The Sierra and Eve Show

July 1, 2015

Grammy Anne's Birthday

Eve's 12 days old

Sierra's 11 days away from 2 years old

Today was Grammy's birthday and her girlfriends were all having a get-together to celebrate this morning. The thoughtful person that Anne is, she invited Eve and I to come along since Sierra and Gus were in Davis for the past two days. Eve took a nap while we had our brunch. She eats three times in a row (hopefully doesn't spit it up), has to be held upright for 30 minutes after, with at least two burpings, and then takes monster naps. The ladies were all wonderful this morning. It was great to see how warm, welcoming, accepting, and loving this group of friends were together. Thick as thieves, a saying that Gus always uses. 

Gus had two dental appointments to go to and dropped Sierra off at her old daycare for two hours for one of them. She was able to spend time with her old buddy, Matthew, while she was there. Afterwards, he met up with all of our friends and their kids at Sudwerks. By chance, Matthew and his family ended up showing up there too. So five 2 year olds were pretty much occupying one corner of the brewery. Afterwards Sierra was able to spend some extra quality time with Ariana. So while I was hanging out with Anne and Jerry at dinner, Sierra and her very best friend Ariana were playing together in Davis as Gus was enjoying Eric and Sophia's company.  

Sierra was so happy to spend the night at Auntie giggles house, and get to spend the day with her and Gus. She cuddled all morning with her while Gus was at his second dental appointment. Later on they went swimming at the UC Davis Rec pool together. So much fun! I had been looking forward to this trip for Sierra. I knew she would just have a blast seeing all of her friends again. I know we will start meeting friends for her here, but that will just take some time. 

Grandpa Jer Bear was able to spend some quality time with Eve when we came over for dinner the other night. So adorable. Grammy Anne also got in some good holding time with Eve, and has obviously been taking her arm day seriously when it comes to her biceps!

Although I am sure this is slightly out of order in terms of dates, Great Grandma enjoyed the visit we had to her apartment and was able to get to hold Eve. I was able to read to both of my girls at the same time, and I felt so much love from them. Grammy Anne and I went to the Woodward park library for an event for Sierra (singing and dancing) before visiting. Sierra had SO much fun. She was jumping and cheering the whole time. Anne and I thoroughly enjoyed watching her enthusiasm. Gus was on a 2.5 day camping trip at Mono Hot Springs with Jerry and some other friends from the area. Yes, I encouraged him to go, even though looking back it might have been a lot for me to take on alone being 5 days post-partum (good thing for those helpful neighbors!).

One of Sierra's birthday gifts came! Personally my favorite one (and I think her's too). We have already given her the other ones (cowgirl boots, toy cars, and tumbling lessons start the week of her birthday). She can swing everyday for 30 minutes plus and not get bored.

I made her a play table, with Gus' help, for her toy kitchen supplies and paints. Here she is using her finger paints.

We took a family trip down to the San Joaquin one morning when we had some good cloud cover. Sierra is getting much better at scrambling over boulders and really enjoyed getting in the river with daddy.

Eve and Sierra were gifted a pair of sunglasses for the forth of July from our family friend Nancy, she has also given us plenty of art supplies for Sierra to use. We're so lucky!

Our new addition is well loved!

Auntie Lala enjoyed her time with baby Eve while she was out visiting.

Auntie Lyn (Giggles) was happy to meet her too!

Grammy enjoyed her cuddle-time with the new girl too. Although we didn't snap any pictures of Pop-pop or Auntie Crystal with baby Eve they both visited in the hospital too.

Most of all, big sister, Sierra was super sweet and caring to her new sister.

Daddy was happy and proud of his new bundle of joy. He helped me tremendously throughout the labor.

Sweet baby, Eve. The labor and delivery was excellent. We came in on June 18 at 3:30pm for a scheduled induction. I was given a cervical ripening medication and labor pretty much started happening on it's own a few hours later. My water broke and then things really picked up. I went until about 3:30am before I decided to have an epidural. Once again, I'm so glad I did. I might have lasted longer if it wasn't so late at night, but honestly I was very happy with how everything progressed throughout the whole labor. The nurses were great and the doctor was awesome. They were very accommodating to my post-partum wishes too. They put her directly on me, delayed the umbilical cord clamping by almost 15 minutes, allowed Gus and I to cut the cord, and post-poned the bathing and measurements for quite a few hours. I was very happy with everything. Even though we were extremely happy with everything, we wanted to be with Sierra again, and get our family rhythm going as soon as possible. We ended up leaving the hospital on June 20 before noon. What a wonderful Father's Day gift for Gus and my dad to be able to hold this little cutie in their arms!?

We went for some adventures before delivery. Tamarack Ridge was a perfect spot to hike with Sierra. Essentially a fire road.

Sierra has been loving her new chair that she was given for an early birthday gift from Grammy. She loves to make her's and Eve's into a fort.

We went for a hike before it got too hot one morning.

A waiting game

June 14, 2015

3 days past due, without signs of going into labor. Ah, the familiar tale. I am definitely not alone in this game, since many women go over by a week or more. I am definitely not thrilled about it though. It's hard to say if the past few days have been psychologically draining or if this pregnancy has finally caught up to me. It hasn't helped, being 100 + degrees, but I have been extremely taxed since the passing of June 11. Tired, nauseous, and achy (more so than before). We had our final prenatal visit on June 12, and found out that I am 1 cm and effaced but not ripe... not that it would make any difference truly. It seems that the contractions are the only thing that are a sure bet that labor is immanent. I have gained 27 pounds of weight this pregnancy which is one pound under what I said I wanted my "max" to be. Since I started 8 pounds heavier this time and gained 36 pounds last time, I thought that was a reasonable goal.

In the mean time, Gus has been hard at work on all of the manual labor projects around the property. One big one was the fence around the place, Mike, him and Jerry worked on that for about 2 weeks. They did a phenomenal job with it too. My dad was in town and helped with a few light fixtures and groceries. Jerry put two up as well. Anne has helped several times with watching Sierra when Gus and I have had doctor's appointments and the hospital tour (we even got dinner afterwards). It's actually really nice living next door to my in-laws! They have helped with so much! I've been able to keep up with household chores a lot better than when I was working, even with taking care of Sierra. I was able to manage to cook a bunch of prepared meals for post-delivery, paint the bathroom, and remove an ugly border around the top of the kitchen ceiling. Keeping up with Sierra is a full-time venture, especially with my energy levels dipping. We have checked out the school playgrounds, and the library quite a bit. I've tried getting together with other parents/kids in the area without success. People are just so spread out here (in mountain/foothill communities) it makes it difficult. We have made it up to Shaver Lake twice and Dinky Creek once already though, which have both been hits for Sierra. Gus and I decided to "give her" tumbling lessons as a birthday gift along with a bucket swing so she has more things to do. We try to take our walks early in the morning before 8am so she doesn't get too hot. Bath time has also become a 30-45 minute activity with the weather being so hot. The small pool we picked up at the grocery store has gotten a fair share of usage, about every other day as well.

Otherwise, we're just trying to finish up those last minute things before Eve decides to get here... as for me I'm just trying to keep my sanity and remember how joyous being pregnant is.