In case there was any doubt...

Here is further proof that Molly truly is my child.

Here is the face she was making most of the time we were in the 90 degree heat in Jamaica:

And here is the face she was making today in the 8 degree Iowa cold:

I'd much prefer the cold to the heat. It appears the apple didn't fall far from the tree!

Christmas card photo shoot

Due to budget cuts around here, a professionally taken picture for Chirstmas cards just wasn't happening. So, this morning I tried to do it myself. I think the idea was good, wrap a naked baby in Christmas lights, but due to my lack of photography skills the pictures didn't turn out that great. Plus a certain little girl kept trying to chew on the lights which was freaking Daddy out so we had to move fast. Anyway, we did end up getting a cute picture for cards, but here are a few of the shots that didn't make the cut.

1st school pictures

Molly's fantastic daycare does school pictures every fall and of course once we saw them we were suckered into buying them. So here you go. I think she's pretty stinkin' cute!

In other news if you've been watching any national media you probably know that Des Moines has had quite the snow storm in the past few days. Yesterday the whole family was home, buth Mike and my offices were closed as well as Molly's daycare. Today schools are closed so Molly and I are having another snowday. I'll post pictures. It's really pretty (as long as you are inside).

Ho, Ho, Ho!

"Mom, are you sure this is the real Santa? I'll just give his beard a little tug to make sure."

Jamaica

Last week we traveled to Negril, Jamaica for Mike's cousin Christopher's wedding. It was a VERY long trip and we learned that Molly isn't a big fan of airplanes, but is was a beautiful wedding and lots of fun to spend so much time with family. Molly didn't so much like the 90 degree weather, but she loved the pool and the ocean. She also loved getting to meet lots of her McGill relatives for the first time. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Hanging out in the hotel bar with Aunt Jessica and Aunt Melissa.

Cousin Lauren was the cutest flower girl!

Lauren, Aunt Jessica, Grandma, Molly, Grandpa and Aunt Melissa

You can't tell from the picture but this is Molly with Aunt Laurie and Aunt Shelby at the swim-up bar in the pool.

"Ooooh, I like the air conditioned hotel room. Let's just stay in here!"

Toes in the pool.

Notice a resemblance in the pasty skin tones?

Family picture

Christopher, the Infamous Uncle Kenny and Mike

"I love my Grandpa Mac!"

Molly finds her voice

Molly has really discovered her voice over the past few weeks and likes to yell. She also really loves her excer-saucer. This morning she sat in there for over an hour talking and playing and I was able to clean the kitchen. It makes a great babysitter!

Mmm...Paste!

It is hard to believe that Miss Molly is old enough to start eating solid foods (can you call rice cereal solid?), but she at 4 months, she's ready. So we started and so far she seems to be doing okay. She doesn't love it, but doesn't hate it. She seems more confused than anything. Mike tells her it's time to eat her paste each evening when we feed her. Here is a little video of her the first time she tried it.

finally...an update

So I haven't been a very good blogger lately, things have been pretty busy and I have felt overwhelmed as to where to start. But I guess I have to start somewhere so here are some recent pictures and a Molly update.
She is 3 1/2 months old now and so much fun. She smiles a lot, but not really randomly. She makes you work for a smile, but it is so worth it! She loves to stand up and will for several minutes at a time. She hates to sit up and will arch her back as soon as you put her in a sitting position. She is eating between 5-6 ounces every 3-4 hours and will soon start cereal. She sleeps usually from about 9:00pm-6:00am (I say usually because she has decided to request a leam the last 3 mights at 3:00am, little stinker). We had lots of feeding problems early on because of reflux, but have found a medicine that seems to work well. She's not really interested in toys yet unless they light up or play music. We feel so blessed to have this little girl in our family!

Hanging out with Cousin Jack

A picture with my Godparents at my baptism

I'm a lucky girl to have such great Grandparents!

What an important day for me!

First family shot since the hospital!

Halloween costume #1, I wasn't too thrilled about this one.

Much better, this pumkpin costume isn't too bad.

Alright, enough with the pictures!

Thanks for checking in on us!

bump in the road

Sorry for the lack of cute Molly pictures. We experienced a little bump in the road and have been out of commission for the last week. Last Sunday night Molly had a fever and was acting quite sick so we took her to the ER. I was convinced they would tell us we were being nervous first time parents, but 3 hours, a spinal tap, a catheter and an IV later we were admitted to Blank Children's Hospital for 6 days. It turns out she had a urinary tract infection, which is normal in females, but in babies that little requires massive IV antibiotics. We are home now and she is doing fine, in fact you'd never know she was sick. I think the whole experience was more traumatic for Mommy and Daddy than it was for Molly. So, this week we will work on trying to create some normalcy around here and hopefully no more trips to the hospital! I'll get some new pictures up as soon as I replace my camera battery!

A few more pictures

I can't figure out how to post more than about 5 pictures per post so here are a few more from her first week.

I love this picture because of the double chin, chubby cheeks and bed head. The picture of relaxation on Daddy's chest watching the Cardinal's game.

We have had to work on keeping Miss Molly awake for feedings and often this is the result!

Lounging on the couch.

Cuddling with Mommy. We've made a deal that she is going to take her time growing up. I like her this little and snuggly!

Thanks for checking in!

At home with Molly

It's been a fun and exhausting first week at home with Miss Molly. We are so incredibly blessed by her and love her completely. She is very patient with her Mommy and Daddy who are slowly but surely learning how to be parents. I remember thinking when I was pregnant how I would do all of these lengthy blog posts about all of the cute things she is doing and all of my feelings as a new mommy, but that will have to wait for now as I only have 45 minutes until she has to eat again and I still need a shower. Hopefully time management is one of those things that gets easier. For now, here are a few pictures from her first week at home.

Here she is on her first stroller ride. We walked down the street to a coffee shop with Molly and Harvey. She loved it!

Molly's future partner in crime Lulu and her Mom came for a visit. It was lots of fun to watch Lulu play, she certainly isn't lacking any personality! She wasn't too interested in Molly, but I'm sure in a few years they'll be best friends. We really appreciated Lulu and Karoline driving all the way to Des Moines to visit.

My mom, Molly's Gammy, was able to be here for our first week at home. She was a huge help and an even bigger comfort for me, Mike and Molly. Several tears were shed upon her departure and we can't wait to see her again in a few weeks.

Molly had some jaundice when we left the hospital so she had to be hooked up to a BiliBlanket for her first 3 days at home. It made things a little bit awkward as she had to be plugged in for a while, but I am happy to report that her levels have gone down and she is now wireless!

Here she is having her first bath. The first one was a little bit awkward with Mommy and Daddy trying to figure out how to wrangle a slippery little baby and keep her happy at the same time. But, by the second bath a few days later we had it all figured out. As long as one of us continuously pours warm water over her, she is quite content. In fact during the second bath she was so relaxed that she pooped in the tub and then proceeded to fall asleep. It was hilarious!

Molly Jane

Here she is, Miss Molly. She was born on Thursday 07/23/09 at 5:24pm. She weighed 7lbs 13 oz and was 20.5 inches long. Labor and delivery were quite intense and dramatic, but all is well now and we are settling in at home. I'll post more pictures and updates soon. Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers!

37 weeks

I seem to start out each of my blog posts that I am aorry for the long delay and promise to post pictures soon...and being a creature of habit I'll just say the same thing now.

It's been an emotionally exhausting last couple of weeks with the anniversary of William's first birthday last Friday (the 17th). I have also stopped the Lovenox injections as of last week and am nervous about that. My way of coping with this anxiety (since wine isn't an option) has been to withdraw a little and I apologize for those of you whose e-mail/phone calls/text messages I have not replied to and for neglecting the blog.

The good news is that everything with the baby looks great. I am having twice weekly non-stress tests and visits with the Dr. and things continue to look great. Physically I have feel wonderful. I have some back pain at the end of the day, but other than that I am doing great. I haven't even had swollen feet yet and I am still able to sleep at night.

Now we just wait and I try to be patient. We are scheduled to be induced on Monday, August 3rd unless she decides to make her appearance earlier than that (which would be fine by me!).

I'll make it a goal to post some nursery pics and maybe a belly picture in the next few days. Thanks for checking in!

Quick 34 week update

I'm tempted to say things have been really busy and that's why I haven't updated by blog, but the truth is I have been so tired and worn out lately that I mostly lay around during the free time I could be doing it. So...sorry. I do have some nursery pics and some pics of my lovely shower last weekend to share, I'll work on that. As for a baby update...things are looking good. I had another impromptu visit to the hospital last week due to a stomach virus that I mistakenly thought was labor. After getting rehydrated the contractions stopped and I was back home. We had a growth scan while I was there and this little chunker is weighing in at 5 lbs. 8oz. already, which is a little bit ahead of schedule, but I mean really I'm not surprised she's advanced for her age. :-) I also lost my mucus plug (which is disgusting and I can't believe I am blogging about it). Anyway, I remain nervous most of the time, but really, really excited too. We are headed to Grandview this weekend for a 4th of July extravaganza. My in-laws are the Grand Marshalls of the parade which makes me feel like I am related to celebrities, (I hope the paparazzi gets me from my skinny side). More soon...

If you can't say anything nice...

Actual things people have said to me in the last two days:

1. I just don't see how you can be more than a month from your due date, how much bigger can you get!?!

2. You must be in one of those rapid growth phases of your pregnancy because everytime I see you, you are noticeably bigger!

Really, is it necessary to tell me those things?

Oh yeah and the heat index is 105 degrees today. Super!

p.s. both comments came from women in my office, women who have children. Aren't we supposed to stick together or something?

32 week update

Our internet at home isn't working so I can't post any pictures right now, it should be fixed later this week and I'll get some nursery pictures up then. Haven't had any more contractions since last weekend, I think baby girl got the message that it isn't quite time yet. I am now having weekly appointments and last week's went well. I'm 32 weeks now, so at the most it will only be 7 weeks until we get to meet our girl, can't wait!

Baby gets confused...

So we spent all day Saturday getting baby's room ready. We put togther the crib, moved around furniture, washed her clothes, etc. It was a fun day. That night as I was laying around (I mean accomplishing a lot of important tasks) I started having contractions. They never got to be too painful, but they were pretty regular and consistent. I really hesitated calling the doctor because of my fear of sounding crazy or being annoying to them, but eventually I did and he suggested that I come in and get checked, just to be safe. On the way to the hospital I convinced myself that I was imagining the contractions and was just worried. You see, we lost William the same week we got the room ready for him so there were all sorts of weird thoughts occurring in my head, like "I jinxed this healthy baby by preparing her room!" Anyway, we got to the hospital and I got hooked up to the monitor and guess what? I was actually having contractions, I'm not nuts! They checked my cervix and it is still closed tight and there was no leaking of fluid so after about an hour on the monitor they decided to give me an injection of something (I forget the name but it starts with a T) and that stopped the contractions. I got to go home with instructions to rest on Sunday. No big deal. Dr. Bedia said this is normal for being 31 weeks pregnant and might happen again. After much thinking about it and wondering if I did something to cause the contractions, I realized that baby just got confused. I mean we spent the whole day getting ready for her, so logically she thought it must be time to come out. We've had a nice long talk about how she needs a few more weeks in the cooker and I think things will be fine from here on out.

isn't she cute?

Here are some new ultrasound pictures from our appointment today. I thought I would be freaked out by the 4-D pictures, but they are really cute. Dr. Drake thinks she looks like Mike, which thrilled him! Everything looks good, the little chunker is weighing about 3 lbs. 11 oz. and all other development looks great. We continue to be a mixture of excited/nervous/impatient to meet this little girl.

Well, May was a very busy month so this is likely to be a lengthy post. The month started off with me in quite a funk. Mother's Day was really tough for me and as my pregnancy neared the timing of when I lost William I kind of withdrew from everyone. So, if you are one of the people whose phone calls/e-mails I didn't return I apologize. However, I am feeling much better and have since had many exciting events to take my mind off of my own anxiety.

The biggest event was the birth of my nephew, Oliver Ethan Wells on May 22, 2009. He arrived 9 days after his due date by C-section as he decided to flip into a breech position after labor had been induced. His mama (Amanda) was brave and beautiful through it all and he is extremely lucky to have such loving parents in Charlie and Amanda. We got to be in town the day he was born and got to spend some precious time with the new family at the hospital. It was all I could do not to steal him and bring him back to Iowa and I can't wait to see him again in August. Here are a couple of pictures.

Me, Oliver, Annie (my sister) and Charlie (my brother and the proud Daddy)

Oliver Ethan Wells just a few hours old

Also while we were in Kansas my Mom and sister hosted a lovely baby shower for me. It was really nice, the food was great, and I had a great time. Thanks guys. While at the shower I had my Dad take a belly shot, so here you go Jessie.

One of the guests at the shower was Jordan, my very best friend from middle school/high school. She drove up from Oklahoma with her darling 7 month old son Will and spent the night with us. It was so special to be able to spend time with her, and Will is hands down the happiest baby I have ever met. He laughed and smilied constantly and completely fell in love with Mike. It was really sweet and made me excited to watch Mike as a Dad. Thanks for coming Jordan, love you!

My final bit of exciting news is that we have another new member of my family, my cousin John and his wife Lindsay welcomed their son John Thomas (Jack) into the world on May 26th. We got to go meet him last weekend and he is seriously cute. He has the longest arms and legs of any newborn I have ever seen and looks an awful lot like his Daddy. Lindsay and John are doing a great job as Mommy and Daddy and we are very happy to have Jack in our family.

So, there you have it. I must say that all of these new babies are making me very impatient for this little girl to get here, although I know she needs a few more weeks in the oven. As Mike says, we are hoping for at least medium-well if not well-done.

As for this little girl, things are progressing very well. I am at 30 weeks and am growing rapidly. I have another ultrasound scheduled for this Thursday, I'll post pictures if we get any. We are getting ready around here, bought the car seat this past weekend and are going to get the nursery in order this weekend.

Thanks for checking in!

sorry...

I'm here and I whole-heartedly apologize for the lack of recent updates. Lots has happened and I promise to do a detailed update tonight when I get home from work. In the meantime, everything is great with the baby so don't worry.

updates...

Everything with Baby looks good, we had an appointment last week and things are continuing to progress as they should. She is kicking like crazy these days which is a wonderful comfort to me. It really makes me realize how small William was because at 30 weeks, he never kicked as hard or as frequently as this little girl. At the time I had nothing to compare it to. It's fun to lay down and be able to see her kicking (I never got to do that with William). She is most active after lunch and at night. I am also realizing how little William was because of how huge I am. I have been getting lots of comments about how I've "popped" and I am already bigger around than I was at 30 weeks with William. At our last ultrasound (which was April 7) they stated that she already weighs more than William did when I delivered at 30 weeks. (I'm currently 25 weeks). The doctor says my weight gain is right on track (8 pounds) and that I am growing as I should. It seems funny to me that my perspective is so much different this time around. When I was pregnant with William I was kind of excited by the fact that I wasn't getting very big because the doctors felt like things were fine and I was excited not to be gaining too much weight. This time I welcome the giant belly! Our next ultrasound is next Thursday (05/07/09) I'll try and post a new picture at that time.
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Also, my brother Charlie and his wife Amanda are expecting their first baby (gender unknown) anytime now. She is due May 13, but is already dialated a little. Please keep them in your prayers for a safe and healthy delivery. I'll be sure to let you know when there is any news!
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Another update: I HATE RAIN! This in itself is very sad for me because rain and thunderstorms used to be favorites of mine. However, recently every time it rains outside, it seems to rain somewhere in our house. We have had roofers out several times and each time they do a temporary fix and then it rains somewhere new in the house. I am afraid the ultimate solution is going to be quite expensive! Oh, and in case you were wondering it rained ALL weekend and is supposed to continue ALL week. Awesome!
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That's all for now.

Okay, here we go. A photo recap of one of the better nights of my adult life. I was a bit skeptical about going to this concert. I had seen NKOTB in 5th grade and honestly thought I had matured past it and would think the concert was lame. WRONG! As soon as I heard those familiar songs I was back in my bedroom, singing and dancing in the mirror and practicing kissing on my Jordan doll. The baby enjoyed it as well, she was especially active during Step By Step. What good taste my little one has in music. Enjoy!

Here they are in their white outfits (there were several costume changes). I believe they were singing I'll Be Loving You Forever here.

Here is Jordan doing a solo number and if you look at the bottom left corner of the picture you can see a fan that was used to blow open his shirt. It was very dramatic and the ladies went crazy!

Here's Joey really getting into it while performing Please Don't Go Girl. Don't worry Joey, I'm not going anywhere.

The bad boy, Donnie. He is very dirty by the way and changed some of the lyrics to Cover Girl (my favorite NKOTB song)to create an adult version. I kind of liked it.

Oh-Oh- Oh-Oh-Oh, The Right Stuff...

They may all be in their 40's but they definitely remember the moves. I wish I had gotten some pictures of some of the more die hard fans, but I was so mesmerized once the music began that I just didn't get the chance. Sorry...

just wait...

I haven't had time yet, but be prepared...there is a very exciting post coming soon. Let me give you a little hint. Last night I spent a little time hanging tough with the 5 boys from bean town and about 15,000 screaming women who were WAY too old to be behaving the way they were.
p.s. there are pictures...

here comes the crazy...

Ever since losing William I have jokingly stated that during my next pregnancy I would need to move into the hospital and be hooked up to a fetal monitor 24/7 for peace of mind. I really haven't been that bad, I may have a constant hum of anxiety running through my body but I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping the crazy to myself. That is I was doing a good job, until Tuesday. Let me explain. Up until last week I wasn't feeling too much movement from the baby which my doctor told me was to be expected because the placenta is on the front side of my uterus. But then, starting last week, I started feeling her more and more and then this past weekend she was kicking like crazy all day and especially when I would lay in bed at night. Then Monday came and it started happening less and less. Then Tuesday came and I wasn't feeling anything. Cue the crazies. I started having all sorts of scary thoughts because this is what happened with William. Flashbacks of that horrible day this summer flooded my brain and I was in a panic. There was this panicking part of me, but arguing with that part was the I-don't-want-to-be-overly-paranoid-and-make-the-doctors-think-I-am-nuts part. Guess which part won? That's right, the nuts part. So long story short we went in, heard the heartbeat and got another ultrasound. The doctors couldn't have been nicer and more understanding. In fact, the nurse told me to come in everyday if I need to (I don't think she realized the can of worms she was potentially opening). Anyway they explained that the baby is still small enough that she can move around to different areas of my belly so sometimes I can feel her a lot and sometimes I won't feel anything, but that is normal. In fact when we had the ultrasound she was moving like crazy and I couldn't feel a thing. They told me that it would be around 27-28 weeks when I should be feeling really consistent movement. So with that reassurance, the crazy has been soothed and locked away until a future date when something else freaks me out.

So here is a cute new picture from Tuesday's ultrasound. We can't tell if she is about to suck her thumb or if she is using her fist as a microphone, something her mother has been known to do. Isn't she gorgeous?

elusive little sucker!

We had an appointment with Dr. Bedia today and everything looks good. As usual it took forever to find the heartbeat, but this time I wasn't nervous because I could feel my darling daughter moving around like crazy. I reassured Mike since he can't feel it because it really was taking forever. The nurse would get it and then in an instant it was gone and I'd feel her swimming away. Dr. Bedia said that some babies don't like the sound that the dopplar makes and so they are constantly trying to move away from it. I'm just glad I can feel the movement now so I'm not freaking out. We are headed to Chicago this weekend to visit Mike's sister Jessica and her family and also to see our good friends the McClintocks. Talk to you all soon!

stupid blogger!

Well my updates posted backwards so my nice timeline of events is now wrong. So start reading the last few posts at These Are the Days of Our Lives and work your way up.

A visit from the in-laws

This past weekend, Mike's parents Mac and Nancy came to visit for a night. I am very lucky in terms of the in-laws I wound up with and truly enjoy spending time with them. And no, I am not just saying that to suck up because I know they sometimes read this blog. I really do like them! So I decided that this year I would bake Mike a pie, his all-time favorite dessert, for our anniversary. I have never attempted this before, mostly because the women in his family are award-winning pie bakers (seriously, I've seen the ribbons). Knowing that Nancy would be in town I waited until she got here so that she could walk me through it. So here it is, my first attempt at a pie. I don't really like pie so I am not a good judge of the quality, but Mike and his parents assured me it was good, despite it looking like someone chewed around the edges. Hopefully practice will make a little more perfect.

So that's it in terms of the recent days of our lives. We are taking a trip to Chicago next weekend to visit Mike's sister Jessica and her family so stay tuned for next weeks edition.

St. Patrick's Day, an ER visit and our 3rd anniversary

So typically St. Patrick's day is celebrated in our family by a few green beers, you know to pay homage to my Irish ancestors. The last two years have been pretty tame however because I have been pregnant. So this year I thought I would really spice things up with a visit to the hospital. We had a pretty quiet night at home until around 9:30 when I was putting a heavy skillet away under several other heavy skillets. I think I was bent into a funny position or something and I felt a little muscle pull in my upper abdomen. It wasn't really that painful and no big deal at the time. About an hour later I think that pesky little muscle started spasming because I was convinced I was near death. My pain level was sky high and I was pretty sure the baby had burst out of my uterus and was trying to claw her way out via my sternum. Not that I was dramatic about it or anything! Anyway, after about an hour of this Mike decided it would be best to get things checked out so to the ER we went. Now, if you are ever bored on a St. Patrick's Day night around midnight, I would really recommend a visit to your local ER. We saw several poor souls dressed mostly in green suffering from various ailments ranging from bleeding faces as a result of bar fights to too-much-green beer-itis. Thankfully, the nice unit clerk wanted to save us from having to sit in the waiting room with these lovely people and had us shipped up to the labor and delivery floor. I was pretty confident throughout this whole process that everything was fine with the baby, but it was scary to be rushed back to that floor. To make a long winded story a bit briefer, I got hooked up to the monitor and everything was fine with baby. All of my blood work was fine and it turned out to be nothing more than a muscle spasm. The nurse said it was a good thing we came in though because the symptoms I was experiencing were the same as what is present with preeclampsyia. Anyway, we got to spend the first 3 hours of our 3rd wedding anniversary in the hospital, but were on our way home by 3:00am. By the next day, I felt a little sore, but overall was fine.



Speaking of our wedding anniversary, I would just like to take a moment to say I am really glad I married Mike. I have always known he is the one for me, but this past year has really made me realize how lucky I am to have him in my life as my husband and my best friend. I don't mean to be cheesy, well actually yes I do. Deal with it! Love you Mikey!