finally!

i've finally gotten around to getting some pictures on kodak!

WEEK ONE- slideshow. enjoy :)

WEEK TWO-slideshow. you'll notice how few pictures there are in this one. zane calls it "catching up on sleep" :)

tomorrow...thoughts from the last 2 weeks. recovery, life with 2, expectations, etc. :)

bath time :)

we bathed the girls together for the first time last night! i remember towards the end of the pregnancy, i couldn't wait until pickles was on the outside and we could all be in the bathroom together getting clean :) i have to say that the actuality of the fantasy did not disappoint. avery had fun pointing to nola's various body parts (toes, knees, "beep"-her belly button, ears, hands, etc). it must have had some calming effect, because nola didn't cry once while she was getting soaped up and washed off ;)

i love her little fuzzy head!

and i love this one's unruly mane of soft hair! she's been quite the animal the past couple days--i'm going to chalk it up to the crappy weather and the different routine. zane told his mom tonight "if i had a full night's sleep i might be able to keep up with her. might." :) hopefully things settle down soon...or the sun finally comes out and we can run her out of energy ;)

couple new things...
-i have thrush. yippee.
-our nephew (who turned 4 on the 21st) has his party tomorrow! it seems like yesterday we got the early morning call to let us know he had arrived! happy birthday henry!
-i'm weaning off my pain medication and am getting more mobile/active everyday
-zane brought home a bunch of cran-apple drinks today from the store and i've decided i like the ocean spray one just about as good as what they had in the hospital. :) small pleasures...
-avery is officially (according to us) in her "word explosion" phase. words we say once (or don't and she hears on tv or something) she'll repeat or use in the correct way. it's so fun to see her little mind work so fast and so well!

sherpa post :)

i put nola in my favorite outfit of avery's today. even though it's june, it's chilly and i'm so glad i got at least one wear out of it!!

zane and i ran to costco with avery this afternoon and let nola rest at home. we came back to her napping like this :) didn't even have to stage it!

wanting to post, will get to it later...

kodak album (as soon as i make it :))

our trip to babies r us with avery

avery's interest in the potty!

the fun differences in personalities of the girls already!

a week later...

the aftermath of 2 days at home with a baby, toddler, c-section recoverer and (trying to) do-it-all dad :)

first off, nola is a week old!! things are slowly getting settled at home. and by settled, i mean that zane and i are already in bed stuffing our faces with chips and twizzlers while nola naps in the boppy. this is mostly due to lack of sleep, nutrients and downtime. we're trying to nourish ourselves one handful at a time...pretty soon, zane will be falling asleep with cheetos crumbling down his chest.

reall though...things are an adjustment but we're both so thankful that we have family around and that zane has a small break from teaching-called summer vacation-and is around to help get the job(s) done. we feel so incredibly lucky to be mom and dad to these beautiful little girls and know that the transition will be huge and rewarding down the road. the most difficult part for me is not being able to be much help, other than feeding, burping, changing and cuddling the little bear. it kills me to not be able to pick up avery or even help out with her nap/bed times. she's taking it in stride though and gave me lots of kisses tonight before she headed upstairs for bed. as far as recovery, i think it's going fantastic. i'm down to one pain pill every 4 hours and as long as i don't over do it, i feel pretty mobile. what a difference this whole experience has been from avery's birth/recovery. i'm 110% happy with and thankful for our decision this time around.

we asked avery this afternoon if she wanted to hold nola and she couldn't have looked more excited or proud. she froze once she got on the couch and was put to work though, frantically sucking down her milk and glancing around the room to see what was going to happen next :)

tomorrow is nola's first pediatrician appointment. the weather here has been crappy to say the least, but it will still be nice to get out of the house. in the last months/weeks of pregnancy i had visions of coming home from the hospital and having a cup of coffee on the back porch in the morning while avery played and the bear snuggled. once the sun makes an appearance again i'm sure i'll live out my fantasy, but for now i'll stay in my sweats and eat chips :)

dada :)

to the best dad i know (my own father not included of course ;), HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! so glad i could give you a gift that will last a lifetime...two little girls that have their daddy wrapped around their fingers!

we've had a whirlwind of lovely chaos since we got home yesterday :) we were finally discharged from the hospital, the girls passing all health tests and the man of the hour successfully strapping the baby in the carseat and making the drive home bearable for my belly and i. avery was still napping when we got home which made for a good transition. grandma kathy was here to greet us and meet her newest little sweetheart! once avery woke up from her nap, she seemed thrilled that zane and i were both downstairs to give her hugs and kisses, even if she didn't take them right away ;)

without any prompting or setting up by anyone, avery saw one of nola's bottles and brought it over to the baby on zane's lap and tried to feed her lunch :) it was just about the sweetest thing i've ever seen and brought me to tears instantly. already it seems like she's accepted nola as being part of this house/family/life and has either been indifferent or fascinated. it's the most incredible thing to watch our daughters interact and begin their bond. i said tonight to zane that i can't remember the last time i've been this happy and content. that makes me a little sad to realize how miserable i was (during pregnancy), but in awe of how much love and adoration and peace i'm filled with now.

our first night at home went really well. avery settled down nicely after a frantic afternoon of trying to get in as much playtime/mama-dada time as possible. nola ate every three hours, going right back to sleep after a quick diaper change and only making small grunting sounds when she was ready for the next round. i can still only sleep on my back, but it was wonderful to be in our own bed and not be woken up by nurses to take my pain medicine (though i still miss the cranberry juice and ice!!)

today we layed low. put away and organized our hospital things. fed the little beast, aka nola ;) played with avery until she was so worn out she had a meltdown after lunch. planted some flowers that we had gotten from james and brian (thanks again guys! and sorry about the rush of yesterday, thank you so much for coming by!!) a visiting nurse came by to check on how we were doing. nola's current weight is 9lbs 8 oz, my incision and uterus looked good, and i got a ton of good advice/support with pumping. yay! zane went out to buy some baby stuff, kathy held nola for her almost 3 hour nap (while avery was also sleeping!), and i dozed on the couch. once avery was up from her nap, we said goodbye to grandma kathy-who has been the biggest help in the WORLD this past week. we can't thank her enough for all she did while we were in the hospital. it was a blessing to be able to focus on the baby and recovery with no worries about what was happening at home with the animals and first born! THANK YOU!!! we ate dinner with my parents and laughed the face avery made at my dad (see below) and cuddled the littlest lovebug as much as possible :) all in all it's been a fantastic 36 hours home.

there's much more to write, but i'm literally falling asleep as i type these things. much love to all the dads out there!

waaaaaaah!

it's already going too fast!! nola is just 4 days old and i already miss her first 3 days :) i have had just about the most wonerful hospital stay i could ever imagine, and as excited as i am to be going home (i don't think i can go one more hour than i have to without seeing my big girl!!), i already know i'm going to miss this comfort and hospitality. every single nurse i've had has been exceptional (some i've like more than others, but there haven't been any that aren't amazing), i'm in love with their cranberry juice and ice machine, the food isn't great but at least we don't have to do anything to prepare it, and i don't know where i'm going to sleep at night that includes pushing buttons to adjust my comfort in bed!

:) all kidding aside, this whole birth experience has been night and day compared to avery. i haven't had one breakdown (minus the 12 hours it took for them to figure out they needed to change my pain medication), i've been happier and more content than i have in probably 10 months, even with the pain of recovery i don't miss being pregnant one ounce, breastfeeding once again is going crappily but i don't mind or feel guilty at all. this whole stay has made me appreciate (and learn from) everything i went through with avery in the hospital to the fullest...we both came out of it perfectly okay and have bonded and powered on through all the struggles. i can't wait to be home in a few hours and be around avery's little energy field again! will she ignore me? will she smother me? will she show off all the new things she's done in the last few days? will she poke the baby? i can't wait to find out :)

birth/hospital story, more pictures, more thoughts, more peace in bit once we're all settled. thanks for all the love, support, help and congratulations from everyone!

the girls :)

the little nola bear is sleeping in the nursery waiting for her hearing test and we've got some down time. more pictures :)

*Nola Josephine Magrath*

her first sight of her little sister! she's not sure what to think just yet ;)

73% of you voted...

and were wrong!

we have a new, bouncing baby GIRL!!!!
name is almost determined.
born: june 16th, 2009 12:23pm
weight: 9lbs 14oz.
length: 21 inches.

stories and pictures to come tomorrow!!! we are madly in love and thrilled beyond belief at this new little blessing! all parties involved are doing wonderful :)

and soon there are two...

i just had this whole post in my head to write out. about avery and her amazing impact on our lives. and the huge change for all of us starting tomorrow. and the immense love and awe we feel for both of the kids already. then i got all teary and overwhelmed and can't type much more :) so i'll leave you with avery in our new deck box. hopefully i'll be able to update sometime tomorrow afternoon with details!

beer, belly.

our second batch of beer is brewing :) we had high hopes of having it all set and ready to go for the beginning of this summer, but it just didn't get done. but the other night after the fermenting was done, we bottled it up and it should be ready in about 3 weeks. we'll see how it comes out! (if it's bad, i think we can blame it on us not using the bottle brush to clean out the bottles after we washed them! oops...)

as requested...probably the final belly picture. i'll probably try and take one last one in the hospital, but i don't want to end up forgetting and kicking myself later. so...here goes.
with shirt. yes, my large men's undershirts do not cover the belly fully.

and the belly uncovered. (sorry again if it offends anyone. i'm just amazed how different it looks bare...)come out pickles. please.

zane has one more day of work! and then it's birth-day! ah!

i have a bunch of random things to post about...including: baby presents from zane's work, avery's new word explosion, love of baby thrift stores. i thought there was more but i'm drawing a blank. until tomorrow...

for the love of trucks!

our sweet little princess loves kitties. and soft blankets. and babies. and having her toe nails painted. and pink stuffed animals. she also LOVES airplanes. and trucks. and cars. and dirt. :) and i adore that about her!

this afternoon, zane was out picking up some dinner and missed the show across the street. a fire truck, ambulance, medical rescue truck and 4 police cars. avery was fascinated with the lights and rumblings of all the commotion. she stood at the window for 20 minutes and shouted "guck! guck!" over and over again, grinning from ear to ear. not sure what the problem was, hopefully nothing too serious-people weren't rushing around or looking very anxious.

i've started playing the "last!" game in my head. "oh, this is the last wednesday morning with just avery and i on the couch watching sesame and eating a snack", "last tuesday night in bed at 7:30, only having to worry about the sleep of one child", etc...i hate this game really, but i can't help myself! what's funny is that i must have done the same thing before avery was born, but don't remember any of the "lasts"...i'm thinking that's a good sign and hoping this transition will be as smooth :)

wednesday morning couch time :)

the confusing dr saga continues...but not for long!

fyi...i'm messing around with free backgrounds and i'm not liking anything i come up with, but the laptop is almost out of juice and so am i...at some point i'll come back to pretty-ing it up ;)


(good day for putting on a cute hat and sitting down to create a little dinner menu... (i love that the ONLY hat she'll put on her head voluntarily and leave there is one 3 sizes too small, :))

first things first. i had my last dr's appointment this morning!! seems really surreal, but a welcome milestone :) my mom came with me and watched avery in the waiting room while i was seeing the dr. she did wonderfully (avery, not the dr), snacking on every food i brought with me, sitting and reading books with grammy and staring at the various other people waiting to be seen.

dr's appointment went really well. meaning: again, didn't gain any weight! very strange to be eating and eating and VERY inactive and have this big belly and not see the scale go up. but i'm fine with it and so are they. bp good. heartbeat good (sounded fast to me today and i didn't get the exact number, but the dr had been just jostling it around so maybe she annoyed him/her :)). she was going to give me an estimated weight, but she claimed all she could feel in my belly were extremeties and wondered if "this kid has a body to go along with them". so, no estimate. dr thinks i dropped a little lower again- which could explain the painful pelvic bone area. i had no news to report-no contractions. no bleeding. no water breaking. no dizziness. nothing.

and now for the confusing part...the dr talked today as if she thought a c-section for me was the greatest thing since sliced bread. in her words "you'll have the incision to deal with. but it'll be no worse than the pain from your previous tear. it'll be a different 'pain', but i've had more than a few moms tell me that the c-section was easier to deal with and you'll be able to sit down!"

so. she's nuts. but i'll take anything from her that isn't outright judgement and criticism :) i guess i'll see her for my post-partum checkup, but other than that i'm free!

*couple random things*
-we stopped at a yard sale over the weekend and got avery a small plastic basketball net. she loves it! at the moment, elmo is sitting proudly in the basket :)
-nesting should only be done IMMEDIATELY before you have a baby. aside from most things still being organized, the hard work of putting things back in drawers and off floors was wasted energy...most things have found their way back to the floor thanks to avery's curiosity :)
-avery learned how to use "yes" and "no" appropriately (for the most part :)) if you ask her what book she wants or what food she wants, she can either tell you if she knows the words or she'll say "yes" or "no" and she means it! makes things so much easier!
-roo likes chipmunks. dead ones. that she drags home proudly to show us. ugh. i'm just glad she isn't snuggly with us and doesn't like to spend much time in the house :)

ah, so THIS is what nesting is all about

i went through avery's pregnancy hearing about this phantom 'nesting' phase and waited and waited for my turn...never really happened for me. i was kind of disappointed that for once in my life i wasn't super organized and obsessive about cleaning. i wasn't really expecting it to hit this time around, though i've kept an open mind.

little did i know that when it hits, there's no way to conjure up this kind of energy even if you want to (and even if you eat 4 fudgesicles in one afternoon) and there is nothing that can stop you from what you think you need to do. even when you're thinking in your head (or out loud) "stop it! relax! the bathtub doesn't need to be spotless! your back hurts, take it easy! avery won't learn how to climb out of her crib tonight to play with the few toys left on her floor..."

so. i went to town. and now the linen closet drawers, bathroom storage, tub, avery's closet, avery's dresser and our room are cleeeeean and organized. phew. in reality, i would love to attack the sunroom and living room, but avery's asleep and i don't want to risk waking her. time for bed.

day of docs

had a full day today. avery and i both had dr appointments, and i'm happy to report that both went well :)

38 week appointment: dr. was surprisingly nice! still a lot awkward and maybe nervous even, but pleasant. didn't gain any weight (wahoo!), blood pressure 104/70, belly back to measuring ahead (wonder when she realized not to measure me when i'm lying flat on my back?), baby's heartbeat steady and good, head nice and low (but not "too low" as far as the dr is concerned?), and even though i've got a good amount of swelling in my feet and legs, she's not concerned. i did test positive for GBS, so i have to make sure if my water breaks that i call them promptly so i can get in to get antibiotics.

(side note: before the dr came in, i asked the nurse (in confidence) if there was a chance that this new dr would be at the hospital to deliver me if i went early. she said she didn't think so, b/c as far as she knew the dr was just taking over the office hours for my old dr. she asked if this was a good thing or not and i confided that i didnt have a great appointment last week and i was relieved to know she wouldn't be delivering me. my nurse laughed and said "what goes on in here after i leave and the door gets closed??" she went on to say that i wasn't the first one to voice an "opinion" on this dr and she hoped it made me feel a bit better to know i wasn't alone in not being that fond of her.)

so...2 weeks from today we'll be snuggling our new little one. holy.cow.

as for our "old" little one :) avery's 18 month appointment: no shots! yay :) zane came with us (another yay!), she did great until she saw the room with the scale in it and then she broke down :(
weighed in at 29 lbs 1oz and 33 1/2 inches tall. still holding steady in the 90-95th percentile, so the dr said everything we're doing seems to be working great and not to change anything. she was amazing throughout the whole appointment, looking at books and mobiles around the room while we chatted with the dr. as soon as he brought out the stethoscope however, she lost it again! it was heartbreaking...she kept taking the end, picking it up, throwing it at the dr and saying "all done! all done!" he was able to check her out while zane wrangled her and as soon as all instruments were away, she was fine and content to look at a huge book on dinosaurs :) i can't believe the next time we go to the dr (for her) will be for her 2 year appointment! i already booked it for early december....c.r.a.z.y!

aside from being proud of how she handled the dr (yes, she cried but she got over it so quick and let the dr do what he needed to do), i'm so proud of the rest of her day! i dropped her off at my parents this morning so i could go to my appointment and not make her sit through my 45 minute wait (argh!!). she had her lunch and then grammy and gramps put her down for a nap and she slept for 2 hours at their house! she woke up happy and went back to playing. i picked her up in the afternoon and she transitioned fantastically! i'm hoping all these little times that we're away from her are going to help when we're in the hospital and she tries to adjust to a new routine :) she makes my heart happy :)

this day, however, has not made my feet or back happy. na-na.

38 weeks

i got an email from zane this morning remarking how he looked at his work calendar and can't believe he only has 11 more days to eat lunch there :) things are rapidly winding down.