For Grandma Montgomery Who Doesn't Know What Lorelei Looks Like

A few days after birth

 My greatest apologies for neglecting this blog. Life since Lorelei's birth seems to have been one crisis after another all occurring in a fog of sleep deprivation, but she is such a lovely baby.

1 Month Old

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months (Halloween)

5 Months

5 Months

5 Months (Christmas)

6 Months

6 Months (She likes to attack Andrew's face)

7 Months (Crawling in the bathtub)

My Beautiful Girls

Photo by the lovely Laura

The girls in matching dresses (Thanks Aunt Tina!) for Lorelei's newborn photos. I wondered if this day would ever come. What a lucky mama I am.

Ravenna has an announcement!

In case you didn't catch it in the video, Ravenna now has a baby sister. Lorelei was born July 8th at 7:13 AM. She is 8 lbs. 15 oz. and 21 in. long. When asked in the video what Ravenna wants to say to Lorelei, she said "I love you."

We are both doing well despite a very scary situation. At 4:00 AM, I awoke with contractions but went back to sleep after about a half hour. At 5:30 AM I startled awake because my water had broken. Unfortunately it was filled with blood and I started bleeding heavily. We knew the gravity of the situation and immediately called our midwife who told us to rush to the nearest Labor and Delivery. We had been planning a home birth but we knew that this situation was very serious. Our midwife met us in triage where I was being monitored and was a great support and comfort to us. The baby's heart rate was excellent but I was still bleeding heavily and it was decided to do an emergency cesarean section due to suspected placental abruption (where the placenta detaches before the birth).

I was administered spinal anesthesia and the surgery went ahead quite smoothly. The placenta had detached about half way. I had not expected how painful it would be to have the cesarean. When the baby was being pulled out I thought they were breaking my ribs! As soon as the baby was delivered kicking and screaming and was checked out by the pediatrician, Andrew was able to do skin-to-skin and held Lorelei that way until I was able to nurse her in recovery an hour later. It was quite an experience and now we have a long road of recovery for me.

My heart is so full of gratitude that my water broke early enough that we were able to get to the hospital in plenty of time and didn't cause any distress to our baby. It is such a blessing to finally have our rainbow baby here and doing so well.

A Trip to Upstate New York

 To celebrate the end of the school year for Andrew and to take advantage of a particularly fortuitous opportunity to (finally!) meet one of my internet friends, we took a weekend trip to Palmyra, New York. We drove up on the morning of June 7th, stopping to visit Watkins Glen State Park in the Finger Lakes District. We didn't have much time there, and at 8 months pregnant I couldn't do much hiking, but it was really beautiful and we hope to go back in the future when I am more mobile.

Just one of the 19 waterfalls in the gorge

Meeting up with Jenni was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. We arranged beforehand for Jenni to henna my belly and she did a great job. Jenni lives in Alaska so getting a chance to meet up with her and her family on this side of the world was something I really could not pass up. The henna was just a bonus!

At the Sacred Grove

On Saturday we also visited the Palmyra temple and LDS Church History sites and then made the long drive back home. It was a quick trip but definitely worth it.

Ravenna Had A Birthday!

Nearly a month ago Ravenna turned 5 years old and I during the craziness that the month of May has been, I have neglected to share any pictures. A few days before her actual birthday Ravenna had what she called her "pretend birthday." It was simply a play date for a few of her friends where her friends brought handmade gifts (so precious!) and decorate cupcakes. It went off splendidly and I don't think there is any other way to do a birthday party for young children. Ravenna was happy, the kids were happy, and it was so easy for me to put together. Ahhhh, simplicity!

You can see how much Ravenna enjoyed opening up the handmade gifts from her friends.

Opening a gift from Oma Leslie. A "baby" carrier for her build-a-bear.

On her actual birthday we tried to do many special things for her. She got a special lunch with Grandpa Whitlock at Wendy's (her choice) and then a trip to Chocolate World, and then a BBQ with her Grandparents and uncles and soon-to-be aunt.

You will notice in this picture that she is wearing a swim suit given to her by her Oma Leslie. It was really hard to get her to not wear it to school!

I love the personality of my 5 year old girl! She brings so much joy to our lives with her spunk and sunny disposition. Her friendliness with any and all people that she meets reminds me that I probably ought to be more friendly myself. I just love how easy she is to please; Any gift, handmade or not, brings a smile to her face and she cherishes it. She also adores to give away her gifts to those she loves in order to share that joy. In fact, for Mother's Day this year she gave me one of her necklaces that a friend made her for her birthday so that I too could feel special. What a wonderful girl she is! So generous, kind and loving. I am lucky to be her mother.

Winter at the Whitlock's

As far as snow goes, this winter has been lame. We have gotten many days with terrible driving conditions but only one inch of snow at a time! No sledding for us.

However, no amount of snow is too small for this girl to attempt a snow angel (with tongue stuck out to catch the falling snow).

 

Fort-building, using the couch cushions and anything else available, is a daily occurrence in our house in winter. Unfortunately it means that we don't have a couch to sit on for most of the day.

Also, wrestling occurs every day throughout the year, until Daddy falls asleep, that is. This is usually how it begins.

This Momma is aching for spring to get here already! We are all ready for sunny walks, digging in our garden, and putting our winter clothes away. Ugh...how many more weeks of winter?

To Williamsburg! Again...

In early October we drove down to Virginia to meet my family at their favorite East Coast vacation spot, Williamsburg and its environs. We didn't actually tour Colonial Williamsburg, having done so on many occasions before, so this trip we took excursions to Jamestown Settlement, Shirley Plantation and a cool corn maze we found on the way.

Up first: my bottom. I post this here to document the fact that Andrew really likes to take pictures of my backside. How do I know this? As I uploaded the pictures from the vacation I noticed quite a number of photos that looked a lot like this. Either that or he is making some kind of statement about husband oppression and always having to walk behind me.

This is Shirley Plantation, one of the oldest homes in America. It has been owned by the same family for hundreds of years and they are still living in the upper floors of the house. Pictures of the interior are prohibited but needless to say it was old, incredibly fascinating and our tour guide was a charming old woman made as only The South can make them.

This is a field of cotton. I had never seen one before but Shirley is still a working plantation, as it has been for hundreds of years...yup, this place is OLD. It is amazing it is still here, in the same family since the 1600's. How many people can even say that their parents still live in the house they grew up in? Not many.

 Why am I so excited in this picture? I am looking at a root cellar. Strange though it may seem, I find root cellars endlessly fascinating and the excitement engendered by this colonial one could not be restrained.

Up next, Jamestown Settlement. This isn't the actual Jamestown, just a reconstruction and living history museum but really fun for the kids.

Ravenna cooking our dinner over the coals. I think she has squatting down to an art.

This is me on a reconstructed ship based on the vessel that brought John Smith to his New World Pocahontas, except that wasn't how the story really went...Either way, we learned that it majorly sucked to be an early colonist of Virginia. I was mostly interested in the gardens they had on display and the plants that they were growing in them. 

I am not sure if Opa Kevin is yawning or being scary for the camera here but it was too good not to post.

This was the only decent picture from the corn maze. It was a super cool one too but our photographer must have been pooped from our one hour and fifteen minute trek through the maze to VICTORY!

No post on this vacation would be complete without "The Chris Face." This face, demonstrated by his girlfriend Michelle and Andrew, perfectly illustrates his occasionally misanthropic disposition.

But we think that Michelle brings out the best in him.

 Of course, no family vacation is complete without some snuggles with Oma. And this concludes our pictorial journey.

My brother Josh was also on this vacation but this was the best we could get of him: