Weekend Pictures

On the weekend we headed to Grandma's house to celebrate her birthday! We had a great afternoon with the family (and some fabulous steaks!). I wanted to share some great pictures that Michael's brother Rob and his girlfriend Jordan took while we were there. Clearly they have some talent that I don't :)

Little Dude

Bennett is now 17 days old and continues to be a very chill dude. Although he was born weighing only 6lbs 10oz, he's now currently packing on the weight. At his first appointment at a week old, he was up by over a pound. Michael and I can even notice a difference in how he fills out his car seat, his bouncy chair and his clothes (out of the newborn outfits).
He spends most of his days eating and napping with the occasional break to chill in his bouncy chair. He seems to love being swaddled or taken to the park with his big sister while he's in his sling.
Right now we're going through a period of fussiness each day around 3-5pm. This has been interesting for me because it's also when Madeline is getting a bit restless. Did I mention she cries every time he cries?? I can't figure out if she's crying because it upsets her (she is very sensitive) or if she's just trying to compete for my attention. I think it's the latter. Regardless, at 3pm today you should think of me and my competing babies.
For those of you who are wondering - I'm currently not working and am home with the kiddies. I'm off for a couple of weeks and will then be gradually easing back into work.

Happy Birthday!!

On Tuesday, our little girl turned the big 0-2!! Oy!
We spent the special day up at the cottage with Nana and Aunt Judy. She opened a couple of presents from Nana and Mom/Dad - both were a big hit. We got her the My First Dollhouse from Fisher Price. This thing was out of stock everywhere I went back in June. I must have gone to 5 different stores looking for it. I finally found it at the TRU at Yonge & Eg and I had to carry the massive box down the street (lets remember I was 7 months pregnant...so the box just seemed bigger). 2 weeks before her birthday it went on sale and every store seemed to have it in stock.
Anyhoo, she absolutely loves it and has been playing with it non-stop since she got it. So my adventures to find it have paid off.
Tomorrow we'll be celebrating with the whole family at a party at Nana's house. She's been talking about her Birthday party for about a month now. I have no idea if she really knows what it's all about. She'll tell you that there will be cake and balloons and that people will sing "Happy Birthday". I think she's most excited about the balloons. I'm most excited about the cake.... and maybe the wine :)

In other news, Ben had his first dr's appointment last week and gained over a pound since we left the hospital. He's feeding really well and seems to be growing like a weed. He's quite a happy little man.

Saying "cheese".....

And then we were four

He's here! Bennett Thomas Smirle was born August 16 at 10:51pm weighing 6lbs 10oz.
Ben's original due date was August 9th - like his sister, he kept us waiting a bit and then surprised us with a very fast labour and delivery. Here's a re-cap of the birth story for those who are interested (it's a bit long, but i wanted to capture it somewhere!):

• I went to the dr the morning of the 16th for a regular appointment. Had an ultrasound and the technician said everything looked good - I still had lots of amniotic fluid, which was probably why the baby was happy to stay in my belly (not necessarily news I wanted to hear at a week past my due date!)
• Dr checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. He asked me to call him Wednesday if I still hadn't gone into labour and they would schedule to have me induced.
  
• I went home and went about my day. This was Michael's first day of vacation, so we puttered around the house together for most of the afternoon. In the late afternoon we took Mads to get a popsicle and then walked to the grocery store (I was a bit nuts about keeping the house stocked with fruits, milk etc, in case I went into labour at any point). On the way back from the store, I started to have some contractions that were stronger than Braxton Hicks contractions.
  
• We got home from the store and made Maddy some dinner. It was now around 6pm and my contractions were getting stronger. We started to time them and realized they were getting very close together and they were much stronger. The next hour or so was a bit of a blur because I was focused on my contractions....but I know that we bathed Maddy, called my Mum and Michael's Mom (who hopped in her car from Markham and flew down the 404 to get here!) and got Mads into bed.
  
• Michael's Mom arrived just after 8pm. We were going to wait it out a bit longer at home, but my contractions were so strong and I remembered how fast my labour was last time so I figured we better head to the hospital just to be sure we made it in time.
  
• I was about 4cm dilated and fully effaced when we arrived. We made it very clear that my last labour was pretty fast so they moved me to a room pretty quickly. Our room this time was about double the size of our last room - much better!
  
• By this time it was about 9pm and my contractions were about 2 minutes apart, sometimes closer. I got the epidural which kicked in around 9:30pm and then they broke my water. At this point I thought we were settling in for the night. I figured I'd have a little sleep and Michael would go get some dinner.
  
• My Mum arrived at the hospital with my brother Matt. Both Grandpa's and Michael's brother also arrived to await the arrival.
  
• Shortly after they broke my water I started to feel pressure - so they checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. This was just before 10:30, I think. I was shocked. I completely thought that I was going to be hanging out for another couple of hours at least.
  
• The resident and nurse scrambled to get the room ready for a birth. The dr on duty was tied up in a c-section so he wasn't going to be there.
  
• After a few minutes of pushing, Bennett was born!

• The first thing I thought when I saw him? Boy, does he ever look like his sister!!
  

Here are some pics from our first couple of days as a family of four.

Going home day!

The full body shot:

Bennett just after birth.....

Maddy just after birth....

Am I the only one that thinks they look alike?

So far we're settling in well. We're off to the dr today for Ben's first check up. Michael is still on vacation until next week. I'm getting a bit nervous about being home with both kids on my own!! I'll keep you all posted on how that goes :)