3 Months Old

She's holding up four fingers over the 3 because she was definitely closer to four months old than three months when we took the picture. Children always have a way of telling the truth and throwing us under the bus no matter how young they are.

Anyway, our sweet little girl is growing up so quickly. Honestly I can't remember what all she was doing at this age but I do know that it was super cute. I'm pretty sure she was babbling, socially smiling, grabbing at toys and being the added ray of light that her mother needed each day.

2 Months Old

Anela is now 3 months old so I figured it is time to probably post her 2 month picture. As you can tell from the pictures it gets a little more difficult to get a decent one as they get bigger and can move around. She's still cute though so it doesn't really matter.

2 Month Stats:

• She weighs 11 pounds
• She is 56 cm long
• She is socially smiling
• She finally figured out breastfeeding so we are finished pumping to supplement 

A Little Behind

Finally here are some of Anela's newborn photos.

In Other News

When my mother first arrived I decided that I wanted her to potty-train the boys so that I wouldn't have three children in diapers. The first day went well because it was all brand new and fun. Having a baseball toilet seat was awesome. Day two was great because they got new "big boy" underwear. Day three was a disaster and we decided to stop because it didn't seem like they were ready. What do you think?

This was their own idea. In fact they kept calling them hats and putting them on their heads. Just today we pulled them out again and back on their heads they went.

I guess we'll try again in a few months when there aren't so many changes going on in our lives. Hopefully we will have more success even if the professional potty-trainer is no longer here. Maybe it is a good thing that I will have to do it on my own. I am getting sick just thinking of having to change messy underwear.

How is that Possible?

Today Anela turned one month old and we can't believe how quickly time is passing. She brings so much joy and happiness to our lives! We had a little photo shoot for her one month birthday. Here is a commentary with a few of the photos.

Hmmm...it's hard to remember but I think I am 1 month old. Yep, I am 1 month old.

You never ask a lady her age! Wink, wink. I'm much too young to be offended by that question.

Are you done yet mom? This photo session is BORING!

Peaceful at last. That's because my brother's are not here annoying me!!!

1 Month Stats:

Height: 19.6 inches

Weight: 8 lbs 2 oz (her birth weight)

A few special things about me:

1. I can hold my head up and look all around. I'm quite nosey.

2. I rolled over twice already. It may have been a total fluke but I did it.

3. I am quite capable of winning the heart of anyone I meet.

4. I sleep through the night already and have done so since the day I came home from the hospital.

5. I almost never cry. What I do can't even be considered a cry. I let out a scream every now and again to let my mom know that I am hungry. The only time I have cried is when they pulled me out of the womb.

6. I am a great baby and my mother better be thankful for that.

Celebrating Anela

I have had a Michael Jackson song running through my head all day long. The lyrics that I keep singing and even want to shout sometimes are, "Do you remember when we fell in love? Do you remember when we first met?" I have been thinking about these lyrics in regards to the sweetest little girl that entered our family a little over two weeks ago.  Honestly, I didn't fall in love with Anela until I saw and then held her for the first time. It was something that I wanted to happen for my entire pregnancy but I couldn't because of the unknown. I discovered that I let my fear of the unknown prevent me from experiencing a lot of emotions during pregnancy, especially happiness. So let me give you a rundown of things that I remember.

• I remember how excited I was for my 18 week ultrasound. I thought that perhaps we wanted the gender of our child to be a surprise but as it got closer I couldn't handle not knowing. During the anatomy scan, I watched the ultrasound tech's facial expressions, and I knew that something was wrong. She kept making a weird face and saying things like, "She isn't letting me get a good look at her heart" or "She has a little nose". I wasn't certain but I got the feeling that she was more concerned than she should have been.
• I remember looking at Sterling and seeing the worry in his eyes and being grateful that I had him by side at that appointment and forever.
• I remember the way in which Dr. Boehm delivered the news and even though it was hard, oddly enough it was also comforting.
• I remember hearing things like "heart defect", "clarifications" and "hypoplastic nasal bone". It was a lot of information to take in but I wasn't sad (at least not at that moment).
• I remember how hard it was to wait for the next two week so that we could get the results of the genetic testing.
• I remember getting the results of the genetic testing and breaking down crying. I wondered how I would bond with her? What would her life be like? How could Sterling and I be the parents of two children with disabilities? Why us?
• I remember calling our families to tell them the news and crying more. I didn't cry because I was sad or ashamed, I cried because I didn't know what to expect. We are so blessed to have supportive/loving families that will love Anela no matter what!
• I remember how overwhelming it was to read about her diagnosis and try to imagine what our future would be like. I cried myself to sleep more often than not and still wondered if I would love her the same or even as much as I love Makaio and Kekoa.
• I remember thinking about whether or not people would tell me that I had a beautiful baby. I wondered about a million vain and selfish things because all I had was a diagnosis and not an actual baby.
• I remember seeing her on ultrasound and thinking she looked like our family but wondering if that was just what I wanted to see because it made things easier (in my head).
• I remember crying some more and being sad that this was our story and not just someone else's.

Then my water broke and we were headed to the hospital about to meet our little girl for the first time.

• I remember getting prepped for the c-section and praying that somehow I would fall in love once she was brought around the curtain.
• I remember laying on the operating table and being nervous that I wouldn't be able to bond with her once I saw her.
• I remember the anesthesiologist giving me a play by play of the c-section and hoping that he would just say that I had a beautiful baby girl. He ended up saying just those words and I knew that he genuinely meant it.
• I remember that after Sterling saw her for the first time and came back around the curtain that I could tell by his facial expression that the prenatal diagnosis was true.
• I remember wondering if Sterling felt like he loved her and wanting him to tell me that everything was going to be okay.
• I remember hearing one of the nurse's ask if I wanted to see her and then bringing her over to me and slowly turning her toward me. It was evident that she had Down syndrome but I instantly fell in love with her. I shed a few tears and as those tears fell so did my fears. She was beautiful. She was our baby. She was perfect.
• I remember going to the NICU to see her for the first time. I saw her across the room. Everything changed to slow motion. As I walked toward her I knew that she was everything that I wanted her to be and more importantly she was everything that our family needed her to be.
• I remember sobbing as I held her for the first and knowing that I loved another human more than I ever thought possible. I am so in love with Anela and I can't imagine my life without her. 

So in response to Michael's questions...I do remember when I fell in love with her and I do remember when we first met. It all happened on March 06, 2013 around 8:00 pm. She won my heart when I first laid eyes on her and I fall in love with her more and more every day! 

What I remember today is that having Anela in our family will make us all better people.

Today is World Down Syndrome Day and I am so grateful for yet another reason to celebrate our sweet baby girl!

TMI Alert

Wednesday, March 06, 2013 seemed like it would be just another day in the Sheffield household. As the day progressed I began thinking that maybe it wouldn't be as routine as I would like it to be. It was Sterling's spring break and since we were going to be having a baby early the next morning, he stayed home so that we could do some final "new baby" preparations. For me that meant cleaning the house so that when I came home from the hospital I could feel happy about the cleanliness of my home. For Sterling that meant packing bags and getting things organized for the trip to the hospital. For the baby girl on her way it meant putting mommy into labor and seeing just how far she could push us.

At about 2:00 pm I started having some contractions but since I had never been in labor before I didn't know if it was anything that I should be worrying about. They were really painful but I was only having two an hour so I figured I would be in the clear until the next morning for the c-section. I called Labor and Delivery because they were so painful that they would make me cry (and people I like to think that I am not that big of a baby) and asked them if I should be concerned. They told me to count them and if they were 8-10 minutes apart for two hours then I could be admitted for monitoring. They told me to rest and drink a lot of water and that would help me determine if it was real or false labor.

As the next hour went by the pain increased and so did the frequency of the contractions. At first I was getting excited because it meant we would have a new baby before Thursday and then another contraction hit and I wasn't excited any longer. I did just as the nurse told me and got into bed, bottle of water in hand, and tried to relax. Each time I would have a contraction I would have to jump out of bed, pace around the house, breathe like a  crazy lady and wait out some of the worst pain that I have ever experienced in my life. This went on for the next couple of hours and though my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart, sometimes less, Sterling and I weren't sure if we should go to the hospital. Our c-section was scheduled and that is how we wanted it to stay.

At 4:00 pm Sterling and I started to seriously discuss whether or not we should be headed to the hospital and I had determined that if I had one more contraction that we would go. I like to think of it as inspiration to use the restroom but it was probably just my bladder needing to be emptied that landed me on the toilet. While emptying my bladder I started to have a contraction and I leaned to the side to try and decrease the pain. Please don't ask why leaning to the side decreases the pain from a contraction because it didn't. As I was sitting there in pain and thinking that I would now have to go to the hospital, it felt like someone popped a balloon inside of me and all of a sudden more water than flows over the Hoover Dam was escaping my body and filling to toilet to what I imagined would be a point of overflow. It just kept flowing and just when I thought it had stopped, it would start again.

I called out for Sterling and told him that my water broke and that is when the frantic walking in circles trying to make sense out of everything began. My vanity kicked in and all I could think of was to get a pad so that when we got to the hospital and I had to walk in that I wouldn't leak water everywhere. If your water ever breaks, please be aware that a pad is NOT going to hold all of the water that is going to leak out over the next couple of hours. Sterling quickly rounded up everything we would need to go to the hospital. He also managed to get the boys up and semi-ready to go with a friend that was now on her way to the house. He packed everything into the car and was ready to go. What did I do...I got a pad.

I then went over to the neighbor's house in kind of a last minute effort/hope that someone would be there to sit with the boys until Susie arrived, she was about 15 minutes away and I didn't think I had that kind of time to be waiting around. We were so blessed because the nanny was there with the neighbor girl and was more than happy to come and sit with the boys. Keep in mind that while Sterling was in "productive-get things done mode", I was in "chicken running around with her head cut off mode". Instead of waiting for Karah and Ava to come to the house I went and sat in the car. I quickly realized the error of my ways when Karah was staring at me like, "So what do you want me to do now, just walk into your house?"

I got out of the car, showed them into the house, apologized fifty times about the inconvenience and then walked out to the car again. This time Sterling was behind me and we were ready to go. Off into rush hour traffic we drove to get to the hospital and have a baby.

On the way to the hospital we discussed which entrance we would use. We talked about when we should notify our families. We talked about the crazy amount of water that is released when your water breaks. We talked about it all. For me it was a way of distracting myself from the fact that we were about to have a baby and even though it was scheduled for the next morning, I didn't know if I was ready.

We arrived at the hospital, valet parked the car (this is one of the many things that I love about Vanderbilt, "free" valet parking) and walked up to the Emergency Room check-in desk. I don't know if they know that emergency means quickly because as massive amounts of water were soaking my pants and soon the floor the receptionist was taking her sweet time checking in the girl in front of me which seemed to have no problems at all. I started to get self-conscious about my soaking wet pants and not because I really cared but because there was a girl that couldn't stop staring at me and looking all nervous. I tried to hold my purse in front of me to cover up the evidence but since my purse didn't stretch down below my knees it wasn't doing me any favors. I felt like the kid in first grade that peed her pants and hoped that nobody could tell even though it was glaringly obvious. In fact when the nurse from Labor and Delivery came to get me she literally looked at my pants and said, "You must be Miss Sheffield." Was it that obvious...YES!

We finally got checked into a delivery room, the nurses start prepping me for the c-section and all along I kept leaking fluid. How could there possibly be more fluid? I don't know but there was and it just kept coming. At one point I apologized to the nurses because I didn't know if I peed all over myself or if it was just more water leaking out but I felt badly because at this point I was unable to decipher between the two.

At about 6:30 pm they took me in to the operating room and starting getting me ready for the c-section and at 7:37 pm they pulled out the sweetest little baby girl that has won the hearts of everyone in our family. We couldn't be happier than we are right now with our perfect little addition.

Introducing Anela Malamalani Sheffield...

Snowmanning

You may not be familiar with the term "snowmanning" but clearly it is a word. We had our first snowfall of the year a while ago and Sterling took the boys out to building a snowman. Since that time the boys have been so confused and whenever it snows they think it is snowmanning instead of snowing. I try to correct them but they just look at me as if I am the one that doesn't know what I am talking about.

It snowed again a few days ago and the boys loved it. Later on in the day we went outside again and the snow had melted and they kept asking where the snow was? It looks like I am outnumbered when it comes to liking the snow and the cold.

Obviously we don't get as much snow as y'all do back West but Sterling made them each a 6 inch snowman and they loved them. Here they are enjoying the snow.

Christmas in Pictures: Christmas Day

A great big thank you to everyone that sent gifts to our family this year. The following is an onslaught of pictures of a few gifts and a few pictures of them opening gifts. If I had to title this group of pictures I would call them "The spoils of the Spoiled".

This year they received so many gifts, very few of them were from us, and they love every single one of them. Here is a list of all that they received, in no particular order. I'm probably forgetting something so don't be offended if it was your gift!

1. Trampoline

2. Kitchen

3. LeapFrog Alphabet Toy

4. Snow Hats

5. Clothing

6. Cleaning Trolley: Includes vacuum, mop, broom, dustpan and squirt bottle.

7. Gift cards and Cash

8. Basketball Hoop

9. Duplo Legos

10. Food to go with the kitchen

11. Ride-on Vehicle

12. Homemade Minky quilts

13. Sock Monkey's

14. Shoes and socks

15. A new Scentsy Monkey (Makaio has almost chewed the face off of his current one)

16. Tool Bench

17. Books

18. Boomophones

19. Movies

20.  Table and Chairs

Christmas in Pictures: Christmas Eve

I tried putting the gifts out on more than one occasion this year only to experience the same result each and every time...wrapping paper everywhere and two little boys squealing with excitement. They never really understood that what they were opening was anything more than a box but the box was just as fun as the toy inside. Here is a picture of one of the above described occasions.

Finally Christmas Eve came and in order to help them understand what we had been talking about the entire month, we let them help us put parts of the Nativity up on the wall while we told the story. It was hard not to fix the placement of each of the pieces but in the end it is the story of Jesus' birth that matters more than how our manger scene looked.

After we told the story of our Savior's birth we put the presents under the tree and this added a lot of excitement to their little lives. It seemed like Kekoa couldn't fall asleep after that and spent a lot of time running around his room screaming with pure joy.

After we were asleep (the boys and I), Sterling put a few things, by their shoes, outside of their bedroom door for the morning. I woke up to a bag of peanut M&M's by my shoes and Sterling had a few Rittersport bars by his.

I couldn't get far enough away from the goods and I don't have that handy panorama thing on my camera so here are the gifts in two separate pictures.

Christmas in Pictures: Decorating

Earlier this month we decorated our tree and let the boys help. They had such a great time putting up and pulling down all of the decorations. We had to put the decorations out of their reach but it didn't stop them from playing with the tree and getting pine needles everywhere. Makaio loved the fact that the pine needles kept falling onto the ground because that meant we could get the vacuum out (almost daily) and vacuum them up.

Here they are helping decorate the tree with Sterling. As you can tell, Kekoa was so proud of the work that he did.

Merry Christmas from The Sheffield's

Mr. Personality

Whenever people are around Kekoa acts like he is calm and well-behaved. Behind closed doors he is a completely different person. I love his little personality and sass. He makes me laugh so hard sometimes and I can't help but be grateful that he is such a goof-ball.

Here are a couple of pictures of him being himself.

Alter Egos

For Halloween this year we decided at the last minute on costumes for the boys. We thought it would be funny if they were alter egos of each other. So I introduce to you Clark Kent and Superman.

I love the picture of the two of them because of the look on Makaio's face and the way that Kekoa is looking at him.

On Halloween night we only went to two houses because we attended a Trunk-or-Treat at our church the Saturday before Halloween. Makaio didn't really care about getting candy in his pumpkin because sitting in the driver's seat of the suburban and playing with the steering wheel was too good to pass up. Kekoa on the other hand loved it! At first he didn't realize that each vehicle would be handing out candy so he kept going back to the same vehicle (about 7 times) before Sterling could convince him to move on. Once he realized that each person was going to give him candy he was in heaven.

Our First Pumpkin Patch

In college I worked on a farm that had a pumpkin patch and other festivities all during the month of October. I loved seeing families enjoy their time on the farm. I don't know if I ever thought that someday I would take my own children to a pumpkin patch but we did just that a few weekends ago and it was so much fun. The boys loved it and even threw a little fit when it was time to leave so I think we will make this a family tradition.

The boys especially loved the tire swings, digging in the dirt, looking at the animals (I didn't let them touch the animals) and the freedom to walk around and explore the farm. I wasn't sure if it was going to be a hit with the boys but since it was free for them, we couldn't pass it up. Here they are enjoying our family outing.