We were lucky to have Max and Anna’s uncle Greg and cousin Elizabeth visit this weekend. Leah and Emma were out of town and were greatly missed! Guys, you just need to plan another trek over here soon, okay? Max loved playing with Cousin Lizzie and the time went by much too fast as always.

Maxwell and Anna are both doing well and amazing us every day. Anna still sleeps away a good chunk of the day, but she is having more awake time than just a week ago. Her nighttime sleep is all over the map, some nights she’ll do a good four hour stretch, others we’re up every two to three hours. I’m definitely tired, but I know she’s just being a perfectly normal newborn and I’ll sleep again someday. It’s funny how your perspective changes, before kids I would have felt terrible if I got 5 or 6 hours of sleep, and now that would be divine!

Max is so much fun these days. He still loves to play and hide and seek (after telling us where he’s going to hide) and another favorite thing to do is cover his eyes (which of course renders him invisible) and then say “Where’d Max go?” We then ask, “Where did Max go?” and proceed to look for him until he suddenly reappears. He’s also very interested in names lately. He has figured out that my “other name” is Keri and Daddy’s “other name” is Jeff, and will often ask the names of animals in a book or people when we’re out and about. This requires lots of quick thinking on our part. Some of the names I’ve generated are more creative than others. “Oh this monkey? His name is, um…Mr. Monkey!”

You want pictures? I’ve got pictures, and plenty of ’em!

First, a few of our precious baby girl:

Oma made this blanket for her:

Uncle Greg approves:

Fun with blocks!

The weather cooperated for a visit to “yellow slide park:”

As many of you know, Greg is a very talented baker. He made his famous cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning and Max got to lick a beater of icing:

Delicious!

My birthday was last week, and I could not feel more blessed this year. I have two amazing, beautiful children and a wonderful husband who is even better than the best husband and father I could have dreamed of. My mom joined us for dinner and birthday cupcakes, and it was really fun to celebrate with family. I only wish our far-flung family members could have joined us as well. Thank you to everyone who sent birthday greetings by phone, email, regular mail and Facebook. All are much appreciated and made me feel very loved!

Anna is now three weeks old and doing very well. I’m happy to report that at her two-week checkup on Friday she weighed 8 pounds, 2 ounces–almost a pound of gain in the week and a half since our last visit! Her pediatrician said, “You definitely don’t need to wake her up to eat during the night any more!” Since then she still wakes on her own to eat every 3-4 hours at night, but it’s really nice not to set an alarm! She usually eats more frequently during the day, especially in the early evening. It’s always a gamble when I go take a shower before bed to see if she’ll stay content or decide she’s absolutely starving while I’m gone. She still sleeps much of the day but we are seeing more awake time and it’s so fun to see those beautiful blue eyes taking in the world.

Maxwell is doing well also, thank goodness for all the Daddy and Grandma attention he gets, it definitely helps balance out the time I spend with Anna. He is really into imaginative play lately, which we love to see. He likes to pretend to give Chester bear a bath or feed him breakfast, and pretends to go to Haggen often for groceries. Max likes the TV show “Blue’s Clues” which we watch via Netflix sometimes. The other day he was pretending to solve the puzzle like on the show…he walked around the house and would point and say “A clue, a clue!” and then pretend to get his green crayon out of the drawer and draw the clues in his imaginary notebook, just like Steve on the show. He loves to read books and will often mention something from one of the stories we’ve read. It is amazing what he takes in and remembers!

Last week I ventured out with both kids by myself for the first time. We just took a trip to our local Starbucks for Max’s favorite, an egg breakfast sandwich. Anna slept almost the whole time and the outing was a success, and there was a very funny moment when we first arrived. As I was gathering our things to go in, Max asked, “Baby Anna wait in car?” No, she has to come in with us.

Here are a few photos from our week. First, my birthday. As far as Max is concerned, it’s not a birthday without cupcakes, so he and Grandma got some for my birthday. Here we are waiting for the cupcake. If you ask Maxwell to “smile” for a picture, you get a smile along with this cute head tilt:

Helping me blow out the candle:

Max went to a birthday party Saturday and in the favor bag were these sunglasses. He wanted to wear them in the tub:

Anna is still in that convenient “I can sleep anywhere” phase of baby life. Here she is snoozing on the floor while I folded some laundry:

Then a moment of distress, thankfully short-lived:

And back to content:

The other day I had just finished feeding Anna and Max wanted me to read him a book, so we all snuggled together for a story:

Happy 4th of July! We aren’t doing much to celebrate the holiday this year, with a newborn and a two year old, a low-key weekend seemed to be just the thing. We’ve gotten some errands done, spent time at the neighborhood park, and Jeff and Max did some yard work together. Anna is two weeks old today and we are loving every minute with her. She’s still sleeping most of the time, but we’ve had several days where she’s been awake for the better part of an hour or two in the morning, which is wonderful. It’s so much fun to see her beautiful blue eyes and have a conversation with her, even if it is a little one-sided. She’s usually sleeping well at night too, though a couple nights ago we had a night where she didn’t want to sleep for long until about 1am…too late for a tired Mama! Right now I’m still setting an alarm to wake her up every 3 hours at night for feeding, but hopefully we’ll get the go-ahead to just let her wake up on her own when we have another pediatrician visit on Friday…it will depend on how much weight she’s gained since we were there Monday.

Max is doing well and seems to be adjusting to the new person in the house. While he did say “No baby Anna” yesterday, he also asked to hold her, had his Chester bear give her hugs and kisses, and told her about what he was playing. He often asks if she can eat what we’re eating, or if she can say something, so we do lots of explaining about how she can do those things when she’s bigger like him.

The amazing Justine of J. Shelton Photography did Anna’s newborn pictures last Monday. Anna was a champ, slept the whole time other than a couple snack breaks, and let Justine pose her in all manner of cute ways. The sneak peek photos Justine posted are just beautiful. See for yourself right here!

Jeff did daily tummy time with Max when he was a baby, and has continued the tradition with Anna. He explained to Max about teaching Anna to pick her head up, look around, and put it down again. Max likes to demonstrate proper tummy time form for her. Here they are practicing:

My friend Leanne makes the most beautiful baby and kid hats (see them in her Tiny Toppers store here). Anna already has a collection, and I look forward to adding more to it as she grows! Here she is modeling one that Leanne gave her for a welcome-home gift:

Some random baby cuteness:

My friend Breeana got us this outfit, it was finally warm enough this weekend to wear it:

One of big brother, giving Chester a kiss:

4th of July pictures (thanks Karla for the cute baby outfit!):

We gave Anna her first bath last week. She wasn’t so sure at first, but decided it was okay after a couple minutes.

And Max holding his little sister:

Temporarily distracted by the “circles” on the bottom of his socks:

I’m thrilled to announce that our daughter was born at 9:12pm on Monday June 20th, weighing in at 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20+ inches long. Welcome to the world, Anna Catherine! She decided to come 6 days before her due date and apparently was in quite a hurry. Here’s the story….

Monday morning I had a prenatal visit and everything looked good. I was dilated to 3cm, up from 1.5 the week before. The midwife said she didn’t think I would be overdue, but there weren’t any signs of imminent labor. I went back to work, and noticed occasionally through the afternoon and early evening what seemed to be some minor Braxton-Hicks contractions. Nothing to interfere with playing with Max and eating dinner as usual. Around 7:00pm, Jeff took Max upstairs for bed. I did some things around the kitchen and then was chatting online with my friend Jenn. I told her I was having Braxton-Hicks, and then a little while later, I noticed that I was having to kind of breathe through them. I told her they were getting a bit more intense and I was going to time them for a bit to see if it might be the beginning of labor.

Jeff came downstairs as I was doing a bit of breathing through one, which of course caught his attention. I told him I was timing them but I was still talking and walking around like normal. He went next door to take care of the neighbors’ cats, and when he got back I said they were close enough together that we should probably start the phone calls: Our doula, my mom, friends who were going to watch Max, Justine who would take pictures of the birth…we called our doula Alyssa first, talked with her and decided we’d call triage and get ourselves ready to go.

We went upstairs to change and pack some last-minute things. My contractions were getting more intense and I needed to stop and lean on Jeff and moan through each one, but in between was able to change my clothes and get ready. Jeff was on the phone with hospital triage and I could hear them tell him to have me get in the shower and see if contractions slowed down. I remember thinking no way was I doing that, we were going in. Shortly after he hung up, my water broke, at about 8:20pm. Then all of a sudden the contractions were REALLY strong and painful. Jeff called our doula back and she could hear me in the background. She told him we needed to get to the hospital now and she would meet us there. I was feeling a ton of pressure and also like I might throw up. After a couple more minutes, I told Jeff to call 911, I was not going to make it to the hospital in the car. I couldn’t quite believe I was saying that, after Max’s 16 hour labor I never thought this time around could be even close to that fast, but thankfully I listened to my body. Jeff called 911 and I lay down on the bathroom floor. They had him look to see if he could see the head (thankfully no). The paramedics came quickly and brought me downstairs on a chair stretcher, then got me in the ambulance.

Everything happened so fast that no one had made it to our house yet to stay with Max, though friends were on the way. As they were loading me in, Jeff said “I’ll be there as soon as I can!” I told him to call some neighbors we know and see if they could stay at the house until Angel and Eric arrived. As soon as I said that, Jeff looked up and there was that very neighbor asking what he could do. Jeff directed him to listen on the monitor to be sure Max was okay until backup arrived, then he hopped in our car and tailed the ambulance to the hospital. Meanwhile I was trying my best to breathe through the contractions and not push. The paramedics were trying to time my contractions and would ask me when they started and stopped, which was kind of pointless as they were basically nonstop.

We arrived at the hospital and they rolled me into triage on the stretcher. Thankfully Jeff was there right away, I was so happy to see him, and he was happy when they opened the ambulance doors and there was no baby yet! The paramedics transferred me onto a bed in triage and Jamie, one of the midwives, was there. Almost immediately I could feel Anna coming out. I looked at Jamie and said, “She’s coming!” Jamie checked and sure enough there was her head. I pushed once and her head was out, pushed again and there she was! Jamie caught Anna and put her right on my chest. She cried out briefly and then looked around and lifted her head up a bit. I snuggled with her while they checked me out and I delivered the placenta. My mom and Alyssa had walked into the hospital at the same time and were waiting to see us. They kept asking to come back, and finally the triage nurse asked me if it was okay, which of course it was.

Once we were all checked out, they moved me upstairs to a room in labor and delivery. Jeff called Justine. He had called her when labor started and said we’d let her know once we were at the hospital. When he called and said, “She’s here!” Justine didn’t believe him (understandably!). Once he convinced her that he was not in fact joking, she jumped in her car and was at the hospital very quickly. She captured some amazing moments and I can’t wait to see all the pictures. You can see some beautiful sneak peeks here.

The excitement wasn’t over quite yet; on Tuesday afternoon the nurse noticed Anna was doing some unusual breathing and they hooked her up to a machine to check her oxygen saturation. It was lower than they like to see, so they sent us down to the NICU for observation. Four hours later they had to admit or discharge her, and since they weren’t sure what was going on, they decided to admit her. We were there until Thursday late afternoon, and they still aren’t sure exactly what the issue was, but the good news is she did improve enough that they felt confident sending her home. She still does the congested/puffing breathing sometimes, but not as often, so they are hopeful it will clear up entirely on its own. We have an appointment with our pediatrician on Monday, so we will discuss any further plans then as needed.

We are so glad to be home! So far Anna mostly sleeps. Max wanted to hold her when we first got home and likes to observe what she’s doing, but is mostly interested in attention from Mom and Dad. He did wake up during the night last night and have a hard time getting back to sleep, which is unusual for him. We’re hoping that won’t be repeated! My mom has been taking excellent care of all of us, which is a huge help. We are so blessed to have her close by!

And now, what I know you’ve all been waiting for….pictures! We of course have a ton already, here’s a sampling for your enjoyment.

The first meeting of brother and sister:

Anna had some presents for Max, including an Elmo book:

Happy Grandma!

All babies who stay in the NICU have to pass a “car seat test” before they can go home…90 minutes in the car seat to be sure they can tolerate the position without any breathing issues. Thankfully she passed!

Unhooked from all the monitors and wearing her going home outfit!

Here we go!

Max wanted to kiss Anna’s foot:

Official “Coming home” picture:

Longtime Just a Minute Moore readers will remember the monthly pictures we took of Max in his first year. We’ll do the same with Anna, here’s a couple of her “zero” shots:

I am now 38 weeks pregnant! Our daughter weighs approximately 6.8 pounds and is about 19.75 inches long, or the length of a leek. All of her organs are developed and functional. We’re hoping she stays in a couple more weeks to finish growing. I keep telling her how great it would be to come on her due date, as that would work really well for us. We’ll see how well she listens. Her nursery is done and it looks great! My wonderful mother-in-law put her excellent sewing skills to work when she was here recently and made the window valances and crib skirt. Here are some pictures of the room. It’s a little hard to tell but the walls are a lavender color.

Thanks Oma for these great window treatments!

The tree with owls is a decal that I found online. Isn’t it cute? See ALL the leaves on that tree? Turns out those have to be applied one by one in a slow and careful process. Big applause for my wonderful husband, who painstakingly applied the thing to the wall. I love the way it turned out.

The awesome owl that our friend Angel made:

The diapers on the floor are not part of the design scheme for the room and will be moved.

The wall above this shelf is empty right now, it will have canvas enlargements of our maternity/birth/newborn pictures from the fabulous J. Shelton Photography, and I still need to fill the frames as well.

I’m a little behind on blogging, but I’ll try to get back on track now, at least for the next few weeks until the baby arrives! Baby report: I am now 37 (!) weeks pregnant, and she weighs about 6.3 pounds, measuring about 19 inches long, or the length of a stalk of Swiss chard. I am now going weekly for appointments, at the one this week everything looked good and I’m still measuring right on track. We need to get the hospital bag packed and ready! We’ve been reading lots of books about babies and being a big brother to Max, so hopefully some of it is sinking in.  Here’s this week’s belly pic:

We had a wonderful weekend last weekend celebrating Greg and Leah’s marriage. We are so happy to officially have Leah and Emma in the family! Jeff’s parents and his uncle Paul were able to stay with us for a few days before and after the wedding and it was wonderful to have that time together. Maxwell enjoyed having them here at his beck and call. Max was a trooper on the drive to and from the Tri-Cities (over four hours each way!) and was a delight all weekend. He liked walking the hallways of the hotel and really enjoyed time in the pool.

Some pictures of our weekend….

Reading with Mama in the morning:

Playing with Oma’s phone:

We celebrated Jeff’s birthday while everyone was here. A very happy birthday to my wonderful, amazing husband! Max and Baby Girl and I are so lucky to have you.

Max wanted to help carry the cake to the table:

Watching Opa light the candles:

Helping Daddy blow them out:

Of course Max enjoyed the cake and ice cream. Note the size of the “bite” of cake on his fork:

The aftermath:

Helping Daddy open presents:

After Max finished off his cake and ice cream and also the remainder of my ice cream and Jeff’s, he asked, “More ice cream?” I told him it was all gone. Not satisfied with that answer, he looked around and noted that two people at the table did in fact still have ice cream on their plates. He asked, “Max eat Oma ice cream? Opa ice cream?” Oma and Opa were of course happy to oblige. So much for Mom’s explanation!

Here are a few pictures from the day of the wedding:

“Okay, enough with the picture taking, I have rocks to collect!”

I have lots of pictures to share this week, we’ve had a fabulous weekend of fun. Before I get to that, I have to share the link to the sneak peek of our maternity photo session with Justine. We absolutely LOVE these pictures! Check them out here. Thank you, Justine!

I’m now 35 weeks pregnant, baby girl weighs about 5.25 pounds and is about 18 inches long, about the size of a honeydew melon.  Her major organs are nearly complete and her liver is functional. I’m still feeling good, my hips are sore in the morning but other than that I’m very happy to not have any major aches and pains. Here’s this week’s belly photo:

We have had a weekend of fun! Yesterday Max and I went to a birthday party for three very special triplets who are turning one. There was pizza, cake, and rides and a farm to explore. Maxwell loved the cake, of course:

We rode a train, which was a huge hit. It went through a tunnel that was pitch black, and when we came out Max immediately said, “More!”

Ready to ride:

We rode with our friends Brent, Justine and Isabelle:

Max really liked the tractors:

We “drove” an antique car with our friends Collin and Jenn. Max was sitting too close to me to get a picture, but here’s Collin driving in the backseat. I think he’s a natural:

After our day of fun at the farm, today the celebration continued with a cupcake party with our friends Angel, Eric and Emmeline. Angel had purchased a discounted cupcake decorating session at Seattle’s Cupcake Royale, and we were lucky enough to be invited to join them. As you might guess, Max was thrilled to see a table full of cupcakes ready to be eaten. He helped put some frosting on and then focused most of his energy on eating. Emmeline was much cleaner about the whole process and enjoyed licking the frosting off her cupcake. Of course many pictures were taken:

This is the expression you get when you ask Emmeline to smile. I love it!

Here’s what the table looked like when we were through:

All cleaned off and cute as ever:

The kids giving each other a good-bye hug and kiss. So precious!

On the way home we decided to make a stop at Seattle institution Dick’s Drive In. Max enjoyed his first visit:

What a wonderful weekend together. I love spending time with my boys, and it will be so fun to spend time as a family of four before too long. My theory about Max either sleeping past 7:00am or taking a nap isn’t holding up these past few days…we’ve had three days in a row without a nap, including Friday when he woke up at 6:45. But we’re not giving up hope, and if nothing else he happily does “quiet time” (which involves a lot of talking and singing) in his crib for a good hour and change, so we’ll certainly keep that up.

We’re looking forward to the coming week, Oma and Opa arrive on Tuesday!

May is flying by! I am now 34 weeks pregnant and our baby girl weighs about 4.75 pounds, or about the size of a cantaloupe. Her nervous system and lungs are continuing to mature. Some wonderful friends of mine threw me a shower today, and we were blessed with lots of wonderful things for her. I can’t wait for her to wear all the cute clothes she got, I am lucky to have such generous friends. I have a feeling that the next six weeks (give or take) until her arrival are going to go by very quickly. Here is the belly picture from last week:

Max continues to be his amazing self. Jeff and I were commenting the other day about how cute everything he says is. Having gone through speech therapy, I am thrilled when we hear progress on word pronunciation, but at the same time there is a little part of me that sighs as he moves from saying things like “Sawbabies” to “Strawberries.” Lately he has been double-pluralizing things…”Shapes-es,” “Balls-es,” etc. We always say it the correct way in response, but it’s still really cute. He’s very good at saying “Excuse me” when he brushes by something, including inanimate objects…the other day at the park he said, “Scuse me, tree.” Max has added two new shapes to his repertoire–trapezoid and pentagon.

Some of you may be familiar with Mo Willems’ “Pigeon” books (“Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” etc). We’ve been reading these to Max since he was a baby and a friend who is a children’s librarian introduced us to them. They are Maxwell’s current favorites and we read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late” on a daily basis. He can narrate most of the pages and is prone to exclaiming the line, “I’m not tired!” at random moments throughout the day, and often at bedtime as well. Speaking of bedtime, naps continue to be hit or miss at our house. I think I’ve determined that he either sleeps past 7am OR takes a nap, but not both. While I admit some jealousy at the three hour naps friends’ kids his age regularly take, I fully realize that we have been so lucky with his nighttime sleep, and I really hope he keeps that up!

I have a random assortment of pictures to share. First, I know Easter has come and gone, but a couple weeks ago I was putting away the Easter stuff and I got Max to wear the bunny ears for a few pictures. They are too cute not to share:

Checking out his reflection in an Easter egg:

Last weekend Max and Daddy put together a side table for the nursery:

And played with Play-Doh:

Max tried on Grandma’s shoes:

Friday our friends Oliver and Eva came over to play. Max needed a few reminders about sharing and taking turns, but what else is new when you’re two. We had a great time with them and Max has been talking about it every since.

Here’s Miss Eva, isn’t she just too cute?

Max and Ollie playing puzzles:

Last weekend when we were taking the weekly belly picture, Jeff got in on the action:

And then both my wonderful boys:

If you’re a regular Just a Minute Moore reader, you know that we are big fans of Justine Shelton, she of J. Shelton Photography. Well, Justine is doing a giveaway and dear readers, I would love to win! With a new baby on the way we will have lots of opportunities for photos in the coming months. Plus I would also win some really cool things from other mamas I know who make wonderful baby and kid items. If you too would like to enter, head on over here to check it out!

I sorted through some of Max’s old clothes last week. I didn’t cry, but these weren’t the teeny tiny newborn clothes, so all bets are off when I get to that bin. I did find myself feeling a little emotional though, looking back at things he wore a year or more ago and remembering those times. Now, I’m not one of those moms who bemoans how big her child is getting and longs for the days of babyhood. I loved the time when Maxwell was a little squishy newborn, but if it’s possible I love now even more. To interact with him, hear him talk, see him grow and learn new things, is priceless, and I wouldn’t rewind the clock if given the chance.

At the same time, it reminds me just how fast the time really is going by. I’ve heard this from several fellow moms and I think it’s so fitting:

The days are long, but the years are short.

It’s so true….when you’re stumbling through the worst of sleep deprivation and you hear a cry in the middle of the night when you swear you just fell asleep, or you remember at 9pm that you never brushed your teeth that day, the days are long. When you’re trying to make dinner and a tired, hungry toddler is clinging to your pant leg and asking you for the 847th time for something you’ve already said “no” to, the days are long. But oh, those months and years are so short. I was just pregnant with Max and here I am pregnant with another little one. My baby is a three foot tall little boy who speaks in sentences. Before we know it, he’ll be a teenager shrugging off our hugs and replying “Yeah” when we say “I love you.”

I don’t know how we got so lucky as to be blessed with Max, but believe me when I say we do not take it for granted. Sometimes I just want to fall to my knees in can’t-catch-my-breath gratitude that he’s ours. And while sometimes I wish I could freeze him right now, when he loves Mama snuggle and wants nothing more than to spend time with us, I also can’t wait to see what the coming years bring. And I will remind myself to treasure the baby times with our daughter, for they’ll be over before I know it.

I love you, Maxwell.