Well after a week of waiting and thinking this might be it.....Hannah has finally made it here! Hannah was born at 4:30 am on Friday July 24th. We had gone in that evening to be induced at about 6:30pm on Thursday. I was not looking forward to the thought of using Pitocin....I have heard the contractions are much stronger that way. I was looking forward to the fact that I wasn't leaving the hospital until our baby was here. Luckily, I didn't ever need the Pitocin and she came on her own once my water was broke. She was 5 lbs and 14 oz and 18 inches long. Compared to Riley (7 lbs 6 oz) she is a tiny baby.













Riley has been adjusting to his new life with a baby sister and has had a few bumps along the way. He loves to "pat" his sister like he does the dogs. So we are working on patting softly and he has even warmed up to the idea of giving her a few kisses. Life here is changing but we are loving every minute of it and all of the new challenges.

You see that ticker over there to the right? Ya that one, it says baby Hannah is 3 days old....it is just mocking me! She isn't 3 days old, she isn't even here yet. For the past two days I have had contractions that are spaced out for a lovely 20-30 minutes apart. This is definitely not going to get us headed in the right direction. I am all for a little girl taking her time to make sure everything is just perfect for her big debut....but this momma is tired! I would just like to have a night where I am not sleeping on a sleeping bag just in case my water breaks. I really thought that yesterday would be the day, I even stayed home from work just in case because the contractions were so consistent. But, even with all the walking we did they would not move any closer or grow any stronger. So for today's quote.....I laugh because I must not cry!

That title is definitely not my strong suit. If I needed to work on a virtue this would be at the top of the list. After our last doctor visit yesterday I was fully expecting him to tell me that our little girl would be making her appearance soon. Unfortunately with two days until my due date, I have changed nothing! Not even a little bit and I haven't had any change for the past month and a half. This little girl wants to stay where she is but her momma is very ready to get her body back to normal. I just need to keep repeating the mantra that "she is not late yet" and remind myself she isn't even due until Saturday. I am praying that she comes on her own and I do not have to keep my induction date of the 23rd. I would much rather due this on my own than have to be induced.....but having a baby sooner than later is much more appealing.

In other news the Wilbert family has bought a new car! This was something that was unexpected and not necessarily what we thought we would be duing the week that we had a baby due. But with the recent troubles we have had with the Jeep we decided now would be a good time to trade her off and look into a new car that was more realible with the kiddos. We are very excited about the new car....but I think I can speak for most people that the actual process of buying a car is not fun! We were at the dealership for over 4 hours negotiating and we still walked away without a car. Needless to say we had to go back to finish things up the next day because all of the financing departments and banks were closed by the time we got to a price we could all agree on. GRRRRR, once again I just wanted to go in and have it be quick and easy. I should know better, but I was still hopeful. Here is a picture of our new addition to the family.....I just wish we could share Hannah's picture as well.

Wow it has been a busy past few months. Every time I tried to sit down and blog something always came up. We are so very close to having the nursery completed and I will post pictures soon. That process seemed to take much longer than expected. I think the biggest problem is that there really isn't all that much out there Dr. Seuss readily available to buy. You can find just about any other "theme" for a nursery and have more than plenty of options to decorate with, but for some reason most of the Dr. Seuss items are homemade items sold online.

With only 8 more days left until baby Hannah is here I am definitely starting to nest like crazy. Last night in a record 45 minute cleaning spree I managed to dust all surfaces in the house, vaccuum entire upstairs, scrub all floors, scrub bathroom, and disinfect the kitchen. Now if I can just convince Danny that we really do need to steam clean all of the floors before she gets here maybe I will be a little more relaxed. Hmmm then again probably not!

You would think that waiting 9 months for your baby would be the hard part, but I definitely think that the hardest part is the last two or three weeks. You know that it could be any day and you are constantly on edge waiting for the "moment" to happen. It is worse than being a kid and waiting for Santa to come. At least then you know the exact date and when it is going to happen. We have had some moments this time when I think maybe this is it.....but then it never progresses. With Riley I didn't really have too many false labor pains. This time is totally different. Everyone told me that the second one is never like the first, but I think that I still expected it to be more similar than it has been. I mean it was only 14 months ago that I gave birth to Riley so I should still be an old pro at this right?!?! Wrong!!!! She has been so much more active and seems to be everywhere at once. At one point she was kicking me in my ribs at the same time as I felt her sitting on my bladder. I am just ready to be not pregnant and feeling like Shrek.

Thought I would just share a few pictures from the lovely shower that my friends threw for me. It was such a nice evening and I could not have imagined anything better. It is times like these that you truly realize just how blessed you are with the friends and family that support you. Not only are Danny and I lucky....but our kids are so lucky to have so many that surround them and love them.