Crazy Days

Things have been pretty busy in the Baylor household over the past few weeks. Tim's parents were here for a week, which was wonderful because the girls got to spend time with them and they were a HUGE help! It was so nice spending time with them in Chicago. Here are a few pics.

Mom Baylor with Rose

 Tim and his dad watching football and checking facebook ;)

 Maddy at the petting zoo. Mom Baylor and I took the girls.

 It was hilarious watching Madison let the goat lick her hand - she loved it!

 Tim's Dad reading to Maddy - she loved the extra attention!

 Mom and Dad Baylor with the girls at the play area at the mall ;) 

Then all of last week Tim, the girls and I got hit with pretty bad colds. Tim and I are almost feeling better, but the girl's colds have been hanging on. I think they are on the way out though - so I am happy for that! I feel like we have been cooped up in the house forever - I am ready to get out!

Since we were inside, I pulled out a old recipe for bath paints I had gotten off a blog a while back (sorry I don't remember whose it was or I would give you props!) But basically, it is 2 Tbs bath soap and a few drops of food coloring. I made three colors and Maddy loved it! Clean up was a breeze too - no stains! I just had to rinse it away with water- what fun!

 I can't believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. We are celebrating here in Chicago with some friends. We'll be feasting all day, playing games, chilling, and watching football. Well, truthfully,, I'm sure the gals will spend a lot of time in the kitchen -but it's so much more fun on Thanksgiving - and with friends! I'm so looking forward to the whole experience! Then we'll be heading home to PA for Christmas - also right around the corner!

22 and 2

Madison is 22 months old and Rose is 2 months old. I am thoroughly enjoying these days with the girls. I want to remember them, so I am going to do a little write up on each girl. I hope to print and bind my blog someday to have as a scrapbook and I like to keep family on the East Coast updated

 - so indulge me ;)

MADISON 22 months (about 23 lbs)

FUNNY things:

* When she wants Tim or me to tickle her or throw her around, she says "Get Me!" and then giggles and runs away - it's so fun to hear!

* She has been proclaiming what she hears and sees now. For example, she will point to her eye and say, "See: plane, bus, big truck, cloud etc" Then she usually says, "hold?" And I explain that it's too far to reach and then she stretches her arm and says, "reach?!" Its cute!   One time at dinner she tooted and squealed, "Hear! Poop!" Tim and I just died laughing.

* We live in a condo unit on the second floor and we have to pass several doors to get to  ours. Maddy had a habit of stopping at the other doors and jiggling the handle (one time someone came to the door and I had to apologize!) I had to fix this one quick! So now when she walks down the hallway, she stops at the other doors, wags her finger and says " No door, no no!" and then keeps walking. When she gets to our door, she exclaims, "Yeah! Door!!"

* We have gotten in the habit of telling her, "good girl!" or "big girl!" when she does things we ask, or something new. Well now she likes to tell us that she is a good girl when she does something she is trying to. Like one morning she ate all of her toast, so she lifted her empty plate in the air and shouted, "Good Girl Toast!"

* Last Sunday on our way to church, Maddy was saying, "One doll-Share!" as she was pointing her one finger in the air. She kept saying it over and over after I would say we are on our way to church. I finally realized that last week, she must have been hogging the baby dolls  and they had to tell her to only hold one doll and to share! Oh dear!

NEW things: 
* Thank you seemed to take FOREVER to learn! She kept saying "Welcome" for a long time. She has finally gotten it and even says it unprompted from time to time. I LOVE it! She enunciates each sound of the phrase one by one - I love these early talking days. Everything sounds so cute the first time they say it ;)

* She seems to be jabbering away these days. She can say her ABC's (after I say each one) she can repeat counting to ten (following my lead). Communication has gotten so much easier. I feel like we can have a little conversation now.

* She is down to one nap. She just gave her morning one up less than a month ago ( I was lucky!) But she is sleeping a good couple of hours midday now.

* She has been pretending more, which I love! She and I pretend to eat food at the playground table and she dances her ponies around on the coffee table, and pretends to feed and change her baby doll - such fun!

* She has started calling Tim and I Mommy and Daddy instead of Mama and Dada -it was a little sad at first (not so baby-like) - but still so cute to hear it!

* I bought her first bottle of bubbles (not sure why it took me so long!) She is obsessed with them and asks me to make more bubbles all the time!

*She calls her baby doll (baby rose) and takes good care of her -for the mot part

ROSE- 2 months (about 9 lbs)

Happy things:

* She coo's, squeals, and Squeaks after she has eaten and is feeling pretty good. Those sounds just warm my heart! 

* She has gotten on a pretty good feed-wake-sleep schedule during the day and has finally gotten to where she can fall asleep on her own at nap time and bed time. She has been sleeping anywhere from 6-10 hours at night (usually around 8). We have started a bit of sleep training at that seems to have helped.

* She is so warm and cuddly! I love that she will still fall asleep in my arms :)

* She is kicking her legs like crazy and flapping those arms when she lays on her back - it's so cute!

* She smiles when she sees, Mom, Dad, Maddy, or a fan - haha!

* She copies us when we stick out our tongues -which Maddy loves!

* She LOVES taking a bath

Not-so-Happy things:

* Blow out diapers - how did I forget about this?!

* Major spit up mishaps - this child can spit up! Yuck!!!

* Fussy evenings

I look forward to the girls interacting more as they get older. Even now, I love the way that Maddy asks for Rose first thing when she wakes up and Rose coos and smiles at the sound and sight of her sister.  I am continually thankful to the Lord for our healthy, happy girls and for the 

priceless opportunity to stay home with them.

We Are Still Alive!

Well, it is hard to believe, but it has been 8 weeks since the birth of baby Rose. Tim and I have been trying to adjust to having two girls. The first 3-4 weeks were the hardest! Madison went through a pretty wild stage. I thought we had ruined her forever. She was (mostly) kind to Rose, but just walked around with an attitude about everything. But fortunately we all survived the first month and Maddy has come to realize that Rose is here to stay, so that seems to have helped her attitude. She is much happier and even a helper of late! So we are very thankful for that!

* I am going to randomly place pictures throughout this post-mainly to catch up for lost time ;)

I have pretty much gotten the hang of getting in and out of the house with two on my own. Although I am sure I look ridiculous to my neighbors as I am walking down the stairs to our apartment holding Rose in the car carrier, holding a diaper bag, and practically dragging Madison down the stairs. I'm always so sweaty by the time I get to the car that I blast the air conditioner as soon as we get in. Sunday morning are the hardest as Tim is the campus pastor at our church on Sunday mornings and goes in fairly early.  So it's up to me to get the girls and myself there with enough time to get them into nursery and sit down before the first song (which rarely happens) haah!  I am trying to do better at getting all clothes out the night before, get the diaper bag packed, and get myself ready before the girls wake up. I will get it someday, right?! I am sure many of you are in the same situation, so if you have any tips, feel free to share ;)

Overall though, I am enjoying this stage in my life and in the girls' lives.  Madison is so much fun and is talking up a storm. She is actually able to carry on a little conversation. It's so fun to know what she is thinking!

Rose is such a sweet baby. She is on a fairly good schedule during the day and is sleeping from about 10p -4a. Then I can nurse her for 20 min. and put her right back to sleep- which is wonderful!

**I plan to write more about the girls soon for their 22 month and 2 month birthdays ;) 

For now I just wanted to throw out a quick(cough-cough) update.

I have to say, that one of the biggest challenges is finding some time just for Tim and I. This is a picture of a date night we had recently. 

I am so thankful to have a husband that loves the girls and I so much. The Lord is so good!

 Tim and I are most exciting about our new morning routine!  We used to both wake up at the first cry of Madison around 7:30 and curse the day with our first breath (you know what I am talking about!) The problem was that we were going to bed so late  just to get some quiet time by ourselves. Well now we are going to bed earlier and waking up at 6am together. Tim goes straight down to our little workout room that our condo has  and works out for about a 1/2 hour. While he does that I get my workout clothes on, pump, and read my Bible (holy cow! This has been such a blessing because I was really struggling to find a good time to read my Bible now with 2!). Then when Tim comes up, I go down and work out for a 1/2 hour (I will get this baby weight off yet! I still have some left over from Madison-ugh!) When I come back up, I jump in the shower while Tim starts making breakfast. By that time Madison usually wakes up and we all eat together  (all by 7:30!!!!) My day has felt so much better. I have had more energy and just felt better.

It has been wonderful to have some time by myself before the kiddos wake up and then to have a some time with Tim before he leaves for the day. I sure hope this routine lasts, because I like it ;)

Rose Lillian's Birth Story

It’s hard to believe, but Rose is already a six weeks old! I suppose I should write out her birth story already, huh?  It’s been pretty busy around here (can you tell, since I haven’t blogged in six weeks!?). Well, Madison had finally adjusted to her little sister, I am feeling much better and getting the hang on having two in the house. But I will fill you all in on that at another time.

Well it was Sunday night August 29^th and I convinced Tim, and two of our friends: Ryan and Kelly to walk around with me at the Palatine Fair. It was 6pm and nearly 90 degrees out still. I WAS going to get this baby out if it was the last thing I did! I started feeling mild contractions as we walked along (and I ate a grilled corn on the cob ;) - they continued sporadically throughout the evening until our friends headed home and Tim headed to bed. I wasn’t tired and was starting to get excited thinking this might be it. From 10:30pm-1:30am I cleaned the house and did some last minute things I knew I needed to get done before Rose came. My contractions were about 3-10 minutes apart, still fairly mild and not consistent. I decided I should try to get some rest.

I continued to labor through the night and slept on and off as contractions got stronger and closer together. I knew I had an OB appointment already scheduled at 9:15 in the morning, so I tried to just labor at home as much as I could. Monday morning, August 30^th, Tim, Madison, and I all woke up around 7:30 am had a big pancake breakfast and then I showered and headed to my doctor’s appointment, while Tim stayed home with Madison. At this point, I was having pretty consistent contractions about 5 minutes apart. When the doctor finally saw me it was 10am. I was 2cm and he said that I was definitely in labor and that I should head to the hospital.  

Tim fortunately had the day off, so he helped me finish packing and cleaning. We called our friends Kelly and Ryan to come over to watch Madison. Meanwhile the contractions had gotten strong enough that I had to stop to breath through them and they were closer to 3 or 4 minutes apart. At around 11:30am Tim and I got in the car to head to the hospital. I was in a good amount of pain by this point and just wanted to get there. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything when we got to the hospital, so Tim stopped at Starbucks and we picked up two protein plates to eat on the way.

At 12:10 we arrived at St Alexius Medical Center. We had to wait in waiting room for a labor room to be cleaned. The pain was getting worse and I really had to breathe through the contractions, standing and walking around a bit.

At 1:00pm we checked into the delivery room. My contractions continued to intensify. When the nurse checked me at 1:35pm. I was 4.5cm and 80% effaced with a "bulgy bag" – where the bag kind of twists and makes a bubble just before the opening of the cervix. The nurse thought that she felt something like a ridge – something she shouldn’t have felt. She called my doctor and he said that he would check it out when he came in.

At this point, my contractions got much closer together and so intense that I was in tears. Tim was helping me try to breath through them, but I couldn’t handle it any more. I called for an epidural.

At 2:30pm I got the epidural. Oh sweet relief! I felt warm and calm. 

At 3:30pm – I sent Tim to grab dinner and thought I would get a nap as soon as the doctor came in to check on me.

At 4:00 the doctor broke my water so that we could get things moving and so that he could feel the position of the baby better.  On examination Rose appears breach. He thought he was feeling her foot – or maybe her hand, so he called for an ultrasound. They said I should call Tim and get him to come back just in case we had to rush into surgery or something.

At 4:10 the ultrasound showed that the baby was face-presenting. Her head and neck were cranked way back so that her chin was coming first instead of the crown of her head. Several different doctors came in, including the at risk doctor to check me and look at the ultrasound to help us decide what to do. They found meconium in the amniotic fluid, which could be an indication of distress.

I was starting to get pretty scared, so I was relieved when Tim returned from Chipotle around 4:15. He ate his burrito bowl as we talked through all of our options. The doctors thought if I tried to continue to labor and deliver vaginally, Rose’s health could be at risk. At the very least she would have serious bruising and damage to her face and at the worst, she might become lodged in the birth canal and we still might have to be rushed into an emergency c-section.

At 4:30 Tim and I decided it would be best to get her out via c-section.

At 4:40 I was prepped for surgery.

At 5:20 I was taken to surgery, Tim suits up in scrubs

At 5:42 our sweet Rose was born! We are thankful that even though she came a different way than we had originally planned, that she is safe and healthy!

                                                    

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rose!

Our New Arrival

We rejoice in the goodness of our God as we announce the safe delivery of our second daughter

Rose Lillian Baylor!

She was 7lbs 3 oz and 20.5 inches long. She arrived on August 30th at 5:47 pm. The story is a bit involved, but interesting. I will save that for another day (once I have a few minutes to type it all out ;)

We are in "survival mode" in the Baylor household as we like to call it. Madison is having a pretty hard time adjusting to the new arrival. She has been so sweet with Rose, but seems to be getting into a lot of trouble lately. We're praying for a quick adjustment for her. It's sad to see her like this. I want my sweet girl back! Hopefully it won't be too much longer and she won't even remember this chaos-right?

Rose is just a warm cuddly bundle and we are loving those the newborn stage (why was this so hard the first time?) I did have a pretty rough first week nursing, but things seem to be settling down with that and getting easier for her. 

All and all we are thankful for God's goodness displayed in our two healthy little girls. 

We're not sure what we would do without them!

Summer Fun!

The Baylor family has had a fun but busy summer! In June we drove to PA to visit  both sides of our family. It was so wonderful spending time with everyone again!

This picture of is Madison with 3 of her sweet cousins (Tim's brother and sister in laws children)

She loved spending time with Tim's sister's children as well. We got time to spend with Tim's parents as well. Madison was just so spoiled with all of the attention!

We also got to spend some time with my twin sister Rachael, her little boy jordan, my parents and my brother Josh. The kids had a great time in the pool!

Then back in Chicago - we have spend plenty of time enjoying life.

Maddy trying on mama's shades

When I was going through all of her old shoes - she just had to sit down and try them all on to see if they still fit. She is such a girl!

Tim, Maddy, and I have all gone on some nice walks through the forest preserve 

(when the weather isn't too crazy hot that is)

This was Madison on July 4th, ready to go to a picnic ;)

A pic I took of the two of us -she makes me laugh.

We have a pol at the condo we rent, so we have spent plenty of time there this summer! It's best when Tim is able to come down with us because we can take turns watching Maddy while the other does a few laps- great exercise for a VERY pregnant mama ;)

We have also enjoyed having friends over for play dates. Suzanne D and her sweet children, Gavin and Charlotte spent time at the pool with us this day. Madison loves spending time with Charlotte - although Suz and I have found they are starting to cat fight at times too - oh dear - it starts early!

We have also enjoyed going to parks! This day, Madison enjoyed spending time with Tovie Olson (our youth pastor and his wife's little 2 year old). They were adorable. Tovie would reach out and grab Madison's hand to walk with her and Maddy would just giggle and giggle.. it was so cute!

We even had a play date with a puppy! Our friends Katie and Dave Smith bought a new golden retriever puppy and they just loved playing together.

On one of Tim's days off, we went down into the city for a day of walking, eating, and of 

course playing in the fountains in Millenium park!

Do you think she had a good time?

Mama swinging her around - good thing she's a peanut ;)

Tim and I got a quick shot of ourselves while Madison was playing - see her right in the background above my head?! haha- too funny!

There has also been lots of reading going on this summer as Madison is finally sitting down for a whole book - even a few books in a row now! She will usually bring them to us to read to her. And I have been taking part in "Half Priced Books" Summer reading program. If I read to her 15 min a day for 5 days a week, I can get a $3 voucher for a book. So we have gotten some fun new board books!

Most recently, we got together with Kim Yoakum and her sweet boys Michael and Graham. Madison and Michael have such a nice time together!

I guess that's it for now. I have thoroughly enjoyed this summer off to spend with my husband, daughter, friends, and family! It's been such a blessing.  Time has been flying by and I can hardly believe there are only about 3 weeks until Rose is due to arrive!