Happy Birthday, Dear Samantha

I am a bit behind on my posting, and it's for good reason.... sweet Sami joined us a few weeks early on September 25th in the wee hours of the morning.

I started feeling contractions and just "off" on Monday the 23rd, but went to work and carried on with my day. Matt and I left work early that day because we anticipated Samantha's arrival, and the contractions continued... but they just weren't painful enough to head to the hospital.  Tuesday started off a lot like Monday, but we just headed to work and just figured the contractions and yucky feeling was to be expected in the last few weeks of pregnancy.  Tuesday night I just knew something wasn't right, and laid in bed sleeplessly until 12:45AM when I felt my water break! We flew from bed, called my mom to come up to our house, and got everything in the car to head to the hospital. By the time my mom arrived my contractions were PAINFUL and extremely close together. I could hardly sit in the car, and thank goodness there was no traffic at 1:30AM.  Of course, when we got to the hospital the doors were all locked, and we had to head to the opposite end of the hospital campus to the ER.  The hospital staff wanted me to fill out paperwork and sign documents, and at that point I was in intense pain and scribbled a few things so that they could wheel me (over every single bump in the complex!) to labor and delivery.  After a whirlwind labor, our sweet Samantha arrived at 4:51AM weighing in at 6lbs 13 oz and 19.5 inches. She was almost 2 lbs lighter than her big brother was, but Momma isn't complaining about that! She is such a good eater and a decent sleeper, and we couldn't be happier that our sweet girl joined our lives on 9/25/13!

Monday 9/23... before the festivities began! (37 weeks and 3 days)

She is here! 4:51AM on 9/25/13

Daddy holding his baby girl for the first time

Our first visitor was Gigi after she dropped Riley off at school. These two girls spent lots of time rocking in that chair at the hospital!

Uncle Johnny was our second visitor, and we were SO glad he brought food after an eventful night!

We decided to take a little snooze before big brother got out of school to meet his little sis!

Thank you for the flowers and balloon, Nana and Pop Pop!  They brightened up our hospital room!

Big brother is here!! First stop, soap and water for those hands!

He was SO sweet to his new baby sister from the very beginning. He grinned from ear to ear and just wanted to kiss her cheeks!

The kisses just kept coming, I think he loves her!

Our family of four 

LaLa also paid us a visit when Riley was there. He wanted to make sure baby Sami was covered up with a blankie so that she didn't get cold...

...and wanted to make sure she had her hat on!  What a big helper.

LaLa with her niece and nephew!

Riley made a special picture for Sami at school that day. He gave it to her before he left. So sweet...