6 oz
length: 21.5 inches

If you want the gory details read on....

Monday my mom flew in. We ate a great dinner as a family and then Drew and I said our goodbyes and we left to the hospital to be induced. We got to our room, changed, settled in, watched some football game. It's funny, for some reason while I'm in labor Drew picks what we watch. With Mac it was football, and with Gray it was the French open. It's ok inbetween timeouts I got to watch "Dan in real life." Since I was still dilated to a 3, I was put on a low pitocin drip overnight. When I woke up I was dilated to a 5.

7:00am: doctor broke my water, upped the pitocin a little. I was determined to do my part in getting me to progress. I walked around and bounced on the yoga ball.
9:00am: my mom showed up
10:00am: dilated to a 7. Got a little anxious to have this baby out and told the nurse to up the pitocin
10:30 am: hard, really hard contractions. regretted my decision to up pitocin-moved to the bed
11:00am: pain but manageable. Turned off the tv and I stopped talking all together.
11:20 am: continual pain. Nurse prepped the room for delivery
11:37 am: told the nurse I needed to push
11:40 am: started pushing without doctor. finally felt some releif to the pain.
11:40-11:46 am: my body took over and I pushed until I broke a blood vessel in my eye, while the amazing doctor turned posterior baby
11:47 am: one last push and I finally got to hold my baby girl

totally exausted but feeling pure joy

It was so great having my mom in the delivery room. With the boys' births Drew and I decided we wanted it to be just us, but for some reason, for Annie's we both wanted my mom there. Because I was planning on doing the delivery naturally we were all a little nervous-especially my mom. We all knew if I couldn't hold it together, there was no way my mom was going to be able to. But I promised the minute I was mean or started yelling-crying, I would get an epidural. Turned out the delivery could not have gone smoother and I kept my end of the deal. I'm so glad Drew and I could share this experience with her! Something none of us will ever forget.

Every time the boys came to visit it got a little crazy. Mac was a nervous wreck, asking every so often if the doctor was going to give me or the baby a shot and Gray made himself at home...

First family photo. Baby Annie only 8 hrs old

Getting ready to go home...

We love this little girl so much! As you can see, she looks so much like Mac but there are some differences. She has lots of blonde hair, a much smaller size head -2 inches to be exact:). Blue eyes and little tiny ears. She's such a good baby. Loves to nurse and rarely cries- we are hoping this good behavior continues:)

Update...

Still no baby and really, I'm ok with that! Physically I'm ready, the house is clean, the bags are packed, closets organized, bedroom painted and my body has had it. I'm bigger than I have ever been, swollen and just plain uncomfortable but the thought of going into labor is scary. I kind of forgot about the pain thing until recently- but there's no turning back. My goal to have her as far away from Christmas is working so far.

Besides the labor and Christmas thing I'm so excited to hold her for the first time. See who's traits she has, finally name her and let the boys meet her. Gray thinks she'll be born tomorrow while mac thinks I have another week. The doctor on the other hand thinks I'll go any day. I'm dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced but I learned the hard way with Mac that you can be that way for a long time and not go into labor on your own. So if that happens again, we've set an induction date just in case.

Update on the boys... I think they sense change. Mac is a little or a lot more emotional these days. Gray is naughty as all get out. He bullies everyone. But he has a way of getting himself out of trouble. He's a charming thing. This Sunday G was put into a new nursery. When Drew went to pick him up after church the teacher gave us an update on his behavior. "Gray tackled and punched Dawson in the mouth and gave him a bloody lip. He also punched pretty much everyone else in the class too that tried to take his toys but he always said "Sorry" and he was fine as long as I kept him by my side." Oh it was a proud parent moment! How could we have 2 boys that are sooooo different.

Hopefully the next post will be filled with pictures of our sweet little girl! Until then enjoy this picture of my large stomach!

Christmas festivities

This year was our first year doing Christmas in Kentucky all by ourselves! I think it would have been harder if I hadn't been out in Utah the week before but really, Christmas this year was pretty great. We as a family decided what we wanted to do for the day and me being my mother's daughter - I love traditions - we will now do the same thing every year that we stay home for Christmas.

Christmas Eve morning we slept in until 9:30am -boys still on Utah time and I'm loving it! Got ready and went to breakfast at a donut shop. After we finished 7 doughnuts- we headed over to the bowling alley. Mac loved it and actually did pretty well- he got an 82.
Me and G opted to sit back and cheer for Mac and Dad. Every time one of them would bowl, G would scream "YES, YES, YYYYEEEESSSSSSS!" I got it on camera but can't figure out how to get it on my computer.



After, we went to McDonald's and got home where G and Drew took long naps and me and Mac cooked and cleaned.
Later that night we enjoyed a nice dinner with just our little family. Then went out to see the Christmas lights and made cookies for Santa.
Right before bed the boys got to open their books.

Wonder why I only get candid shots of my boys? Posing does not work for them:)

Drew thought it would be fun for them to sleep in our bed together. That lasted a whole 15 minutes. Mac came out crying after G had jumped on his head- naughty little thing.

Christmas morning I woke up to 3 inches of snow. At 9 I went and woke up the boys. They were so excited to see what Santa brought them.



Gray didn't open any of his presents on his own. "Dad, Please open this."




Christmas was a success! They loved everything they got and we have been reaping the rewards since. The boys have been entertained and happy as can be.

Quick Trip to Utah

On the 10th me and the boys flew out to Utah. I was nervous flying 35 weeks pregnant with 2 crazy boys and with no help but the flight couldn't have gone better. The boys were excited to see their grandparents and they were on their best behavior.

The main reason we flew out was to see Peter and Annie get married...

The ceremony was beautiful and so was the couple.

Sisters-just missing Marianne

Millar family- minus Ben, Jed and Marianne- we missed them!

We ended up leaving cause Gray was a little snowball happy and that just made Mac not so happy
The reception...
You could find the boys watching the wedding video pretty much the whole night.
"oohing" every time the couple kissed:)

The wedding and reception was perfect and we are so excited to have another brother in the family! we love you Annie and Peter!

The week went really fast. Saturday I went to the temple with the Millars to see Annie get her endowments taken out. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had wedding things and my mom took the boys all those nights! It was so nice to have her around so I could be a part of everything. I got to see what it would be like to have family around to help and it was really nice! Thanks Mom.
While I was running around, my mom did some fun things with the boys. She got them the book "The Elf on the Shelf" It's a cute book about an elf that watched the boys all day and then at night goes back to Santa to report what he saw. Then in the morning the boys had to find the elf again. Mac and Gray loved it and so did we. Whenever they acted up we reminded them that Browny the elf was watching and they shaped up!
Friday we opened presents with my family and then Saturday before we flew out we opened presents with the Millars. We basically had 3 Christmases this year. We were totally spoiled by both families.

We loved every minute we were in Utah. It was great seeing family and being a part of Annie's wedding. Now we are home, organizing, cleaning and getting ready for our new arrival...