Introducing

Our family welcomed a new little addition on Monday, May 17, 2010. Grace Isabel Simmons arrived in what could be described as a whirlwind of events. It started out typically enough as Andrea woke up at 2:40 am feeling some discomfort that she thought could be contractions. She had had an anesthetic when Hannah was born and wasn't quite sure what contractions really felt like. So, she waited and timed them and finally woke me up at 3:40 telling me it was "go" time. We were out of house ten minutes later racing toward Mercy Hospital in Folsom. We didn't arrive a moment too soon. As we were walking into the labor and delivery room, Andrea surprised us all by announcing that she had to push and the baby was coming right then. This caused quite a clamor amongst the nursing staff as they switched into urgent mode. Our nurses Sheri and Karen did a great job keeping us calm and reassuring us that they had plenty of experience delivering babies as we weren't even certain whether the doctor would make it before the baby. The nurses implored Andrea NOT to push, but then the Dr Haskins showed up in time for two pushes and Grace was here. The labor was so fast that Andrea did not even break a sweat!(Not an exaggeration.)




Grace is beautiful and perfect in every way!



Hannah was so excited to come to the hospital and meet her little sister.



We brought little Gracie home Wednesday and feel so blessed to have this new wonderful spirit in our family.

It's a girl

My friends that don't live close enough to have seen that I am pregnant recently pointed out that I never blogged the news. I am pregnant with a girl and due on May 21st. I actually started this post back in December and was just waiting for our ultrasound to post it. Well, our scanner has been on the fritz and I never got any of the pics uploaded and promptly forgot that I never posted about the pregnancy. So here it is better late than never.

We are so excited, especially Hannah. Hannah started telling people that her mommy "had a baby in her tummy" before we actually sat down and told her. Hannah is already saying that she is a big sister and knew from the beginning that it was a girl. Hannah likes to lift up my shirt so she can see my tummy and talks to the baby. Here conversations usually go like this....

"Hi baby Diamond. This is Hannah. I'm your big sister. I'm going to play with you and you can sleep in my crib. I'll sing you a song... (it's always Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)."

So you may have noticed that she called the baby "baby Diamond". Right after we told Hannah about the baby, we asked her what we should name her. Hannah immediately said "Diamond". We laughed and thought that was cute but assumed it would be one of many names Hannah would suggest over the pregnancy. Well, Hannah has never wavered and has just become firmer in the fact that the baby must be named Diamond. (She also says that the baby will have purple eyes.) So here was a recent conversation we had...

Me: "Hannah, can you say Grace?" (that's one of the names that we really like)
Hannah: "Mom, can you sat Diamond?"
Me: "Her nickname can be Gracie. Try Gracie."
Hannah: "Here nickname can be Diamond". Then, with quivering lips and tears that she has learned to come up with on cue, "If you name her Grace I will be very sad. "

What can you say to that?

With less than two weeks to go, we've been busy getting ready for baby Diamond. We finally got the crib set up and pulled out all the rest of the baby stuff. Now, we're just excited for her to come!

Superstar

Can you tell that she dressed herself?