Anndi is TALENTED!

Anndi rolled over at 4 1/2 weeks. She not only rolled over, but she rolled over intentionally and did it about 30 times. She has done it every day since, too! I am amazed, because Caleb rolled over at 4 weeks, too, but he didn't mean to and we couldn't get him to do it again the next day. This little girl is very "movement oriented," as her doctor called her! She said she will probably walk very early, just like Caleb, because being movement oriented at this age is "atypical." Oh man!! I am proud of her and honestly wouldn't mind so much if she walked early. It was fun when Caleb did.

Sledding Accident

On Saturday, my sweet little barely-2-year-old boy had a bad sledding accident and broke both of his legs. By late that night, he had two full-leg casts on. The breaks are in both of the bones in both of his shins. He was sledding with my dad, who happens to be one of his biggest fans, and they hit a solid wall of snow & ice. They were going fairly slow and unexpectedly hit it.

He did not have to have surgery and got to go home from the hospital that same night, sporting two heavy white casts. That night, he hardly slept because he would fall asleep then flinch and feel the pain all over again, even on heavy pain meds. The next day, Sunday, he threw up all of his pain medication and any food he had eaten. He just laid there like a zombie all day, being held by several people. On Monday, he woke up and was doing much better. The pain seemed to subside quite a bit. He still didn't eat a whole lot that day, but was bossing people around and smiling, so he was feeling better.

Monday night, I got the stomach flu and threw up all night between feeding Anndi and changing her diaper.

Now my dad and Caleb both have the stomach flu.

Thank heaven this is temporary. Caleb will hopefully only have the casts on for 4 full weeks, or til the end of February. He has an appointment with the orthopedic docs on Friday. He probably would have been feeling pretty good today if it weren't for the stomach flu.

Pics will follow. It still kind of breaks my heart to see him in casts sometimes. You can see pics of the sledding day at Chantelle and Chris's blog.

Blake's Family in Town!

Grandpa and Anndi napping.

Anndi is turning out to be a really good baby. She is sweet, beautiful, and sleeps well.

Uncle Thomas and Caleb watching tv together!

Caleb and Anndi bonding.

Grandma, Anndi, and Caleb hangin out.

Caleb eats pizza so hilarious! He eats the toppings only, and tends to get sauce all over his nose in the process.

Anndi in her beautiful headband!

Anndi and mommy.

Anndi's baby blessing is this weekend. Her Grandma Haines got her these beautiful lace socks and little white shoes for her blessing. Adorable. I can't wait to dress her in all of her blessing outfit on Sunday!

Haines Happenings 'Round Here

Guess who peepeed in the potty!?

Love this pic!

It's been an insane few weeks. Can't wait 'til things settle down.

Happy Birthday, C-Bear!

Today my little buddy turned the big 2. People have thought he was 2 years old for over 6 months now, so I am shocked that now it's true!

Caleb woke up to tons of presents, including a little train set, mega blocks, puzzles, and coloring books. Ga-Ga and Gi-Gi got him a rocking/bouncing horse, race car track, remote control race car, and a little piano and microphone. Grandpa and Grandma got him all these little Tonka cars and a Tonka car garage, jumbo crayons, and more coloring books. He loved all his presents SO much.

Having a baby, going through the sickening baby blues, and my first baby turning 2 all in such a short period of time has really made me sentimental toward Caleb. I can already tell that as he grows and changes, I'm going to miss the stage before.

Caleb blew his candles out and ate all the frosting off of his piece of cake. We celebrated with my parents and our good buddy, Chris Duncan. It was a fun little party, but we will have a fun GINORMOUS party once Anndi is 6 weeks old and able to be around people. I will make the cake (this one was from the store, it was good!) and we will have all his little friends there. We look forward to that. But it was fun celebrating on his big day!

Anndi's Birth Story

My doctor scheduled me to be induced 5 days before my due date. I felt it was right after a lot of prayer and thinking it over, but still worried about it. Caleb was 3 days late and still went into the NICU, which was a really hard experience. I was afraid of having to repeat that experience. But, I still went forward with it.

Blake and I showed up at the hospital at 5:40 am on Wednesday, December 30, 2009. We checked in and walked up to the delivery floor. By the time my IV was in and they were pumping fluid in me, it was about 7 a.m. They wanted to pump some fluid in me and monitor the baby before starting the pitocin.

7:00 a.m.

They started the pitocin and soon after, I began having mild contractions. They were bearable and Blake and I just hung out all morning.

10:00 a.m.

Doctor Nims came and checked me and broke my water. I was 2 1/2 cm dialated. Breaking my water was extremely uncomfortable and not fun. Doctor Nims is very thorough in breaking the water. Thoroughness made it painful, but it was necessary for the induction.

11:00 a.m.

The anesthesiologist came to do my epidural. I was still going through very bearable contractions, so I knew I could hold still for it. However, needles really freak me out so I started to flip out a little. Nurse Amy was so awesome and with coaching from her and Blake, I calmed down. The epidural did not hurt one bit, and I was all set to go. Having been my second birth, people listened to me a lot this time. I told my nurse about how my epidural did not work last time. She and the anesthesiologist looked into it and figured out that I was still on the lowest numbing dose when Caleb started coming. Thus, I felt everything. So, this time they were very in tune with me and willing to help as soon as I started to feel pain. Awesome!!

12:30 p.m.

Doctor Nims checked me again and I was only 3 cm dialated and the baby was extremely high in the uterus. My contractions were still irregular. She and the nurse seemed concerned. Blake, my mom, and my dad were all watching the contractions for me. They were coming really strange, 3 overlapping each other, then 3 minutes of nothing, then 3 overlapping each other, etc. They decided that the baby's head was probably not pointing perfectly downward, that it was maybe tilted just a little. I had to roll from side to side every 45 minutes to help her come down. Rolling over was difficult because my right leg was completely numb and my left leg was a little numb. It was a funny experience switching positions every time!

3:20 p.m.

Nurse Amy checked me and I was dialated to 5 cm, which was progress thank heaven. It still took a while to get to that point even with my water broken, so we were assuming I would be in labor a lot longer. Also, Amy was still surprised at how high the baby was in the uterus.

I had begun feeling the contractions again and told Nurse Amy, so she pushed the "pump" on the epidural machine for me and said, "I have to do this before I send for the anesthesiologist, but it usually does not work, so I'll come in and check in a few minutes."

3:30 p.m.

Still feeling the contractions stronger and stronger. Amy sent for the anesthesiologist who came in immediately and put some awesome stuff in my epidural that numbed me up again very quickly.

3:50 p.m.

Less than a half hour after being checked as dialated to 5 cm, I began to feel a lot of pressure and recognized it immediately as the baby coming! And coming now! I could barely keep from pushing. Nurse Amy came in and I told her what I was feeling. She said, "Well if you feel like I need to check you again here soon, let me know." I said, "You should check now." She checked and I was at a complete 10 cm and baby was coming! She called for Doctor Nims and I got to hear their conversation. Amy said, "She's complete and the baby is right there... no, the baby is coming now." She hung up and looked at me and said, "Doctor Nims wanted to see if you could wait for her to see 3 more patients but I said you couldn't. So, when she gets here, you better push really hard for her."

3:55 p.m.

I was all set and ready to push that baby out. Doctor Nims walked in and took over. I pushed through 4 contractions. My epidural was perfect because I could feel enough to push but I was not screaming in agony. In fact I was not even sweating.

4:05 p.m.

Blake was right there with me counting through the pushes. Just as her head was coming, Doctor Nims saw the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and so she cut it. Then she told me to push again and said, "Danielle look!" And I looked and saw this gigantic baby emerge into the world! Blake and I were both in tears and when they put her on my tummy I felt such happiness, satisfaction, and love for her immediately. She actually looked so beautiful to me already and I knew I loved her.

She was not breathing perfectly and they had to work with her a lot to get the fluid out. They let me and Blake hold her, then swept her to the nursery to help her get the fluid out. It was looking like possibly another NICU situation. I was so worried. Doctor Nims said that I push the babies out so fast, and she was in the birth canal for such a short period, that they do not have enough time to feel the pressure in the birth canal, which helps babies to scream out the fluid immediately when they are born. Apparently my babies have both just struggled getting mad at the world when they were born.

5:00 p.m.

She did well and got rid of that fluid out of her lungs and was considered perfectly healthy!!! I was able to hold her and nurse her. Friends and family came all evening to visit and meet her. Blake and I felt so grateful to have a healthy newborn baby that would not be hooked up to tubes.

Anndi Danielle Haines is so beautiful and sweet. Her cries are even girly. She is named Anndi with two n's because that is how my mom spells her name, Annita, and also my dad's mother is Grandma Ann and my mom's mother is Grandma Nancy Ann.

We got to celebrate the New Year with some close friends. Chris and Scarlet and Jason all came to celebrate in the hospital. Blake and I loved it. We played games, drank sparkling cider, watched the ball drop, and the guys even wore goofy Happy New Year hats! Happy 2010!

The whole family. This will be worth it.

Baby Anndi has arrived!!!

This is Blake, sorry everyone that was hoping to hear from Danielle. Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. I am sure many of you are wondering what has happened. Well... Anndi has now enter the building. She is a beautiful 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 20.5 inches long baby. She has brown hair and girly hands. Mommy is doing great. She will probably give more details of the delivery later. I just wanted to give you all a taste of Anndi. Here are some pictures from my phone and Tessa Farr's camera. More are to follow.

Beautiful December

The Holidays really lit up our life around here. Our Christmas tree and decorations, our blow up Frosty in the yard, twinkle lights everywhere, all made us in happy spirits all the time!

Caleb put on his build-a-bear's flip flops. They look like little Chinese shoes. And he put on his 12 month old baby Santa hat. So cute.
Our new rocking chair left us with ginormous boxes that make a great play house for the bear. Blake is so creative!

Here are the boys playing in the house.

The Holidays brought visitors too. My lil Nath...

And Caleb's best bud Colton.

Caleb and Santa

We stood in line for about an hour to meet Santa and take a picture with him. From a distance, I showed Caleb where Santa was and he lit up in his face and started waving at him. I thought, "Maybe this will go well!"... maybe I was wrong

Caleb hates Santa Clause. He is terrified of that old bearded man who daddy made him sit with. Absolutely hilarious. "Cary Santa! Cary Santa!" (Scary Santa)

Eventually, I had to sit next to Santa and hold Caleb for the picture. He refused to smile and gave an angry scowl to the camera with tears still in his eyes.

It was an awesome mommy experience for me. I laughed so hard and will laugh for the rest of my life about it. Caleb got some ice cream afterward to take his mind off of the "Cary Santa."