My Two Girls

After an appointment we were all hungry and dressed up (not in sweats!) so we went out to lunch. Addison is still busy as ever when we go out to eat and mostly picks at her food. Avery snoozed away in her seat like a good girl. I can't believe how different I am feeling this time around with my recovery. There are new aspects I am dealing with, but overall I am feeling pretty good (minus the no sleep). I thank my Heavenly Father every night that I was able to carry a baby and that she's beautiful and happy. I feel like my testimony of faith and prayer has been strengthened ten fold during my pregnancy with Avery and her delivery/recovery. The Lord truly doesn't give us more than we can handle and gives us the helping hands with we feel like it is. I look back at the first 4 months of being pregnant and then Dave leaving the last month and think I survived! I'm stronger than I thought and I have been very grateful for my supportive husband and family who has helped me through all of this. I just need to remember these feelings when Avery won't go to sleep and I'm crying my eyes out in my pillow!

When Mom's Nursing...

I am learning that sometimes when things get really quiet it's because Addison has shoved a marker up her nose or colored "makeup" on her eye. Addison got a new art desk that we put upstairs to keep her busy while I'm in the bathroom. It has been amazing for the most part! She sits on her little stool and colors away. Grammie even put the markers out...we'll see how long that one lasts. Thank goodness they are washable and no harm was done with a few blue marker fumes up the nose! While Addison is coloring her body Avery goes completely red down half her body while nursing. It is almost a straight line and covers the front and back. The doctor said it isn't something to worry about, but it's strange!

Family of Four

The past (almost) 2 weeks have been a sleepless blur! I am realizing that early stages of parenthood are erased from your memory because of how difficult they are. I am exhausted! If Avery isn't crying then Addison is and if they aren't I am. Somehow my mom is holding herself together and Dave is snoring the nights away in Rochester. Avery has a stretch in the night where she is awake and fussy for about 2 hours and she doesn't seem to want to go to bed til midnight. I am a walking zombie and Addison is probably thinking Grammie is her new mother. Somehow in a few weeks (feeling hopeful) all of this will become routine and we'll survive. I am so grateful my mom is here to help with Addison, change lots of diapers and most importantly make sure we're fed. People ask when she's leaving and I just tell them I'm not asking!

Addison is a great big sister. She helps throw away diapers, get binkys, sings to Avery and most of all loves on her. She always wants to hold her! We're working on not rubbing off all of her cute dark hair. My favorite is when Addison says, "She opened her eyes! I see her!" She loves looking at her fingers and giving her toys. We're working on not picking up Avery without an adult:) These are the situations that I am trying to work out in my head when I am flying solo. Addison is growing up so fast now it seems like. She gives the best hugs and still has the most amazing blonde curls. We got adventurous and went to the zoo one day last week. Addison loved showing Grammie all the animals and really liked the new baby gorilla. When you ask her what a gorilla says she pounds on her chest. Dave has taken Addi on lots of bike rides and played a lot of legos. He got out early on day and was able to come home for the afternoon and dinner. Addison loves having her Daddy home to play with. It is fun to see each of the stages that Addison and Avery are in. Avery fills the sweet cuddly parts and Addison makes us laugh and keeps us busy.

Dave went to NYC for the weekend for a conference. Bad timing, but at least my mom was here. He manged his way through the big city and only went the wrong direction on the subway once. He brought back yummy cannoli's...my favorite! He got the girls tshirts and a fun purse for me. We felt very loved. We are about to enter October which means we're halfway done with this rotation away with five weeks to go. We've survived the first five without too much damage so the next five should be good (hopefully)!

Introducing...

Miss Avery Mae Michael made her grand entrance on Monday September 16th at 3:15pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 15 oz and measured 20 inches long. She has dark hair and it looks like she might have dark eyes like me! I had dreams while pregnant that she was going to have dark hair so I was really happy to see it! Avery's birth story happened just the way it needed to (except for the epidural failing!). I had made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before she arrived and I was about 75 pages away two days before she came. Since I wasn't sleeping I got up in the middle of the night and plowed through! Who knew I could read 30+ pages in one night. Once I finished I knew it would happen soon. I woke up Monday morning around 5:00 with contractions. I started timing them and they were pretty consistent for about an hour. I woke Dave up and took a bath. They were about 8-10 minutes apart for a few hours. Then they got closer and closer. I was starting to feel really uncomfortable every time they came and they were getting harder with each one. My mom kept Addison busy outside and distracted since she kept asking me what was wrong. Dave did really well helping me breathe through the pain and gave me a priesthood blessing a little before we left. Around noon I told Dave I had reached my pain tolerance and needed to go in. We got there and I was already at a 5! I was really happy that all the pain wasn't in vain. I got checked in and moved into a room. Meantime I was curing my toes dying with the pain. My nurses name was Andrea and she was heaven sent! So much better than the terrible nurse I had with Addison. She called for an epidural for me right away. They made Dave leave the room which he was pretty upset about since he had had a rotation there. The guy kept humming in my ear which kept irritating me! Nothing happened after he left the room so the nurse sent for him to come back. He took it out and tried again, but still nothing. The midwife checked me and I was already at an 8 so they told me to hang in there.....blahhhhh. Dave came back and he told me to lay on my right side to see if it would help distribute the medicine. Before we left the house I told Dave he needed to be a better birthing coach than with Addison:) He was very supportive and kept reminding me how to breathe. My doctor, Susan Erk arrived and I felt like the end was near. I was at a 9, but they didn't want me to push yet. Since I was feeling everything I was feeling very ready to push. I told them that I couldn't wait any longer and was going to have to push. Everyone ran over and got things ready quickly. It all seems very surreal looking back, but 15 minutes later I heard Avery Mae's cry for the first time and started to bawl. I feel very blessed to have been in the care of the woman who helped me through this delivery. They spoke words of encouragement and helped me stay focused. Dave held Avery for a while until I was able to catch my breath and come back to reality that I just had a baby. It was a fast three hours and and even faster 15 minutes of pushing. Compared to three hours of pushing with Addison and almost 24 hours of labor I felt really blessed this time. They let us hold Avery for an hour before they took her to the nursery. She nursed right away which caught me off guard! We got moved to our recovery room and I couldn't believe how I felt. I was able to walk and sit up on my own. My mom brought Addison over and it was one of the sweetest things to see her hold and talk about Avery. She came running in with a big elephant stuffed animal and a pink balloon. She held Avery and she started to cry a little bit. Addison looked down at her and said,"It's okay Heavenly Father loves you." I about burst into tears. What two year old says that! It melted my heart and I felt very blessed to be a mother of these two special girls. We stayed for another day and by the time we left I was so ready to get out of there. You don't feel normal with nurses checking you and sleeping in a stiff bed. My mom and Addison visited a few more times and each time Addison was pretty good with her new little sister. Addison had a little pink bear to give Avery and she gave Addison a bigger version of it. Addison was pretty happy to have something special from her little sister! It's now been a little over a week and we are adjusting to being a family of four. Dave was able to stay home for a whole week and I was very grateful. Him being home when I went into labor was an answer to many prayers. Dave is back to Rochester and my mom is here filling his shoes. I am in love with Avery and can't wait to see who she becomes!

 

Grammie to the Rescue

After heading into week 39 I convinced my mom to come save Addison and I. She got here last Monday and it has been a huge blessing. Addison sass is divided between to people now which makes it a little more bearable:)  Grammie brought treasures and lots of energy. I decided to start a behavior chart this past week and so far it has been a success. She gets to color in a heart if she picks up toys, holds hands in parking lots, says nice words and other little things like that. Grammie has some pretty motivating things to help the program along. She earned a Little Mermaid dress up and shoes and boy is she happy! We caught on video her singing, "AHHhahHHH" like Ariel and spinning around. She loves to sing and usually combines a whole bunch of songs with one liners crammed into one chorus. My mom helped me get a few last minute things that I needed and cleaned our really dirty house. We went to dinner one night to take our minds from the fact that all I can think about is this baby coming! I went to the doctor and nothing is really going on. She is pretty comfortable and doesn't seem to want to hurry things along! Dave got home for the weekend and he took Addison on a little hike Saturday morning while my mom and I did lady things. We got tickets to the UB football game to cheer on the Bulls. We got there late and had to leave early because my back was killing me from the bleachers. We did manage to have a game day hot dog and popcorn so it was all worth it:)  We stopped for some frozen yogurt on the way home to top off the evening. We've started to bring up some of the baby things from the basement. Addison has become attached to the bath tub. She plops in it and enjoys lounging as she plays on Grammie's phone. My due date is four days away and we are all praying it comes sooner than later!!   

Quack Quacks

Every Wednesday we usually go to playground with our friends from church. Lately with Dave gone I have been too tired to take Addison, but we made an exception this past week. There is a cute little park that has a duck pond with very hungry ducks! I brought a couple pieces of bread and Addison ran away with them before I could show her how to break it into pieces. Needless to say she wanted more "treats" for the quack quacks after about 1 minute:) She loved chasing them around and they let her get really close to them. We lost a few snack cups in the pond when Addison got too brave. I only managed to save one cup sadly. We met Dave for dinner that night in a town that was about half way for both of us. It was nice to have a break mid-week to see him. We met at a good Mexican place and then went to a park to play. Addison was pretty sad when we had to drive away. This resulted in her crying the whole way home and not wanting to go to bed. We really miss Dave when he is gone and weekends have brought on a whole new meaning to our family! We are headed into week 4 of 10 and so far it has gone by pretty quickly. I am so grateful that this is his last semester! Not much else has been going on other than watching my ankles swell and my belly grow!