Rewind 8 months 👉👉 Rowan is born and that makes 4

Fresh from the womb - June 18th, 2017 at 1:32pm

This is exactly what I saw when I first laid eyes on him. My own baby boy! Such a surreal moment, but I couldn't believe how tiny and cute he was! Through tears I said "oh my gosh, he's so cute!" He looked so perfect - either my doctor was a pro at cleaning up babies in 1 second, or he was not as bloody as they often come! Rewind to what brought us to that culminating moment... The story is different in a lot of ways (but better) than how it happened with his sister so it's fun to think back on...

I woke up around 4:30am on Sunday (Father's Day) and went to the bathroom. I went back to bed and wondered if I might start having contractions soon. My mom had arrived at 10pm the night before and I was due the following day (Monday). It felt like go time, but since not a single thing happened to my body with Maeve without help from the doc, I was skeptical that I could go into labor on my own. But I was still excited/nervous at the thought of it. I couldn't believe my ears when I was actually dilated to a 1 at my doctor's appt at 38 weeks. When I went in at 39 weeks I was dilated to a 2 and the cervix was thinning out some so my doc scheduled for me to be induced on my due date if nothing happened before then, though he thought there was a good chance. Anywho, back to Sunday morning, I went back to sleep and sure enough 25 minutes later at 4:55am I woke up to a contraction. I had a lot of back labor with Maeve and this contraction was actually in my back as well this time around. I continued to feel every single one in my back thereafter as well, which is so interesting to me that it can happen that way. I couldn't believe this baby boy had impeccable timing, wanted to come on his own, and would likely come on Father's Day! I didn't expect regular contractions yet but knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep so I started watching a show on my phone. Just 2 minutes later, I had another one. I started to feel nervous cause this was actually happening and potentially faster than I thought and couldn't focus, so I turned off my show and woke up Adam up. I kept timing my contractions and they were consistently 2-3 minutes apart for an hour. I called my doc and he told me to come in. I got ready and ate some pancakes and off we headed to the hospital at 7:30am.

When we got there, they checked me and I was dilated somewhere between a 3 and 4, so this thing was really happening and I could stay! 🤗 Unlike with Maeve, my doc told me I could get an epidural right away if I wanted to. I'm not sure if I didn't have that luxury with Maeve because he had to get me dilating from a 0 and didn't want to slow the process down with getting an epidural too soon, but that is what I suspect. I had 3 hours of very painful contractions with Maeve before I could get the epidural so I was quite pleased to know it likely wouldn't be as bad this time. At this point, my contractions weren't too bad yet. Probably at 8am they asked me if I wanted to get it and I opted not to. They asked me if I was sure since it takes some time to kick in and I still said I'd like to give it a little more time. At 8:45am my water partially broke (my doc checking to see if it had broke actually broke the rest) and the contractions started to ramp up some so at 9:15am I got the epidural. Pretty soon I was feeling great and unlike with Maeve it wasn't late at night, so I felt like I could just kick it and relax now. Adam turned on Boy Meets World for me on his computer and I ate some ice chips, which I had to ask a couple of times to get. Unfortunately it was pretty clear I had a new nurse who didn't really know what she was doing yet, so I'm just grateful I was already familiar with the process and all was going so smoothly because otherwise it would have made things much worse to have a clueless nurse. I LOVED my nurse with Maeve, so I'm just glad it wasn't reverse! Anyway, eating my ice chips I was feeling great!!

At 10:20am they came into check me again and I was 5cm dilated. They gave me another hour and checked again and I was 7cm. I was so pleased with my steady progress and couldn't believe he could be coming pretty soon if things kept up! They did notice the head was posterior though, so they had me rotate onto my side. At noon, they came in and told me the rotating had helped and positioning for the baby was good and now I was 8cm. Probably at 1pm, I told them I felt like I could feel the head wanting to come out and there was an urge to push. They checked me and sure enough were like "Oh yep, it looks like it's go time" - just like with Maeve, it took just a few rounds of pushes! Before my last round of pushing, they told me the head was partially out, so I was almost there. The nurse was like, "do you want to see? it might help you keep up the energy if your husband takes a picture and shows you" - I was a little hesitant, but said "I guess so!" and so he showed me the picture and I will say it wasn't the prettiest sight, but it was both motivating and made me feel a little queasy at the same time. 😂 I powered through the last round though and out he came at 1:32 pm! It was so amazing to have him here and in my arms and it felt like a baby Maeve all over again. It was killing me how big Maeve was getting, so it was perfect timing to have a sweet new babe to snuggle.

This is where it might be a little TMI just to forewarn, so you can read or skip... But with Maeve, right after I delivered I had some pretty insane diarrhea. I think it was because I had didn't get to have dinner the night before she was born and so I had taken advantage of chicken broth and jello and juice and such to get me through the evening hours without feeling starving. Once that baby girl came out, it just cleared me right out!! 😂😂 I was nervous it was going to happen again this time around, but to my pleasant surprise it did not! 🙆‍♀️I also bled A LOT with Maeve and had to take some meds to get it under control. This time around with Rowan was complete opposite and after the initial bleeding from him coming out, I actually bled very little -probably less than normal. But hey, I was not complaining!! After the initial holding and breastfeeding, they weighed him and did the APGAR testing. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 inches long and passed all the tests with flying colors. In fact, he got a perfect score on skin coloring and the nurse said she basically never gives a perfect score but his color was that good - go Rowan! Probably around 2:45 we finally got to order some lunch and I must say, food never tasted so good!! With Maeve, that first meal actually made me feel a little queasy and I couldn't even eat it all, but man I couldn't get it in fast enough this time around!!

All in all, everything was easier, smoother, and quicker this second time around - and my experience with Maeve's birth wasn't totally horrible either, so I was feeling very lucky and blessed! The rest of the hospital stay was great - he was more content than his sister was that first night, he just required holding if he was fussy but was completely content in our arms. I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep with him in my bed after one of his feedings when he wasn't settling back to sleep - they tell you the baby is not supposed to sleep anywhere but their bassinet - oops, he survived. The picture Adam got is worth it!

The past 8 months with this sweet little boy in our family now have been the best! Well, except for maybe months 1-2 when all he was doing was throwing up large volumes of milk around the clock. It was like he was giving me a warm glass of milk right back after I fed him - such a lovely gesture. 🤗 Joking aside, if I'm being honest, it was hard to think about anything else for that month. I was so worried about him and spent every last minute formulating possible reasons in my head for why he was struggling so much to keep the milk down. I felt weighed down by it all and at such a loss for a while, but responsible to figure it out as his mom! Needless to say it was such a relief when we figured out it was dairy and I could mentally and emotionally relax again. Actually, add physically to the list because I know for a fact my muscles were always stiff and tense because I always had my guard up knowing throw up could come at any second. 😂😂 NEVERTHELESS, he has still been the greatest addition to our crazy little family and seeing how much Maeve adores him just melts my mama heart. He has been different from her as a baby in a lot of ways and it's been eye opening to really realize how different every baby is. No baby is the same as the next, which means they're all going to require slightly different mothering and I've been reminded of that many times. It's a wild ride that's for sure, but a rewarding job that I wouldn't trade for anything else!! 

Caught red-handed

I was feeding this little boy and sissy had to go to the bathroom. I came back to find him guilty! He had pulled one of the strands of greenery out of the centerpiece. 🙊

No remorse and blowing bubbles, as per usual. He did it all through Sacrament meeting yesterday and had our friends' 4 mo old baby utterly fascinated! 😂

When Maeve saw what had happened she exclaimed, "Do it one more time bud and you'll go to time out!" 😂😂 Tough luck, little boy. You aren't getting off easy when big sis is around to call the shots! 

In other news, he just threw himself out of the bumbo as I was typing this, so there's that. 🙈 Luckily I've got fast reflexes, so no harm was done! #winning 

Music to my ears

I've recently gotten two videos, one of each kiddo, that I am in love with. There is no sweeter sound than Maeve's cute little voice reciting a book or Rowan's amazing little baby laugh. That laugh is for real!! 😂 Maybe the sounds will be just as sweet for you as for me, but I doubt it. 😜

I also just have to share some random tidbits on Maeve because she's doing so many funny things right now that I don't want to forget. Such as:

1. Anytime we go anywhere she always pretends to be asleep when we get home. I think this started because one time she was looking down when I went to get her out and it looked like she was asleep. I asked her if she was and her eyes shot up and she smiled so big that she'd fooled me. So now she "fools me" every time! It cracks me up because it's a very serious sleep face. 😂

Exhibit A

Exhibit B - ironically they are both faking it here 😂

2. She is constantly wondering what I'm saying and asking me to repeat myself. "Mommy, what are you saying?" "Say it again Mommy." "What mommy?" are pretty much said on repeat. If I even look at her or something else with a funny face, she is ready to say "What? What is it Mommy? Why are you looking at that/me?" Girlfriend doesn't miss a thing.

3. She thinks it the funniest thing ever to call me by my real name. Obviously she's heard Adam say "Hey Meg!" so now she calls out to me like that sometimes... 😑😆. She also likes to refer to Adam and I as "guys" and will say "what are we doing guys??" 😂

4. She loves to repeat anything we say and the most recent funny ones are:
👉 (While driving) Adam: "that's a sketchy looking house"
Maeve: "that's sketchy" 😂🤷‍♀️
👉 Adam: "I'm grumpy"
Me: "Me too"
Maeve (with a smile on her face): "I'm grumpy too" 😆😆
**So word to the wise, be careful what you say around my child! 😂

6. She has strong negotiating skills and if I say no to something, she always follows it up with "just a little bit" and holds up her fingers to show me - referring to a treat or watching a show. Little stinker knows how to get me!

7. Rowan's winter coat is quite puffy and one day I called him my little marshmallow. Now I always hear her from the back seat saying "you're just a little marshmallow! My little marshmallow!" 😂😂😍

The marshmallow himself 😍

8. Yesterday in the car Rowan was coughing and struggling for a minute and then got quiet. The following convo occurred:

Me: Does Rowan look okay Maeve? 

Maeve: Yeah

Adam: Is he breathing? 

Maeve: No 

**Luckily she was wrong 😆😆 

9. This conversation actually just happened:

Maeve (pointing to Daddy's chest): "you have boobies. I love this boobies!" 

Adam: "oh yeah? Do you have boobies?"

Maeve: "yes and Mommy has boobies! Mommy's boobies are big and Daddy's boobies are big. Mine are small and I have no milk in my boobies!" 😂😂 🙈 

She really is something else! 

Valentines extravaganza

Holidays always have a way of sneaking up on me and this Valentines Day was no different. As the procrastinator that I am, I usually am thinking about what we will do to celebrate the day before. So in classic fashion, I was on pinterest the night before coming up with a few treats to make, little gifts to give, and a couple crafts to do with Maeve. I knew she'd eat it all up because since I hate messes, I have a hard time doing crafty stuff on a super regular basis with her and so it'd be special. Not to mention, she loves baking right now - she is alllllways ready to help. It's both cute and slightly annoying (bless her heart) how often I hear "I wanna help! Mommy I wanna help! I can help!" Anyway, I went to bed excited for the fun, out of the ordinary day we'd be waking up to in the morning. I am not a morning person, so pretty rare for me to think about waking up the next morning and being happy about that thought. 😂😂

Morning came and I had decided to make some donuts myself. Bakeries don't normally offer non dairy options and I'm still off dairy for Rowan. I've learned we are both just better off for it if I steer clear, since when I do have it he is crankier, throws up more, and doesn't sleep as well 👉 makes my life harder 👉 just isn't worth it. I only put him through the misery every so often if there is a good reason for it and then I'm at least mentally prepared for it. The good news is thanks to this little bump in the road, I've discovered plenty of amazing vegan recipes/desserts and so it ain't all bad. Silver lining people! Anywho, back on track, the donut maple frosting recipe called for maple extract and maple syrup. I thought surely the maple extract wasn't totally necessary since the syrup would give it the maple flavor. Wrong. Donuts were ready out of the oven and the frosting only tasted like powdered sugar, no matter how much more maple syrup I added. I wasn't about to drag the kids out at that point to get some maple extract so I could enjoy the donuts how intended so I had to bag it and find a different frosting. I settled on just a normal glaze and in the end, they turned out fine. Witness:

Nevertheless, more time was wasted and with the fun plans we just HAD to make happen because the day was supposed to be nothing but FUN, I found myself already feeling flustered with the hiccups.

As all this was going on, the kids had their moments of being kids and driving me nuts. Poor Rowan is not even 8 months old and I found myself trying to reprimand him like I do my 2 year old. There's only one thing he does consistently that drives me crazy and it is suck on his bib while I'm trying to feed him solids. Witness:

I wish I could just relax about it, but it always makes his clothes dirty and I hate it. Did I mention I try to avoid messes like he plague? 😅 And I'm a mom, so that's funny. I know I have a problem. In case you were wondering, there is absolutely no point in reprimanding a baby because it doesn't work. Maeve was also being a stinker about putting clothes and doing her hair and all of these hiccups were just wasting more time so I was getting less and less patient. Ironically, on a day of celebrating love, where I should have been loving them extra, I found myself getting mad at them. Poor kiddos.

Anyway, moral of the story here is that in the end, despite the less than desirable speed at which everything got done, every recipe got made and both crafts checked off the list. We had donuts, ran errands, put together some little gifts, did a heart craft with paint, made heart sensory jars with glitter (supposed to be glitter hearts but they were sold out everywhere), and made chocolate covered strawberries and homemade reeses hearts (thank you Trader Joe's dairy free chocolate chips 🙆‍♀️🙇‍♀️)! We had Chinese food for dinner and ended the night relaxing in bed with bubbly.

Glitter jar! 

She loved it

Helping with the chocolate covered strawberries

That smile! 😍 She was so proud of her work

Our spread! 

I think of all the things we did and even though I wasn't completely happy through all of it, it really was a fun day. The lesson I learned is that it is my choice to get annoyed or still be happy through the hiccups and with children, they are going to come! I might as well expect the slow downs so that I'm better able to just roll with it!! After all, happy mom 👉 happy kids 👉 happy life! These little Valentines make it all worth it.

I am Batman and I don't sleep

OK, so I'm exaggerating with the title but this little boy is teething. Teething didn't effect sissy one bit, and by day you wouldn't know this chubby little dude is teething (I mean, really though, look at that chub! 😍😂) but every night for the last 5 nights he fights going to bed for 1-2 hours or if he does fall asleep at bedtime, he wakes up after 20 minutes and is then awake for 1-2 hours after that. He's happy as long as I don't make him stay in his bed, but believe it or not he still fights it hard the second go around after being up longer. Good thing he's so cute and so chubby.

    

      

In his 21 pounds of glory (not even 8 months old 🙈) 

Also, can we just talk for a minute about how different these photos are due to no flash vs a flash? The flash is totally a thing of the past. Like, who uses it anymore?! But when I took the few pics with the flash since it is dark right now, it took me back to how all photos used to look, even in broad daylight. I mean, I legit remember a time when my oldest brother took a photo of me and decided to take one without a flash. He told me he preferred the no flash look, and I straight up decided that I still preferred the flash. I have come a long way since then and now realize the error of my ways, but chubby little offspring is still working that flash up above, no doubt. I think it just doesn't matter when you're that cute. 😉😆

And for your viewing pleasure, the sibs in all their glory sharing the cart at Costco. Maeve died and went to heaven when she found out they were going to get to sit up there together. Seriously, some true love between these two. 

Such a classic Maeve face 😂 and Rowan is looking as perfect as they come 😍

He gets hugged many times by this little lady all day long 

I cannot even believe I created them 

I just had to include this one because Maeve's face 😂😂😂

Why double strollers aren't actually necessary

Here's how you can save a couple hundred bucks and double stroller it with just a single stroller. They love it and as long as she's holding on tight, it's totally a sound design right?! 😂

Does she actually love him? 

Yes, yes she does

It was so nice today here in Tennessee we went for a walk on a trail we discovered a while back that is 10 minutes from our place. Some funny tidbits to note from our walk include: 

Maeve had a ball finding sticks and leaves. After collecting some I asked her which she likes better - sticks or leaves - and she said "I like sticks and I like leaves. I like both!" I don't know why I ask her these kinds of questions anymore because that's always her response. I kind of love that about her, that she just likes everything!

She's currently afraid of bridges and we had to cross one. When we got to it she exclaimed in a dramatic tone "this is TERRIBLE!" - I came to her rescue and held her hand and she said "it's not terrible now!" 😂😂

If you ask her, this stick is a tree. 👇 I guess I've gotta give it to her since it's taller than her. 🤷‍♀️

19 months and funnier than ever!

This girl is changing so much and becoming such a little character that I thought I would do a 19 month post so I don't forget some of these things! Here's the latest and greatest on this chick:

1. She begs for food all day long. Not a moment goes by that she is not standing by the pantry door, specifically wanting a Graham cracker. Breakfast ends and she runs to the door. I think she wants a graham cracker to be her dessert following every meal 😂😂

2. She loves to throw her veggies on the ground and the other day she saw me picking them up so she started to help and then threw them in the garbage. She has now taken it upon herself to clean up what she has thrown on the floor after each meal... And she's good about picking up everything! I am not complaining!!

3. She gets really excited when I pull out a cutie for her and when  I peel it she squeals and basically jumps up and down in anticipation... Don't worry though the graham cracker still always wins! She'll do the same thing as I open the pantry door to get one of those for her most of the time too!

4. She loves dancing to music and in addition to waving her arms and swaying she now throws spinning around into the mix!

5. She can say hi, what's that, Dada, mama, yeah, no... There might be more but I myself am still trying to figure out her gibberish. I think she's trying to say a whole lot, I just have a hard time making sense of it. She's very smart though at still communicating what she wants by by pointing to things and such.

6. Most of the time after her nap, she likes to play with me through the crib for a little while. I know this because I try and get her out and she runs to the other side of the crib. She likes to show me things out the windows, peek at me through the slats, bounce up and down and bury herself into her mattress. She's as happy and smiley as can be and it's probably my favorite part of the day!

7. Her favorite part of the day is definitely when daddy gets home! She runs to the door when she hears it opening and is ready to greet him. She LOVES bedtime routine since he's a part of it and he reads her the bedtime book quite animatedly and there's usually a big tickle fest at some point. She gets pretty riled up and loves it, which might sound counterintuitive before bed, but she still goes to sleep and sleeps like a rock so it works for us!!

8. If daddy hasn't left yet in the morning when she wakes up she will not leave his side until he's gone and she waves bye to him when he leaves! She also waves bye anytime I'm on the phone and she hears me say "bye" 😂

9. She has major stranger danger and has started to wrap herself around one of my legs whenever anyone comes near that she does not know. She will wave at anyone and everyone happily from a distance while we are out and about, but come close and it's a different story!

10. She has gone to nursery a couple times now and hates it. The first time we dropped her off, she didn't even care or say bye to us but after a few minutes it clicked that she was with a bunch of strangers and she lost it. Since then one of us has to be in there with her or else she runs after us crying with her arms extended if we try and leave. 😭  

11. She loves sitting on a regular chair at the table for snacks. She often insists she sit there for meal times too, but for now we are sticking with just snacks since they're easier to eat and the table is a little high from there for her! 😂

12. Today I was in the kitchen dishing some food onto a plate and I heard Adam's voice through the phone say "Hi Maeve" - I look over and see her holding the phone to her ear listening to him. At first I thought she dialed him, but turns out he called and she happened to answer correctly. She was excited to hear his voice and for the most part it was a one sided convo, but she did say "hi dad" at one point quite appropriately! Proud mom moment.

13. She loves my phone in general and is obsessed with taking selfies, but also with me taking pictures of her. She gives me the phone and runs off and poses - over and over and over. I have so many pictures like this on my phone of her in random places doing random poses. A lot of the time they're blurry because she starts running back toward me before the pic has taken, but sometimes they turn out cute too! It cracks us up.

14. She knows where her head, shoulders, ears, belly, and mouth are. For some reason the nose confuses her and she points to her chin every single time. Not sure how that happened, but it cracks me up that she consistently gets it wrong in the same way.

I think I've hit on all the main things. She's just such an animated, funny, happy little girl and we love watching her change and learn more every single day! She sure puts the spice into my life that I need and I don't know what I'd do without her.