She's Here!

Megan wakes me up around 3AM telling me she's been having regular contractions for a couple of hours now.  Remember, this is about 2 weeks before her due date (9/16).  We lay in bed until around 5AM using her iPhone app to record the frequency and duration of the contractions.  Finally, after much debating, we decide it's time to go to the hospital.  I give my mom an early wakeup call to come over so that Stella can sleep and then go back to their house.  After mom got to our house around 5:30AM, we went to the hospital where we played the "admitted or go home" game.  I managed to capture Megan's enthusiasm for this quite well (picture on the right).  We were there for at least 2 hours until they decided that we would be admitted and we were going to have this baby!

Megan was given an epidural (one of her first requests), but there was a complication with the execution of said epidural.  The anesthesiologist made a mistake where too much spinal fluid would be slowly leaking out and would almost definitely cause her to have a spinal headache.  While most people see the anesthesiologist once or twice, she became our best friend checking in very regularly to see if there is any way she could make Megan more comfortable.  They gave her additional drugs to combat the headache and suggested to lay as flat as possible.  Sure enough, within a few hours, Megan started to have neck and headache pain (which we go on for about another day).

Besides the spinal headache snag, everything else went pretty smooth and we were blessed with Charlotte Jane (Charley)'s entrance into the world at 5:28PM.  She weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 20.5" long.

Later that evening, my parents brought Stella up to the hospital and she got to finally meet her little sister (something we were all really excited about).

She was so proud and happy!  I meant to take more video, but I did manage to capture when they first saw each other and Stella proclaimed her as "my baby":

Ardent 2.0

Although the picture isn't very clear, hopefully the message is.  Another baby!!!  Today, we found out we'll be blessed with another boy or girl!

Two Year Birthday Partay

Stella LOVES Doc McStuffins.  So, naturally, Megan planned a Doc McStuffins themed party for her second birthday.  Complete with themed center pieces:

Cupcakes:

And a band-aided smash cake:

We had a good showing of friends and family and all had a good time.  I was especially warmed by how happy and how much fun Grandpa Peters had watching and playing with Stella:

As I did last year, I put together a photo montage of my favorite pictures from Stella's second year and had it playing on repeat in the background:

First Steps (oh, and Happy Halloween!)

I was expecting Megan to dress up Stella in a princess costume, so I was surprised when she get got her a gnome costume.  There must have been something magical about that gnome costume, because she took her first steps in it.  Right after we got her in the costume on Halloween day, we wanted to have a photo session.  She's been pretty good with standing up on her own, so I tried to pose her in a standing position.  As soon as I did, she took a couple of steps towards us while we were trying to snap a picture of her.  We were definitely taken back when she did this.  I wish I would have got it on video, but at least both of us were there to see it!

1 Year Pictures

She wasn't quite as smiley or easy to pose compared to her 6 month pictures, but we were still pretty pleased with how Stella's 1 year pictures turned out.

Before I get to my favorites, I have to point out that one of her 1 year pictures was kind of disturbing.  We all know that Stella is super cute, so it's no big deal to poke fun at some of her less cute pictures.  I believe it was Morgan who first compared the following picture to Chucky holding a knife off camera:

Uncanny resemblance, right?  Now, my favorites (all of them are in my picture gallery):

Happy 1st Birthday!!

Stella turned 1 today.  Although cliche, time really has gone so fast, and I can't believe she's already existed for a complete revolution around the sun.  We've enjoyed every minute of it, and there's nothing I'd rather being doing than spending time with her.  I'm so proud of her that she's already managed to become such a cool little person in her short time on this earth.

To prep her for her actual birthday party and smash cake to take place on the 20th, we got her a cupcake.  Below is a video of her getting at it.  She seemed really shy and unsure of this new experience at first, but she became comfortable and messy in no time.

Talkative Climber

Previously, Stella would avoid the stairs as if they didn't exist.  However, she's recently started this new thing where she will try to climb them if Megan or I are at the top of the stairs.  I took a video of it below where you can see her pointing and yelling at us as if she's trying to command us to the bottom of the stairs so she can abandon her accent and get some attention.  I promise that her tumble at the end looks much worse than it actually was!

Standing Up

Megan has informed me that Stella has been pulling up to stand against various objects in the house.  I haven't really witnessed it on a major scale until today.  As I've previously mentioned, Stella is a big fan of her reflection in the oven, so I guess it's only proper that some of her first pulling up and standing experiences revolve around this beloved appliance:

Crawling

Unfortunately, I don't have any good pics or video from today when Stella advanced from the commando crawl to a normal crawl where her legs and arms are coordinated in movement.  I just wanted to make sure I captured the date in this post.  From a baby proofing perspective, not much has changed, she can just get places much quicker now.  I'll try to get some video for a future post...

Commando Crawl

Stella has not quite mastered the traditional and much more efficient "standard" crawl yet.  She's still in the "commando" crawl phase which is quite amusing.  My sister, Megan, took the following video on her phone demonstrating her humorous attempt at crawling:

6 Months!!

Today, Stella is 6 months old.  It sounds cliche, but we really can't believe how fast time has flown and how much she has changed these past 6 months.  These past 6 months have been some of the most challenging and trying, but also the most rewarding, fulfilling, and happiest time of our lives.  We were VERY pleased with how her 6 month pics came out.  Here are my favorites (all of them are in my picture gallery):

Stella's First Easter

Stella got all decked out in a pink tutu and bunny onesie for Easter.  She got a bunch of Easter loot seen in the pics like some new stuffed animals and a book.  She was especially photogenic today.  Megan had my 30th birthday party the night before, so it was nice to have her grandparents still in town to help share this day with her.

Sitting Up

Stella is getting stronger and stronger.  Today, she managed to sit up for at least 10 seconds while holding herself up with her arms.  Although it slightly resembles the posture of a gorilla, it still counts:

Touchdown

As I previously mentioned, Stella couldn't quite touch the floor from her bouncer.  Well, just a couple weeks later, she's put on the weight and the length to reach the floor.  She loves bouncing around with the vertical control this contraption gives here that she normally wouldn't have.

Happy Due Date!

Stella came a little early on October 11th, but today is her actual due date.  Although I don't think it's common to celebrate or put much weight on the due date, I thought it was worth noting since we were blessed (and a bit stressed) to have her almost three weeks before we were expecting (according to her calculated due date via Naegele's rule and even then most babies are born after this date).  In celebration of her due date, here's a goofy looking picture of her with her eyes open:

Kickin' It

So, Megan's convinced that Stella is going to be a gymnast or a dancer based on all the movement she's been feeling.  The new sensations she's been experiencing reminds her of the song La Cucaracha.  She also seems to be a night owl based on her frequent 3AM back flip sessions.  Hopefully, her sleep patterns will change.

I didn't believe her at first, but after I got to actually feel one of her break dancing sessions, it was pretty incredible.  Definitely made things seem more real.

It's a Girl!

Wish I had more time to elaborate, but here are the pics.  First thing the sonagrapher did was immediately indicate it was a girl.  I didn't quite follow, but apparently the arrow below is the female indicator:

Full view including spine:

You can see the head:

Another view of the head:

Arrow is pointing to the foot:

Positive Pee Stick

So, there was nothing really different about checking for a positive pregnancy this time compared to all the other times (some might know that Megan is a habitual pregnancy tester).  However, both of us had a feeling this might be it.  Not wanting to get our hopes up, Megan left the stick to do it's thing in the bathroom.  I went and checked it after 10-15 minutes and noticed that there was actually a very faint hint of a line (for this particular test, a single line adjacent to the existing line means it's positive).  Being pretty familiar with pregnancy tests at this point, I innocently told Megan there was a faded line and played it off as if it were a no-go, knowing full well that even a weak hint at a line indicated the pregnancy test was positive.  She jumped up to take a look and quickly corrected me that this was a positive result.  After I reread the pregnancy instructions two more times, I eventually agreed with her.  Megan took another test the next day to confirm hence the two results in the above picture.