A Maggie Post

Wow, it's amazing how fast time has gone by! In an attempt to maintain some privacy without making this blog private, I am choosing not to talk about certain things regarding Maggie's birth, including the exact day she was born or her full name. Let me just say, however, that things went extremely quickly with her birth. I was dilated to a 5 when I checked in to the hospital and went from a 6 to a 9 within 20 minutes. She was born when I had been there not even 3 hours (I only had to push through 2 contractions and was like, "What? She came out already?"). Things went pretty smoothly; however, she had poor color and a hard time breathing when she was born, so they had to whisk her away to the nursery to make sure she was all right. I didn't really get to hold her for the first three hours of her life, but I have since made up for it. :)

Jared's first time holding Maggie


Our first family picture. This was the best we could get Jared to look.

These past couple of weeks have been WAY better than I expected. Things were REALLY hard the first few weeks of Jared's life, so I was expecting them to be just as crazy again. However, other than a few glitches here and there (including jaundice and a bili blanket for Maggie for a few days and lots of wet underpants for Jared), things have been pretty good. Alan was home on paternity leave for a week, and my mom and mother-in-law have been around to help, too. We'll see how I feel when I am REALLY on my own.

My recovery feels like it's going much faster than with Jared, breastfeeding is TONS easier than it was with Jared, and Maggie also seems to be less maintenance than Jared was. She will let us put her down on bouncers, etc, instead of having to hold her all the time! Also, she has been pretty good about not being awake for hours at a time in the middle of the night. I hope she continues to do so!

Our little "glowworm." This is when Maggie had to be plugged into to wall for her jaundice. I'm not sure why it was called a bili blanket--it doesn't look like a blanket at all. From what I understand, the bili blanket is far less stressful than the bili bed that some of my friend's babies have had to lie on! At least we could still hold her!

So far Jared has been such a good big brother. He keeps on pointing out how cute his little sister's features are: "Look at her cute little nose! her cute little dimples! her cute little feet!" and always says "I love my baby sister!" It probably helps that Maggie "gave" Jared this awesome tent and tunnel set when she came home from the hospital:

Here is a picture from just a few days ago. I will try to find time to post more!

Thanks, Aunt Shawna, for the dress!

She's Here!

Margaret was finally born last week! We are so excited that little Maggie is here.

More details to follow when we have time to upload pictures. (Thanks, Alana, for this picture!)

Jared-isms

Alan keeps on telling me that I need to record funny things that Jared has been saying lately for posterity's sake.

1. Yesterday at church to the little girl sitting behind us, during the closing prayer: "Close your eyes."
2. The breakfast blessing on the food: "Bless me to go on a mission and get married in the temple, bless the yogurt and the Cheerios and the water and the milk and the Life and the water and the banana and the water and the Raisin Bran and the napkins..."
3. To me if I raise my voice at him: "Mommy, that's not a nice way to talk. That's a mean way to talk."
4. To Alan if we turn right at a red light: "Daddy, you're supposed to STOP at a red light. Red means STOP!"

Umm...I will have to update this as I think of more.

Happy Mother's Day!

image from http://www.bettes-cards-gifts.com

This Willow Tree figurine is what Alan gave me for Mother's Day this morning (along with a delicious breakfast. Yum!). It seems extra special to me since we will have our baby sometime in the next 5 days (I have an induction scheduled for Friday if she doesn't come by herself sooner!). That means that once every few years I will get to share Mother's Day with my little girl's birthday, something that used to bother me, but now I am realizing how special that will be.

Happy Mother's Day to the mommy that raised me and the mommy that raised my wonderful husband! We love you!

Mousie Story

When I was little, my daddy used to tell me these "Mousie Stories." Yesterday as my parents were visiting I was lucky enough to catch this on video: my dad telling Jared a mousie story.



As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed 13 months ago with Stage 4 lung cancer. His case has already proven to be a miracle as he has outlived the "6 months to a year" that the doctors said he would live. We are not sure whether he has just months or years left, but we are loving every minute of time spent with him.

A Piece of This Week

A few days ago Jared had the stomach flu. Then, two nights ago, I had the stomach flu. Let me tell you, being 38 weeks preggy and barfing literally every 20 minutes all night long (well, until 4:30) do not mix. I kept thinking to myself, "The only thing that would make this worse is going into labor right now." And part of me was worried that all that retching would somehow induce labor. Yuck. Yesterday my body was so achy (especially my tummy muscles) that I felt like I had run a marathon. Not that I know what it feels like to run one or anything.

To top it all off, my sweet little Jared seems to still have some kind of stomach bug. He barfed once this morning, and he's been having "los trots" (Spanish for "the runs"--ha ha) about once an hour all day long today. Not fun for a kid still getting used to wearing underwear instead of diapers. I thought about putting him back in a diaper today, but I thought that he would find it insulting and put up a fuss. So instead, this loving mommy has cleaned out several pairs of messy underpants today. Yuck. Just thought I'd share a piece of my life with you.

Pregnancy Countdown

Jared came almost a week early, so I get pretty excited/freaked out thinking about how close I am to meeting my little girl! (I am also already dilated a bit and effaced quite a bit--I'll spare you the details.) There is still so much on my To Do List (and my "Honey-Do" List):

• Lots of yard work: plan vegetable garden, spray apple tree, mow lawn, clean out our nasty pond/fountain, weeding
  
• Assemble our massive swing set that we just inherited (and disassemble our old, run-down one)
• Fix the leak in our roof
• Look over checklist for new baby: a couple of awesome friends in my ward are actually throwing me a baby shower this Saturday, so I can do this after the shower is over. And then. . . Thank You notes!!!
• Deep cleaning of bathrooms and kitchen one more time
  
• Play the organ one more time in church before my "sabbatical" (I'm sure everyone in my ward loves watching me waddle to and from the organ on Sundays) and tie up about a MILLION loose ends for my other church calling so that someone can temporarily take over for me
  
• Go to the park a lot and give Jared LOTS of attention
• Go on a couple more dates with Alan. We went and saw a production of the musical Peter Pan a couple nights ago, but I would LOVE to make it to the temple one more time and perhaps out to dinner again.
• We have some plans with extended family, coworkers, and friends over the next couple of weekends. We'll see how many events we can handle attending!
  
• Sleep--oh wait, I wish I could sleep more! And, I wish Jared was still taking naps so that I could, too!

Little girl, we are so excited to meet you!!!