The Handley Family: Monthly Update - February 2014 MEET BABY ARIBELLE!!!

Addie's Monthly Photo

Cooper's Monthly Photo

Aribelle's Monthly Photo

It's happened, finally. We met our new baby girl Aribelle. We couldn't have asked for a better delivery or a better doctor. We are so grateful to have found Dr. Simpson and the rest of the fantastic staff in the OB department.
In the chaos of everything, I'm not sure if I said it enough. My mom is the BEST!! We've been very fortunate to have her in our lives. In addition to caring for the kids while mommy was in the hospital, she brought them up to meet their new baby sister. It was a great moment to see their faces light up the first time they saw her.

All about Addie

New Kitchen....Well, TOY kitchen. We decided to get the kids a group gift before the baby comes. Their old play kitchen was falling apart and they really seemed to love playing with toy foods, etc. We ended up with a really cute one (I think by KidKraft). It sure was a HIT. Hopefully it will keep them occupied when mommy and daddy are tending to baby. ;)
Laundry helper - Addie has done really well with her clothes being moved from the nursery and into her closet downstairs. We put a small laundry hamper in her closet downstairs and one of her chores on her board is to bring the laundry basket up. Although sometimes the basket gets a little heavy, she does really well with bringing it up and helping mommy with laundry.

Clothes - I have outfits already put together on the hanger for Addie and she does really well getting them off the hanger and putting them on. She loves being independent and coming upstairs to tell us that she's dressed. And even though her outfit might be inside out or backwards, I'm really proud of her for doing it herself.

Chore chart - Addie LOVES her chore chart... well for the most party anyway. If she's in a good mood, she will walk over to it without being asked, and start doing chores and flipping her cards over. Once she does her chores, she gets to put a letter up on her board. The letters eventually say something like "great job Addie" or "Job well done". Once she has completed a phrase, she gets to pick out of the bin. It seems to be working well so far, lets see how long it lasts!!

Interacting with baby - She LOVES to "beep" Aribelle's nose. I'm not sure exactly where she picked it up (probably one of us), but it cracks us up.

All about Cooper

Cooper's nickname for Addie - Cooper has started calling Addie "Sis". I'm not sure where he picked it up from because we usually call her Addie. He used to call her "Assie". Either way, it's cute to hear him call her sis.

Cooper's nickname for Aribelle - We've tried to get Cooper to Say "Aribelle" on several occasions but he either didn't want to try or it was a fail. He came really close though on 2/20 and said "Ah-boo". From that moment on, he kept saying her name that way and so it stuck. Addie started calling her Ah-boo too! I think it has a nice ring to it. :)

Big boy bed - On 1/29, we introduced Cooper to his big boy bed (a toddler bed in the spare room downstairs). He did great with the bed and only "fell out" maybe once in the whole month of February. We don't keep night lights on in the room and close the door so it is pretty dark. The great thing is that he doesn't ever get up!

Interacting with baby - Cooper definitely shows interest in Aribelle but is not nearly as graceful as Addie is. When she is in our arms, he will come up and try to kiss her but will accidentally come in to fast and it ends up sometimes scaring her. Luckily, I think it will toughen her up a bit ;)

All about Aribelle

As of my appointment on 2/4 my weight was 168, I was dilated 2cm and effaced 50%.
At my appointment on 2/12 my weight was 168, I was dilated 3cm and effaced 50%.
On 2/13, we checked in to the hospital at 5:45 for induction.
We were set up in the "BIG room" where we had lots of privacy and it was nice and quiet.
I immediately got into the gown and they began an exam. I was still only 3cm and 50%. They started an saline IV, hooked up fetal monitoring. Around 6:45 I had and EXTREMELY painful contraction. Other contractions soon followed after and they were all consistently 5 min apart. The nurses were surprised that they hadn't even started the pitocin yet. A little after 7am, the doctor gave orders to start the Pictocin and give the epidural (to speed up the contractions and help dilate me more). After the epidural, the contractions slowed so they upped the Pitocin around 9am. Dilation was checked around 10:30 and we were at a 5 and by 11:00 I was at 8cm already!!! The baby needed to drop a little more so they sat me up in the bed and began prepping the room for delivery.
At 11:38 we began to push. After TWO pushes (and allowing baby to push on her own quite a bit), she was born at 11:51.
She was laid on my chest and then put on the warming table. She barely cried initially and once she was on the warmer, she seemed to be interest most in looking around her. ::aaahhh, In love:: :)

Week 1 & 2
Sleeping- She's sleeping on average between 2-3 hours. We feel pretty fortunate so far that she seems to be sleeping on a bit of a schedule. We know these things don't always last, but it's nice to have consistency for our own sleeping needs :)

Eating - She's breastfeeding 10-20min total. Aribelle has done great with latching. No problems yet.

Interesting - She has amazing head control already!! We've noticed when we hold her up that she doesn't really need as much support from our hands behind her head. SUPER BABY!!

More photos from the month.

37 Weeks!! Almost there!!