November update

We've had a lot of fun and excitement in the past few weeks...

Elaina turned 3 years old on November 10. She celebrated with a "princess party" the weekend before her birthday with our friends from church.

On her actual birthday, she had a great time with Mommy, Daddy, Julia, and Grammy at the museum in Raleigh. She is really into dinosaurs right now, but she wasn't so sure about the giant dinosaurs at the museum. They were a lot more intimidating than the imaginary pink dinosaur that is often accused of hanging out in our entryway and playing with her shoes.

She received an easel as a birthday present, and she has enjoyed learning how to draw people. I think the arms and legs sticking straight out of the face are hilarious.

We've also enjoyed getting to see more of Miss Julia's personality in the past few weeks. She is a very smiley baby, and we can't get enough of her grins.

Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Matt's parents. This was Grandpa Rust's first opportunity to meet Julia. Elaina did a good job sharing her grandparents with her little sister.

Julia didn't get to enjoy all of the delicious food on her first Thanksgiving, but we couldn't resist a picture with the turkey!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

J- 4 weeks old!

Wow! Julia is already 4 weeks old. In the past four weeks, we have had some nights of 4-6 hours of continuous sleep, some nights of waking every hour to feed/comfort baby (or Elaina), battled an outbreak of thrush (very painful for breastfeeding mommy), witnessed Julia's first smile and coos, prepared for Halloween, and held on for dear life! Overall, we're doing well and enjoying life with our two girls. A few photos of the last few weeks:

We've also updated the October photo album with more photos.

julia's First Bath at Home

Julia's Movie Debut

Here are some video clips I took on Sunday (before Julia's birth), Monday (when Elaina met Julia), and Tuesday (day we brought Julia home).

Julia's First Days at Home

On Tuesday afternoon, we brought Julia home from the hospital.

Elaina was at home with Grammy and Papaw waiting on us to get there. She was thrilled to see us.

We gave Julia the tour of the house; she seemed to like her room.

Elaina's new favorite hobby is holding her baby sister. She does well holding still and supporting Julia's head. I'm hoping I can have Elaina changing diapers by the end of the month. Until then, I'll settle for having her hand me wipes when I'm changing Julia's diapers.

Julia had her first bath at home on Wednesday evening. She cried a little bit but loved having her hair washed under the faucet.

Grammy and Papaw have had fun playing with their two youngest grandchildren.

For all of you waiting anxiously from a distance, we added more photos from the last few days to our photo gallery.

Introducing Julia Jordan Rust

Victoria and I are thrilled to announce that our daughter has arrived. Julia Jordan Rust was born last night, October 2, 2011, at 11:05pm. She weighed in at 6lb 13oz and is 19.75in long (just a little smaller than her big sister was at birth). Everyone is doing well.

Baby Sister. Elaina took to her little sister very quickly. I think 'Julia' is becoming her new favorite word. Elaina loves getting to hold Julia and give her kisses. She also likes poking Julia gently with her finger, as if asking, "is it real?"

The Name. We followed the same naming convention as with Elaina: pick a first name that we like and is fairly well-known and easily spelled (my dad's spelling skills notwithstanding); pick a second name that is a meaningful family name. Elaina's middle name 'Elizabeth' is also her aunt Andrea's middle name (along with many other women on my side). Plus, it's a biblical name which makes it extra meaningful for us.

'Julia' is a name we agreed was established and elegant. 'Jordan' is the middle name of Julia's Uncle James Jordan Wade and also happens to be biblical. Plus, we knew Julia would be born near the time of Uncle Jordan's wedding.

The Pictures (The reason you're here). The pictures from the last few days are viewable here.

October Baby

Victoria and I are in the hospital this morning for her scheduled induction. Baby Girl has decided to be born in October, which means Mommy and Daddy are scrambling to find a replacement name for "September Rust." Actually, the name has been the only reliable aspect of the last stretch of this pregnancy.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, Victoria had strong enough contractions to warrant a little frenzy in the Rust household. We hurriedly repacked our bags (which had just been unpacked from our trip to Jordan's & Carmen's wedding). Elaina was following us around asking, "Where we going?" She knew something was up.

We thought something was up.

We didn't sleep well that week and neither did my parents who were on call to make the drive down here as soon as labor began. When Victoria went for her check-up on Thursday that week, the Doctor said she "would be shocked" if the baby weren't born within the next week.

Thinking we were days (or hours) away from our little one's arrival we gave my parents the go-ahead to drive down last weekend. We thought this would make the most of their five days off (weekend to weekend) and surely the baby would arrive before they needed to head back.

We lost that gamble.

Elaina has been on cloud nine all week with all the attention from Grandma and Grandpa. Meanwhile, Victoria and I have been able to relax, knowing we had babysitters already in the house all set for us to leave Elaina for the hospital. In fact, we were so relaxed, the contractions have remained at bay, even though we made multiple trips to the mall (remember how helpful Macy's was last time?)

At Victoria's appointment on Thursday, the Doctor was "shocked" to see Victoria was still no further along in the pregnancy. 2cm dilated and 70% effaced.

Sadly, my dad had to drive back today to be at work tomorrow morning. My mom took another day off and will fly out tomorrow evening. Jim and Sally arrived last night about 5pm. So now, we just need one more person to arrive (hint, hint, baby).

Victoria's now hooked up to pitocin and watching TV. She's feeling relaxed and hoping for a smooth delivery on this first day of week 41. This should be the day we've been waiting for! We look forward to introducing you to

______________ ______________ Rust in the very near future...