Friday, July 31, 2009

Big Sister

Even though she's still working on how to be soft and nice to Michael all the time, it's pretty obvious that Lily absolutely adores Michael. I always had a feeling the whole time I was pregnant that they were going to be good friends, and seeing them together only confirms that. Since they're only 18 months apart I know that they're going to have competition  and fight a lot, but I still can't wait to watch them grow up together. They're so cute together! Lily constantly asks to hold Michael, probably 5 times a day, and gets really upset when she can't. So here are some of my favorite pictures of my two favorite kids!

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Lily's huge smile at seeing Michael for the first time. She walked into the hospital room to see us for the first time after the birth, and she immediately started saying "Michael, Michael!" and it was just like she knew exactly what to expect. She never seemed to think it was weird that I no longer had a huge belly either.

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I think she was trying to let Michael give her a kiss. She does that all the time now, actually, puts her cheek up to Michael and yells "Kiss, kiss!"

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Look at those squinty eyes!

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This is Lily's "silly face."

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These are just a handful of the times she's asked to hold Michael. Half of the time she just starts squirming away immediately, but the other half she gets a huge smile on her face and starts kissing him and playing with his toes and tickling him. He puts up with it pretty well for the most part. Sometimes it even seems to calm him down to be with her. It's pretty cute. Having two is kind of crazy, especially so close in age and so young right now. But it's also pretty wonderful, and I'm so grateful for them both.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Our Little Sleeper

From his first night here, Michael has been a sleeper. After nursing for the first time, Michael fell right asleep (as soon as he wasn't being poked and prodded and bathed and stuff). I had to wake him up in the middle of the night to feed him, and he actually wouldn't wake up enough to eat. Same thing a couple hours later. We just figured it was the trauma of the birth (it's hard for him too!) and that he'd be more demanding and needy after the first day or so.

But it hasn't changed! Which, don't get me wrong, is a huge blessing. At first though it kind of worried us because I still had to wake him up in the middle of the night to feed him, otherwise he would just sleep and sleep and he wasn't gaining weight fast enough. He's fine now, and I no longer have to wake him up to feed him during the night. But it's very common for him to sleep for 6-7 hour stretches at night. My exhaustion levels thank him, but my over-flowing milk supply does not. :) Hopefully my nursing instincts will notice soon that I don't have to produce as much at night!

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About 19 hours old, on our way home from the hospital.

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2 days old.

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Look at those chubby cheeks!! 3 days old.

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6 days old.

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10 days old.

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Oops, wrong kid!

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13 days old.

What a lazy kid. :)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Independence Day

So yes, this happened before I even had Michael, but we had a great time that day and took some fun pictures, and I wanted to share them.

Last year we were invited to hang with the Adams Family (du du du du, snap snap[sorry Adams, couldn't help it]) for the Fourth, and we were really really hoping they'd invite us again this year. And so they did! It was great. A big bring your own meat BBQ with lots of sides, fruits, and chips, and then tons of yummy dessert at the end. And of course, fireworks! This was in Monroe, where fireworks aren't illegal, and so there was plenty of places to look for some fantastic pyrotechnic displays, and we didn't have to deal with large crowds or traffic like we would have had we gone to a big show. The whole night was lots of fun, and we're already looking forward to next year! Thanks Adams!

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Lily enjoying an otter pop. We wouldn't let her have her own,but she didn't mind just taking bites of ours.

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Lily and Piper looked so cute in their pseudo matching dresses, but only Piper was happy enough to smile for the picture.

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Last family picture while I was pregnant!

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I had lots of fun playing with the settings on my camera, trying to capture the fireworks. I few of them actually came out pretty good, especially considering I was using a digital camera and really haven't played around with the manual settings a whole bunch.

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When I first saw this picture, I was disappointed because I thought my hand had been shaking. But then I realized they didn't all zig-zag the same direction, and I must have just captured their individual zigs and zags. Then this became one of my favorite pictures!

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My favorite picture of the night.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Catch-Up

Sorry I've been MIA for the past two weeks - learning what life is like with two under two has basically been my top priority since Michael was born. I have had a few days of breaks though as my Mom has graciously watched Lily a couple times over-night to let Ben and I just get to know Michael a little better. Let me tell you, that kid is CUTE! And I'm SO glad that he is now part of the world and no longer in my belly! :)

So I'm going to do a couple of catch-up posts in the next few days, and then hopefully I'll get back into a groove of posting semi-regularly. But for now, I'll leave off with this picture:

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Michael James - 8 days old

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Meeting Michael

Michael is finally here!! Ben already introduced him on here and gave a quick run-through of the events of his birth. But I wanted to tell my story too.

I had been scheduled for an induction on Wednesday morning, and I really wasn't looking forward to it. I had been induced with Lily, and remembered really hating the Pitocin and feeling like everything was out of my control. Not that your exactly in control when your body goes into labor anyway, but I really was hoping to give my body a chance to start the whole process on it's own and not help it along medically unless I had to. But we knew he was going to be large and I was getting close to a week overdue. I really didn't want to have a C-section because he had gotten too big, and I was really anxious to be NOT pregnant anymore anyway, so I was willing to be induced. Still, I hoped I wouldn't have to be.

By Tuesday afternoon I'd pretty much reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to be induced. Around 5:00 pm I decided I really wanted some Panda Express for dinner, so we were waiting for Lily to wake up and then finish her dinner. We were just wiping her up and about to get her ready to go when I felt my water break. It was really surreal. I never expected my water to break on it's own - the women in my family tend to always have their water broken at the hospital after hours of being in labor already.

That was at 6:00 pm. We called our friends the Adams, and Ashlyn came over to pick up Lily. We stopped at Wendy's before going to the hospital (Panda Express was too far away) and got to the Hospital about 8:00. After triage checked me out, I was checked in. I had started having contractions as soon as my water broke, and by that point they were every 2 or 3 minutes. At 9:00 I asked for an epidural, and by 9:30 it was in my back. It took a little while to start working, and at first there was a "window" - meaning I could still feel the full force of the contraction, but just in one spot. My window was on my left side. Sometimes there's nothing they can do about windows, but there were able to adjust my epidural and it went away. I was very grateful for that!

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Right after triage. I was very excited to be at the hospital!

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Goofy smile because I'd just gotten my epidural in!

Things were happening really fast. Shortly after the epidural was in I started having contractions every minute (thank goodness I could only barely feel them!!), and when they checked me at 11:30 pm they were surprised to tell me that I was already dilated to a 10. At 8 I had been between 4 and 5 cm, so it really had happened pretty fast. We waited until about 11:45 to start pushing, figuring that he would be born after midnight like I was kind of hoping he would be. But Michael was so ready to come out, and after only 12 minutes of pushing, he was here!

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Love at first sight.

It was really really amazing. The whole experience was so different than with Lily. I felt so much better, and I feel like my body handled labor and giving birth so much better than last time. I was so impatient before my due date and after as I kept waiting and waiting for him to come, but now that everything is done, I wouldn't have had it any other way. It was an amazing experience to go into labor on my own, and I know that my body was so much more ready and that Michael was so much more ready than if it had happened earlier. I was really happy about how everything turned out. I'm recovering much much faster than I did with Lily as well, which is super nice.

I am so so happy that Michael is here! He's so perfect, and fits perfectly in our family already. And Lily is so happy to be a big sister. She gets really upset when he cries because she's worried about him, and she constantly wants to kiss him and hug him and tickle him! She's still learning to be gentle and soft around him, but she's already getting better at that.

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Lily meeting Michael for the first time.

Ben had been working from home from a few days before Michael was due, and has been home since as well. He'll go back to work next Thursday. It's been a lot of fun to be together as a family and learn how everything works now that the adults no longer outnumber the kids! Ben has been a huge help with Lily when I'm nursing Michael, and surprisingly, Lily hasn't shown too many signs of jealousy - yet. I'm sure it'll come. The last couple of days have been really good, and I'm looking forward to the thousands more to come as our family continues to grow and learn together. We are so blessed, and life is great!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Michael’s First Pictures

Emily was scheduled to be induced this morning, but Michael just couldn't wait. We were just about to head out the door to pick up some Panda Express to fulfill one of Emily's last pregnancy cravings, but her water broke at 6 PM and she started having regular contractions right away. After some hurried packing we made it to the hospital. Emily had contractions about two minutes apart the whole time, so I'm glad she got an epidural so she didn't have to feel them all full force. Right before midnight it was time to push. Emily wanted him to wait until after midnight so his birthday would be 7/08/09, but I wanted it to be before midnight so him and Lily would be exactly 18 months apart (Lily was born 1/07/08). After only about 12 minutes of pushing Michael James was born at 11:57. He weighed 9 lbs 3 oz and is 21 inches long. He has a very pouty lower lip when he cries, it’s so adorable.  He's been so tired and slept almost the whole time. Now for the pictures:

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Michael’s first picture

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Is it just me or does that skin color remind you of Willy Wonka?

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Getting weighed

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Me and Michael

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With grandma and grandpa Musick

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Auntie Anna

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Bath time

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Close up

Michael James Lemmon

Michael was born July 7th at 11:57 PM. He's 9 pounds 3 ounces, 21 inches long and doing great. We'll post pictures after we get some rest.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

40 Weeks

Well, here I am. 40 weeks today.

And I'm still pregnant. Grrrr.

That's really all I have to say about that.