Baby Whitney is here!

Whitney Vanessa Sutherland

4.18.11

8lbs 6oz, 21in

Here we are right after she was born :)

Vic, of course, is once again the proudest, happiest daddy out there.

Tommy meeting Whitney. He was so funny- right when he crawled up into my lap he stuck his face across from hers with the biggest, silliest grin on his face.

Look at that proud brother!!

After looking, he thought he needed to give her a kiss & a hug. As you can see from the picture, he wasn't that worried about upsetting or smashing her :)

After all of his playfulness, he snuggled up next to her & decided he needed to study her face. It's hard to believe these two are siblings with their opposite hair colors!

Whitney & Grandma VanSickle (my mom)... luckily here for 3 days to help out with Tommy!

Whitney and Grandpa & Grandma Miller (my dad/stepmom)

Whitney, Uncle Darren, & Grandma & pa Sutherland (Vic's parents)

And now... THE LABOR STORY!

I'd have to say I was quite miserable going 5 days over, but it may have been very worth it as this labor was 100 times easier than the last! The last one was 23 hours, draining, & awful with an awful doctor I'd never met, & a grumpy nurse. This time...

Monday:

9:30am: I went in for doctor appt w/ my regular doctor & he said the hospital was open to induce me if I wanted to so of course I jumped all over that! Scrambled home to pack, get Tommy to a friend's, eat, & get back to the hospital by 12 to check in.

1:00pm: Doctor broke my water & told me that I was already at a 4 so I could get epidural right away. I was shocked cuz I remember how many hours of pain I had to go through last time before I could have the epidural. I was sorely tempted to do it right away, but I wanted to get this thing done with as soon as possible so I opted to walk until I felt I couldn't handle it any more.

4:00pm: I was doing just fine with only mild discomfort & suddenly within 5 minutes they got way harder & my eyes teared up on a contraction & just the memory of how painful it was last time made me panic & call for the epidural! Luckily, since it was during the day, the anesthesiologist was in house & came right up to give it to me. I was sitting pretty by 4:30. Prettyish I should say. Last time I had a spot it didn't work on the right side & this time both legs were totally numb, but right down the middle wasn't all the way numb! It made it much easier though & all I had to do was light breathing through each contraction.

6:00pm: My doctor had gotten off work & came to check on me before he went home & it was a good thing he did because I was already at a 9 1/2! He went & got dressed down, gathered up the needed staff, & by that time I was fully ready to push. I still pushed her out in 4 minutes just like last time, but this time I could feel it-- making it way harder to want to push! I hate that I could feel it, but glad to have the experience of knowing what it feels like to have a little HUMAN come out of me! Total time was just under 6 hours which was AMAZING. I can't believe how different having a baby can be! I can now understand why women can do it more than twice :) AND... even though epidurals never seem to work perfectly... thank goodness for that modern miracle!!

Naming this little girl was a challenge! Little Miss Whitney came out & I seriously would not believe she was mine if I hadn't seen her come out of me! When we went to the hospital we had the name Whitney Vanessa picked out because I thought this baby was going to look just like Tommy, but girly. So when I saw this little girl I had no idea what to call her! I kept going back & forth between names & really just felt weird naming a little girl that I was still having a hard time believing was mine! Finally I just decided that the name Whitney is cute & she is cute so they match :) I still am not sold on the name for her, but I'm sure it will grow on all of us. I picked out Whitney so Vic got to pick out Vanessa.

24 hours later & I'm really starting to feel the awful pain of healing and the rocky road to recovery, but it is all so worth it when I look at Whitney's sweet little face. She is so tiny and lovable & I can't wait to spend the next 6 weeks 100% at home with her :)

Here is one more shot of this little cutie with her sweet little feet poking out- you can't really see the blanket that well in this picture, but Vic's mom made her another one of her amazing blankets. We are so lucky she has such talent!

Tommy's Update

My little Whitney is refusing to come out (she is now 4 days late) & I haven't said much about Tommy lately so I thought I'd share this adorable kid of mine. He is now 16 months and constantly moving. I'm sure everyone thinks their kid has way too much energy, but Tommy really does! I have strangers constantly comment on how busy he is. Him always moving makes it easy for him to entertain himself while I get stuff done at least! My brother called him Tommy Tornado when we went to visit there & it has sort of stuck to him because we realized that is exactly what he is! If you see him coming, then watch out! It's not in a bad way, as he is the happiest, smiliest little guy... just a daredevil that is always testing his boundaries & getting bruises all over him :) He finally learned to dance & now does it all day long & loves it when I sing to him. (probably the only person that wants to hear that noise!) He is a 100% Daddy's boy. When Vic is around he doesn't want to go to anyone else. I love watching the two of them play together- it is nonstop giggles from Tommy which makes me laugh every time. He knows he can get what he wants without talking so he prefers to pull us to whatever he wants & point, but he signs & says "more" consistantly. Other words are: duck, bubbles, mama, dada, no, Carter, baa (for sheep), & grrr (for anything fuzzy), where'd it go, and Vic swears he said baseball today. I have a hard time believing that one! His favorite game is hide and seek whether it be him hiding behind the curtain, me sticking a blanket over my head, or hiding something & trying to find it. He is obsessed with any form of the game!

Summed up... a CUTE face that is impossible not to LOVE!!!

Where is baby?!

I am 40 weeks today!!! So why am I still posting? ...because I am one of those unlucky girls that get to go over EVERY time! I hate knowing people that had due dates after me & they are already holding their sweet little baby. It's so not fair!! I went to the doctor today & I've started to dilate, but doesn't want to induce me for another week. I can't imagine having to go an entire week longer. yuck. I am officially ready for the baby to come now! I finished my last day of work, did all of my errands, did all of the laundry, & cleaned the house. Now I have nothing to do, but sit & wait!! This is not the most flattering picture, but it is the only profile picture I took this pregnancy. It is a week ago at 39 weeks. I have been busy doing lots of little projects that always seem to take longer than they should! We loved this little moses basket for Tommy & used it a ton as a travel bed everywhere we went. I didn't want to spend another $50 so I decided to recover it to make it girly. Many times I thought it wasn't worth the money, but I'd already bought the fabric so I kept telling myself I had to finish! I'm happy with the results & can't wait to see a precious girl in it!

Then I figured I'd finally get around to finishing Tommy's letters. I painted these circles & put them up before he was born, but I never got around to ordering the vinyl lettering for it so here is the final project after a year!

...and now I can finally post a picture of his finished nursery. (Still no finished room for the little girl to come, maybe next year!)

I love when I see tiny little flowers on headbands for newborns so I decided to make a few of those too. Here is Tommy as my poor model :)

I made MORE bows! haha, I'm obsessed now. It is so much fun to make them! I thought these were fun because you can pick any outfit, go to the fabric store, find a bolt of fabric that matches, & only buy an inch or two for 30cents. Click HERE for the tutorial.

I was so in love with these bows that I made a bunch more & have been enjoying wearing them in my own hair!