Nolan & Riley: A Love Saga

I should have payed better attention. The signs were all there. It all started with an innocent trip to the beach when they were just five months old. It was a windy day and we let them snuggle under a blanket together to stay warm.

When she cried, he reached for her. I should have seen it then.

Sure they hung out together, but it was always in a group. How did I not see the way he stood a little taller ... acted a little cooler whenever she looked at him?

When he dodged kisses from other girls it just confirmed my thoughts that he was too young for love.

I naively thought he was just trying to get a better look at the starfish in the big container. Instead, it was his opportunity to rest his head on her shoulder.

Another trip to the beach set his feelings for her afire.

He is in LOVE with Riley Mae and it is the real deal!

Baby Story II

Nolan came to the hospital to meet his little sister and he was very excited and a wee bit confused. I had been driving him past French hospital telling him that was the hospital that he would go to when Gabrielle arrived. Well, we decided to go to Sierra Vista at the last minute and didn't fill Nolan in on the change. The whole walk from the car to the hospital he insisted to my mom that there was, "no baby here"! When she assured him that Gabby was at this hospital he asked every person who crossed his path, "Where'd baby go"?

Proud big brother wearing his "Bodygaurd for my little sister" T-shirt.

Proud ... and tired.. Daddy. Martin just barely got the floors finished a little more than a week before she was born. He hadn't quite caught up on his sleep yet. Also, I spent the last week of my pregnancy begging him to do anything and everything with and for Nolan. I was exhausted and huge!

The upside to a shorter labor was that recovery was a breeze in comparison. I was thrilled to be enjoying my baby girl.

Gabrielle on her way home!

A Baby Story

Baby Gabrielle has been in our lives for 7 weeks now and can't believe how fast the time has gone (although I have to admit there have been a few days in there that have felt like they would NEVER end). I have barely written about the whole experience so here is her story...

On April 4th I woke up feeling the usual contractions that I had been feeling off and on over the last couple of weeks but this time they stayed consistent and they began to get a wee bit more uncomfortable with each one. Today was her due date, our doctor was on call so I figured ... this is it! I had two main priorities: #1 Get to Eclair Bakery and get my fill of their amazing pastries. #2 Get Nolan to Grandma's house.

Arriving at the hospital ... I had no idea what I was in store for.

We arrived at the hospital at around 10 a.m., way to early! I had heard too many stories about 2nd time births going so fast that I wanted to be sure I got to the hospital with enough time to get situated. There were some things I wasn't too happy about for Nolan's birth and I reasoned that those things happened because I had opted for an epidural. This time I decided to try to do this birth thing au natural ... BIG MISTAKE! If you had not has a child you may not want to hear this ... just skip to the next picture.

I did great up until 6/7 cm dilated, then it occurred to me that I did not need to be feeling this pain. I could make it stop with this wonderful thing called an epidural. So I cried Uncle and asked for the drugs ... but apparently not quickly enough. The next 3 cm happened in about 20 minutes and the scene went something like this....

Contraction: "AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! S#ht, F!$K, Holy Mother of God!" lots of crying

End of Contraction: "What is wrong with me?! What is wrong with my brain?! Why did I think I could to this? This is ridiculous" more crying
REPEAT over and over and over .... and over again

10 cm dilated: sounds that only an animal could make, Martin being clawed at and bit .. yes bit .. ok, I stopped the minute I realized I was biting him.

I am pretty sure I know when I went to 10 cm dilated because it felt like someone had taken a knife and ripped my insides out and then set my insides on fire. I had no idea it was possible to feel that much pain and not die from it. That's when the anaesthesiologist came it. He swabbed my back and was just about to put the needle in when I felt pressure. Sure enough, she was on her way and it was time to push. I screamed, "What about my epidural? I need my epidural" And when I say 'screamed' I mean SCREAMED! The nurse firmly told me, "Well honey, your having a baby instead". And that was it! No drugs. I absolutely PANICKED! I had never been so scared in my life. I was going to have to feel what was about to happen to my body.

I freaked out and the whole room was trying to get me to calm down so I could actually participate in pushing this poor baby out. I screamed and screamed and screamed. You know that dumb scene in that dumb movie where some laboring woman acts like a lunatic and you think, "Come on, no one really acts like that". Ahem... well ... that was me. I wanted it over and got her out in 3 pushes. Once it was over I was SO embarrassed! Thank god, I was the only woman on the floor delivering at the time.

Moral of the story: Drugs are good, very good. Get them!

Our 1st family photo

Gabrielle Joyce was born at 5:17 pm 8lbs 14oz and 21 inches.

Just check out those Angelina Jolie lips. Strong, beautiful and healthy.

Big Baby Girl!

She came out with a strong set of lungs on her.

She was not liking her first bath.

Part II to come.

Mom describes Mother's Day as "a little traumatic".

Well I had my mom dragged through dog shit for Mother's Day. What did you do for your mom?

It was Mother's Day morning and the sun was shining and the birds were singing, a perfect day for a hike up Irish Hills. In the spirit of Mother's Day we went as one big happy family: Mom, Dad, Martin, Me, Nolan and Baby Gigi and of course our two darling dogs Scout and Cody. We wanted to get an early start to avoid the heat so at 9 a.m my parents told us they were coming RIGHT OVER. Two hours later, we had readied ourselves, a newborn, a toddler and two dogs and were now starting to clean the house. Finally Grandma and Grandpa show up and we're off to hike.

Once we got to the trail head Martin and I stood there arguing over what we were bringing on the hike, how we were bringing it and who would be carrying what. We realize that we have no sunscreen with us despite my obsessive compulsive questioning,"Do we have sunscreen with us?" So I'm just a wee bit annoyed as I zoom off to the store to buy a bottle. When I return to the trail head, Nolan is lathered in sunscreen (it was with us the whole time), Martin has repacked our bags his way and my parents are starting up the trail with Nolan and the dogs. I am not the happiest hiker at this point but I'm trying to keep a good attitude. As I'm strapping Gabby to my chest for the hike I hear chaotic shouting coming from up the trail and Nolan crying. Martin and I take off running.

Scout, our German Shepherd, had squatted to take a dump at the same time that Cody, our Siberian Husky, wriggled out of his collar and took off running for the hills. Scout lunged after him and practically pulled my mom's arm out of the socket. Scout took off after Cody and brought my mom to the ground dragging her through the steaming pile of poo! My poor mom held on and never let Scout go. Her arm was bleeding, her pants and arm covered in poo and she stunk. Nolan was crying at seeing Grandma on the ground and then once my mom recovered Nolan started crying for his BFF Cody. Shockingly, Cody returned when he realized no one was after him and everyone was more interested in using anti-bacterial wipes to clean the crap out of my mom's bleeding forearm.

Although this was the highlight of the day, it was by no means the end what turned out to be a runaway freight train of traumatic events for my mom. From there we loaded my mom's car with the kids and proceeded to forget to buckle Nolan into his car seat for at least 20 miles of driving. We got laughed out of every restaurant we attempted to ask for a table for 6 ... no reservations. And finally, when we went for a swim at the Avila Bay Club my mom was playing with Nolan in the pool and as he walked along the edge of the pool he slipped off the edge and into the deep end. She dived in after him and got him over to the stairs. I knew Nolan was just fine so I rushed over and asked her how SHE was doing. Her response was, "I'm fine, today has just been a little traumatic."

Happy Mother's Day Mom.

The last 2 months in a nutshell.

Well this has been an eventful couple of months for us. Nolan turned 2 and 6 days later Gabrielle was born. Three days after that the Chicken Pox came to roost at our house and now we live in a fog of sleep deprevation. No wonder it's been 2 months since our last post.

Our beautiful Gabrielle came into our lives on April 4th and is a bundle of beauty. She is a healthy and happy baby (depite our nickname Miss Grimace). I call her my Princess & The Pea baby because once she gets comfy...God help you if you move her! She is a bit of a night owl, a great eater and already gives us the sweetest smiles.

Nolan loves her as much as we do and wants her to be a part of everything he does. His first comment about her at the hospital was, "Baby no shoes!?" and then attempted to put his shoes on her. He gives her tons of kisses and does not like me putting her in her crib. "Baby here Mommy!" The only downside to this sibling love is that he also wants to stay up with her ALL NIGHT and sleep in our room where she is currently sleeping. Bed time has turned into a series of all night battles and I'm pretty sure Martin and I are loosing the war.

Just 3 days after we brought Gabby home from the hospital Nolan broke out in the Chicken Pox, despite his vaccination. Apparently 15% of vaccinated kids still come down with a mild form if exposed. He came through it like a champ but we were worried sick about newborn Gabby. The doctor said maybe she would get it, maybe she wouldn't. We just had to wait and see. Luckily, Gabrielle dodged the Pox and we couldn't be more grateful.

Mom duties are calling (or should I say "crying").

Gotta Love Neighbors!

Since I've been gone from the neighborhood I've been missing my "peeps" big time. I often roam the block aimlessly hoping that someone will wander out of their house and one day it totally payed off. We had an awesome impromptu playtime with most of the boys on the block as everyone was coming home from work. Eventually everyone had to go in for dinner and I was already thinking of the next time I could hang with them all. I - oh so subtly - asked one of my neighbors if she wanted to get the boys together again over the weekend to hang out again and she generously offered up her house and set up the OH SO COOL BOUNCE HOUSE. Everyone on the block turned up and we had an absolute blast. Here are some of the pics from the day.


Nolan & Grayson going down the Bounce House slide

Nolan rolling around on the grass

Daredevil Dixon showing the 2yr olds how to really scare their parents

Mama Drama

Well, the past month has been a wee bit stressful for all of us. The novelty of grandma's house has worn off for Nolan and he now cries, "Back Daddy's house! No daddy, no work, stay here. Daddy broke house." Martin is now the rockstar whenever he is around, Nolan really misses him. And so do I.

Martin really is getting close to having all the floors layed and he's doing a beautiful job. He's turning the corner and seeing real progress and feeling very good about all his hard work. On the other hand, I'm turning the corner into the last 29 days of pregnancy and seeing empty closets, no furniture in the house and filthy EVERYTHING. Oh yeah, that's a recipe for a brewing storm if we've ever seen one.

Well, I've decided to deal with the stress of displacement and total loss of control by freaking out about labor. Because, well... that's so much more within my control! HA! Recent local news about nursing errors resulting in a ruptured uterus & dead baby and a baby stolen straight from the hospital helped to send me into a tailspin.

I started looking into Doula's (a women hired to help laboring moms) and scheduling interviews during Martin's lunch breaks. Then I started to freak out about about our choices for hospitals even though we had been pre-registered for months. So in the last week I went and flipped it on it's head. No Doula and switching hospital's from French to Sierra Vista. Amazingly, once I made those decisions I felt a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders. After speaking with our Dr. he said enough for us to start to reconsider Sierra Vista. Then, a couple of neighbors reminded me how they had unexpectantly needed the NICU unit at Sierra Vista and how horrible it would have been if they had to be seperated from their babies.

That's when it hit me. Labor is not really about me at all ... it's about Gabrielle. When I stopped focusing on me and started focusing on her I felt SO much better! The poor thing, we've been so wrapped up in getting the house finished before she arrives we stopped being excited about her and started getting stressed out at the thought of her. How SAD! I'm just going to try to focus on all the cute baby things from here on out. Whatever happens with the house happens. Big deal, people have had to struggle with much more real issues than this.