Standing (well more like bearing weight on little baby legs)

Eve at 2 months

Eve has been holding her head up very well lately. It seems she has been "blessed" with a long giraffe neck like her mom. I use the term "blessed" very loosely. Let's just hope that she can pull it off better than I can, because it sometimes gives me an awkward appearance in pictures. The long neck also seems to make it a little more difficult to hold her head up, but she is doing very good. A little wobbly at times, but I'm still very proud of her.

Kylie was holding her head up rather early and was always looking for that next challenge. Here she is at 2 and a half months very proud of herself for being able to stand up. She was so proud, all I had to do was hold on to her arms and she would pull herself up and grin like this every time:

Kylie at 2 and a half months

Lately, I've been practicing with Eve trying to get her to do the same. She doesn't have the balance that Kylie does and she has the tiniest little legs. I imagine the size of her legs makes it quite difficult or her to bear any weight. Thankfully, she is a very easy going baby and puts up with me when I make her "practice." Standing up or any other challenge was fun for Kylie, for Eve it's just work. Yet, she lets me do these awful "workouts" and "exercises" to her. She is such a sweetheart. It's so much fun to be able to notice these differences in their personalities already.

These workouts are hard on such tiny little legs!


Eve at 2 months and a week old. Look she's also holding on to her paci, she's getting so big already!

Jumping

Kylie has discovered a new hobby: jumping. She learned how to jump up and down at 16 months and she is still obsessed with it at 17 months. I think it started when she played in a moon walk and was surprised when she discovered she was capable of being airborne for a split second. Ever since the moonwalk she has been trying to perfect her newfound skill. She gets really excited and falls down a lot, but it's really cute. Her obsession is slowly dying down now, since it is no longer a huge challenge, but thankfully I took a couple pictures and video clips while she was learning how to jump. Sadly, I didn't have my camera at the moonwalk, but I do have the memory of Kylie without any fear whatsoever jumping as high as she could, falling down every two seconds in the middle of much bigger children. Jason was there too and he can testify to how crazy she was.

Here she is playing "jump jump" in our living room:

We had some friends spend the night, and we moved our toddler bed out to the living room for their little boy to sleep on. Kylie was very excited to see the bed out there the next day, she played "jump jump" on it for a long time:

Kylie is taking jumping to next level by leaping onto the couch in mid-jump. This girl makes me laugh.

Pictures/updates from the past month

It's been too long since I updated last. I am very sorry. However, I have been good about putting pictures on facebook. So I'll share those in this post to make it easier to see what's been going on the past month.

Click here to see general pictures of Kylie as a 16 month old and Eve as a one month old. Some of them have already been posted to this blog a while ago, but some are new.

Click here to see pictures of our trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead. My mom and I took the girls here. It's a fun little farm/petting zoo in Overland Park, KS and it's free. It was a lot of fun!

The only other significant thing that has happened this month is our new van! We bought a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan with only 23K miles. The best part about it is the stow-and-go seating. Now we can actually take the double stroller with us when we travel!

Car accident 4/30

If I would have written this blog post a couple of days ago, it would have read: “I was in an accident, my sister Rachel and my two babies were in the car, everyone seems to be ok, I don’t want to talk about it.”

So I decided to wait until I was ready to talk about it before writing this post. At the time, I had told the story too many times and I was too emotional to discuss it anymore. I had told the story already to police officers, drivers that stopped to help, my parents, Jason, the ambulance driver, the EMT in the ambulance, the doctor in the hospital, several hospital nurses, my daughters’ pediatrician, my insurance agent and several other people who had heard the story from someone else. Talking about it was emotionally exhausting, it was the worst thing that I’ve ever had to go through, and I hated reliving it.

I’m still having a hard time with it, but I am finally ready to tell the story. It helps that the outcome of the story is positive: everyone who was in the car is unharmed. I’m sorry that I ruined the ending of the story, but I was in so much agony waiting for the ending myself, that I don’t want anyone else to have to worry like I was.

My sister Rachel babysat for me on Thursday so I could take a subbing job while Jason was also working. Usually, we can work it out so that only one of us is working at the same time, but it was difficult to do so this week. So I was driving Rachel to Topeka where my mom was picking her up and driving her back to Manhattan. When we left Kansas City, the road conditions were great; there was no sign of rain or anything of that nature. Jason had to go to class, so we brought Kylie and Eve with us. It started to rain about the time we reached Lawrence, so much so that I almost hydroplaned. That freaked me out, so I slowed down a lot and turned off the radio, so I could concentrate on driving. I was going about 50 mph, and cars were passing me going extremely fast. It was making me nervous, I could barely see in front of me and all these cars seemed to still be driving over the 70 mph speed limit. Well just as I was thinking “man, those drivers need to be way more cautious in these conditions,” it happened: my car hydroplaned, spun completely around on the interstate and the passenger side crashed into the concrete median.

I was completely in a daze at first. I had been praying the entire time we were spinning, and I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not once the car had crashed. Hearing both my babies scream their heads off made me realize it was real and I noticed Rachel about to get them out of their seats to check them out. She had reacted a lot faster than I had, but we have known for a long time now that she is the most motherly sister out of the four of us Toll girls, so that wasn’t too surprising. I yelled at her NOT to take them out of their seats, I was scared that another car was going to come spinning from the same spot and hit us. Plus, visibility was very low and our WHITE car was barely sticking out onto the highway. I was afraid of what was going to happen next. Rachel called 911 while I frantically checked out my babies. Some nice people stopped and we left the car to sit in someone else’s black SUV which WASN’T sticking out in the highway, so it seemed safer. Rachel and I were still freaking out because Eve seemed to have a bump on the side of her head. She’s only 7 weeks old, so we did not know how damaging it was. Kylie seemed to be ok, she had no marks on her, and she didn’t seem to be in pain anywhere. The cop came, and then the ambulance came and took us to the hospital. The doctor in the hospital checked out my baby. By now there was no bump or swelling on Eve’s head. She seemed very alert and had even given the EMT some big smiles. She nursed really well and was very interested in all the lights and people in the hospital. The doctor said there was no indication that she had any head trauma and that extra tests would not be necessary. Kylie meanwhile was climbing and running all over the place, laughing her head off as if nothing had happened. The doctor couldn’t find any injuries on her either, and told us that my girls were going to be just fine. He gave us a list of things to look out for that might indicate a head injury. He also suggested I visit my pediatrician in case I was still worried. Of course I was still worried; we visited the doctor the next day. He also reported to me that both girls were healthy.

Our ford focus ended up being totaled. We are still waiting to see how much we are going to get for it and hoping that we will have some extra money once we pay off what we owe. That is a big prayer request right now. We should hear tomorrow what the insurance company is going to offer for it. Our next step is to see if we can afford a van. We could really use the extra space to travel. Meanwhile, we are down to one car: my little 2000 Chevy Cavalier that I bought my senior year of high school. I’ve had that car all this time! I’m going to miss our Ford Focus. Jason and I bought it a week before getting married. Here is a picture of us about to take it on its very first trip with us: our honeymoon.


I’m so thankful to God that my girls, Rachel and I are all unharmed (except for the inevitable whiplash). It is a good reminder that God is always in control in our lives. Even though it seemed that I was taking all the necessary precautions on the highway, I really wasn’t in control of the situation, God was.

Mealtimes and saying no

Kylie has suddenly turned into a picky eater. I'll take "bites" of her food to show her that it's good. Instead of eating it, she now just wants to give me a "bite" all the time: "Bite, bite, bite..." She even threw a "please" in there in the first video.

The second video is more about her new favorite word: "no". I'm trying to give her a bite of food, but she now understands she can use the word "no." She also likes to use this word when I ask her if she's ready to go night night or to come out of the bath. I can't help but think it's cute now, but I'm not trying to encourage it because I foresee many challenges in the future. Right now, I'm just helping her remember that she can also use the word "yes."

Speaking of smiling...

I finally captured it in a picture... Eve's smile! I'm so happy that I have these pictures of her first smiles, so that in several years I can look back at them and remember falling in love with her sweet smile. I love this little girl so much! She's only been here 6 weeks, but I already cannot imagine life without her. Anyways, I took a lot of pictures, and I can't decide which ones to post, but I've managed to narrow it down to 10. I'm sorry if all these pictures seem redundant, but I enjoy each one so much!

Sisters

Aww... Sisters... I have three of them, and so of course I was so excited when I found out we were having a second girl! I hope they enjoy each other and have a wonderful time growing up together. I'm prepared for the fights (I do remember being a part of them with my own sisters) but I'm looking forward to all the fun things they are going to do!

Here is one of my recent attempts at getting the girls in a picture together. As you can see in the second picture, Kylie is trying to squeeze... err "love"... her sister a little too hard. After I pulled her off, she pouted on the other end of the couch. These are my challenges these days...

Poor little Eve. She only has a couple toys she is big enough to enjoy, and this singing dog toy is one of them. If only her sister would let her enjoy it in peace, without feeling the need to crawl down there with her:

Another "game" Kylie likes to play with her sister is to steal her pacifier. She gave up the paci at 6 months, so she's just being naughty! In this picture, Kylie had just stolen it out of Eve's mouth and was making her great escape with it:

Pictures of Eve's first month

For those of you who don't have facebook, here are the links of the 3 photo albums I've uploaded to facebook:

Life with a newborn and 15 month old (part 1)

Life with a newborn and 15 month old (part 2)

Easter: Kylie was almost 16 months and Eve JUST turned one month old

Smiling Issues

I've been a little frustrated in my attempts at teaching Kylie to smile for the camera. Finally, I realized that she knows how to say "cheese", so I decided to try to use this to my advantage. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that she made the most horrifying and scariest face ever when saying that word. It only gave me very funny pictures. It's a good thing this ISN'T what her normal smile looks like! So here is Kylie making scary smiley faces while saying "cheese":

See, she has a beautiful smile, when she's not saying "cheese":

Meanwhile, my other little beauty has been giving me some great newborn smiles. The naughty little girl, however, makes them disappear as soon as the camera comes out. Maybe the camera frightens her? I guess it would make more sense for her to smile at my face or a toy than a camera. And when I do get a smile while I have the camera aimed at her face, I'm too slow to capture it! Here are a couple pictures, where she had JUST given me a huge smile. She still looks sweet, but it doesn't compare to her amazing smile:

First Bottle

Yesterday, April 9th, was Eve's four week birthday! She got to celebrate with her very first bottle. It's a good time to introduce the bottle because if we introduce it too late, she might completely reject it but if we do it too early she might decide she likes it better than nursing. It's fun to have daddy feed Eve, but all you nursing moms out there know that it doesn't it make any easier on the mom! Now there's the pumping and also all the pump and bottle parts to clean. But I do plan on going back to work, so bottle feeding is a necessity.

She was so surprised that daddy was feeding her. The look on her face was "You can give me milk too?" Too cute.

Opposites are lots of fun!

Kylie's toy house has lots of songs. Kylie however only has ears for one. She'll play the song "Opposites are lots of fun" over and over and over. This would be a little annoying, BUT the whole time the song plays Kylie will get up and dance all over her room... until the song is done and then she'll go push the button and start dancing again. So thanks to her cuteness and crazy moves, it is not annoying at all. Jason and I made sure to get lots of pictures during her dance time yesterday. Enjoy! (Although, it's not as entertaining as watching her dance around in person)

Learning to share

Yesterday during Eve's tummy time, Kylie decided to help. She's seen me put some toys or animals that have good contrast around Eve during previous tummy times. So she brought all these animals for her little sister to look at. She even placed them nicely around Eve herself. Notice her doll is also doing some tummy time next to my baby.

Updates

I guess I've left everyone hanging on some situations in some previous posts. Well, I guess I should fill everyone in on the updates in our life.

Wii situation: We decided to keep the wii. Jason felt bad for spending the money, since we don't exactly have lots to spare. So he sold his X-Box, and all his games on Ebay. This means we no longer have rock band, but someday we just might buy it for the wii. Someday. Maybe. I never played video games growing up and now I really don't care for them at all. I'm no good controlling the remote (ok, gamers, I know it's not called a remote, but I can't even think of the name for it right now). Rock band was different because it didn't involve the "remote". I thought that was the only video game that I would ever enjoy playing... until I played the wii. It's really fun for people like me who have no experience with "gaming." My mom even likes it. Wait maybe it IS called a remote, because the wii uses a "wii-mote".

Jason's job situation: Jason is still working at Target. It's a boring job for him, but at least it is something right now. The church we are going to is going to be able to offer him the internship starting in May. It's not going to pay enough for it to be his only job, so he's going to have to stay at Target until something better comes along. However, we are so thankful that he is going to be able to be involved in the church and get paid to do it. It's something he would do even if the money wasn't there, so we are very grateful for the opportunity.

Easter: We are going to be in Manhattan for Easter! Kylie is looking forward to seeing all of her old friends in the nursery at Grace Baptist. She is going to have to introduce them all to Eve.

Fun things Kylie does: I forgot to mention that Kylie spins on command. It's so funny. Even if she just hears the word "spin" in a sentence not directed at her, she'll spin around until she usually falls down from dizziness. I'll add it to list of instructions she follows.

Say Cheese

I've been trying really hard to get Kylie to smile for the camera.

She usually either:
a. ignores the camera completely.
b. tries to grab the camera and gets really upset that she's can't have it, so I end up with her making a screaming face or with her hand out reaching for the camera.
c. runs away thinking that we are playing a game.
d. smiles, but does it too fast and by the time I have taken the picture, she is doing something else with her back to the camera. What a tease.

So I've managed to take some good pictures of her, but I have to either:
a. be sneaky.
b. do a crazy fake laugh to get her to smile or laugh with me.
c. Shake something she likes beside the camera.
d. Take a million pictures, and hope that there are a couple good ones in the group.

The weird thing is, she has a toy Tinkerbell camera that she will pose for. The stupid thing only says "Pixie Perfect" or "I believe in fairies" when you push the button. I wonder how many perfect pictures she has taken that would have been captured if it were a real camera.

But today, she did the unthinkable. She came up to me, smiled, and WAITED for me to take the picture.

Here it is:

Isn't she beautiful?

My "big girl": continued...

Kylie is an excellent "babbler", but she doesn't have the greatest vocabulary yet. However, I am still very proud of all the words that she can say. It's so much fun to watch her learn, and I can't wait for that language explosion that toddlers are supposed to have. Yet sometimes I don't want her to grow up any more, because this stage is just so fun.

Anyways, I put together a list of words that Kylie says at fifteen months. I only included words that she says consistently: sometimes I'll ask her to say a word and she'll repeat it phonetically, but she really never uses it in the right context or she'll never say it again, so it's not a word she really knows. I put in quotation marks the way she says the word phonetically in case it's different than what it's supposed to sound like. Some of the words don't have this because I think she says it just "perfect" :).



So here we go:

· Yes (“Yah” This is her usual answer to all my questions. I think she thinks all questions are supposed to be answered with "yes.")
· Eye
· Nose (“Neigh", "new" or "no" depending on her mood)
· Mouth (“Mou”)
· Teeth (“Tee”)
· Ear
· Belly Button (“Bay Buttah”)
· Touchdown (“Tah-Dow". She also does the gesture by throwing her arms in the air. This is one of her favorites.)
· More
· Please (“Peas”)
· Thank You (“Tank Ou”)
· Milk (“Mill”)
· Banana (“Nana” or sometimes just “Na”)
· Kitty
· Dog
· Bird (“Bir”)
· Baby (Her favorite word, and by far the most understandable)
· Hi (You can always tell how excited Kylie is to see you based on how many “hi”s you get from her.)
· Bye
· Night Night (“Nie nie”)
· Ball (“Ba”)
· Shoe (“eww”)
· Daddy, Dadda and Papa (Jason taught her to call him papa, because he thinks she says it cute. I don’t think it’s fair that she has three words that she calls him and she barely calls me mama.)
· Mama (She only calls me mama when she’s upset about something)
· Grandma
· Grandpa
· Ray Ray (“Raw Raw” This is what she calls my sister Rachel)
· Three (“Twee” This is her favorite number for some reason. When we practice our counting, she uses it for every number. So counting sounds like this: “Twee, Twee, Twee…”)
· Two (Every once in a while, Kylie will throw in a “Two” in the middle of all those threes. It’s so cute.)
· Uh-oh (Another favorite. She says it all the time. Her favorite time to use it, is EVERY TIME I change the TV channel.)
· Tree (“Twee”. It sounds exactly like her “three”, but she only says it once instead of counting it over and over and when she says it, she’s pointing at a tree, so I can tell which word she’s saying based on the context.)
· Baah (This is the sound she thinks that all animals make.)
· Rock Rock (This is what she says when she rocks on the recliner or on a rocking chair)
· Wee Wee (This is what she says on a swing, or the baby swing, or a slide)
· Up (“uh”)
· Down (“Dow”)
· Pretty (“Petty” or just “etty”. This is the word we use for lots of things: bows for her hair, pretty socks, lights –like on a christmas tree, wall hangings…)
· Barney (“Bonnie” This is her favorite TV show and I figured out why: She loves live singing. She loves it when people sing and dance instead of just having music playing. The kids on Barney always have organized singing and dancing. She will ignore the TV, unless there is singing, then you can’t get her attention.)
· Yeah!! (What Kylie says every time she claps. The silly girl will clap every time she hears someone say “good job” or “yeah” or every time someone else claps.)

Kylie picking her "neigh"

My "big girl"

Ever since Eve has arrived into our world, Kylie has seemed like she grew up instantly. She used to be my little baby girl and all of a sudden she has turned into my "big girl." It's hard to believe that just 15 months ago, she was just as small and helpless as her little sister. She has grown so much! And it's not only physical growth, she has learned so much and she has developed quite the personality. So, I would like to dedicate this post to my first born and talk about all the fun things she is doing at 15 months.

When she was younger, I thought her biggest strength would be motor development. She was always on the go, whether is was scooting, rolling, crawling, walking, or the latest: running. She was crawling before she could sit and she was walking at 9 months, so I definitely thought that was what her intelligence was: gross motor. However, as active as she still is, I think that we may have discovered a bigger strength or intelligence type: music. She has been dancing to music as soon as she could pull herself up at 7 months. I didn't think anything of it, because I've seen lots of babies shake and do the "baby squat" to the beat. However, her moves have gotten a lot more complex lately and she can always adjust to the beat. Her favorite type of music to dance to is slow music, the kind that reminds me of elevator music. It's too funny to watch. I think we are going to sign her up for dance class as soon as she's old enough. Yet, it's not her dancing that makes us think she's musically talented, it's her singing. It's very impressive how she can repeat tunes. She can't repeat the words of the songs, but when she repeats songs, the tune and pitch is almost perfect. Her favorite song to sing is the "ABC"s. I need to record her singing it, because it's so cute to listen to. She does sing other songs (she does a pretty impressive "E I E I O" of old McDonald) and we can always tell what song it is even without her singing the words. Kylie is such a little entertainer, that I'm sure it will make sense for her to have a career one day in the music industry. Look at me, I'm already planning her career at 15 months. :)

She is also doing very well at following instructions. Here are some instructions that she obeys 99% of the time:
*Bring me the _______. (insert toy, or another thing that she knows well.)
*Lay down so we can change your diaper. (She will go find the mat and lay down on it. It has made diaper changing so much easier lately.)
*Go night night (she won't actually go right to sleep, but she will lay down wherever she is. It's more of a game.)
*Go to bed. (She will run to her bed and wait to get tucked in. She loves bedtime and naptime. We are so lucky.)
*Where is the ________? (I guess this isn't an instruction, but she will help look for whatever it is.)
*Give _______ a kiss.
*Give _______ a hug.
*Sit (No, she's not a dog, but there are times when she stands in the bathtub or in the baby's swing and it's just not safe)
*Spin (she loves to spin around in a circle)

Now here are the instructions that she obeys 1% of the time:
*No (she thinks it's a game.)
*Come here

Coming up next: a list of words that my girl can say at 15 months. Right now, her sister is hungry.

Jason's job situation

Jason is going to his first day of work in Kansas City tomorrow... at Target. Obviously it's not the perfect job, but it's something for now! So we are grateful that he has someplace to earn a paycheck. I hope that I can survive tomorrow without him! My two little girls are sweet, but I know I'll be busy.

There is still another job possibility on the horizon. Jason found a church that needs an intern for church planting. The church is new, so the pastor there is more of a church planter instead of a permanent pastor. Jason has met with him and the other church leaders and they are now finding out about getting him a paycheck from the North American Mission Board. They have a program to pay seminary students for these types of internships. So, Jason would technically be a North American Missionary. We are very excited and hoping that all the pieces fall into place for this. Jason's first assignment would be to put together packets for visitors. They need someone to reach out to new faces in the church and that's what Jason's job would be. He would have many other responsibilities as time goes on, so this would be such a great learning experience for both of us! Please pray that we hear soon about the North American Mission Board paying him. That is the next step we are waiting on. According to the pastors at the church right now, it sounds very promising. We just need to trust God once again!

The only downside, (and this would be such a great opportunity that it's worth it) is that we would most likely need to be there on Easter Sunday. We had been planning a trip home for that day, since my family will be in town. But that's for us to worry about later. First, Jason needs to be hired.

So summary of the story... Jason goes to work at Target tomorrow, but there's a chance he might not need to be there much longer.

Bringing home baby

Well, I have lots of pictures to share, and it would take much too long to post them on here. So I'm going to post links to see albums on facebook instead. This way, if you don't have a facebook account, you can still see all the pictures of our happy little family.

Pictures from the hospital:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2253323&id=17016340&l=7d1faa5103

Pictures from the first week:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2254259&id=17016340&l=c0b2cd330e

We are all doing well. Kylie is a good big sister. She either ignores the baby or gives her kisses. She does not like it when the baby cries, it usually makes her do the same. However, Eve is a very quiet baby and hardly ever cries. She still has her head full of dark hair and her eyes, although they do have the new baby blue tint, are still very dark. Her eyes make her look so different than Kylie, since Kylie's eyes were shaped just like her daddy's and Eve has almond shaped eyes. When she was first born, they didn't have the folds yet, so I thought she looked oriental. Of course, I was still in a stupor from giving birth the natural and horrifying way, so my brain could have been a little off. She had folds over her eyes the next time I saw her. Her little face is very triangular shaped and very petite. Kylie had really big lips for a newborn and all of Eve's features are a lot smaller. It will be fun to read these first impressions years later when Eve looks nothing like what I'm describing. Like how my sisters and I have more similarities (looks-wise) the older we get. We all looked so different as children, but now I notice more and more things that look the same.

Eve is here!

I already posted this same post on facebook today, but for all of our families who don't have facebook... enjoy!
If you do have facebook, I just copied and pasted this, so you won't find anything new if you read this.

Here are the basic stats:
*Eve Solène Marsh
*03/11/09
*9:52 AM
*6 lbs 12 oz
*19.25 inches
*Full head of dark hair
*Absolutely perfect and beautiful

Here is the story:
I woke up around 5 AM with a contraction. I usually can sleep through contractions, so I woke up to see if I'd have any more. I had maybe two more contractions that hour, so I got out of bed and went to watch TV for about an hour. Between 6 and 7, I had a couple more contractions, but they weren't regular, so I decided to go back to bed. When I laid down, I had a couple more contractions and they were just strong enough that I couldn't sleep. However, there was no pattern at all to them. I decided to get up and make sure our bags were packed just in case. Kylie usually sleeps in until after 8, I thought we would wait for her to wake up before going anywhere. Jason thought we should go to the hospital just to see if anything was happening right then instead of waiting until 8. So we woke up the Kylie bear. By the time we got her ready, packed up the car and arrived at the hospital, it was right at 8 o'clock. I had only had one significant contraction that whole time, so I just wanted to turn around and go home. I really thought they were going to think I was crazy for thinking I might be in labor. I was obviously not in any distress and was not having lots of contractions. Jason had to talk me into going into the hospital. So they admitted me, checked me and put a monitor on me to check my contractions. When they checked me at 8:15, I was dilated to a three and only 75% effaced, so still not in active labor. I also layed there for a full twenty minutes or so before I even had a contraction. I wasn't sure if they were going to keep me, but they decided to wait a little longer since I had a history of fast labor.

Finally, the contractions came out of nowhere and hurt worse than I could have ever imagined. They checked me and I was dilated to 5. That's when they knew I was staying. Jason called Sarah Winn who came and picked up Kylie. I know that it was after 9 AM when Kylie left, because we had sesame street on TV for her to watch. After that, things were so fast and furious that everything was a blur. They were waiting on blood work to come back before they would give me an epidural even though I was screaming for an epidural during every contraction. The pain was intense, I was progressing so fast. Every time they checked me I was dilated 2 more centimeters, and they were checking me often. I was crying during each contraction, because I seriously thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to be one of those people that die during childbirth. It was so different from when I had the epidural with Kylie and I could relax. I was trying to zone out to sesame street (we never bothered changing the channel) but I couldn't possibly tell you what sesame street was about today. It was time to push and the doctor said the baby was dropping so fast that she was going to be here in only a couple minutes. I told her I didn't want to push without an epidural, but when I reached down, I could seriously feel her, so I didn't have a choice. Pushing was awful, I'm sure I screamed so loud that the whole hospital heard me, but the doctor was right, she was born with the next contraction (which were coming every 30 seconds). So, I experienced natural childbirth and not by choice. I really wanted that epidural. But the pain went away immediately when I held my new baby girl. I know that some people really want to experience natural childbirth, but I do not suggest ever doing so!! It was the most painful thing I have ever done. My doctor told me my contractions were extra intense since they were coming so fast and dilating me so rapidly. If you notice the time, Eve was born before Sesame Street was even over, so I pretty much labored during an episode of the show.

Jason's birthday is 12/11. He shares the month with Kylie (December) and the date with Eve (the 11th). Kylie will be 15 months on Sunday, so they are just barely under 15 months apart.

Oh, and nursing has gone very well so far. Eve is one hungry little girl.

Doctor's visit: 3/06/09

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. The doctor didn't check me to see if I was dilated or effaced any more. She said we already know that I'm starting to dilate and it's really no indication of when labor will happen, since I could be dilated for weeks or not dilated at all and go into labor anyways. So it didn't seem that eventful. However she did ask me if I wanted to be induced next week. I've thought about it but I'm torn about it. On one hand, if I'm induced, I know what day it will be, I can make arrangements for Kylie and I don't have to worry about labor being too fast that I can't make it to the hospital. My labor was so fast last time that it makes me a little worried. On the other hand, labor was so fast and easy with Kylie that I don't know if I could handle a long laboring experience that would most likely come with induction. I loved how easy it was when it happened naturally. I told her I didn't know, and we made a doctor's appointment for next Wednesday. She said that if I decided I wanted to be induced, we could schedule it to happen next Thursday or Friday. I'm still torn, although I AM starting to get a little impatient.

I did forget to mention a funny story that happened at my last doctor's appointment. They had to check my iron levels since I've had low iron. Jason and Kylie were there also, so Jason could meet my new doctor. Kylie had just had her finger pricked the day before to get her iron levels checked and of course she had hated it. So when the nurse pricked my finger, Kylie freaked out. She started screaming and crying, and she had been in such a good mood previously. Needles, blood and pricks don't bother me at all, so it wasn't as if I acted like I was in pain or anything. Kylie just remembered it happening to her. As soon as it was over, my sweet daughter gave me the biggest hugs and kisses and cried big crocodile tears for me. I love my Kylie Bear and how she is so worried for her mommy!

I'm shocked!

A couple of weeks ago, I set up Kylie's "big girl bed" in her room. I just wanted her to get used to it, plus we don't have any room for it anywhere else but in her room. When we play in her room, we'll sometimes play "night night" and lay down on her bed. It's been a fun game, I'll say "go night night" and she'll drop down and lay down on the bed immediately and say "night night."


Well today, at right around 8 PM, when it's her bedtime, I said: "Kylie it's time for night night. Let's go to bed." Usually she runs back to her room right away. I don't know why that girl loves bedtime so much, but she gets really excited. She'll wait by her crib, and I'll pick her up, put her in bed and we count the blankets, give each other kisses and she goes to sleep right away. Our bedtime routine is very simple. If we have a long routine, she gets too distracted and won't go to sleep for a while.


Well tonight when I told her it was time for bed, she ran back to her room and climbed on her toddler bed instead of waiting by the crib. I thought, "well, she's a little young, but she already climbed in bed, let's see what happens." So I gave her her normal pillow and put a blanket on her, said "night night", gave her kisses and left the room. I came back 5-10 minutes later and she was sound asleep on her toddler bed. She knows how to climb down, so I was so shocked. I really didn't anticipate her to stay there. I only let her stay there since she put herself there in the first place.


I took a quick picture, but I didn't take anything up close because I didn't want to wake her up. I have no idea if she will stay in her bed all night or even if she will fall asleep in her toddler bed in subsequent nights, but we'll see what happens!

Doctor's visit: 02/26/09

Here's the scoop on my latest Dr.'s appointment. I made a big deal about it, so I might as well fill everyone in.

I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Eve is head down in the right position, but she isn't settled down very far yet. I was 1 cm/50% with Kylie for 3 weeks before she was born. I know that every pregnancy is different, but it doesn't give me much hope that I will go in labor soon!

My iron is still low, and I was given a prescription for iron pills. My iron always seems to be low, so I'm hoping that I'll have more energy if I take these pills. Plus since I'll lose blood during labor, it could be dangerous if I don't have enough iron in my blood.

They also looked at my sonogram notes from the doctor's office in Manhattan. They decided to push back my due date because of it. So my new due date is March 18th, which doesn't really matter, because I don't want to be induced anyways. For some reason, in Manhattan, they decided to only push my due date back to March 13th even though the sonogram said it was March 18th. So so far my original due date was March 10th, then it was March 13th and now it's March 18th. So if I have to get induced, it won't be until after the 18th. I don't know if I could handle going much later since for the longest time I had March 10th stuck in my head.

I'm kind of hoping that Eve will be born March 15th, because then Kylie and Eve will be exactly 15 months apart. It would be kind of cool if their birthdays were both on the 15th.

Next visit: on Friday (03/06/09)