Girls Trip

Just got back from a girls' trip with my two little girls!  Thanks goodness I had family there to help me (shout out to Aunt Polly- holla!), but it was me and my girls, no Daddy.  It was also a series of "firsts" for Ms. Lily.  First plane trip, road trip, time at the beach, night spent in a hotel, etc.  She was awesome and her little face wore a look of shock, surprise and happiness the whole time.  It was so precious.  And the only thing more precious than one darling baby on the beach is two, I tell you!  I nearly exploded from all of the cuteness.  Lily's new bathing suit alone would produce a week's worth of happiness for me, but it was just nonstop cute.  Emmy and I holding hands searching for sea shells, our plans to make pixie dust from the beach sand, snuggling in bed with the two of them with no pressing schedule of places to go, the smell of sunscreen and beach air on their little skins, Emmy's comment that the plane did a "loopdiloo" and a "power dive" when it hit turbulence, putting them in matching outfits and taking their pictures on the beach at sunset, swimming in the pool with them twice a day and seeing how much better Emmy was swimming by the end of the week, and on and on and on and on.  I would spend another 10 hours in crammed in the backseat between two car seats for the endless supply of precious memories we just created.  And while it was a lot of work (as 2 kids 3 and under are always a lot of work), it was so relaxing and fun.  I feel badly that G missed all of this, but he is surely loving his time on a kayaking expedition with the boys (he will be back at the end of the week).  I loved our trip, though, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

First Words, Round 2

Lil has started babbling, I mean really babbling in the past few weeks.  This weekend she was consistently saying word-like sounds, rather than her usual scream/screech thing which can be rather alarming.  So what do you think her first, babbling little word was? Uh, huh.  You guessed it. Da-da!  All weekend long it was "Dadadadadadadad... dad dad... dad dad!  Dad dad!"  She would really catch her stride when she would see the delight on all three of our faces, and she would just say it louder and and over and over again.  It is so neat to hear what her little voice sounds like when she tries to say words.  Much deeper and more forceful than Emmy's.  Kind of a big voice for little Lil!  I have to say that all of my coaching for her to say Mama first has failed and I'm a bit saddened by this.  I know this is sick, but I really wanted her to love me best!  Emmy has always been a Daddy's girl and Lil was kind of my last hope, you know.  This may be a sign of her shifting affections, but hopefully it was just easier to say!

Mystery Baby

Here are the facts: Lil is fussy. Lil is rarely ever fussy. Lil is not sleeping through the night again. In fact, she is waking every few hours and refused to take a nap all weekend. It is as if she does not want to lay flat on her back. She has not been running a fever and otherwise seems to be well, though her reflux has been a little worse than usual. Lil is eating non-stop, but this isn't that different than baseline behavior. I checked her tiny little mouth for erupting teeth as she has been extra drooly and chewy lately. She wasn't exactly into this, but in my quick exam it seemed that maybe she is getting a tooth over to the side (odd) but nothing has poked through yet. In spite of her otherwise compliant temperment, Lil is refusing to disclose the exact nature of her malfunction.

Conclusion: Teething or ear infection? She has not experienced either to date so I don't really know what to expect. Praying it is only teeth given the history we have with chronic ear infections in this family.

Real conclusive conclusion: I wish babies could tell you what is wrong with them!

Post-Birthday Week

I think we are finally done celebrating Emmy's 3rd birthday! We had a family party on Friday night, which was wonderful. It was a princess party and Papa bought everyone crowns to wear and decorated with a Disney princess theme. Emmy loved this, of course. Her cake had little Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle dolls on it, and it was precious. She blew her candles out like such a big girl! Em had also had a party at school that day, and had cupcakes with her friends. That morning she was so excited to tell her favorite teachers that she was finally 3 years old! Adorable.

On Saturday, we had a party in our backyard with a whole crew of friends. Our house was nearly bursting with dear people and precious children, and we loved every minute of it. Emmy keeps asking for all of her friends to come back over and play on her swing set and with her toys. She really has a generous spirit and is pretty good at sharing with her friends these days. This seems to make her happy. She is thoughtful, too. For example, when everyone at the party kept telling her happy birthday, Emmy repeatedly reminded people that it was her friend, Ella's birthday too (her birthday is on the 6th and Em's is on the 9th). These two certainly have a special bond. Most of the kids came in costume for the party and Em and Ella were the only ones who had to change into a 2nd costume mid-party. Hillarious!

Lily is doing great these days, too. She is super sweet, growing like crazy and looking like a real baby. She has a rather insatiable appetite both for breast milk and baby food, and she is still spitting up like Mt. Vesuvius. I'm sure someday I'll miss these days of always being spit up on, but for now it just grosses me out. She and I both change clothes several times per day but still always smell a little sour. Big Lil will be 6 months old on Friday, so perhaps we are nearing the end of this spitting phase. That would be good for everyone! I hate to complain, though, because she may be the sweetest baby ever. So smiley, so gentle. Loves to laugh at her Daddy, and the bond she and Emmy have is beyond precious. They are so extremely happy to see each other at the end of the day, and their sweet reunions melt my heart. However, Emmy has already started making up reasons to be a tattle tale with her sister. Yesterday morning, she was glomming onto Lil in her baby carrier when we dropped Emmy off at her classroom. Emmy then pops up and turns to her teacher and says, "Ms. Jennifer, Lily pushed me!" I can assure this did not occur, yet to hear Emmy tell it Lily is always up to some mischief! Sisters.

Swing sets and sleep

2 things are making this mama very happy this week- swing sets and lovely little babies who sleep through the night! I almost hate to write about it lest I jinx her/us, but Lil Lil has slept through the night 4 nights in a row, which hasn't happened in a long time or really ever. When she was younger and still sleeping in our room, she would sort of sleep through the night but I would have to wake and give her a paci or settle her a few times briefly during the course of an eve. Then, she started waking up once or twice for an hour or more to eat and hang out, which has been going on for a few months, and has been killing me! Now, however, she is legitimately sleeping through the night in her own room. Sweet Lord, may it last! I pray we have turned a corner. Perhaps now that she is eating baby food I am finally able to get her tummy full enough to last through until morning. Hallelujah! Nearly as big of a deal is the rather large wooden swing set being installed in our backyard today in preparation for Ms. E's 3rd birthday. Love her heart, "all" she wanted for her birthday was a swingset and a Tangled princess dress. She got both. She is spoiled. Last night, she was even exhibiting the spolied tantrum-like behavior to prove it. I swear to you, I cannot help myself when it comes to this child! I really have to stop from wanting to give in to her every whim. I know it isn't good for anyone, but she has me under a spell! I actually must thank (blame?) the grandparents for indulging the swing set fantasy. My folks are pretty awesome like that. They and my extended family (grandparents, Aunt B and Uncle C) pretty much gave in to my every whim as a child, which was pretty awesome. And so it continues... Have I mentioned how excited I am for E's birthday? Ah... my 3 year old girl. So big, so little, such a love:)

Snow Day

Finally, we have some snow in our town! Granted, it wasn't enough to close the university or Emmy's school down (though every other school in town did close) so we aren't sharing the whole day together. We took our time this morning, lying in bed and gazing out the window at all of the pretty snow. Em was so excited to tell Lily all about it, and Lil could not stop staring at it! This was the first "big" snow she has seen. Lucky for Em, she goes to a super cool preschool that suits up all the 2 and 3 year olds in snow pants and lets them spend the majority of snowy days outside sledding and building snow people. We brought her sled to school with her today, and she was super stoked to get to share it with her friends. I'm sure when we get home, assuming the snow doesn't instantly melt, we will build us a snow girl. While I am certainly ready for spring, I must admit that this was a little unexpected fun to start off the week. Watching my two girls gaze out the window at the winter wonderland was definitely one of those priceless moments.

Babies & Big Girls

We talk a lot in our house about the "baby" and the "big girl." These are actually interchangable terms as sometimes Lil is the "big girl" because she is trying to accomplish a new task such as eating baby food (for the first time last week- loves it!) or sleeping in her nursery (for the first time last night, only because Mama loves co-sleeping with her babies not because she couldn't or wouldn't). Sometimes Emmy is the "baby" because she still is a bit of a baby at only 2 years old and I still need to hold, snuggle, rock and love on her and call her my baby. She likes this about half of the time, and the other half of the time she will inform me that she is a "big girl." Em also likes to talk about herself in the third person to Lil, rather incessantly, and call herself "Big Sister." She can narrate Big Sister's activities, thoughts and feelings to Lil for hours, which oddly enough Lil seems to enjoy. This is good because there seems to be no stopping it.

I start all of this talk to say that next week my first heart-stealing baby girl will be turning into a 3 year old "big girl" next week. I cannot believe this is happening already! It is wonderful to see her grow and learn and become her own person, but I'm also terrified that I will wake up one morning and she will be leaving for college. It goes that fast. I write this blog to have some kind of permanent record of this amazing and ephemeral experience of mothering these beautiful people. I want to remember every minute, every detail but sadly I know I will not. Still, I try. I realized the other day that I don't think I ever wrote Emmy's birth story and I want to. I've already forgotten many details, I'm sure but I want to remember as much as I can. Maybe I will write Lil's for her birthday in September.

The Story of E

We were so excited for your arrival, you just cannot imagine, but your parents are procrastinators at heart and we very late to get things ready for you. Because of your lack of nursery and my failure to organize all of the adorable baby things we had received for you from our baby showers, we were really hoping to make it the full 40 weeks. I also had an article I was trying to finish and some other things at work that made this scenario ideal. What I did not count on was that I should have been worried that you would be overdue instead of arriving early! At my 40 weeks appointment, there were no signs to indicate that you were coming any time soon other than my rather large and bloated appearance. I hadn't been able to wear shoes for a few weeks at this point and we finally had your nursery ready (little did I know, I would co-sleep with you for the first 8 months so this was not really necessary!), so we were more than anxious for your arrival. When I returned for my 41 week appointment and we still had no baby, my doctor set a date for the following Sunday night for me to come in for an induction if you had still not made an appearance. At 41 weeks, I finally stopped working and spent the rest of the week eating, sleeping, painting some pictures for your room and dreaming of my baby. I could hardly stand the wait any longer! I wanted to meet and hold you so badly.

On Sunday, March 8th, Daddy and I went to the hospital around 9pm. We told friends and family that we would call them the next day with an update as we were told to prepare for this to be a long wait. When we arrived, Aunt Rachel was there to welcome us and give me a few treats to help get me through the delivery. I was pretty nervous, so it was nice to see a friendly and familiar face. We got settled into our rather nice labor & delivery room, and they started the induction. Daddy and I brought our sattelite radio and hung out listening to the Grateful Dead channel and chatting away. We were excited, nervous and extremely happy all at once!

When I arrived, I was already having contractions but in no regular pattern and I could not feel them. The induction quickly caused me to have regular contractions every 4 minutes or so, which was uncomfortable though not very painful. This went on until about 9am the next morning when I finally conceded that an epidural would be nice so that I could maybe get some sleep. I knew I had a long road ahead of me as I still was not dialating at all. The epidural was lovely and I felt better than I had in months! I continued to labor all day and all evening, but made no progress. Finally, at 11pm my doctor came in and told me the news I had been dreading- I needed to have a c-section. Thankfully, all of our family had arrived by this point because it was clear that it was decision and action time. For some reason, I was very afraid of the c-section procedure and was pretty upset by the news that this was the plan. You and I both had been having some heart rate issues throughout the day, and when I finally consented to the c-section they literally ran me down the hall to the operating room. Daddy and I were separated for a bit, which was scary for us both. The procedure itself went well but I had adverse reactions to the anesthesia, which was also a bit frightening and they heavily sedated me and then put me to sleep as soon as you were delivered. But just before I went under, I saw you. You. You were here! My first view of you was hazy, but clear enough to see that you were perfect and just as I had imagined you with a head full of dark hair and big blue eyes. Unfortunately, we were separated for several hours while I recovered. Daddy helped give you your first bath, and he cared for you while I was waking up. Then, in the early morning hours of March 10th (you were born in the last minutes of March 9th at 11:56pm), I finally got to hold you, and nurse you and fall in love. We stayed in the hospital with you for 5 days because I needed some time to heal and you were a little slow on learning to feed and gain weight. This was a wonderful time for me, you, and Daddy. We had tons of help from fabulous nurses and friends and family. Every one was so excited to meet you and we loved showing you off! We hardly let you out of our sight because we were so happy to have you here. I know I can speak for Daddy when I say that we are even happier to have you now, and we are so proud of the amazing 3 year old person you are today. I love you, Emmy! Thanks for making me a mother and letting me share these 3 years with you. I look forward to our many adventures together in this life!