6 days old

I had hoped to have a blog post written to honor Hannah's 6th day of life, in that from here on out her age will be quantified in weeks, then months, then years. Unfortunately, I only got so far as the title before my short deadline. I don't want any more time to go by undocumented, so I'm committed to writing about it by typing one-handed, while my precious angel baby sleeps on my chest.

We have fallen hard for our sweet Hannah. Hook, line and sinker. It would be hard not to when staring at her delicate little face. She is an incredible sleeper, with the exception of one 930pm-500am bender on night #4. I had flashbacks from Emmy's first weeks, and got scared for a moment that Hannah was Emmy's infant twin. The last few nights have given me great relief that Hannah has picked up our night time routine a little more quickly than big sis. She's adopted an every four hour feeding schedule over night, thank the Lord! Hannah has a high-pitched girly cry that she only really lets out if she's in need of a new diaper or a meal (with the exception of night #4 when there was no workable solution to her issue.) While some academics might attribute "happy-looking" facial contortions to gas, I prefer to think of them as smiles, of which she's shared a few. :) She's still a bit jaundiced, but after the second check-up with her pediatrician, we know that all that bilirubin is on it's way out. We also know that she lost just 4 ounces from her birth weight before she started regaining. As of Tuesday, she was back up to 7 pounds. :) Small victories such as that are so appreciated by a nursing mama.

Emmy can't get enough of her baby sister and is always ready with a kiss. In between kisses, she has spent lots of quality time with Daddy, Poppy and Grammy. They braved the cold at the park, toured the Nashville Zoo, and explored the "Kids & Play" gym. She even got to go on a shopping spree at Toys R Us! Lucky Girl came home and practiced riding her new tricycle in the living room (out of respect for our furniture and walls, it now lives in the garage :-P)! She is soaking up all of the attention and keeps chanting our made up song "I love you, yes I do, I love you, I DO I DO!"

With Emmy being so well cared for, I have had some quiet time to cherish Hannah's first few days of life; and to work at getting us in sync with feedings. I was successful in evading the worst pain of childbirth with my trusty epidural, but it's come in a different form through nursing. I had hoped that being an "experienced mom" might spare me from the pain I had with Emmy, but no such luck. Like her sister, Hannah has chewed me up and spit me out. I will prevail, though, and have formulated a new game plan that seems to be working so far: pain medication. I have no idea why I didn't medicate myself with Emmy, but taking Tylenol around the clock has taken the edge off, and for that I am so grateful. It's also helping with some of the discomfort from my insides returning to their rightful size and location. It's all a very small price to pay, though, for having the honor of assisting God in the miracle known as Hannah Horn.

I should mention that we had some last minute name negotiations behind closed hospital doors. Nick preferred Hannah's middle name to be pronounced "Mad-e-LYNN" over "Mad-e-LINE." I was open-minded, and frankly, grateful that he wasn't pushing for one of the characters' names from the movie Underworld. I did want to stick with the traditional french spelling of the name, though, which is where Nick compromised (since he's not a fan of the French or anything that has to do with them.) So, her birth certificate reads:

HANNAH MADELEINE HORN

Hannah, 4 days old.

Emmy, 6 days old. 

Their little facial similarities outweigh their differences at this point. Love them! :)

Photos Nick stole from Grammy's fancy new camera!

Christmas/New Year's Letter 2011

January 2012

To our dear family and friends,

We hope that this note finds you enjoying the start of a wonderful new year!  With the impending January birth of the littlest non-canine Horn, it was our hope to break the mold with a Valentine/birth announcement mailer as opposed to the traditional Christmas card!  Truthfully, we hope you to know that you all remain on our minds and in our prayers throughout the whole year, not just during the holiday season.

This year has been full of excitement, beginning in March with Nick’s return home from his yearlong deployment to Afghanistan!   It was such a welcome end to our most difficult deployment yet.  Three months later, he relinquished his company command and returned to the Special Operations Aviation Regiment.  Being that he was recently promoted to Major, he earned himself a desk jockey job.  While he doesn’t love being out of the action, I must say Emmy and I love having him in his seat at the dinner table each night.  With just five months left of his military commitment, he is attempting to determine what his next career move will be, military or civilian.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!

Nick and his company’s return from Afghanistan enabled me to channel my former prom planning days with a giant (adult’s only) welcome home cocktail party in downtown Nashville.  We just had so much to celebrate, which made the time commitment and last minute mega-fundraising ventures all worth it.   Curiously, there has been a baby boom among the families in our former company, not to exclude our own, just nine short months later.  We found out on Mother’s Day that I would be a mommy of two, which was, without doubt, the greatest gift I could have been given.  Stay-at-home-mommyhood has been a rewarding, challenging and truly humbling career, and I am so grateful that it sits on my resume.   

Our 2-year-old whirling dervish, also known as Emmy, has provided us with an endless amount of entertainment.  She and Nick didn’t miss a beat after the deployment; she even saved her walking milestone so that he could be there to witness it.  Much to Nick’s chagrin, she is all girl and has a great affinity for dress-up accessories, taking care of her babies, and reading the “Fancy Nancy” children’s book series.  Emmy is living up to her age, as she has mastered asking for and granting herself permission for whatever wily antic she dreams up all in the same breath.  She has an energy level comparable to that of a super-athlete and a sense of humor of the same magnitude.   To say that we are smitten with our big girl is an understatement.

God apparently felt as though the estrogen level in our home was lacking (despite our two female dogs, Molly and Darla, Emmy and myself,) so He blessed us with another baby girl!  I reminded Nick that God gives us what we need, which, surprisingly, didn’t offer him any consolation to being so grossly outnumbered.  Hannah Madeleine Horn was born on January 12, 2012, at 9:33PM.  She weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces and measured 19 inches tall.  She has the sweetest demeanor, offering few cries and many cuddles.   In her wakeful periods, it’s hard not to get lost looking into her eyes.  She is a true example of God’s work at it’s finest. 

Wishing you and your family a blessed 2012!  Cheers!

With Love,

Nick, Ali, Emmy, Hannah, Molly & Darla Horn

...Then There Were Four

(Written over the course of the last couple of days...)

I am absolutely, positively, shell-shocked by how quickly our family became four yesterday.  It's already a blur today, and I don't want it to become more so, which has compelled me to document it now despite my sleepy fog...

Yesterday morning, I woke up at the first sound of my alarm to jump in the shower and begin to prepare to get Emmy to Mom's Day Out.  I felt a strong urge to pack a go-bag for Emmy and to get the last few items in my own.  I know how important it is to listen to these urges, because it's usually God giving me direction.

I got Emmy to school with just enough time to get to my 9:10 am doctor's appointment.  I plopped down in the waiting room--grateful to be sitting--and feeling hopeful that some significant progress had been made.  In the last few days, I had started feeling increasing contractions and uncomfortable cramping and general fatigue.  I just couldn't imagine carrying on feeling like that much longer.  I had joked with Nick earlier that I hoped Dr. Anderson would tell me that "he couldn't in good conscience send me home."  After sharing the good news about my "status," "stripping my membranes," and acknowledging my discomfort, Dr. Anderson gave me his personal number to text if I changed my mind about induction, since he was on-call for the night.  He reassured me that we had options, that didn't just involve hooking me up to pitocin (something I was hoping to avoid this time around.)

I left the appointment and called Nick immediately.  He didn't answer his work line (and his personal cell phone doesn't get service in his building), so I hung up and called Kris as I was rushing off to a coffee date with my good friend, Chelsea.  I guess I had turned my ringer way down while at my appointment, because I missed all five of Nick's return phone calls, which then prompted him to call Kris.  I find great humor in the exchange that they shared:

K: "Are you at the hospital?!?!?"
N: "Should I be?!?" ( while turning on the ignition to his car)
K: "Wait, have you talked to Ali??"
N: "No, I can't get ahold of her, that's why I'm calling you..."
Luckily, before the conversation went any further, they were able to get on the same page, and not long after I got to weigh in.

Pretty immediately after Dr. Anderson "stripped my membranes" I started having fairly regular contractions.  They continued throughout my coffee date, but they weren't intensifying (I was still able to talk through them.)  By the time Nick and I connected on the phone, I was hopeful that I was in the early stages of labor.  He told me he was coming home, and we decided to set a time, that, if the labor wasn't progressing we would text Dr. Anderson to go in to the hospital and induce (or as I chose to think of it "help things along.")  I chatted with Lindsay about our plan when I picked Emmy up from Mom's Day Out and we were good to go.

After putting Emmy down for her nap, I climbed on the treadmill for the first time in roughly five months (I have PTSD from Emmy throwing things at me mid-workout).  I knocked out 2 miles, while watching the first snow fall of the season.  I was successful in ramping up the contractions...until I stopped walking. :-/  The contractions were pretty regularly 3-5 minutes apart but there were some 10 minute or so gaps between contractions.  When I wasn't walking they reverted back to the mild belly-tightening contractions I had been having before.  So, I climbed back on the treadmill to cover another mile and a half.  I found myself in a similar predicament after the last stretch of my treadmill trek as I did the previous one.  To compound my situation, I realized that, should I deliver anytime after midnight, our sweet little miss would have a birthday of Friday the 13th.  I'm not a hugely superstitious person, but as a mom hoping to give her daughter the best start possible, I really preferred that she not kick-start life on a notoriously cursed day.  So, we decided to text Dr. Anderson to admit us into the hospital at 5pm to "induce."

After a quick shower and throwing all of our bags and our teething-ring-bracelet toting Emmy in the car, we were hospital bound.  It didn't take me long to notice that the contractions were back and ramping up again, only this time during my inactivity.  I took this as a good sign that we made the right choice to proceed to the hospital.  Lindsay met us in the hospital parking lot and after giving kisses and waving goodbye to our Emmy girl we were off to our room.

The contractions kept coming as we got situated into our room.  By 6:15pm, my IV was in and fluids were running.  By 6:30pm, Dr. Anderson had come in and confirmed that I was 4cm and 80% effaced and broke my water.  My epidural was placed and working beautifully by 7:15pm.  It all went to quickly and so smoothly!  I had time to kick back and update my cheering section, catch up on some celebrity gossip, and chat with my Nick, of course.  Around 8:30pm or so, I started feeling a bit nauseated, which was tolerable when I laid back and closed my eyes.  I figured I'd overdone it with the ice chips.  At 9:10pm or so, one of the Labor and Delivery nurses came in to "check me" for my primary nurse (who happened to be in a c-section with another one of her patients.)  All I know is that she said I was "ready to have a baby" and started turning on all the lights and bringing in lots of equipment.  I was still dumb-founded by my rapid progression when Dr. Anderson arrived from home at about 9:25pm.  He threw on his gear, and, after two contractions of pushing, Hannah was born at 9:33pm.  Watching the aftermath unfold from my perch was surreal.  I just couldn't believe how quickly and seamlessly the entire experience had played out.  I was mesmerized by the beauty of my newest little angel and in awe of how quickly the heart can double in size.

After we briefly met Hannah's acquaintance in the delivery room and snuck in a feeding, she was off to the nursery for bathtime.  It struck me very early on just how much better I felt after delivering Hannah versus delivering Emmy.  There's a lot to be said about your body being ready to deliver and not relying on medication to get the ball rolling.  Noted.

We decided that we would divide and conquer caring for our girls on both the hospital and home fronts.  Nick took over Emmy duty from the wonderful Head family on Friday morning while I enjoyed my hospital vacation with Hannah.  I was sure to cherish the alone time with Hannah, knowing that it would be more difficult to carve out having big sister Emmy to keep up with at home.  From the time that we've had together, I can say that Hannah is one sleepy little peanut.  She is a master-cuddler and her cries are only to call attention to her immediate needs (usually a diaper change or wanting to cuddle, as she's still a sleepy eater at this point.)  I had forgotten how incredible it is to cuddle a newborn and to feel their soft skin and drink in their sweet smell.  Amazing.

Come this morning (Saturday the 14th) I was very ready for our family to be reunited!  The Andrjeskis so kindly took Emmy girl in for a few hours so that Nick could come bring us home.  From the time Emmy climbed into the car, her face lit up with excitement and was singularly focused on giving Hannah kisses.  Once we arrived home, Emmy was eager to show Hannah all of her toys, particularly her blocks, stuffed octopus and, of course, Bobby.  Hannah hasn't shown any interest in the pacifier, which is a complete mystery to Emmy, who keeps trying to force it on her.  The dogs are also intrigued by Hannah, and doing their best to get close to sniff and lick her.  I understand completely that it's going to take some time for everyone to become accustomed to our new normal, and when we do, it will be so much greater than we all could have ever imagined.  Honestly, it already is.

Emmy and Dane playing during bathtime! (I stole the next few pictures from Lindsay! Thank you!!)

The two Emmy's playing before bed. :)

Emmy meets Hannah through the window! She was too young to come visit us in Post Partum.

Not really sure what to make of all this.

Wearing the same outfit Emmy wore in the hospital.

Sleepy girl.

Ready to go home! Just waiting on everyone else!

First breath of fresh air!  Finally made it to the car.

I stole the next pictures from Derek and Mel, and I will also steal their captions, because they couldn't be said any better (and I laugh each time I think about them :-P):

"Haley and Emmy on break"

"She eats. She works. It's that simple."

"Cheese unites all people.  Write that down."

Finally, Baby Hannah fills her carseat.  Emmy's been telling everyone she crosses paths with about Baby Hannah's carseat.

Yay!!!

Their first cuddles!

All three of my loves.

One of many, many, many kisses Hannah has received from Emmy today.

All clean!

Pre-bedtime story.  We read "On the Night You Were Born" in honor of Baby Hannah's birthday.

My girls!!!

She's Here!!

Hospital-bound...Emmy's off to her first sleepover at the Head's! (She insisted on bringing her teething ring "bracelets").

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Daddy's second little girl! :)

Hannah arrived at 9:33pm weighing in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces and is 19 inches tall!  She's as healthy as can be!