Silly Girl!

before I get to our silly little girl, I thought I would share my newest creations. This is a onsie/skirt that I made for Lauren. I am planning on putting an "L" on the front on the shirt. These are the coordinating dresses that I made for the girls. I figured we could use Lauren's dress for the baby dolls when she is done with it. I haven't actually tried it on her yet.

Dustin asked Hannah to help him match some socks last night and this is what happened.

Needless to say she did not do much matching. She loves to try things on!

One Christmas sock and one Valentine's sock! What a pair!

Stylin'

2 Weeks Old

Lauren will be two weeks old tomorrow. It is hard to believe that she has been a part of our family for that long already. Overall it has been a pretty easy transition going from a family of three to four. We feel very blessed to have to beautiful girls. Lauren went back to the doctor yesterday for a weight check and they did her two week checkup a little early. Here are her stats:

Weight: 7lbs 6.5 oz (25th percentile)
Height: 20 1/2 in ( 62nd percentile)
Head: 14 in (44th percentile)
She is not back to her birth weight yet, but she is gaining weight so we are going in again next week for one more check. So far she is a good sleeper and a great eater. We had a little trouble with nursing at first, but I think we have it all worked out now. She loves being swaddled and sleeping in the swing.

Sweet Kisses

My Sweet Girls

This was my first attempt at making a dress for Hannah. I think it turned out really cute. Please excuse her crazy hair, and yes I know she is standing on the table.

Ta da!!

A few pictures

She does open her eyes occasionally!

We took this picture first and thought she looked kind of like a boy, so we put a bow on instead!

The others turned out much better.

Tomorrow she will be one week old!

3:09 in the Alban Household...

when everyone is sleeping. It is hard to tell but this is Hannah on the video monitor asleep in her bed. Bailey (who opened her eyes for the picture) asleep on the couch pillow.Lauren all snuggly in her bouncy seat.

Emma was outside and I didn't get her picture, but she is most likely asleep by now too!

Alban Update

We seem to be getting into the swing of things here. After a rough couple of first nights which included a trip to the ER (who knew babies spitting up blood was actually kind of normal and not something to really worry about) and some feeding issues, things have kind of normalized. Lauren is eating great and Courtney is having a much better time with feeding than with squirt #1.

Here is a miscellany of photos from the last couple of days.

Hannah helping

Bath time

She sleeps a lot.

What a Life...

wrapped up all snuggly and swinging away! Hannah loved to be swaddled and so does Lauren! This image brings back many hours of watching Hannah swing while she napped. I think the baby swing is the best invention!

Compare and Contrast....

Energy level of a 2 day old....

vs. energy level of 23 month old....

Daddy's Sweetheart

Sisters..

Never a Dull Moment

Well...it has been quite the adventure already with our new little one Lauren. About an hour after Lauren was born the nurses noticed that she was having trouble breathing. After a couple hour stay in the NICU she was released back to the newborn nursery with a perfect bill of health. They think that she swallowed alot of fluid at birth and was having trouble clearing it from her lungs. She is doing great now and seems to be a pretty easy going baby. With a hat on I think she looks alot like Hannah did at birth, but she has much lighter and less hair than Hannah did. She is doing well with nursing and can't wait to meet her big sister again today!

I of course couldn't make it simple either. After getting up to go to the bathroom I became very
light headed and fainted. I fell and hit the floor and scared both Dustin and the nurse. Other than being sore today I didn't do any major damage. They think it was from my blood pressure dropping and the epidural wearing off and all the things my body had done yesterday. Nothing to worry about.

We are at Medical Center of Plano in Women's Services in room 222. Call to make sure we are not nursing, but otherwise we would love to have visitors. Thank you for your prayers.

Lauren

Lauren Kate Alban has arrived!!!! She was born July 15th @ 2:03pm, weighing 7 lbs 11 ounces and measuring 19 3/4" long. She is a beauty! More photos to come...

.....12:42

6cm dilated and progressing. Maybe by 3ish or sooner. Come on Lauren!

..... 9:58

We broke the water and contractions are getting closer. About to get an epidural. Drugs are good.

Blogging the baby...9:14

They gave Courtney the Pitocin at 8:35ish and we are on our way. Starting to get more contractions, but not much else happening at this point. Momma seems to be doing good.

Highlights sor far? They have a Frulatti in the lobby - I had a tasty croissant sandwhich. Theres also some kind of bazaar going on. Rings, watches, clothes, etc. If anyone needs a $6 watch or a ring that will turn your finger green, let me know.

See, this is not so hard? You just lay here.

Our Room

Tomorrow!!!!!

I went back to the doctor this afternoon and everything was still about the same as Friday. She told me we could move up the induction to tomorrow if I wanted to instead of Thursday. The only significance of having her on Thursday was that it is my 28th birthday. It would have been neat to share the actual "birth" day with Lauren, but I jumped on the opportunity to have her tomorrow! We are checking in at 7:00 in the morning to start the induction process. I was induced with Hannah and had a wonderful experience. My hope is that tomorrow will be similar to my experience two years ago. We are really excited and can't wait to meet Lauren. We are going to try and update the blog from my mom's laptop as long as we can figure out how to do it at the hospital. Look for updates tomorrow, but we will for sure put a picture up when we get home. Wish us luck!

Update on Lauren

Well...we have made it to 38 weeks. It wouldn't have been as exciting without another trip to the hospital. On Tuesday I tried to vacuum my house and boy was that a mistake. I have been having sciatic nerve (spelling?) pain off and on throughout my pregnancy that usually goes away within five minutes. Well, apparently vacuuming does not make your sciatic nerve pain any better only terribly worse. I was in so much pain that I did not know what to do. My appointment was scheduled for 3:00 and I went in at about 2:30 instead because I could barely walk. They quickly saw me and thought it was best that I go over to labor and delivery to get a shot of Demerol and monitor the baby. After getting settled and the having the shot there was really no change. They ran some other tests just to rule out any other problems and gave me some other pain meds to try. Wednesday afternoon they send me home with a steroid pack and some pain meds and told me to rest and that it should get better. I have been resting and taking it easy and the pain is soooo much better than it was. The doctor thinks that Lauren dropped too and that it most likely relived the pressure on the nerve.

Today I went back to the doctor and she thinks that labor could happen at any time. I was 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. Basically we are just waiting for Lauren to decide she is ready. Earlier in the week I was pretty disappointed that I was still pregnant, but I trust my doctor. If she felt like there was danger to Lauren or myself she would have already delivered her. I feel good about the decision to wait to induce until next week or to see what happens over the weekend. I know that God has a plan for us and that we have to be patient and allow him to let it happen.

A sweet friend of mine sent me this verse and I really like it a lot.

" For the Lord your God is living among you, He is a mighty Savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm your fears."

Zephaniah 3:17

As we prepare for this exciting time may we always remember that children are a gift from God and only God can truly calm our fears. Have a wonderful weekend and stay tuned for any changes!

Quick stop to play

It wasn't quite as hot today so I stopped to let Hannah play at the little village in Allen. She loves being outside and I had a hard time convincing her to leave. She would run from one house to the next calling them "little houses". The Maze

Talking to the other children who were there and really quite mean. Hannah didn't seem to mind, but mommy sure did!

Playgroup

For the last couple of months we have been meeting for playgroup with the other girls from our Lifegroup. We meet on Monday and have really enjoyed the adult time that it allows! Hannah is the oldest and her buddy Carson was not there today, but she still had a good time. We have been meeting at different houses and today we had the newest mommies come too! I am so glad they came. Here is Michelle feeding Ryan his lunch. Carrie and Allison

Trichelle and Parker ( and baby Webb #2)

Melanie with Cambry. Melanie came to hang out and play with us even though she doesn't have any kiddos yet. I didn't get a picture of Halie with Cambry. She is Cambry's mommy.

The crew from my view. Of course I didn't take one of myself of my own child, but we were there. We missed Aubrey, Carson, and Shane today but they usually come too.

Today was most likely our last playgroup for a while. We go to the doctor tomorrow and will find out if Lauren is going to make her debut soon. I have a feeling it will be very soon! Stay tuned to find out when!