The first three weeks

 This beautiful little girl is now 3 weeks old. And what a crazy 3 weeks it has been! Has it only been 3 weeks? Really? It has been crazy good and crazy hard, but we are loving getting to know this beauty and finding ways to readjust to our new life.

 The first week, my mom and Clint had off and Thomas did great with all the one on one attention from everyone.  He got to spend time with his papa as well as go on lots of fun outings with his grammy Joey.

 Grammy Joey got Thomas this awesome rocket that had to be repaired the next day. This boy plays HARD! He loves it so much and sleeps with it every night. Now he says that Thomas is going to the moon! He loved playing with his grammy and we were both very sad to take her to the airport. She did so much for us. Cooked us fancy meals, cleaned the house and entertained this crazy boy. That is not an easy task!

 So the first week was really mostly for me to get healed and physically get my body used to taking care of a new baby. Its rough! It was definitely easier this time around, but still hard.  It takes a while to get the nursing down and get used to functioning on limited sleep. I think this week I was just in survival mode.

 Thomas was as silly and jovial as ever! He partied pretty hard.

 Week 2 Grandpa & Grandma Allred came out and once again, Thomas was the main attraction. He just loved spending time with them.  Thomas became Papa Allred's shadow and just had a ball going to the farm, parks, and seeing the tractors at COSI.  They helped us out so much!

 Some of the little girl's first's. Her first bath- She loved it! completely different than her brother in that regard. She just found it to be very relaxing. She also loves "Spa Time" when we give her a baby massage with baby lotion. Come to think of it, she loves having her hair brushed and her nails filed as well....So we better start budgeting for some real spa time down the road :)

 Little lady doesn't get as much quality gym time as her brother did. Its hard to give her time when Thomas likes to take over all her toys!

 Sharing a fun moment with my babies in the big bed. This is as good as it gets.

 Once all of our families went back to utah the REAL adjustment started.  Week 3 has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  My normally easy going toddler has been having some extreme emotional highs and lows.  He is just trying to figure out some real big emotions and doesn't quite know whats going on.  For a few days he was taking it out on Caroline, hitting and kicking her, which is totally out of character for Thomas.  He wasn't trying to hurt her, but he knew that he was doing something he shouldn't do. We had a few talks with him and he has since been making a real effort to be kind and gentle with her. He does love Caroline and he is so sweet with her. I even caught him singing, "Sweet Caroline Bum bum bum" the other day. Since we talked to him about being soft with her, he will ask to hold her and come up and gentle pat her hair. Its just a lot for a little guy to process. He's doing the best he can. Meanwhile I am saying triple the amount of daily prayers for patience and trying to let everything else go while I focus on showing Thomas that he is loved and important. It is not an easy task, he is very emotional and irrational at times.  But my heart breaks a little for him because I see him trying the best he can to make sense of things.  He really is a sweet and tender hearted little guy and everything is very different now. I just love him so much and I hope that he can feel that even when I have to divide my attention between 2 kids now.

Soon this will be the new normal for all of us and Thomas will never even remember a time without Caroline. But for now the growing pains are evident and we are getting through things the best we can. One day at a time. Each day gets a little easier. My heart swells with love and respect for both of my sweet children. I feel truly humbled to be a mother to such sprits that teach me about patience and love.

Introducing Caroline Anna Allred

Our sweet little girl, Caroline Anna Allred joined our family Thursday, August 1st at 2:42 pm.  Just look at that little face and you can tell we are obviously in love.  

Caroline's birth story

Caroline was due July 24th and at all my appointments leading up to my due date we thought she would make an early delivery. So initially, I didn't worry too much about the induction date that was scheduled in case she was late.  But as my due date came and went I got more and more nervous about having to get induced.  We were scheduled to get induced at 9 days late.  I was just so happy with how things went with Thomas' delivery that I wanted to be able to have things go naturally and not have to worry about my labor getting drawn out and having possible complications.  So when Thursday morning came and I felt the early labor cramping I was beyond happy. It worked out so perfectly, because my mom had come into town  the night before and was able to watch Thomas for us.  With Thomas, I labored at home until I was dilated to a 7 and then gave birth to him just 4 hours after getting to the hospital. So I was planning on a similar situation. (I hate being at the hospital) But Clint and my Mom didn't think that was the greatest idea since I was already dilated to a 4 before my early labor had started.  So Clint came home from work to take me to the hospital.  Thomas was very aware that something was up.  He kept coming up to me and giving me hugs and kisses. He is not a typically affectionate little guy, so I know he knew some big changes were coming. I told him I was going ot be okay, but that I was going to the hospital to have the baby. He said something to the effect of, "I don't want baby to take my toys" I assured him that would not happen and to not worry. I gave him a big hug and held back tears as I said goodbye to him, knowing very well that both of our lives would never be the same. 

When we got to the hospital this time, my contractions were about every 5 min apart and I was in a lot less pain then I had been with my first delivery. They checked me and I was at a 5 so they kept me in triage for way too long. By the time the finally got me to labor and delivery my labor was quickly progressing to the point where I was in a lot of pain and discomfort.  When they finally came to give me the epidural I was really feeling it.  The first epidural didn't work, and they had to do it again, only to have the second one only partially work. Literally right as they finished giving me the epidural I felt the urge to push. I could still feel my contractions, but was feeling a bit less pain. I just wanted to push the baby out! But I had to wait for the doctor, which seemed like eternity.  When the doctor finally came, I pushed and pushed for about 30 min or so. She would have come right out, but her little hand was up near her face and she got stuck just a little bit. I was really in a lot of pain as the epidural wasn't fully effective. So they had to use the vacuum to get her out. But all was well and she came into the world healthy and beautiful. And it was so exciting to find out after the hard work of pushing her that it was a girl! I was so happy! I have to admit it was worth the wait of finding out the gender. I would have been equally happy to have had a little boy, but I have always wanted a daughter too so it was really fun finding out at that moment. 

 Here she is! Right after delivery.

 All clean and bundled up.

 One proud papa

 One happy mama

 One beautiful baby girl

 One curious little monkey brother

 I love my babies!

 A very happy grammy!

 Just look at all of her hair!

 Thomas has done so well with the adjustment so far. He has been so sweet! When my mom told him that he had a baby sister, he said, "That's adorable!" I didn't even know he knew that word. He is so sweet. At his first meeting he was a little nervous. I was very anxious to see Thomas. I had never been apart from him for that long and I missed him terribly. He walked into the hospital with a very concerned expression. But he was very excited to see his little sister and he brought her a little bunny. I think his first priority was to make sure his mama was okay. He kept asking me to get out of the bed, so I showed him that I was okay and got up and walked around with him.  When they took Caroline out of the room to do some test on her, Thomas got very upset. His little chin started to quivery and he said, "Where's my baby go? Baby Caroline!" So we walked with him to the nursery so he could see her through the window. What a good big brother. He loves to give her snuggles and hold her. I just love this little man so much. He has been prepared to be a big brother.

 This just makes me melt when Thomas wants to hold her hand.

What a beautiful little girl I have and what a perfect little family. I could not feel more incredibly blessed or happy. I'm not sure I am equal to the task, but I am going to work hard to be the best mama I can to these two special little children. I love them so much!