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...

Jordan and Carmen Wade

Jordan and Carmen had a beautiful wedding in Orlando on Friday. With only 1 week left until my due date, we were THRILLED to make the trip from NC to FL and back without any special appearances from our little bundle of joy. Our only hiccup was a flat tire on the side of I-95 about half-way through the trip down there.
Elaina and her cousins had a FANTASTIC time serving as flower girls.
Towards the end of the evening, Elaina commented to her Grammy, "I was dancing so much."
She really was a trooper to the very end when she crawled up on Matt's lap and quickly fell asleep.
Congratulations, Carmen and Jordan! We love you!

More pictures of the big day