Aquarium of the Pacific

Today Don, Sandy, and I took the girls to the aquarium in Long Beach. Madilyn loves seeing the fish, but especially enjoys the sea otters/lions, and sharks! We finally took the plunge and bought an annual membership. I really hope this will be a great activity for the girls and I during the weeks. They even have special shows and events just for members. (Look for a hopeful post next month when Super Grover makes his appearance!)

We had a great time looking at all kinds of sea life. We even saw the largest lobsters and crabs I have EVER seen before! Very impressive. We had hoped to catch the 4D special movie on our way out, but after sitting in the theatre for a bit, they announced it was broken and we wouldn't be able to see the show after all. Bummer! Oh well, still a great trip :)

TWO Months!

I know technically Grace is already two months and one week old, but for the sake of time slipping away from me, we're going to round down.....and call this her two month post :)

Grace had her two month well-baby exam this past Tuesday and did awesome. She is in the 25% for her head and length and nearly the 75% for her weight. When we say she is completely different that Madilyn, we mean it! Madilyn was always long and lean (even now her height put her in the 90%+ while her weight remains in the 25%) and Grace is short and chubby. But, I love it when babies have rolls on their rolls.....isn't that how they should be?!?

Grace is now:
-lifting her head and chest up and fully turn her head in both directions independently
-eating lots during the day, but spacing out night feedings (yay!!!)
-sleeping a 6-9 hour stretch at night before eating and going back down (This is HUGE!)
-giving us lots of smiles through the day
-enjoying when people talk to her-
-and cooing in return!
-loving bathtime
-still disliking car rides, but we'll get there :)

Madilyn goes "Horsey Riding"!

Madilyn has a real love for animals. There is a road we drive on often, which passes through an equestrian neighborhood. Here she sees many people riding their horses along the paths and always exclaims, "can I ride that horsey?". Bless her heart, she's been asking me this same question for MONTHS. Each and every time I tell her that her Great Aunt Tracy has some horses and when we go to Arizona, we'll see if she can ride one. Well, the girl has an elephants memory. No sooner were we in the car heading to the airport (from LAX to Phoenix) did she realize we were going to Arizona, and that's where the horses are!

We got everything worked out and went out to the Ranch where Great Aunt Tracy, Great Uncle Tommy, and Great Grandpa Don live. All the way there Madilyn kept saying "Can't wait to see a horsey and a cowboy"! She was SOOOOO excited.

Merry Christmas 2010

Here we are again, almost another year done! This time last year it was just Madilyn and me here in Phoenix. We were preparing to move back to OK and prepare for Matt's homecoming from his first deployment. Now, we're blessed to be together as a family of four!

The last year has been full of many new and exciting changes (and additions!). We had a homecoming, survived an ice storm, moved to Los Angeles, and welcomed Grace.....just to name a few.

Once again we've come back to Phoenix for Christmas. The girls and I have been here since December 12th, and Matt joined us on the 18th. We're in our last week and getting ready to head back to LA on Sunday, January 2nd.

We have enjoyed our time with family and friends. Madilyn has spent countless hours jumping on the trampoline. We made Christmas cookies. We played at the park. But most importantly, we've had to opportunity to spend time with so many people so dear to our hearts.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

Two Weeks

Well, time continues to fly by faster than I can ever imagine. Grace is two weeks old today and doing GREAT!

She's been a wonderful baby from the start. Her jaundice has cleared up and I can already tell she's growing rapidly. Madilyn wore preemie clothes for the first 6 weeks and newborn for several weeks after that. Grace never fit in preemie and has already outgrown her newborn attire.

We have her two week well baby visit scheduled for tomorrow night, so I'll come back and update her stats then. Last week, at her one week visit, she had already made it (almost) back to her birth weight (she weighed in at 7lbs 6oz). The pedi said they like to have babies back at birth weight by 2 weeks and she did it in half the time! Can't wait to see what they say tomorrow :)

Termites?!?!?

Here's a quick peek at our house last weekend. Oy.

We moved out Friday, back in on Monday. We've been so busy trying to clean after they fumigated. Sure hope we don't have to do this again while we're here!

Grace Alexandria

The short version:
Grace Alexandria made her grand entrance into the world on Monday, November 1, 2010 at 8:03pm. She weighed in at seven pounds, seven ounces and 19.5 inches. She is a happy, healthy, little girl!

The long version:
With contractions coming and going in no regular pattern all weekend, my mom decided to head for LA on Halloween day. She thought Miss Grace might be trying to make her way out sometime soon and we didn't want her to miss it! Halloween evening we had our normal neighborhood potluck where people continued to ask "so, ready for that baby yet?". Well, of course! But my answer was simply this, "Grace can come anytime after tonight. Tonight she needs to stay inside so madilyn can go trick or treating with her daddy. He missed this last year when he was deployed." Well, I guess little Grace was listening!

As I went to bed that night, I had no idea what was about to come :) I woke around 2am on Monday with some contractions and general discomfort. Like the other times, I figured it was all a game and I'd be able to settle in again soon. Wrong! I never did get back to sleep. By 4am the contractions were coming every 3 minutes. I didn't want to wake anyone, so I got up and walked through the house, labored on my birthing ball, and just tried to focus through each contraction. I even sat down and checked my e-mail for a bit.

By 730 or so, we finally decided maybe the contractions weren't going to stop after all. I was not in an immense amount of pain and continued to go about things between the contractions. We called my Aunt Kathleen to come and stay with Madilyn while we went to the hospital to see about having a baby...

We got to the hospital around 11am. I was 4cm, 80% effaced, and still contracting every 3 minutes. Since we knew I'd need antibiotics during labor, they moved us into a laboring room and the fun began.

After my initial dose of IV antibiotics had run their course, I was allowed out of the bed to labor in the whirlpool tub. The jets felt great and the contractions were very tolerable. In between being monitored, I also walked the halls.

A little after 5 one of my OB's associates came in to break my water. I was 6cm and he couldn't believe how calm I was without an epidural. Apparently the epidural rate is very high at the hospital and the docs and nurses were in awe that I had chosen to go without. Not too long after my water was broken, (maybe 45 min?) the contractions started coming on HARD. I was doing my best to breathe through them, my mom and Matt placed counter pressure on my back to help with the pain, and they both continued to offer words of support and encouragement.

I changed positions many times during the next two hours. Rolling from one side to the other, using the squatting bars, standing, etc, to get Grace to come down and get ready to push. Once I was fully dilated, I began to push. I pushed through 5 or 6 contractions, and Grace alexandria was born at 8:03pm. The pushing phase of this labor was certainly harder than my last, but the recovery has been so much better! Thanks to an excellent delivery team, I didn't tear at all! Hooray for no stitches and minimal pain by the next day!

Madilyn was allowed to come in Tuesday afternoon to meet her new little sister and snuggle up with Mommy. I know it was only a day, but I sure missed her! She's been a great big sister and when Grace cries, Madilyn replies, "don't cry baby, it's okay, I love you baby Grace." What a little sweetheart.

Because all went so well, the doctors let us leave the hospital after 24 hours, and we were able to come home and sleep in our own beds last night!

Without any more, the pictures you're all waiting for :)

How do you.....

encourage a creative, artistic spirt in your little one?

A challenging question sometimes as I find myself getting wrapped up in my chores. Lately, I've been reminding myself to focus more on Madilyn, and helping her to express her creativity.

She LOVES art. In all forms. Sit her down with a coloring book and crayons and she'll color for quite a while. Especially with someone by her side. Hey, things are more fun as a team! She's also gotten better at staying within the lines. Something I'm quite impressed by at only two and a half! I've recently been searching out various fall and winter projects for her to help with. We're going to try and make most of our holiday decorations this year now that she's at the age where she understands. I think it's going to be lots of fun!

We also encourage her to help dress herself, even if the color combination might not always be something mommy or daddy would have pick out ourselves. For Madilyn, this usually means leggings of some sort and  any one of her shirts. She's not too picky about the shirts. But, we can forget the most important part of her outfit.....a tutu! Yes, our little gal has declared that she is in fact a ballerina and must wear her tutu not matter what else she is wearing. She only takes it off for sleep. I love it.

This blog post was actually inspired by the new artist series diapers put out recently by bumGenius. They are manufactured by Cotton Babies and they have been our favorite diapers since we started cloth diapering when Madilyn was 9 months! (And let me just tell you how excited I am about an itty bitty in cloth soon!!!!) Anyway, this first collection is just the first in a series BumGenius will be releasing. I think it's great that they are giving independent artists a chance to place their creativity into such a wonderful product.

So what about you, what do you do to encourage your little one's creative and artistic spirit???

Pregnancy Update

Since I have neglected to post about baby #2 for quite some time now, I'll do my best to play catch up.

When we got to San Pedro, I was assigned to a doc at a local office. She was nice. Nothing "special", but I thought she'd be alright anyway (it's hard to find a doc you really love....especially when you really loved your last one! The bar just gets raised.). The office informed me that she delivers at two hospitals, both in Long Beach, CA. I thought, "Okay, not too bad, LB is only 12 miles away and I'm sure the hospitals are great." I continued to focus on moving in and getting settled.

Well, a few weeks ago Matt and I went in for our hospital tour. It didn't take us long to see that this was NOT the hospital for us! The rooms were small, dirty, and policies were more than dated. I really wasn't comfortable with how much control they wanted to take over OUR birth (not theirs!) and baby. Way too many places Matt wouldn't be allowed to go with me or baby. I could write them all out, but lets just say it was bad news.

The other hospital wasn't an option for me either.  While researching, I found this hospital to have one of the top NICUs and look pretty high tech. But that's just it. I don't want high tech. I don't want every intervention coming my way unless it's actually needed. I also don't want to share a recovery room.

So, I did what anyone would do at 33 weeks.....panic! Here I was just weeks from my due date and suddenly feeling out of control about the delivery. Luckily, I had spoken with a neighbor of mine a few weeks prior who had great things to say about her OB. On our way home from the tour, we stopped by her house and got the info for this new doc. I knew changing wasn't going to be easy though. I called my primary care doc and requested a referral to the new OB. Once that was settled, I called to schedule an appointment. Uh oh, more bumps in the road....

Turns out I was so far along, she wanted all of my records to review before she would consider seeing me! Yikes! I knew I was cutting it close and scrambled to get my records to her as quickly as possible. Yesterday, I finally received word that she's accepting me! Woohoo!!!! So, I have my first appointment with her on the 14th. (Never-mind that I'll be 35.5 weeks along at that point...)

Anyway, I'm really hoping I like this one! The change is good for many reasons, really. This change means we're going to be delivering in Torrance. I've decided on Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. Location wise, it is about 9 miles from our house. Torrance is also halfway between Matt's work and our home. This is great because if I were to need him to meet me at the hospital, he could get there much faster!

So there it is. I've got 5.5 weeks to go until our due date. CRAZY.  Any way you look at it, we'll be meeting this next little one soon. I'm so excited!

And just for fun...