I've never really been a big fan of Halloween. Sure, when I was a kid it was fun, but once the teenage years and beyond hit I really started to dislike it. I'm really not a fan of dressing up, and I really hate spooky stuff (so not a fan of haunted houses especially!)
I knew after I had kids that I would probably start to like Halloween a little more. Hailey is a little too young to really have too much fun with it now, but she did happen to have three different outfits/costumes, so we had a lot of fun dressing her up and taking pictures. We stayed at home to hand out candy, grandma and grandpa Hefley came over to keep us company, and Hailey slept on grandma Cindy most of the time (after being up most of the previous night and all day being cranky!)
A few days ago we had a lot of fun going to a local "pumpkin patch" - they had the perfect set up for cute pictures!
Next year should be a lot of fun when I can find more costumes to fit her, and she can toddle around to trick or treat and collect candy for mommy and daddy!
Without further ado, here are pics from Hailey's first Halloween!
I heard this phrase countless times during my pregnancy (as I'm sure every mom-to-be does)and every time someone said it to me I simply smiled and said "I'm sure it will." Of course I believed them; it seemed pretty obvious that a baby would forever change you. So you could say that I was prepared for my life to change, but I never realized how much it would change until Hailey actually came into my life. With exactly 3 weeks experience as a mommy, here are the things I've learned since the blessed life-changing event.
1. Having a baby/kid is a 24/7 job - My life and wants/needs are no longer my own, baby ALWAYS comes first. I've already eaten quite a few cold meals and obviously sacrificed a lot of sleep in order to make baby happy. I know as a newborn she's super needy right now and it will probably get a little easier as she becomes more independent, but I know my concern/worry for her well being are going to last as long as I'm alive (I'm already worrying about the teenage years!)
2. You'll fall in love all over again - Having Hailey in my life has made me fall in love with my husband all over again. Throughout my pregnancy one of the things I most anticipated was seeing my husband become a daddy, and I have to say it is more amazing than I ever imagined it could be. Watching the look of absolute love and adoration on his face as he holds and kisses her melts my heart every single time.
3. You become a different person - This may sound like a negative, but I don't see it that way. Becoming a mommy has turned me into a new woman; no longer am I concerned with trivial little things like celebrity gossip or making sure I have makeup on every time I leave the house. Instead I worry about the amount and color of Hailey's poop and what kinds of things I should be doing developmentally to make sure she grows up smart and independent.
4. Unconditional love has a whole new meaning - No matter how much she cries now, or misbehaves as she gets older - I will love this little girl with my whole entire being. I truly would throw myself in front of a bus for her or take a bullet to save her life. It sounds extreme, but all I care about is her safety and happiness. I can't even count how many times tears have rolled down my face for absolutely no reason as I stare at her beautiful little face.
5. They really DO grow so fast - Something else everyone tells you while pregnant or once you have a newborn, "Enjoy them now because they grow up fast." It's SO true. In just 3 weeks Hailey looks so different to me and has changed so much, I can only imagine how she will look at 3 months, 1 year, 5 years from now. Though I need sleep, in some ways I just want to stare at her every moment of the day so that I don't miss a moment of her at each stage of life.
I could go on and on, and I'm sure there are MANY more lessons to be learned, but my sweet little baby is looking so cute in her swing that I have to go snuggle her. Like I said, I just don't want to miss a moment.
On May 7, 2009 Anthony and I had an ultrasound and learned that our first child was a healthy baby girl. It's a day I will always remember, the excitement of finding out we'd be having a little girl is indescribable. After the ultrasound we immediately went out to make our first "pink" purchases and then to share the exciting news with grandma and grandpa-to-be.
Later that day after the excitement died down I took some time to write a letter to my as-yet-unnamed daughter. So it's a little old, but I wanted to publish it here for the record:
May 7, 2009
Dear Baby Girl,
Today your daddy and I had an ultrasound to look at your cute little self and make sure you are healthy (you are, and adorable of course!) The best part of the appointment was that we got to find out whether you are a boy or girl. From as soon as mommy found out she was pregnant, we thought you were a girl, and we were so excited to find out that you are!
Today I sang my new song to you for the first time: “Baby girl, baby girl, I love you so much, my little baby girl.” I think you liked the song because I felt you moving around in my tummy!
Now that we know you are indeed a little girl, mommy and daddy are anxious to begin making so many fun decisions – what your name will be, how we will decorate your nursery, what kinds of cute little clothes to buy you.
While it’s so much fun to plan all these things, the thing I love most is daydreaming about you and what a beautiful, smart little girl you are going to be. Tears fill my eyes as I imagine whether you will get mommy’s blue eyes, or daddy’s cute nose.
Daddy is so excited to share with you his love of music and to teach you about cars and take you camping. But don’t worry! Mommy will make sure and do lots of girly things with you too – like paint your nails, take you shopping, and teach you about makeup (when you are old enough of course!)
Baby girl, you are already so very special to me, and I haven’t even met you yet! I just can’t wait to pinch your chubby little cheeks and hold your soft little hand. And then to watch you develop into a beautiful little girl and later on a grown women. I already love to daydream about you dancing with your daddy at your wedding!
I love you so very much baby girl, and I just can’t wait to meet you in a few more months. Enjoy all your rest now, because mommy and daddy and Trixie and Annie can’t wait to play with you!
So I know eventually we will want to establish a bedtime routine with Hailey so she can get into a regular sleep pattern. So I decided to try a sample routine on Friday night to see how she would do with it: bath, story, bottle, then bed.
So around 8:30 p.m. Hailey was about half-awake so we decided it was bathtime. We put her cute pink bathtub in the kitchen sink and stripped her down, that woke her up! She's not quite sure about baths yet. She starts out not too happy, but by the time I'm massaging her head with shampoo she's pretty content. We took her out of the bath, dried her off, then I massaged some lotion into her little legs and arms. The bath soap and lotion are both "calming baby" products that are supposed to help them relax for bedtime. Would it work?
After putting on her new cozy Pooh jammies, I curled Hailey up in my arms and headed off to her peaceful nursery and settled into our comfy glider with the classic book, "Guess How Much I Love You." I can't say she really paid too much attention, but I read her the whole book and ended with "Just like the Big Nutbrown Hare, Mommy loves Hailey all the way to the moon and back!" By this point she was very relaxed and basically passed out, so she and I cuddled for a little while since I knew she would wake up hungry before too long.
Around 9:30 (almost like clockwork, 4 hours after she last ate), she woke up starving, so I handed her off to Anthony to feed. After she ate I cuddled her on my chest and rubbed her back, our normal routine to get her settled down for bed. She got the sleepy look in her eyes, so I put her down to bed and decided it was time for mommy to go to bed too because I was pretty tired and wanted to catch a few hours sleep before she woke up again.
So around 3 a.m. I woke up a little panicked, why hadn't Hailey woken up yet? I of course leapt out of bed to make sure she was still breathing! Yep, still breathing AND still asleep! How was she not starving? Well I knew eventually she would wake up from being hungry, so I got back in bed and waited. And waited. Finally at 4 a.m. she made a little peep and I again jumped out of bed and scooped her up. I couldn't believe she had slept over 6 hours!
As I was changing her diaper, daddy stumbled in and blearily asked, "Did she already get up once?" I said, "Nope, she slept for 6 hours!" Though half-asleep, he said "Good baby!" gave her a kiss and stumbled back to bed.
Now here I am at 4:30 in the morning wide awake (Hailey is back in bed after getting a full belly), I got over 5 hours straight of sleep; I'm awake and ready to take on the day! Haha, well I suppose I should try and get a few more hours of sleep while I can, but couldn't wait to write about our successful bedtime routine. Good night!
Dear Hailey, As you sleep peacefully in your swing next to me, I realize I should be getting some sleep myself, but I just wanted to take a few moments to put in writing how very much I love you.
Sure I'm pretty emotional these days, but every time I think about you my eyes fill with tears (only happy tears of course) and my heart bursts with pure and unconditional love for you.
Having you in my life has been more of a miracle than I ever could have realized. Sometimes I'm just blown away that the love between your daddy and I could have created such a perfect little person. I'm still amazed by how very cute you turned out - from your tiny little button nose to your long, dark hair, to your "perfect" ears. From the top of your little mohawk to the bottom of your teeny, tiny toes is absolute perfection.
Daddy already talks about how he will have to buy a shotgun to keep all the boys away when you become a teenager. The thought of you of as a teenager is too scary to ponder right now, so I'm enjoying every single second with you as a tiny baby!
I could go on and on, Hailey, professing my love for you. But instead I think I will pull you out of your swing and snuggle you! You are the best little cuddler and I could hold and kiss you all day long.
Let me apologize for the multiple blogs - I have a bit of catching up to do!
After Hailey was born, she and her dad and I spent two days and nights in the hospital recovering from birth and getting lots of help from the nurses as Anthony and I quickly learned how to take care of a baby (both of us had hardly any experience with babies, so it was lots of hands-on learning for us!)
Being in the hospital was hard because not only did we have lots of visitors which was great (all the family and friends just couldn't wait to meet Hailey!), but there were constantly nurses and other hospital workers barging into our room to check our vitals or tell us about something.
Needless to say, after we were given permission to leave we were so very excited to bring Hailey home. In the weeks leading up to her birth everyone was so anxious for her to come that they (especially Auntie Ashley and Grammie Cindy) went a little crazy buying things for Hailey in the hopes that she would be tempted to come out! So we couldn't wait to get her home and show her all the fancy clothes and toys waiting for her.
While we were excited about all the fun stuff for her, Hailey wasn't too interested at first - all she wanted to do was sleep! Well sleep, eat and dirty her diaper to be more specific.
We were very lucky that Anthony was able to take two weeks off from work to spend at home with me and Hailey. It was such a special time for our little family - we did lots of sleeping, cuddling, and staring at our beautiful little girl.
The day after we got home from the hospital our four-legged babies got to come home and meet the new little being that had invaded their home while they vacationed at Grandma Cleda and Grandpa Bob's house (thanks for babysitting gma and gpa!) Auntie Ashley even found special shirts for Trixie and Annie to wear to welcome baby Hailey into the family!
We were a little worried about how the dogs would react to bringing home a baby (both are mommy's girls and always on my lap any chance they get), but so far they've done surprisingly well. Annie is very curious about Hailey and likes to keep track of her, and Trixie seems to care less about a baby in her house, as long as she still gets a decent amount of love from mommy.
The first couple weeks Hailey slept a lot. Anthony and I slept when we could - at night Hailey would wake up every 2-3 hours to get her diaper changed and eat. Anthony and I both really enjoy our sleep, so this was definitely an adjustment, but seeing her beautiful little face made every sleepless moment worth it.
Anthony has now gone back to work sadly, so Hailey and I are beginning our weekly routine together. I'm fortunate to be off work until after Christmas, so I'm looking forward to spending lots of time with my baby girl as she grows and changes over the next few months (and I'll try my best to document it here!) Yesterday we had Hailey's 2 week pediatrician appointment. She weighed in at 8 pounds exactly (had lost a little weight after birth, but starting to gain on track now) and 20.75 inches. She's already changed a lot since she was born, and it makes me a little sad but at the same time I'm really looking forward to watching her grow and develop from a newborn baby into a little girl (I just hope it doesn't happen TOO fast!)
I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now (had hoped to during my pregnancy, but was too caught up enjoying almost every moment of being pregnant), and now that I've got some precious time off work to spend with my beautiful daughter, I've finally got the opportunity to try this out.
So it's 2 weeks and 1 day later, but before I forget the details, I wanted to write out the story of Hailey's birth (sheesh, my eyes are already welling up with tears just thinking about it again!)
October 5, 2009: My due date was Sept. 30, and by this time I was very anxious and impatient to meet my daughter. Not because I was terribly uncomfortable, but because for weeks we'd been expecting Hailey to arrive "at any moment." We had a scare with pre-term labor at 33 weeks, and assumed she would probably be early like I was, and add in being dilated for weeks and it definitely seemed like I wouldn't make it to my due date.
Well my due date came and went. I really wanted Hailey to come out on her own, but I also was so ready to meet my daughter that I was open to talking about inducing labor, however my doctor wouldn't consider it until the following week.
I had a doctor appointment scheduled for the early morning of Monday, October 5, which so happens to be my mom's birthday. I desperately hoped to go into labor on my own, but also would have been happy to be induced on Oct. 5.
Anthony and I enjoyed our last weekend as a family of two - we went on a date to McDonald's and saw the movie Zombieland, funny details I will never forget. On Sunday night, Oct. 4, I went to sleep hoping to go into labor over night.
No such luck. We woke up early on Oct. 5 and headed out to our doctor appointment. We took all our hospital bags, in the hopes that we would be told it was time to have Hailey.
I got checked in and the nurse checked my blood pressure, twice. It was high, and had been a few times throughout my pregnancy. Dr. Hudson came in and said they didn't want to mess around with high blood pressure and that today was the day to have my baby! The doctor determined I was 4-5 cm dilated and 90% effaced, a very good candidate for induction.
I wasn't worried about the blood pressure, and was just so excited it was time to meet Hailey, and I was so very happy that she would get to share a birthday with my mom.
Dr. Hudson sent me straight over to Labor and Delivery at the Northwest Hospital Women's Center. We got checked in and settled into our room, then I got hooked up to an IV so they could begin the medicine to start my contractions. They started the pitocin around 10 a.m., and until about 2 p.m. we just waited for the contractions to get stronger and more painful. During this time Anthony, my mom, sister Ashley, Anthony's mom Cindie and occasionally my dad kept me company (though for the early part of labor Anthony was a little bored and kept himself busy playing games on his phone!).
Around 2 p.m. Dr. Fewell came in to break my water, that was a very weird feeling! She checked me and determined I was at 6 cm dilated around the time she broke my water. Very quickly after having my water broken the contractions started to get more painful and I decided it was time for an epidural. After I got the epidural I felt better almost immediately and I was so grateful I got it when I did - we watched the contractions on the monitor and they definitely would have been VERY painful, but I couldn't feel anything!
A couple hours later Nurse Kristen checked me and said that I was 10 cm dilated and it was time to push! I suddenly got very nervous, I couldn't believe the big moment had arrived and it was time for me to begin the hard work. Since I hadn't had the epidural for very long I was worried about not being able to push, but Nurse Kristen, Anthony and my mom all coached me through it and it turns out I was pretty good at pushing for not being able to feel anything!
The nurse pulled up a mirror so I could see Hailey's head as I pushed, that was great motivation! Not too much later Kristen was calling for Dr. Fewell to come in to deliver Hailey! They told me she was right there and I just needed to push through another contraction, I don't think they were quite ready, but at the next contraction I pushed as hard as I could and Hailey popped right out! I laughed because I couldn't believe how easily she came out!
While I was busy pushing, Auntie Ashley was (im)patiently waiting outside the room with her ear to the door the whole time, and as soon as Hailey came out and gave her first wail Ashley tried to burst into the room because she was so excited but the nurses told her she would have to wait a few minutes.
In total I pushed for about 45 minutes, and my whole labor lasted about 8 hours - I don't think I could have asked for a much more perfect labor and delivery experience.
Next thing I knew, Hailey was being placed on my chest and it was one of the most unforgettable moments of my life - I was the mommy of the most beautiful baby girl in the whole world.
And Anthony was a daddy - I will never forget the emotion and look of pure love on his face as he held his daughter for the first time.
Hailey Marie Coulter was born at 6:13 p.m. Monday, October 5. She was 8 pounds, 1 ounce and 20 inches long. She was born with lots of dark brown hair and beautiful long eyelashes. All the nurses kept exclaiming over how cute she was, and we all had to agree!
For the first two hours after she was born, Hailey was wide awake and such a happy baby - how could she not be with all the love in that room? We received our first visitors: Grandpa Dave, Auntie Ashley, Grandma Cindie, and later on mommy and daddy's best friends Scott and Krissy (parents of Hailey's BFF Riley!) A little later the nurses gave Hailey her first bath; she wasn't really a fan of the bath, but she did love to have all her dark hair washed and massaged. Then the nurse gave her a cute little mohawk! October 5, 2009 was one of the best days of my entire life. My beautiful daughter was born, I got to make my mom a grandma on her birthday (she even got to cut the umbilical cord!), and Anthony and I proudly became Mommy and Daddy.
