Our New Addition!!

It's a girl!!  Nora Alene Atkinson was born today at 11:48 am. Nora was 6 lbs 12 oz. and 19 1/4 inches long. Momma and baby are doing great. Krystal's labor only lasted 3 hours and she did awesome. I think the comment made by our nurse after the delivery pretty much summed it all up when she said "Krystal looks like a princess but gives birth like a horse!"  Ha ha ha!  A couple of hours after the birth, I went and picked up Victoria and brought her back to the hospital to meet her new little sister. It was kind of an emotional time for Victoria. She didn't like when the baby cried and she's not too sure yet about having to share her mommy. At one point she said "Victoria want to go home now. Mommy drop baby on the chair, Okay?" By the time we left the hospital she had warmed up a little bit and even attempted to give Nora a little kiss but kind of chickened out at the last second. Anyway, Krystal will post more of the details when she gets home but I wanted to at least post of few pics cause the grandparents are dying to see their new granddaughter.

Five Days Late And Counting...

I can't believe this baby isn't here yet! I've tried everything to induce labor on my own...long, fast power walking, the elliptical, dancing and bouncing around the house...even Castor Oil (don't even want to talk about how sick that stuff made me feel). My Doctor even stripped the membranes last Monday. Everyone, even the doc said he was a bit surprised that that didn't work for me considering how dilated I was and how far effaced! I have contractions but they've felt mild and no big deal. I'm beginning to think I can't go into labor myself! I had another visit with the doctor yesterday. I am now 4cm dilated and pretty much all the way effaced, and the baby's head is lower than ever....so why haven't I had this baby?!?

We left the office with a scheduled induction and NST...because the birthing unit is packed right now the soonest they could schedule an induction was for Monday, August 30th (an entire week away!!) with a monitoring of the baby on Friday to check the fluid levels and everything else.

I'm tired, frustrated, worried about the baby, nervous about how Victoria will be while she stays with our good friends Hilary, Eric and Sierra, bummed that I have to be induced again (I really wanted to be able to say "Shawn, I think my water just broke!"), and a mix of other emotions....but not as much as I would expect to be....which is a blessing! I feel pretty calm actually and I know that is because of prayers!

Then, by some miracle, my doctor's office called me today and told me a spot had just opened up for a sooner induction time. Thursday at 6:00am! So the end is insight...I don't have much longer to see if I will go into labor by myself, but I think I would have gone crazy if I had to wait until Monday to hold this baby. Now I'm just hoping that none of the nurses slip and tell us the sex of the baby when they see it on the monitor! We've waited too long for that to happen! 

Shawn is working from home right now...I think my sister made him a little nervous when she said that my water will probably just break and then by the time Shawn got home from work, Victoria was dropped off, and we finally made it to the hospital (20 minutes from our house) I would already be holding the baby! ha ha So Shawn decided to work from home for the rest of the week.

Well, our next post WILL be of the baby and I can NOT wait to share that news with you!   

Feelin' Kinda Crabby

We LOVE Maryland Crabs! We first tried them when my parents came out for a visit and I have been craving them ever since! So I was pretty excited when Shawn called me from work the other day and told me we were having crabs for dinner! One of his supervisors at work goes out crabbing and brought Shawn some left overs (a dozen) that she had steamed up and seasoned with Old Bay. Thank you Kathy! We had our own little crab feast. They were delish, and I am starting to crave them again...

How to catch a crab:

 1. String chicken necks on a rope. 

2. Let rope sit in the water for awhile.

3. Pull up rope and see the crabs clinching the chicken necks. Collect your crabs.

How to eat a crab: You have to work for the crab meat. First you need the paper to cover the table, next, a mallet and The Knife. After some hitting and cracking and pulling apart you get to savor that oh-so-yummy grab meat in the claws, legs and body. Caution: avoid eating the lungs and the mustard looking stuff (sick). 

Victoria likes to hit the crabs.

Poor little guy...he was actually pretty big...and pretty darn tasty!

The next week, Kathy (the same lady who gave us the blue crabs) brought Shawn some soft shell crabs for us to try (yes, they all love Shawn at work. He is for sure a favorite. They even threw him a little surprise party a couple of days ago for the new baby. A party complete with cake and gifts; a cute handmade baby blanket and $200 cash from everyone in the office. SO sweet of them!) Back to the soft shell crabs...everyone says they are "REALLY good"...

Definitely not the words we would use to describe them. I almost threw up! They tasted pretty fishy/dirty water like...a familiar taste...like our tap water. Great. So now I am wondering if our tap water is coming from the Chesapeake Bay..? (we buy our drinking water) But our tap water is the kind that you can smell a little bit (a little like the water in Texarkana...) so every time I went to wash the dishes, brush my teeth, take a shower...I was reminded of these little beasts...

Shawn preparing to fry the crabs. These are soft shell crabs so you cover them in flour and Old Bay seasoning and fry up the whole thing (after it's been cleaned out).

Frying the crabs....they don't look that bad, right? maybe they were old, or we just did it wrong and that's why they didn't taste that great...I don't know. 

Then you place the crab on a sandwich with mayo and tomatoes. Then eat it. I think that was part of the problem. Seeing a whole crab laying in the middle of my sandwich was just not that appetizing. You should have seen Shawn's face when he took his first bite! Pretty funny! He didn't know what to think.

Maybe we'll go out somewhere and give them a second try. Or maybe not.

After the soft shell crabs, we were all crabbed out for awhile. So we headed to the Maryland State BBQ Bash!

Smoked turkey leg and chopped pork barbecue sandwiches! It was good food, but not as good as the smoked/bbq stuff we ate in Texarkana.

Dinner is never complete without something sweet for us. 

Love me some funnel cake!

Tom Cruise on Home Teaching

Shawn sent me this video link today...I thought it was totally hilarious. Of course it's really only funny if you are LDS and you know what Home Teaching is. 

To learn more about Latter Day Saints  visit http://mormon.org/

38 Weeks and 1 Day...The Two Week Countdown

This pregnancy has been awesome and has just flown by...except for these last couple of weeks. I am ready, we all are ready for this baby to be here...ready to hear the doctor say "it's a...." and fill in that blank. I'm ready to hold and kiss this active little baby (and give it more room to stretch and kick outside my belly. There is no more room in there!). I've been hoping I go into labor at least a little bit early (I've had August 6th in mind...which is tomorrow ha ha). Lets face it, most of us get to the point in pregnancy where we are ready to meet our babes, see our feet again, and be able to fit into something other than the same stretchy pants and white T-shirt (sorry Shawn, I've tried to look cute for you, but it's obvious we've hit that stage of the pregnancy :) ).

But really it's been such an easy pregnancy and such a blessing. I just can't wait to deliver another baby!

Victoria has been SO cute about the "baby in mommy's tummy". She kisses my belly all the time, puts her hands on my belly and waits for the baby to move, or she will lay her face on the baby bump and feel it's hickups, rolls and kicks and she'll laugh. She's always asking "Is the baby moving? or baby sleeping?". (She really is amazing at talking and talking in sentences. She cracks us up with some of the stuff she says!)

Anyway, just wanted to give a little update and post a few random pictures of recently that will have to count as my "belly pics".

We had a nice little visit from Shawn's brother Justin and his cute wife Jessica. We had to pose for a picture with our baby bumps and matching shirts. Jessica and Justin are having a girl in October!

Busy bakers.

A little play date at Chuck E Cheese with Seth and Sierra! {Thanks for the pictures Hil}

All three of them loved this ride!

And the two trouble causers. They make me smile when they team up and cause all sorts of ruckus...usually Trixie (our kitty) is involved too...more so the victim.  

Enjoying a blue lollypop together.

Celebrating Freedom and Fun

We kicked off the Independence Day weekend with carnies, funnel cakes, and carousels. Victoria loved most of the rides. Her favorite was the big slide. Shawn loved it too...they went down it like 5 times! I tried to ride on more rides with Victoria but they put a stop to it when they saw my pregnant belly...I tried to tell them it was just because I had eaten too many funnel cakes!

There is nothing quite like a carnival. It brings out some interesting people!  

It looked a kind of funny to see a grown man riding on all the kid rides...it's all Shawn's stomach could handle anyway!

 

Here's the little girl playing one of the carnival games and holding up the prize she won.
 

The next night we took Victoria to see Toy Story 3 in the theater. It was just too cute watching her sit in her own seat (with a couple boosters stacked up) watching the movie, eating popcorn, and yelling for more "COKE!". She lasted through the whole movie, there was only a few minutes where she got a little antsy but a piece of licorice and mommy/daddy's lap made it all better!   

Here is Victoria in her 4th of July Sunday outfit. We went to watch the fireworks later Sunday night and finished up our sparklers and poppers the next couple of nights.
 

She loves stomping the poppers!
 

Sparklers were another story...she held them once or twice, tried to touch the spark, got it a little too close to her face and then touched the hot end after it burnt out, and now she runs from them!

On July 2nd Victoria completed the summer reading program at our local library. We had to read and log 25 books :) 

That was easy for her. She got a completion certificate and picked out a new book, her reward from the library!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar...she picked a classic! 

While us girls were out shopping, Victoria saw this princess accessory kit and had to have it. It came with some clip on earrings but she hasn't let me put them on her yet. So when we got home we had to play a little dress up!

I love having a little girl!

{Random} This picture was supposed to go with our post about when my family came to visit but my mom just recently emailed it to me. We went out for some Maryland crabs while my parents and brother were here and they were delicious!! I've been craving them ever since! They are a lot of work, but so yummy! Even Victoria was getting in on the fun and hitting the crabs with the mallet. Shawn and I feel like true Marylanders now that we've eaten the crabs!