Pregnancy Reel

I took pictures every week throughout my pregnancy, but I never actually posted any of them. Mostly because I am not into selfies and I just couldn't bring myself to post a weird photo of me standing there. (Please no offense to you if that's your thing.) However, now I am really glad that I did take them because now I can see me throughout all the different stages. It's kinda fun that on my 40 week Samantha was already 6 days old!

Sammie's Newborn Pictures

When little Sammie was 2 weeks old we did a photo shoot with the amazing Holly Robinson! Holly was so great (even when Samantha peed on her blanket...oops). I don't really have much to say about these except for we love our baby girl... and she looks like her daddy.

We call this "Big Budda"

 

"Leave me alone"

"Stop with the pictures already"

 

 

Introducing Samantha Lyn Vance

How do you even start a post like this? The last 5 weeks have been full of the most joy, pain, and tears I have ever experienced. I am so incredibly grateful for this beautiful little ball of goodness. I guess I will start from the very beginning. It all started January 14th 2014. Ryan and I started the morning with my weekly Dr. visit. Everything was looking good and we even made jokes about how several people seem to come on the day of a Dr. appt. But I was still trying to prepare myself for coming late even though I was more than ready to have the baby, my mom always came late and my Dr. seemed to hint that I would probably come late. So I went about my regular business that day- went to work, washed my car, walked the dogs.

Around 8pm that night I went upstairs and sat on the floor by Ryan. Next thing I know I've peed my pants! I told Ryan that I had peed my pants and ran downstairs to the bathroom. Peeing my pants wasn't a usual occurrence so I had a thought that my water may have broke, but I thought it would be a lot more water if that was the case. So I decided to get dressed again and go back upstairs. It didn't take more than two seconds after sitting down for another gush to come. At this point I just started giggling and told Ryan we're having a baby! Ryan ran around the house packing anything and everything we might need into the car while I took a shower.

We headed to the hospital a little shell-shocked that this was actually happening--and a week early! I wasn't in any kind of pain. When we got checked in we found that I had only progressed to 2cm so we had a long night ahead of us. They let me wait for about 3 hours to see if I would start progressing on my own, but when they checked me after 3 hours I hadn't moved from my 2cm. So they had to get me started on the Pitocin. 8 hours and an epidural later I finally started pushing. I had to push for 2 hours which wouldn't have seemed that long except for Samantha crowned about an hour in to it. So for an hour the doctors and nurses kept telling me I was so so close and it was just a couple pushes away... ya no. At one point a nurse asked my Dr. if this was a big baby and my Dr. said no. Little did we all know I was pushing out a 9lb 2 oz little girl!

She did finally make her debut at 10:24 am on January 15th! She was 9lb 2 oz and 21 inches long and looked a little like my 80-year-old grandma. Unfortunately the tough part came after Samantha was born. I ended up hemorrhaging for about 45 min after. That took it's toll and my body and was definitely more painful than the birthing process, mostly because my epidural had worn off. Luckily I didn't end up needing a blood transfusion and after a few hours and a lot of pain medication I felt pretty good. I can tell that I've already forgotten the pain involved because I keep thinking I had a relatively good birth but technically it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. But I would do it over again, and will do it again because the benefit is an amazing little human.

We were so lucky to have amazing nurses and doctors throughout our entire stay at the hospital. We were there for 3 days and nights. While we were there we had tons of love and visitors. We truly are so blessed. And here's all the photos, because let's be honest that's all we really want to see.

My parents rushed to the hospital when they heard we were there to give us this cute teddy bear and balloons

Waiting

Eating tiger's blood flavored ice chips, not too bad

 

Feeling accomplished. (I'm more excited than I look)

 

 

 

 

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa

    Thanks to Holly Robinson for taking pictures at the hospital. We couldn't be more in love with our little girl. Expect every post from now on to somehow revolve around Samantha.

Christmas

This year for Christmas we were at my parents house. We were all together which makes the holiday that much more special. We started out with our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, it's incredibly yummy. And after we are all stuffed we played games most of the night. Once we could convince the younger kids to go to bed (they don't believe in Santa, but it's still fun to be surprised) we put out all the presents. Then while everyone else had a giant sleepover, Ryan and I went home to sleep. Yes, I'm an 8 1/2 month pregnant party-pooper who wanted her own bed. However, we were good sports and left as soon as Morgan called us at 6:30am.

We had a fun morning of opening presents and eating a yummy breakfast. I had no idea though that the Xbox game I got for Ryan, NBA jam would become the Christmas highlight for all the boys in the house. They were like little boys playing for hours and loving every minute of it. Which allowed all the girls to take naps, so it worked out great for everyone.

Ok this wasn't on Christmas, but I wanted to show how darling our house looks with Ryan's lights

Christmas table

Treat table

It got intense during our game of Spot It

Getting a little cramped with the stockings

More fun games

It was so fun letting the boys feel our little girl kick. Their reaction was priceless!

The finished product

NBA Jam Fest

 That afternoon we went to go see Saving Mr. Banks, which was super cute. And went home to watch some pretty hilarious home movies that we gave our dad on DVD for Christmas. Overall it was a great Christmas and we are so blessed to be able to spend it with family. And so grateful for our Saviors life and birth and for the opportunity to be reminded of it every December.