Princess Camp

The week after Daniel was born, Emma went to Princess Camp. This was at a local dance studio from 9-Noon, M-F of one week. She spent time making crafts, learning princess manners, and dancing to princess music. It was basically like preschool for a week, and she loved getting out of the house for awhile and spending time with kids her own age.

At the end of the week, the princesses put on a performance for their families. Emma was so excited! Even though she had been practicing it was really hard for her to focus on the dance she had learned because we were there to watch her. She turned her body toward us instead of toward the front of the room, and I thought it was so cute she was performing just for us! By the end of the dance the excitement wore off and she was focusing more on the dance and really doing well. It was a lot of fun to watch her, she is really growing up!

Daniel Lynn Woods

Baby Daniel has arrived! He was born at 2:28am on June 19, 2011. He was 6 lbs. 9 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long. He was pretty impatient to make his entrance into this world, but he did a great job of waiting for his Daddy to make it home from Finland. He did an even better job of timing his birth to be a Father's Day gift!

Mike arrived home from his business trip late at night on June 17. We went to pick him up from the airport, and I was extremely worried because I was having regular contractions all the way to the airport. I was able to pull over and walk around a bit and was relieved when the contractions stopped. Once we picked up Mike and made it home, I was able to completely relax and not worry about the baby coming too soon.

The next day we slept in, relaxed, hung around the house, gave Mike his Father's Day presents and at about 4:00pm I started having labor pains, which turned into contractions every 5 minutes. I really wasn't interested in giving birth at that point, I just wanted to hang out with Mike. I talked him out of going to the hospital and into going to get pizza for dinner. Not 5 minutes after we left a huge thunderstorm hit and after picking up our pizza, we headed home in a downpour so thick our windshield wipers just couldn't keep up. At that point I realized I probably wasn't going to be able to stop the labor, this baby wanted out! We waited another hour before heading up to the hospital to have me checked.

Once we got there, they informed me I wasn't dilated enough to be admitted, but they were worried about sending me home. So I sat there for another hour before they decided to admit me. At that point we called the amazing family in our ward who had offered to help when I went into labor. Mike went home and put the kids to bed, the family came to stay the night, and he came back to the hospital. Pretty quickly after that I was given an epidural, we waited a couple of hours or so and since progress had slowed they gave me a level 1 of pitocin. Within 20 minutes I felt a strange pop and asked them to check me. I had dilated the last 4 cm and was ready to push! Shortly after, Daniel was born. We took lots of pictures, Daniel had his bath and nursed, and we were taken to our room. It was 5am before we were able to get to sleep. Luckily Mike was able to spend Sunday night at home and got over 10 hours of sleep, which really helped with his jet lag. He was able to take great care of me when I came home Monday morning.

Needless to say it was a very rough Father's Day for Mike, but one full of blessings. We are very excited to have Daniel in our family and we are loving having a new baby again.

Swim Lessons

The last two weeks of my pregnancy we enrolled the kids in swim lessons at an aquatic center in Gainesville. Coincidentally Mike was in Finland for the whole thing, so my friend Mindy who came to stay while Mike was gone, helped me juggle the kids since I was supposed to be in the water with Matthew. In all actuality I only ended up going to one of Matthew's lessons because holding him put so much pressure on my belly that I didn't dare keep doing it. He was somewhat disappointed, but it worked out and he will be getting another chance this summer to finish his lessons.

When we first moved to Georgia, I took the kids to the pool at our apartment complex, and Matthew fell head first into the pool. I fished him out, but he was pretty upset and wouldn't go near the water. The lesson was hard for him and I really had to talk him into going in the water, but he tried even though he was scared, and by the end of the lesson he was having a great time. He is much more willing to go in the water now, so even one lesson was a success in my opinion.

Emma's lessons went very well, and she made a lot of progress. She can float, kick her legs, put her face in the water and blow bubbles, all very good beginning progress. She loved being in the water and can't wait to learn more. She was really nervous the first couple of times we went, but she got more and more excited every time we went and ended up having a great time. Every time she succeeded in doing what the instructor asked she would find me from wherever I was watching and wave so I could give her a thumbs up and way to go. All in all the lessons were a huge success.