Christmas in Charleston!

Claire was very big on decorating this year. Claire and Tom decorated outside putting up lights...Claire wanted to make sure we were the most festive on our street & she succeeded. Claire and Tom picked out a beautiful tree for Claire and I to decorate. Claire has only had one snow day this year, and she immediately went outside to build snowmen. We didn't get much snow, but enough to build snowmen apparently. We can't wait to go visit everyone else's decorations and maybe some snow in Oakland...they usually have enough for everyone!

Fa la la la la la la la

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Claire's Frostys

8 Weeks Old Already!

Time is going by so fast...too fast. Sami will be 8 weeks old this Friday (12/21). She weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz. at her 4 week check-up, so I'm anxious to see how much she weighs next week when we go in for shots...yuck! She is changing so much. Last night she slept ALL NIGHT! After several nights of staying up until 4am and 5am, I was extremely excited. She woke up this morning smiling and cooing for over an hour. She loves her sister...Claire now changes diapers, sings to Sami, and rocks Sami to sleep. Sami just seems so peaceful when Claire is holding her. I've been getting out of the house a lot lately to do quick Christmas shopping. Tom and Claire stay home with Sami while I deal with the Christmas crowds...fun. Mom came in over the weekend to make Christmas cookies with Kerri and me. Mom was exhausted by the time the weekend was over...I wasn't much help with the cookies due to lack of sleep, but Kerri helped out a lot while I helped taste test all of the cookies. We are headed to Oakland Saturday to visit the Beachy's and then off to Morgantown for Christmas.

Sami smiling at her Grandma Candy when she arrived to make cookies.

Sami in her new swing where she spends a lot of her day sleeping

Sami with remote...Tom staged this same picture of Claire around the same age...Sami & Claire look exactly alike.

Thanksgiving 11.22.07

Pappy Vanderbilt and Mindy (and Gus, Kato, and Kali...the dogs) drove down from New Jersey for Thanksgiving. Uncle Rob and Aunt Matia drove in from Oakland, MD. We had a great time! Kerri and Will had a great dinner for all of us...except the mashed potatoes...LOL! Thank goodness I didn't have to cook that big meal...I'm still off the hook for any major projects right now. It felt good to get dressed, put on some make-up and get out of the house. I hadn't climbed stairs since the c-section, and Kerri and Will have tons of those for me to climb...I was a little sore the next day. Aunt Matia taught Claire how to knit hats, so that is how they spent most of the day. Matia made a beautiful Christmas hat for Sami, and Claire made a cute hat for herself.

The hosts of Thanksgiving Dinner...Aunt Kerri & Uncle Will!

Tom and Pappy Vanderbilt finishing up the turkey.

Uncle Rob spent most of the day watching football.

Aunt Kerri, me, and Sami.

Kerri's baby (monster) Leo finally got to meet Sami too!

Beachy visit to Charleston 11.17.07

Tom's family finally made it down to Charleston to visit their new family member. Grandma Donna, Pap Beachy, Aunt Tammy, Cousin Jenessa, & Cousin JennaSue all loaded up in Aunt Tammy's van to visit for the day. It was great to see everybody. Janessa and JennaSue have grown up sooooooooooooo much. They are little women now!

Sami being held by her cousin JennaSue who wanted to take Sami home with her.

Grandma Donna could have held Sami forever. It wasn't a long enough visit for her at all!

Our surprise visitor, Pap Beachy, even got in on the holding action!

Happy Halloween! 10.31.07

I went in to take a quick picture of Sami sleeping soundly with her Daddy's baby blanket. As I pressed the button to take her picture she tried to open her eyes and gave a quick smile...may
already have another ham on my hands.

Thanks to Sami's cousin Libby, she has a complete wardrobe including holiday outfits. Cole called to remind me that there was a Halloween outfit amongst all of the clothes she let me borrow...

I finally got these pictures off of Mom's camera of Claire's last visit to Morgantown. She misses her best friend Melissa terribly, but they get to spend time together whenever we visit Morgantown.

10.29.07

Everything is going pretty well home. Sami sleeps alot, so I'm resting. I have my own personal chef here with me for 2 weeks...Grandma Candy. So, I'm eating great thanks to my mom. I don't know what I would have done without her here. I'm so sore that it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes for me to get out of bed. In the meantime, mom gets Sami up and changes her until I get situated to feed her. Thanks, Mom!

Sami's first bath at home. Grandma Candy did the honors...she's just better at it than I am. She was quick about it so Sami wouldn't freeze to death.

Sami's first milk mustache...

Samantha Vanderbilt Beachy 10.26.07

So, it has taken me awhile to post, but I have a good excuse. The baby arrived a littler earlier than expected. So, here is the story...

So it was Friday evening and I had just finished up work and felt completely exhausted. I called Kerri to beg her to go get a pedicure with me...I so wanted to sit in that great massage chair. I couldn't talk Kerri into it, so I decided to lay down in bed for a bit and rest. 20 minutes later at 5:20pm, I felt what I thought was my water breaking. I yelled for Claire, she came running, and wanted to run right back out...she said she didn't think she could handle this after looking at the bed. I told her to call Aunt Kerri and Uncle Will for I knew they could get to me faster than Tommy could since he was still at work. Kerri thought she was lying, and that we were trying to trick her into coming over to go get that pedicure. After a little convincing, Kerri and Will were on their way. Claire made the other important phone calls...Mom first because she had 2 1/2 hours of traveling ahead of her. Claire even called her best friend back in Morgantown (Melissa) to let her know her sister was coming. I was in and out of the shower before Kerri and Will arrived. I called Tommy...he was on his way home from work, and he too thought I was lying. He didn't want to show up at the hospital and me not be there. I was having contractions every four minutes on the dot, but they weren't very painful. With my past labor experience, I figured I had plenty of time and decided to "Google" water breaking due to the large amount of blood that I saw. This made Will a bit nervous as he just wanted to get me to the hospital. So, after I got some info off of the Internet and Kerri put on some make-up, we were all off to the hospital. Will kept track of my contractions as he drove the speed limit (per Kerri's request) to the hospital. Tom walked in the door of the hospital right behind us which means no speed limits were being followed by him. Kerri and Claire checked me in while Tom took me to the second floor....

Tom wasn't allowed to go back to my room with me. They told him he would have to wait 30 minutes while they got me situated. I told the nurse my water had broken & there was a lot of blood. She continued to get the monitor set up until she saw all of the blood. The next thing I new, there were about 6 people in my room asking me a lot of questions. The doctor did an ultrasound and determined my placenta was tearing away from my uterus, and they would have to do an emergency c section. I thought "OK, I can deal with this...it's the last thing I wanted to happen, but OK." They started to wheel me down the hallway, and I looked up and saw Tom. He asked them if he could go, and they told him no because they were putting me under. WHAT!?! Then they were running me down the hallway, and I was panicking. When they transferred me to the operating table I asked them why I had to be put under, and the doctor said there was not time to administer an epidural because the placenta was 90% torn away from the uterus which could cause the baby to loose oxygen completely if we waited any longer. I got a little panicky, borderline hyperventilating. I had no one in there to tell me everything was going to be okay....the baby?...me? I would say within 2 minutes I was out. Next thing I knew I was being asked if I recognized this person...it was Tom. I was told I had a healthy baby girl 7 lbs. 2 oz. I got to take a peek at her as they wheeled me from the recovery room to my regular room, and I was relieved. I didn't get to hold her for a couple of hours, but when I finally did I wondered why in the world I waited 10 years to do this again...I fell in love with her instantly.

Sami had many visitors at the hospital...

Claire of course who was so helpful to me in the hospital. Aunt Kerri, Uncle Will, Grandma Candy, Amanda Morris, Misty Jackson, and Great-Grandma May.

Above is Great Grandma May who was the first to get Sami to wake up a little bit. She was looking around finally at her surroundings.

Aunt Kerri spent a lot of time with us at the hospital. She couldn't put Sami down.

Baby Shower 10.13.07

Kerri and Cole gave me a wonderful baby shower! From the food to the decorations to the guests...it was fabulous! We had a great time. The guests: Grandma Candy (soon to be grandma again), Aunt Kerri, Aunt Cole, Claire (soon to finally be a big sister), Libby (my precious niece), Great Grandma Mae, Jan Franck (my mom's oldest friend), Amanda Morris (my oldest friend), Evan (Tually) Morris (Amanda's 13 1/2 month old), and Jodie Bias (one of my many bosses). The shower was at Aunt Kerri's house where we had way too much food....Kerri and Cole always go overboard with every detail. I received lots of great gifts & lots of "hand me downs"...now I just need the baby to arrive! Baby is due November 3, 6, or 9th...these are all of the different due dates I have been given. As of Wednesday, October 17th the baby already weighs 7 lbs. 3 oz. at 37 weeks, so it shouldn't be long or else I'm going to have a giant baby.