Arrival of Gwyneth Mae Whiteside

We welcomed Gwyneth Mae to our family on Friday, January 27th.

The story of her arrival started Thursday night around 6pm. We had an induction scheduled for Friday morning at 5am. I was still hopeful that I would go into labor on my own before that time...so on Thursday night Evie, Daddy and I went on a long walk. My contractions started getting consistent and were about 5 minutes apart. I called the on call OB around 9pm and she said we could come into the hospital at anytime. We waited a little longer at the house and headed up to the hospital around midnight.

Grammy and Pop had already planned to come to San Antonio Thursday night so they could stay with Evie when we went to the hospital for the induction on Friday morning.

Here's our last picture as a family of 3 - taken before Evie headed to bed on Thursday night

My last pregnancy picture - taken after we got checked in at the hospital
My contractions remained about 5 minutes apart throughout the night. My OB got to the hospital around 8am on Friday morning and said we needed to move labor along. She broke my water and said I needed to progress significantly in 2 hours. If I hadn't, then I would need to start Pitocin.

My contractions had actually slowed down after she broke my water - so when 10am rolled around it was time to start the Pitocin.

The nurse increased the level of Pitocin to get my contractions about 2 minutes apart. I wanted an epidural within an hour of starting the Pitocin but the anesthesiologist didn't come by the room until 12pm.

I was finally able to get some much needed rest some after the epidural! My nurse said she would check on me in a few hours to see how labor was progressing. After about an hour of having the epidural, I could feel the contractions getting harder on one side. I called for my nurse to come into the room around 1pm but she didn't show up until closer to 2pm...there were 17 babies born at the hospital on Friday so it was really busy! When my nurse came in around 2pm, she checked to see how I was progressing. The next thing I know, she was saying we were about to have a baby with just a few pushes! She called my OB and started getting the room ready for delivery. About 4 pushes later, Gwyneth arrived!

Gwyneth Mae Whiteside
Born January 27, 2012 at 2:20pm
9 pounds 5 ounces
20.5 inches long

Gwyneth and Dr. Atkerson
I was so excited to finally see that face!

One proud Daddy!

Ryan's parents brought Evie up to the hospital right after Gwyneth was born. She made this sign to welcome her little sister!

Me and my girls! Gwyneth looks almost identical to Evie as a baby!!
Our new family of 4

Evie has been great with Gwyneth! She always wants to hold or kiss her. The first few days she kept saying "that's my sister"

We were so excited to share Gwyneth's arrival with our family and friends! We had Evie meet her sister alone with Ryan and myself. Then Grammy and Pop came into the room to meet their 4th grand child. Lindsay, Paul and the twins came up to the hospital later that night.

The next day my parents got in from Arlington to meet Louis grand child #16!

Lots of friends stopped by that day too! In the morning, Nancy, Lisa and Paige came to meet Gwyneth.

Me and Nancy

Lisa and Gwyneth

And then that afternoon Carla and Kim stopped by

Carla and Gwyneth
Me and Kim
We decided to go home Saturday afternoon

Mommy, Daddy and Gwyneth outside of our room. We hung the "Gwyneth Mae" sign from my baby shower and the sign Evie made.

Later that evening, we had a quick dinner with Pat Pat and Paw Paw,

the Olers,

and Grammy and Pop

My sister Kate, brother in law Brent and their 3 kids drove in from Arlington Saturday afternoon. They stopped by to see Gwyneth before bed time and then came back on Sunday for lunch.

My brother Jack and sister in law Leigh also drove in from Austin on Sunday to meet Gwyneth!

It's been a great adjustment to being a family of 4! We are all so in love with sweet Gwyneth Mae!!

41 Week Pregnancy Update

My due date of January 17th has come and gone...and Gywneth is happy where she is! We are now at 41 weeks.

I went in for a nonstress test this week since I'm past my due date. Everything looked great! I'm encouraged that I'm still progressing but my doctor doesn't want me to go further than 10 days past my due date. We have an induction scheduled for Friday morning if Gwyneth doesn't come on her own before that day. I'm still holding out hope that she's just waiting until the last minute :)

40 Weeks
Me and Evie at our friend Hunt's pajama birthday party
We're so excited that we'll be meeting Gwyneth so soon!!

39 Week Pregnancy Update

I had my weekly OB appointment yesterday, and the doctor said there was good progress from last week. It looks like Gwyneth will be making her arrival any day now! My official due date is Tuesday, January 17th.

Here are some of my recent belly pictures:

31 Weeks

34 Weeks
Ryan and I met our friends Wes and Jamie for dinner and then to see the Nutcracker downtown
35 Weeks

38 Weeks
Girls Dinner at Lupe Tortilla (Me, Gwen, Nancy, Carla, Lisa and Kim)

We are all very excited to meet this little girl! I know Evie is dying to meet her sister! I think she's losing patience with me saying "we'll meet her very soon". I know it's hard for a 3 year old to hear that for 9 months without anything changing :)

Christmas at Kiowa

This year we spent the 25th with our Louis family in Arlington. I was 36 weeks so we weren't able to make a definite decision on if we would be traveling until the week of...but after the appointment with my OBGYN, we felt like it was safe to make the drive.

Daddy, Evie and I exchanged our gifts the night before we left San Antonio

Evie was such a polite gift opener! She would slowly open each gift...then she put the book, toy, etc in it's appropriate place (on the bookshelf or in the toy bins) before moving to the next present.

We got into Arlington on Friday afternoon and immediately went to my brother Tom and sister-in-law Rebekah's house to meet baby Simon who was only 6 days old! I definitely pulled the "I don't live in Arlington so I get to hold Simon" card with my family who lives in Arlington :) He is such a sweet baby!!

We went to my parent's church for a Christmas Eve service. They had a section of the service where the kids went up to the stage to listen to the Christmas story.

After the service, we took family photos in the lobby.

Cousins
(Alice, Evie, Henry, Thomas, Alice, Margaret and Simon)

After the service, we headed back to my sister Kate's house for dinner. Evie LOVED holding Simon! She would ask to hold him several times each day! I can't wait to see her with Gwyneth!

We emptied our reindeer food back at Pat Pat and Paw Paw's house

and put out milk and cookies for Santa

Christmas morning pictures with Mommy and Daddy

Evie loved opening her stocking to see what Santa brought her!

She thought the Rangers foam finger that Santa put in Paw Paw's stocking was so funny!

Paw Paw took Evie on his morning run

Christmas afternoon, we went to my sister's house for lunch. My mom had a special time with her grand kids of explaining the Christmas story with a nativity scene. Then each grand kid got a piece of cake and a candle to blow out after singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

My parents give extra presents to anyone who is at their house on Christmas Day (it's hard to get all 7 kids/families together at one time so this is one of the many incentives on making the trip). Paw Paw picked out a mini cupcake baking set for Evie which was right up her ally! We stopped by the grocery that afternoon to pick up cake mix and icing to make cupcakes for everyone that would be at our Christmas dinner.

After dinner, the grand kids acted out the Christmas story. Evie performed her school Feliz Navid dance for everyone - so she kept the angel costume on for the Christmas story re-enactment

More of the extra gifts for being at Kiowa on the 25th. My dad is a huge Rangers fan so he gave Ranger themed gifts. The kids were so excited about their Rangers t-shirts! Men received baseball hats and the women received Rangers socks.
Self-timer group picture in our Rangers gear

And a self-timer goofy picture

My brother Jack and sister-in-law Leigh arrived in Arlington on the 26th. Jack bought Leigh a puppy for Christmas so we all got to meet Bug. My parents brought in an old doll house from the garage as a joke for where Bug would be sleeping during their stay.

My brother Walt and sister-in-law Megan also arrived on the 26th. We were so excited our trips to Arlington overlapped with theirs! It was great getting to see Jackson and meet sweet Dillan (who was born this summer).

Walt with Henry (L) and Jackson (R)

Evie with her cousins Alice and Dillan

After brunch we had our family gift exchange. Evie loved the dress up set from Pat Pat and Paw Paw!

Jackson got a tool set from Pat Pat and Paw Paw. The best part was that they included golf tees (which were his nails) and a huge piece of styrofoam (to hammer the golf tees into). All of the kids LOVED playing with this!

I love my coffee condiment set from Leigh!
New Year's Eve weekend, we celebrated a late Christmas with our Whiteside family. We had brunch and then exchanged gits. Evie got a new doll from Grammy and Pop that came with a feeding and diapering set. She loves being a little mom to her new doll!

We had a great Christmas holiday - our last holiday as a family of 3 :)