I don't have much hair...

But I do have enough for a hairbow!

I love my swing!

Anna Kate sure does love her swing. She usually takes at least one nap a day in it and it definitely gives Mommy a chance to eat or take a shower every once in a while (although Grandma is doing a great job of that right now!). Thank you so much everyone from Wakefield who pitched in to buy it for her!

Meeting Grandpa and cousins Wesley and Cooper!

We had yet another fun weekend with lots of family! Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dustin brought Wesley and Cooper down from DC to meet Anna Kate on Friday. Grandpa Burgin arrived on Saturday and we all had a great weekend together. Here are just a couple of pictures that we took (we spent more time playing with the babies than taking pictures of them, but we got a few!).

Grandpa holding Anna Kate for the first time

Grandma and Grandpa with 3 out of 4 grandchildren...we missed you Leah, but had so much fun with you last weekend!

Alright, guys, enough pictures...

Photo Shoot!

After we dressed Anna Kate on Friday, Grandma and I thought that we should do a little photo shoot. Most of the pictures I have put up have been of Anna Kate asleep, so here are a few of her awake time! Enjoy =)

Do we really have to take all these pictures right now?


Aaahhhh....

Choo!

This is Anna Kate's "I'm hungry, please feed me right now!" face...apparently she would rather eat than get her picture taken!


This was the closest we got to a good sweet face picture...it still doesn't do her justice though!

Getting to know Anna Kate

These first ten days of Anna Kate's life have been wonderful and we have so enjoyed getting to know our little girl. Even though she's little, she definitely has a personality! Here are some of Anna Kate's favorite things:

1. Snuggling - with Mommy, Daddy, or Grandma
2. Pink Blankie from Great Grandma and Grandpa Burgin
3. Mommy and Daddy's bed
4. Holding hands (or holding someone's finger rather)
5. Eating whenever she wants to
6. Car rides
7. Her swing

And some things that she doesn't like:

1. Clogged tear ducts and the medicine that comes with it
2. Sponge baths
3. Being cold (e.g. changing diaper or changing clothes)
4. Being disturbed from sleeping
5. Dirty diapers
6. Hiccups

We love you Anna Kate and love getting to know you! By the way, she really was not mad in the pictures posted above...that's just her contented sleepy face!

Shopping with Grandma

Grandma and Mommy took Anna Kate on her first shopping trip to the mall on Tuesday! It was so nice to get out and walk around and Anna Kate loved it! Here she is all dressed up and ready to go. It was pretty cold out, so Grandma made sure to pick out a warm coat for her.

Family Time

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend with my brother Stephen, his wife Rachael, and their 9-month-old little girl Leah. Anna Kate loved meeting them and they sure loved on her. It was also great to have Rachael here since she just went through this whole having a baby thing just 9 months ago. Thanks for all your help, Rach! And Anna Kate is definitely grateful for all the cute hand-me-down clothes from her cousin! Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Anna Kate with Uncle Stephen

And Aunt Rachael

Leah with Uncle Luke

Leah playing with Aunt Patty

And Grandma with the two little granddaughters!

We love you all and thank you for coming to visit!

Footprints and First Bath

Well we had quite a time on Friday doing Anna Kate's footprints! We tried to do handprints too, but realized that babies don't like to open their hands. So we decided that we would just paint her name in the top box of her wall hanging!




After messing with all that ink, Anna Kate definitely needed a sponge bath. We found out that she doesn't like to be cold and wet, but she sure was happy when we had her snuggled back up in her towel! Hopefully she'll like her bathtub baths a little more when we start that in the next couple weeks!

A sleep-deprived daddy

Although Anna Kate is a pretty good sleeper, we do have to get up a few times in the middle of the night with her. Last night I discovered that Luke doesn't function at his usual capacity on less sleep that usual! Around midnight Anna Kate woke up and wanted to eat, so I asked Luke if he would get up and bring her to me so that I could feed her. Instead of getting up out of bed to go get her from her bassinet, Luke tried to pick up my leg and give it to me! Apparently he thought my leg was the baby! I told him that the baby was actually in her bed and it took him a minute, but then he figured it out and went and brought her to me! A few hours later, around 2 or 3, when Anna Kate was ready to eat again, I heard her and asked Luke to look at the clock and tell me what time it was. He responded groggily, "It's like 8:10 or 8:20..." Knowing full well that it couldn't possibly be 8:10 or 8:20, I asked him if he could just check again and he said, "Uggh, I just told you it's like 8:10..." Oh well, I got up and checked myself - it was 2:08! I guess lack of sleep will do that to you! Luke does want me to make sure I tell you all that he does help out a lot and has changed more diapers than I have these last 4 days!

Here is a picture of the sleep-deprived daddy and his little girl.

First days with Anna Kate

What an incredible three days it has been! I guess I will just go ahead and start at the beginning and tell the whole story of Anna Kate's arrival into this world!

Well, I had been hoping all weekend long that I would have the baby before Monday so that I wouldn't have to go to work. Not that I don't love teaching middle schoolers, but by 39 weeks, I was feeling done. So when Monday morning rolled around and I still hadn't had the baby, I will admit, I wasn't in the greatest mood! But I went to school, did my cafeteria/breakfast duty from 7-7:20 and then headed to my classroom for my planning period before my 8th graders were supposed to arrive. Now, coincidentally, Luke was substituting that day for a teacher who has the same planning periods as me. So he stopped by just to see how I was doing. Well, he sat down in my office and about 2 minutes later I just looked at him and said, "Luke, my water just broke." So we jumped into action! I called my substitute to come and take over and Luke and I headed to the hospital.















We arrived at the hospital around 9am (after fighting some rush hour traffic!) and they said that I was dilated to almost 5 cm. They said that my water had definitely broken, but not quite all the way, so unless contractions started up on their own, they would finish breaking the water in a little while. Around 11am, the doctor came in and did that, and then the contractions started! It took about 4 hours to get to 10 cm and then began the most difficult 2 hours of my life! But at 5:02pm, Anna Kate Tolbert was born into the world. As Luke already told you, she weighed 10 lbs. 1 oz. and is 22 inches long. And all without an epidural! She is an absolute miracle and the most precious blessing we could have ever hoped for. We love you so much, Anna Kate, and thank God for you every day!


























































































Anna Kate had many visitors come to see her in the hospital - Rusty and Jessica, Josh and Lacey, Christy, Randy, and then her grandparents Papa and Mimi (Luke's parents). Lots of people love her already! Luke's mom and dad were able to stay Tuesday and Wednesday to spend time enjoying their first grandchild! It was so special to have them here for her homecoming.

Here we are getting Anna Kate dressed in the first of her own clothes (thanks Caitlin for the outfit)! We got her all buckled in her carseat and headed home.










































































































My mom just arrived from Bolivia last night and Anna Kate loves spending time with her grandma. Mom has been so helpful not only with Anna Kate, but also with helping out around the house and organizing all of Anna Kate's clothes (we might have to exchange some of her newborn clothes for bigger sizes since she's already 10 lbs!). Here are a couple of pictures of Anna Kate with Grandma.


































Today was Anna Kate's first visit with the pediatrician. He said that she is doing very well and everything looks great! She was a very good girl all through the visit, but she doesn't really like getting undressed and dressed. She would much rather be snuggled in warm clothes and blankets - especially when it's so cold!





























We have spent the afternoon just relaxing around the house with our baby girl. She has started to be in more of an eat/play/sleep routine today, which has been great! Here we are spending some "tummy" time on the floor (on a blanket that we just received from Luke's Uncle Terry).















Wow! I know that was a long post, but now you are up-to-date on Anna Kate's first 72 hours of life and I will try to keep the blog updated more regularly. We sure love our little girl!

Anna Kate Tolbert has arrived!

Date: February 8, 2010

Time: 5:02 PM

Weight: 10 lbs. 1 oz.

Length: 22 inches

Apgar Score: 9

Patty will be doing a blog later (probably tomorrow) on all of the details. Both baby and mother are doing phenomenal which is amazing considering that Patty did not have an epidural or any narcotics. More pictures to come tomorrow!

Quick Update!

We had another doctor's appointment today and found out that I am currently 4cm dilated and 90% effaced and that Anna Kate is dropped low and everything looks ready to go! Our doctor was very surprised that I had made that much progress this week, especially with our first baby. She told us that she would be the doctor on call tomorrow and that she might just see us then! Of course, she also said that it could be another few days. But I highly doubt I'll make it to the due date of February 13! We will keep you posted!

Cloth diapers!

After a LOT of consideration, we have decided to use cloth diapers for our little girl. Thanks to some great advice from a number of different friends, we have chosen to go with these awesome BumGenius All-in-One diapers from cottonbabies.com. Now both of our parents used cloth diapers for us 25 years ago, but if you didn't have a diaper service, there was a LOT to mess with - prefolding the diapers, pinning them, putting the outer cover on, etc. With these diapers, you don't have to do any of that. Really, they work just like disposables. Except according to consumerreports.com and all of my friends' research as well as our own, we will be saving approximately $1500, just on our first baby.



And aren't they cute! We (well, I) did have to resist the urge to get pink diapers for Anna Kate, knowing that we will be using these for any subsequent little brothers or sisters. Which is where the monetary savings REALLY kicks in. So we are just going to get neutral colors. Anyway, if any of you out there are considering cloth diapering, please let me know and I can give you a lot more information on purchasing, washing, etc. But to sum it up, here are some of the main reasons we decided to go with cloth (in no particular order):

1. Financial savings
2. Better for baby's skin
3. Reports of earlier potty training
4. Less environmental waste
5. Cuteness!

And, thank you so much to Luke's mom and dad who purchased our first set for us! We really appreciate it and know that Anna Kate will too!