Fall in Photos

Here are few treasures that need not be hidden on the memory card and lost forever in a digital dungeon...

Love that budda belly.

My little trekky girl...the next generation :)

That is some serious air.

I couldn't help but chuckle at Tori, becuase it took him about 50 tries to get across this balance beam. In all fairness though, it does teeter back and forth, but he DID do it! Yay Tori!!

So Blessed

So I fell off of the blogging wagon for a while, but that's okay because I have been catching up on some serious sleep and lately it's been the season for getting temple clock orders ready to go...still not to late to order yours :)

In the meantime, our little Dempsey was blessed this past fast Sunday and it was so good to have our families to rally around us.

My mother-in-law Juli, crocheted this beautiful blessing gown with bonnet. So much detail and love went into it. It will definitely become a family heirloom.




Max is having a hard time sharing the spotlight these days. I assure you he doesn't always look this dejected.

Let the good times roll…

After my last few posts it must seem that it’s all tears, sleep deprivation, and poop schedules around the Madison household.  While that is 75% true, we hold tight to the 25% that gives us pure joy!

Max’s latest fascination is with any type of ball, so we decided to go out to the local grassy patch and teach him how to “kick”

 

Max is so much fun right now. He is learning so fast and wants to explore everything fearlessly.

 

Max and Tori were best buddies and couldn’t get enough cat and mouse around this little pine tree.

 

Photo-opp with mom was not so successful , but I’m so happy to be out in the November sunshine with my babies.

…more photos here.

The water cycle

I never learned about this in 3rd grade science…

one baby is happy

the other is crying

when one finishes crying to sleep

the other is crying about something

when both are crying, then mommy is usually crying too(on the inside)

this whole process happens about every 5-10 minutes.

Looks to be a very wet winter.

on the other hand…they are so very cute and chubby.

Chuck and a Sleepy Pup

This year I went for the most uncreative costumes award.  Max’s large noggin’ lends itself well to Charlie Brown and the fact that he won’t keep any type of accessory on his head for 2 seconds, it was a logical choice.  Plus,  Snoopy is pretty much sleeping most of the time so it was only fitting for a newborn.

 

Awe…my little peanuts.

The First 30 Days

At the risk of sounding very ungrateful or melodramatic, I have to say that this past month has possibly been one of the hardest of my life.  My sweet baby Dempsey has had a hard time adjusting to life outside the womb.  We’ve gone through several different formulas and even so, she continues to have trouble with gas and digestion.  Every night we have a little baby “spinning” session to get her legs going and make sure everything keeps moving on through.

   She’s also had a tough time getting on a good sleeping routine.  She will not sleep more than two hours at a time at any point during the day or night, needless to say, Momma has not had more than 4 consecutive hours of sleep in the past month either.  The lack of rest paired with chasing 14-month old Max around all day has made for an extra slow recovery from this c-section.   Excuse the graphic description, but you don’t realize how much you need your abs on a daily basis until they are sliced at the base and then stapled shut for a second time.

Luckily, time heals all wounds and somehow like everyone says, it does get easier.  Now I do have a lot to be grateful for, in fact now that I have written it down it seems rather petty in comparison to what really matters like an a awesome husband that tag-teams with me at night for feeding and rocking the baby, lets me takes naps when there’s a minute,  and wrestles with Max until he is laughing and screaming with excitement. 

Also, I have had my brother Tori practically living with us for the past 2 months and I feel spoiled by all the help I have been given.  He takes out the trash, vacuums, picks up the toys, washes dishes, carries loads of laundry, takes Max outside to play, and has been lifting Max into bed, changing table, high chair, and car seat while I have been restricted during my recovery.

It’s good that there are really tough times being a parent, because it makes moments like this so much sweeter!

That hardest part about giving birth...

...is saying goodbye to your mom.

I have had the luxury of having my mom come and help me out for the week before the baby was born and the week following. This is no small thing. My mom works full time and is supervisor of transportation in the school district back in my hometown. For her to drop everything and come and stay with me for two weeks means a lot.

Anyone who knows my mom knows that she kept a very tight ship as we were growing up. She has relaxed a bit as we have all grown up and moved away, but still--her "relaxed" is pretty much equal to my house on a really good day. While she was here she cooked, washed and folded my laundry, followed Max around picking up after him wherever he went. There were windows that were cleaned for the first time in years. Even the vacuum was cleaned inside and outside with soap and water. I couldn't even use the same cup twice in one day, because it would always be immediately washed. She would take care of Max and Dempsey so we could get some extra rest in the day. I just wish I would have documented it better...I may not have a house that clean again until the next baby is born. :)

I just hope my mom realizes how much Adam and I appreciate all the unselfishness. We can only hope to pay it forward and teach our kids by example and service, because there is no way we can ever pay you back. Thanks Mom! We Love You!

This is how we all felt with Grandma Sheffer around...not a care in the world :)

Tweeks, as Adam calls "two week" old Dempsey, is a very good baby. She won't take a binky(only on occasion for a second or two) and won't be swaddled, which makes sense since she was still turning flips in the womb up until the day she was born. She is already wearing 3-month clothes no surprise. She is a very good eater, except for the fact that she falls asleep before she finishes the bottle so she has to eat every couple of hours. She has night and day a little bit mixed up, so she is wide awake and ready to go at 10pm at night and it is a challenge to get her to go back to sleep until around midnight. She is very alert and very stong, already holding her own head up pretty well and lifting her body up while I'm changing her diaper. She has a very sweet disposition, blue eyes, and light brown hair(that looks reddish in some lights). We are very much in love with our new little girl!

Max has good and bad moments with the whole transition. He is very loving toward Dempsey and gives her kisses and pats her on the head, however, there is a noticable increase in the amount of dramatic crying. He most definitely feels the need to make his presence known by throwing toys, screaming, and getting into everything he can. These are his battle wounds from thinking he could climb the stone steps on his own. It was a particularly rough day and he had even resorted to pulling all his clothes off.

Tomorrow will be better little buddy.

Dempsey Jill

I felt like I was having my first baby...the anticipation was killer.

She is finally here and rivals her brother in size. The resemblance to Max at birth is also uncanny and you can compare to his birth post HERE.

I'm pleased to introduce...

Dempsey Jill Madison

Her name was inspired by my paternal grandfather, Jack D Sheffer. His father was a huge fan of the world heavyweight champion boxer from the 1920s, Jack Dempsey. My father and brother also carry the same middle initial of "D". Also, the street where Madison Square Garden is located is called Jack Dempsey Corner. The "Jill" is for the opposite of "Jack" and also, it's my sisters middle name. Dempsey was already living up to her namesake in the womb--weaving, bobbbing, and using my bladder for a punching bag these last few months!

The day after she was due I went in for a regular OB appointment. I got the feeling that he was going to make me wait another week, because my cervix hadn't budged and I wasn't having any contractions. I did not want to wait any longer, because I knew that she was already really big and the chances of delivering her naturally were slim. So..I busted out the tears. Don't get me wrong. I don't make a habit of crying on cue, but I was emotionally and phisically exhausted so it didn't take much to get the water works going. He decided to schedule an induction for two days later.

Of course, the hospital had a flood of babies that day and so at the last minute they pushed me to the next morning. I was getting so impatient and thought it was never going to happen. They finally called us at 6am to come down. When they checked the position of the baby she was transverse(sideways). My cervix still wasn't ready and so the OB on call told me that he didn't want to induce, because he didn't want to risk rupturing my previous c-section scar. He said I had the option of going home and waiting it out, but I just laughed inside and said, c-section, please!

This time I had a spinal tap instead of an epidural. I'm not sure exactly what all the subtle differences are, but I was numb from the waist down in 30 seconds...awesome! By the time they performed the c-section she was breech and they pulled her out feet first, so within 24 hours she had turned all the way around(good thing I had that aversion...sheesh!)

Well, she was as big as we suspected...9lbs 5oz 21 inches long






Max has slightly outgrown the plastic bassinet...



Hospital fashion and passing the time...




We are so happy to have another beautiful spirit in our family. I feel so blessed that with all of the medication that I take and the potential for complications I still have big, healthy babies.







(Dempsey, already has her boxing hands up)

Max, being 13 months, didn't really have any reaction to the baby. He was too busy playing with everything else in the hospital room. I'm sure it will take him a few weeks to realize what's going on. However, it does make him look sooo grown up!

Maximus Prime

If you have a minute or 3, you will see why we don't need cable tv to entertain us...

aversion

a·ver·sion

–noun

1.

a strong feeling of dislike, opposition, repugnance, or antipathy (usually fol. by to ): a strong aversion to snakes and spiders.

2.

a cause or object of dislike; person or thing that causes antipathy

3.

Obsolete . the act of averting; a turning away or preventing.

I'm assuming that the definition in red is most appropriate for the procedure that I endured today. However, all of the other definitions are perhaps more fitting to how I felt about the entire experience.

They decided to manually turn my baby from the outside. It was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever endured. Since I haven't been contracting at all they just gave me a saline IV and told me to try and relax. Relax? Why is it whenever someone tells you to relax it means that something very stressful is about to happen. They covered me in about a gallon of gel and two doctors hovered over me, one monitoring the position of the baby with an ultrasound machine, and the other working me over with his hands, forearms, and elbows trying to get this little baby into position.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I probably would have been fine until nurses started saying things like: oh, it usually doesn't take this long; momma, you are doing so well; remember to keep breathing. All the while I was breaking into a cold sweat. The baby kept wanting to flip her head back to the top, but they were finally successful in their efforts and got her vertical with her head down.

I was nowhere near ready to be induced, so now I just have to wait and hope that she doesn't try to flip back on her own. If she is breech again on Monday, c-section will be the only remaining option.

Tonight, however, I feel like a human punching bag. Which, coincidentally, has a lot to do with the name we have picked out...but that's the only hint I'm giving for now.

birthday bliss.

Today I turned the big 3-0.

It didn't feel how I thought it would. You know how when you are a kid and you look at people who are 30 and you think they look really old, well I didn't quite feel how I thought they looked back then. I guess that's a good thing, right? I mean, I still feel pretty young. I've had a lot of experiences in my life and I am waiting for my daughter to be born any day now. I am thinking 30 is an awesome place to be in and things are only looking to get better.

The day started off awesome. Adam was up before 7 to take care of Max and he didn't come back to bed. After some coaxing I went in to find that the hard wooden chair that usually sits in front of my computer had been replaced by an awesome, adjustable, leather office chair.
I don't know who liked the gift more, because Max had the time of his life pushing and spinning that chair around the house all day long.

By 8am we were headed off to breakfast at Ihop.
My younger brother Tori has been staying with us for the past couple of weeks. (For those of you that don't know Tori he is a special kid with touch of epilepsy and autism in the mix.) I call him my butler...he thinks he's on vacation, so it works out beautifully for both of us. He thinks it's awesome to be away from home for so long and I let him take out the trash and carry laundry baskets for me.

Breakfast was on Tori...thanks buddy.

Because of my epilepsy(different from Tori's, but still most likely hereditary) The baby and I have to be monitored for an hour every week. After breakfast I went to my weekly appointment and yes, even at 38 1/2 weeks, this little girl is still moving around inside like a synchronized swimmer. Each week she is in a different position. I keep hoping that she will get big enough that she won't be able to turn, but now she has put her head back up and I am nervous that if she doesn't get it back down within the next week they are going to try to turn her from the outside(which I haven't heard good things about).
If this is a shadow and type of things to come, I may have one feisty little chica on my hands.

Then I got to come home and take a 2-hour nap while Adam cleaned the house and took care of Max...I love naps.



Later that evening, we dropped Max off with Adam's brother and went out to dinner. It was nice to have some quiet conversation.
Adam did something I never expected and surprised me with some handwritten letters wrapped in boxes that lead to some beautiful jewelry, of which he had to write in parentheses(yes, they're real). It was hard to keep from crying.

It was an amazing day.
Now I just want to celebrate my daughter's birthday. really. now. before I explode.

Bump.

I just couldn't resist having Adam take a snapshot of me next to this sign on Main St. This may be my one and only pregnancy photo for baby #2. As you can see, I am about to pop.

Less than two weeks to go, if she cooperates. If not, we may be looking at another 10-pounder like Max....I wouldn't mind except they actually expect me to push her out this time around.

At least the temperatures have come down into the 80s and 90s...it's been a long summer.

Rookie Stats

We just took the rookie in to the doc for his one year check-up and the numbers are in:

Height: 32 1/4 inches~100th percentile -- just over 1/2 his dear old mom's height already!

Weight: 28 lb 10 oz ~100th percentile -- holding strong since he is moving around so much and going off of formula.

Head: 49 cm~100th percentile-- that's one large noggin, but luckily proportionate to the rest of him.

He wears 3T size clothing and size 5 shoes. He hasn't dared to take any steps on his own yet, but is very proud to stand freely in the middle of the floor and wait for applause. The doctor says he is very strong, which was evident when Max was holding the Doc's hands down during the exam instead of the other way around!

Maximus is taking this BIG brother role very literally.

UNO

I remember when I started blogging...I kind of knew that at some point my blog would be taken over by my future children. I started with this grand goal of joining the conversation and adding my meaningful thoughts and testimony to the web, that perhaps with the inundation of information out there, truth might find its way.

Now my posting has become a narrative of Max's milestones and life's events and I sometimes wonder if it is important to anyone but his parents, who can be convinced with the slightest evidence that their son is a genius.

While my intellectual and philosophical mind may lie dormant for the next few years as I blog about birthdays, first words, misbehavior, family events, and little ones that are discovering everything for the first time--I have never felt a more clear purpose in my life. How our heavenly parents must feel as they journey with us through this mortal life? For no matter how old we get, we are still their babies.

My baby celebrated one year of his mortal life this week. I'm sure he didn't know what was going on, but he sure had a good time being the center of attention.

Max also discovered chocolate cake at his first birthday party. He wasn't quite sure what to do with it at first, because he didn't want to get icing on his hands, but then Dad gave him a piece of the cake to taste and he just had to have more...even if that meant going face-first!!