Zoo Atlanta!

When Camie came down, we went to the zoo for a morning. We had a blast! My awesome friends Amanda and her adorable son Jonathon joined us for the fun! The picture above is of Madison riding the carousal, which she loved and would have stayed on all day if I had let her! We love going to the zoo and see all the animals!

Here is Madison and Jonathon in front of the pandas...too bad they did not make the picture!

Ashley's newborn pictures!

We had a wonderful person take Ashley's newborn pictures and my maternity pictures! Here are some of my favorite pictures; hope you enjoy them as much as I do! We love you Zandra Horkan Photography, can't wait to get more pictures done of the girls!

This is one of Rob's absolute favorite pictures! I have to admit is it awesome!

Since I have so many favorites, it is hard to choose my absolute favorite. But this one in the net comes very close; such a neat idea!

I have to say that this is my absolute favorite one! I love the color contrasting that Zandra did with this. The tutu is adorable!

rest of the week...

Madison found 2, yes 2, sanddollars while we were at the beach with NaiNai. Here they are in the bleach water to get them white and pretty. I don't think that she cared too much, but NaiNai and I were very excited to find them! We also found a starfish, but I forgot to get a picture of it before we left...maybe next time!
Here is a picture of one of the many jellyfish that we saw while we were down there. They were EVERYWHERE!

Here is Madison handing one of the sanddollars to NaiNai...very proud!

Here is NaiNai and Madison walking on the beach. This was Madison's favorite activity while we were there. When we got back, all she wanted to do was "walk beach please", broke my heart to tell her that we were no longer at the beach. But I reassured her that we would be going back this summer, and she could "walk beach" all she wanted then!

Beach trip so far...

On Friday, we headed down to St. Simons for a week. I was so excited to get out of Atlanta and get a break from everything with Rob and my mom. Unfortunately Rob could not stay the whole with us, he left this morning, which is Monday. We will miss him! Before he left, I wanted to get some family pictures taken.

Here is one from the pier. Before dinner, we headed to the pier to take a walk and let Madison have some fun! She and daddy had fun looking at the birds and all the people on the beach.

Here is a family picture! This is one of our first ones, as I havent felt great about being in front of camera. But, I wanted to get some pictures of the girls, I just love saying that, with their "Big Sister/Little Sister" shirts before Ashley outgrows hers. It is not the best picture, but hey, I have an almost 2 year old who likes to throw tantrums...we did the best we could!

Here is a picture of just Rob, me, and Ashley. Madison had enough of trying to be still for pictures, so she left!

NaiNai, me, and Ashley; I love this one. We tried to get both kids, but Madison wanted nothing to do with it!

And then here is one with my sweet baby girl...

Since it is only Monday, we are hoping to get more pictures. I will update then!

Size...

Before I had Ashley, I used to think that Madison was small! My how my perspective has changed! Madison is not small anymore, now Ashley the smallest!

The only word I have is WOW!

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