so excited

Not quite sure how I forgot how annoying it is to sleep in a hospital, but there really isn't any rest for a new mom.  Is it really necessary to draw blood at 4:00 am or to check my blood pressure every hour?  When I had Adelaide Grant wasn't able to stay with me, but this time I at least was able to share my misery of a hospital stay with him.  

Since Penelope wasn't born until after Adelaide's bed time the new big sister didn't get to meet the new arrival until the next day.  When she finally did get to come in it was just about the funniest thing I have seen in a long time.  She was so excited she didn't know what to do first, but she honed in on the baby very quickly.  Grant took video of the whole thing, so if I can figure out how to get it on here I will let you all experience it too.  One of the more amazing things that A said immediately was, "Penelope got out of Mommy's belly".  I wasn't expecting a 2 year old to really get that so quickly especially since I still had the baby.

Presents for the new big sister

Please just let me touch her again.

Yes, I did have to pin her arms down or else P would have had no chance at keeping her big eyes. 

Ready to go home!

Announcing Penelope Marie

She is Here She is Here She is Here - this is how she got here!

 Another long pregnancy has made it in the books and thanks to fluid retention, swelling and an overdue baby the first time, Baby P was set to be evicted a few days early.  My original due date was set for August 1st, but we checked into the hospital at 5:45 am on Thursday, July 28th.  Everyone kept asking me if I was excited to know exactly when my baby was going to get here and the fact that I would be able to plan things a little easier.  The truth was No, because I had all of those feelings and so anxious to meet Adelaide on the day that we checked in and then when she didn't get here until the end of the second day I was really disappointed and exhausted.
Grant's parents came into town on Wednesday night for Adelaide duty, which Adelaide looked for them for days before they got there.  Unfortunately for them Adelaide woke up with us at 5:00am that morning and was not happy when she didn't get to go with us - A at 5:00am is not fun.
I forgot how long it took to get all set up in the hospital, but by 8:00 am my doctor had been there inserted a Foley catheter, I was hooked up to an IV and they started the petocin drip.  It wasn't comfortable, but within a few hours I went from 1 cm dilated to 4 cm and he contractions were getting stronger.  I passed on any pain meds and was holding off for the good stuff - an epidural.
Fast forward to about 4:00 and it was finally time to get my magic drug and hopefully see my baby girl sooner rather than later.  The nurse had told my mom that her bet was that 5:30 would be the magic time.  Unfortunately, that time passed partially due to the issues that they had getting the epidural put into my back.  About a dozen jabs later, a lot of tears, freaking out done by Grant and Mom (they left them waiting in the waiting room for an hour and a half with no updates), broken water and internal monitors attached to baby and we were back in business.
At almost 8:00 we had a whole team of people rush into the room to check baby and I out and all of sudden we were ready to go.  Everything happened so quickly we almost didn't know what was going on.  So one contraction and three pushes later we met our perfect little Penelope Marie.

Penelope Marie Gasbarro
Thursday, July 28th
8:11 pm
19.5 inches
7 lbs 12 ounces

July was busy

 WOW is all that I can say, July has come and gone and it was exhausting!  We worked, played and labored but this post is mostly about the play.

July 4th - while most people were off enjoying their Monday holiday, I was working.  Thankfully my last role with the new company allowed me to work from home a few days a week, so I used Monday as one of those days.  Grant however had off so I was still able to enjoy my time with Tootie and Grant and still get paid.  That weekend was very low key; we swam at YaYa and Grrs, baked cupcakes, got ready for baby P, and tried to take the extra day to relax a little before our worlds were turned upside down.

If anyone ever needs a baking assistant, she loves to help do anything in the kitchen including dishes.

Gardening with Grr.

A's crop for the day.

 So we are in Florida and of course you expect it to be hot in July, but WOW someone should have reminded me what 9 months pregnant in July felt like before I got crazy and pregnant again.  You think that I would have learned the first time with A.  In light of all f that we have done a lot of swimming lately, A is a huge fan of "big jump".

A little golf poolside and of course we have a nose problem.

Yes, my favorite spot the last few months.

 We just keep getting older- A went to her first friend birthday party this month.  Somehow we never seem to make it to the parties we are invited to, but it finally happened.  I was a little worried on how it would go because A is going through the Mommy only stage again and I was sure she would cling to my leg the entire time.  Much to my surprise this wasn't the case.  She immediately went in, found Autumn and wanted to play.  This giant Momma was so proud.  The only bad part of the party is A immediately started asking about her own party, which of course is coming up right after P gets here.

Yep, that's A front and center during present time.  She had to check out all of the gifts after Autumn opened them.

The one piece of advise that I received from a successful woman at work who has 4 boys was to go out as often as we could to places that use real china, because the more kids you have the less willing people are to watch them.  So we took her advice and heading to III Forks, except we are those annoying people who take our kids everywhere so A went with us.  If you haven't been to a III Forks, you must go!  Red meat that is smooth as butter, to die for wine (only one maybe two sips for me this time), cakes a mile high and phenomenal service.  Of course it's not a place that you make a normal weekend stop, but this was a special occasion for a few reasons.  No good meal is complete without Mom and Russ and Mom's choice of wine!

Only a few weeks of this belly to go.

Don't worry, he didn't really eat his tomahawk steak like this, but he wasn't opposed to posing for the picture.

Can we say happy campers!

 July couldn't be all play though.  I mentioned that I worked on July 4th, but July 15th was also my official last day of work for who knows how long.  I don't know if my unemployment status has really hit me because I only had a week and a half off before baby P.  I'll probably start looking for work again starting this winter, but that has yet to be determined.  Who knows - I may actually enjoy this stay at home gig and do some consultant work on the side.
The other kind of work we did was around the house trying to get ready for P.  We even put A to work washing baby bottles!

And we had to wash ourselves!

 The last weekend as a family of 3 brought us a visit from the Mesick family and a wedding for our friends Lewis and Tassia.  We hate that they both happened at the same time because we missed time during both events, but it did allow for an exciting and exhausting weekend.
A loved her time with Hannah and Brooke - anyone willing to spend hours in the pool with her and pretty much do whatever she wants is number one in A's book.

3 days before Baby P arrival.

Tea time for cousins, their dads were just bummed they didn't get their own tee time.

So happy and so in love.

JBHunt table at the wedding.

One of my last prego pictures and it couldn't come soon enough.

Early birthday presents for A.

Baby P gifts from the Mesicks.

July was exhausting and this picture pretty much wraps it up.

Just June

I remember making forts and tents out of everything that I could find in the house as a kid.  When we lived in Riverview I would anchors blankets and pillows from the kitchen counter, over the bar stools and  play in there until my mom got tired of looking at the mess.  So needless to say when I heard all of the laughing and giggling coming from A's room I was really excited to see this.

On the flip side I was not excited about the other activities that June brought including two rounds of the stomach bug for A.

Round 1-
Yes, a juice box in one hand and medicine on bath tub.

Round 2-
Still smiling

Mommy, please stop messing with me, "my bellies hurt".