How did we get so lucky?

Knock on wood, but our babies are so easy. Macie is the sweetest. Just keep her fed and she's golden. She likes it when you talk to her and she'll coo back. She loves Alli. Alli with hold her hands and try to dance with her. Alli will say,"Shake your booty, Macie." We take her to the doctor next week for her 2 month check up, so we'll post her stats. She's a tank, and I'm guessing she's 13lbs at least. Just more to love! It's also her 2 month birthday!

Alli is the best. Everyday she says something that cracks us up. Although she can drive me crazy, she still is so sweet. Here's some pictures of when Alli came to the hospital to see Macie for the first time. She was going through a phase where she only wore her play shoes. And like a true lady, never went anywhere with out her purse.


The first of many kisses






To get her to smile for pictures, we have to tell her to show us her teeth

Alli's Beauty Shop

Alli has seemed really grown up these days. Being a big sister is starting to take effect. She's had to take on more responsibility at home ;) And to break up the monotony of taking care of Macie, she's opened a business. Although it doesn't get her out of the house, she thinks it'll be good for her to have a hobby.

Alli and her beauty set up.

One of her services is a manicure

The birth

I know it's about 5 weeks late, but I haven't really had a lot of extra time to use the computer. Here's the nitty gritty of Macie's entrance into the world for those who are interested:

I was due Wednesday, August 5, but my Dr. wanted to induce me so we scheduled an induction for Monday, Aug. 3. Why you ask? In his words "Why not?" I was already dilated to a 3 and almost completely effaced, and he said "Why be pregnant longer than you have to." He's been doing this for over 30 years, so I trust him. And he'll only induce you (electively that is) if you're already progressing. So Jeff and I checked in around 5:30am on Monday morning. We got settled, the did the blood work, started pitocin and all that stuff and it was about 7am. I was still a 3. My dr came around 7:30am to break my water but he wanted me to have an epidural first. My pain level was about a 2 at that point. 10 being the highest of course. I got my epidural around 8:15am from the same dr that did my epidural with Alli. I was a little weary of that because it didn't work that well with Alli. So I got the epidural and then my dr came to break my water. I was a 5. Not too bad I thought. He said he'd be back at lunchtime to deliver. Sounded good to me.
Around 10am the nurse woke me up to adjust my monitors and put me on oxygen. They couldn't get a good reading from the external monitor so she decided to put an internal monitor on. Its where they actually attatch it to the baby's head. When she did that I was already a 10! She called my dr but he wasn't quite ready to come. Macie was fine and not in distress, so I waited. He got there a little after 11am I would say. And after 10 minutes of pushing, Macie Marie was here. She looked just like Alli. We were so happy to have another healthy little girl.

All along we really didn't know what to name her. Most people we told it would probably be Abby, but we weren't 100%. Right before I delivered we revealed the names we were thinking about: Abby, Macie and Sunny. No one liked Sunny, but Jeff and I did. I didn't like Abby anymore. So we settled on Macie. And Marie is kind of a family name. It's Jeff's mom's, sister's and 2 niece's middle name.

So

Not great, but it'll have to do

It took a few, not a lot, just a few pictures today. Baby steps right?

I was taking pictures of Macie and Alli wanted in on the action. She just got up from a nap and wasn't quite picture ready but still cute as a button!

Here's our little Macie Babe. She's 5 weeks now and looking quite "healthy."


Poor Alli has had a hard adjustment to sibling life. She's been throwing alot of tantrums and over-using the word "mine". Most of the time it doesn't even make sense. "Alli, want to go to Grammy's?" she replies "mine!" She loves Macie, but doesn't love the shared attention. Whenever I'm feeding or holding Macie, she wants me to put her down. She gives me various options though. She'll tell me, "Macie go night night" or "Dad hold Macie" or "Macie sit chair". But her main problem is getting dressed. She just wants to wear her jammies all day. Occasionally, I can get them off her and clothes on. It usually is a team effort with Jeff. So here's Alli, mid day, still in PJs. And she hasn't been letting me do her hair, so she looks like a little rag muffin. We're working with her...

It's about time!

Macie slept through the night last night! Still not as late as Alli, but we'll take it!

Pictures and a better post to come...

Macie Marie Vanchiere

Baby Macie arrived August 3rd weighing 7lbs 2ozs and 19". She looks a lot like Alli, but has a few differences. Alli loves her and loves giving her kissys. We're still adjusting to becoming a traditional family of 4, but we couldn't be happier to have another beautiful girl in our family. I don't have all the pictures yet so I'll be posting more later.