We've had quite an adventurous last few weeks, so I will do a 2 week in review post. Two weeks ago today, Nora went trick-or-treating for the first time. She dressed up as a penguin. Here she is next to her friend Emma, an elephant. On Monday, my due date, we took a second look at a house with Justin's parents. We actually got to spend 3 hours in the house by ourselves-where Justin and his dad fully inspected it. Since we were very interested in it, Justin's dad let us know what repairs we would need to make and how much they would cost. Later that day, we put in an offer on the house. We went back and forth in offers and counter offers all week. On Thursday night, Justin heard back from the realtor that they accepted our final offer! So we will close on this house on December 17th-just a little over a month away. To add a little further craziness to this week, Nora started consistently potty training from her own desire this week. We are glad, but the timing was a bit chaotic.
Within hours of hearing that we got the house, I went into labor. I tried to go to sleep, but I was so excited and in a little pain so it was impossible for me to fall asleep. At 1 a.m. I went downstairs to iron and time my contractions. About an hour later my contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart. I got Justin up, called the hospital and our friend Megan came over to be with Nora until the morning. She snapped this picture of us leaving for the hospital at about 2:30 a.m.
After a few hours, Anna Mae was born at 10:21 a.m. She was 7 lbs. even and 19 inches.
Justin helped the nurse get her footprints and give her a bath.
One week ago today, we brought Anna home. This picture was taken literally minutes after we got home. It was followed by a huge reality check for Justin and me. We had just spent 2 relatively calm days in the hospital with a little girl who slept most of the time. Then Nora came back and all her energy. We went upstairs to change Anna and she was jumping on Justin's back, dancing around her room-just barely missing Anna, and going around the house finding all of Anna's burp cloths and diapers and showing them to her at her normal loud volume. The balancing act began.
The next day, we took a family walk. It was nice to have Justin home with us all week. Also Justin's mom stayed to help us until Wednesday.
Nora had a hard time adjusting to Anna in the house all the time at first. There were a few tears, but she's been adjusting to it better day by day. There have been a few cute sister moments. Here Nora was showing Anna her toys and had just been reading her a book (I think Anna was sleeping).
She does that a lot. She also likes to cross her legs like this.
Nora loves when she gets the chance to hold her baby sister. Earlier in the week, she said, "Be gentle with my sister dad." Last night when we gave Anna a bath she was crying. Nora said, "It's okay Baby Anna!" and then, "Stop crying Anna, you're scaring me!" It's so funny, because she talks to Anna as if she is her age-asking her questions like, "Do you see my striped Pj's, Anna?" then she waits and looks at us and says, "Anna doesn't talk yet." but she continues to ask her questions. I can't wait to watch their relationship unfold over the years.