Santa Baby!

We came home from church today and Baylee was walking around looking so pretty in her dress.  Christian put a Santa hat on Baylee's head and she looked adorable.  She was so cute I had to run and get my camera.  These were some pictures we took of her.

Our baby girls

Abbygail - 3 months old

Baylee - 9 months old

I'm having fun dressing up two baby girls with dresses, bracelets, and hairbows.  I haven't been able to dress little girls alike until now and I'm loving it.  The girls are just 6 months apart and we get lots of weird looks when we go out into public.  One of the first questions people ask us is "How far apart are they?" and then we watch as they try to figure out the math in their heads.   

Camping with friends

We went on a real quick camping trip last weekend with some friends of ours.  Although I didn't take many pictures, I did get some of Christian and his friend getting ready to go paint ball shooting with the other guys.  Christian cracks me up.  I thought I'd share...one picture is of Christian all charged up to go paint balling and the other is our friend Austin looking pretty darn official in his get-up.

and then Sunday, basically my entire family met at a park in Mesa to celebrate my nephew's birthday.  I'm waiting to get some pictures back but I was able to snap a quick one of Baylee having a very in-depth conversation with her Poppy Crandall.

New Earrings

I took Baylee to Superstition Springs Mall today to get her ears pierced.  Melody was 7 months old when I got hers done and I figured Baylee was old enough at 4 months.  She looks so girly and I love it!  She was stinkin' cute with her blinged out headband, bracelet, and earrings.  Now we just have to work on growing some hair. 

Here's what Baylee is doing at 4 months!

• 
  
  makes really nice spit bubbles
• grabs for things at the table
• smiles a lot now
• sleeps all the way thru the night (whoo hoo!!) 
• is stubborn with her giggles
• sucks on her fingers
• turns her head to look at whoever is talking to her
• turns, arches, and moves her body to look at people
• rolls from side to side 
• opens her eyes really wide
• stares and studies things near her
• grabs at the toys hanging by her
• grabs her toes and lifts her bum-bum high in the air
• sleeps in her crib
• loves being held, and cries when you put her down
• when she gets tired of her carseat she goes stiff as a board and makes you bend her body to fit her in
• loves taking baths
• smiles, squeals, coos, and gurgles
• weighs almost 13 lbs, and is 25 inches long  75% percentile on everything
• makes "swimming" motions with her arms and legs when put on her tummy
• does lots of drooling
• fusses and demands to be held
• loves her swing

Melody, Aaron & Dane are awesome big brothers and sister.  Melody loves to dress Baylee and picks out her hair bows for the day.  She also goes and makes her bottles.  Aaron loves to make funny faces at her to try to get her to smile at him.  She always smiles at Aaron because he's so goofy.  Dane is great at giving her a pacifier and asks if he can hold her all the time.  I love my kids!

Baylee's Blessing Dress...Finally!

So these pictures are very late in coming...but I finally got them done and posted on our blog!  Isn't she a cutie?

Baylee 1 Month

I thought I'd post some more pictures of Baylee.  We just had our friend Breezy Cartright take photos of our family so I'll post those as soon as I get them.  She showed me some the other night that were so awesome!!!  So I can't wait to get our Christmas cards done now.

Baylee had her 1 month doctors appointment yesterday.  She's gained 2 lbs since leaving the hospital which is really good!  She eats all the time so I knew she was getting bigger.

Baylee Loella Hughes

  

HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED

I went walking with my friend Amy at Fiesta Mall to help induce labor on Thursday.  I had been feeling pretty strong contractions for a few weeks and was ready to have this baby girl.  I got home kind of late and started separating out some scentsy orders.  I was almost finished when the contractions finally started to pick up so I paged the doctor and she wanted me to get to the hospital.  Christian and I made quick arrangements with some friends to watch our kids and made our 40 minute drive to Banner Gateway.

The contractions were definantly doing something but labor was moving so slow.  The nurse monitored us for a long time but was unsure of what we should do since we lived far away.  About 1:00am the nurse called Dr. Sodoma and she said to keep me there (for those who know the story about my labor with Melody...this was a very good thing).  7:30 am I was dialated about 4.5 cm so Dr. Sodoma came and broke my water. 

The hard labor contractions started instantly which I wasn't prepared for at all.  I told Dr. Sodoma she better stick around because I was already feeling the hard labor and I wanted her there (for those of you who know about Eva's labor story with Caleb...I didn't want that same story).  I was going to go without the epidural like I did with Melody and Aaron but after the 1st hour I was so exhausted.  I hadn't slept AT ALL.  So I asked for the epidural at 8:30 am.  My mom in law was there before I got my epidural and she was so helpful.  She got me ice chips which helped me to handle the first hour of contractions.  My mom got there right as they were administering the epidural.  When I felt Baylee pushing down I let the moms know they better move to the corner of the room if they didn't want a view.  It took 3 pushes and Baylee was here.

Baylee tried to come face first, the doctor saw her nose and face and had to rearrange her so her neck wasn't fully extended and so she would come head first...ouch!  I had to stop pushing for a bit because the cord was wrapped around Baylee's neck twice.  When she was finally out, Dr. Sodoma held up the cord to show me where Baylee had tied herself a "true knot" in the umbilcal cord.  I think everyone in the room looked at it in disbelief.  We were so lucky that knot hadn't been pulled any tighter or Baylee would have been cut off from everything.

So that's Baylee's birth story!  I hope that wasn't to graphic for you.  We are SOOO happy she's here!  She's been a really mellow baby.  Her jaundice count was high so she spent the first few days under lights to help get the numbers down.  The numbers kept getting higher but stabalized at a 12-13 finally so the hospital let us go home on Monday.  We were home by 8:00pm and we're so thankful to have dinner waiting for us from the Bailey's.  And we were so thankful for my mom-in-law who stayed at our home and took care of our other kids. 

Still a Mystery

My recommendation is... don't schedule a late appointment on a Friday. Our technician didn't even try to find out the sex of the baby. She took measurements and we were out of there in twenty minutes. Christian thinks she was in more of a hurry to finish her work week then in giving us a thorough ultrasound. The baby was moving a lot and flipping over when she went to take measurements so I know it was hard for her. Good news is they're going to need better pictures of the head so I'm going to get to go back for another one. I've never had that happen before. Usually I'm in for 30-40 minutes and they give us lots of pictures to take home. That was not the case this time. Baby Hughes is still a mystery...stay tuned. And my mom-in-law thought it was really neat regardless. She said she was greatful the technician was pointing out different things because she had a hard time telling what things were.

Boy or Girl???

We won't know for another 4 hours whether baby Hughes is a boy or girl. I'm so ready for my appointment!!! By the way, staring at the clock just makes it move slower in case you ever wondered. Anyways, I'm betting on a girl this time so I'll be sure to let you all know if my pregnancy intuition is correct. So far I've guessed right on my other 3 pregnancies. My appointment is at 5:00. That way my hubby could be there since he couldn't take any time off work. I also invited my awesome mom-in-law to be there since she's never seen or experienced an ultrasound before. This could be her only opportunity and ultrasounds are so neat! The 3 of us are really excited to see the baby. Hopefully baby Hughes cooperates. I have girl names already picked out and narrowed down to 2 that I really like. If she turns out to be a he...then I've got nothing and I'll be taking baby boy name suggestions. Stay tuned folks!