3 Minutes of My Day

Here is a glimpse into what my day is like at times...

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Don't you love the "nipples" comments by Luke - geez!

Yesterday morning, Wally told me to sleep a little bit longer and he came downstairs with the kids. This is what I came down to :)

A daddy and kids watching Mickey Mouse!

PSA

Hey Everybody!


Did you know that...


They definitely are! And who cares if they go straight to my thighs...


My mommy says she likes me nice and chubby :)


So eat up :)

Cool Points...

lost!

Convenience points...gained!

We did it - we are the proud (yes, proud!) owners of a minivan!


After much research and discussion, we decided on the Chrysler Town & Country.


We are really happy with our purchase, as we should be, especially after spending almost 6 hours at the dealership yesterday.


We traded in Wally's Tucson which we have been having issues with since the beginning of the year. It died (and started back up) on us about 4 times on our way to the dealership. And wouldn't you know, as they were appraising it, it kept dying on them too. We sort of played it cool like we didn't know what was going on (we really don't know why it was doing it) and still got more than I expected from a dying car, but who knows what we could have gotten if it would have just started one more time on the lot - ugh!

So here we are with a fully-loaded van! We figured this van will be with our family for many, many years so we might as well get everything we want.


Look at all the room for my stroller and groceries, etc.


Where are the seats??? It's a stow-and-go. All of the seats fold down into the van so we don't have to take them out EVER! (Wally was in the house and I couldn't figure out how to put the headrests down - the back seats lay flat when done correctly!)


Headed to a tailgate? We have the perfect seats :) (Again the headrests need to be down)


Long road trip and need to occupy the kids? There are 3 DVD players in the van. They can even play different movies at the same time!


You have no idea (well except those of you with a minivan) how much easier this vehicle has just made my life :)


And those minivan-haters out there, you just wait until you ride in this vehicle, you will be hurrying out to buy your own...LOL!


I will post a picture once the car seats and kids are put in! That is if Luke will sit in his seat, he has been having too much fun climbing around inside of it and watching movies while Wally figures out how everything works so he can teach me!

This is where these 2 were most of the morning...

3 Weeks and a Silly Brother

Another week has come and gone...time is going too quickly already!

Paige is still a wonderful baby!


She is showing us her eyes more and more everyday.


We are dealing with some baby acne right now. It seemed to show up overnight and hopefully it will go away just as quickly.

From about 6 PM until bedtime, she tends to cluster feed (which helps with the sleeping longer stretches so I don't complain!) and fusses in between. She is quiet and content pretty much all day so we don't mind the little bit of fussiness. She really just wants to be held and talked to and then she is happy!

Paige is still sleeping and nursing like a champ. She still only wakes once a night. She sleeps swaddled up and usually around 2 or 3, I can hear her grunting and groaning trying to get her arms out. I undo the velcro and let her stretch where she usually gives us a nice big poop - ha! Wally changes her and then hands her over to eat. She goes right back down when she is done and sleeps for another 4-5 hours. We still haven't had a 'bad' night (knock on wood!).

My pretty, happy baby!


And her silly brother who can't get enough "bull rides" from Daddy these days!

Comparisons

We are often asked if Paige looks like Luke as a baby or we are told that she does or doesn't look like Luke did. It is so funny to hear how everyone has a different opinion on this.

I thought I would post a few pictures of the 2 of them and let you decide.

Luke will be on the left and Paige on the right.




Then there is my newborn picture. I have heard a few times that she looks like me...time will tell.

Weekend in LP

Paige made her first trip to La Salle - Peru last weekend. Wally had his brother's bachelor party on Saturday night so I decided that we might as well all go along for the ride.

Paige and Luke both slept the whole way in the car. Hooray for good car babies!

Friday night we hung out and stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Zukowski's.

Luke and Grandpa are always playing something!


And this Grandma couldn't get enough of her granddaughter!


Paige met her Uncle Pat for the first time - yes, that's right. UNCLE Pat - Emmy and Pat got engaged yesterday!!! Yay - so happy for them!


Saturday the kids and I stopped at my grandparents' house so they could meet Paige!




And Great Grandpa talked trucks with Luke!


She was also able to meet her Uncle Steve and Aunt Cindy. Yes, Aunt Cindy! Steve and Cindy also got engaged recently. Lots of family weddings coming up :)


Then we headed to Grammy and Papa's for the rest of our visit. Luke couldn't wait for Ben to come over to play with him. He kept 'calling' him on the phone asking him to come and play.

So here they are!




That night we ordered some chicken from John's North Star and then walked down to Twisty for some ice cream.

Sunday we headed to church and relaxed until we headed home with 2 tired kids.

Watching Mickey Mouse with Papa




Check out the racerback - so cute!


And one final picture - a Grammy and her grandbabies!

How's Luke Doing?

That is a question we are frequently asked these days!



Well, in short, he is doing really great! The first week with him was a breeze. As I mentioned before, he cared just enough about his sister and then would be on his way playing.

Week 2 went a little differently (maybe he realized she wasn't going anywhere!). Luke was still very sweet to his sister, but he was beginning to act out a bit and had a couple of potty accidents. He would also lay on her playmat, pretend cry and ask us to pick him up.

So far this week has been better though. Luke is most definitely getting enough attention. It certainly helps to have Wally home with us and Luke has still been going to Punky's on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That ends this week when he will stay home with us for the next 3 weeks until Wally returns to school. Then he will be on a Monday and Wednesday schedule until I return to work. He loves going there and not once has he put up a fight about it.

Luke also had a first this week - he went to his first movie! While I was sad to not be there with him and Wally, I was sure to get a picture of him before he left.



You may be able to tell from his shirt what movie they went to - Cars 2! He has been REALLY into Cars lately. I think we have like 3 Lightning McQueen cars, Maters in all different sizes (small toy car, bubble maker for the bathtub, and a Mater golf game), Finn McMissile, etc.

Wally said Luke was awesome during the movie. He was a little antsy standing up and sitting down, but always staying in front of his seat. He also shouted out all of the cars names in the beginning! He was flying high when he got home (or maybe that was the popcorn, lemonade, and candy he had - which of course cost WAY more than the actual movie itself!).

So, again, Luke is doing really great. He is acting exactly as you would expect a 2 1/2 year old whose world changed to act. I feel like Wally and I are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing though in helping him transition.

(I want to say that everything seems so rosey and well here in the Zukowski house. And really it is, but I won't lie and tell you that I am not terrified about what will happen when Wally goes back to work and golf season starts and I am left alone a lot with 2 kids - yikes!)

2 Weeks Already

Paige was 2 weeks this past Saturday and is still as sweet as pie!



Here is her birth announcement that was sent out last week. The pictures were taken when she was 5 days old. She already looks so different to me - crazy!



I LOVE seeing her name on paper! Wally and I agreed on the name Paige pretty quickly after we found out we were having a girl. This name wasn't even in the mix for us when I was in labor with Luke and didn't know if we were having a girl or a boy. We stayed open-minded throughout the remainder of this pregnancy though just in case another name came to us we liked better - nothing compared to Paige! The middle name Lauren is after my mom (Laurie).



Paige has a few 'nicknames' already. Luke refers to her as Baby Paige all the time. Wally calls her Paigey Paige and I have been calling her Paigey Poo after her poop "incident", but mostly she is just Paige or Paigey.

She is still a wonderful sleeper. Our routine hasn't changed much since week 1. She goes down between 9:30 and 10, wakes between 2-3 to eat and then again between 6-7.



She definitely is eating well and filling out. I stood on the scale with her today and she appears to be about 9 lbs. Luke gained 2 lbs. in his first month and Paige appears to be on her way there too!

Paige is becoming more and more vocal. She learned quickly to speak up for what she wants. Can't blame her. She isn't particularly needy at all, but when she wants to be held or fed, she'll let you know!

Just in these past few days, we have noticed that when she is awake she much prefers to be held or laying on the ground kicking around than placed in her swing or propped on the boppy on the bed.

The most popular comments we hear from people when they see her are:

"Look at her long fingers and toes."




"She has such long legs and arms."

"Look at all that hair."

"Those cheeks are so kissable."


She had her first taste of tummy time yesterday and didn't complain about it. She picked her head up once to move it from one side to the other and then just laid there contently. We will start slowly and increase the tummy time, but she is doing great with lifting her head when we are holding her. Such a strong girl already!



Love her to pieces!

My Beauty

Could she be any prettier?!?! :)


Wednesday we took a trip to Yorktown Center. We planned on just going to Orland, but Luke fell asleep on the way there, we had nothing else to do, so we drove up to Lombard (about 45 minutes from us). We didn't buy anything except ping pong balls (random, right?), but it was nice to get out of town and just walk around.

I can't stop taking pictures of Paige or her and Luke together...I have no idea what I could ever do with so many pictures, but I feel like both of them are changing so much everyday that I must keep taking pictures! Plus, Paige is about ready to bust out of some of her outfits so I have to get them on her. And then once I get an outfit on her, she just looks too cute to not have a picture taken of her!


This is a completely random post, but my mom says to take pictures of her in every outfit so I do and just post them here :)

Paige's Entrance into the World

I have been meaning to get Paige's birth story written down so that I don't forget it...I feel like it is almost opposite of Luke's birth story. Here goes...(it's long, but I don't want to miss anything.)

The story begins on Friday, July 1st.

I was up early and cleaned the hardwood floors, I did some work from home and then got my hair cut and highlighted and eyebrows waxed. I took Luke to get his haircut too. Later in the afternoon, I made a Target run for some final baby items. I finally felt ready for baby, but not until after the weekend of course - my doctor was out-of-town! I even posted this at 5 PM that day!

Wally's parents were coming up around dinnertime and were planning on spending the night. We ordered Pizza Hut pizza and visited. After lighting some sparklers outside, we came in and were going to get Luke ready for bed. It was about 8:45 at this time. I had to use the bathroom where I noticed (prepare for TMI) that I lost my mucous plug or at least I thought that's what it was. I never really noticed this with Luke so I wasn't sure what to think, but I was pretty sure that what I was seeing wasn't 'normal'. I was kind of in shock and not sure if I should tell Wally or not because I knew this didn't necessarily mean that labor was looming. I walked back into the living room and whispered to Wally what happened and neither of us were really sure what to think since I wasn't really feeling much of anything at that point. Nancy saw us whispering and was asking if everything was ok so I told her what happened. She said she lost hers the same day she went into labor. I called my mom to tell her too and she said the same thing. So Wally and I started preparing our bags and everything at home just in case we had to head to the hospital that night. I kept thinking how crazy it would be if it happened that night since Wally's parents were here to take care of Luke, which was my biggest concern throughout the entire pregnancy.

Around 9:30 and after putting Luke to bed, I started feeling some contractions, but they were very light and barely noticeable. At about 10 o'clock, Wally and I went for a walk around the perimeter of our subdivision to see if we could get things going. It was a gorgeous night and was really peaceful to just walk together and talk about what was to come! That is probably one of my favorite moments of my labor. It was sort of the calm before the storm where it was just Wally and I getting ready for a new life to join our family. Towards the end of our walk, my contractions started getting a little stronger, but nothing I couldn't walk and talk through still. I think I was actually laughing through them because I just still couldn't believe I was in labor. I just had the most normal day and just an hour ago was outside lighting sparklers off with Luke - crazy!

Once we got back to the house, we tried to lay down and get some rest. Well Wally, of course, fell fast asleep, but I was getting uncomfortable and kept getting up and down trying to find the best position to work through the contractions that were coming more frequently and stronger. I was feeling a lot of it in my lower back too. The best position for me to be in during a contraction was bent over the side of our bed while biting my pillow! I grabbed Wally's phone for the contractions app that he downloaded just before we went to bed. I noticed that the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and lasting about 35-45 seconds. I woke up Wally and told him this was definitely it and we needed to go soon. I called the doctor's answering service about 11:45 and they took our number and said they would have the on-call doctor (since my doctor was gone) call us right back. When she did call, Wally had to talk as I was REALLY uncomfortable at this point. She said to go ahead and head to the hospital. BUT Wally wanted to take a shower...seriously! I called my parents to let them know we were heading to the hospital soon. After I got off the phone with my mom, I decided that we needed to go NOW. I told Wally to hurry up in the shower. He woke his parents to tell them we were leaving and off we went.

I was really in pain by this time and was biting my pillow the entire way to the hospital. When we pulled up I told Wally not to drop me off, but to just park (what was I thinking?!?!). So we walked in to the ER and had to answer just a few questions (we were pre-registered - thank goodness!). We were admitted around 1:10 AM. The nurse had Wally wait in the other room while they got me hooked up to the monitors, etc.

This is where things get interesting...the nurse checked me and her exact words were, "Oh honey, I'm so sorry, but you are already 8 centimeters." WHAT??? I couldn't believe it! I half laughed and half cried. It was too late for any drugs or an epi. All I kept thinking was "then let's move this along"!!!

I want to be completely honest here...I never really had a birth plan with Luke or this time. My "plan" was always to go as long as I could without any drugs - be it a painkiller or an epidural, but if I needed either, I would not feel bad about it! When I told Wally this night that we needed to head to the hospital, it wasn't because I thought I was 8 cms and this baby was coming soon, it was because I didn't think I was very far along BUT I needed drugs - I was in pain! So I was in SHOCK when the nurse told me I was 8 cms. I will never forget those words!

So the nurse went and told Wally that I was 8 cms and he was in just as much shock (maybe that shower wasn't such a good idea, huh? Ha!)! He called our parents to let them know what was going on and my parents jumped in the car. I worked through the contractions and remember being SO HOT! I seriously could have killed the nurses too. There were 3 different nurses that I felt were all asking me the same questions. I could barely talk, but I realize now they all had different jobs that night, but can't they gather the information once - geez!

I guess L&D was pretty busy that night, but Wally said he heard the nurses in the hallway say that I was in the lead - I was taking priority over everyone else that night! They quickly prepared the room for delivery and for the baby. Everything seemed to be happening so quickly, but yet in slow motion! Giving birth is seriously an "out of body" experience! I just wanted the doctor to get there so she could break my water and hopefully it would all be over soon!

A funny sidenote that I don't think I have remembered to tell Julie Paulsrud - at one point as I was laboring, I told Wally that Julie had chosen 7/2 as the birth date and she said the baby would arrive around 4 AM. Wally said, "For your sake, I hope Julie is wrong about the time." I was hoping so too!

FINALLY the doctor arrived and checked me. I was at almost 9 cms at this point. She broke my water bag at 2:05. Almost instantly I felt the urge to push. I was pretty quiet throughout the whole labor, but I do remember yelling, "I need to push now"! They kept saying the doctor is getting her gloves on and getting ready, but I seriously needed to push! I think I was finally able to push around 2:20 and 4 pushes later, our baby girl was here! She arrived at 2:26 AM at exactly 39 weeks! I literally felt instant relief and couldn't have been happier to hear her cry! I can remember letting out a big sigh and saying "that was worth it"!

Paige stayed in the room with us for over an hour before they took her to be bathed and got us set-up in a new room. She latched on right away and my parents arrived around 3:30 AM. They couldn't believe how quickly this all happened either! I have had a great recovery. In fact, I was up and at 'em almost immediately. I remember feeling good after I had Luke, but this time was even better!

I can't help but wonder if I was dialated at all when I was at the doctor on Thursday, June 30th. She didn't check me, and I didn't want her to. Of course now I want to know if I went from 0 to 10 in a matter of approximately 4 hours that night or if I was dialated some before - I guess I will never know!

There was one phrase that I heard in church about a month before I had Paige. I can't remember the context in which Father Greg used it, but I just remember thinking that is a great thing to remember when I am in labor. So I did remember it and repeated it to myself quite a few times. "The pain will pass, but the beauty remains." So true.

I am really proud of myself for being able to say I gave birth completely natural, but that was SO not my intention on that particular night. I am thankful for an easy and quick labor and delivery with no complications whatsoever! Seriously...it's all worth it :)

Swaddling

For my mom who can't believe we 'make' our babies sleep like this :)