Birthday party fun!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a birthday party for Madison's friend Dominic. It was at Catch Air in Johns Creek; and it was a blast! Madison had one great time. Once she got over her initial clingingness, she did great. She went down slides all by herself; a big step for mommy, as she had never been down on herself before, but I did great! My mom went with us, since I had just had Ashley 3 weeks earlier! She was a huge help! Here are a few pictures from our time there!

Here is Madison spinning all by herslef on one of her new favorite things! This bouncey thing was great!

NaiNai helping her spin!

Going down one of the slides by herself!

We will most certainly be going back to Catch Air once I am a bit more healed from having Ashley! We had so much fun!!

Ashley's first bath...

Here are some pictures from Ashley's first bath! I forgot how difficult it can be to bathe a newborn; but, on the other hand, it was so much fun! She did great! Unlike Madison, she did to scream the entire time. It is so fun to wash a newborn, I could do it everyday! She would not unclench her hands, so that was a bit more difficult to wash. But she did great when I made her unclench them! Here is my little lamb! Like Madison, Ashley has a little towel from Pottery Barn Kids. Madison had a bunny, as that was her theme. However, they did not make a newborn owl towel, so I got Ashley the lamb! I just love a newborn after a bath, they smell so good and are so very soft. As we call them in our family, she got a "NaiNai" lotion bath afterwards. We call it that because my mom, NaiNai, absolutely loves to put lotion all over the girls when they get out of the bath.

Ashley looks absolutely terrified in this picture. I promise she was ok, she was just scared!

Ashley's first bath was a success! She has had a few more since then, and still does not cry during them. We try to give her a couple a week, since her skin is so sensitive! I am hoping to get some pictures of her nursery up soon. I just have to move some pictures off the wall that are of Madison, since she is in her old room. I will also try to get some up of Madisons new room!

Enjoy!!

Pictures!

Here is a picture of me with my sweet baby girls while we were in the hospital! Not the best picture, but hey, I had just had a baby!

Here is Madison looking very closely at her new little sister. She was somewhat interested in her at the hospital. But since it was so new, she was very overwhelmed when she visited us in the hospital. By the last trip out there, she was much better!

Here is a picture of daddy and his little girls, the first of many pictures like this I think! Madison was excited to "hold" her little sister. She loves her!!

Here is Ashley in the car for the first time. I couldn't help but take a picture of my new sweet angel coming home!

This is one of my favorite outfits for Ashley so far! Someone in my moms office gave her this outfit, they also got it in size 3 months, which I was so excited about! She looks so tiny in this outfit, but I guess she is tiny!

It truely is amazing how much I fall more in love with her everyday!

2 weeks...and a few days!

I cannot believe that it has already 2 weeks, plus a few days, since we welcomed our sweet little angel Ashley into this world. The time has flown by and we are all adjusting as well as can be expected.

Madison has completely fallen in love with her baby sister. In the morning, she wants to see her, and is always patting her on the head and saying "Baby Ashley." She gets so worried when she cries, and says "baby Ashley crying." I love that she loves her new little sister so much.

Ashley is sleeping pretty well at night, she can go about 5 hours, which I LOVE! Also, I go to sleep after her 8-9 feeding, and she has some daddy time until her next feeding around 12 or 1. Which means I get some good sleep before that feeding.

Just like Madison, Ashley lost weight in the hospital. She was born at 7 lbs 6 ounces, we left the hospital at 6 lbs 14 ounces. When we went to her first doctors appt, she had not gained any weight, which was not surprising since it had only been one day. So, we had to go back a week later. At that appt, she was 7 lbs 2 ounces, which was better, but not where she should have been. So, back to the doctor we went a few days later. At the appt, she finally made it back to her birth weight; I was so excited! That meant we did not have to go back until her 1 month appt.

I am adjusted pretty well to having 2 kids. Luckily, Rob is still home most of the time. He did go back to work Monday night, but my mom came up to help me with Madison. I will eventually have to work out a good schedule for the two girls on the nights that Rob has to work. I know that my mom cannot be here EVERY night that he has to work! He goes back to work full time next week, which will be interesting, to say the least! Most people do it by themselves during the day while daddy works, I do it at night!

On a really good note, I have lost ALL my baby weight! So excited, now I just need to get all my non-maternity clothes out of the attic, I am tired of wearing my maternity clothes!

Be on the lookout for some pictures coming soon!

Ashley's arrival story

I thought I would update everyone on how Ashley arrived early!

On Saturday morning, I was scheduled to have my maternity pictures taken at 10 am. On the way down there, I started to feel a few contractions. But since I was so determined to have these done before she arrived, I ignored them! Probably not the best idea I ever had, but it worked out ok in the end.

We got the photographers house a little after 10 am. My mom met us there to help with Madison while Rob and I got the pictures done. The pictures are going to be so cute, I cannot wait to share them once I get to, but that is another posting!

Towards the end of the session, they were coming more and more frequent, but I was still not timing them, as I was still hoping they would end by themselves. When I realized that they might not end by themselves, I thought to myself "Where do I want to have my 'last meal' before I have a baby?" That's right, I knew it was about that time.

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE mexican food. One of the best places in Atlanta is Jalisco's Mexican Restaurant, and we happened to be so close!

I most certainly over ate, but that thought of not eating real food again until Sunday night made me very sad. Once we got home, we put Madison down for her nap and Rob and I rested while I watched the KU basketball game. I started to really time them, and they were 8 minutes apart. 8 minutes apart isn't bad for a normal delivery. But since I was a scheduled c-section, 8 minutes was a little too close. However, I was stubborn and waited for them to get to 5 minutes apart, which they did!

At about 6-7 minutes apart, I called my mom and told her she needed to come on up to stay with Madison because I think we are having this baby today. She was very excited to hear those words, and was excited to get to spend some more time with Madison. Once my mom got there and confirmed that I was having contractions, we called the doctor and started to pack our hospital bag. The on-call doctor called back and told us to head to Labor and Delivery.

I started to feel nervous at this point. This was for real, we were going to have a new baby by the end of the day.

We got to the hospital around 5 pm; they got us in a room very quickly and started to monitor me and the baby. They examined me, and once they talked to the doctor again, we were scheduled to go into the operating room at 8...things were happening very quickly! I had my epidural put in about 7:30, and once I was numb, we headed to the operating room.

We arrived in the operating room at 8:05; she joined the world at 8:15 pm. I was wheeled into the recovery room at about 8:45 pm; it was a very quick delivery, which was great!

We had to wait in the recovery room much longer than we anticipated because the transport team took forever to get there! Which may have been ok because I was quite sick to my stomach while we were in there.

Once we got into our assigned room, NaiNai was waiting to meet her new grand-daughter! This was made possible by my best friend Amanda! She went over to sit at my mom's house while Madison was sleeping so that NaiNai could be here! That meant the world to me! Thanks so much Amanda, I love you!

We could not be any happier to welcome this sweet little princess into our family! We now feel complete, thanks to Ashley!

Ashley McIntyre Russo

7 pounds 6.3 ounces 19 inches

Saturday January 28 2012 at 8:15 pm

Welcome Ashley McIntyre!

Ashley decided to join our family early! She arrived Saturday January 28, 2012 at 8:15pm. She weighed 7 lbs 6.3 ounces and is 19 inches! Here are a few pictures from her first 2 days with us. We hope to get more tomorrow, but we shall see!
Sweet kisses from daddy!

Me and my new little angel!

Me with both my baby girls! I am so lucky!

I hope you enjoy the preview. I hope to get more pictures taken tomorrow and get them uploaded.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year! First, we stopped by HIES for the Pumpkin Patch that they had the weekend before Halloween. We went with my friend Lindsay and her family, we had a great time, and got a pumpkin! Here is Madison and I in the "pumpkin patch" at HIES. This might be one of my favorite pictures so far!
On October 30th, we went to Boo at the Zoo at Zoo Atlanta. Madison had a great time. Here she is loving the elephants so much that she would not turn around for a picture with NaiNai. She LOVED it when the elephant made noises...she got so excited!Here is Madison in sitting with the pumpkins at the zoo...again, she LOVED everything about the event, such a great one!

Madison was so excited to see the pigs...it was adorable! Again, she would not look at the camera, but that is OK. I love that she was so excited to see them!

And here we have Halloween night...I was trying to get her to sit with me on the front porch, epic fail. She was too excited about everything; again, I was ok with that, because she was so cute!

Here she is at the end of trick or treating, she had a blast! She even carried her little orange pumpkin around the whole time. When we went to the front door of houses, she would go with me and "knock" on the front door as I rang the doorbell. She patiently waited for the door to be opened so that she could get her candy! She learned very quickly!

We had a great time taking our little ladybug around the neighborhood! I cannot even imaging next year when we have two little girls to parade around our neighborhood. Life is going to change so much in the next year, I cannot wait to see what it will bring! I hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Saying goodbye...

Almost three weeks ago, we said goodbye to my sister and her family as they moved across the world to East Asia. It was a very sad weekend for everyone. Here are a few pictures that we took the last night we saw them.Here is NaiNai with her boys, doing what they love to do most...listening to NaiNai read them a book!

Here are my sweet boys, they stayed up so late that night; almost later than I did!

This is one of my favorites! This is me with all the kids...so hard to believe that next time we see them all, there will be one more kid in the mix!

I miss them all terribly, but glad they are enjoying their time over there. So glad also that I get to skype with them! I can't write too much because it makes me so sad to think about them being gone! We love them so much and miss them terribly!

More beach pictures...

Here are a few more pictures from our beach trip! Hope you enjoy. We had a great time despite the chilly weather!

Beach Trip...

In October, we ventured down to St. Simon's Island to my moms beach house. We always have a blast there! Here are a few pictures from our trip, more to come once I can get time at home to sit on the computer; hopefully tonight! Here is Madison trying to "read" my book! We were sitting on the front deck enjoying the nice weather, it was a bit chilly, but still so nice! And I put my book down for a minute, and she came over to my chair, picked up the book, carried it back to her chair, climbed up to the top of the recliner, and started "reading" it! It might have been one of the cutest things she has done!!!
We also took her on a bike ride while we were there. She was not the biggest fan in the beginning, mainly because of the helmet, she does NOT like things on her head. But in the end, I think she began enjoying to ride. Once she knew I was there, since she was on the back of Rob's bike, she did much better.

This picture was just too cute not to share. This was at the beginning of our trip leaving Atlanta. It was about 9:30 am. She had only been awake for maybe 2 hours. She was so tired, that she fell asleep for about an hour and a half on the way down there. She has not taken a morning nap in so long, it was kinda bizarre.

After she woke up, we turned on the DVD player for her, which was the best invention ever! She loved being able to watch Mickey and Minnie. She would get so excited to see the different shows come on (I bought a few DVDs for the drive)!

While we were down there, Madison tried some new types of food. She tried crab, which she liked, and shrimp. She was not a huge fan of the shrimp, just like mommy!