Family Time

Wow. I haven't posted since we left the hospital. Something about having a host of nurses dedicated to keeping us all cozy and comfy 24-7 left me lots more time to blog than I currently have. I've promised a few people pictures though, so here I am trying to carve out some time to post them! (I really can't complain though since at the moment my sweet hubby is working on making me belgian waffles with strawberries & whipped cream for breakfast - yum!)
First things first - we were discharged from the hospital on Sunday January 25. Aaron got Mady and I home and our friends brought sweet Sydney back (after bravely taking her to church with them - thanks!) Sydney went down for a nap and when she woke up, she took one look at Mady and burst into tears. It was the saddest thing ever! I know she'll love her eventually, but I've never felt so guilty for ruining my little girl's life! As you can see here though, she wasn't violent or anything towards Mady, and even consented to pose for some pictures with the rest of us.

This kid is noisy!
Checking out Mommy's fancy bracelets
and Mady's spiky hair

Aaron even got Sydney to hold Mady after a few days so we could snap this adorable shot of our pretty in pink girls.

My mom nd dad came out a few days later to get some snuggle time in with Mady and to help ease the transition to 2 kiddos.

Mady is a total snuggler by the way. After my dad went back to work my mom stayed in Grandma land for a while to help out. She leaves tomorrow. Gulp.Sydney getting some extra daddy time while they are here.

Sydney has needed lots of extra love and snuggles from mom and dad lately, and we're only too happy to oblige! She gets in lots of walks with Grandma on the good weather days and comes home to tell us about the doggies she saw. She's a sweet girl and has come a long way from that first day. She now gives Mady presents, loves, and kisses and is very sweet to her. She likes to rub Mady's head and tries to help me change her diaper (maybe a sign she's almost ready to be potty trained?). We love our sweet girls!

The Public Has Spoken

After 159 votes (see poll on the right) our little girl has been named. May we proudly introduce:

Madelyn Nicole

We left the hospital today and came home (a much shorter drive than when we got Sydney!).
I had to show the man accommodations in our hospital room. The couch was 7 ft long and folded into a twin-sized bed, so even Aaron could stretch out on it!

We loved our hospital and particularly loved our nurses. They were so wonderful and took such great care of us. They were attentive, kind, and completely supportive (despite the constant confusion over whether or not this was our "first" baby). We are so grateful we had such a great place to deliver and are happy to have our big healthy girl here and safe!

The One You've Been Waiting For

For all of you anxiously checking the blog since I posted yesterday, sorry to keep you in suspense. We had a rather busy day/night and truly haven't had a chance to blog - oddly enough. Here's the story (If you don't care, skip the next paragraph):

I started pitocin at 8:45 am. At the time I was dilated to 3 cm and was 60% effaced. Little Miss had dropped really low a few weeks back, so she was all ready to come out. The contractions started really slowly and over a period of about 3 hours I dilated to 4 cm. At this point they were getting pretty intense, so I got some IV drugs which wore off after 1 hour. It was a productive hour and I was at 6 cm, so the contractions came back feeling pretty rough. I decided I wanted an epidural and when they checked me right after I got it (45 min later) I was at 8 cm. I started feeling annoyed that I had almost made it before getting the pain meds, but it ended up being good since it still took a couple more hours to get her out.

Our bouncing baby girl was officially born at 6:21 pm on January 23, 2009.

She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs 4 oz (we grow big babies I guess) and was 21.5 inches long.
Mom and baby this morning
This poor girl swallowed a bunch of crap while coming out, so she's been spitting it up ever since, but other than that she is perfectly healthy. She seems to be a fairly calm baby, but she's also very young, so we'll see.
Baby & Daddy this afternoon.
This baby girl still has no name, but we are working on it and will have it all ready by tomorrow when we leave the hospital. Sydney got to meet her new sister today and I think her verdict is still out on what she thinks. We are very grateful that she is here and that everyone is healthy and well. We're particularly grateful to our friends watching Sydney while we're still in the hospital. We'll post more on all of us soon!

No Room at the Inn

So I was supposed to check into the hospital at 7 last night but apparently when the weather changes, women start popping out babies. Except not me. We called around 4:30 to make sure everything was on schedule and were told that things might be a little delayed. Then we called at 6 and they told us to call at 8:30. Then they told us to call at 10 pm (remember how we were trying to get Sydney all settled somewhere if we were going to be gone?). At 10 they told us they were completely slammed and that every time a bed opened up another woman walked in in labor, so they would call us when we were able to come in. Yippee.
We got Sydney all settled at a friend's house, went home and went to bed (weird). At 5 am we finally got a call telling us to be at the hospital by 7 so we could have the last bed. Now we are here and things are progressing slowly. At least we got in and Sydney was even good for our friends. Yay. More info to come later!

Zoo Trip

On Saturday it was quite nice out so we went to the zoo! We love the zoo and are so glad it's open year round! Hooray for nice days when we can get out and enjoy all the animals! We thought this would be a great chance to have some quality time with Sydney and for me to get a lot of walking in and try to kick this kid out. Plan A worked great since Sydney had a ball. Plan B didn't work at all. Nothing. Not a single contraction. Grrr.

Sydney's favorite part of the entire zoo this time? The geese. She chased them for practically half the time we were there and was fascinated by them. She also growled at every animal we saw I think. It was awesome.

She was in some pretty thick shoes she hadn't worn before, but she was so focused on getting the goose it didn't bother her at all!
Sydney with the Komodo Dragon. She followed her as she paced around inside her cage too. I'm still not sure what fascinates her about these guys, but she's always loved them.

Having fun with daddy.

Her classic pose at the zoo - Look! She was amazed by pretty much everything, so she was tons of fun to be with. Good thing we're zoo members so we can go lots. Best purchase/gift ever.

Here's a video of Sydney chasing the geese that Aaron took. She kept saying "brr!," (bird) as she followed them around. It was too funny.

After we got home my awesome friend Karen threw me a fantastic baby shower. We somehow came away without a single picture, but it was so fun. Thanks Karen for your hospitality and thanks to everyone else for your sweet gifts and your company! You're all so wonderful!

Busy Busy Girl

I've recently figured out something about Sydney. She may start things a little later than some other kids (she didn't crawl until 11 months and didn't walk until 14 1/2 months), but once she starts something, she's good at it. I guess she just observes until she's got it down in theory and then she does it. Consequently, it takes her very little time to perfect the actual doing of new skills. I'm not sure if this is a pattern for her life or not, but my calm, non-mobile baby is a thing of the past!
This has basically resulted in a veritable explosion in her development over the past few weeks/months. While I am thrilled that she's learning so many new things so quickly, it does tend to wear me out and make it rather difficult to get anything done!

For example, yesterday I decided I should clean my house (since it's not going to get done again for awhile!) I sprayed Windex on my sliding glass door (you inspired me Kristin), set the dangerous chemicals on the table, turned to wipe off the Windex, and heard giggles. By the time I turned around there was a little toddler with the Windex in her grubby little paws halfway across the room.

The rest of the day was about the same. I dumped the garbage and found that her ball had taken up residence 3 seconds later.Then said ball was stuck, so she dumped the garbage over. Smart kid.
Hmm, still stuck. Maybe if I yell for it "BAWH!!!!" Finally saved the ball from certain death. Shredded tissue paper and put it in a tupperware for safe keeping.

Now I'll clean the floor (mostly comprised of her rubbing a duster across the floor or making the dust pan disappear whenever it was needed).

No picture of this one, but while cleaning a bathroom she disappeared, so I went and found her - with a bottle of lotion. She was pumping that stuff out as fast as she could and had it everywhere! As soon as she saw me she said "WOW!" with this amazed little voice. I totally couldn't be mad at her, I just desperately wished my camera was upstairs with me. Then she helped me cook dinner. It was so easy with her like this the whole time.

Sydney has also become fairly opinionated. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. This is good and bad. It's great when she is able to communicate what she wants. Not so great at other times. She has figured out where many items are stored in the house. She knows her sippies are in the fridge, so she does this and whines every time she wants a drink. or grapes.

I also finally succeeded in teaching her the sign for "eat," and she is starting to do it when she is hungry. Halle-freakin-lujah. I love taking the guess work out of a small part of my day. Since she's taking so much out of me (and because I wanted one), we had a girl's night and enjoyed yummy Olive Garden food. Hooray. It was a much needed night away.
Thanks to everyone who came!

What We've Been Up To...

I decided that since I had only changed my blog background once in the past 17 months and I had NEVER changed my header, it was time to update things a bit, even if they'd only be updated for a week or less! Also, I realized there are way too many photos to blog in 1 or even 3 posts, so here's a nice little slide show to chronicle our lives over the last 3 weeks!

Baby Name Dilema

We're sort of struggling to name this new kid, so we thought we'd let our friends and family give their say. We probably won't actually name her until she's born, but we're interested in your thoughts and opinions! Vote and let us know what you think!

Poll is now on the right -->

A Week Late Christmas

I know it's a week late, but here are our Christmas pics! I have to get them up because we have others to post! First, here are Aaron and Sydney on Christmas morning. (And for anyone who wants to see, click here to watch Sydney open some presents. I got sick of waiting for the video to upload).

She's starting to figure out that there are things in these packages. Like books! Hooray!
Um, slight problem. Once she got the books we had to drag her away from them multiple times to open other presents! Mamma's so proud! One thing that did get her attention was her new Snap n' Style doll. For a minute at least. :) Also she was pretty happy about a new polar fleece blanket I made her (she's sort of obsessed) since she opened it right as she was melting down and needing a nap.

Aaron with his awesome hot wheels toy. Thanks Haylee & JC!

Sydney with her awesome toy that blows the balls in the bottom up. She desperately wants to get at those things, so she grabs the toy like so, and yells into the middle "BALL!!!" It's exactly like on Finding Nemo when Darla yells "Fishie!" into the drain at the end. Cracks me up every time. The balls actually come out when you hit the red button, but Sydney is slightly terrified of it, so she doesn't like to do it. It plays awesome music, but also has a small motor that sounds a bit like a vacuum, so she mostly just yells for the balls to come up.

We had a fantastic Christmas. It was low-key and relaxed (good for us since Syd had been sick not too long before) and full of good times. We missed our families but had dinner with our good friends Zack & Karen and enjoyed lots of good times and food. Sydney walked away with a bunch of clothes and a few toys, and of course, her beloved books. Oh, and I got the fairy Snap n' Style doll and a beautiful picture drawn by Sydney. Best gift ever.

Pre-Christmas Fun

Christmas pictures will come soon, but here are some that we took before that I enjoyed. Here is our official Christmas Eve picture. Somehow we have made it this far without anything really being ripped off the tree and without the tree falling on any small children. Excellent.

Sydney is growing increasingly independent and she loves to feed herself many things. Apparently we are mean parents and don't let her feed herself the messy stuff usually, but she has gotten to eat her own PB&J a couple of times lately. She loves them. See Food!
Nose pressed to the glass. Sadly, she's not watching snow. Just looking for rabbits (she loves them) and watching the consruction workers. They're fascinating.

Playing in the Snap n' Style dolls box. Perfect fit!

Me at 35.5 (now 36.5) weeks. I am a funny shape.

Happy Christmas to all!

Lots of Stuff

OK, so first of all, a request - If you have our blog linked on yours, please make sure our last name is not listed. This is in an attempt to keep our blog public for as long as possible.

Second, it finally snowed and has stuck! Hooray Hooray! Mind you, it's also been FREEZING the last couple of days (yesterday it was below zero in lots of places, although we didn't venture out until it was a balmy 12 degrees). I truly love the snow though, especially around Christmas time. It's my favorite. I couldn't handle living someplace with no snow. That's why Colorado is perfect for us - all 4 seasons in moderation! Hooray!

Due to a long story that doesn't need to be shared here, we are currently sledless (it's coming home soon), so last week I took Sydney out and pulled her around our backyard in a laundry basket. Yeah, I'm weird like that, I know. Honestly, she was less than impressed. She was also sick, so I (being a semi-decent mom) only allowed her to stay outside for about 4.3 minutes despite the ridiculous number of layers I stuffed her into. She was happy to go back in and forget mom's weird fascination with the snow.

Sydney has recently discovered her belly button. She frequently lifts her shirt to look for it. I know this seems a little late, but honestly, with the size of this girl's belly, it's sometimes kind of hard to see. Even now she has to do a little tummy tuck to see it. Hil-arious. Also every time she sees a belly button she makes her sign for bunny (two fingers hopping). Not sure what the connection there is. Maybe she thinks this thing kicking in my stomach is a bunny hopping.

My favorite ever. I bought this coat last spring on clearance and could not be happier with it. Talk about the cutest pea coat ever. What a trendy girl we've got here. I think I put her in it at least 4 times yesterday and we only left the house once. Sorry Syd. Mommy likes dress up.

In other earth shattering news, Sydney officially has enough hair for a teeny tiny pony tail! There's nothing special about this picture except for the fact that she has one in. She's been in this awkward hair phase where she has too much to put the KY-Jelly bows in, but not enough for barrettes or ponytails, and she rips out all headbands, so she's gone all natural for awhile. Thus the "What a cute little boy" comments every time we leave the house. I completely have to distract her every time I try to do anything, but I have visual proof! There's a ponytail in there. Hallelujah.

Sydney loves to pick things up and then throw them all over again. Our house usually looks like a small toy shop exploded because there are random toys and toy parts EVERYWHERE. One of her favorite toys right now is a bag of Christmas bows (aren't we awesome parents?). She dumps them all out and then walks around and picks them up. She occasionally stops to show us some of her sweet dance moves as she goes.

2 weeks ago we had another ultrasound. Everything is great, kid is really big. At 32 weeks they estimated that she weighed 5.77 lbs (instead of the usual 3.5-4). We asked the Dr. if that meant she'd come early. He said it just meant she'd be big. Awesome. No really. I'm sort of terrified of tiny babies. So right now this kid could be almost 7 lbs! At a weight gain of 1/2 lb a week, we're looking at a potentially 10 lb full term baby.

Last but not least, Sydney is fascinated by everything lately. Every day she says "WOAH!" At least 50 times. I never realized there was so much to be amazed at, but she's helping me to rediscover the world. :) Thanks Syd. Also, she shares her mom's love of the Christmas tree. I feel like saying it too! WOAH!!!! (Sorry for the poor lighting, but her reaction was too cute.)

My Baby

What happened? She's still gaining confidence and needs practice, but she's all grown up now. Sniff Sniff.

P.S. She chose her outfit herself in case you were wondering. It's always important to accessorize.