Welcome Annie Madison

Welcome Annie Madison! Born December 19, 2016 at 2:56pm, 9lbs 7 oz and 20 1/4 inches! 

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Paul left for the first night to stay with Emma. So, he brought big sister, Emma in to meet Annie the next morning! It was to this day the sweetest memory of my life. She walked in so calmly and sweetly. She saw me holding Annie and just smiled and walked right over, hugged my arm and looked at her so sweetly. Due to the C-Section I needed to walk around the hospital wing, so we let Emma push Annie around and it was the cutest and best thing ever!!! 

I wish she could've stayed longer. 

I missed this sweet girl dearly. This hospital stay was much different and lonelier. (Sorry, my kids are good sleepers thanks to being bigger babies!) 

I think I knew this was my last pregnancy, so I needed one final pregnancy photo to cherish, even though I didn't enjoy being pregnant that much. I just enjoy the end and holding those babies! 

I had gestational diabetes with Annie, so I needed to be induced a week before her due date, hooray for no Christmas baby! ;) Her due date was December 26th! Emma's due date was December 21st, so I thought baby #2 would be early, nope! Monday, December 19th was my date to be induced. I was having a lot of pains the night before, so I thought she may come on her own, I was wrong. We got to the hospital and they didn't want to start inducing me until I spoke with the doctor. Paul and I left the house at 5:30am, so I ate a Luna bar, knowing I'd need some energy. Well, the doctor came and said due to the last ultra sound there was a chance she could be broad due to gestational diabetes, so if she got stuck at the shoulders, there was a chance she could break her collar bone or be paralyzed in her arm, so C-Section was mentioned. I was not happy about it and was completely anti-surgery, well just because that's me - freak out central account doctors, equipment, needles, etc! So, due to me having one Luna bar, we had to wait awhile before surgery, so 1pm was the time. Then the anxiety just got prolonged with surgery. They finally took me back just before 3. It today was a bit traumatizing to me. I can still feel the motion of him cutting me open, seeing the blood on the curtain (me and blood don't go well together, haha) and my arm was feeling numb, which started to freak me out. Some people think C-Sections are the way to go, but not me! Plus, not having Paul there for most of the time post delivery was difficult, because I had to rely on nurses more than I would've liked to due to the surgery. It was rather difficult to get Annie when she needed to be fed since I was alone and not supposed to get up for awhile, so I finally had the nurses take her to the nursery, because I'd rather someone bring her to me, then wait 15 plus minutes for the nurses to come get her for me while she cried the whole time. I didn't like listening to her cry and feel helpless. It helped motivate me to do all those hospital laps that I did post delivery! 

Emma 21 Months to 24 Months

Due to not having all my photos of Emma's first two years at my fingertips... she was going to be a big sister soon, so we stayed busy with Mommy and Emma time! Mimi Marcia painted Annie's bedroom walls, then I painted an old dresser that Paul got from a friend. Emma noticed baby things everywhere, but never seemed bothered by it! 

More Photos to come...

Emma: 18 Months - 21 Months

She loves the book "The Mitten" that my cousin gave her. The big bear sneezes, she she is trying to read the "Ah-coooo" page! It was the cutest thing ever! 

Emma loved her lessons with Miss Mary and still talks about Miss Mary 2 years later! 

Paul's sister Bianca got married in Colorado, so we spent a week out there between Golden and Fort Collins, where Tim, Katie and the cousins live. We did get to see my cousin Heidi, Chad and her boy, Conner for lunch one day! Emma and Conner are 7 months apart, so it was fun to see them interact. It's never enough time with her, I miss spending Holiday and summer days with my cousins. 

We had a rental home, so the park across the street provided hours of entertainment for Emma! It was a perfect little park and beautiful weather too! 

Emma 16 Months - 18 Months

Emma started Swim Lessons at 18 Months with Lindsay Neuman, my childhood friend and her mom taught privates later in the summer! Emma loves the water and has no fear, scary combination here where pools are everywhere, so good swimming skills is extremely important to us! 

Emma: 12 Months - 16 Months

Year 2: Dec. 4th 2015 - April 2016

This year Emma started full blown walking around her first birthday. 

Her first time meeting Santa and didn't cry. Who doesn't love Santa?! ;) That's my girl! 

Paul got rear ended coming home from Hockey late at night, so we got a rental (before our Temecula trip) and got the Challenger! My new dream car!!!! Emma was cracking us up with her head jamming in the back seat while we cruised around one morning! Seriously loved driving this car! I like having a mom car/mid size SUV, but I think I am deep down a car girl, still holding out for the convertible one day. ;) Just like my daddy. 

"I believe I can fly", I mean dunk! She likes playing basketball! <3

Strolling on the Farm grounds at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert while visiting with the IA friends in town. She just ran around for hours. 

First pig tails. <3

This was the first time I got to take Paul to my home town. This place holds a special place in my heart. We may have moved to AZ when I was 2, but we spent time there every summer growing up. More hours then I could ever count were spent riding through Buxton park/Simpson college on bikes with grandpa and sometimes grandma too. Emma enjoyed smelling all the beautiful flowers on the grounds of Simpson College (where my McGraw grandparents went, my parents, my dad's brothers, my mom's brother and 3 of my 4 IA cousins attended there as well!). I often thought I was going to go to college in IA (Hawkeye of course, sorry Harts) after the first year or two at the UofA, but Tucson stole my heart and so did all my friends I made there! We stayed with the Harts at the beginning of the trip, who took us to some wonderful bars in downtown Des Moines, but we just found out I was pregnant days before we left, so I was sober the whole trip. Good thing I enjoy my people! :) We finished the trip by staying with the Zimmermans in Indianola, showing Paul some of our "hot spots" and celebrating their son, Ian's wedding! Paul and I discovered a winery not too far from their home, so next time we will be making a stop there! :) The weather was beautiful and the company was as good as always! I love our Iowa people, they are such wonderful friends and their kids my age are just as wonderful! (I did start getting sick at the end of the trip, so that was not very fun! Only the Harts and Zimmermans made comments on me not drinking, but my parents did not figure it out, so we were able to surprise everyone about the pregnancy at a later time!) 

We got to meet up with my McGraw cousins (aka the Waterloo girls) and some of their children! We were just missing Tyler and his family. It's always so great to see my cousins, such wonderful memories during our summers in Iowa and AZ growing up always keep them close to my heart. I wish we lived closer, but appreciate the times we get to pick up where we left off!

Emma's First Year Memories

Emma's 1st Year (since I became terrible at updating this I thought I better just do a first year post). She is literally the BEST baby ever! She sleeps like a champ, rarely is fussy, doesn't really have teething symptoms and is just so darn happy. :) She makes becoming parents SO easy and I couldn't have had a more perfect first year. Sorry for the lack of photos (current computer is limited)!

Mimi Marcia helped me make these letters - let's be honest, she did it all, I just helped pick the embellishments. The bedding was my favorite thing in her room. I loved the fabric, so bought extra to cover a small pillow, create bow boards, etc! I'll be so sad when it's time to give it away. 

She loved her swing and would take naps like a champ in it while we made lots of noise nearby! 

She got to play with Mimi once a week just by herself. We are so grateful that Mimi got this time with her the first two years and gave her all the love she did. 

Started crawling 7-6-2015, 7 months old! 

She finally realizes she is waving at herself. 💗

We were playing cards with Oma and Papa Brennan one night and she didn't want to go to sleep. For some reason we all started cracking up when we saw how serious she was being. True gaming competitor right there! Ha ha! 

This bear (Mr. Bear) was a gift from a broker at my dad's office, who we've known for a long time, Dick Tatlow. It was Emma's favorite along with Coco (pink and brown dog with blanket). 

Her first Birthday was spent going to Neil's mother's funeral (Paul's friend Neil from work, wonderful and sweet family), then we had family over for cupcakes and ice cream to celebrate this special girl!

Happy 1st Birthday Emma Elizabeth! 

We have had the worst luck with computers in this family. I lost pictures from the first few weeks on my old real estate laptop that crashed and can't be fixed. Then we were lucky to have my mom's old laptop handed down, which didn't last more than 6 months, those pictures were transferred to a new (cheap) laptop, thanks to Paul wanting to always spend smart on large items. (I appreciate it, but this time we got what we paid for. It doesn't work well, hence me not uploaded a ton of photos that we have from year one! Boo!) Let's hope we have some better luck going forward! 

I took the full 3 months of maternity leave from my job at Wells. Then I was able to take most Fridays off for awhile. We found a babysitter from word of month that stayed with us for Emma's first year and half. Emma was happy, so we were content. Once I started working 40 hours a week and coming home during nap time, then feeding her dinner and putting her down for bed, I felt like I missing so much, so it was either I start working with my dad or move on. Wells didn't make it a very good chance for that to happen, so I vented to a good friend and it just so happened her brother in law was looking to hire in the financial industry! So, we were leaving for San Diego and he called me on our drive. I did my interview the following week and submitted my two weeks soon after! I have been incredibly lucky to have landed my amazing position with Acute here in Mesa! I get to stay in the industry, work part time and also work from home some of the time! My company consists of such wonderful, nice, funny and hard working people, who I couldn't appreciate more! 

Emma was a great eater, she loved napping, slept 8+ hours from within her first week on. We were able to still go out to dinners while she'd sleep in her carrier, traveling was a breeze! Date nights were frequent with Mimi and Papa Herr babysitting often! Thank you! Then we got to go to Temecula for a quick one night trip thanks to Oma and Papa Brennan watching Emma at 3 months before I headed back to work! Holidays were a bit hectic between visiting both families for Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, but we love spending time with both our families, so it's hard to pass up those memories for now. We didn't celebrate her first Halloween due to having my gallbladder out and 3 hernias (2 groin ones were found, thank goodness) repaired. My OB with Emma told me I was just experiencing normal hormones making my body go back to usual due to nursing for so long. Ladies - always go with your gut and don't settle. Well, finally after sharp pains, I went to my general doctor, who found kidney stones, gallstones and an umbilical hernia. I had an MRI done for a groin hernia, which showed nothing, luckily my surgeon decided to balloon me up and look around and found two, I'm so grateful, because I can walk pain free again! I felt like such a weirdo when just pain walking was so painful, like nothing I've ever experienced. Anyway, I wasn't as mobile or active as I would've liked to have been post pregnancy this first year, but it is what it is and we had a lot of fun! I loved watching Paul become a dad and have some passion in his life, making his little girl smile and laugh! This is what life is all about - laughing, smile and love.

We're expecting!!!!

That's right! I had a sneaky suspicion I was pregnant before I even got a positive pregnancy test result. My chest was killing me before I even took a positive pregnancy test! We went to Allison and Craig's baby shower that Saturday and I had taken a negative test, so when people kept asking if I was pregnant yet I said no honestly, because I am the WORST at keeping secrets/surprises!!!

I tend to ramble (a lot) and give too many details... so I apologize for the extremely long posts. Might as well give you a heads up to get your snacks and beverages handy while you ready through this! :)

Spreading the news:
So, Paul, his parents and I were discussing taking a trip to Alaska in June on a motorcycle! I knew we would have to revisit this whole idea now that we knew I was pregnant. Paul didn't see anything wrong with me still going. The Doctor advised against it and Kelly said she wouldn't do it. Thank goodness we didn't still plan on it, because I was so sick and it would've been a miserable time for me - therefore Paul too! So, the day after I found out my dad wanted to go to the branch manager and tell him that I was only going to work for him, I told him let's hold off on that and he asked why and I just said, just because. I couldn't tell him yet, because Paul and I decided to tell our parents around 8 weeks, but then this made me realize I should probably explain why I told my dad "lets wait" and we wanted his parents to know why we weren't doing the motorcycle trip. The next day I went to my audiologist after work and showed up at my mom's crying, because the audiologist wasn't very helpful with my hearing aid situation (they kept whistling even without a hand up by my ear causing feedback), then she just said, "well if you think of anything let me know"! I just started crying and she felt bad, but not bad enough to fix the hearing aid. So, I left upset. (They are expensive and it stinks to have paid so much and have so many issues!!! I've never had issues like this in the past with my old audiologist or hearing aids (she says I got lucky - really? 15 years of lucky??), so I get pretty upset and frustrated when I can't hear normal - well my kind of normal, ha.) Anyway, I told my mom the whole hearing aid fiasco and she felt bad, then I told her about how dad wanted me to quit working for the branch and just work for him, but I wasn't sure that was the best thing to do at this time and that I didn't know what to do (was crying at this point). When she asked why, I told her I was pregnant and started crying all over again! Ha. She was so happy, so that made me happier despite my extreme frustration with my hearing aids. Then on Good Friday I went to Tucson with Cheryl and Lauren Valledor. I grew up watching Lauren and her older brother, so was so excited to join them for a UofA tour!!! I even showed Lauren the Gamma Phi house afterwards. We went to Frog's for lunch and it was fabulous, I so wanted to tell them I was pregnant, but Paul and I agreed to wait on telling friends until we told our parents. So, then I dropped Cheryl and Lauren off and went to my parents' house again. My dad, mom and Mckaley were in the backyard. I looked at my dad and said, you know how you want me to work for you, well I don't think that the timing is good, because I'm pregnant quietly so Mckaley couldn't hear, I couldn't tell her before my brother and plus it was too early to tell her. My dad started laughing and hugging me. I finally felt relived to tell both of them, like I said I'm the WORST at keeping secrets, so keeping this secret made me a little grumpy/irritable sometimes, I think! Ha. I felt like I was lying all the time! So, that weekend I met up with Allison and Ashley at Scottsdale Fashion Square. I wanted to tell them so bad or at least Al, but I kept chickening out! Al was still pregnant at this time with Ellie! So, I'd sometimes ask random questions and kept smiling weirdly during the whole afternoon. I kept hanging out and shopping with them, hoping I'd work up the courage to finally tell them. Ha. Allison later told me that she thought I was that day, but never said anything, so ignored it. I later asked her to stop by after her baby shower in Mesa that month. When she came by, I was 5 weeks and told her! I forget how I brought it up, but she started crying and said she knew it and Craig (her husband) told her she was crazy for guessing that's why I wanted her to stop by! (She knows me so well!) I told her I was feeling really well and she warned me that morning sickness creeps up around 6 weeks... I told her I was feeling great, so wasn't worried! ... Whoa. Then towards the end of week 5 I was feeling bad/extremely nauseous! The throwing up didn't come until week 7, I believe. Then I was throwing up every day, I was looking on Pinterest for every home remedy to cure morning sickness! I especially wasn't a fan of puking at work! I finally told my brother at work early June, because I couldn't keep the secret anymore! He was pretty excited/happy for us and it was sweet of him to show it. I told my co-worker, Linda, earlier too, because she was having a hard time at work and I thought it would cheer her up. She was an older women who had been the office receptionist for many years, back when I would come visit my dad during high school. I'm so glad I got to tell her, because in the middle of June she passed away. My heart felt happy that I happened to share the news and get a big hug from her before she passed. She was a very sweet lady and we got along great... So, we slowly started telling our family in May/June and friends too. I could tell you when and where I told each person, but that would get boring! ;)

• Kimee - nail salon getting pedicures before she left for her residency in WA.
• Emily - Postino's for her late birthday treat.
• Hamrocks, Millers and the rest of the Herrs got the hear the news at my brother's birthday celebration via a card that read "to the coolest Uncle". Sarah looked at it and got it right away, Jay man was pretty confused, but caught on once Sarah clapped and hugged me! Ha. 
• Paul got to tell his siblings, except for Tim, since I called Katie up. When I told her she was shocked and kept saying "can I tell her, can I tell her" - then I said "you are too, huh?!?!?" So, Tim and Katie told me they were expecting and their due date was 6 days before ours! Whoa!!! How cool! - Annabelle was born two days after Emma! :)
• The Weeks all found out after Ellie was born and I kept texting Allison while she was in the hospital. Allison's sister read one of Al's text's aloud and then one of them happened to be about me being pregnant (because I had been pretty sick at this point and was wanting to get up there to visit her, but was having a hard time getting there due to feeling sick). Ha. Glad they got to have that moment of finding out together, so I'm glad Ashley read Al's text. :) I'll just make sure never to text Allison about a surprise party or something for Ash! Ha.
• Tessie - we kept playing phone tag and missing each other, so on Mother's day, I sent her a text wishing her a happy mother's day from one mom to another! She wrote back that she was jumping up and down after church with excitement and hoping Navy would decide to come out from all that jumping around (Navy decided to arrive late and was born the next day!).
• Mary (Paul's sister) - she invited me to a Women's expo downtown Phoenix with her friend, so I went and of course they were handing out little beverages and I offered mine to Mary. She knows me well and when she realized I was giving them to her, I finally explained, yes - I can't have those because I'm pregnant! She was so sweet about it and excited for us! 

So, now the news is (was) out! Wednesday, April 16th the day we found out we were pregnant! I took a few tests before then due to my suspicion and happened to call Allison earlier that week and told her how I thought it was hilarious that I pulled out a used pregnancy test in the bag of unused tests she gave me! She said Craig wanted to keep one and then asked why I was going through those. I told her I was organizing and putting them somewhere else. Then she said, well when you do take one, make sure it's in the morning. Good to know since I kept taking them after work. So, as I was giving Paul a kiss goodbye that morning, he asked what the test said and I said, what test and how did he know. He said he heard me opening one. Ha. Man, that boy has some good ears!!! So, I told him and he was so happy, but then I had to go to work, so it wasn't the most fun way to give him the news. But I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it in all day until he got home late that night, so it was probably best that I told him before I left for work! :)


Cute story - after I got home from having lunch and shopping with Allison and her sister, Ashley, Paul was looking up baby names! :) We had a lot of boy names and very few girls names. I thought it was sweet he was already looking into names for our baby.