Mikayla One Month

Belated pics ... Mikayla's Birth

I love my little sister

I'm so impressed with Christopher as a big brother. He is so gentle and loving with his sister. He loves to hold her all by himself and he always has to tell her good night and good bye in the mornings. He is already so protective of her too.

One day when I was picking him up from daycare I had to leave Mikayla out of the room when I went in to get Christopher. Well, one of Christopher's friends saw Mikayla and was looking at her. Christopher saw this and bolted to his sister and started telling his friend, "No, mine, my sister." He got so upset he was pulling the carrier by the handle away from his friend. It was soo cute and the first time I've seen Christopher not wanting to share with anyone.

Big Brother

And so it begins - Christopher is already learning the joy of having a sibling in the house. The first night home with Mikayla, Dad was reading Christopher his bed time story and the corner of the book had been chewed up. Dad asked Christopher what happened to his book and he told his Dad Mikayla did it.

Introducing Mikayla James

Mikayla James Redding, born November 26th at about 1 p.m. 7 lbs, 14 ozs, 20 inches long.

I'm so excited that Mikayla is finally here. It seems like I was pregnant forever, but she was well worth the wait. The delivery went well and fast. I was scheduled for an elective induction and they started the drugs at about 8 a.m. when I was 4 cm. Well, Christopher was born so fast for a first baby - about 6 hours - that I thought that Mikayla would be here in an hour or two. Well, at about each half hour the nurse would come and check me and there was no progress. At about 9 a.m. the doctor broke my water and I got my epidural. I thought surely I would start pushing by 10 a.m. Well, 10 a.m. rolled around and I was still 4 cm. Mike and I looked at each other and were wondering what we were going to do all day. We hadn't brought movies or anything because with Christopher it just happened so fast we had no time for that.

Well at around 11:00 a.m. I started to feel some pressure. So we called the nurse and she told me I was 6 cm and asked if I wanted some more epidural medicine and I said no. Well, at about 11:30 a.m. I could start to feel my toes tingle and I was able to really move my legs. I told Mike I thought my epidural was fading and that the pressure was getting a lot stronger like I needed to push. I didn't want to bug the nurse again so I just waited. Well, after about 15 minutes I decided to call her. And told her I thought the epidural was wearing off and if I could get more, she said we will see that I might be too far along. Sure enough by about noon her head was there. I had to wait about 20 minutes for the doctor to get there and I pushed for about 40 minutes and Mikayla was here right around 1 p.m.

I'm very thankful for such an uneventful delivery and a beautiful little girl - she already has her Dad wrapped around her finger.

Catching up ...

It's been a long time since I last posted and needless to say a lot has happened. I want to capture all the memories from the last two months so I'm going to work on catching up. Starting with a few weeks prior to Mikayla's arrival ... and the false alarm.

I was so worried about having to take Christopher with us to the hospital that I packed a Diego backpack full of snacks, new toys, new books and his portable DVD player with a new movie. It came in handy as I had a false alarm about 3 weeks prior to Mikayla's arrival.

Having a false alarm was always one of my biggest fears, especially since this is my second pregnancy. But, it did not help that each time I saw my doctor she kept telling me that this baby would be here early. Nothing like getting a 9 month, pregnant woman anxious. Especially, one like me. Christopher was great at the hospital and his backpack became a staple for each visit to the hospital once Mikayla arrived. He still loves his backpack today. One of my best investments to date.

Our little athlete ...

Christopher having fun in our basement with his dad.