Tiny Dancer

Sally Rose won this tutu from a friend's blog contest. Doesn't she look adorable? and isn't my friend talented and crafty? At first, she surprised me by not being that interested. Now, however, she wants top wear it all ther time. She loves spinning in circles- and looking through it. You'll have to excuse my singing- it's really bad. Sorry. Sally, though, is adorable!

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I can't post without putting up some new pictures. Here they are.

This was Alice's first time in the bumbo- she has great head control so we tried it out. I love Sally Rose in this picture.

Alice in the bumbo again- I love her expression.

Such a good baby girl

Loving sisters- hopefully the love will last through the ages

I love Sally's eyes here- and Alice looks so cute too. I only wish there were no binkies.

You can see how big she's getting here. Her cheeks have filled out- and check out her cleavage!

Two of my favorite people

One last Alice shot. I love my girls so much!

I Want my Mommy!!!!

My mom came out to be with us for the birth (and after) of Alice. She came out on the 4th, I ended up having Alice on the 7th, and she went home on the 20th. That might sound like a lot of time, but it flew by. She was AMAZING. My house actually was clean and my kids taken care of. Our bellies stayed full of delicious food. I got naps and adult conversation. Also, a word game partner (just you wait- I will have a scrabble comeback.) After she left, I guess we started "real life". I think I'd rather wait for that. It's been getting harder and harder. I miss my mom so much.

What a happy and wonderful mom. I hope to be like her one day.

This was on our way to the airport. I wanted one last picture and this is the face she gave the camera. Classic and awesome.
Loving sweet Alice.

We tried to go to a pumpkin patch with pony rides- the ever reliable Internet told us they were open all week. Turns out, they were only open on the weekends. Sally got to comb the pony's mane, so all was okay.

This next part will be for my Mom (and anyone else who's interested) as well. Her are some pictures of our time since she got on the big airplane, as Sally says.
My family is so cute- you know you're jealous.

Sally looks happy. Does Alice?
Sally Rose is still super sweet and super cute.
Here's our little peanut in her peanut shell- a gift from Amy- I use it daily and LOVE it!!!

What a cutie

Maybe this is what Alice was remembering in the previous picture. Sally really loves her baby sister, sometimes a little too exuberantly.

Look at my cute girls!

I love this picture

Sally loves slides

Alice loves sleeping through tummy time

She has such a concerned expression here- don't worry little one.

Baby in the awesome sling again

Such a sweet girl.

Sally Rose is 2!!

Sally Rose is two years old!!!

This is late. I'm sorry. Things have been, well, different around here.

Two years and one week ago, our darling Sally Rose was born. We got to celebrate with family, which was awesome and uncommon, so very special. My mom was in town to help with the new baby and Wendy, Jesse and Coleman were able to come up for the weekend, which worked out beautifully. On Saturday, we threw together a last minute party for sweet Sally. We went to the park and had dinner, cake and ice cream, played, and opened presents (most of which were provided by grandma extrordinaire). It was a great time. On her actual birthday, we had lunch in the park with grandma and Daddy. Sally liked that as well. She had lots of "happy cake" and kept saying "Happy Mommy" or Happy other people- making sure we were all having as good a time as she was.
The following is a slideshow/video of her special party. The cool bike was a present from grandma and grandpa. It is awesome and she loves it! We got her a sandbox, which will be shortly assembled. It will be cool I hope.

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Here are a few Sally pics taken over the last week. I'll give you just a few Sally facts.
Sally knows all her letters. She's starting to learn the sounds each makes, but just barely. she can identify all of them. She loves lining things up- cars, animals- you name it. She also loves stacking boxes. I'm hoping this is a sign of organization skills she did not get from me.
She is really taking to her new role as big sister. She LOVES Alice and always wants to hold and kiss her. We do need to work on the gentle factor a bit still, but she is doing amazingly well!

Sally is a very affectionate girl. She loves to give kisses and hugs to all our family. She can also count to ten. Her mouth is slowly filling up with teeth, it's so strange for me to see other kids her age with all their teeth. Then I realize that is normal. Sally's favorite songs right now include "Lay Down Sally" (to which she will always lay down- she also sings this to toys- lay down octopus, or lay down duckie), Castle on a Cloud, I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, and Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam. It is SO great to see her grow up. I love playing with ehr and actually have conversations. I would write more and more about how great she is, but I am needing sleep in a major way. Just know that she is the coolest little girl. I love her.

I couldn't resist putting up a few pictures of our sweet little Alice. She is doing great! I'll be giving more info on her soon.

Alice Marie Nicolich

Meet our newest addition, little miss Alice Marie. She was born five short days ago, on October 7th at 8:20 in the morning. At 7 lb 11 oz, she was nearly a pound bigger than her big sister! So far, she is a sweet, sweet little girl. She eats like a champ-she gained 5 oz in one day! She isn't too fussy, and is spending longer periods of time with her cute little eyes open. She loves her little hands up by her face and has found her thumb a few times to go in that adorable mouth. She loves to be held and has a perfectly round head.

Getting baby Alice here was an adventure. In the 24 hours before labor began, the following measures were taken. Lots of evening primrose oil, my membranes were stripped, we went on a walk, the use of the "marriage bed", the use of a breast pump, eating eggplant Parmesan, eating some balsamic vinegar, pressure points, and drinking some raspberry leaf tea. I'm not sure what exactly did it, but when we sat down to watch the Work and the Glory at about 8:30, I started feeling a little something every so often. I definitely didn't think it was the beginning of labor, but did mention the feelings to Bill and my Mom. By 12:30, we were talking about getting to the hospital.

We finally got there and were admitted at about 2:30. I labored with Bill alone till about 7:00, when my mom, who had dropped Sally off with a friend, came. I was planning on trying the natural way again, which went pretty well. Again, as with Sally, when I got to about 8 cm, I was going a little nuts and requested in my nicest voice, to get some medicine. Again, I received some fentanyl, which made it so I could cope a bit better. I had an awesome midwife, Jack, (the only 6 foot 4 midwife around, as he says) who was very willing to let me do my thing. I walked the halls and was in and out of the bath during the labor. When it came time to push, he also let me do it my way.
My way involved Bill in a big way. He was my rock throughout, but really shined during the actual delivery. I was kneeling on the bed with my arms wrapped around him. When I would push, I would kind of push against the bed and lean into Bill with all the force I could muster. Meanwhile, I was full on screaming with my mouth about an inch away from his delicate ear. He was talking cheering me on and coaching through every contraction and was just SO amazing throughout. The delivery was surprisingly fast. I was shocked when I was told the head was out. My mom was asked to put on gloves to help, but it all happened a little too quickly. Sorry mom. I am incredibly grateful she was able to be there to see little Alice come into this world.

The feelings of love were immediate as they handed me this perfect little bundle. She was so sweet and warm and just perfect. Tears filled my eyes as I held this little miracle for the first time. She had all ten fingers and toes (I counted). Her little face was so beautiful, her spirit so strong. I was a little afraid my that the motherhood key to my heart had been opened with Sally and that Alice would have to share that space. It turns out, there is another chamber all her own.
Sally has been pretty sweet when it comes to little Alice Marie. She enjoys loving on the baby (listen to me, sounding all southern) and helping with diaper changes and the like. She is even getting a little better at staying gentle, but we will have to work on that one for a while. When Sally was first looking at Alice, the baby stuck her tongue out. Sally thought it was so funny and continues to go up to Alice and stick her tongue out lizard style and says, "Baby do it." She tries to share cookies and the like with Alice. We still have some adjusting to do, and things might get worse, but she's already handling it better than I expected!

In the above picture, you may notice the big cast like business going on on her sweet little arm. That was her unfortunate IV. After she was born, sweet baby Alice had quite a bit of fluid in her lungs that they had to suction out. A little later in the day, they told us she was breathing quite a bit faster than she ought to. She had to endure a whole slew of tests while they determined the cause of the rapid breathing. After blood tests and x-rays, they decided she still had a bit of moisture in her lungs. The doctor was afraid she might aspirate some milk if she nursed, and wanted her to be on an IV to receive fluids. I only wasn't able to nurse for a few hours, though, which was good. They had to keep her in the intermediate nursery that first night. She kept getting better, though, and by noon the next day, she got to come in with us.
Now, she is strong and healthy. She did have some high bilirubin levels, but they are coming down. We had to go back to the doctor to get those levels checked on both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, she weighed 7 lbs 10 oz, very near her birth weight. The next day, she weighed 7 lb 15 oz! The nurse didn't believe the results and weighed her on a different scale. She is definitely a healthy and strong girl. I mean, how many four day old kids lift their head like this? Seriously.
Anyway, I know this was long, but very edited from what I actually wanted to post. I will leave you with one more picture of our sleeping beauty, little Alice Marie Nicolich.

Three Days till D-Day

I have three days till I'm due. I am SO ready. Well, not really. There are still quite a few things to get done, and yet, here I sit on the computer. My body and mind, however, can't get her here fast enough. I never really got to this point with Sally- I enjoyed being pregnant to the end. And beyond in her case. This time, however, I just feel achy and uncomfortable. This child really loves pushing against my ribs. Sally Rose never did that. I know I have it pretty easy when I compare to other pregnancies I've heard of, this one is just a bit harder than my last. So we're cheering her on to get here! If any of you have ANY tips on getting a baby to come any faster, let me know. I'm willing to try pretty much anything. My mom comes in tomorrow, and I've been waiting to try some of the "riskier" methods till she gets here. But the time has come, so bring on the old wives tales!

I hope her dandelion wish is for her baby sister to come. This dress is reversible and awesome. It's probably my favorite article of clothing Sally has and guess what- Bill bought it for her. He got it at the Utah Art's Festival when he was in SLC. He did a good job.

We took this last night. Pretty big, right? My stomach is actually measuring a little small. People also act surprised when they find out how far along I am- but I do look pretty huge, right? I certainly feel ready to pop.

Just a belly shot- oh what a belly it is.

Sally has been SO sweet these last few days. Her whining has been minimal, and she's been super affectionate. She loves kissing my belly and giving all kinds of big hugs. She also is in love with these big legos. We got them at a garage sell last week- a very good purchase. The other garage sale find I am excited about? A mini glider. So Sally and I can both rock our babies at the same time. She is just so dang sweet. Check out how smart she is here.

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Camping, well, sort of

Last weekend a bunch of our friends went camping. I really wanted to camp as well, but we ultimately decided it a little unwise to camp when you are almost 39 weeks pregnant. We did go up Saturday afternoon and had a lovely time.

This was the most important part, I think. I'd never thought to do steak over a campfire, but it turns out SO good! Oh, and that's the Lunt's food getting all fancy with bacon wrapped shrimp kabobs. I did have a shrimpy, and it was magic.

Braden warming up after playing in the cold water
Mom, do you see all these ghosts?
Julie never hides.
Layne and Braden- they are serious buddies.
We didn't come prepared to play in the water, but Sally really wanted to. She loved digging and just splashing around. It was cold at first, but you quickly became accustomed to it. It was FUN for all.
Cute friends, Bella and Bailey
Layne reminded me of a kid out of Lord of the Flies here. He would have survived.
Stacy warming up sweet Sally Rose.

This is a little water Macarena by Bella and Halle. Very nice.