10th Anniversary Photos

For our 10th anniversary, Shawn and I revisited a portion of our honeymoon, traveling again to Montreal and Quebec City. Photos are here.

Grandma and Nana watched the girls while we were gone. Their photo set is here.

Daddy Daughter Dance and Disney

Prepare yourself for cuteness:

For more, click here.

My girls, and other recent photos

For more, click here.

Interview with a four-year-old

I saw this idea on a friend's blog and thought it would be fun to do with Reilly. Shawn took the lead with the first interview.

Interview with Reilly Overcast - June 3, 2010 - Age 4

Q: "What is something mommy always says to you?"

A: "I love you."

Q: "What makes mommy happy?"
A: "When I smile."

Q: "What makes mommy laugh?"

A: "When you tickle me."

Q: "What do you think mommy was like as a child?"

A: "A good child."

Q: "How tall is mommy?"

A: (Shrug) "I don't know."

Q: "What does mommy do when you're not around?"

A: "Write with my pen." (Mother's day gift.)

Q: "If mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?"

A: "I don't know. Getting dressed."

Q: "What is mommy really good at?"

A: "Tickling me."

Q: "What is mommy not really good at?"

A: "Flips."

Q: "What is mommy's job?"

A: "To keep our family safe."

Q: "What is mommy's favorite food"

A: "I don't know. Broccoli."

Q: "What makes you proud of mommy?"

A: "When you tickle me. When you do the stuff I like."

Q: "What makes mommy proud of you?"

A: "When I do the stuff that you tell me to do."

Q: "What do you and mommy do together?"

A: "Tickle fight."

Q: "How are you and mommy the same?"

A: "We have the same hair and lips and teeth and eyebrows and nose and lips and forehead and chins and just the white part of our eyes."

Q: "How are you and mommy different?"

A: "We don't have the same eyes and your hair is longer than mine. Much longer than mine."

Q: "How do you know that mommy loves you?"

A: "Because you tell me everyday and because you tickle me to pieces."

Q: "What is the one thing you wish you could change about mommy?"

A: "Our eyes."

Q: "What do you wish you could do with mommy?"

A: "Go to Chuck E Cheese."

The birth story

The day was Thursday the 1st, April Fools, and I suppose I should note that April 1 is the birthday of both Shawn's brother and my uncle Peter. So there were at least two people pulling for Maeve to be born on the 1st, (and she almost made it).

I spent Thursday at work, expecting and yet not expecting to have Shawn call and tell me that she was in labor.

Shawn spent the day with Reilly, who was on spring break. She called me later in the day to tell me that Reilly had asked her, "How come Daddy doesn't get to have any fun?" Shawn and I do this a lot--calling to tell each other the funny or cute thing that Reilly has said that day.

We all met up at 4:00pm in downtown St. Pete with a photographer who was going to document prego Shawn (and what turned out to be our last day as a family of three).

Shawn began to realize that she was in labor at 8:00pm. While she ensured all the appropriate items were packed in her hospital bag, she put me to work doing important things like putting the car seat in the car and charging the camera and cell phone.

Oh, and in a last ditch act of nesting, she asked me to dust the blades of all the fans in the house and to vacuum under all the cushions of the couch.

We spent the next hour or so watching an episode of "The Office" on TV. It was the one where Jim and Pam have a baby. How appropriate.

At 10:00pm, I filled out our census form. Though Shawn was progressing, it was clear that we would have three in our household on April 1st. Sorry Danny and Uncle Pete! With contractions at 10 minutes apart for 2 hrs, Shawn called her mom, Donna, to tell her that this was the night.

At 10:30pm, Donna arrived, and at 11:00pm, my dad arrived. Shawn's contractions were 7-10 minutes apart and she was laboring bent over and on hands and knees. By midnight, Shawn had had three contractions in a row spaced at 5 minutes, so we grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital with Donna. My dad stayed at the house to watch over Reilly.

We were checked in at Bayfront Baby Place 12:30am. I remember the receptionist asking Shawn if she was there to be induced.

"Um, no. I'm in labor."

Next stop was triage, where Shawn was monitored by a mean old nurse who promised us we would only be there twenty minutes. An hour later, Shawn's water broke. When I told the nurse, she said, "I doubt it."

When Shawn's water broke at 1:45am, I told the mean old nurse that Shawn needed to have an antibiotic drip started (doctor's orders) and she said, "Oh we've got plenty of time for that. You got lucky with your first daughter, having her in 45 minutes" At this point I was pretty pissed off, but in my last act of diplomacy, said, "I mean, we're going to have this baby today, so can we just get out of triage and be admitted?"

I don't remember what she said, but it was, in general, and for all intents and purposes, "When I get to it, buddy."

In the meantime, she did start Shawn's heplock, but after taking a few vials of blood, the vein stopped producing blood. Rather than try another spot immediately, she instead proceeded to jab the needle deeper and deeper into the vein. (I should note that of the whole birthing process, it was at this moment that I was the closest to fainting.)

Eventually the IV was started and Shawn was ushered to the birthing suite where Donna was waiting. The time was 2:30am.

We were assigned a new nurse, Julie, who was pretty green (had just graduated 6th months prior) but who turned out to be just fine as a nurse and a pretty awesome birthing coach. At this point, Shawn's contractions were getting pretty fierce, but she would just groan through them and direct me where to rub her back.

I guess I should mention at this point that Shawn had decided beforehand that she wanted to have a totally natural birth and hadn't even had so much as a Tylenol. It was fascinating to me to see how her body sheltered her naturally from the pain, not that it wasn't hurting her--it was!--but her mind had gone elsewhere. Or perhaps it was just the yoga music playing from the ipod.

Shawn was two centimeters dilated going into the birthing suite. On nurse Julie's first check of her, she was five centimeters. Julie stopped doing the admitting paperwork and went to call the doctor to come. Quickly.

Because the baby was coming.

Quickly.

It was maybe ten minutes later that Shawn said that she needed to push. Nurse Julie, husband Brian, and momma Donna all got a wee bit nervous at this point. There was a lot of hustle and bustle going on in the room now, with five nurses getting everything set up for the birth. Nurse Julie checked Shawn and she was at ten centimeters. Time to go.

But.

No doctor.

Shawn was a little out of it at this point, and kept repeating, "I'm trying really hard. I'm trying really hard. I'm trying really hard." Frankly, I was trying really hard too. To not shit my pants.

It was at about that moment that Shawn's doctor burst in the room, barked a few orders at the nurses, and got into baby catching position. Shawn couldn't be more relieved to see her, "Thank you for coming!"

"Okay, Shawn, time to push."

On her first push, the baby came out to the shoulders. The doctor said, "Whoa! Hold on!" She moved the umbilical cord out of the way, then told Shawn to push again and Maeve came flying out.

The doctor said, "Open your eyes, Shawn, your baby is here."

Shawn opened her eyes and said, "Oh! Hiiiii!"

I have to pause here and say, look: there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like seeing someone you love give birth to someone you love.

Time: 3:05am.

Total time spent in labor and delivery room: 31 minutes.

Total labor time: 7 hours, 5 minutes.

The Prego Shoot

Here is our favorite:

Many more here.

A conversation from Wednesday between Shawn and Reilly:

Shawn: We heard the baby's heartbeat at the doctor's today.

Reilly: Tell me more, Mommy.

Shawn: Well, the doctor felt the baby's head.

Reilly: Where is the head?

Shawn: It's down at the bottom.

Reilly: So mommy, that means that she isn't sitting on your bladder, she's bumping it with her head.

They laughed.

Shawn: You're absolutely right, Reilly, she's not sitting on my bladder.

Reilly: And she's not doing a V-sit either. (A Yoga move)

List #2

In an effort to streamline our bedtime ritual with Reilly, Shawn recently developed a sticker chart that outlined Reilly's evening tasks which included but was not limited to: brush your teeth, brush your hair, go potty, and get on your PJ's. A bonus sticker could be earned by Reilly sleeping in her bed all night. Bonus stickers earned toys.

Positive reinforcement at its finest.

Two weeks later, Reilly was moving through her bedtime ritual with only a few pauses, and her nights of crawling into mom and dad's bed were over.

Shawn was voted in as mother of the year by the discerning panel of judge (me) and we celebrated with a long nights' sleep.

Spurred on by the success of her first list, Shawn moved on to tackle an even more difficult task: the morning routine. Eschewing the sticker chart, she instead opted to use our refrigerator to scratch out Reilly's new checklist:

So far, the list has produced positive and immediate results, shortening the quantity and frequency of such comments as: "Reilly, have you brushed your teeth yet?"

And yet, the process is not perfect, as our daughter tends to dilly-dally over her breakfast for up to thirty minutes. We have considered re-ordering the list to put breakfast last. After all, that is what the 10 minute drive to school is for, right?

Week 38...where has the time gone?

From guest blogger, Shawn:

Lately, the question that has been thrown my way the most frequently is "are you ready?"

There are many different inflections given to this question. There's "Are you ready?" as in "Is the nursery set up? Your bags packed? Crib put together? Laundry done?" And then there's "Are you ready?" as in "Are you tired of all the aches, pains, and discomfort that come along with being 38 weeks pregnant?"

My answer is always different, depending on my frame of mind. Last weekend we were finally motivated to pack my bag, Reilly's bag and LaLa's bag, charge the cameras, and spend a fortune at Babies R Us on the "essentials." As for the other, “Are you ready,” I alternate between feeling total excitement about meeting our new addition and seeing how Reilly will interact with her, and then feeling anxiety about the birthing process and wondering if I'll be able to do it!

New This Time: I don't have any of the 3rd trimester pains that I recall from the first time around (being pregnant in the middle of a heat wave in NYC). My ankles are not swollen, my back is doing ok, I haven't been stricken with too much fatigue, and the baby doesn't feel as heavy as Reilly did. (The Beatles song, "She's so Heavy," was Reilly's song when I was carrying her.)

LaLa does feel bigger though, like she's taking up more space. Indigestion and heartburn continues to plague me! I'm up to sleeping on 3 pillows while I watch Brian sleep down below at my side. And I'm still not able to eat as much as I or my docs would like me to. I'm measuring small, but then I measured small with Rei, too.

At my doctor appointment last week, we found that I am 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, which means she can come any time between now and the next 4 weeks. Funny how that works, isn't it? Our friends in the medical community have been sharing stories of delivering babies in cars. When I reminded my doctor of my fast labor and high pain tolerance (read: sheer denial that I was in labor!), she offered to schedule an induction for me on April 2. I declined, as I want this baby to come on her own terms in her own time.

And I know the question on everyone's mind is have we named her? To be honest, we've become very comfortable calling her LaLa (or as Reilly would have you know, LaLa Isabella Overcast). We do have a list of a few other names, but we're keeping them as options until she presents herself. Stay tuned...any day now.

Oh, the stories I could tell...

Today's entry brought to you from "guest blogger" Shawn...

Mommy: Reilly, why were you crying?

Reilly: Daddy said he had three stories, but he only told me two and one of them was unusual.

Mommy: Why was it unusual?

Reilly: One didn’t have any characters in it, it only had an orange. So it was unusual.

Week 24

What’s different this time around? I can’t remember a thing.

When we were pregnant with Reilly, we would read a Week by Week book as each new week turned over. The book was complete with pictures and taught us all the details of what was going on with our growing baby. I always knew how far along I was, how big the baby was, what she was doing, and what to expect the week to follow. We sometimes (always) would read the next week in anticipation of what was to come.

Early last week someone asked me how far along I was. I-had-no-i-dea. I had completely lost track. The blog we read had been put on hold, knowing I could look it up and read the weeks that had passed to see what this baby has been up to. I thought if I went to the blog it would come to me, but as I selected a week and read, I wasn’t sure if I had experienced it already, or if it was a sign of what was to come.

I’m grateful for my monthly doctor visits for one primary reason: to keep me on track. We had an appt on Friday…24 weeks. So far, the baby continues to grow and her heartbeat is strong. I still don’t have much of an appetite, more aversions than cravings, although a nice plate of steamed broccoli with butter, salt, and pepper sounds wonderful right now!

We’re supposed to be thinking about things like registering, setting up the nursery, and taking a hospital tour. All I want to do is settle in and watch a movie. Brian, on the other hand, is entering the nesting phase. As I type this, he’s in the process of burning all of our CDs, dating back to the early 1990s (who remembers ABC – Another Bad Creation??), just the first step to making room in the soon-to-be-named-nursery.

A word from the mother: Week 18

This entry brought to you by guest blogger: Shawn

This is my first entry since being pregnant. I vacillate between feeling incredibly guilty for not having documented a single thing about this pregnancy and just enjoying the moments as they come. The second time around has been a bit more difficult as far as morning sickness goes, and I'm only now starting to feel better. The nausea and food aversions lasted longer this time than it did with Reilly.

It is hard to compare this pregnancy to my first because for some reason I don't remember much about the first. I suppose that's a good thing, and my memory loss encourages me to take this one as it comes. I guess this is the first of a long list of lessons our new baby is sure to teach me.

About a week ago, as Brian was sleeping next to me, I began to panic about not having felt the baby kick. Though it was only 17 weeks, I woke him up and told him we had to look in the scrapbook his mom had made us from our pregnancy with Reilly, to see how far along I was when I first felt her kick. The book confirmed that I felt Reilly move for the first time at 17 weeks, so I relaxed and waited for Baby O2's first move.

I wouldn't have to wait long. The very next night, the baby kicked. I tried to show Reilly and Brian what this felt like by gently fluttering my fingers against their open palms.

I'll now borrow a line from Amalah's blog: "New This Time:"

I can't sleep. It takes me forever to fall asleep. I wake up at least twice to go to the bathroom, and can't fall back asleep. And I still get sick from time to time. But this time around is oh-so-much-sweeter to see through Reilly's eyes. She is so excited and loves her baby brother or sister so very much. Every morning she puts her ear up to my belly and then tells me what the baby is saying. She often tells me what it's saying by holding my hand out and tapping my hand.

What's next? The BIG ultrasound. Only 2 weeks away!