Introducing Grace Elizabeth De Haan!

Our second little girl- Grace Elizabeth- was welcomed into the world on September 11, 2011 at 6:32 AM! (Yes, nearly a month ago, but I am slightly behind. :) Two kids has been busy!)

She was nearly a week late, but she did actually arrive on her own- the day before I was scheduled to be induced, so just in time.

Her birth story: I started having some contractions in the morning on September 10, but they went away in the afternoon, so I wasn't too concerned. I was pretty positive that this little girl was going to be like her big sister and wasn't going to come on her own. However, I started having contractions again around 9 or 10 that night, and around midnight I was pretty sure I was in labor. I tried to sleep until about 2:30, but that wasn't really happening due to the contractions and excitement, so I got up and showered.

After I showered, my contractions started becoming a little closer together, maybe 7 minutes apart. However, I didn't call the OB until about 4 am as I was taking my sweet time getting ready and getting the house all organized. They said we could come in at anytime, so we called my parents to have them stay with Bella. I was still doing my hair when my parents arrived (although my dad was trying to kick me out of the house!) so we didn't actually leave for the hospital until a little before 5. I was hoping that I would be dilated to like a 4 or a 5. I wasn't in a ton of pain, so I didn't think it would be further than that. However, once we got to the hospital and the nurse checked me, I was already dilated to an 8. Ooops- guess I should've listened to my dad! :)

Things moved very quickly from then out! I couldn't have an epidural as there wouldn't have been enough time for it to take effect, but my nurse said I could have an intrathecal, which is something that the Pella Hospital does that provides pain relief but doesn't numb everything. My nurse called the anesthesiologist and my doctor and then got my IV started. My contractions were very intense at this point, so I was praying for them to quickly arrive. My nurse checked me again around 5:30, and she then informed me I may be doing this naturally as I was about fully dilated. I was freaking out slightly as I was in quite a lot of pain by that pointand definitely wasn't planning on a natural childbirth! Thankfully, both the doctors then arrived, and my doctor said as long as I wasn't feeling a lot of pressure, I could have the intrathecal to have relief for pushing. I was feeling some pressure, but I was willing to wait. :)

After the intrathecal was given, probably around 6 AM, I was MUCH more comfortable. My doctor checked me, and her head was already coming down, but he wanted to wait for me to push so that she would just come out easily. And that definitely worked! A little before 6:30, I started to push, and with about 2 contractions in 8 minutes she was out. Our next beautiful little girl!

In the waiting period before the doctors arrived- obviously I wasn't having a contraction at this point since I was still smiling. :)
Mommy holding our sweet little Grace for the first time! So very glad to finally meet her, even though she took her sweet little time coming into the world.
She weighed in at 7 lbs 3.8 oz and was 19 1/2" long. Just a little smaller than Bella, and looking quite a bit like her!
Getting all checked out!
A very proud mommy with our newest little girl.
So pretty and tiny!
Daddy is already in love!
Our first visitor was big sister Bella. I wanted to make sure that Bella was first to meet Miss Grace, so my parents brought her over after she got up in the morning and had breakfast. Bella was a little in awe of meeting her sister for the first time! We had talked about it a lot, but that didn't fully prepare her for actually meeting whatever was in Mommy's belly. She wasn't too interested in Grace at first as it was a little overwhelming for her. She was much more excited about receiving her "big sister" present from Grace- her own baby doll to take care of!

Baby Bella (as the baby doll was named) visited all the places that Grace did in the hospital. Bella also enjoyed performing all the acts to baby Bella that the nurses did to Mommy and Grace. She kept quite busy in the hospital room with all the new stuff to play with! We may have used about 10 pairs of gloves... and a stethoscope might have been played with as well.
I think she is cutting the baby's fingernails in this picture?
After a little bit, Bella became much more interested in Grace. Apparently, her baby doll's bottles needed to be fed to Grace!
Giving the first of MANY kisses!
Still Mommy's girl- snuggling and taking care of her baby. :) I was worried that seeing Mommy in a different environment would freak her out, but Bella took it with no problem at all. She had lots of fun playing in the hospital room and was even fine leaving with Grandpa and Grandma. This was the first time we have been away from her overnight, so it was hard for Mommy to be gone. :)
Big yawn after a big morning!
Grace had quite the little head of hair! Unfortunately, it is already going away.... :(
When Bella came back in the afternoon, she was much more interested in seeing Grace. Here she is holding her for the first time- giving kisses again. :)
Our first family of 4 picture!
We had quite possibly one of the shortest hospital stays for a childbirth. I was anxious to get home (again, didn't like being gone from Bella!), and my doctor said that since both Grace and I were doing well on Monday we could go home that afternoon. So we were only there for about 32 hours!
Taking some pictures of our sweet girl before we were discharged- we love those chubby cheeks!
Taking a little snooze on Mommy.
And all dressed up to go home! We are sooo thankful to God for blessing us with another beautiful little girl. Grace has definitely lived up to the meaning of her name. She is the perfect addition to our family and has been a wonderful baby so far!

State Fair Fun!

This month we had a family day at the Iowa State Fair! This was not Bella's first fair outing as she went with Mommy, Grandpa Doug, and Grandma Sheri last year. However, this was Daddy's first trip to the fair in many years. He has managed to avoid it during all our years of dating and marriage, even though I typically go every year! But I wasn't going to let him out of it again since I knew Bella would love it. And even if he won't admit it, we had a very fun day. :) Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect- upper 70's and low 80's. That doesn't often happen in Iowa in the middle of August!

One of our first stops was the animal learning center to see all the baby animals. Naturally, this was probably Bella's favorite place of the day since she is such a little animal lover. She is watching all the baby ducks in this picture.
We got to pet a baby pig- however, one of the pigs let out a loud squeal before it was our turn to touch them, so Bella wasn't the biggest fan of them after that.
Petting a baby lamb- awww. :)
Again watching the baby ducks- they were definitely her favorite!
Taking a ride on a little cow- pretty sure Miss Bella sat on quite a few of these throughout the day!
We also visited the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit, where Bella got to test out her gardening skills...
Apple picking....
Tractor riding (and waving at Daddy without looking!)...
Cow milking...
And grocery shopping! Bella had lots of fun doing all the little farm activities.
We also visited the Butterfly House. Bella loved seeing the butterflies when we were at the St. Louis Zoo, so I wanted to take her to this exhibit. This was even cooler as you could actually hold all the butterflies! However, Bella, as shown by the interesting look on her face, wasn't too sure about having them so close to her! She liked them flying around and watching them, but she was a little nervous about touching them.
Unfortunately for Miss Bella, Mommy wasn't going to let her leave until she held one on her finger, even though it took awhile to catch one and get it transposed on Bella's hand without her freaking out! Here is the process in photo- she's not liking this very much yet...
Oh, I'm actually holding it!
Not sure what to think yet....
And it's not so bad after all!
Taking a ride on one of Bella's favorite things- the carousel!
Bella and Daddy also got to go on a few giant slides! Mommy decided to stay away from those this particular year. :)
Naturally, Bella loved it! Apparently though, we were later told by the workers she was not tall enough to go on this one- oops!
Visiting the Clifford the Big Red Dog- Bella has barely even heard of that show, but apparently she wanted to give him some love with a big hug. :)
We couldn't get her to look at the camera though- she was too busy hugging him!
We also looked at all of the animal barns- and surprise, surprise- the horse barn was definitely a favorite. Bella did NOT like the chicken barn however as it was quite loud. Even now, she continues to say, "I don't like chickens. They're noisy!"
Daddy and Bella heading up the REALLY giant slide!
She definitely loved this one and probably would've gone on it many many times!
And at the end of the day, Bella was quite wiped out. :) She had so much fun, as did Mommy and even Daddy, and it was likely our last big outing as a family of 3!

August Updates!

We had beautiful weather this past month, and Bella and I definitely took advantage of it. It was nice to finally be outside without dying of heat! We spent lots of time playing in her sandbox as Bella discovered the joy of making things with wet sand.
She also particularly enjoyed smashing her creations afterwords. :)
She also spends lots of time running around on our driveway like a little crazy lady, dancing, singing, and chasing bubbles! I also bought Bella a favorite pair of footwear this month- her pretty pink rainboots. It was actually rainy this particular day, but she likes wearing them everyday. :) I like to rub that in to Derek, who said they would never be worn!
This perfectly captures our silly girl's personality. :)
It started sprinkling on this afternoon, so Bella played in the rain for a little bit with her umbrella and rainboots.
We visited lots of different parks this month as well, pretty much on a daily basis! Mommy and Bella have definitely had some good bonding time in before baby sister makes her entrance.

We also started going back to the barn that is near our house to visit the animals. Bella has not wanted to go there in several months because the owners of the barn got a new dog that was a little too friendly for Miss Bella's liking. She is a German Shepard named Zoey, so she is obviously quite big as well! Zoey jumping all over Mommy and Daddy freaked Bella out a little bit, so she didn't ever want to go back down there. Well, last week we decided to try it out again. Thankfully, Zoey was inside, so we were able to visit the horses in peace. :) And we discovered that baby kittens had been born in our absence! So now Bella has wanted to go back down to visit the kittens every single day, despite her slight fear of Zoey. Zoey has calmed down slightly since we last saw her, but she is still quite big, which definitely makes Bella a little nervous. Before we make the walk down there, she tries to reassure herself, "Zoey not outside. Zoey inside the house with her owner." :)

Painting some beautiful works of art on the driveway! She always manages to get more chalk on her clothes than on the actual cement... :)
A picture showing another current obsession of Bella's- lollipops! For some reason, anytime she is outside now, she wants to have a dum dum lollipop. And she barely eats any of it; Mommy usually ends up holding it the entire time. But for some reason it is a new tradition!
Inside, Bella has been into watching movies! I started renting some Disney Princess movies from the library, and that turned Bella into a movie loving girl for some reason. The past few weeks, we have hardly even watched Dora! Our viewings have included The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte's Web, and the princess movies (although she tends to call every princess Cinderella). Then her ABSOLUTE favorites are Alice in Wonderland (particularly for the Cheshire Cat) and the Aristocats (which is referred to as the kitty movie). Those two have been watched A LOT. Obviously Bella has a slight obsession with cats- no clue where that came from! :)
We also started some new little traditions of evening games with Bella, Mommy, and Daddy. Hide and seek, playing instruments in a marching band, Daddy chasing Bella around downstairs, Daddy or Mommy pretending to be a snake/lion/giant/other scary creature, and "baseball" (which is actually soccer) are all among our nightly rituals that Bella wants to play. After her bath each night, she has soooo much energy! Mommy and Daddy definitely do not, but we make it happen for her! Bella also plays her own little game of hide and seek on a frequent basis, which is when she puts her hands over her eyes and asks "Where'd Bella go?" This happens about 20 times a day. :)
We started some fingerpainting and paint with water activities this month as well, which Bella absolutely loved. We have about 10 painted Dora pictures scattered around our house currently!
Riding on her "neigh-" whose name is interchanged between Henry the Horse and Pinto the Pony. Mommy came up with Henry, and Pinto naturally came from Dora.
Bella still has an immense love for Tommy- and he continues to tolerate and maybe even like her! Bella has named several of her kittens after Tommy in fact, so we have quite a few Tommy's in our household.

As far as baby news, we continue to wait for our next little girl's arrival. Less than a week to go until the official due date, but I'm thinking she plans to hang out until then and beyond. :) Apparently our daughters like their little home inside of Mommy's belly! I have had some days of feeling pretty uncomfortable due to my extremely large belly size and contractions, but generally I am feeling pretty good for being 9 months pregnant. We are ready whenever she is, even big sister! Bella talks about baby sister a LOT, so I think she knows it's coming. We will definitely have a good little helper in her, maybe more than we need! :)