Cuatro

Oh, Boy.  It has been a crazy and wonderful few weeks.  On December 3, we welcomed the fourth member of our family.  Clara Afton Hansen was born at 9:27 p.m. and weighed 8 lb. 14 oz!!  If you would have told me she was that big, I never would have believed it.  That's almost 2 pounds bigger than her sister!  And with almost hourly feedings, she's not slowing down!
Thanks to our moms, everything went pretty smoothly for the first couple of weeks.  Obachan was fortunately able to come down a few anxious days before Clara got here.  She hung out with Ada and we all distracted ourselves by decorating for Christmas. 

The night we put the Christmas tree up, I started feeling slightly stronger contractions than I had been feeling for weeks.  Even though it was 3 days past her due date, I wasn't feeling very optimistic about something happening.  I was able to sleep that night, and had an appointment with the midwife, Tisha, the next morning.  I was finally checked (I'd been putting it off for fear of getting my hopes up) and was dilated to a 5 or 6!  I still assumed it would be a while, but that maybe she would come in the next day or two or three.  After the appointment, I came home and took a nap, being able to sleep between increasingly painful contractions.  After sitting on the exercise ball and taking a bath to relax, I decided that maybe Bryan and I should go into Labor and Delivery.  It was almost 7:00p.m.  Because the contractions still weren't very regular, I was worried they would send us home, but luckily we only live 3 blocks from the hospital, so it wasn't going to be a big waste of time.  I had a few more contractions on the drive there and as we were checking in, and by the time I was checked in Triage, I was at an 8 or 9!!  I couldn't believe it!  My first thought was that I wasn't going to be able to labor in the tub, but the nurse told me she would go fill it and I could get in right away.
At the appointment, Tisha had told me that if I went into labor that night, to have them try to call her.  She wasn't on call, but because I wanted to have an unmedicated birth, she would try to come in.  Luckily, we timed it right and she was able to make it.  I stayed in the tub for close to an hour, and it was great.  I was feeling the pain with each contraction, but was able to relax in between.  Bryan stayed by me the whole time and encouraged me.  Tisha would just come in to check on me (and dim the lights so it was a calmer atmosphere), but then leave us alone. 
Finally, after Bryan realized I was getting a lot more vocal with the contractions, I decided I needed to get out.  I wanted to sit on the birthing ball for comfort, but after one contraction, I felt the need to push.  With a lot of assistance, I got up on the bed and laid on my side.  After about 15 minutes of pushing, Clara was here!!  They immediately put her on my chest, and Tisha told me to feel the cord pulsing.  It wasn't something I'd ever imagined I would experience, and it was amazing!  Actually, everything about the whole birth was amazing.  It happened so fast and was so dreamlike that we couldn't have asked for it to be any better! 

Recovery went really well, and Clara was healthy and hungry from the beginning.  Bryan and I were sure she would have jaundice, but (we think) because she nursed so often, that bilirubin never had a chance.

Obachan brought Ada in the next morning, and the sisters bonded instantly.  I was a little worried about how Ada would react, but she didn't seem to be phased at all by the fact that her little sister was now on the outside of my belly.  It was like she already knew her! 

Then Ada learned how to help take care of the new baby by practicing swaddling.

Obachan stayed for a few more days (thank goodness) and Ojichan was able to fly down for a night to meet Clara.  Then we had our first night alone with two kids.  It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but we knew the next day, Grandma was coming down.
Grandma stayed with us for four days, entertaining Ada and showering the girls with grandma-love.
I still can't imagine how we would have done it without our moms.  We were able to adjust so much better with them here.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to convince either of them to stay forever.
So now we are on our own, but are handling it.  Bryan finished schoolwork today, so now we have a few weeks together as a family to figure it all out!

We have about 4,000 pictures of the new life with a new baby, so we will post more soon.

Uno Dos Tres

Last night while we were eating dinner, Ada started counting to about 13 in Spanish.  It took us a few seconds to realize what she was saying.  I looked at Bryan and asked if he'd been teaching her, but he was as surprised as I was!  I guess she is learning more than we thought at "preschool"!

Waiting

 There has been a lot happening lately, but everything seems like it's moving in slow motion when waiting for a baby to be born.  I was convinced she was going to come before her due date, which is tomorrow, but I think she's going to prove me wrong.  I've had bouts of semi-regular contractions for the last few weeks, but I guess they are just getting my body prepared for the real thing.  I know due dates are somewhat arbitrary, but it sure puts the pressure on! We are all excited to meet her (Ada included) but we will wait as long as it takes.
Here are a few pictures from the last month or so.
When we asked Ada what she wanted to be for Halloween, we weren't really surprised she wanted to be a robot, since she has been mildly obsessed with them for half of her life.  Luckily, we were able to come through for her.  We took her downtown for the "Trick or Treat Trail" where all the local businesses were giving candy out to the kids.  She had a blast!   And for the next week or two, ate more candy than she ever has in her life (assisted by Mom and Dad, of course). 

 

 Her robot costume.  We were pretty happy with the outcome and some people even gave her extra candy for it.

My side of the family came down for Thanksgiving to help us out and potentially meet the new addition to our family.  They rented a house pretty close to us and it worked out really well to do the big dinner there. Here is Carol trying to keep the girls out of trouble in the kitchen.

 

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa Ken were able to come, too, and bring their dog Zooey.  The girls LOVED giving her all of their attention. 
Unfortunately, everyone had to leave without meeting the new baby, but that just means they have to come down again!

Sick of being sick

So many things have been happening around here.  Ada has started "pre-school" (i.e. day care) a few mornings a week, she has been getting better at using the potty (not quite trained, but getting there) and the new little one has been moving like crazy and is , I hope, as excited as we are to get out of my belly. 
But I don't feel like writing about any of it, because we have all been sick.  Since Ada started "school", she has had several colds that she has passed on to us.  But none of those were as bad as the stomach virus that Bryan acquired last weekend and that we are still recovering from today.  I knew that we'd probably be sick more often around here with more exposure to other people, but this is ridiculous!

Family Photo

We have never gone to a professional photographer for a family photo, and rarely do we think to ask someone to take a group photo of us.  So we were really excited when the photographer at Kris and Nate's wedding gave us our own copy of a "polaroid" he took of us.  This is my favorite family shot we have so far.  And it even includes the little one poking out of my jacket!

Ada is Tough

Ada had surgery to remove her cataract when she was two weeks old.  Since then, she has worn a contact lens and we do daily patch therapy (5-6 hours) to help her use the weaker eye.  She has been an amazingly patient child with all of it and we have been really lucky.  We were finally able to see a new doctor in Phoenix a few months ago who decided that another surgery was necessary to clean out some tissue that was growing in her lens capsule and was blocking some of her vision.  After a failed attempt to have it done a month ago (Ada got a fever the morning of the scheduled surgery), everything went as planned last week and along with getting the tissue cleared out, the surgeon was able to implant a lens into her eye.  This means that, for the time being, Ada doesn't have to wear a contact lens.  It was a difficult decision because some experts still recommend waiting until the child is a lot older if possible, but we felt that it would be easier for everyone if no one was worrying about losing contacts or hurting her eye with a contact in and the surgeon was confident that it would be a good thing for her.  Ada was a champ through all of it (and still is with several drops daily and resuming the patch therapy).  We really couldn't have gotten any luckier with a child who is emotionally and physically strong enough to remain cheerful- even when her eye is getting poked and prodded all the time.  She almost always has a smile on her face, even when she's in the pre-op room waiting for surgery! 

 

And she had to wear this huge colander-looking metal shield over her eye for a week after, but she never complained (except when we were untaping it from her face to apply drops).

 

Ada has recovered, and aside from having to wear sunglasses a majority of the time to protect her eye in the rare chance that she would run into something that could injure it, she is back to her old shenanigans.   And we could just be imagining it, but her vision seems to be better than it was before!

Trip to Utah in pictures

So many pictures and so little time to write.  Here's the trip to Utah as documented by our cameras.

We hardly get to eat breakfast in places like this anymore.

Finally hot enough for sprinklers.

Birthday presents from Auntie Lu.

Not enjoying the train as much as we thought she would.

First Chuck E. Cheese experience, and I never thought I would say it, but it was actually fun for us, too.  We might have to go again sometime.

Ada is very proud of Dad's artwork hanging at Primary Children's Hospital.

 

 Hogle Zoo for Ada's birthday.

After years, we finally got to see Trish and Bentley before they have their new baby!

Exploring Cascade Springs with Grandma.

Lots of quality time with the cousins.

Flute lessons from Grandpa.

Swimming!

Relaxing in front of a pile of presents.

Walks to the park.

 

More swimming.

Kris and Nate's backyard.

Family photo at Calf Creek.

Wagon rides.

Cheers for Kris and Nate getting married.

A lovely mountain wedding.

Time to relax before we have to head back to Flagstaff.

Huge Update

Things have been crazy here.  There are so many updates so we'll just start with a list.

At number one, we have the most significant/life-changing:

 There were chances to post this earlier, but we just kept putting it off for various reasons, then we decided to wait until one of many milestones of the journey.  We found out yesterday that Ada will be getting a little sister sometime around Thanksgiving!  We were a little surprised to see the girl bits in the ultrasound, as there have been so many girls born in our families lately, but she looks healthy and beautiful so we are excited. 
To accommodate #1, we have #2:  We moved to a bigger place in Flagstaff.  After our 2-week trip to Utah (more on that later), we came right home to get the keys to our new place- a townhouse on the other side of town.  We spent the next several days moving and have happily fallen in love with almost everything about the place. 

It has a 2-car garage (=storage), an extra room that Bryan can use as an office and it's close to things that will be useful- like the hospital, pediatrician, downtown Flag and several parks. 
#3:  Ada turned  two years old.  Along with that has come screaming and defiance, but those are overshadowed by her increasing knowledge of the world, talking, singing, improved dance moves and endless entertainment.  She is such a great girl and we wouldn't know what to do without her.

The road trip to Utah will take a whole other post, so I will get to it soon.  Right now we are recovering from a LONG day that started at 4:15 a.m. when we had to wake Ada up to eat breakfast before she was cut off from eating at 5:00, due to her scheduled eye surgery in Phoenix.  All was going well until we realized she was running a fever of about 101 degrees.  We knew we needed to call the doctor to check in, but it was so early in the morning and we had to leave for Phoenix before the offices were open.  Fortunately, we didn't get too far out of town when we were able to talk to the surgeon who had decided to cancel the surgery due to her fever.  By the time we got home, a construction crew had shown up to fix both of our balconies, thus preventing any of us from taking naps until about 3:30 this afternoon.  Ada was a champ, but she's still sleeping and fighting off whatever is causing her fever.  We sure ended up with a strong daughter.