Mommy and the Girls

Here's a bit of a flashback...

Friday the 15th Mommy decided to take full advantage of Kennedy's 'late arrival' and have some pictures taken with her girls. We'd been talking about having official pregnancy photos taken with Mommy and Madison for a few months now. Since Kennedy decided to hold on- we went ahead and had them done. Here are a few of our favorites.

Kennedy

Today we went for Kennedy's one week (ok 9 day) check up. She went from 8lbs 10oz at birth to 8lbs 2oz when we left the hospital last Thursday to 8lbs 14 oz today! She more than gained back to her birth weight. Needless to say, Kennedy is a great nurser-which is great considering Mommy has enough milk to feed all of Simi Valley!

Kennedy still looks perfect....did I mention she scored 9 for both Apgars at birth? Dr Pattan used to brag on how strong Madison was (she was lifting her head by day 3). Now she can't get over Kennedy. She started lifting her head off our shoulders in the hospital on day one! She still doesn't have much head control so she ends up slamming her head back onto the other shoulder or chest of the person holding her. None the less, she does not like to keep her head down.

She is growing like a weed too! She wore a preemie outfit home from the hospital and one of Madison's old preemie onsies for a day. Not only are those too small, but some of her newborn size onsies are too small now, too! Dr Pattan said the newborn diapers look like they won't fit much longer, but we put a size one on her today and she swims in it. None the less, we'll be exchanging a lot of the newborn diapers Mommy stocked up on! Speaking of diapers, this little lady is no stranger to filling them! She had 7 poopy diapers today alone!!

She still has dark hair, and the jury is out on where it came from and whether or not she will loose it.

She's a great sleeper...during the day. Nights have been hit and miss. She sleeps about 3 hours at a time at night for the most part and 2 hours at a time during the day. Although, we've had a few nights where she needs to nurse every hour or so. Lots of pics sleeping thus far. We're trying to get more shots of those pretty deep blue eyes!

Back to the doctor in 2 weeks....Madison has her 2 year check up (FINALLY) then, too.

Pretty Toes

Part of Madison being a big sister is getting to do new things. As I mentioned, Mommy painted Madison's finger nails last week. Over the weekend she got her toes painted since big girls (Mommy and Gramm included) have pretty painted toes.

Check out Mommy and Madison's toes! She is so proud to show off her big girl 'pretty toe nails' to everyone!

First Bath

Friday evening while Daddy was sleeping (still sick) and Gramm and Madison were playing at Gymboree, Kennedy got her first bath. It was just a quick changing table bath with a washcloth and warm water since we still had to be careful of her umbilical cord. She didn't seem to mind it much. Mommy was a little nervous as Madison's first bathing experience was filled with screams!

Kennedy lost the rest of her umbilical cord Saturday night. So Monday morning Gramm helped Mommy give the girls their first bath together. Mommy held Kennedy down in the water while Gramm helped rinse her. The shared bubble bath lasted about 2 minutes then Madison got to continue on her own (with Gramm of course) while Mommy got Kennedy dressed.

Gramm also introduced Madison to the 'adugator' squirt gun during this bath! What a HIT!

Big Sister

Madison is still adjusting to her role as big sister. She has special books, toys, attire, and 'treats' that only big sisters get....not babies. One of her favorites is 'ice cream' snack in the afternoon. Yesterday she had 'orange ice cream' (aka orange sherbert) in an orange bowl, with one of her big sister bibs.

PS While Mommy was in the hospital Madison got a pretty bad bug bite on her cheek. Just like her Mommy, Madison's skin doesn't do well with bites. Her little cheek swelled up pretty big. The bite is going away nicely, but looks pitiful in all the recent pics.

Super Mom

Since Daddy is sick, Mommy set up camp on the sofa for a few nights. Kennedy's bassinet has a removable base, so she sleeps in the bassinet bed on the living room floor arms length from Mommy. We've done this two nights now and each one is better and better.

Madison has been in her 'big girl' toddler bed for a few months now. The biggest challenge has been Madison getting out of bed and wandering into our room in the middle of the night sometimes. We put a baby gate up in the hall so she can't cruise into the living room and start playing. These midnight runs are few and far between lately- but she does get up between 5-6am to climb into bed with someone and sleep a few more hours. Sometimes Gramm is the lucky one, usually it's Mommy.

Last night we left the gate down to encourage Madison to wander down the hall- bypassing sick Daddy's room, letting Gramm sleep, and coming into Mommy. Well, it worked. Doodle climbed onto the sofa with me at 6am. I was sitting up nursing Kennedy and it didn't even phase Madison. She climbed right into my lap (I was sitting indian style) and curled into a ball across my legs, then crashed out again. I just had to laugh. Sitting is still a bit uncomfortable since delivery so this 'weight' on my legs posed a bit of a problem leaning down to put Kennedy back in her temporary bed. As soon as I did, Madison stretched out over top of me. It's a good thing I can lay on my back again now!

Gramm managed to snap a few pics when Kennedy woke up an hour and a half later to eat again. This is Mommy-playing the role of 'Super Mom!'. tee hee

Big Sister Challenges

Madison was so excited to meet her new baby sister in the hospital...as you can see from the photos in our previous post. She just loved kissing and holding baby sister Kennedy. She even thru a fit in the hospital parking lot after one visit because Mommy and Kennedy were not going home with her. Gramm had to chase her thru the parking lot- very scary time!
Coming home was a whole different ball game. It wasn't until we nearly checked out of the hospital that Mommy realized this was the first time she'd spent a night away from Madison. Although Mommy and Madison both seemed to do fine with the 2 night separation, in the end it may have been worse than we thought.
Madison is really having trouble sharing Mommy with Kennedy. Today she wanted to sit with Mommy and watch a movie, but Kennedy was nursing. Madison sat on the side of the boppy and pushed on Kennedy's leg. She looked at Mommy and said, 'All done baby sister'.
Daddy decided to go back to work today (Friday) since Gramm is here to help. This proved to be a bad decision when Daddy came home sick at 10:30am. He spent the day in our room holding back the contents of his tummy from coming up. With a fever of 102 we decided to keep him far away from the girls. Unfortunately that leaves one less grown up to help Madison with the transition.
Noah and his Mommy, Angie came by this morning to play with the new big sister and meet Kennedy. They brought yummy brunch, too! Madison had a great time playing and it was nice to have some focus back on her and not just baby sister. Of course we forgot to take pics of our special visit.
Gramm took Madison to Gymboree tonight for play time with her buds Ryan and Spencer. Just before they left, Mommy took some big sister time to paint Madison's finger nails for the first time. She held her fingers apart all the way to the mall and showed everyone her 'pretty fingers'.
When they got home Madison had special big sister ni-night reading time with Mommy, then wanted to rock (which is normal bedtime procedure) while being craddled like a baby (which is NOT normal) to fall asleep. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

She's HERE!!

Kennedy Mae Shemenski made her grand appearance at 7:21pm on Tuesday the 19th. She was a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. The day was long and a little scary at times but we are all happy and healthy now....more details to come.

Here are a few pics from Mommy's camera. Birth thru 8/22.

Labor

Went to bed at 11:30 last night. Woke up every 45 minutes with anticipation (or a full bladder). Madison came in softly crying, 'Mommy' at 3:30. Went to the sofa at 4am...are those contractions?! Started timing contractions at 4:15. Matt finally got up. Headed to the hospital for 7am 'induction' but looks like Kennedy may be coming on her own.
Oh, and I had the dream again...she was born a boy.
Hugs and Kisses!

Happy Birthday Madison and Daddy!

Saturday was a great day in the Shemenski home. Miss Madison officially turned 2- sharing her second birthday with Daddy. It's so fun to see his face light up when he talks about sharing birthday adventures with his first little girl.

Thursday night Daddy put together Madison's new big girl kitchen from Gramm and Pop. Madison 'helped' a little bit before she went to bed. When she woke up Friday morning it was ready to play with. She ran into the dining room exclaiming, 'Madison's Kitchen! Madison's Kitchen!'. Mommy snuck a few birthday surprises in the kitchen (play food) so Madison could fully utilize her new favorite toy.

We waited until Saturday afternoon to finish opening presents from Mommy and Daddy and enjoy birthday cake. She thought it was so fun to blow out candles with Daddy. She even had her own miniature version of Daddy's cake. She loved her birthday cake. We snapped a few photos of her making silly faces while eating her cake.

Gramm got Madison balloons, including a HUGE #2 to help commemorate the day. She carried them all over the house all day long.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at Outback- Mommy, Daddy, Madison, and Gramm. It was a nice mellow day. Daddy was anticipating the news of contractions all day- hoping to share his birthday with both his little girls. No such luck- Kennedy decided not to make her appearance on the 16th. Sorry kids- no 'Shemenski trifecta' in this fam. :)

Click for birthday pics.

Kennedy is never coming out

Well, we are still one cm dialated. No new progress from Monday. We saw the new doctor in the practice for the first time today. She didn't know what we discussed with the other doctors previously. When we talked about inducing she said she wouldn't even discuss it until a few days after our original due date of August 19th. The other doctors assured us previously they would not allow us to go past the original due date. Dr Tan (the new doctor) talked about inducing next Friday, the 22nd if Kennedy isn't here. Mommy told her that was not acceptable and explained the previous promises. She looked at the schedule again and said she will induce on our original due date of August 19th if Kennedy is not here yet. She also informed us the doctor Mommy does not like is on call this weekend. In other words, if Daddy gets his wish of the girls both being born on August 16th, the mean and hateful doctor will have to deliver us.
Please keep praying for the safe delivery of Kennedy and Mommy's sanity. The later we deliver, the less help we get from Gramm. She has to go home August 31st.

Madison's first Carousel

Madison's first carousel ride was Sunday at Topanga Mall. Gramm saw how excited Madison was just to watch it go round and round, she HAD to take her for a ride. The tiger was Madison's animal of choice. Unfortunately, Mommy only had her cell phone for a quick video. Today we went back to Topanga and she got to ride her tiger again AND a rabbit too. She is still talking about her rides. We tried to break up the two rides with some playtime in the play area next to the carousel. Sneaky Madison stood on some of the animals so she could see over the play wall and watch the carousel. We got some great pics today. Enjoy!

39 or 40?

So, if you continue to guage from the original due date of August 19th, we are officially 39 weeks today. If you go with the last perinatologist appointment, Kennedy was measuring a due date of well...today. Putting us officially OVERdue AGAIN! Matt thinks its great. He wants both his girls to share his birthday-August 16th. Mommy is VERY against this. Shouldn't the girls each get their own day? Even if it is only a day apart?

None the less, we go to the doctor again tomorrow for a checkup.

Currently 1 cm dialated, 50-60% effaced.

Here is a pic Gramm took today before we left for day 3 of our 'walking the local malls' tour. Apparently walking the baby out doesn't work for us either.

Keep praying for a safe, quick (and soon!) delivery!

Mystery

Can you help us solve a mystery? UPS delivered this super cute snuggle blanket for our new baby girl (no she is not here yet). Unfortunately there was no card with the delivery. We have no idea who sent Kennedy her first monogrammed present.

If you sent this to us- please let us know. We LOVE her snuggle blanket and can't wait for her to see it.

Uncle Matt and Gramm

They FINALLY made it! Thursday, August 7th we anxiously waited all day for the arrival of Uncle Matt and Gramm. Gramm was flying in from FL. Uncle Matt happened to be in Phoenix for training at work all week. Gramm was to connect thru Phoenix and fly in on the same flight with Uncle Matt to arrive about 9:45pm in Burbank, CA. Needless to say, this did not happen. There were terrible monsoons in AZ which kept all the planes grounded. Around 11:30 Thursday night when they realized they weren't going anywhere- Gramm and Uncle Matt got a hotel near the airport for the night. They flew in Friday morning on the 10am flight. When they arrived in Burbank to pick up their rental car, the 'check engine' light went on in the car. Luckily they were finally able to get a working vehicle and drive to our house only 15 hours later than originally scheduled. We realized after they arrived at the house, the fine people in Arizona left their luggage on the tarmac all night. Lots of Uncle Matt's clothes were ruined (luckily American Eagle was having a GREAT sale) as were several of the books Gramm brought for Madison's birthday. We were so happy to finally have them here safe and sound. Now if only our little girl would make HER great arrival!!!

Madison just LOVES her Uncle Matt. She had such a great time chasing him around the house. Too bad he couldn't stay and play longer. He did help unpack all the pieces of Madison's new birthday kitchen before he left- but enjoyed pushing Madison around in the box instead of helping put all the million pieces together (Thanks a lot Uncle Matt- HA!). As he left he showed Madison how to wish on a dandilion. I think Uncle Matt wished to come back and see Madison soon. Check out more pics.

Mommy managed to convince Uncle Matt to pick her up for a few pics too. Mommy looks a LOT bigger in Uncle Matt's arms than she does standing up- Yikes!

Recent Madison Pics

Here are some pics from our recent summer adventures.

There are a few new ones from Gymboree play gym.

The ones in the pink and white shirt she was outside looking for her new friends- the roly poly bugs. She kept asking, 'where'd the rowy powys go?'. Daddy helped her find them one night when they were out front watering the grass. She loves to play with them and let them crawl all over her hands and arms. Much braver than her Mommy!

She helped Mommy wash Sierra one afternoon.

Daddy taught her how to 'be tall' and touch the ceiling.

She played in the garden while Daddy weeded and Mommy picked veggies, enjoyed a fudgesicle, and read ni-ni books with Daddy.

Madison LOVES to read now. She brings us her favorite books and reads them to us. She's memorized Goodnight Moon (which was supposed to be a present for baby sister from Aunt Dana), Queen Clara (a book Gramm and Pop brought back from London last year), and The Runaway Bunny. It's pretty cool to hear a not quite two year old 'reading' books. She's just so big!

Enjoy a few summer pics.

Labor update

We had another appointment today. Kennedy is starting to head south. She's officially measuring +2 station. This is the highest measuring point, but we've reached the measuring point none the less. Matt says she is noticably lower. We are 50% effaced but still not dialating. We didn't dialate w/Madison until we were officially in labor, so this doesn't really mean much. Dr Kim doesn't feel comfortable scheduling an induction at this point, so we go back again in a week (if she's not here yet). Gramm flies in tomorrow (THursday) night. With Madison, we went into labor the morning after Gramm arrived. Maybe Kennedy will follow suite. :)
Please pray for a safe delivery for our little girl. Mommy's had some pretty bad dreams lately, so pray, pray, pray!
Stay tuned for recent pics of our little Doodle, too!

Kennedy's Shower

Last night, July 31st was Kennedy's baby shower. Mommy's friends Sarah and Kelly got together and had a perfect wine and dessert night to celebrate our new little girl. Mommy had sparkling water w/lemon for the first time (thanks Kelly!) Kelly and Sarah got a special tiara that said 'Mommy to be', but it kept falling off so we only have a couple photos.

Everyone was so thoughtful and generous. We got lots of diapers, wipes, storage containers, baby wash...even a special foot pampering kit for Mommy. The only problem is...reaching my feet for any extended amount of time is pretty tough these days. HA!

Madison even got a few 'big sister' presents, including a special baby in a bathtub with all the bathing accessories, and a red hat box full of books, puzzles, and a cute outfit. Madison had a great time playing with her friend Noah while Mommy and the girls enjoyed each other's company.

Thank you to everyone who, once again, spoiled our girls!!!

Click for some pics.