4 Days New

July 6, 2011

Oh, we are so in love!!

On the morning of July 6th we woke up early and anxious.  We made it to our c-section date and, needless to say, I was so excited I barely slept the night before. Our section was scheduled for 7:30 AM and we needed to be at the hospital around 5:30. 

 It was hard to leave the house and I kept stalling.  It's a little nerve wracking to know you are going into surgery and I was sad to be leaving Joey at home, but we were so excited to meet you!

I could not wait to hold you, to see who you resembled, and to just breathe you in.

This is you in my tummy right before you entered the world.

 We arrived at the hospital on time and were brought to the pre-op room where vitals were taken and iv's were run. We were warned at our last prenatal appointment that planned c-sections normally bring about quite a bit of anxiety at the last minute.  Dr. Phillips brought up how the unique nature of willingly walking yourself down the hall to have the procedure can just be hard and she wanted me to be prepared and know the feeling was normal.  She was right.  I was so nervous as we waited and your Daddy did his best to distract and entertain me.  He taught me how to play Angry Birds and I played while we waited :o).

My mom came to the hospital with us and my dad, Jenn, Kaelani, Debbie, and Pat all arrived in the wee morning hours as well and waited in the waiting room for news of your arrival.

Ha! Nervous!

 I just tried to stay focused on how many minutes it would be until I met you.

 At almost 7:30 exactly the anesthesiologist arrived and we walked back to the operating room.  I had to go by myself and then Daddy would be allowed in once the spinal was placed.  The anesthesiologist did a wonderful job and the spinal barely hurt at all. I sang the ABC's to distract myself -- a trick my mom taught me when I was very little and needed to have blood taken.  He also saved me with a quick dose of medication when my blood pressure plummeted on the table and I was about to faint.  He was great and so was his nurse.

 At 7:58 you made your entrance into this world.

7lbs 8.6 oz and 18.5 inches long with a full head of dark hair.

You were beautiful!!

Even still in the midst of surgery, you had me beaming.

 Grace, something happened to me the moment you were born.  Something wonderful.

I don't know how to explain it but there is just something special between us.  Not better, not worse, not more, not less than anyone else, just something different.  It was like I had been waiting for you all my life, and now you were here.

I suppose it was true.

Tiny as you were, you transformed all of us that day. We were now a family of four instead of three. We had a daughter.  You made Joey into a brother. 

You completed us.

You delighted the nurses with the position of your arms.  You were like this in your ultrasounds and we have since come to know this position very well.  It's so neat now to look back and see you like this from the very beginning.

 I sent your father to stay with you while they took you to be checked over, washed up, and warmed up under lights.  He was more prepared this time than he had been with your brother and was more willing to leave me.  It was weird to be so aware of everything because I was very out of it with your brother.  I just couldn't wait to be able to hold you and feed you and get back with you and Daddy.

We had to spend an hour in the recovery room before we could all go to our regular room and let everyone meet you.  After I regained most of my feeling and stabilized I was allowed to hold you and feed you.  You knew what to do right away, but it was a little difficult because I had to stay almost completely laying down.  You also wanted everyone to be quiet and would stop eating and cry if someone talked!  We couldn't believe you and thought we were going to have quite the drama queen on our hand but that turned out to be very far from the truth.

 My mom, who had been at the hospital as long as we had, was the first to meet you and many others quickly made their way in.  We spent the rest of the day snuggling you up as visitors filed in and catching up on sleep.

  

At one point a nurse came in to make sure you were doing well and everyone flocked around to see just what you looked like under all your blankets and little hat.  You were not happy about being unwrapped.

Later in the day your brother was finally able to meet his Sissy.

He knew Mommy was going "to the hopidal" and that the doctor was going to "take Sissy out."

I couldn't wait to see his response to seeing you as a real baby as he had been singing to you, talking to you, kissing you, and snuggling you in my belly for months.

I think he was in awe the first time he saw you.

He laid his head on you to snuggle you and kissed you the first time he saw you.

Somehow he knew... you were his Sissy.

Aunts and uncles and your cousin, Lina, made their way in to see you too.

We had a long, perfect, beautiful, magical, love-filled first day with you sweet Grace.

The perfect day for our perfect girl.

We were doubly blessed.
Our hearts had grown again.
First your brother, and now you, were here.

**Joey's birth story can be found here.**

The Night Before

Gracie Girl,
    It's almost 10:30 and I am sitting here alone in the house while Jean is next door helping my mom wrap Joey's big brother presents and your father has disappeared for a while wrapping up some last minute things.  You are twisting yourself around like you do.  The show from the outside of my tummy is impressive and it's nothing less than amazing to think that the show on the inside stars a real baby who is grown enough to meet the world tomorrow morning.  You have been so well behaved and such an easy baby to carry once the morning sickness went away.  I have loved holding you for the last nine months.
    Words fail me tonight.  It is surreal to know that your daughter will be born in less than twelve hours.  Having a date and time is a unique experience and one we have not had before.  We cannot wait to meet you tomorrow, to watch you reveal yourself to the world.  We all know you are coming, you have a name and a personality, and a bed set up in our living room yet you are still such a mystery.  What color hair will you have? Will you be easy like your brother or give us a run for our money?  How big will you be and who will you become?
   Whoever you are Grace, we love you already and this is the miracle of parenthood.  You are the perfect one for us.
    Many bows are waiting to situate themselves on your sweet little head.  Please do Mommy a favor and come out with lots of hair :o)

See you tomorrow little one.
   

Buckle My Shoe and UmBaBas

Easily distracted but doing One Two Buckle My Shoe :o)



Some of my favorite Joey mispronunciations :o)

In the last two months our boy has more than doubled his vocabulary. This has been so much fun and incredible to watch.  I counted today and could list 210 words he can now say (at 22 months old) .. and I know I forgot some.  His pronunciation is poor on some words and sometimes I need to interpret what he is saying for other people, but I think this is pretty typical for his age.  I love being his interpreter and knowing just what his little voice is saying :o).

One Month Today

Our big baby will hold our little baby

I will watch my husband lay eyes on his daughter

There will be little feet with frilly socks

We will answer the question of whether you will be blonde like your brother or have dark hair like us

Our hearts will double .. again

....One month (or less) from today

We're waiting for you Gracie Girl

A Battle of Wills

Last night marked a first for me and Joey.  I write this for myself, because really Joe and I are on our first go around here and I'll probably like to look back and this later and see how we change.. or maybe how we don't.  We had a showdown last night in our house.  It was over a tiny piece of potato.  I said Joey had to eat it, he refused.
Really who cares about a tiny piece of potato? I didn't, but Joey would only eat the sausage out of all the things he was being offered for dinner.  Joe asked if I cared and I didn't, it was late, he was eating something that didn't fall under the same category as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, but then I committed the fatal flaw. I clearly stated to Joey that "If he ate that little piece of potato, then he could be finished and snuggle with Mommy and have some milk."  And he refused. Ugh. I had made my bed.
Before Joey was born, even before he was conceived, Joe and I talked at great length about the guidelines and overarching ideas we felt should shape our parenting.  I'm sure these things are different for everyone but the place we want to strive from in all things regarding our parenting is rooted in a small number of jointly held goals and beliefs. 
We agreed that we would strive to make our marriage our life's priority.  Together, within our marriage, of course our children are certainly our area of greatest focus and joy.  However, we will work to make sure that we don't unwittingly allow our children to take priority over our marriage itself.  We want them to feel secure in the love and relationship their mother and father share.  Sometimes we fail at this, but overall so far I am proud to say that I think we have held to this well.
We agreed that education and learning is of ultimate importance.
We agreed that barring a situation we feel is abusive, in times of discipline, our unilateral approach would be to provide a united front.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Even if we don't fully agree with the consequences being assessed by the other parent, for us, that will be a topic of conversation for after our children are in bed.  We will work it out between ourselves in private not in front of the children.  Neither one of us wants to undermine the other's authority.
We agreed that, at least while our children are young, we want them to obey us. As in, what we say is the final word and that is the end of the discussion. This does not mean we are opposed to explaining things to them,  it is more to say that we do not believe that their choice to obey should rely on a rationalization that satisfies them.
.... Dun Dun Dunnnnn and then our child turns 22 months and I say eat this potato and he says no and an hour later .... I'm sticking to it and he's still saying no .... welcome to life . Ha!
We agreed that our job is to love and support and guide together, at all times, in the best way we know how.

That's all we've got folks. Five things that we really believe, but we're so incredibly lucky that both of us truly believe them. I probably learned more than Joey did last night (as should be the case since I'm 28 and he's 1, ha).  
You better believe I'll be picking my battles with a little more thought; I'll be more careful about what ultimatums and conditional statements I throw out there. I don't mind sticking my ground, but I didn't really care about the potato. Once I said it though, I just couldn't go back.  I can work on that.
I learned that I am good at keeping my cool.  I was proud that I did not raise my voice or let it turn angry even once. This is not to say I never raise my voice.  I do. But this was not a situation that was dangerous and I didn't want Joey to feel scared or that I was angry, in situations such as this I just want him to realize what I say is what must happen. I still love him, I'm not mad, but what must be must be and I will wait.
I found myself literally thanking God that Joe is my husband while he calmly watched baseball as this was going on and smoothly inserted himself when Joey asked for him, saying nothing more to Joey than reiterating what I was telling him. I asked him if he wanted me to give in and he laughed and said he was pretty sure Joey was not going to give in.  We talked about it in the living room after Joey told us both he wanted to be left alone in the kitchen in his high chair (Ha!) and he agreed we were both digging our heals in, there was no reason he could not eat the potato and if I wanted to fight it out he would support me in any way he could.

My marriage is my greatest proof on earth of God's existence.  It seriously amazes me all the time that I am married to Joe.  Out of all the people on earth, how do you find someone who is perfect for you?  How does it work that that person lives in a spot that allows your lives to collide so you can even meet?  It just doesn't seem that it should be possible.