We have a beautiful baby!

 After much trial and traumatic tribulation,
 we finally convinced our baby to join us!

 

I'll spare you the details because, let's face it, I wouldn't want to hear them, but suffice it to say, delivery was rough.  It wasn't quite Breaking Dawn, but it was close.  I couldn't even hold our perfect baby until the next day.  Lots of blood and guts.  Lots of labor (15 hours), lots of recovery still ahead.  Ouch!

Thank heaven I had some awesome designer hospital gowns to make me feel a little better.

 Annie was a trooper.  Q and I went in @ 9:00 am.  Annie arrived about 6 pm, but we still didn't have the baby until after 11 pm.  Even then, baby and I had to get patched up for over an hour after delivery so Annie didn't get to meet the new baby until after 1 am.

 Introducing: VIOLET PAULINE HADLEY

We are once again shocked to be bringing a girl home to a room full of blue!

Violet isn't even a name we carried in our back pockets, but Violet it is.  7.3 and 20 inches.

 Violet was born 6.26.2012 but I was basically delirious and outright hammered for a while so we didn't grab this photo until the next night.  Q has a house full of girls to protect now.  We are so excited!  Quite a bit of recovery ahead, but we are heading home within the hour. Good luck to us and plenty of photos to come but for now we wanted to post at least something since we've been so secluded (and sedated) these last 3 days.

Love you all and thank you for your prayers.

We really couldn't have made it to today without them!

It's B-Day! -Place your bets!

We are going in to have the baby right now.  What do you think, boy or girl?

Last night Q took us out to dinner- this bottom one is 5 seconds ago.  Please can I not bring some of this belly back!

How about another perfect girl like this:

"We have a birthday..." declares 10-month pregnant woman of misery.

Most women are with child for 9 months.  Me?  I prefer to suffer for 10.  Well- I don't prefer it, but multiple weeks overdue seems to be my style.  So we have been swimming everyday for two weeks to pass the time and finally, FINALLY, we decided to pick a date.  Having the baby on Tuesday.  We'll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile:  Here is our week in review:

Our front lawn is looking awesome, thanks to Q.  He says the novelty of mowing has not worn off.  He even set up a little work shop in our garage where he sharpens the mower blade.  We're still trying to get the sprinklers just right and Annie is determined to help.  She loves water and being outside.

 Poor Annie- she got her first real owie, a burn, this week.  She was so distraught she took a 4 hour nap immediately following our kisses and band aides.  Now we have to kiss every scratch and itch and I've just barely been able to talk her out of multiple chickie band aids. 

 I finally lost it on Thursday.  I stayed in bed crying all morning because I was still pregnant and this one has been so hard and it is still not over... and other stuff that has been building up and driving me crazy.  Then, suddenly, we were surprised with company.  Q's family showed up to spend some time with us. I was absolutely overwhelmed at first but it was a really good break because they entertained Annie for 3 straight days and we took her swimming in their hotel pools all weekend as well.  Annie held her own as the only girl in a sea of boy cousins!  She absolutely loves "the boys" and we were glad to catch up with them again.  Q had just been saying how much he missed his family and in one week we've had spontaneous visits from two of his sisters.  I guess Q's out-loud wishes are really powerful.  Maybe he could wish for a certain baby to make an appearance next.

 Best invention ever:  The 100% sun proof wet suit for 2-year-olds! I feel like the best mom ever.

Question:  It's midnight.  Do you wake your hubby up to rub lotion on your sunburned swollen feet or just suffer all night because it is impossible to sleep and you just finished your book (1776) anyway?  I know- you let him sleep.  But oh how my feet ache.

Find anything good at the thrift store lately?

No baby yet.  Big surprise.  I just keep getting bigger and bigger.  In the mean time, we have been living it up the last few weeks of our summer vacation.  Swimming almost everyday, bike rides at dusk, movies in the afternoon, eating out, cuddling.  Today alone Annie and I went to kneaders and Grandmas Toblers bakeries before noon to get nothing but brownies and treats. I tell you, there is nothing NOTHING like summer vacation.  It is heaven on earth.  Here's the latest:

In recent AWESOME events:  We are going to close on our condo!  Oh the years we spent praying for this and we finally have a closing date.  It's been so long that I've been out there, I forgot that we do own a pool... at our condo.  It is perfect for kids.  So Q and I took Annie one last time to say goodbye and enjoy the pool for the first time in years.

 I'm trying to get Annie to smile again for photos.  So far we've had marginal success.  

 Have I mentioned that we live in THE BEST neighborhood in SGU?  We absolutely love it!  Plus, almost all of our neighbors have pools and are kind enough to invite us to swim.  Swimming is just about the only thing I can do right now since I was supposed to have this baby LAST WEEK.

 I am such a lucky mom because Annie is totally into hats and sunglasses lately.

 I've been teaching Annie some new dance moves but so far, kicking back with her feet up (and crossed) is the most popular move she has picked up from me.  At least it beats her grunting every time she bends over to pick something up (hmmm, wonder who she learned that from?).

 Two smile-inducing phrases that do NOT work with Annie:  "Show me your teeth"  ( she does, literally), and, "Say cheese!" (she runs to the fridge for a cheese snack).

 Find anything good at the thrift store lately?  I buy almost all of Annie's toys there.  Our thrift stores are so NOT great but I've managed to walk away with a few good finds.  I even found some awesome HUGE frames that I've been looking for forever.  Then my mom borrowed them for Megan's wedding and when I tried to get them back she didn't let me have them.  We haven't seen the end of this tug of war.  So, what genius item have you found at the thrift store lately?

Arts Festival 2012:

I cannot even handle how cute this is.

Stolen off Kari's blog seconds ago:  Our girls.  Automatic best friends.

It is so cool to be a mom!

Round 2: My fabulous shopping list for the second go.

I'm supposed to have a baby this week so yesterday I finally started getting a few things together (aka: an hour on Amazon).  No worries.  The new #2 will be late.  Last time I had my bag packed 1 month early and then ended up not having Annie until 10 days after ETA.  Still, I realized yesterday that it wouldn't be a bad idea to start rounding up some things.  There was SO much to buy the first go around that this time it will be relatively easy to turn our home into babyland once again.  That doesn't mean there was nothing to buy... which is both good (fun) and bad (expensive).  Let us not forget that since we are no longer double-insured, #2 will also be costing us $$$ in terms of delivery.  Ug.

So here's the shopping list for #2 in case you're interested:

Baby Stella #2 (we'll have to come up with a new name since we still play with the original baby Stella) to give to Annie at the hospital so she has a new baby too.

A new party outfit for baby Stella (will probably save for Annie's birthday).

Doll bottle for baby Stella so Annie has something to do while I'm feeding #2.  Hope it works.

A baby doll bed from Ikea so we could move baby Stella out of the new baby's cradle.

A few more baby gowns to get us by until we know if it's a girl/boy, then we'll order more.  You can never have enough.  What happened to all of Annie's?  I guess they are just all pink.  We are guessing this is a boy but we'll see.

Two thin muslin baby blankets.  I always wished I had these with Annie but couldn't justify buying them when I had so many cotton swaddling blankets.  I have a feeling these will be my favorite go to blankets.

Two of these.  A cheap one and an expensive one.  We'll see which is better.  Yep- I'm brave and order them online.  Way better than trying them on in the store.  Who has time for that?  You end up needing about 20 different sizes anyway when all is said and done.

Almost forgot about these puppies.  Added a huge crate of them to my Amazon cart at the last minute.  Oh goodie (not).

Been dreaming about this since Annie but didn't have a practical reason to splurge on it.  Now we totally do since we have no bathroom counter space and I do NOT plan on bending over the tub for at least a month if I have a C-section again.  It even hangs flat to dry!  So excited about this one.  Big splurge though.

A little meaningless reading in hopes of some down time (ya right).

Burned out the last one.  Besides, I'll be doing a huge amout of this at work next year so I needed something more mobile.  Actually kind of dreading this and work being smashed together.  Nifty travel case though.  Medela:  Another huge splurge.

Um- not sure why I have absolutely ZERO of these from Annie.

So I got some more because all those onesies will need company.

Totally forgot that I'd need these.  With Annie I didn't have to buy any diapers for a while.  People were so generous.  Another huge crate from Amazon.  Two kids in diapers.  Oh Annie, I really need to dedicate some time to your potty training adventures.  Lazy mom.

The rumble seat for my stroller so it becomes a double.  I love this stroller.  Turns on a dime with one hand and rolls great in the sand. It was the big splurge from Annie and I've been so pleased with it.  We will also be using the bassinet again.  Did you know it even has an attachment I can buy for baby #3?

Organic hospital gown.  We now have people living with us so I can't very well walk around in my underwear like I did with Annie (much to Q's relief).  More coverage at the hospital and in those wretched weeks at home when this is about the only thing I'll want to wear,

Like I said- we now have people living with us.  Better make it two.  P.S. Pam wore this one on The Office.

This was totally free if I just paid shipping. Why not?

Another free item minus shipping.  We are so thinking boy.

Babysteals:  A dangerous place.  Did I need a new one?  No.  Do I love it?  YES!  All the pockets on the outside are so perfect and much easier than with Annie's diaper bag.  Q took one look at this and I could see the forlorn "why?" in his eyes.  I reminded him this was my extra Korean Intern money from work so it was okay to get something totally impractical. 

A million versions of this.  Get them at TJ Maxx while they're hot.

Two different sizes of grey- just in case I get my wish and it's a girl.  Again, what happened to the ones I used with Annie?

And last, which is not really true, since this is the first thing I bought.  A HUGE new dresser to accommodate all this stuff. After searching FOREVER, the best and most attractive deal ended up being the IKEA special.  Of course.  Should have gone there first and been done with it.  This dresser is fantastic.  It holds everything but the kitchen sink and I can outfit half of it with a changing pad and still have plenty of room on top.

Oh-almost forgot.  If it's a boy, I'll finally get to use these!  Any guesses as to what they are? Had them all ready for #1, but then Annie shocked us by being a girl.  We are positive (once again) that a boy is on his way.  Can't wait to find out for real though.  Please oh please baby come on time this week.

So, did I miss anything?  What am I forgetting?