Busy, Busy

Like usual, things have been crazy busy around our house. Gpaw came over from Maui to meet Alaina and spend some time with us because Ben had a 4 day weekend for Memorial Day and mom left on Saturday. So now we're just trying to get back into some semblance of a routine and I'm trying to get a little organized. I'm going to have my first day by myself with the kids on Tuesday (and it's going to be a LONG day because, of course, Ben's on call the first day by myself so he won't be home until both kids are in bed. Hopefully we'll all survive!). It'll be nice to have some down time, and Cole really needs to just relax around the house a bit, but I'm sure I'll really be ready for Friday night when Joelle comes into town to help out.

Day17
(Snuggle time with mama)

Day16
(So sweet)

Day 15
(Daddy's Girl)

Day 14
(Meeting Gpaw)

Day 13
(A little preview from her newborn photoshoot)

Day12
(Lola loves her new baby)

Day 11
(Nap time with Gea)

Mommy's Birthday

Eeek! On Saturday I began my last year in my 20s. All I wanted to do that day was have a day of shopping with my mom without Cole there to slow us down and drive me crazy. So, Ben watched Cole and mom, Alaina and I hit the mall. We shopped for about 5 hours and Lainey was a perfect angel the entire time (I forgot how easy newborns are, during the day that is). When we met Ben and Cole up for dinner, Cole walked in with a present. I was so surprised. Ben had taken Cole to Target after gymnastics and he let Cole pick out a dress and a card for me. It was so sweet and totally made my day!

Day 10
(Spending some time with Daddy)

Day 9
(Happy Birthday, Mommy!)

Day 8
(Snuggling with Gea)

Day 7
(First time at the beach)

Day 6
(Friends come to meet Alaina)

Cole's playgroup friends came over
to play and meet Cole's little sister

Everyone else was excited about Lainey...
Cole was excited about the presents of course!

Here we go again...

Alright blog readers, I'm not sure how many of you there are left from when Cole was born, but I'm going to try to make an attempt to start all over again and post 1 picture a day of Alaina until she turns 1. We'll see how it goes with two kiddos now, but really, as long as I don't forget, it's a pretty easy task. Last time I got a little mixed up towards the end when we were in Spokane, so I'm going to try to stay a little more organized and on top of things this time. Since I'm a little busier this time around, maybe I'll even pick one day, like Sunday to post the pictures from the following week. I'm not the type of person who quits things when I start something, so I'll feel really bad if I can't follow through with this and have to stop, but please try not to judge me too harsh if I do :-)
So, without further ado, let us begin...

365 Days of Alaina Reese Jabara
(with a lot of Cole mixed in too)!

Day 5
(Sleeping Beauty)

Day 4
(Cute Ruffle Butt)

Day 3
(My first clipee in my hair)

Day 2
(Meeting Gea)

Day 1 - Friday, May 13, 2011
(Happy Birthday, Alaina Reese!)

Alaina Reese's Birthday!

I never thought in a million years that Friday the 13th would be one of the top three days of my life. It started out a little rocky, but all of the pain and frustration was of course worth it in the end.

After 5 days of "patiently" waiting, on Thursday, we took Cole to the zoo, I went to the doctor, walked around the mall, and before dinner, took Lola for a walk (which, we all know, is more like a jog). I finally started having contractions after dinner and by 11pm they were getting stronger and about 5 - 7 min apart. We decided to take a trip to triage to see what was happening. Well, after being hooked up to a monitor for an hour, they sent me home even though my contractions were 2-3 min apart. I wasn't dilated enough, so home we went to get some "rest" Ben got rest, I got an entire night of painful contraction every 2 minutes. At 5:30, I went into work with Ben and I was determined not to go home without my baby! The doctor (whom I was not a fan of at this point) wanted to send me home again, but luckily, another doc was kind enough to call my real doctor who told them that I could stay and have a "social induction" i.e. your husband is a resident of my husband's so I'll be nice and let you stay and have your baby. Social or not, I got to stay!

To make a long story short, pitocin was started at around 9am. At 10:30 I got my epidural (tank God for epidurals!). At 11 they checked me and I was a 5. They wanted to break my water but it happened on its own at 12. And that's when things got a little wild....I went from a 5-10 in one hour and was in excruciating pain because it was all happening so quickly. Finally they came in and gave me more drugs and once those kicked in at 1:00, I started pushing. I think I did 2 test pushes and then 3 real ones and the next thing I knew, at 1:25 I was holding our beautiful Alaina.

She's healthy, nursing like a pro (though I can tell she's getting frustrated because there's no milk yet) and gorgeous! We couldn't be more in love with her. Cole was very cute as well, after he was freaked out by seeing me in a wheel chair, he warmed right up to her and he was very upset when we all couldn't go home with him. Hopefully he'll continue to love her :-)

As it turns out, Friday, May 13th, was a pretty lucky day!

Alaina Reese Jabara

7lbs 0.9oz, 19 1/4 inches born at 1:25pm

Meeting Tutu

Perfect little family of 4

Big Brother holding Lainey for the 1st time

"She's so cute!"

Reading her his new I'm a Big Brother book

that his sister brought him

She's already completely wrapped around his finger!

Easter Fun

The day before Easter, we painted our eggs for the Bunny to hide. Cole had a lot of fun making an egg for everyone, including Lola, and, we worked on our colors, which he's getting quite good at.

See that glass of yellow dye? Yup, it got spilled.

Waiting patiently

Our pretty, pretty eggs

I needed a bribe for Cole to be quiet in Mass, so our first Bunny came overnight and brought Cole's basket for his breakfast. Then, imagine this, he came again while we were gone at Mass! That time, he hid eggs as well...

Breakfast Bunny Presents

Quick little egg hunt

Finding his basket under mommy and daddy's bed

Opening gifts with daddy

Showing Lola his swimming pool rockets.
(She was quite impressed, can you tell?)