Amazed at the resemblance!

All I can say is wow. They look so much alike!

Count down to Christmas

Well Scott went back to work today. I miss him so much and his help. Fortunately, my mother-in-law is keeping Chloe during the day until the doctor releases me from weight lifting restrictions.
I'm looking forward to Christmas so much. I'm really glad that Lexi did decide to show up early, because now everyone gets to enjoy her and I'm not going to be in the hospital on Christmas either.
I'm planning on spending today mainly resting, and then I'll be using tomorrow to get the clutter straightened out and get Chloe's Christmas presents wrapped up. I won't be putting them under the tree though until Christmas eve.
Things are quiet right now. Lexi is such a good baby. I actually got lucky twice in a row.
Oh and in good news, I finally got pictures of the girls together! I've got gorgeous girls!

Decent amout of sleep FINALLY!

Well Lexi last night decided she'd rather sleep longer spurts and eat more per feeding so she went to taking 2 ozs every 3 hours instead of an ounce every 1-2 hours. I feel so much better since I got good sleep. The only thing that did suck, I got stuck in a hours long COLD flash during the coldest night in Louisiana thus far and flat could not get warm.

Other news

Well thanks to lovely lack of sleep and 3 days in the hospital, I've not blogged in a few days.
The day that we were discharged from the hospital I received this answer to a prayer in a video text from Chloe's teacher:




She's still a little stiff and sore and will probably have a limp for a bit, but thank goodness she started walking unassisted the day we brought Lexi home.
Chloe's adjusting quite well to having a new baby sister. She calls Lexi, "Baby Lexi" and "My baby." She constantly asks if she can kiss her and we've rarely had to fuss at her for being too rough. She's had a few more tantrums than normal, and a couple of jealous episodes, but I've found the happy medium is when Lexi is really in a good sleep, to just put her down in either her swing or carrier and then cuddle with Chloe. Scott's also been really good about keeping Chloe entertained and attending to her primary needs since I can't lift her up right at the moment.
I'm happy, very tired, but very happy. My family is truly complete!

Lexi's birth story

Well I had been having preterm labor issues since about 24 weeks along, but as of my OB appointment Monday, my doctor had lifted all my bed rest restrictions because Lexi and I had entered the "safe zone." I was on Monday 2cm dilated and fully effaced and her head was at +1 station. My Ob said he fully expected to see me before my 37 week check. Well he was right.

Wednesday at about 4:45pm the hard contractions started after irregular contractions on and of all day. They came fast, and were 3 minutes apart. After and hour I let my husband know and we headed towards the hospital. Scott was so certain it was going to be a false alarm, that he made us stop across the street at the Walmart to make me walk to see if the contractions would keep coming, well they went immediately from 3 minutes apart to 1 1/2-2 minutes apart. I had Scott then bring me to the hospital after a few minutes.

Since I wanted a repeat c-section I knew I had to progress for them to do anything. When the nurse checked, I was still the same as Monday. The nurse said they were going to check me again in and hour and that if I was progressing, they'd call my OB to let him know.

An hour later, my contractions were still coming every 2-3 minutes. The nurse came in and checked me and said, "oh, she's even LOWER. And yup, definitely more than a 2", and hurried out of the room. About 10 minutes later they came in and informed me that my OB was on his way to go on do the c-section. I signed all my consent forms and then they wheeled me back to the OR.

At 9:16 pm, Lexi was born, SCREAMING and didn't stop screaming for over 20 minutes. She got APGARS of 10 and 10 because of her screaming. She weighed 6lb 9.7 oz and was 20 inches long.

She's absolutely perfect in every way, and for a technically preemie, she's doing great and acting like a full term baby. She's bigger than her sister who was a 38 weeker.

Lexi has arrived!!

Alexandra Olivia Van Norman was born Dec. 8, 2010 at 9:16pm via repeat c/s. She is perfectly healthy and beautiful. She weighed 6lbs 9.7ozs and was 20 inches long. I'll be back to post the full story when I'm not so tired and busy with my kids!

Finally sleep!

Finally, Chloe slept normally. I'm soo glad too. I really needed an uninterrupted night of sleep before Lexi arrives. I'm so physically exhausted, I don't know how I'd manage if I don't get a bit more sleep.
Good news, this morning, when I was getting Chloe dressed for school, she looked at me impatiently and said, "Down! Wanna walk!" We're making REALLY good progress. She still won't walk without holding on to our hands, but her confidence is definitely building. I hope she'll be fully back to normal by next week.
Well, its 9:00am, and I'm gonna go lay down and get more sleep!