She's here! Sydney was born Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 at 9:41 p.m. CST. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 1/4 inches long. Not as planned, she arrived via C-section, but all went well and she is such a joy! These photos were taken of Sydney the day after her birthday. She is less than 24 hours old, but we feel like she's been a part of our lives for much longer. We are so happy to have her here to bring in 2010 with the best gift ever!
Daddy and Mama with their baby girl!
Here is the best doctor in NWA, Dr. Smith, with miss Sydney.
Here is the latest pregnant Danielle at 39 1/2 weeks. It is 5:15 a.m. and we are about to head to the hospital. Randall slept like a baby last night ... me, not so much ... but to be expected I am sure! We are filled with emotions from one end of the spectrum to another --- excited, nervous, happy, anxious --- you name it. We will be calling/texting/Facebooking after the big arrival. Some people say they feel their pregnancies last forever. I, on the other hand, feel like we just announced that we were expecting! What a joy it is to be sharing this incredible experience as a family.
Tonight, we went to dinner with our good friends Amanda & Kenny and Erin & Aaron. It hit us today that while of course we will have more dinners with friends, this is the last time it would only require two people driving to the restaurant --- no baby carrier and bag full of stuff and/or no instructions left for a babysitter. Randall works the next two days and then bright and early Wednesday we're off to begin the biggest day of our lives thus far. We've received lots of great advice on important items to pack for the hospital so I just need to pick up a couple more things tomorrow. We can't wait to meet our daughter and decide between our two finalist names, Sydney and Blair!
It's Saturday morning and I'm thinking about starting to put away our Christmas decorations in preparation for our little girl's scheduled arrival Wednesday (or before if she so chooses!). I don't think we would enjoy coming home to that chore. Everything is ready to go; just need to put up the Pack-n-Play where she will sleep at night in the beginning in our bedroom. We also need to sterilize bottles and we'll do a good cleaning of the house too. Her nursery is completely ready, and I THINK we are ready too!! We'll do a bit of relaxing these next few days and then it's time to say hello to our new lives :)
As a side note, I'm going to try to make chocolate chess pie for Randall today. This will be my third attempt. I tried last Christmas and my recipe resulted in soupy pies. I tried this past Thursday and had the correct recipe, but executed improperly. I've double-checked everything with R's mom, and I believe I will succeed this time. It's Randall's favorite pie, and I want to be able to make them. The recipe makes three pies, so I can freeze two of them for all of our upcoming visitors. Fingers crossed!
Christmas ornaments are the best souvenirs. Our newest additions this year are the three pictured here from our March trip to Europe: Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; Heidelberg, Germany. Another addition to our Christmas decor is the handmade nutcracker we bought in Germany. It has a nice, seasonal home on our mantle. Great memories from a great vacation!
Today was an exciting day for us. First of all, my doctor is fabulous and I've become so attached to her over the past months. She asked today if we were interested in inducing labor if baby girl has not arrived in the next week. I haven't made a ton of progress with dilation, and she said there's just no reason to wait unless we are opposed to being induced. One key thing about being induced is that we can plan (right up my alley) and we are certain our doctor can be there to deliver...something I really hoped for! Of course, she could come sooner, but the doc doesn't anticipate that. So, unless that happens, we are to arrive at the hospital at 5 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 30, and get ready to have our little girl. The doc says from her experience, best guess is our daughter will arrive mid to late afternoon. It is crazy to think we will be kissing our daughter in seven days or less.
I looked around the house tonight and thought about all the ways our lives will never be the same...in the best way possible. So the countdown begins...
On another note, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and our friend Rachel is spending the evening with us. We'll save all the present opening for Friday morning and then spend time on the phone with each of our parents & siblings. Not being in Virginia isn't easy, but knowing our chain of visitors will be starting very soon helps a lot. I'm officially off work now until March 1 (woohoo!!). Randall does have to work tomorrow, but then will be off for Christmas Day and the weekend. He's taking a week off once the baby arrives, and then my mom will be here right after that. Maybe we'll have some of this parenting stuff figured out before she gets here!
Randall, Danielle and Baby Girl Strickland hope to keep you updated on all the fun events in our lives via this blog --- particularly for our friends and family members who are spread out all over the U.S. and abroad. We are less than two weeks away from our due date (gasp!), and the pressure is on to come up with ways to keep you all connected! We recently bought a video camera, which will help us to share live moments of our little one, in addition to regular photos.
We can't wait to add to our family, and we hope you will keep up with all the "Strickland Shenanigans!"
I posted a picture of our family from last Christmas --- very soon, we'll be adding another face and Macy will no longer be the cutest little girl in our house :)
