daddy kisses

does not get any sweeter then this!

I feel so blessed to be married to a man who loves his girls and is not afraid

to shower them with "you are beautiful" and many many hugs & kisses!

ms. sass

2 years 9 months of it to be exact

Alomae-

you are almost three!

You have been wearing this outfit every day for the past 3- it's quite cute

to watch you spin, twirl, and curtsey around.

I tried to get it off you to wash it just now (you spilled chocolate milk on it)

but you will not take it off!

If you are gonna be Angelina Ballerina on Halloween though you are going

to have to give it up at some point for me to wash.

to complete the Angelina look-the headband is being replaced with mouse ears and you

will even have a tail! Also, I am making a sweet little red flower to pin on just like Angelina wears!

You will look so cute!

(oh and, you totally chose this outfit yourself... Your mama would never dress you up in

a pink tutu just for the fun of it! Promise!)

Poppy is two weeks old tonight...

seriously, a almost 3 year old and a two week old?

where does the time go?!

Loving my two girls!

Zzzzzzz

Or in my case...

Lack there of

this Mama is tired!

The sleeping situation in my house is all out of whack! for everyone...

Lets take last night for example. 9:45 Andy and I head to bed with Poppy (bedtime is getting earlier and earlier every night for us these days) I get woken up at 11:00pm to nurse Poppy. Then at 1:00am I am nursing again and Alomae climbs into our bed and instead of taking her back to her own room, Andy snuggles up close to her and they are both out! (lucky's!) So now there are 4 of us in our queen bed... Poppy had such a stuffy nose that I see no point in keeping us all up so I go to Alomae's room with Poppy and we curl up in her twin bed! Poppy's tummy must have been hurting because she was gassy and then pooped 3x (all in clean diapers!) So that was the next couple hours of my night, a fussy girl and in-the-dark diaper changes...

I think we finally fell asleep around 3:30-4am (still nursing though) and were awoken by a rested Alomae at 7:30!

Alomae is happy and watching SuperWhy, Poppy is sound asleep in her swing, and this Mama is barely hanging on and counting down the hours until naptime...

please girls, be good to mama and nap at the same time again today... it's the only good sleep mama gets!

taking donations for a king size bed! ha

quiet

Andy took alomae to church with him tonight so that she could

have a tiny bit of normalcy back in her life!

this leaves me alone with this girl...

enjoying the quiet moment of just the two of us...

(though I love love love her sister to death!)

Apples Apples Apples

Yesterday was mine & Poppy's very first day out of the house since her birth which was spent at the birth center doing our 1 week postpartum visit! The fresh air was so great we just needed to get out again today...

So we were brave and ventured out for an hour today to the Apple tasting Festival at the Portland Nursery!

it was short and sweet but oh so needed

Alomae and her daddy doing their typical pose!

this is pretty typical as well...

we attempted to listen to some great folk music but for some reason

alomae thinks all noises are too loud (pleasant or not!)

Andy caught a photo of me... Poppy did NOT sleep good last

night and this is proof... yes tired mama indeed! eek!

Poppy's 2nd time in car seat! look at those cheeks

and then there is this...

Since having Poppy, Alomae is either being neglected or having

a major identity crisis...

You can be the judge!

(she is wearing 6 headbands on her head- you just cannot see them all!)

1 week 1 day

Poppy Grey- 1 week old today

thats right people, she has a middle name!

after going back and forth for months and months

Andy and I finally decided on a middle name!

Grey was actually the middle name we had for our boy name :)

beautiful Poppy photo from Laurens backyard :)

We had one rough night, but now Poppy sleeps like a dream!

last night she only woke up twice and both times she just fell asleep as soon as she began to nurse!

I know it's way premature, but if she keeps this up... oh man how happy I would be!

she is such a sweet girl!

Alomae has had a few emotional moments since Poppy's been born but it's getting better every day. It has to be so hard to go from all of Mama's attention to it being so divided!

She loves Poppy though and want's to kiss her all the time!

This morning Andy left for a prayer meeting before six and then Alomae came to our bed...

I got 2 hours of snuggling with my two girls...

a special moment for sure!

I am kind of sad a week has already gone by...

having Alomae I know how truly fast it all goes.

so I am soaking in this newborn stage!

poppy love

5 days old

Poppy- the first 72 hours

we think she is pretty cute!

a keeper for sure!

the birth of Poppy

Poppy is just over 48 hours old now and I am sitting on my couch while she lays asleep on my shoulder and Alomae is upstairs asleep. It is incredibly quiet in my house and the perfect time to write down Poppy's birth story...

it's a quick one...

Wednesday October 12th was just another day of being pregnant! I feel like the only change that day was the Peace I felt from fully surrendering my pregnancy as written about here. It's funny how once we surrender (and I mean really surrender) God sometimes just lets us have what we need!

I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions (just tightening, no pattern or pain) but nothing note worthy off and on for days. At around 6pm Andy left for SEVEN which is 7 weeks of prayer and fasting for the city of Portland that our church puts on every year. I joked as he walked out the door "Pray a new baby is born in portland tonight!" He looked at me like I was a little nuts and continued on his way!

I settled in on the couch with Alomae and decided to do the new iphone update. I plugged my phone in and let it do it's thing for the next hour or so... with 10 minutes left until I could use my phone, at 7:30pm my water broke! I could not help but laugh as I stood in my living room doing a little dance as I figured out where to go or what to do since my phone could not call out! Alomae just looked at me and smiled, not having a clue what was going on!

at 7:40pm I was able to unplug my phone and I ran upstairs to the bathroom where I made my calls.

call 1: to my sister who lives 3 hours away and would need to make the drive down!

call 2: to Andy

call 3: to Adele my midwife

My sister hit the road, Andy headed home, and Adele told me to call her when I wanted her to come!

At 8:15pm (ish) Andy arrived home and at about the same time my first contractions began. Nothing major and I could still talk through them as I walked around upstairs and made sure everything was ready and that Alomae would be okay (when I was in labor with Alomae my contractions were so intense that I could not focus or think for about 3.5 hours so I wanted to know everyone was good if/when I got to that place.)

At 8:20pm Adele and I were texting to try and coordinate when she should come. I told her that my contractions had begun but that I could still focus through them, that they were every few minutes and that I was fine! Her text back was "I am just going to come to you!" She headed to the birth center to pick up a better working doppler and arrived just as the clock turned 9:00pm.

during this time I just sat in my little bathtub (I thought it was way too soon to fill up the birth tub!) listening to my playlist of Patty griffin, Eastmountainsouth, & Rosie Thomas ("wedding day" was playing when Poppy was born!) and organized the folders on my iphone that the update had messed up (I did this until about 15 min before Poppy was born- I really did not believe I was in very active labor!) I would have a contraction, blow through it and then pick up my phone and be on my way until the next one came! Silly, i know!

While this was going on, (around 9:10pm now) Andy was trying to put Alomae to sleep but she knew something was up and was too excited to lay down! So out she came and hung out by the tub by me. Adele and Andy decided to hook up the hose and fill up my tub! But that was not going to work! We live in an old downtown NW apt and the sink was too old and could not handle the pressure so it instantly began to leak from the bottom! So the tiny bathtub it was...

Little did we know I would not be spending much more time in my tub! About 5 min later I began to feel pressure and told them I think she is coming! One uncontrollable push later Poppy's head was out and a minute after that our sweet baby was born at 9:18pm (1 hour after the first contraction began!)

It was crazy and I was laughing! I could not believe Poppy was already here and that my birth really happened like that!

Andy called my sister who was driving from Seattle to say "we have a baby!" I don't think she quite believed it until Poppy gave out her first cry for her to hear!

That very cry was the only part that scared Alomae, and she too began to cry! I asked her if she wanted to get into the tub with Poppy and I and she lit up and was happy as can be after that! (before you think gross, the water was still very clean because I did not birth my placenta for another hour, in which Alomae was not in the tub!) My second midwife Jennifer arrived about 20 minutes after the birth and both her and Adele were gone by 11:00pm!

it was fast, it was crazy, it was amazing! truly truly amazing!

I spent hours in the middle of the night unable to sleep from the adrenaline and pure awe of replaying the birth over and over in my head!

I trusted my body and it came through for me! It worked above and beyond what I knew it was capable of and I am so thankful to have such a beautiful experience and memory!

Poppy Grey

8 lbs 2 oz

18.5 inches long

born on 10.12.11

at home in the water at 9:18pm after 1 hour of labor

Andy, Alomae & I are so in love

3 became 4

Sweet Poppy

A little middle of the night iPhone post to share that out sweet girl Poppy arrived at 9:18pm on 10/12/11 after get this... 60 min, that's 1 hour of labor!

Will share details soon!!



Crazy indeed

related?

she may have started out looking a lot like her daddy...

this was taken last fall (I did not realize how much her face has thinned out!)

but I love how much she is starting to look like me!

see a resemblance?

the art of surrender

I am learning this these days...

It's funny actually! I have worked in the pregnancy/birthing community for 5 years now and I have gotten so good at telling women to trust their bodies and that their babies will come when they are ready and to allow them the time to do so! I believe this all 100% too! I am just finding myself anxious though- nothing severe at all, but in a very mild way...

I know the Lord is teaching me right now the art of surrendering to Him and I am learning empathy for those I so often serve (it's funny that I am even saying all this because I am not even due for another 3 days, not to mention I think due dates are silly and I don't like to pay attention to them anyways!)

Really, it's more of a heart issue (and a uncomfortable bodily one!) The end of this pregnancy is not about me or my baby- It's an opportunity for the Lord to teach me patience, complete trust and surrender, as well as a chance for me to truly believe the words He speaks to me and the promises He holds!

I love that, while knowing so much about the physiological side of it all, He still has the ability to daily teach me new things about what it means to be entrusted with a life! A little life He has created and thought up and loves more then I ever can or ever could!

When will this baby come? I do not have a clue! And that is exactly where I need to be.... At a place where I just don't have the answer and I need to sit back, relax and let The Lord do His thing!

He is much better making these decisions then I am anyways...

strike a pose!

have you noticed how much my girl loves to "strike a pose!"?

she is too much!

I don't even know how it started but it gives me a huge smile every time!