Hannah had her four-month appointment today. She weighed in at 16 pounds 1/4 ounce.

Amelia got to play with her cousins yesterday. Unfortunately, right before we went home, she had a difficult time with one of them. For much of the car ride home she said, "Kyra pushed me and I fell down off the slide. And it was MY TURN." The worst part of it, apparantly, was the fact that it was her turn.

She didn't want to watch the fireworks because "They make me scary," but we finally talked her into watching them through her window and when they were over she wanted to watch some more!

Hannah finally rolled over today!

Amelia just said, "Mommy, I'm thinking." So I responded, "What are you thinking about?" She replied, "I'm thinking of an idea." She's just over 26 months and amazes me all the time. Right now she LOVES tents. She will hide under a blanket and ask one of us to play in her tent. Part of her request includes the phrase, "I have lots and lots of food in my tent."

Hannah has been having a really rough time. She's still a bit croupy, but she's been fighting feedings. I think it's the reflux, but it could just be related to the bug she's fighting. It's hard when she screams non-stop, tries to eat her hands, but fights latching on for half-an-hour or more at a time. :(

Brigham's musical is over! I am thrilled, because now I'll see him again. He's sad, but is looking forward to the long "honey do" list that I have in store for him. :)

Amelia is just her cute little self. Saturday night she got to go on stage and take flowers to her dad during curtain call after their final performance. She LOVES the stage!

Yesterday she was really tired and jumping on our bed. Brigham said, "Amelia, I think you're too tired." She immediately said, "You're right" and laid down and went to sleep!

Hannah was left with a sitter for the first time Thursday night. I went to see one of Brigham's performances and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law watched her. She wouldn't take a bottle (of course) and wouldn't eat rice cereal, either. She went almost five hours without eating. She can be a stubborn one!

In our home we're dealing with a croupy cough and chest congestion right now. So far Amelia is the only one who has it. Brigham is a little concerned, since this is the week of his musical performances! We're hoping he won't get it.

Amelia said the cutest thing at dinner last night. "Mommy, can I climb into your ear and see the voices in there?" Isn't it cute that she knows that what we hear is in our ear?

Hannah got her Zantac dosage upped on Saturday and she's doing TONS better! She was really showing signs of discomfort the past few weeks. Now she's happy and talking most of the day.

Amelia is doing so well. Jennifer started doing some preschool activities with her each day and she's really responding. Last night, and again this morning, Amelia said, "You're the greatest mommy in the world!" Jennifer, of course, had her heart melted!

Amelia loves her sister! She's started pushing Hannah in her swing. I am discouraging this, but Amelia doesn't want to listen. Today Amelia put herself down for a nap. I guess she was tired, so she climbed in my bed (where she takes naps) and got under the covers and went to sleep.

Hannah gave me her first "untickled" laughs today! She was a little fussy when I was making dinner, so I started singing along to the tape that was in--it just happened to be Mary Poppins--and she started giggling at me! It was so fun. :)

Hannah went to the doctor today because she had been really fussy and her crying fits were screams. It turns out her reflux is acting up again and we need to go to a gastroenterologist to see if it's damaged the esophagus. In spite of her reflux, she's still gaining. At three months and two days of age, she weighs a whopping 15 pounds 10 ounces! She has exactly doubled her birth weight.

Amelia was watching "The King is Born," a video on the nativity. When they showed Joseph for the first time, she said to me, "Joseph is Mary's friend." Later Mary says something about husband, and I told Amelia, "Daddy is my husband." She said, "You're married?" What connections they make!

Later today I told her we were taking Hannah to the doctor and she said, "I love Hannah's doctor. He gave me a band-aid!" (She had a shot at Hannah's last appointment.) I said, "What kind of band-aid?" She correctly said, "A Blue's Clues band-aid" and pointed to the exact spot. That was over a month ago!

As I was putting on my make-up, Amelia asked what I was doing. I said, "Putting on a little bit of make-up." She said, "I want a little bit of make-up." I said, "When you are older you can wear make-up." She seemed to take that okay and left for a minute or two. Then she came back and said, "Mommy, I'm older now!"

Hannah gave us her first laugh last night! She was laying in bed and Jennifer was talking to her and kept getting HUGE smiles. Finally, wanting a laugh, Jennifer tickled Hannah. It took a couple of tries to find the right spot, but when she did, Hannah laughed! Jennifer ran and got Brigham and he got to hear Hannah laugh as well. What a cutie!

We finally moved our food storage to the basement! I am so excited. :) Plus, we bought some cool Rubbermaid canisters at Costco on Friday and I've put tons of stuff in them: Baking soda, cocoa, brown sugar, powdered sugar, oats, wheat, chocolate chips, raisins, etc. I'm sending Brigham for more on Wednesday.

Brigham was just promoted at work. He is now a supervisor over evaluation and validation. He also does a lot of customer support right now, as his boss is over both EVS and CS. We are so grateful for this job.

Jennifer is now going to teach both the young women and young men music, as they have a song to learn for youth conference. The youth are going on a trek this year.

Amelia loves nursery at church! She's the only kid that wants to stay when church is over. She loves her little people toys and loves to take care of her babies. She's also big on "families" right now and groups all of her similar toys into their families (all of her dogs, all of her babies, etc.).

Hannah is smiling all the time now, and learning to make all sorts of different sounds. She's also trying to sit up. It'll still be a while before she gets that mastered, though. I think we're over the thrush for now. We did a few doses of Gentian Violet, starting May 21. I hope the thrush stays away!

Hannah's mouth is still sore with the thrush. After I give her the acidophilus she seems a little happier. I don't see white patches in her mouth anymore, but we still have thrush. She's clicking and I'm burning every now and then. I might try one dose of the gentian violet sometime this week...the garlic and acidophilus, vinegar rinse and Lotrimin are helping, but I think the "purple stuff" will save us a week. :) We'll see.

Hannah will wake up at night or early morning and suck on her fingers and go back to sleep all by herself! EARLY Sunday morning I heard her sucking loudly at about 4:45 so I fed her and put her down in her bassinet wide-awake and she put herself back to sleep for the first time. I was THRILLED! She loves her kick-start gym. It's so obvious that now she intentionally kicks to hear the rattles spin. She's holding her head up so well now, and she's really craning her head to look for us when we talk. It seems to me that she's growing up so much faster than Amelia did. Brigham says it's because we're more distracted with two kids than we were with just Amelia. It's kinda sad!

Hannah is REALLY cooing. She sounds like a slide whistle--going really high and back down. Today she was kicking that toy we have and was really into it. She's also noticing things so much more than just a few days ago. She's doing so well.

Amelia is doing great too. She dances so well. I can't believe it. We need to get her in classes--she has SO much talent. Sometimes it's ballet (with leg lifts and stuff) sometimes it's more jazzy or modern. It depends on the music. It just amazes me. And she's pretending all the time, too. She loves to be the wolf and have me be the pig and she'll say,"Little pig, LET ME IN." Then I say, "Not by the hair of my chinny, chin chin." And she'll say, "Then I'll puff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" And she'll blow. It's adorable.

I might have thrush! I thought that the baby had to have white patches, but I don't think Hannah's mouth has any. I just found out that clicking while nursing is a symptom, and she's been doing that lately. I thought it was due to a bad latch but didn't see any problems. After a little bit she comes off and screams and refuses to latch back on. I thought that might be due to the reflux, but maybe it's yeast. I haven't really noticed any symptoms on me, but I haven't paid much attention, either. I'll have to be more observant today.

I shone a flashlight in her mouth tonight and found a big white patch. It IS thrush. :(

Hannah weighs 13 pounds 12 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches long. At two years,

Amelia weighs 31 pounds 3 ounces and is 37 1/4 inches tall! She's off the charts. :)

Wednesday night I lost a large chunk of my mucus plug, and I was contracting about every 10-15 minutes. That night I woke up a bunch of times–I didn't sleep very well. In the morning (Thursday) my contractions were REALLY intense, and I really felt like I was going to deliver sometime that day. I really wanted to deliver in the day and NOT labor in the night like I had with Amelia.

My contractions were really irregular all day, and even stopped for an hour here or there. I was hoping to be in the hospital, but I was only averaging one about every 10-16 minutes. I went to my non-stress test at 3:00 p.m. and only had about five contractions in the hour and fifteen minutes I was there. Brigham and I went to WalMart to do some shopping, and while we were there I had some really strong contractions that were difficult to stand through. On the ride home, starting at 6:00, they started at about 12 minutes apart, then went to 10, then to 8. We ate dinner at 7:00–I was contracting so I made sure I ate a lot–and they were anywhere from 6-10 minutes apart. After dinner I went to the bathroom and sat on the couch and they were anywhere from 5-8 minutes apart.

At about 8:30 I went through a very emotional phase and cried uncontrollably. My contractions were 4 minutes apart at that time. I was ready to go to the hospital, but Brigham wouldn't let me. I felt like I needed to push, so I went to the bathroom and spent some time in there emptying my bowels. Again I told Brigham I wanted to go to the hospital, but he wouldn't go yet. At about 8:40 I came back out and laid down on the couch and was really cold and shivery. We started watching a movie, but my contractions were about 4 minutes apart, lasting 2 minutes, so I couldn't really watch it. Brigham FINALLY called labor and delivery to let them know that I would be coming in sometime tonight, whenever I was ready.

At about 9:00 I was having a contraction and felt a pop. Thinking my water might have broken I got up and rushed to the bathroom to check. I found a LOT of bloody show, and wasn't sure if I had a tiny leak in my water or not. While I was on the toilet they started coming every two minutes. I told Brigham we were GOING to the hospital, and he shrugged and said, "Okay." So we gathered everything up, and got in the car about 9:15 to go. My contractions relaxed to a consistent 3-4 minutes apart, but were shorter and felt different.

We got to the hospital, got out of the car, walked to the labor and delivery entrance–I had a bad contraction on the way–and found that it had moved to the other side of the hospital! So we walked back to the car–I was contracting the whole way, but really upset and eager to check-in. We drove around to the CORRECT entrance, and I waited in the car while Brigham went to see where we were supposed to go. He came back with a wheelchair! It was wonderful, but he only let me ride until we got in the first set of doors, then he made me walk. I had a contraction just outside the elevators, rode up to the third floor, and had a contraction just after we got off the elevators. I went straight to the waiting area and sat while Brigham told them I was here. I was still contracting pretty often. They were REALLY busy, and didn't have a room for me! Finally they called me back into a Triage room. I was pretty upset, because it didn't have a tub or a shower. But it turnes out this was just to check me. We were in there a while before Donna came in.

To make a very long story short, they were very, very busy that night. I was dilated to a 7 or 8 with a bulging bag of waters so I got a room. I finally started pushing around midnight and Hannah Elisabeth was born at 12:28 a.m. on her due date, March 8th.

Saturday, March 2nd, I managed to get the baby to turn from ROP (posterior) to ROT (transverse), and then she dropped some into my pelvis after I walked a bunch doing some shopping. Yesterday, I had an appointment and it was confirmed that the baby (and my cervix) was no longer posterior! But we also picked up an arrhymia in the baby's hearbeat. Today I had an ultrasound to check the baby's heart. It looks okay so far. The arrhythmia is still there, but not as bad as yesterday.

At my appointment yesterday I was 60% effaced (not dialated yet). Two weeks ago I wan't effaced at all. They hooked me up for a non-stress test and I was contracting every four minutes (painless). (The CNM said that from looking at the strip, if I told her I was in labor, she'd believe me.) The baby was responding just fine, but I've been told to take it easy and not lift Amelia or anything. I'm going back in on Monday so they can check me again, but this weekend I'm supposed to take it easy. I've thought this whole pregnancy that I'd go early with this one, and it's looking like I will. I just need to hold out until the day after Valentine's day, when I'll be 37 weeks, then the baby can come any time. We'll see what happens. They offered me brethine or tri--whatever the word is, but I want to avoid those if I can. With Amelia everything started really early, so I'm not too worried yet.

We're supposed to be in our new chapel on February 17th.

Jennifer's feeling about the way she did 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before she had Amelia: really crampy and having painful Braxton-Hicks every night. We'll see if she's dialated at all at her next appointment. She's hypoglycemic, and that's why she wasn't feeling well for so long. She has to make sure she eats protein or she feels REALLY light-headed (like she's going to blackout and can't shake it) and can't cope, etc. She's having a hard time keeping it under control.

Brigham's bosses boss really likes him a lot. He likes him so much that he wants to take him to Japan with him February 18-22 when he visits their biggest client! We'll see what happens with that!

Amelia's doing really well. We've been sick here for a few weeks--Amelia had some kind of lung congestion that wouldn't go away, then it started to and she got sick again. Brigham and Jennifer have had something as well, but I think we're finally over the worst of it. Right now, Amelia is drinking out of her sippy cup, then spitting the water into a glass. I'm so tired of cleaning up spills, so I decided to only give her sippy cups, but she found a way around it!

Amelia was so cute this morning. Brigham heard her get her rabbit and say "Come on bunny, come on. Find mommy, daddy, bunny - come on bunny." So when she came in the room, Brigham asked her to give him her bunny - she handed it to him, and said, "Here you go daddy. Thank you. Thank you daddy. I'm coming." Then she laid down with her back scrunched up against him, pulled her bunny over, said, "Thank you dadda, night night bunny," took a deep breath a huge sigh, and was out like a light.

Jennifer had a dr's appointment on Monday, and Amelia always gets excited when it's time to hear the heartbeat. She says, "Listen baby, mama?" Well, today at lunch, out of the blue, she said, "We listen baby yesterday!!!!!" I couldn't believe what she was saying, so I said, "At mommy's doctor?" And she said, "Listen baby yesterday at mommy's doctor."

Amelia was sitting in Brigham's chair at the table, quietly eating cheerios and raisins. Next thing I know she's on the table, with powdered sugar dumped out, and dipping and licking her finger. When I asked her if it was good her eyes lit up and she nodded enthusiastically.

Amelia slept in her new bed last night. She likes it, but in the middle of the night I heard some noise and found her curled up on the futon (we put it there in case she fell out). She slept okay, but kept waking up since it was unfamiliar to her

This morning Amelia woke up, and I said hi to her. A few minutes later she went into her room and came out with her new skirt on her head, covering her face! She pulled it off the hanger herself. Then I turned the music on and she started to dance then said, "I dancing!"

We got Amelia birch bunk beds. We were out all day looking for one, and went to almost a dozen stores. Then we went to Brigham's mom's house afterwards and she saw Deborah's dog--since Brigham promised her she could see puppies.

She loved looking at the beds. She had to climb on each one. It was really cute. She also said, "Big girl bed." I think she knows they're for her. She will on Monday when we get it. Brigham and his dad are bringing it in the van--since the soonest delivery would be at least a week-and-a-half away.