Great Dad!

A friend asked me tonight how I was adjusting having two little ones at home.  Of course, lots of people have asked, but being that tomorrow Libby will be 4 weeks old, it's becoming more and more real.  I had to admit to my friend that it's been hard but not as hard as I had imagined.  First, Mom was here for two weeks and now Mark has been home for two weeks!  I'm beginning to realize that I still haven't really experienced two - when Mark goes out of town for a couple of nights that will be a whole other story!

In the meantime, I am giving thanks for Mark and the great Dad that he is to these two girls! 

He already spoils them like crazy!  Libby gets lots of hugs and snuggles from Daddy and baths too!

The picture above reminds me of this one below with Caroline.

And Caroline has Mark wrapped around her little finger!  As soon as he walks downstairs from work, she says, "PLAY!" or another favorite, "CHASE!"  I love watching them play together.  Mark also puts Caroline to bed most nights that he is home.  We have always had a long bedtime routine with Caroline - we both love the sweet time with her - reading, singing and praying.  Lately, she has been singing along with us.  Sorry the videos are so dark - these are two of her favorites!

 

Preschool!

Caroline started preschool at St. Andrew UMC last Thursday.  I was more than a little hesitant about this change because I felt guilty not spending more time with her.  However, she loves it and so do I! 

Everytime we have gone to the school to drop her off or pick her up, she is smiling a huge smile!  This is how I left her on the first morning...

I'm really looking forward to seeing how she will learn and grow this year!

Hands and Feet

We said adios to Madre on Friday.  I would like to have a sad face here, except that really wouldn't be fair to Mom, Vern, Mark, the girls or even myself.   Mom and Vern deserve their own lives and our little family needs to be a family.  We had the joy of having Mom here for 3 weeks caring for us as we waited on the arrival of Libby and then for 2 weeks after her birth.  I could never put into her words all that she did for us.  She was the extra hands that were always needed to tie shoes, kiss boo-boos, give baths, and more. 

She did laundry, dishes, cooked and cleaned and she did it all with a smile.  Of course, she also played with Caroline constantly and loved on little Libby.  I had to remind her at one point that Caroline didn't need constant play time from Gigi! 

I could never imagine someone serving us so selflessly.  She never complained about the amount of work, being pulled between two daughters and three granddaughters who love her dearly,

or missing her husband.  She was careful to give Mark and I time by ourselves.  Even the son-in-law said, "I could find no fault with her this whole time!"  That's quite a statement for a son-in-law! 

In thinking about her time with us, I was reminded of the prayer below about being the hands and feet of Christ. 

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet, on earth but yours.

Your are the eyes through which He looks

Compassion on this world

Yours are the feet

With which He walks to do good.

Your are the hands

With which He blesses all the world

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet.

Yours are the eyes, you are His body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes, through which He Looks

compassion on the world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

- St Teresa of Avila

Mom loved us well during this time and we are incredibly grateful! 

I tried to thank her with a pedicure for her tired feet but it could never be enough!

Wee Wee... Home

We recently taught Caroline about her 5 little piggies...and our favorite part is when she gets to her last toe she says, "wee wee home."  Since we've been 'wee wee home' from the hospital, we've been enjoying time with family and friends coming to visit and some snuggle time with the girls.

Mom and Lindsay were so sweet and did a little decorating before we got home!

We've got a ton of pictures of Caroline holding Libby.  This is mostly because for the first week, anytime Caroline would hold her, she would say, "Picture?" like she was some sort of movie star!

We've also played a little dress up with the girls...

and took a few pictures.  

We are already in the mode of, if one sister does it, so does the other!

Happy "Birth" Day

I might forget all the gory details if I wait any longer to write this post.  The munchkin decided to hang out in my belly until the scheduled induction on Wednesday morning.   We headed into the hospital at 5:30 AM looking forward to the day ahead!

We got checked in and heard about what we could expect for the day.  We also got a prediction that we didn't expect.  Our first nurse told us she could predict what we would be having.  She listened to the heart beat on the monitor and told us that we would be having a girl!  She said girl heart beats sound like a washing machine and boy heart beats sound like ponies.  Up until that point, Mark and I had mentally been preparing for a little boy, just because we knew it would be a little different than Caroline.  We had absolutely no preference either way!!  However, hearing that it might be a girl was a funny feeling...almost a sigh of relief that we might be somewhat prepared!  Our nurse said she had only been wrong once in the last 6 months so now it was time to wait and see!  

Around 7:00 they started the pitocin and then around 9:00 I got the epidural.  I was a little disappointed in the whole epidural this time around.  Everyone kept telling me that the great thing about being induced is that you never have to feel any pain because you can get the epidrual pretty much whenever you are ready.  However, even after another dose of medicine in the epidural, I still felt all my contractions and they were still painful.  After the epidrual, we waited...

and waited some more!  I watched a little bit of tv, talked with Mark, visited with Lindsay and Mom and did a little knitting.  I started working on a gender neutral hat for the little one (it's still not complete)!  At noon, they checked me and I was dialated 4 cm. so Lindsay and Mom headed home for a lunch and to be with the girls.

At 1:30 Mom called and said she was on her way and picking up some snacks for after the birth.  Then around 1:45 I sent Mark to find a nurse because I felt terribly.  I couldn't find a comfortable position and I was naseous.  I'm sure I scared the nurse when she came in because I looked so unhappy.  Right away she said, let's check and see what's going on.  Within a short moment she said, "It's party time!"  She asked me to do a 'practice push' and then stopped me and went to call Merrilee, our sweet midwife.  Thankfully, Mom and Merrilee both made it to the room in the nick of time!  After two contractions, and about 8 pushes we had a precious baby gir at 2:05!!  I was thankful that the little one came out quickly, although it did take a little work on Merrilee's part.  I was so sick to my stomach that the poor little babe got it's head out and then I wanted to stop for just a quick second and catch my breath but I was assured there was no way was that going to happen.  Mom and Mark said the little baby was turning blue and Merrilee told me I had to push.  :-(  I did my best to push and unlike Caroline's delivery I saved all of my sickness for after the baby was born!  Thankfully, her color returned quickly and we had a healthy little....girl.  Since I was sick and the baby was a little blue, it took Mom asking "So what do we have?" before we heard the exciting news. 

Probably the only thing I liked about being induced was that I got to have my favorite midwife help me to deliver.  Mark joked as she came running in the room that she was our super hero here to save the day.  Although I told him he was going to make the nurse mad, I was really glad she arrived so quickly and got the little one out!

Elizabeth "Libby" Lee Taylor was born at 2:05 and was 9 lbs 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches long with red hair!  She has been a blessing!   She is a great little eater and sleeper so far.  I keep wondering when this newborn phase is going to wear off!  :-) 

Here are a few pictures after the birth...

 

I was so glad that Libby was born early enough in the day that we got to see our first baby girl!  Caroline has been a great big sister.  She has not shown any jealousy at all yet.  She calls her "Libby Baby" and loves to "hold her." 

We feel very blessed and thankful to be a family of four!