Church

Today Ella, Anne and I made it to church (5 minutes early non the less). It takes a bit of planning to get there by 9 am, with both girls fed and dressed;

especially since Benj leaves before we wake up for his meetings.

Yes, they wore matching dresses; though Anne stayed in her car seat covered with a pink blanket, so she could have been in pj's and no one would have known the difference.

Anne does not love getting kisses as much as Ella loves giving them; poor thing.

Yesterday we went to our Stake Picnic

(we're celebrating 80 years of the San Francisco Stake/ arrival of the Ship Brooklyn).

Do you think we could have made it across the plains as pioneers?

I think you are forced to get out and recover faster with a second child, because the first child needs to get out of the house. We've been busy doing one outing a day- usually meeting friends in the morning and walking; though one evening we did get to go out and have a dutch oven meal.

The whole thing (chicken, bread, potatoes, cake) was cooked in dutch ovens- it was delicious.

Today my friend Jen came over and to take some pictures of Anne for me.

She is a stellar photographer and has a great camera; Thanks JJ!

Ella watching intently, and taking care of business on the phone:

One Week Old

In some ways the second (and consecutive) child gets the short end of the stick. I have a scrapbook for Ella (though not yet complete), and I am confident Anne won't get one unless she puts it together herself.

But in other ways, the second time around you get to do the things you did not do the first time and wish you would have... like newborn pictures. We had Ella's 3, 6, 9, 12 and 18 month pictures, but missed the newborn/before three month photo opt. So today, on Anne's one week birthday and with the help of my mom before she leaves town tonight, we did the picture thing.

Thank you "Aunt" Debbie for the matching dresses!

Anne Catherine Becker

Born: July 1, 2008: 11:05 am

Weight: 7lbs 14oz

Length: 20 1/2 inches

I woke up the morning of the 1st around 1 am with fairly regular contractions. They were strong enough that I couldn't sleep through them, but not strong enough to cause any alarm. I had a very long early labor period with Ella and got sent home from the hospital the first time we went (the day before Ella was born), and I was determined not to repeat that extra trip with Anne. So, we were basically waiting for the 5-1-1 rule before getting worked up over nothing... but the contractions never lasted more than 30-40 seconds.

We left our house just after 10 am... still quick 30-40 second contractions, but they were getting more painful. Benj made it to the hospital (Redwood City) in 15 minutes; it normally takes 30 from door-to-door, but he never went less than 115mph while on the 280.

We pulled up in front of the hospital around 10:20, Benj helped me out of the car- big contraction, water broke (new experience since my water did not break with Ella), fortunately for us and the valet man it broke on the cement and not in the car:).

Made it up to the maternity ward and into our room at 10:30 am and Anne was born at 11:05!

There was a bit of drama and a few painful moments in that 35 minutes, but suffice it to say, Benj is an awesome "Dulo." Dr. Hoff made it just in time to put on some gloves before baby Anne was born on the first push; whew.

Although I was convinced that the "ring of fire" was literally going to slice my body in two, we all survived, and are now home safe and sound.

I really prefer having the baby born in the morning/daytime. Ella was born at night, and I think it makes recovery a lot more difficult. Grandma Lee Lee and Ella were able to come visit us that afternoon after Ella's nap so Ella could give her little sister a more thorough check up.

View of the East Bay and Bay from our window and a picture of us going home.