Sibling Quality Time

There is just something special to a parent when you look at your children and smile cause they are just doing something so sweet. We know for a fact that Ty just simply love his sister. At every moment when Fé cries, he is right there trying to find out what's the matter. He also wants to hold her every chance he can get, and he's been getting more holding time. We think he's getting it how to hold hold her. We know he's only 20 months so we take care to always shadow him.

Also, we really try to not block him out. What we mean by this is that whenever one of us is with Fé, the other is with Ty. We think it's working pretty well. We noticed also that Ty is developing his own sense of independence. Sometimes he would just go into his room and play with something in there. Or sometimes he would drag it out into the living room.

All in all, we can't wait till Fé is old enough to play with her big brother, because I feel so bad constantly having to tell Ty to be gentle. I know he is just excited about his sister and want to play with her. Oh, and this weekend, our Lil Princess is 1 month old! Oh how the time has flown by. She has her doctor's appointment next week. I am so curious to know how she has grown.

That's all for now. So later.

Our Growing Lil' Princess...

It's been a little over 2 weeks now since Fé was born. Yesterday, Fé went for her check up at the pediatrician and because I missed it, I waited earnestly for the reports of how our Lil' Princess was progressing. I think every parents at these check ups, just really want one thing, wanting their little one just to be healthy.

Glad to say that the reports were all good. We will check back in like a month to show Fé's progress report. Here it is as it stands at 2 weeks:

Born April 30th,2011 @ 5:03pm
Birth length: 20inches
Birth weight: 6lbs 14oz
Wk 1 weight: 6lbs 10oz
Wk 2 Weight: 8lbs

I just want to point out the weight gain from week 1 to week 2. Wow! Ty's week 2 to week 3 gain was 6lbs 7oz to 7lbs 8oz. I think Fé is really giving her big brother a run. One thing for sure is that Fé is quite the eater. She definitely has an appetite. Now, if only we can get her on a regular sleeping schedule. She tends to sleep more in the day and eat and naps at night which is really hard on Phil.

Well, I will always ask to keep us and the family in your prayers.

Twins?

Here we are a little over a week, and Ty and Fé are just the cutest things. Both Phil and I was looking at Fé's pictures that were taken a day after she was born and some of the ones we took and we noticed, oh my goodness, both Ty and Fé could pass for twins. They look so much alike at 1 week old, it's like wow! Below is a picture of Ty at 1 week and Fé at 1 week.

What do you think?
















They are definitely siblings.

Ty's New Role...

One of the questions we get asked a lot since Fé was born is how is Ty handling Fé's birth?

It's a very fair question. I am happy to report that Ty is taking the new role as big brother very well. For a while now, we have been slowly changing Ty's world to include Fé. It started with us talking more and more about Fé and where Fé was, in mommy's tummy. Then we added her car seat in the care with him. So he would get used to the idea that Fé will be sitting in the back seat with him. Then, we started rearranging his room, since they will be sharing the room for the first couple years. We changed his bed to his big boy bed. We started decorating his side of the room and Fé side of the room. And so on. All this to say, that when Fé was born, Ty was, and still is, very excited to see Fé.

I sit down with him every now and then, talking with him and just telling him that he is a big brother now and needs to watch and protect his little sister and help mommy and daddy. I think he's getting it. This morning when Phil was changing Fé and she started crying, he ran from the living room into the bed room, and with this look of concern, he proceeded to stroke her hair and hold her hand. It was touching. He also loves getting a chance to hold her.

I think Ty is doing just great in his new role. How long will this last? We'll see when they are both screaming for mommy or daddy because they are in each others rooms. The anticipation is killing me :)

Fé's Grand Entrance

I am so excited to share with you that our little lady bug has finally made her grand entrance into the world of the breathing. She couldn't have chosen a more beautiful day. Let me start my story first thing in the morning.

I woke up just a little after seven o'clock in the morning to a full bed. Ty, the little monkey he is, woke up and needed to come join us. I laid there for a bit enjoying their snoring symphony then finally remembered that the day before we were having some nice contractions and that we were getting closer. So many people that I work with claimed baby Fé would come this weekend so I was very hopeful. While laying there I had one contraction but then throughout the morning again they were coming very sporadic. So once everyone woke up we all agreed a walk was in order, especially Ty.

We walk to the park down the road and on the way there had contractions every 3-4 minutes, very good pattern. We let Ty play on the play ground for a bit as I continued to walk and contract around the play ground. They started to get more intense so we decided it was time to head back home to call the midwife and see if we should head in. She confirmed so I headed to the shower while Chris confirmed all the stuff we needed were in the car. Ty fell asleep so we had Chris' parents meet us at the house to hang with him till he woke up and they could all join us at the hospital. After a quick tuna sandwich we headed out.

Praise Jesus on the way to the hospital I only had one contraction. So glad the hospital is so close to our home. When we got in and got checked we were already at 6 cm. We got monitored for about 30 minutes before being moved the actual room in which Fé would be born. Once we were situated the contractions started to really come harder and more frequent. I will be completely honest, no matter how much I know I wanted to have a natural delivery, each contraction I experienced made me seriously consider the logic behind that decision. To the point where one of the last contractions I experienced I was yelling at Chris that I needed an epidural right now and how much this hurt far more than when I delivered Ty.

I can vividly remember the intense pain of the last contraction when I knew that she was ready to come. The pressure was so crazy I felt the bottom half of my body was going to fall off. I told the midwife I think she is ready and we moved on to the bed. She checked me over and said yes it was time to push. My water hadn't broken yet so she got the tools ready for that but just as she was going to do break it, it broke all on its own. But then the fun really started because I had the strong urge to push and couldn't stop. Poor thing, she kept trying to get me to listen to her and focus and slow down, but my body just took over and I couldn't stop anything. Three quick uncontrollable strong pushes and out came first partial head, then her whole head, then her whole body. It all happened so fast I don't think she was able to fully say ... stop pushing.

And Fé was born. She was quiet for a minute then she started exercising those lungs of hers. Chris got to cut the cord. Oh side note, the cord was wrapped around her neck once but it didn't have any effect on her at all. She has been feedding like a champ, having great diaper changes and passing all her test.

Thankfully, Chris and I get to go home in just 24 hours after her birth which is soon. So we are packing up and getting ready to go home.

Fé's 3D/4D Ultrasound

It only took 3 days to get Fé's 3D/4D ultrasound done. Well, not all that time, Fé just wasn't having it on the first go round on Saturday. This is all deja-vous. She's following right in her brother's footsteps. On Saturday, Fé would rather snuggle close up to Phil's placenta. She was right up against it, so the images weren't that clear. The folks at Stork Vision, who I must say were just warm and friendly and all round awesome, really wanted us to get the images, so they suggested rescheduling and trying again. It was a good decision, because we went back today and captured some amazing images.

So we have pictures and a video of the session. Here check out some of the pictures of Fé, our Lil' Ladybug.

Later.

Interested in 3d ultrasounds, check out Stork Vision at http://www.storkvisionmd.com/

Am I Ready for Change?

That's the question I am running into. So we are into the 3rd trimester and Fé is doing great every day reminding Phil that she's there. Also, she's getting her workout on, punching and kicking Phil. So this question on change and am I ready? Well, it's not like I have a choice in the matter. I think it's really starting to hit home. First, was when Phil asked me to start moving around some of Ty's furniture and take down some of his old stuff. Second, was the whole car seat thing. I mean, we will have 2 car seats in the car. But most of all was when we decided to look into changing Ty's crib to the next bed stage, a day bed. Ty has one of those growing beds which go from a crib to a day bed to a full size.

He has done very well at bed time, and so we figure its time to start the next stage. Of course our main concern is when he wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, he will now have to freedom to just get out of bed and free roam. Well, that's where the gate comes into play. We'll use that to help with the teaching process.You know what we have come to understand, it's that for young kids, routine is essential. So, that's what we will need to establish, a new, or rather adjusted routine.

The next couple of days, the room will under go some transformation. We are not in our home yet, but maybe we'll do a little more decorating. Incorporate some blue and pink color. Some jungle lady bug themes. I don't know, we'll come up with something. We'll make sure we take pictures.

Here comes change, ready or not. *smile*