Growing Up

Guess who's 3??

On August 13th my precious Hailey turned three. THREE!! How on earth did that happen? Wasn't she just born?? I can't believe how fast time is flying!

On Sunday, August 12th, we had Hailey's birthday party at Pump It Up. This was the perfect place for her party because with having a newborn, there was no way I was up to planning and hosting a party at our house. Pump It Up literally took care of everything for the party including food, invitations, party favors, and set-up and clean-up. The party was small (how many friends can a 3 year old really have?) but everyone who was there said they had a really good time. It was a lot of fun to watch all the kids bouncing around and, best of all, I didn't have to lift a finger!

What a ham!

The party gang

The dragonfly cupcake cake was a hit!

As if Hailey turning three wasn't momentous enough, she started PRESCHOOL on this Tuesday! What?!?! Hailey has spent the past 2 1/2 years at the most fabulous in-home daycare we could ever have found. Debbie has truly been a blessing to us and has loved, taught, challenged, and cared for our daughter as if she were her own. While she has blossomed and learned so much with Debbie, we all felt it was time for her to be with more kids her own age and challenged in a slightly more structured environment. We have been talking about "big girl school" for a couple months and Hailey has been really excited to go. To top it off, one of her friends from Debbie's is not only going to the same school, but they are in the same class! Hailey was so excited for her first day and Bryan and I both went to walk her to her classroom. I was worried that she might be shy or nervous but she ran right in and sat down for circle time. Bryan and I stood outside the door for a few minutes to watch her and I have to admit I shed a few tears as I realized how big my baby had gotten. She has had an awesome first week and is says she loves school! I'm so thrilled that she likes it so far and I think it will be a really positive experience for her.

First day of Preschool!!

And speaking of growing, my little Madelyn is 6 weeks old today! My maternity leave is already half over and I can't even imagine leaving her to go back to work yet. She is spending much more time awake now and I even got my first smile yesterday! I weighed her today (in a highly scientific weigh myself with and without her method) and she now weighs 10.2 lbs! Such a little piglet!

Cutest footie pajamas ever!

First smile!

Someone seriously needs tell these girls to slow down with the growing up!

Introducing Madelyn Olivia!

 She's here!! Madelyn Olivia Tune made her grand debut at 4:55am on July 12th at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long!

On Monday I had a doctor appointment and it turned out I was 3cm dilated and 60% effaced. That night I started feeling some light contractions at around 2am and thought I was going into labor, but after about 4 hours of contractions about 10 minutes apart, they went away completely. I never had Braxton Hicks contractions with Hailey so I was surprised and disappointed when it turned out we would not be meeting our daughter that day.

I spent the next two days walking around as much as possible (indoors, since it was 109 degrees outside!!) and waiting for something to happen. Finally, on Wednesday night, we were watching So You Think You Can Dance and I started feeling contractions. They went from 10 minutes apart to 7 minutes apart in an hour and a half so I decided it was time to go to the hospital. Luckily my mom was here so she stayed with Hailey while Bryan and I headed to the hospital. When we got there and got into the maternity triage, it turned out I had not progressed much since my doctor visit 2 days earlier. They had me walk the hallway for an hour(!!) to try to get things moving. After a long and very boring hour, my contractions had increased in intensity and were 5 minutes apart. I was deemed ready to be admitted and they took me to my room. Things progressed pretty quickly from there and within another 2 hours my contractions were 2 minutes apart and excruciatingly painful! I had asked for an epidural when we arrived but the hospital was slammed with laboring mothers and there was only one anesthesiologist on duty. I was last on the list to get my epidural and I was seriously starting to lose my shit good nature and was thisclose to screaming at Bryan to go get an anesthesia cart and put the epidural in himself when the anesthesiologist FINALLY came! (All you mommas out there who gave birth without an epidural, I bow down to you!!) After the epidural, my water broke and the nurse had me start pushing to get things going. Apparently Madelyn took this to heart because 5 pushes later, the nurse delivered her while the doctor was still putting his booties on! She came out perfectly healthy and we were so thrilled to meet our new baby girl!

Happy birthday Madelyn!

Brand new family of FOUR!

Madelyn's favorite spot...staring at the corduroy on the couch!

Madelyn is now 4 weeks old and I can't believe how fast time is flying!! Becoming a parent the second time around is both easier and harder than the first time. We are so much more RELAXED this time! We know more what to do and how to handle our new baby and are much more confident in ourselves. However, meeting the needs of a demanding newborn and a demanding 3 year old is much trickier than handling one. We are busy, busy, busy all the time (hence the one month delay in posting this blog!) but I am so enjoying getting to know this new little girl and watching Hailey become a big sister. She absolutely ADORES Madelyn and is being the best helper! She loves to bring me diapers, pat Madelyn's back when I'm burping her, and always wants to hold her on the couch and give her kisses. So far we have not seen any jealousy and she has been very understanding and patient when she wants something and I need her to wait because I'm feeding Madelyn. I'm so proud of her and I can't wait to see their relationship develop as they grow!


This melts my heart!!!

4 weeks old! In the cutest footie pajamas ever!

Love this girl!

Blossoming Belly

Well I think it's safe to say the lack of posting around here is truly pathetic. My problem is that I get behind and then I feel like I have to catch up chronologically and it all gets too overwhelming. However, I am a mere 13 days away from my due date (though pretty much no one thinks I will make it that long) and I haven't posted anything about this pregnancy since 20 weeks! So, here are the last 4 months, all in one post.

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

Today!

This pregnancy has gone SOOOOOO much faster than the first time because, let's face it, who has time to daydream about a coming baby when you're busy with a 2 1/2 year old?!? Overall I've been feeling pretty good, although I am definitely not happy about the 100 degree weather we're having lately! Aside from some heartburn, hip pain when I sleep, and the MMA fighter jabs I'm getting now that this little lady has run out of room to move around, I have enjoyed being pregnant this second time around. Even with the occasional discomforts, I am trying to savor this experience because I know it will be the last time.

Preparation-wise, we are ready for this little girl to arrive! All of Hailey's baby stuff has been taken out, washed, laundered, set up, and put away in anticipation. The room is decorated, the carseat is installed, now all we need is a baby! It's a little surreal to be at this point and just sort of "waiting around" to go into labor. I'm trying to enjoy my last few days of freedom now that I'm off work and Hailey is at daycare 3 days a week, but the anticipation of knowing she could come any time now is killing me! Plus, just look at the picture from today... I don't think it's even possible for me to get any bigger or I might just pop!! :)

Big Girl Room!!

Before

 After!!

It's official! Miss Hailey now has a brand-new room, complete with a BIG GIRL BED! We have been talking about this event for several months to prepare her (she doesn't do well with sudden change) and she had gotten really excited about it. As we got closer to getting the furniture, she would tell everyone who would listen that she was getting a big girl bed and giving her crib to Baby Sister because she's not a baby anymore. We really haven't been in any big rush to get her a new bed because, although she is 2 1/2 years old, she has been quite happy in her crib and has never made any attempts to escape. Getting her new furniture also involved moving her old furniture into the new baby's room, which meant moving the guest bed out of that room and into the former office, which meant moving the desk out of that room all together! Whew! However, since we are a mere 3 months from the new baby's arrival, we decided it was finally time to get it all done. We picked out the furniture last week and Hailey could barely contain herself, she was so excited to get it. She asked every single day if it was time for her big girl bed to come. Finally the furniture came on Friday and she was literally BESIDE HERSELF with joy! She was bouncing on the bed and screaming "I LOVE MY BIG GIRL BED!!" It took me a whole extra hour to get her settled down to actually get in it and go to sleep! She's done awesome sleeping in it at night, but naps have been more of a challenge. I think it might take a few days for the novelty of the new bed to wear off before she actually settles down enough to nap in it. She lay down in it for 2 1/2 hours today and just talked and sang to herself the whole time. Hopefully she'll get back on track with the naps soon, she definitely still needs them... and so does Mommy!!

But just look at this happy face!!!

Dance Party!!

Welcome to Hailey's impromptu dance party!! She absolutely CRACKS.ME.UP!! I don't know where these killer "moves" came from, but I could watch them all day long!

(I took this with my cell phone so it's kind of small. Click in the bottom right corner to watch in full screen)

Cruisin' to Paradise

Our Ship - Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas



 You may remember from this post that we were supposed to go on a Southern Caribbean cruise back in September, but were thwarted by a little tropical storm and didn't get to go. Luckily, we had bought the travel insurance the first time so we had a 75% credit from what we originally paid to apply to a future cruise. We had until November of this year to use the credit but since Royal Caribbean won't let you travel after you're 24 weeks pregnant, it was now or never! It ended up working perfectly because March is one of the best times of year weather-wise and we had a beautiful trip! I'm so glad we got to take one more relaxing trip before our lives become a lot busier!

Day 1 - St Croix
Usually when we plan a trip, we both do endless amounts of research on the best things to see and the best places to go. For some reason this time we didn't do any of that (I think since the trip got cancelled last time we were in a little bit of denial about actually going this time). So, we decided to just wander off the ship in each port and try to find a good beach. In our first port, St Croix, we had heard that there was an underwater reef trail at Buck Island so we decided to see if we could find an excursion to take us there. We booked a catamaran through Big Beard's and they took us first to the beach side of Buck Island and then to snorkel the reef. The beach was AMAZING, with white sand and crystal turquoise water. The reef was actually kind of disappointing, most of it had been destroyed by a hurricane 20 years ago and it hadn't really grown back yet. The water was also pretty choppy so after taking a look around and seeing a few fish, most of the people got back on the boat early and soaked up the sun. St Croix was really pretty and we had a great taxi driver who gave us some history of the island on our way back to the ship.

On the boat to Buck Island

Enjoying the gorgeous water on Buck Island

Baby's first tropical vacation!

Day 2 - St Maarten

When we were planning the cruise the first time, I had read about Orient Beach in St Maarten as being on of the most beautiful beaches on the island. Since we didn't really know where else to go, we decided to head over there. When we got to Orient Beach, it was PACKED with people! We usually prefer beaches that are quieter and less populated so we weren't sure where we wanted to sit for the day. We walked up one end of the beach, checking out all of the different beach bars and weaving our way through all the people. Then we walked to the other end and found a part of the beach that was clear, calm, beautiful, and quiet. It also happened to be the clothing-optional section of the beach. We decided that it really was the most beautiful part of the whole beach so we decided to hang out there for the day. There was a little bar and a floating platform in the water perfect for sunning, and quite a bit of "interesting" people watching. We had a great day but they were very strict about absolutely no cameras  on that beach so we didn't get any pictures other than this one in front of the port!



The only picture after a day on the nudie beach!



 Day 3 - St John, Antigua
We literally had no idea where to go when we got off the boat in St. John. The minute we stepped off the ship we were bombarded with taxi drivers wanting our business. It was a little overwhelming so we just walked out of the port area and onto the street to get our bearings and try to figure out what we wanted to do. Once we got a little further out, we found a cab driver who had a laminated poster of several different postcards with different beaches on them. He recommended Jolly Beach as a beautiful beach that wasn't usually crowded so we decided to head there for the day. OH. MY. GOSH it was INCREDIBLE!! It was unbelievably calm and the water literally glowed turquoise! The water was warm and and the sand was powder soft. We spent the day lounging on beach chairs and Bryan even mustered up the energy to take a kayak out for a little while. We enjoyed this beach soooooo much and we agreed we would definitely come back to Antigua again!

The amazing Jolly Beach in Antigua

So beautiful it was hard to believe it was real!

 Day 4 - St Lucia
We did a little research on the ship of possible beaches to go to and had picked one that sounded amazing situated right between the Pitons (the twin peaked mountains that are a famous landmark in St Lucia). Unfortunately, when we got off the ship and asked, it was a 1 1/2 hour cab ride to that beach so we had to change our plans. We went to Reduit Beach in Rodney Bay, which is one of the most popular beaches on the island. Fortunately we were able to find a quiet piece of beach in front of a resort and they let us use their beach chairs for free (can't beat free!) One cool thing at this beach was this tiny little junk boat that turned out to be a swim up beach bar boat! Bryan got a yummy coconut concoction made with fresh coconut water, papaya juice, and rum. It was a little overcast for part of the day and while the beach was pretty, it wasn't quite to the same level as the previous beaches we'd been to on the trip. I would have really liked to see the beach in between the Pitons, Jalousie Beach, but with the time constraints of when we had to be back on the ship, it would have taken up most of the day just getting there and back. I guess we'll just have to go back again so we can check it out!

Enjoying our "babymoon"!

 Day 5 - Barbados
For this port we again printed out a list of the best beaches in Barbados to help us decide where to go. We had selected Payne's Bay, but when we got off the ship and asked at the tourism center, the woman there told us that there were no facilities at that beach. Since I was a bit sunburned we really needed to go somewhere that had chairs and umbrellas, so we picked another beach from the list, Brighton Beach. When we got there we were disappointed because the cruise ship and industrial docks were in our eyeline and there was a strange smell wafting across the beach. We went for a walk and discovered a refinery just a few yards to the right of where we were sitting. I have no idea why that was listed as one of the best beaches, I'm sure the island has plenty more that deserve that title. We decided to try and find another beach that smelled a little better, so we asked one of the locals to recommend another beach and he told us to go to Blue Monkey Beach. He said it was beautiful and there are sea turtles that are just a few feet off from the beach. When we got there, and got settled on our beach chairs, we discovered we were actually at Payne's Bay! I don't know what the tourism center lady was talking about because there were chairs, umbrellas, bathrooms, and a little beach bar there. What other facilities did she think we wanted?? Payne's Bay was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our day in Barbados.

Day 6 - At Sea
After stopping in a different port for the last 5 days, we enjoyed having our final day at sea. We slept in and then spent the rest of the day by the pool. I got a massage and pedicure and Bryan took a nap. It was a great way to wrap up the trip.

We really enjoyed this cruise a lot! It was a perfect itinerary because we got to see so many different places at once. The ship was great and the food was excellent! We ate in the dining room every night and had a great time with our server. We skipped the shows in the evening and went to the casino instead. We gambled 6 of the 7 nights and ended the trip completely even, which is a total win in our book! I'm so glad that we got this time together, especially free from the distractions of work and real life, to just enjoy each other. Who knows when we'll get to do something like this again!

20 Weeks!

(I'm actually 21 weeks pregnant today, but I totally meant to post this last week)

I'm halfway to being a mom of 2 and I can't BELIEVE how much faster this pregnancy is going. I think a big part of it is that I started looking pregnant a lot faster this time which made it feel real much earlier. At this point I am feeling like I look huge already, although people (who I suspect are lying to me) keep telling me I look little and cute. I'm going to choose to believe them, lies or not.

Here are the 20 week stats:

• Weight gained so far: 5 lbs (not too shabby, and with as big as I feel, I expected more!)
• Maternity clothes: The weather has been really up and down so I'm still managing to wear some of my non-maternity sweaters. I don't want to spend money on long sleeved maternity shirts because I'm hoping that any minute it is going to warm up and I'll be able to wear my short sleeved maternity shirts from last time.
• Sleep: Still going pretty well. Occasionally getting up to pee but not every night. However, now that Hailey is potty training, she doesn't like to be wet. Ever. Including in the middle of the night. Which means she's been waking up once or twice a night crying and wanting to be changed. Doesn't she know I'm not supposed to have to wake up in the middle of the night for another 5 months?!?
• Pregnancy symptoms: I've been going to the chiropractor for my lower back and hip pain and it turns out it is actually lower lumbar and sacroiliac misalignment. After 4 adjustments, I am already feeling better, which is awesome! I've also learned a few stretches to try when my hips are hurting so I've been doing really well.
• Gender: Girl!! No progress on a name yet... Bryan is killing me with his unwillingness to commit to one! I'm dying to name this little one so we can start telling Hailey what her baby sister's name is, but he basically feels that until the birth certificate is in our hands we've got nothing but time. Has he met me?!? Doesn't he know I am a capital P Planner???
• Movement: I started feeling little popcorn pops at about 17 1/2 weeks and they've been getting stronger ever since. I can't quite feel them from the outside yet, but they're definitely becoming more kick-like. She tends to move around most at night and I'm loving it!

Next up, we leave for our cruise-that-wasn't on Saturday!! We had to use the credit we got for having to cancel back in September before November of this year, and since I don't plan on leaving a 3 month old baby for 8 days, we are going now! Babymoon here we come!