Welcome home, Anna! Get well soon, Claire!

We're so happy to be home with a healthy baby girl and healthy mommy! Such huge blessings, it almost feels more like a miracle! We're getting ready to take Anna Jae up to the hospital to retake the jaundice and hearing tests. Not worried about it, but it has to be done.

And Claire is still not home with us, we're sad to say. On Tuesday when I was going into labor, Diane took Claire to her pediatrician for a gunky eye she'd had for a couple days, PLUS she'd been feverish in the night (while I was also starting my contractions!). Turns out, it was conjunctivitis in her eye, a viral infection that is contagious! So she got eyedrops and an antibiotic for the fever, and didn't get to meet Anna Tuesday night, instead going home with Paul and Diane after they came back to the delivery room and met Anna briefly.

Claire's eye was almost totally better Wednesday, when she got to meet Anna (and was absolutely delighted!), and the fever was gone, but then it came back Wednesday afternoon when she was home with Mamaw and Papaw. Diane just started the antibiotic this morning, as we didn't think we needed it on Tuesday or Wednesday. So Claire might not get to come home until tomorrow morning when she's been on her antibiotic for 24 hours.

On the positive side, Anna had a great first night at home. She did need some saline solution in her nose and some tummy drops, but she just woke up to nurse twice (she's a marathon nurser though!), and we both slept until 10:30!! So I feel like I've recovered all the sleep I lost in our noisy hospital room.

Full birth story to come!

January Birthdays (still waiting on a few!)

I am officially 40wks today, and still no baby sister! However, I haven't given up hope yet! There's still three more hours of due date for me to go into labor! In the meantime, here's some pics of our slew of January birthdays! So far, we've celebrated Amanda's (shopping in Frisco), Baby Izzy's (one-year-old party at Nana and Grandad's), Jay's (dinner at Paul and Diane's, b-day breakfast, and lunch at my mom's), my dad's (dinner at his house), and we still have two more! Baby Sister's of course, and my mom's is January 31! Jay's brother Brian's is also the day after tomorrow! The previous pics are from Isabel's party, which is actually in December, but the party fell on Amanda's birthday, January 3.



Last weekend, Amanda stayed a night with us and accompanied us for a doctor appointment, pedicures, and haircuts for Claire and me! Claire was very still and solemn for both of these first experiences for her. It was a fun girls day! I could show you a picture of me all slouched up in my pedicure chair, but really, who wants to see that?



I subjected 23 students to me and my big belly today, as I made it to my first day of class at SE. I got a burst of shocked laughter when I told them that today was my due date, and several grateful grins when I said that we would probably not be meeting for class very regularly for the next couple weeks. We will still have online work to do, though!

Christmas 2009!

Still no baby news, so I thought I would go ahead and post our Christmas pics. I just did a video of the Christmas morning at our house, so no pics of that. We had Christmas Eve plans at Dad's house, but moved that to Sunday because of the snowstorm. So Claire and I stayed in, baked about a thousand cookies for Santa, and wrapped presents. Christmas morning we woke up to a couple inches of snow and icy roads, so we did our family Christmas and had breakfast, and then loaded up my car to head to Coleman for Christmas with my brothers, sister, mom and Grant. That was a no-go! At 9:30, our road was a sheet of ice. We turned around and came back to the house, loaded up Jay's 4WD truck, and tried again. Once we got off the side roads and onto the highways, the roads were much better, but it still took us about 45 minutes to make the 30 minute drive to Coleman. No big deal, but I think the fam was pretty hungry for my French toast casserole by the time we got there! So the previous pictures are of Christmas morning at my mom's house (Nana and Grandad's old house). Claire and I stayed in our pajamas all day and we played new video games and board games, went for a walk in the snow, drank hot cocoa, and ate soup. Perfect, relaxing day with family!

I wish we would have thought to get a group picture at every house we went to. That should be a must!

That evening, we went to Paul and Diane's house, even though Jay's brothers couldn't make it down because of the crazy blizzard in Edmond. So we went ahead and exchanged gifts with them and ate some ribs.

Saturday was the big Pannell get-together, and I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that yet, as my old camera doesn't work inside well at all. So I will have to wait until I get copies from Mom and Sister. But that was a big day of family and games. Dirty Santa with 20 some-odd people was interesting as always, with the added hilarity this year of typed and printed handouts of the official rules. We have had arguments in the past within this competitive family that slowed down our game! Uncle Matt kept us all laughing with his constant consulting of the rules for every possible infraction. I ended up with an OU Snuggie and Jay got a car detailing kit, which Mom asked if I would be using. Ha! We'll see how long that thing stays in the box. The Snuggie, as you can see below, has already gotten good use! This is on New Years Eve night, when we watched the DVR'd OU bowl game at home.


Saturday night, we went back to Paul and Diane's straight from Coleman to eat some pancakes and open gifts with Jay's brothers and their families. It's so fun with so many kids, and such a good range, from 2 to 13. No pictures from this either, because again, I hadn't gotten my good camera from Dad yet!

Sunday after church, we went down to Pottboro to have Christmas at Dad's house. Finally, I got my good camera, but it didn't get charged until after my siblings and Grandma had already left! But here are a few pics from his house anyway. We had a fun day playing on Dad's new Wii, playing Nertz (Amanda and I, despite the fact that our team had the most combined experience with the game, finished dead last one game, and next to last the other! I think we've both lost our touch :(, and Jay and Claire even capped off the 40-degree night with a dip in the hot tub!!



After Pottsboro, we drove back to P&D's house, as Kyle and Audrey were still down, to play some golf (cards) and let Claire play. This makes three days in a row that Claire's only nap had been in the car in between Christmas celebrations, poor girl! We also chose this fabulous time to take away her pacis for naptime and bedtime--Santa took them from her stocking to give to other boys and girls who are smaller and need them more! It's still taking a little too long to get her down for naps and bedtimes, but it's getting better bit by bit. One more pic of Sunday night, when the two girls were playing dress-up with Mamaw!



It was a wonderful weekend, and it took about a week to recover from it all! By Thursday afterward, my Christmas stuff was all still up and baby gifts were still piled up in the laundry room in gift sacks! I was totally stressed, but on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, Jay and I finally got a bunch of stuff done--gifts sorted, clothes washed, Christmas stuff down, bassinet up, hospital bag packed, name list narrowed. Whew! So now, I just have a couple more baby things to check off my list before I feel ready to relax and wait! Of course, it won't be total relaxation; I still have two story deadlines this week and my SE class starting next Thursday! We'll see when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance in the midst of all that!

Done with school!

More pictures taken by my photography-inclined brother!

Claire pretends to hang an ornament showing our dearly departed Shadow. Just a sidenote on that loss: This has made me realize how perceptive Claire is (and I'm sure most children are) of my feelings. Several times in the last week, when I sigh, sniffle, or am just quiet for a little while, she'll say, "Are you sad, Mama? Sad about Shadow?" And I'll say something along the lines of, "No, I wasn't thinking about Shadow, but it does make me sad to think about him." And she'll say, "Shadow was a good boy." That's what I told her in the couple days after he died, when I was still crying sometimes, that it was okay to be sad, because Shadow was a good boy and we will miss him.

Claire hanging her stocking: we're going to try putting her pacis in here on Christmas Eve, so that Santa can take them to younger kids who need pacis ;), and she can get treats in her stocking. She still gets her paci at naptime and bedtime, and that's it, but she definitely wants it at those times! She has mentioned Santa taking her pacis and leaving stuff in her stocking two different times out of the blue since we talked about it, as though it is part of the plan, so we'll see how it goes! (I know it's kind of a weenie approach; I should just say NO and take it away, no bribery or silly stuff, but I'll try that if the Santa thing doesn't work!)

Loving on Mama's belly! She sometimes lays her head on my belly and says, "Love you, Baby Sister." She did this once at my suggestion, and I guess she could tell I was so pleased with it that she has done it quite a few times of her own volition now.

So I posted my final grades on Friday, and that makes me DONE with school until next year at least! I still feel a a bit of stress over getting my curriculum for next semester ready, considering I want to arrange the first couple weeks of my semester so that I can do part or all online work. I'm teaching one section of Comp 1 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:30, so that's a nice, light schedule, but it's anyone's guess how those first couple weeks will go, depending on when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance and how long it takes me to recover.

We had a great weekend, with Jay and I taking a semi-successful date night on Friday while Claire spent the night with Grandmom and Papa in Coleman. Saturday, Claire and I did a bit of Christmas shopping with Mom and Tyler while Jay went hunting. Then we went over to Paul and Diane's house to wish Paul a happy birthday and eat a quick bite before going to watch the SE men's basketball team get slaughtered. They're actually much better this year than last, but they were playing an undefeated, nationally ranked team. Came home and watched the Heisman ceremony after putting Claire down--disappointed Colt didn't get it! Jay's gotten quite a few comments this year that he looks a lot like Colt McCoy--I see that they both have round cheeks, green/blue eyes, and blond hair, but the resemblance stops there in my opinion. Jay is definitely way better looking! (And that's a compliment to Jay, as he is always accusing me of thinking every college athlete is cute :)

Today we had a baby shower in between church services! Our church family is so good to have a shower for us for our second child, and our TWELVE hostesses got us a Sit and Stand stroller so that Claire can ride along with baby sister. It's also compatible with the baby carseat we have.

This week, I've got a story to work on, Christmas cards to get out, a bit of Christmas shopping to finish up, and a smaller baby shower on Saturday! I'm putting off getting everything set up for Baby Sister until at least next week, so let's hope she waits that long to join us! Everyone keeps giving me that knowing grin and asking or telling me about how "READY" I am to have this baby--apparently misery is written all over my face and posture. Anyway, I am so NOT ready!! Not only would Baby Sister have no place to sleep (bassinet not assembled yet), no clothes to wear (they're all in the attic or in gift bags with tags attached), and no diapers (am going to go with washable ones this time), but I still don't feel mentally prepared for being a mother of TWO!! One is suddenly seeming entirely too easy, and I'm already feeling bittersweet about saying good-bye to these days of picking up and going wherever with my one laid-back daughter. I'm worried that when I finally get all my baby girl stuff down and organized, I'll realize there actually are more things I need that I didn't tell anyone before my showers and I still have shopping to do!! Anyway, to answer everyone's "I bet you are SO READY," I would like to say I am most certainly NOT, mentally or physically. Give me just a couple more weeks of lugging around this basketball-belly, Baby Sister!