Lily and Charlotte

This is the first picture I was able to take of my little girls! Amazing to think I'm now the mom of 2 little girls!!

Lily is now almost 2 1/2 year old and she is wonderful - most of the time! She seems to be adjusting well to Charlotte although i'm sure it will change as Charlotte becomes more interactive and looks more like a little person. She of course doesn't understand she's going to grow to be like her. But it's sweet to hear her ask about Charlotte, wanting to see her in her seat or the monitor, asking me to go take care of her...

Lily has changed a lot recently! as I think of how she was even 6 months ago when we moved to Madison, it's a world of difference. She can make sentences and speaks a lot better although it's still hard to understand what she says a lot of the time and she's still behind in this area. I'm confident she will catch up to her peers soon though. She can be so sweet, asking me to play with her, giving hugs and kisses, dancing or running around the house. There's nothing better in the world than her laugh! But she can also be quite challenging, saying no to everything. I know it's part of the 2 year old behavior but it's also her personality to be so strong headed. The worse part is getting up in the morning. She does NOT want to get up and that after 11 hours of sleep. I have to literally battle with her to get her out of bed which is such a pain! I'm hoping she will get out of it when the weather gets better because I'm going to go nuts! She is also trying to drag the night time book reading routine so she doesn't want to go to sleep and she doesn't want to get up! oh boy! And then there's potty training...my least favorite developmental stage so far. She just refuses to try, doesn't like to go to the potty, doesn't even tell me she needs to be changed when she poops which is pretty amazing and drives me nuts! Let's hope we get there also when spring comes because she needs to be potty trained to go to preschool...fingers crossed.

Sweet Charlotte

Charlotte is SO sweet! she basically just wants to be held...holding her will pretty much stop any of her cries. I'm really enjoying snuggling with her, having her on my chest, she's so tiny and sweet, it's amazing. I'm able to enjoy her more than I did Lily at this stage. I think that's because i'm less stressed out about everything this time around but I also think it's because I understand this is a stage and she is going to become a little girl much like her sister. The first time with Lily I just had a hard time with the infant stage, not understanding it was going to pass like all the other stages and so i wasn't able to enjoy it as much. Thanks Lily for the learning!...

We're spending a lot of time inside, snuggling in bed given the weather and the snow outside. I try to nap in the afternoons since I don't sleep a lot at night -- nights are still tough. We're doing better since we have her sleep in her own bed/seat than initially when she was in bed with us but still, some nights it feels like I'm awake several hours in a row...I can't wait until we get to a 4 hour stretch of sleep, we're still at 3 hours...It's especially tough right now given I managed to give Charlotte this nasty cold I got last week! I'm feeling better but she now has a stuffy nose! poor little baby, I feel so bad! thank god for this "nose blower" apparatus I had bought in France for Lily -- it's a little yacky when you think of it given I'm basically sucking the mucus from her nose but it's working very well so at least I'm able to keep her nose fairly clean which helps. I didn't call the doctor because I know there's pretty much nothing else to do for a little baby like her. She can't take any medicine. Let's just hope she gets over it quickly.

Nursing is going well and I'm enjoying it a great deal as i did for Lily. It's so wonderful having her snuggled up to my body, feeling her heart beat, seeing her little satisfied grin when she's done. I love it when she's full and she drops the nipple forcefully, and rests her head on my chest. She's very strong and is able to raise her head fairly high. She just seems so content. It's wonderful to watch! I'm not sure how much she weighs now as she haven't checked. Our next doc appointment isn't until Jan 31 and i haven't felt compelled to check myself. I think eating is going well as she seems to be growing and is pooping and peeing several times a day. She looks to me like she's tall/long for her age but I don't know really. We'll have to check with the doctor.

Charlotte Louise Leonte

Lily has a little sister: Charlotte born on Dec 9!! Charlotte came in 3 weeks early at 37 weeks on the day. I guess she was eager to meet us! She totally surprised me who was not prepared for her early arrival, especially with work, but I am now SO happy to have her...and it was great having her around for the holidays.

How she came to us: It was the night of Wednesday Dec 8 when I woke up feeling like I was peeing on myself around 11:30pm shortly after having gone to bed...I rushed to the bathroom and I remember feeling like: Oh my god! this can't be it!! it's so early but I quickly dismissed it and thought, ok, she's coming, let's get ready! After the initial first gush came out, I went downstairs to tell Lucian who couldn't believe me at first and we started to talk about what to do...calling my doc was the first thing I did, while at the same time preparing some food for Lily for the next couple of days...I was feeling fine, no contractions...a midwife from the doc's office finally got back to me and told me I could wait at home until the contractions were close given i wasn't at a risk for infection (I tested negative for strep B bacteria) ...So I continued preparing Lily's meals, put my bag together for the hospital and sent a few work emails to let people know what was happening...then I went to bed. It was probably around 1am, something like that. I was hoping I could make it until the next morning so we wouldn't have to wake up Lily in the middle of the night and could simply drop her off at daycare...and that's what happened....The contractions came through the night and I worked through them, breathing, trying to use the techniques I learned in the hypnobirthing sessions I attended...I was trying to sleep but I was way too excited and busy keeping track of the time between contractions...eventually they were closer and stronger and by morning time, probably around 7am it was time to go...Lucian went to wake up Lily while I got ready, went to prepare some breakfast...by now the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and very painful. I had to go lay down on the couch to get through them...We rushed Lily a bit and got in the car. By that time I was in pain, strong pain and it was hard holding my screams not to scare Lily...I managed though and I remember dropping her off at Brigid's and saying goodbye. Then we sped up to get to the hospital. I was screaming and holding on to Lucian's arm in the car. He was freaking out but still tried to reassure me...Finally we got there, got a wheelchair and I was brought up to the room, all the while trying to get through the contractions. Once in the room things went really fast. I remember the nurse telling me I was probably a "6" to which I responded I was hoping for an "8"... as it turns out I was closer to the truth as Megan, the midwife told me I was pretty much all ready!! So I began pushing...laying down initially but I didn't like that position and I knew it didn't work for me with Lily so we tried having me squat...and that worked a lot better. By then the doctor was there too and everyone was encouraging me. After a few pushes squatting they asked me to go back to the laying down position but I pushed against the bars on the side with my legs...shortly after baby girl came out. The pain was excrutiating but not long and she was there!! I couldn't believe it. All together it was around 30 minutes since we had entered the hospital. Everyone congratulated me and told me how great of a job I did...I was just overwhelmed. I felt like everything had gone so quickly!! They put her on my chest and I felt so much joy. She was so small, she was perfect!

I'm proud to have been able to have a totally natural birth -- that was my goal. I didn't have a "hypnobirth" as I definitely wasn't silent during the contractions, at least not toward the end but I did what I had to do to get through them! And the delivery was SO much easier than the first time! incredible how different the experience was! And I didn't have to disrupt Lily during the night, she was able to go to daycare as usual which was great.