Fun week!

Aliyah Grace at 2 1/2 weeks old! I swear she almost rolled over this afternoon, she was somewhat on her side and rolled onto her belly! She's a mover!

A pinic outside with our cousins! Max has had a FUN week with them, learned how to say Emma and Luke and will be very sad to see them go home tomorrow.
Last night we went swimming.

Max loves doing whatever the big kids are, if they were swinging, Max wanted to be too!
Aunt Ellie has been a big help this week entertaining Max and helping with the baby too!

On Sunday Aunt Julie came out to visit too!

First bath, luckily my kids cords fall off quickly and they can get real baths!

My sweet pea...

Pictures...

The tale is told backwards so if you want to scroll down to the bottom and work your way back up it would probably make more sense (I should have thought about that but oh well!).... finally some pictures!

This is Max's first Play-Doh, one of the many fun things he and daddy did this week!
Aliyah's first "bath", just sponge bath till the cord falls off.

Trying to get the 2 of them together...

This melts my heart:)

Most of his interaction with her is showing her all his toys, she's very impressed....

Going home!

Its still all about him right?!?!

Grandma Diana with Aliyah

No words....

Grandpa Ken with Aliyah

Max scored some new stuff as usual!

Sweet pea!

Grandma Melody with brand new Aliyah!

Daddy and his baby girl!

Mom-mom with Aliyah

Happy family!

Our first week

Its been such a fun week together as a family. Nate used vacation time and took the whole week off and its been wonderful. Aliyah still has her days and nights mixed up. During the day she sleeps so soundly in the pac-n-play and I have to wake her every 3 hours to eat and force her awake just to eat enough. At night she nurses every few hours and doesn't like to settle often into her bassinet and ends up sleeping on us a lot of the time but we'll get there eventually. It is fun when she's awake some so we can see her eyes. And it is helpful sometimes for her to be sleeping during the day when we're on such a eating/napping schedule with Max so we still get to eat some normal family meals and such. The best part for Max has been having daddy home. He has just had SO much fun with daddy this week we will really miss him when he goes to work on Monday. My mom will be over most of the week to help out but I told her she has her work cut out for her. Max has been awesome otherwise. Even the crying doesn't phase him and he likes showing baby Ally his cars and trucks (which the collection seems to grow every day between Grandma and daddy!). He likes to check on her in the pac-n-play and can say Ally pretty clearly.
Luckily for me, she's not a marathon nurser like Max was and we're usually done (even with multiple diaper changes) in a half an hour so that helps a lot! The only problem is keeping her awake sometimes so she can finish.
I really look forward now to the 2 week mark. That's when we can introduce the paci (which I think she'll like cause she's a sucker) and can introduce a bottle which eases my mind some. I just hope she takes both of them well.
Otherwise I'm still feeling good, so much better than after Max. Besides the normal loosing sleep at night we're pretty lucky with her so far.

I have some humorous instructions, like not lifting anything heavier than her and limiting stairs which with Max and the only bathroom being upstairs is obviously not a possibility but I'm trying to take it easy so I can heal up quickly.

We're just so blessed and so happy to complete our family!

Aliyah Grace

Aliyah Grace is here! Born on 6/5 at 9:16pm. She weighed 7lbs, 7oz and is 20 inches long. She's completely beautiful, even the nurses said so just like they did with Max (after they admitted again they don't say that to everyone:)). She doesn't look like Max, or either of us really but we think she's just precious!

Well, God was with us Saturday and another lesson was learned to put our trust in him and stop worrying!!!! I was so anxious and worried about another long labor but it all went so fast. I started having some random contractions Saturday around 1:30pm but had no other real signs so I wasn't thinking much of it, put Max down for his nap and laid down and they just kept getting closer. The Dr wanted a few hours of 5 mins apart but after one hour of 5 mins apart and another hour of 2-4 mins apart we headed in without even waiting for the Dr to call back. I'm glad we did too! I got checked in around 6:30pm and was 6cm. The contractions were RIGHT on top of each other, some with literally no break so I was happy to get the epidural (though I did hardly need it but was still nervous I could be pushing a while like I did with Max). After it was over it was nice because even though he told me I was 10cms already we all got to relax a few minutes before pushing (though with all the pressure I was feeling I'm glad I didn't have to wait too long). I probably only pushed around a dozen times, about 15 minutes and out she came. They said I was so close so I just kept going and wow! I couldn't believe she was here already. It was wonderful (and nice to be under the epidural while getting stitched back up too!). Both grandmothers got a chance to pop in too before we got moved to the maternity ward around 11pm. I had none of the post-labor complications like I did with Max so I was already feeling pretty good. I didn't really need pain medication so it wasn't a big deal that I couldn't take the motrin. The only complaint, which the nurse said is often worse with the 2nd, is contractions/cramping still coming, especially while nursing. Even now, 2 days later I still get them pretty bad but the nursing is going well. She nursed right away in the labor room and got the hang of it right away. She gets gassy sometimes afterwards but that's usually the only time she's fussy. We have to watch the diaper thing which is new to us because Max never cared if his diaper was a mess or wet so that was never one of the "why is baby crying" checks for us but its nice if that's what is causing it because that's easy to take care of. The hospital bed really hurts my back badly so we were VERY happy to come home yesterday, especially to be with the Max again. He did great for his grandmothers but I think he's happy to have mom and dad home. He has been good. At the hospital all the grandparents were there so he was more interested in putting on a show than seeing the baby. Now he checks her out often and likes to say her name (he calls her Ally). Its so fun to be all together as a family, we are truly blessed!

She is sleeping a lot which is nice, has her days and nights a little backwards yet but that's pretty normal so we'll work it out!

Pictures are coming....

Waiting.....

I know everyone wants an update but I have nothing to report. On Wednesday I had a few random contractions but it didn't lead to anything. I'm not very good at figuring this stuff out since with Max my water just broke and I was induced so its still kinda like the first time of not knowing exactly what I'm supposed to be feeling but I'm pretty sure when it gets close I'll know!

For now I'm just trying to keep up with laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning since you just never know! The grandmas are anxiously still on stand by! At least I know for sure its less than 2 weeks now since they won't let me go a week over my due date (which is June 9th).

I'm also getting very excited. Its odd that you put the whole labor part out of your mind but again, except for leaving Max for 2-3 days (which still makes me cry just thinking about it), I'm kind of excited to do this again. I'm hoping it goes a little smoother than the first time, without the pitocin and 2.5 hours of pushing. The contractions don't scare me (I had the epidural late the first time cause I didn't want it to slow anything down, but God knew I was going to need it for the hours of pushing!) The whole birth part is the only pain I'm afraid of. I would also love to wake up and go in to labor instead of skipping a nights sleep and then have to push and take care of a baby (who for the first 2 day choked on fluid still in his lungs so one of us had to stay awake the whole time...). The vivid part I do remember from Max is those few sleepy days afterwards cause I was a mess with swelling and bladder issues, so that I could do without. But I just can't wait till they put baby girl on my chest and we get to see her for the first time!

For now, we're just enjoying our time with Max. I know he won't remember but I do hope we do. I know things will only get better but its been such a fun year and a half with him, that with help from my rambling blog I do hope we never forget this time we've had just the 3 of us too.

It was nice to get a long weekend in last weekend. We played outside a lot (mom gained those last 5lbs she hadn't gained yet in swelling!) in his little pool cause of the heat. Monday we took him to a parade which he loved. Now we're just hanging out and playing.

He's been so good lately, despite 4 new teeth coming in. His top right molar is through and the left one is breaking through. He's also breaking through the 2 next to the middle two at the bottom (which according to the teeth chart in his baby book he was supposed to have gotten a year ago, lol!) so once they're all completely out that's 12!!!!!!! Tylenol seems to help his pain well. He's also speaking in phrases now which is cute, except he does a lot of possession words "daddy's car", etc which is fine but it appears that most things in general tend to be "Max's" and I'm not sure this is the time to get possessive about stuff with the new baby coming but I always talk about the baby stuff so he'll know. He is too young to understand there is a baby coming but he knows her stuff and gives me weird looks at my belly "kinda like geez mom, really letting yourself go huh" but its funny! Soon enough young one...

So anyway, here are some pictures

From the parade, he loves flags!

A few of the horns and sirens scared him a little bit so he got to sit with daddy.

Nate was trying to capture him using his fry as a utensil for eating his apple sauce but instead got some cheeeeesy photos! Look at all those teeth!

Last night we went over to Nate's mom's pool and it was SO nice to feel "weightless"!!! Max just loved it, he laughed and smiled till his lips turned blue!