Time for some visual stimulation

Gracie loves her time on her play mat... especially the two red objects and the little mirror. Little did she know she would get the added stimulation of her brother on her mat with her.

I had to warn him a couple times that he had to be more gentle but otherwise he thought it was just great to share the time with his sister.

Bath time!

Jack is such a great big brother. Ignore the fact that he's still too young to care about being quiet while she's sleeping and he's just great. No, really, he just loves her. We've taught him that she has to be awake for him to give her hugs and kisses otherwise he would give them to her constantly, whether it woke her up or not. He calls her "baby girl" and is always asking to hold her on the sofa. He even tries to put toys and rattles in her hand.

So, with all this in mind you can only imagine how excited he was when it was time to give Grace a bath! I quickly had to give him the task of "rinsing" her tummy with the cup. Otherwise I'm not sure what he would have tried to do. :-) He was so good at it. He even helped me rinse out the tub and run fresh water when she decided to poop during her bath. Yes poop. Not once, but twice. But we got her clean with a lot of help from Jack!

Not fair!

I tell you, it just isn't fair. How can a newborn already have a cold? At least Jack is learning to share, right?

But seriously, she's 3 weeks old today and she's been sick for 2/3 of her life. It just doesn't seem right. I finally broke down on Friday and took her to the doctor since the cold just wasn't clearing up and you'll never guess... she has an ear infection!!!

So here's my darling daughter, she's had a head cold for most of her life and now she has an ear infection. But what amazes me is that she's still so good!! She sleeps well (except for the congestion interfering), she's in good spirits most of the time and she only cries when something it truly wrong.

I can't wait to meet who my daughter really is once she isn't sick anymore.

Gracie is 2 weeks old

And just as cute as can be!

Best Big Brother Ever

A little history... We call Jack "Baby Boy" (always have) and so logic says that we call Gracie "Baby Girl."

We just got home from picking Jack up at daycare and he wanted to help get Gracie out of her carrier. So Eric got her unbuckled and Jack "helped" pick her up. Well Grace had been passed out cold in the car seat and when she got picked up she let out a little whimper. Jack says "hush hush, what's wrong Baby Girl?"

How cute is he?

Welcome to the world Grace!

Welcome Grace Sophia Redcay!

So sometime around midnight on Sunday night I started to get contractions. But they weren't anything fantastic so I pretty much slept through them. Around 2am I decided to start timing them and they were about 8 minutes apart. By 7am when we all got out of bed (leave it to Jack to sleep in on THIS day) they were 5 to 6 minutes apart. I got in the shower, then Eric howered and we were at the hospital by 9:30.

Apparently I didn't look like I was in labor so the nurses almost gave me a hard time about being there. The one nurse was downright snotty because I hadn't called my doctor for him to tell me to come in. Uh thanks but it's 9:30 and my contractions are 2 to 4 minutes apart, I'm pretty darn sure I'm about to have this baby. Dummy. Anyway, they hooked me up and sure enough, now they believe me. And I was at 3 cm. The one admitting nurse that I really liked popped her head in and asked me to rate the contractions on a scale of 1 to 10 and I told her 7. She just smiled and said that I was her pain hero. I guess that means I have a high threshold for pain? They admitted me by 10:30 and the contractions were no more than a minute apart. I walked
the hallways and my room for about an hour and just couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural. Eric and Leah agreed that I had put in my dues and if I wanted it that I earned it. Well, once again there wasn't enough time. The nurse couldn't find a vein to put the IV in and my blood work hadn't even been run when the doctor came in to check on me because she was on her way to do a c-section. I was in the middle of a contraction and she was going to leave without
checking how dialated I was (in her defense, I hadn't really been there that long I don't think she knew how close I was) but I managed to ask her to check me right in the middle of my contraction (all back labor again. ugh). She checked and I was at 9 cm and Graces head was
right there. So she told the nurse to stop trying for the IV because I was going to be ready to push before the conversation was over. The doctor left to get ready and to postpone her c-section, I managed (barely) through a few more contractions that made me want to jump out
of my skin. The doctor got back and she wanted me to try a practice push. Practice! Ha! That was the first push. She told me that when the next contraction came to "get angry and push" (LOL!) so I did. Out came Grace. Two pushes. (Yay me!) All 8 lbs 2 ounces of her. Yikes, I really had no idea she would be that big.

So not only was my little daughter too stubborn to listen to all of us and be born early in August (little stinker waited until Sept 1) but then when she came out she also wanted to wave HI to the world and brought her hand out next to her face. Little stinker, she must be my kid.

I'll save you all the details of what needed to be fixed up on me but all in all I actually feel really good. And so far so good with the breastfeeding!