Easter

I love that, as parents, we get to create the traditions our kids remember for the rest of their lives (whether or not they choose to carry them on).  Easter is such a time of joy, in our faith (I mean, Christ rose from the dead... pretty spectacular!) and therefore carried over into our own little family.

Growing up, we always dyed Eggs on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday), so... we continued that tradition in our own little family.  While I only got to do a few minutes of dyeing and then sat on the side-lines with a ravenous Miss Lettie (she is a champion marathon nurser if there ever was one), I had an absolute blast watching Anni's fascination with the whole process.

 

 

 

Other than egg-dyeing, much of our triduum (the three days preceding Easter Sunday) was spent cleaning in preparation for the big day (we hosted Daniel's parents for Easter dinner) and enjoying having Daddy home for a three day weekend.

Saturday evening, we got to gather all the goodies we'd acquired for the girls' baskets and put them together.  I really tried to avoid candy this year (though, we still have a good amount as my in-laws were sweet and brought us all kinds of goodies), so I had a lot of fun picking up random things over the last couple of months.  Anni's basket had a video about St. Francis, some sweet little headbands from Target, an apron from zulily (I love that it's a full apron... I'm sure you'll see it in some baking photos eventually!), some sandals from zulily and, for something sweet, we filled a few eggs with Unreal Candy (still not healthy, but without all of the hfcs, artificial colors and other yuckies in most candy... this version tastes a lot like peanut m&ms).  Let's be honest, the morning she peeked in her basket, she went straight for the candy, but, she's loved the other gifts as she noticed them throughout the last day or so.

Colette's basket was very simple.  There really isn't much she needs, so we bought her a basket (Target still had the same general design as Anni's... let's hope they keep that up until all our babies are born, should we have more!)  Inside she has some sweet, simple little headbands and some sheets for the eventual crib (we haven't bought her a crib yet as we're hopefully moving in a month, but they're ready for when it comes). 

Annnnd... my favorite part about Easter morning?  Seeing these sweet faces all dressed and ready to head to Easter Mass.  While Mass was a little chaotic, it was so wonderful to be there with our whole family. 

That afternoon, my in-laws joined us for some more Easter festivities.  We did an Easter egg hunt on the go as we walked to  the park only a block or so away (Daniel would "casually" walk ahead and hide the eggs as we went... probably the last year we could attempt such a thing with Anni, but it worked really well this year).

Miss Colette was there, too, just bundled into the Moby, getting a little rest in-between activities.

Looking back through these photos, my little girl really does look like a little girl instead of a toddler or baby anymore.  I love her excitement over every aspect of the holiday (Daniel and I tried to explain Easter simply, and she spent one afternoon telling us that her baby doll was rising from the dead... one step at a time, I suppose). 

Thank goodness for my little ones, they remind me to take joy in even the simplest things.  I love it!

Happy Easter, my friends!

Lettie at 1 Month

One month of getting to know our sweet Colette.  She spent much of her one month birthday regaling us with the sweetest smiles and sneezing milk out of her nose (I'd never seen a baby do until Miss Lettie, still plenty to learn in this parenting gig!)

She likes to eat... like a lot.  She has finally started to give Daddy the satisfaction of getting to snuggle her while happy (a wee break for mommy, the milk provider, did I mention she really likes to eat).

We're both learning the whole nursing thing... I think she may be better at it than me, but even on rough days, it's a million times better than being attached to a pump.  No hyperbole here.     

It's such a beautiful thing to have a sweet, healthy baby in our home.  Sometimes I have those anxious moments where I'm sure that everything is going to tumble down around me, because it's all so good.  Hard, yes, definitely, but so very good.

Sisters

It's been a beautiful thing to see Anni transform from the first and only child to a big sister.  While we've had our fair share of "nearly 3" tantrums, misunderstandings and crankiness recently, none of that is ever aimed at her baby sister.  She has a host of names for Miss Colette: Cowette, my baby, my baby sister, baby, Yi' Bit and whatever she hears me call her (sweetie, etc).  

Anni gravitates to her like a magnet: kisses, hugs, and sweet talk "Ohhh, I wuv you, baby.  You are so cute!" are a constant around here.  I love it... although it sometimes makes nursing hard when trying to balance a newborn and a nearly-three-year-old who is determined to join the baby on my lap so she can get some extra snuggles into the day.  It's worth it; though, as they'll only be this little and this new to the sibling thing once.

Yesterday, we were driving home from our first solo outing (the amazing mom's group I'm a part of, which happens to be half an hour or more away depending on traffic), and Miss Colette was flipping her lid as we waited at stop lights and stopped to fill up our completely empty gas tank.  Anni leaned over, talked to her, and gave her sister finger to suck on until we got on the highway and the rhythm of the wheels on the road soothed the baby to sleep.  

I was flabbergasted.  When did she become this grown-up girl who knows how to soothe babies and cares enough to do so?  Colette is so lucky to have her, my sweet Antonia.

My own sisters are so often my lifeline during long days, cooking emergencies and with general life questions that I'm so glad our girls have each other.

This relationship is something they'll have even after we're gone, and I hope we can foster it into a real friendship for both of them.  There's no question that there will be sibling bickering, fighting and angry words... but I know, from personal experience, that even after all that, having siblings as friends once you're out in the "adult" world is invaluable.    

I love watching their little relationship begin, and I can't wait to see how it blossoms as the years go by.

Pope Francis!

When Pope Benedict XVI was chosen, I was a senior in high school.  I vaguely remember watching the announcement on one of the teeny, tiny, outdated tvs in a classroom right after school.  That's about all I recall, though.  This time, my husband was hard at work behind of the scenes of popealarm.com/ with the rest of the team, so I was extraordinarily plugged in... in fact, my husband left for work at 2:30 am to be ready for the vote on Wednesday (he and several other members of the team were there and ready in case white smoke should go up so they could initiate the text and email sending).

While the wee hours of the morning vote ended up in black smoke (meaning they didn't reach a concensus), the late morning vote was white smoke!  We had a Pope!  I was napping (a shocking occurance right now) with Lettie, so Daniel called to make sure I knew in case I wanted to pull up coverage.  At first I told him he could just call me back when they knew who it was, but a few moments after hanging up the phone, I realized I really wanted to see this... to know who our new Papa would be!  Anni woke up within a few minutes of the phone call and together we watched the announcement of Pope Francis.  Anni is a little concerned about where "Pope Benedictine is", but declared that she "wuvs them both so much!"  What a beautiful time in our church to share with my girls!

Colette's Story

We welcomed our sweet Colette Therese last Sunday (February 24, it's taken me a little while to finish this post up).  It was beautiful, painful, intense, and a completely new experience, despite the fact that this was my second birth.  Miss Colette has been writing her very own unique story since she joined our family over nine months ago.

The day before her birthday, my mom decided to drive out as a second blizzard was supposed to roll into Kansas on top of the previous one that had dropped 14 inches on them.  Because I hadn't had any definite signs labor was imminent, I was worried that we would waste the time we had with my mom just waiting for labor to start (she has 8 other grandbabies to help take care of back home).  Apparently she and my Dad (who wanted her to leave asap), know what they're doing, because she made it with just enough time to get a little sleep before things got rolling.

Sometime around 4 am on Sunday morning, my water broke.  After having a slight freak out because I didn't realize what was going on (my water had to be broken with Anni when I was at 9.5 cm, so I never really experienced it before), we called my doctor and our wonderful doula and headed to the hospital.  The contractions were strong, but definitely not unbearable, and Daniel kept me laughing as we drove through the beginnings of a blizzard to meet our little one.

At the hospital, I was a 6 by the time the nurse checked me.  Our doula arrived soon after, and after getting my first dose of antibiotics (I am GBS+), I was set free to labor as I wished.  This was a dream come true.  My first labor had been (necessarily) tied down as they tried to slow labor to get my little preemie steroids for her lungs.  This time, we started out walking the halls, pausing when a contraction got a little strong, noting where the good coffee was, and chatting about just about everything.  We made it back for my doctor and mom to arrive through the blizzard.  I was at a 7, and the doctor suggested pitocin to speed things along, to which I replied that I'd rather give our girl time to make her way on her own (and luckily both my husband and doula encouraged me that I was moving along just fine and not to worry).  He agreed and said he'd check again in a couple of hours and we continued on our laboring way.  I tried just about every position we could think of for laboring: lying down when I had to (they did fetal monitoring every hour), standing and leaning on Daniel (my favorite by far), shower, bathtub, birthing ball... yep, just about everything.  I had music playing (Pandora's Enya station, because... why not?  Contractions during particularly intense instrumental portions kind of made everyone giggle... to the extent that you can giggle during contractions).  The beautiful thing for me is that up until the doctor's final check, labor flowed along at a really peaceful pace.  It was painful, but I felt in control in a way I was never able to feel in my first labor.  I was able to move, laugh and connect with what was going on with my body.

The next time the doctor checked me, I was still at a 7, despite the fact that things had definitely gotten more intense.  I was a little bit disappointed, but he mentioned that it looked like my water hadn't broken all the way, and if he took care of that, things would probably move along.  Oh, my, was he right!  Within 15 minutes, I moved from a 7 to a 10 and my body started pushing all on it's own. I am so glad my wonderful birthing team (husband, mom and doula) had been coaching me to breathe the entire labor as that was the only reason I remembered to breathe through those (slightly terrifying) last minutes as the contractions just rolled in, one after the other.  Miss Colette was born at 12:55 pm, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.  Her oxygen had dropped during my last couple of pushes, and they had oxygen ready to put on me for her, but I was so determined to push that I got her out faster than they expected.  Luckily, the umbilical cord was taken care of quickly and I finally had my sweet girl on my tummy, safe and sound.  She started screaming as soon as she was out, but stopped as soon as they laid her on me, staring around with those big, wide-open eyes and throwing newborn grins to just about anyone who checked on her.  I was just so overjoyed that she was there and, honestly, that I was *done*.  While my doctor stitched me up, Daniel and I just soaked in the fact that we had made it.  I breathed and relaxed for the first time and looked at our girl and my husband.  Daniel noticed our doctor just couldn't stop grinning (it's obvious he absolutely loves the baby part of his job) and everyone placed bets on how big she was going to be when they weighed her (6 lbs 13 oz, in case you're curious, smaller than anyone but me expected, though I don't know why I thought she'd be in that range with her being 41 weeks).

A little while later, my in-laws brought Anni in to meet "her baby".  She was a little confused by the hospital itself and clung to her daddy, but knew her little sister immediately and hasn't stopped loving on her since.

It's amazing that this little girl's story is just beginning... I can't wait to see it unfold!

PS The first five photos were taken by my lovely doula... it's amazing to look through all of them from labor and delivery and "see" what was going on from the outside.