Grandma Linda and Stella

Love this picture of my Mom and Stella--her first granddaughter!! Mom came out to help me with the kids for two weeks, and, because of my infection from my c-section, I especially appreciated the help! Thanks Mom!

Doll Baby

I'm having a lot of fun dressing up my real live doll baby! Lots of sweet outfits from friends and family!

100 Days

Not the best picture, but yea for 100 days smarter and 100 books read!

Gramma To the Rescue!

The day after Stella was born Scott's mom flew out to help for almost two weeks...she took fantastic care of all of us while she was here and we're SO grateful! She was in charge of all things Braden and Carter---from morning routine breakfast/dressed/car to school, making lunches, dinners, bed/bath, and everything in between---I couldn't have done it without her! Happy kids and thankful parents!

Preschool Valentines

Best Valentine Ever

Stella's First Playdate

My sweet friend Devon brought us dinner and stayed a few minutes with her little girl, Lenna, to meet and visit with Stella. I think this counts as Stella's first play date and hopefully signifies the beginning of lots of fun visits to come!

V is for Volcano

As we all adjust to having a newborn in the house, the boys of course must keep up their normal routine. In celebration of Valentine's Day, this week is all about the letter V for Carter's class, so we had a lot of fun last night (we again meaning Daddy--the perpetual kid at heart!) erupting the volcano Carter made in school!

Stella's First Bath

Stella did great with her first bath, and I have some great little helpers too! I was surprised that her umbilical cord fell off already, but I like the fact that it made giving her a bath just that much easier :)

Legos!

The boys are doing great adjusting to having baby Stella home, I attribute it to the fact that Gramma Bonnie and Daddy have made it a point to make them feel special this week...I can't tell you how much fun or how many hours they've ALL played with the legos that haven't been played with for ages! Just in time for the new Legos movie that just came out; they all went on Saturday and gave Stella and I some needed rest and quite time.

First Doctor Appointment

Stella checked out great at her first official appointment with the pediatrician --she's down a few ounces to 6lbs 6oz, but that is normal and I just need to make sure she keeps eating like a champ like she's been doing so far. So blessed to have a beautiful and healthy baby girl!!!

Welcome Home Baby Stella

Stella and I were 'cleared hot' to leave the hospital on Wednesday, so after Carter's preschool Scott, Gramma Bonnie, and Carter all came to pick us up and take us home! Such a special time, and when Braden got home from school he was so happy to have her home he decided he needed to read her a book :) Great big brothers!

Mini Me

One of my Mom's very best friends, Robin Hand, knitted her a blanket that she used to take me home from the hospital in (it is green and yellow because they couldn't know WAY back then if I was a girl or boy!). So, here's a few pictures of me coming home from the hospital, and here are two of baby Stella with my blanket---maybe she will actually look like me!

Me sometime around Aug 11, 1977

Stunning Stella

The hospital had a photographer stop by to take pictures and I have to say she did a fabulous job!  I had to get the copies of several since they were so good...looks like baby girl is pretty photogenic!  Here's two days old!

SHE'S HERE!

At 5am my water broke, and at 6:35 Stella Grace Seigfried was born. Sounds like the world's best and fastest labor, right? Well, not exactly...

At 5am on Sunday, Feb 2nd, two days before my scheduled cesarean (since Stella was still breach) my water broke. I knew I needed to hurry but we took 15-20 mins or so so I could shower, dress, and grab my things while Scott got the boys to the car. The contractions got progressively and exponentially worse each minute--what started off as seemingly normal at 5am became excruciating by 5:30am. At 0545, Scott dropped me off at the emergency entrance and they wheelchaired me upstairs to labor and delivery and checked...I was "complete" or 10 cm dilated with a breach baby and they had to call in the anesthesiologist and doctor right away! Because of the dangers of natural child birth for a breech baby, a c-section was necessary and the stress level increase in the room was noticeable in all the nurses and doctors' voices since we were already running out of time.  I began crying when the doctor told me I had to be completely put under as there was no time for the normal epidural they do for c-sections. They rolled me into surgery and two minutes later I was asleep; thankfully I woke up around 8:30am to the news that everything was fine and we had a healthy baby girl!
 Here's all of us about 2 hrs after surgery (my friend Peggy took the boys around 10am for the rest of the day):