Changes

We are still getting used to some things around here. The other day Chris said something and used the word "kids" in the sentence referring to ours. It kind of took me by surprise. I am not used to the word kids or children in our house yet. It is weird to think that we do have kids now and that we have 2 children.

Matthew has been really good with Baby Allison. He loves to grab her head and turn it so that he can give her a kiss. Whenever she is laying on the floor, he wants to lay right next to her. He loves when she sticks out her tongue.

Sleep?

Sleep? What is Sleep?
I am trying to figure out what sleep is.
Is it the couple minutes I get when I close my eyes as I am pumping?
Is it the couple minutes I get when we say our nightly family prayers?
Or is it the couple seconds I get when Matthew says his prayers at night or at the table?
Maybe it is the couple seconds my eyes are shut while I am sitting at a red light.
Whatever sleep really is, I am trying to find it.
Allison loves to wake up every hour at night and eat. Then after she eats she doesn't seem to like to go back to sleep for awhile. This is the time that I ponder as to what sleep really is.
For all of you out there, I hope you know what sleep is and that you are actually getting some:)

Our TWO children

Somehow I missed posting this cute picture when I posted the pictures of Allison coming home. This one Matthew is a little more happy about his new baby sister.

Precious Little Girl

So this is what you all are talking about when you say it is fun having a newborn. She really has been pretty good and we are absolutely astonished. A totally different experience then our first time around. I am also really starting to enjoy PINK!!

Exhausted

We are all still sort of trying to make up sleep and this is how we do it.
We just love our children!

At Home

As soon as we got home Matthew wanted to hold baby Allison so Chris helped him.

Coming Home

We were able to come home on Tuesday afternoon. Allison has a little bit of jaundice and they weren't sure if they would let her come home with me or not but she passed the test.
On Sunday night I started not being about to breath very well and they weren't sure what was wrong with me. Monday morning I wasn't doing so well and they didn't think I would be able to go home on Tuesday but after a full days rest and great care from nurses, I felt better and was anxious to come home Tuesday.
It almost seems like Allison is allergic to me a little. When the nurses would bring her in to feed her, her skin was so clean and spotless but after I would hold her and feed her she would have red blotches on her skin. Apparently it is when anything touches her, her skin starts getting red, So in these pictures something must have been touching her.

Hospital Fun

Every time that Matthew came to see me in the hospital he loved to push the buttons on the bed. He and Chris never stayed very long because there were so many things in the hospital for him to get into trouble but he loved that and also watching cartoons. Those two things would keep him busy for a few minutes. He wasn't all that interested in baby Allison. He would say "baby Allison, come out mommy's tummy." We would ask him if it was his baby and he would say yes.
On Monday when they came to see me I told them that I needed to take a walk so I would walk with them to the elevator. My thought was, I could walk and Chris could let Matthew down but Matthew was the first priority since I could walk on my own. Well, Chris felt torn because his son running down the hall and his very slow wife. Matthew was far ahead but he turned the corner that had an elevator there but then he came back to see us. I told Chris he better go get him before he got on the elevator. So Chris took off. The next thing I knew was that I saw Chris fly through the door that was the stair entrance. I was on the third floor and then I heard a little Matthew voice call out "Daddy, wur are you?" He had made it all the way to the first floor by himself. Then I heard lots of crying as I looked over the rail, down to the first floor and saw Chris quite upset carrying Matthew out. At the time a little scary but now it is funny. He must have pushed the button on the outside which we normally let him push and then someone from the first floor must have pushed for the elevator and so it was going down. I don't think he would have been able to conciously push the 1 button to go down. I am just glad that he didn't get off on the second floor and so it would have been harder to find him. I am glad everything worked out.

Our New Arrival!!!!

On Friday night I started having contractions. After they started getting more intense and closer together Chris and I went into the hospital. Naturally though, the contractions lessened when we got admitted. The on-call doctor had already performed 4 c-sections that night and figured why not one more. When the anesthesiologist came to talk to me he asked me when I last had something to eat. I had eaten one oreo cookie two hours before and so he wouldn't do it so I stayed in the hospital while Chris went home. I had contractions though not painful every ten minutes. Finally at 7 in the morning on Saturday they told me we were doing the c-section in 30 minutes. Since Chris wasn't at the hospital we had to wait for just a little bit for him to show up. Once he was there we did the c-section and it went so well. It was really cool to hear our baby cry for the first time. ALLISON KAY THOMAS was born on August 16, 2008 at 8:15am weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and she was 21 inches long. She is quite cute if I do say so myself. She has a slight bit of red hair but it will probably be strawberry blonde. So far she has seemed like an easy baby but when the only thing you do is nurse and let the nursery take care of everything else that is a pretty easy baby. I think I will be in for a rude awakening when we take her home when I actually have to take care of her for real. She has been a good eater though so that makes me very happy.

SO FRUSTRATED!!!

I am so frustrated with this pregnancy right now I just have to vent. So our c-section is scheduled for next Tuesday, August 19th. However, by the time I come home from the hospital, Chris has to go back to school on Monday. I would love to have this baby this week so then we at least have a week before Chris has to go back to school. I feel like I am just wasting my time hoping that I will go into labor so that we will have more time with Chris home. I will be 38 weeks tomorrow and I will be 38 weeks when they do the c-section. I have been perfectly healthy this whole pregnancy so I believe this little baby would be perfectly healthy to come out a week earlier. I have even called the doctor's office to see if we could do it sooner but to no luck. I am so frustrated I just want to sleep the week away and wake up when I have to go in but what I would rather do is just go into labor and then they wouldn't be able to stop it and we would have more days with Chris home before he has to leave. GRRR!! I just have to take one day or hour at a time.

Sea World

Since Chris finished teaching his second summer session on Monday, we have a few days before #2 arrives. Chris is still studying for his comps but I managed to tear him away from reading for a day. I wanted to do a last family vacation before Matthew's world got turned upside down. We drove to San Antonio on Wednesday and stayed with our friend that night. Then on Thursday we went to Sea World. It was overcast when we first got there but the sun soon came out. I was pretty amazed at the different animals that we saw. The first thing we saw were dolphins. We could have fed them but didn't have cash with us, and didn't want to find an ATM. We were still able to have some of them come up to us. We went to a 4D theater showing about pirates. It was fun for Chris and I but not so much for Matthew. It was fun to see everything 3D but then it would look like bees were coming to get you and your seat started vibrating. Or there was one with birds flying all around and you got squirted on with water making you think the birds pooped on you. It was really fun but all the unexpected surprises Matthew didn't like and kept saying "go home". Good thing it was only about 16 minutes long.
He thought it was cool where the glasses until the cannon blew and it looked like it was right in your face and when it blew there was air that blew on you. It was pretty cool though.
I have never seen an alligator before. It is a good thing you can't be very close to them. I believe I counted around 9 in that place but they never moved much.

We went to the Shamu show which was really cool. I don't see how these whales are Killer Whales when the trainers can do so much with them. They are very big animals. It was so cool to see about six of them in the water at the time. I was pretty impressed with the show.
After we had lunch it was pretty hot so we decided it was time for Matthew to get cooled off. We took him to a place that just had lots of water coming out of many different pipes. We brought his swimming shorts and he had a blast in the water. I decided that it would feel refreshing so I went and got a little wet with Matthew and then though I didn't have a swimming suit on I got drenched anyways. I encouraged Chris to do the same since it was hot outside. Matthew had such a fun time and didn't want to leave that area. It cooled us off so much and the weather wasn't bad after that.

There were White Beluga Whales but there wasn't a show for them because they just had babies. The 2 Beluga Whales were just swimming around with their offspring. It was cool to see the babies just following there moms around and knowing exactly where they were going.

We made sure we stayed very well hydrated and we enjoyed ourselves. Though I waddled all day and was/am quite uncomfortable I was glad we only had one child to worry about. I couldn't have imagined going there with another tiny baby and making sure everyone was happy. We left about 5pm but caught some of rush hour so we stopped and ate dinner which worked out perfectly because when we got back on the road, rush hour was pretty much over. It was a fun little vacation.
Unfortunately, all the walking and heat and everything didn't put me into labor so I still have to wait for another 9 days.