Milestones - April 2010

This week I took the girls for their check-ups. Together; at the same time. I thought it would be easier. It was not. It may have been except for the 50 minute wait to see the doctor, by which time both girls were in total melt down mode; but thankfully Grandma was with us to lend an extra set of hands!

This was Sammie’s four-year check-up, and the first where she got to answer all the questions. Of course, she came down with a terrible case of shyness and whispered all her answers to our doctor, but he did get his answers and determined that she is on track in most areas, and as always, ahead of the curve on vocabulary and pronunciation. The one area we need to work more on with Sammie, which we already knew was letter and number recognition. She is able to spell and write her first name, she has known all her colors since she was two, and can currently count to twenty in English and ten in Spanish. She weighed in at a whopping 29 pounds putting her in the sixth percentile, and measured 37 ½ inches putting her in the tenth percentile. So Sammie remains our petite little monkey as always!

For Brenna this was her fifteen month check-up, and she was happy as always to be in the doctor’s office; not so much. We were a little worried that we were not doing as good with Brenna on working with her on speech. Not that we are comparing, but Sammie has always been verbal and way ahead of the curve on vocabulary. While we understand that every child is different, I was worried that I wasn’t working with Brenna as well as we did with Sammie. So I was very happy to hear our doctor tell us that she’s actually ahead on speech (she says a lot of different words, just not consistently, and understands complex instructions), especially for a second child, and is WAY ahead on gross motor skills. When he asked if she climbs, I informed him that we find her on top of the kitchen table on a regular basis. Brenna weighed in at 23 ½ pounds putting her in the fifty sixth percentile and measured 31 ½ inches long putting her in the seventy fourth percentile.

Most importantly, both girls are HEALTHY and doing very well! Despite having to get two shots, Brenna was cheered up later in the day, and Sammie was thrilled that she escaped having any at this visit. (it has now become THE question when I tell her that we are going to see the doctor)

Happy 4th Birthday Sammie!!!

I can hardly believe that our little Sammie is four years old today! Mo-Mo, The Mo-ster, Sammie Bug, Mo-Mo-licious, Monkey, Pumpkin; all nicknames we have had for her over the last four years.

Sammie is an amazing little girl (I’m not biased at all, am I?). She’s incredibly attune to other’s feelings and expressions, and can’t stand to see anyone upset (except maybe her little sister sometimes…). She’s our little princess, with the vivid imagination. She likes to play rough and tumble, and then turn around and make beds for all her animals and read her “babies” bed time stories. She is extremely smart and can figure things out seemingly at the speed of light. (Read here, she had Daddy’s iPhone down before I even knew how to turn it on!) She is fiercely independent and wants to do just about everything herself, but on her own time, she’ll come over and ask for some snuggle time or to lay with you and watch a movie. She is extremely meticulous, although I have no idea where she gets it from ;-)  She’s a complete daddy’s girl, but then also a mommy’s girl too. She loves her little sister, and although she is rougher with her than we would like at times, she’s intensely protective of her, and won’t even let her friends at school come by her.

We have watched you grow from a little baby…

To a toddler…

To a big sister…

To a pre-schooler…

Watching her grow from a baby to a little girl has been an incredible experience. I’ve had frustrations, particularly the age of three; however my joys over the past four years have been more than I could ever have imagined and so much more than I feel like I can describe. The best way to sum it up is what I have heard from others; it is like having your heart walk outside your body, all the time, every day. I have enjoyed each and every day of her life, and feel extremely blessed to be a part of it.

We are so very proud of our little Princess Sammie; of her heart, her mind, her love, her smiles, her sass, her giggles, her tender kisses for boo-boos, her hugs, her kisses, her snuggles, her humor, her expression, her dancing, her outgoing behavior; from the top her head, to the tips of her toes, we love her to pieces, always and forever. Happy Birthday Angel, we love you so very much!!!

And then...

…And then she was here!

Samantha Morrow Carr was born at 10:13 a.m., weighing in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. and measuring 19 ¼ inches long.

Proud Papa...

Proud Mommy...

On This Day Four Years Ago...

Four years ago today, I was 39 weeks pregnant with Sammie. I went to my 39 week check up with my doctor who informed me that although I had been having sporadic contractions for a couple of days, nothing was going on. He said he’d see me the following week for my next appointment and we would discuss induction options at that time. I was ok with that. I really wanted to go into labor on my own with her, and had such a great pregnancy that I wasn’t in a big hurry.


I came home, shared the news with Nathan, we had dinner and sat out on the deck enjoying the extremely nice weather. We were talking about her coming soon and Nathan said “I feel like this is the calm before the storm”. After a while I was tired and headed up to bed. An hour later Nathan came up to join me and surprise! My water broke, at 10:30 that night.

After a quick shower and calls to our families, we headed to the hospital. In the car my contractions were about seven minutes apart and once they got me hooked up to the monitors, they were three minutes apart. They decided to give me Pitocin as things were not progressing as they would have liked. Pitocin is the devil, for anyone who doesn’t know. It took them seven horrible attempts to get my IV started, but finally, they did, around 3 a.m. Then the party really got started, or the pain, whichever way you want to look at it.


We waited patiently…

Our parents and sisters waited patiently…

Somewhere around 7:30, I FINALLY got my epidural, which was wonderful! Within ten seconds of them giving it to me, I could sit up and open my eyes again, and the first thing I saw was complete relief on Nathan’s face. We were settled down and I was MUCH more comfortable, so I told him to head down for some food, since the nurse told us it would be a while (I was at 3 ½ before the epidural). He left and our moms came in to keep me company.


At about 8:30 the shift change had occurred and the new nurse came in to check me and asked our moms to step out. Guess what? It was baby time!!! She immediately asked me where “Dad” was, and I said we just sent him down for breakfast! So she called our moms back in and had them get a hold of Nathan while she called my doctor. Nathan thought we were playing a joke on him! But he came up anyway, just to be sure!

I’ll spare you the details of course, but I will say it went way better than I had feared, and then…