Welcome to the family, Emma!

On my due date, December 4th, nothing was happening. I think I visited the doctor at least 4 times that week. Not for any reason other than normal routine visit stuff -- a sonogram, check of fluid levels, and to estimate Emma's size. I was completely 40+ weeks miserable, but very confident with our decision to wait as long as possible to induce. I was really hoping Emma would come on her own...and obviously she would have, but we ended up speeding up that process because of some size estimates (8 pounds 12 ounces) and fluid levels! Our doctor happened to be on call Saturday December 7th and she convinced us it would be nice to be at the hospital on a weekend. We had our doubts. It also happened to be the weekend of a major cold front and possible icy roads. More doubts.  

My parents and sister drove in the night of the 6th. Forrest and I went out for one last date night -- we enjoyed a great, relaxing, filling dinner at Piatti. Italian, carb loading, I'm sure it helped with labor the next day! We casually made our way to the hospital, 5 bags in tow (jackets were in one bag, camera gear in another, you get the picture), the morning of the 7th around 7:30am. By 8am, we were checked in, getting blood work done, and hooking up to an IV. Before the Pitocin I was already 2cm and 70%...a good starting point! Around 10am, it was decision time, epidural or not? I was feeling strong contractions at this point, but getting through them fine. My nurse told me the anesthesiologist (only one available on a Saturday, grrr) was about to go in for a C-section and wouldn't be available for at least another hour. I've heard stories of labor progressing so quickly, by the time an epidural is wanted, it's too late. I had hoped to keep going, let the contractions get more intense, then decide. But I didn't want to take any chances. What if I was about to be in labor for 12 hours? What if I was about to push for 2 hours (like I did with Davis)? Not in the mood to gamble, I went for the epidural and then we waited. 

Forrest had the football games on and I napped on and off for a couple hours. He was making bets whether we would have the baby before or after the Baylor - UT game. Pattie and Richard were watching Davis for us. They passed the time by baking Christmas cookies. They visited us for about an hour. Davis had so many questions about all the buttons on my bed and the IV going into my arm. 

By 1:30pm I was at 8cm and frantically calling my mom -- she was stuck in traffic! At 1:55pm it was time to push and sweet Emma was born at 2:03pm. She was a healthy 8 pounds 5 ounces (not too far off from the estimate they got from the sonogram) and 20 1/4 inches. My mom, dad, and sister did make it in time. They had brought lunch for Forrest, but I ended up eating half of it. They weren't expecting me to have Emma so early in the day! The two hours after Emma was born, she spent it with us in our room. I got to hold her, feed her, and watch her while the nurses took her vitals. Emma also got to meet her big brother! It was a moment we will never forget. 

Emma's Due Date is Here!

It's December 4th, our long awaited due date for Emma. Is she here? Nope. Just like her older brother, I think she's cozy and we are probably going to have to force her out. I feel blessed to have made it to 40 weeks. But I do have to say, going on 10+ months pregnant is not so pleasant. Think swollen feet, clothes not fitting, and getting up every 2 hours at night. In an attempt to get her moving, I decided to wash and vacuum my car yesterday, followed by a nice long walk. Nothing. 

Since I don't have sweet newborn photos to share, I will give you a glimpse into the nursery! Enjoy! 

San Diego Part 2: Gaslamp, Aggies, and Harbor

We happened to take our San Diego trip during football season so the majority of Saturday was spent watching the game or planning watching the game. That morning we started with a delicious breakfast and a nice walk around Balboa Park (near the zoo). We quickly made our way to the Gaslamp Quarter to find the perfect sports bar for football watching. We kept an eye out for other Aggies, but surprisingly didn't meet any! 

Hotel Del by night

At halftime we decided to stretch our legs and change locations. I was so excited to happen upon a precious bar - chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, salads on the menu, and fluffy pillows! Forrest compromised and we watched the second half of the game in the "girly" bar. 

The girly - shabby - chic bar! 

After the game we headed to the harbor for shopping, more eating, sunset watching, and bird talking. This was by far my favorite stop for shopping. I cannot tell you how many people stopped us to talk to Forrest about the Aggies and Johnny Manziel! I heard the recap of the game at least 10 times! 

Our last day in San Diego we decided to revisit our favorite breakfast place, make a few shopping stops in Coronado, and spend most of our time on the beach. It was a short trip, but I feel like we were able to check off many hot spots in San Diego while still having time to relax. 

San Diego Part 1: The Del, The Beach, The Sunset

San Diego should be the #1 spot for a baby-moon (you know what I'm talking about, the term some genius marketing person came up with to help give people another reason to spend money and go on vacation)! Our reasons for picking San Diego included: direct flight, nice weather, and highly recommended. Little did I know I would fall in love with the city and want to move there. 

Where to begin? The people were so nice. Everywhere we went. Nice people! I don't blame them, sun 100% year round would make me a nice person too. We stayed at "The Del" in Coronado, but rented a car so that we could explore different areas. It was easy to navigate and super fun having a convertible. 

Hotel Del Coronado - Beautiful, full of history, and haunted!

The first night in San Diego, Forrest arranged a little bonfire on the beach and we literally ate s'mores for dinner. So healthy and every pregnant girl's dream (Davis' dream too, but he wasn't there). As we were enjoying our cozy bonfire on the beach, our s'mores server came over to tell us the Navy Seals were doing drills on the beach. We decided to walk down to the tiny green lights he was pointing to and see them in action. Amazing! The Navy Seals were fully dressed, running into the water (freezing), paddle a certain distance, come back, cross a field of rocks with their boat, then crawl in the sand, and repeat! We went to bed full of s'mores and proud to be American. 

Our first morning was spent relaxing on the beach and planning the rest of our time there. Highs were in the 70s and it felt amazing sitting on a beach, white sand, without sweating or burning. Ahhh, heaven! The first full day in San Diego we decided to take our convertible and drive to La Jolla. We went to Torrey Pines Gliderport, which had unbelievable views, we shopped La Jolla, ate at George's rooftop bar for the breath-taking sunset, and walked after dinner looking for the seals. Super cute seals, but by that time our pictures didn't turn out because it was dark. 

Torrey Pines Gliderport

Torrey Pines Gliderport

George's

George's

Emma's Sprinkle

I haven't officially announced it to the blog world, but we do have a name for our baby girl: 

Emma Baird! 

No real reason for Emma other than we love it and Baird is a family name, it's my grandmother's maiden name. Davis Warriner, by the way, gets his middle name from Forrest's grandmother's maiden name. So they are even...starting life out fair...but that won't last! 

Emma was sprinkled by some very loving hostesses and friends on September 29th and I want to thank each and every one of them. I think the pictures will speak for themselves...but as you can see, the decorations and flowers were beautiful, the food was delicious, and the pink was plentiful! Such thoughtful and personal details were put into this sprinkle, and I am forever grateful for wonderful friends! 

Mommy-to-be mint tea -- Delicious!

Claire serving bellinis! 

The hostesses!

Davis loved Emma's umbrella! 

27 Weeks

And there you have it, the bump at 27 weeks. To be accurate, I'm 30 weeks today! We were on our way out the door for a wedding shower and I realized my hair was fixed, my makeup was on, and I was not in workout clothes - so I snapped a quick photo.

The second trimester has come to an end. Good-bye energy and normal looking ankles.

20 Weeks

This pregnancy seems to be flying by, well, at least it does now - now that I'm enjoying the 2nd trimester. But let me tell you, weeks 6-10 were hell.

With Davis, I barely felt pregnant. In fact, it was hard for me to believe I was pregnant in the beginning. This time around, the day my phone app dinged and told me I was 6 weeks was the start of 4 terrible weeks. I never physically got sick, I guess I'm thankful for that. But I literally laid on my couch all day with my computer in my lap and I couldn't seem to eat anything but carbs - bagels, toast, potatoes, noodles, and repeat - carbs carbs carbs and more carbs! I was carb loading and unfortunately wasn't running a marathon the next day to burn it all off!

My sweet mom cooked Forrest a ton of meals that I would just set on the counter each day to defrost in time for dinner. I couldn't even open the fridge, the smell was too intense.

Once the morning sickness started to wear off, it was replaced by a whole new pregnancy symptom, headaches! I don't care what caused them...allergies, hormones, etc. I just wanted them to go away. The only thing that seemed to cure the really bad ones was laying in a dark, cool room and sleeping it off for an hour or two.

Enough complaining from me, I just wanted to remember (as I type that, I'm not really sure WHY I want to remember) the first half of this pregnancy in all it's glory and pain. Of course, I would do it over and over again for this baby girl and maybe I should be thanking her for allowing me to eat as many carbs as I wanted. Who doesn't love bread?

I'm not a big baby bump picture taker...and for good reason, I spend most of my day in workout clothes and rarely do my hair and makeup...but I did want to mark the half-way point! So here ya go, a baby bump picture after spin class today:

Baby Bump at 20 Weeks

Baby T2 is a GIRL!

You know that special moment in a movie where the dad comes out into the waiting room and gladly announces, "It's a boy!" and the entire family jumps up, cigars in hand, ready to celebrate? It's a great moment, for the movies. But this is not a movie and I am not one to wait 40 weeks to find out if it's a boy or a girl. I'm sure it's a fun surprise, but it's just as fun around 18 weeks! I'm a major planner and shopper so finding out early suits us. 

Forrest and I had so much fun at our 18 week sono...counting toes, looking at her spine, and seeing our baby girl move. Of course, during the sono, we still didn't know Baby T2 was a girl. We asked the technician to keep it a secret and write down the baby's gender in a sealed envelope. I left the doctor's office (really tempted to open the envelope) and went straight to my friend's house to drop off the pinata, the envelope, one bag full of blue goodies, and one bag full of pink goodies. Our friends, Leslie and Brent gladly stuffed the 4th of July pinata with the pink goodies and GLUED the pinata shut. No peaking for us! 

The next day was 4th of July, so we busted open the pinata to find pink starbursts and lots of pink streamers.

Davis determined to get the candy!

Reading name suggestions from the family

Our first baby girl outfit!

My dad picked it out

After celebrating the 4th, Forrest had to drive home for work. He went straight to his parents house to invite them to dinner later that weekend so we could surprise them with the good news. Unfortunately, Forrest had forgotten to take off a tiny pink sticker that said "it's a girl." Oops. 

The weekend after the 4th, we were in Rockport with all of Forrest's family. I made 40 tiny little pink cupcakes and covered them with icing. The entire family unwrapped the cupcakes at the same time to reveal IT'S A GIRL! 

We really had so much fun revealing the exciting news...as you can see!

What does Davis think about the new baby?

Having a baby is an interesting concept for a toddler to grasp. Davis has asked a lot of questions and started telling us what life is going to be like as a big brother!

We were looking at a family photo...everyone was in it except Davis. He noticed too, he saw all his cousins and myself and Forrest, but no Davis. "Where am I mom?" At the time of the photo I was pregnant with him, so I told him, "in this picture, you are in my tummy." The poor kid looked at me with the saddest face and was completely serious when he asked, "mom, did you eat me?" No no no! "Then how did I get in your tummy?"

When we first announced the baby, Davis was oblivious to the celebrating and conversations. Forrest and I decided we didn't really need to bring it up till I was further along. We figured once I was showing it would make more sense to Davis. Also, if you tell Davis something is going to happen, he immediately says "tomorrow?" Imagine telling him, no, not till December!

We didn't have to wait long. I think he heard the baby talk enough and started to catch on. He's been telling people I have 2 boys and 1 girl in my tummy. Triplets! All three are named Duke. One night, reading books, Davis randomly asked me if the baby can hear us. I told him yes, so Davis leaned towards my belly and said "hey baby!" Then he asked me why we can't hear the baby. So many good questions, he's really keeping me on my toes!

Baby T2's First Photo

Get ready kid, we take a lot of photos in this family. Your big brother had a couple months where he liked to refuse photos, but we quickly got over that bad habit. Here's your official first photo at 7 weeks!

Easter

Easter weekend was a very exciting one for us! We found out that week about baby #2, which was perfect timing because our families would be together for Easter. We wanted to share our news right away with our immediate families and tell them in person. The weather was so wonderful all weekend, the kids were able to swim and we enjoyed many of our meals on the patio.

Saturday we went to Nana and Pop's house to swim, dye eggs, and have dinner. Forrest and I decided to share our news before dinner by handing a rather large Easter egg to Sara (Forrest's sister). When she opened it, out popped a card that said "baby love." My mom immediately saw it and started screaming. It lasted a good 5 minutes. Thinking back, I'm surprised the neighbors didn't come over to check on us! 

One of the many many many photos to celebrate announcing our second baby!

This year we hosted Easter. Forrest decided to smoke a brisket. It turned out amazing! But the poor guy had to work so hard. He put the meat on the night before and woke up every 3 hours to check on it. We were both up every 3 hours and I could barely fall back asleep each time because Forrest smelled like smoke and meat, ick!

Easter morning! The bunny came!

After the egg hunt!

Davis with his cousins, Kate and Alex.

Baby T-Two!

The news is officially out there! We are expecting an addition to our family on December 4th 2013! Davis is excited to share the news, even though he's not 100% sure what's about to happen. He asks me a lot of questions about "is there a baby in your tummy?" "but why isn't your tummy big?" "how did the baby get in your tummy?" "did you eat the baby?" 

Davis was such a good sport for the photo shoot! He recently had his picture in a newspaper (from a wedding), so he gladly agreed to these pictures by saying, "sure, these are going to be in the newspaper, right?" I might have told a white lie. But it worked, because they turned out really cute!