Carter Loa

Baby sister Carter arrived Wednesday afternoon at 3:17 p.m. I had an appt that day (the day after my due date) and was told that we'd schedule an induction for the following day since I had been dialated to a 5 the week before....I got Laurissa to watch Harrison and brought my bag just in case they wanted to induce right then and turns out the hospital was free so I called Cory and headed down to the hospital from my ob's office. Luckily Erin was ready and waiting to come pick up harrison for a slumber party at Alesa June's house (and also rescued us by taking Harrison out again on Saturday-LOVE YOU ERIN AND DRU!!!!) and everything worked out great. I started pitocin at about 11 (cory was there by then so he didn't miss anything), the midwife broke my water at 12:30. After that contractions started to get a bit stronger so I went for the epidural and had a minor scare as my bp started dropping as some kind of reaction (not a huge deal but a bit unexpected)....they got me stabilized pretty quickly and I started feeling contractions a lot...I asked if I could push the button for extra drugs (they wanted to make sure my bp was stable first) and the nurse suggesting checking me first just in case she was ready.....I was planning to push that button at 3:05 for some relief but instead I pushed for roughly 10 minutes and Carter came out at 3:17 p.m. 8 pounds 13 oz, 21.5 inches long (much longer than Harrison which means she seems much skinnier even though she was 2 oz heavier) and PERFECT. We have been home since Friday and she's doing great. Breast feeding has been way easier (and on track to continue as long as I can get her to gain 9 more oz by the 9th, fingers crossed!!), she hardly ever cries except when her diaper needs to be changed, and she sleeps A LOT (way way way more than harrison from what I remember...). ...She's been laying on a blanket awake for the last 20 minutes or so and I think that's basically the longest eye-open stretch yet. So far so good but I'm sure as she wakes up it will start to get a bit more stressful :) Harrison absolutely loves and dotes on "baby sister" and loves to hold her, give her hugs and kisses, bring her every toy he owns, and force binkies on her like nobody's business. Today we had our first non-doctor outing to Red Robin (at Harrison's request after I vetoed Chick fil a ) ...Carter slept through it all of course! Bring on life as a family of four!!!

Here are LOTS of pictures. Not to be forgotten, first will put in a couple of Harrison in his dragon costume at the trunk or treat on Tuesday.

At the hospital!!!

In case you didn't see on Facebook- I'm officially getting induced NOW!! Stay tuned :)

And some more randoms

Not in order but just so I don't forget....

 Harrison and mommy took a trip to the farm

 climbing a tractor

 Hayride

 My brother and his friend Travis came to visit--Harrison LOVED playing with uncle aaron and was super bummed he couldn't join them on their trip to NYC

 At the American History Museum

 Fun times with daddy in the science room. Harrison and Cory spent like an hour in there doing smart people/budding smart people stuff

 Out of order-went with Aaron and Travis to see planes take off at Gravelly Point

 Marbles!!!!

 Eating at our favorite pizza place "flippin pizza" Falls Churchs' answer to Jimmy and Joes

 Blanket rides through the kitchen

 Clemyjontri park in McClean...like a small kids wonderland

 Cooking with mommy

 Trying out baby sister's carseat

 We carved a pumpkin!!!! with a smiley face and googely eyes!

BYE!!!!!

Having Lots of Fun

here's the proof:

A few saturdays back while cory replaced part of the fence in our backyard Harrison and I visited a local nursery where they had a fall festival/pumpkin patch of sorts...basically you pay money to pick a pumpkin and watch your toddler climb on/slide down things :) It was perfect for Harrison 

And of course I had to have Harrison ride a pony--first timer and he did awesome.  

It was a 3 day weekend so on Monday Cory joined in and we went to a real pumpkin patch/farm. We saw animals, picked apples, took a hayride out to pick some pumpkins, and had a blast.  

 

The following weekend we checked out the national building museum. Basically lame if you ask me but Harrison liked playing with puppets in the kid room and cory was able to show his mad lego skills and made a snowman..Afterwards Harrison and I got in a leaf fight in Judiciary Square. 

Yesterday it was cold so we went to the national botanical garden...This is on capitol hill and I think I had been once on a lunch break for a few minutes. It was such a WIN. Mostly inside, not too crowded, lots of amazing plants, cool spices to smell, a place for kids to play,  Harrison got to get himself entirely soaked in the fountains....we even found parking close by just in case I went into labor (didn't happen despite lots of walking). And I got to have lunch at one of my favorite "I used to be a hill staffer" places where I could listen to people talk about the republican primary candidates and eat yummy chips and salsa.  YAY  for saturday adventures.  I know it will be super harder to manage these kinds of outings with two kids but I hope we can make it happen.  

This picture is embarrassing but you just gotta love the drool and "mommy don't give me a kiss face"