Let's Break This Down

I don't know if anyone will care to read this, but I had a lot of fun going through the calendar to revisit what we've done through the year. It was actually funny to do this because some of the things we did, I almost didn't remember that it was this year!

January: Justin decided to take the plunge and get Lasik. It was pretty funny to watch him on Vallium and wearing "bug shields."

February: Ski trip to Monarch, CO with the Eudeys, the Strouds and Kevin. Such a fun trip and it was over my birthday!! This month marked 26 years for me.

March: Trip to LAS VEGAS!! We went with friends Tim & Krystal. While we were there we also got to visit the Hoover Dam. Las Vegas has become one of our new favorite vacation spots.

April: Officially found out our lives were going to change completely! So excited to find out we were finally pregnant after trying for 16 months. Such a blessing and the start of a new journey.

May: Trip to Chicago, IL for Justin's cousin's wedding. Beautiful bride, beautiful wedding.

June: This was a busy month! Justin turned 28, we had two weddings of good friends, I went to Frisco, TX with my cousins, aunt, mom & sister, and we finished up the month with our annual garage sale!

July: Spent most of the month relaxing from previous month, with a quick trip up to Kansas City to attend the wedding of Justin's high school buddy Drew.

August: We went on our annual Cornell family vacation to the beach! Such a fun, relaxing week. We got to spend some time with our friend Sandy Collins on the way down and then spent the rest of our time soaking up the sun!

September: We went on a weekend trip to Scottsdale, AZ with good friends - Hutchisons and Lovetts. Got to see lots of sights and spend quality time with friends. Loved it!

October: Spent time preparing for our upcoming baby by attending our first childbirth class and we also attended my cousin Andrew's wedding.

November: Almost there - lots of time getting the rest of our "to do" list done before the baby. Had a wonderful shower hosted by awesome friends from church. We also wrapped up Financial Peace University that Justin coordinated for the first time.

December: On the 1st we welcomed Haylie Brooke! It was a wonderful and much anticipated day. This was a month of firsts, but mostly as a new family of three.

Happy New Year! Have a wonderful 2010.

Has it really been 4 weeks?

I don't know whether today marks Haylie's one month of life or just 4 weeks. Isn't it the same, even though she was born on the 1st? Who knows how to count this?

She is super great at celebrating - another really rough morning for Justin and I. She decided that at 4 am she wanted to be really awake and practice holding up her head. No rest for the weary.

I tried to measure the wiggle worm and my measuring tape said 20 inches-ish and we tried to weigh ourselves and I came up with 9 lbs. That sounds a bit much to me...so I think my scale is off...especially when it comes to showing me my weight!!

First big girl bath!

We've had a lot of fun with her so far. It's very tiring to be a new parent, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love the sweet times of snuggles, old woman burps in my face, the little grabs of her hands and seeing how she changes every single day! I can't believe it's been a month already. I love my little girl!

Christmas 2009

I'm a horrible mother and didn't take any pictures of Haylie's first Christmas. I guess I did at our family present exchange on Wednesday, but I didn't take any on the actual day. I'm already failing as a mom. Oh well. :)

Haylie trying out her new bumbo chair from Aunt Emily & Uncle Clint!

Grant, Brei & boys were able to come down for Christmas, although with the snow they sat on I-44 for like, 7 hours or something ridiculous like that just 4 miles from the I-35 exit. Justin's parents didn't make it down and we were really sad about that, but Barbara might be able to come down next weekend to see Haylie. Hopefully the weather/roads will be good!

Cornell cousins

Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas this year. Justin and I didn't exchange gifts since we figured our gift was Haylie. We went to my parents house for dinner, but that was kind of stressful (only for me I think) because Haylie decided she wanted to scream practically the entire time we were over there. Not to mention that getting up there was kind of a maze - between all the parked cars that were stranded, it was kind of an interesting time trying to find a way to get through!

It was great to be with family though and was a good first Christmas with our little girl.

Have a Caramel Christmas

I don't know what my title means...anyway...

Caramel is trying to figure out if she likes Haylie. She has been coming around more often and sniffs her whenever I let her get close. Below you can see that I think she finally agreed to let her stay. (Please ignore the random bottom of my face - its hard to take a self portrait!)

Haylie has a few Christmas outfits so I thought we would start them out today. Her shirt says "Who needs Santa, I've got grandparents!" (Courtesy of my mom) SOOO true.


We went to see Nana today in the hospital. This was the first time that they were able to meet so it was a very sweet moment. Haylie did really well and slept the whole time. She should have since she was screaming since early early this morning! :)

Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

With love from our family to yours.

Faces

We had Peyton come over and take some pictures of Haylie. I felt so bad, Haylie was not the best model. She kept screaming and was not workin' it for the camera. So, we got a lot of these shots :) Actually, Peyton did a really great job and got some good ones that I will have to post after Christmas. Don't want to ruin it for the grandparents, ha! :)

Target Bound

So today I thought I would venture out of my living room cave with a baby by myself. I needed to get some stuff at Target, and I have been procrastinating to do it. Well, today was the day I had to go, so I fed Haylie and bundled her up and off we went to Target. I was so nervous.

Now the four times we have used the carseat, she has fallen asleep. I figured full belly + car ride = naptime. Not so much. She was awake when we went into the store, although she did have her sleepy eyes on.

After shopping for maybe 7 minutes and me whispering over and over, "Please be good," she got a little tired of that and started to scream. Luckily I was getting the last of my items and off we went to checkout. Still screaming. At this point I am sweating a ton. Why couldn't she be asleep??

We escaped with only a few heated stares and made it home. THEN she fell right asleep. Man, no more public places for us for awhile. We might just stick to our living room cave a wee bit longer.

Before & After

Katie, Erin, Chellie & I in "birth order"

Babies in birth order (Chellie & Erin did a little switch!)

Olivia (Katie) - September

Brixton (Chellie) - October

Leisel (Erin) - November

Haylie (Me!) - December

We had a little playdate today and all the babies did REALLY well. It was so nice to have other new moms to talk to about all the issues of becoming a new mother. This might have to become a regular playdate :)

We survived!

I can not believe it but we have survived a week with a newborn! I was a little skeptical at first - especially when Justin left for the weekend and I wasn't sure what to do! But luckily my mom was able to stay with me and the baby for a lot of the time so that was a HUGE blessing!!

To celebrate her being 1 week old, we started off the day in tears. She had a very good night but about 5:20 am, she decided that she wanted to be a cry monster. Which left me in tears since I didn't know what to do. Oh hormones. They are kicking in big time.

Caramel has done pretty good with Haylie. She gets jealous of not getting enough "petting" time and gets skittish when Haylie cries, but for the most part, she is a good kitty.

Pics for your enjoyment!

Haylie Brooke

Leaving Mercy on 12/3/09 around 11 am

Haylie Brooke Cornell - fresh to the world!

Daddy holding daughter

Cousin Eli holding Haylie and Dog the dog watching!

Photo shoot at the hospital

Details of her arrival!

Sunday 11/29/09 - about 8pm the contractions started to come harder and closer together. We decided to time them and about the 5 minute mark, we head to the hospital. After being monitored and not having any progress made, we were allowed to go home (with sleeping pills!)

Monday 11/30/09 - I had contractions all night and all day. About 7 pm, Justin calls to the hospital to see if we can get sleeping pills or something for the contractions. They told us to come in to be monitored since they can't just give out a pill. We go up there thinking we were going to just be told the same thing from the previous night. We basically were - after they called my doctor we were told we could either go home or stay and be monitored through the night and be induced in the morning. At this point I'm still a 3 but am about 85% effaced. We chose to go home since the word "induce" was a bit scary to both of us - we were hesitant about having to end up with a c-section. I was given a double dose of pain meds which didn't even phase my pain and 2 sleeping pills.

Tuesday 12/1/09 - After running by McDonalds for some ice cream and cookies (to work through the contractions of course), went home and had more stronger contractions. I was so sleepy that I would fall asleep immediately but then have to get up to work through the contractions.

2:30 am we decide to go back to the hospital.
6:00 am I get an epidural and get started on pitocin.

8:45 am my doctor comes in to talk to me and to break my water. She says she'll see me later in the afternoon - that's probably how long it will take.

9:15ish am I feel like I need some relief. Another epidural is given at a higher dosage. I am loving this doctor who is numbing me up!

I am checked again pretty soon after that and I am at a 9!! The nurse had been working with me to show me how to push and she tells me to stop everything and calls my doctor to come ASAP! By the time my doctor gets there, I push for about 30 minutes or so and Haylie is born at 10:35 am!!

It all happened so fast that I am surprised I remember a lot of it. I am just SO happy she is finally here!