Little Alivia's Here

I have been so wrapped up in the joy and busy roll of a new mom again, and I wouldn't change it for anything. It's so wonderful to have our little princess here. Jason and I are adjusting to life with two kids- I don't know how many times I've looked at him and said, "I can't believe she's here and we have another little girl!" It's almost surreal.
I've had some really tiring moments as any new mommy would, especially after a night of cluster feeding. We stayed with Jason's family the first few nights up until Christmas day and it was so wonderful to have the care and support of Jason's parent's. Leslie and Jason tag teamed the little girls on Christmas Eve so I could get some MUCH needed sleep. The night before was the hardest as she had really kicked in her appetite and my milk hadn't quite come in yet. They supplemented a couple of night feeds so I could sleep and pump instead and it was great to be able to recoup from the exhaustion.
Since then the feeding has gone really well and nursing isn't nearly as stressful as I remember it being in the beginning with Brooklynn. Again, with all the learning curves with the first baby things just seemed a lot harder.
On the note of things not being as stressful, it's just a lot easier on many levels this time around. Alivia is a great baby. She is feeding great and loves to sleep. I have been able to rule out the foods early on that would cause her to be colic (again found out the hard way with Brooklynn).
I think Heavenly Father knows the order that your babies need to come to you. I think Brooklynn was resilient enough to put up with me not really knowing much first time around, and that Alivia would be a good transition baby from one to two.
I have been trying to be accurate when I tell people about my labor and delivery with Alivia and for the most part I'd say it went pretty good. I was induced last time around so I can't really compare the two experiences... but if I was to compare this time was a lot better- especially the recovery part. With Brooklynn I had a much harder recovery. This time around I have been a lot more comfortable right away, and I wasn't delirious from morphine when Alivia was born which I really preferred. I was able to hold her and look at her and be completely "with it" so to speak.
Okay so things started off on Tuesday at around 4am. We had gone to Jay's parent's early that night for FHE and the topic of "when this baby will come" was discussed and I overheard my father in-law quietly say, "there is no way this baby is coming before Christmas." Well I think it's safe to say that Alivia wanted to prove him wrong. I also told them that I had a full moon on my side that night, plus lunar eclipse so maybe a baby would come a lot sooner than everyone thought- I was right!
So I started to time contractions right away because they felt different than the ones I'd been having randomly for the past week. They were actual cramps and I noticed them happening pretty consecutively. I knew I wasn't going to be going to the hospital anytime soon so I tried to fall back asleep after an hour of timing contractions that were 5-6 mins apart and surprisingly I fell asleep. I woke Jason up at 7:30am and told him we'd have to go to the hospital that day and he was surprised and said, "well we should start timing contractions" so I showed him my notes and the twenty-odd contractions I had already timed- he was pretty shocked that this was for real. So we hung around the house and packed our bags and called his sister's over to our house to watch Brooklynn. We went to the hospital around 11am. They admitted me right away and I was 4cm dilated (it was actually really quiet there-who plans to have babies at Christmas right?) They broke my water around 2pm and I had her at 5:24pm. I spent most of my time in the shower and I'd say the last hour or so before she was born I was trying to go as long as I could with no pain medication. I felt I was really starting to loose it and the pain was so unbearable that I asked for an epidural. The nurse wanted to check me before but I was in so much pain I couldn't lay down. I was in so much pain because she was starting to crown, and my body was starting to push on it's own. I got an epidural at 4:40pm and was pushing at 4:45pm, so needless to say it didn't take effect...
I was so shocked when she was born at how little she was. I really thought she was going to be a big baby for some reason, but she was so tiny and precious. She is a little mini of her dad, their baby photos look soo similar. However, she has a little bum chin like her mom and Brooklynn.
Because it was so quiet at the hospital we were able to to stay in the delivery room and have visitors. The nurses were so nice and relaxed with us. We even scored a private room that night too. I don't know if I could have asked for things to work out any better.
Alivia has brought such a wonderful spirit with her and into our home and family. I'm excited to see her grow with her big sister and become the best of friends.

Our Terrific Troll

A week ago my sister Amanda aka Troll, aka Auntie Amanda/ Auntie Troll (she has a few titles around here and Brooklynn knows her by all of them- haha!) took Brooklynn for the WHOLE day. She watched her literally from 9-9. She discovered in that time how much energy, how much she can eat and just how much fun she capable of having and needless to say had some good ol' bonding time with our little princess. Princess, is probably the best title for her considering that day Brooklynn was spoiled rotten by her Auntie! I hope I don't leave anything out as I backtrack the events. It started off by going to Cora's for breakfast-yum! Then they played at Tommy Kay Play, went back to her Auntie's house for lunch and a 3 hour nap that they took together, then she went to Five Guys for dinner, Oh- did I mention she played and ate with all of Amanda's roommates? Well, she did and getting all that sweet attention can make her day like nothing else all on it's own. After Five Guys for dinner she went to IKEA with Amanda and her roommates (we all know IKEA is fun too) than she came back to our house while Jason and I were at our ward Christmas party. She got to play some more, stay up late and then get put to bed.
It was absolutely amazing for Jason and I to have that day off from parental duties to tackle our home and check a ton of stuff off our to do lists (mentioned in previous post).
I had been waiting for Amanda to send me photos she took of their day together so I could dedicate a post to it. Finally, I have them!

Amanda has set the bar pretty high even for myself to compete with. Thanks again for giving her such an awesome day. We can't thank you enough :)

~December~

Ward Christmas Party. Dec 4, 2010 and almost 38 weeks pregnant.

This was a couple nights ago. Random but I'm throwing it in there because it's halarious. This is the worst she's ever been and I gave her cereal before bed because she didn't have a big dinner. Needless to say she had to have a bath and didn't get to bed until way to late!

Here I am Dec 12, 2010. The 10 day countdown (give or take, I KNOW!)

We are slowly but surely checking things off our list(s) to prepare for our baby girl and Christmas. I've really tried to not get overwhelmed and I think it's working better than I thought. I haven't signed myself up for much and with that I've kept my sanity. My biggest battle is cleaning. I have been slowly purging our house the last month. I gave my sister like two garbage bags full of stuff. We've purchased a new couch, which I LOVE, gutted and painted our bedroom. I've been washing and organizing all the baby stuff that I put away too. We've come quite far in a short amount of time, and with all this being done my house is staying(somewhat) a little more organized.
Christmas is small for us this year. My wonderful husbands agreed with me that our couch was our Christmas gift. I feel bad if he's settling for something I wanted most but he's just that sweet. In reality, even though he hasn't out right admitted it to me, I think he's more than happy with that purchase too. He's been able to comfortably host many "gaming nights" on it with his friends. It's a sectional and much more space efficient for our place and it's safe to say he's been able to take advantage of that!
I guess it's time to maybe take some bets as to when this baby will come. I know it might be wishful thinking but I really do think that she will come early. I'm actually going to go ahead and bet/hope she is here on or around the 14th. Yes, that's in two days! My reasons for justifying this is that I have another appointment on the 13th, and they are going to see if they can't stretch me out a bit... (sorry if that sounds graphic) My doctor did it a week ago and when I stood up I was scared to walk. It made that big of a difference right than and there but slowly I felt kind of the same the day after. I've been having random contractions at night and I never had that with Brooklynn, last night they were even painful but I only had 4 or 5. Anyways when I factor all this in AND the fact my baby, according to my last ultrasound is pushing 7lbs or more already it leaves me a little confident that she might debut a lot sooner. I also picked the 14th because Brooklynn was April 14th, maybe that day will be good to me again :)

Play Days and Pregnancy

I haven't been all to active lately and a week ago bundling up Brooklynn and heading out in the freezing temperatures was the last thing I could bring myself to do- thus leaving us with a little cabin fever that week. So when Saturday came and Jason had some free time we ventured out for a play day and it was well worth it but more so for Brooklynn. Did I mention I feel SO huge and clearly I'm not the best buddy for playtime lately? Oh well, that's the ugly truth. So thanks to dad we got a good and long awaited play day at Let's Play.
It was just as much fun for me to observe from the sidelines all the fun Brooklynn and Jason had together, even if I was itching to relive my childhood memories by running through tunnels and going down the slides, I'll be there soon enough... I'm really excited for when both my girls are capable of holding there own at the park and play places together, I'll be joining them full force.
For the time being I'm the waddling pregnant mom following them around with a camera, and vicariously living through their actions and excitement, it really does make me happy and I'm truly content. I just love watching them together it brings me joy :)

These two were just move'n! She had such a blast and I think her dad did too ;)

Call it somewhat cruel but she HATED this slide but the picture cracks me up. When she made it to the end she just balled- poor thing... We gotta tough'n her up!

Here I am @ almost 37 weeks.

Potty Progress

We've been REALLY casual over here with the potty. To best describe what I mean by "casual" is that we have a potty but I'm not trying to potty train Brooklynn, at all, really. I haven't even picked up any potty training literature either, I've just listened to random advice via other mommies when the topic should arise.
Amidst the topic/ discussion of potty training I have heard it's NOT a good a idea to try and potty train your child before a big change occurs in their life. It's safe to say new sibling is a BIG change.
We still talk about the potty and she likes to venture in the bathroom when Jason and I use "our potty", we point to hers and say "Brooklynn's potty" and then our's again and say, "momma's potty".
For the most part the only interest she took in it was trying to make the music go off. If you touch two metal sensors at the bottom of the tray it'll play a celebration jingle. I wasn't excited for her to discover that at first because she would get frustrated with her potty, completely disassemble it and whine when she couldn't get the music going. All of that being said and the above is the extent of potty experiences over here, UNTIL this past week.
She decided to SIT a couple days ago(with all her clothes on) and sat on it for a while and said things like "pee pee". I embraced her courage and high-five'd her for big girl efforts. She kept that up, and usually sat on her potty while I would sit on mine. Then she sat on it with only a diaper on a couple days later. This was a big deal because anytime I previously mentioned pulling pants down or taking her diaper off she would squeal.
So the other day we were getting ready to take a shower and she was completely naked in the bathroom and she sat on her potty. I kept asking her if she had to go pee-pee but she didn't say to much, just sat there. I was really excited because I thought for sure when I turned on the water in the tub she'd have to go. I turned on the water, turned around to watch her and she stood up and went pee all over the bathroom floor, then sat back down on the potty when she was done. I told her I was sad and attempted reasoning... We will see where things go from here-
stay tuned folks!

Welcome Back!

Nana and Grandpa Lee are back from Australia AND New Zealand! They've posted some pretty incredible photos on facebook throughout their entire trip to keep us up to speed but they had a lot of cool experiences to share with us when they got home, and of course a few presents too.
We were happy to have them over for dinner last night because we hadn't seen them in so long and let's be honest, we knew they had zero food. I love it when we get invited to eat somewhere after being away for a while and I haven't stocked my fridge yet.
Brooklynn has been a little spoiled with how much she has seen them lately. She even got to stay up late the night of their arrival as we brought her with us to pick them up from the airport.
I'm sure this isn't the easiest Monday for Nana and Grandpa to head back to work as they have been living in the future (by about 17 hours or so) for the last 3 weeks and all the flying and vacationing would be rather exhausting. We're wishing you a quick and easy adjustment and again, welcome back!

By the look on his face I think it is safe to say Max was the MOST excited about his present- a leather outback hat!

Brooklynn was pretty excited too, she got her own penguin just like the ones the Nana and Grandpa saw on their trip.

Brooklynn likes to do her "waddle, waddle" all the time. She has a love for penguins and it is pretty cute.

Some bragging rights for me. The "Tarata T" (the hardest puzzle to do in this little brainteaser game they brought back from New Zealand-it was tricky)

Birthday Festivities

I had been holding off on posting pictures and more about what we did with Jason on his birthday only because I hadn't posted pictures of Halloween yet, bah! They're coming but I've gotta keep rolling with what I got and I forgot my camera on Halloween for the most part and have to scrounge up pictures from my sister and Lisa.
On Friday (the 5th) we did some pre-birthday fun. Jay's sister and brother-in law came down from Edmonton--which was awesome! I am so happy they did but I know she was excited to surprise Jason and show him he's worth the trip. We had some friends gather with us at his parent's house where Jenna had slaved most of the day and made all kinds of food and deserts. The Miami game was on, Flames game and plenty of social activity to entertain for the night. I think Jason was happy to see so many friend keep trickling through the front door, we had a good turn out!
On his actual birthday we went to Earl's with Amanda(our Troll). It was nice (I love Earl's) and when we came home we did presents and ice cream cake. Austin and Lisa joined us too. He cashed in on some cool presents and I think he all around enjoyed himself. Here are some pictures to prove it.