Happy Birthday Maya!

After just skirting Hurricane Irene and a last minute birthday reschedule, we celebrated Maya's 3rd birthday in style with a Tinkerbell themed party on our building terrace - she loved it this year! She was so excited to have everyone sing happy birthday, the gifts, the cake and of course balloons. We feel so lucky to live in such a great community with so many wonderful families and friends close by to celebrate with us.

The arrival of Laila Marie

 She's here! Laila Marie Hennessey was born at 6:44pm on 7/20/2011 (her official due date by one count, a day early by another) weighing in at 7lbs, 5oz and measuring 20 1/4 inches long - with lots of black hair like her sister, and really looking a lot like Maya in general.

Her birth was nothing like I expected (of course). After dropping Maya off from school last Tuesday, I made my way to the grocery store when my water broke! What is this!? I couldn't believe it. I ran home and put Brian and mom on alert and headed to my midwife's office who quickly confirmed that it had indeed broken, but there was plenty of fluid left and 20 mins on the monitor showed baby was doing great and I was having regular contractions. They expected me to go into labor within the next couple of hours and were hesitant to let me go back home to LIC. Oh well! I was not in labor yet and had a few things to take care. Brian got the call to head home from Westchester and we all convened at home for lunch.

Maya was picked up form school and went home with grandparents to spend the night, dogs were dropped off at their boarding home, bags were repacked and the waiting game began. It was 90 + degrees in NYC last Tuesday but we tried to go for a walk to a local ice cream shop to see if walking would bring on real contractions. We didn't last long - the heat was brutal. Went for an acupuncture session to try to stimulate labor and started some homeopathy at the suggestion of our doula. And then we watched movies, prepped dinner, cleaned the house and rested in the AC. At around 10pm contractions were coming regularly and slightly more intense but a far cry from any real labor. So we went to bed, had a full night's rest and at 11am on Wednesday headed to the hospital as our 24 hours were up and labor was nowhere to be seen.

We narrowly avoided a pitocin induced labor as labor finally kicked into high gear at around 3pm. Finally! Huge relief that it was going to happen on its own and that it was likely we would have the natural birth we planned for and were expecting having had such a good experience with Maya. A little over 3 hours later in what ultimately was one super speedy delivery our little Laila was born. We were thrilled to be able to bring her home the next day and have our first night as a family of four at home.

Maya thankfully has really taken to her little sister and asks about her, is concerned when she cries, wants to touch her and make baby noises at her and occasionally tells us what to do - "pick her up, she's hungry!" A lot of adjustments for an almost 3 year old, but the big sister has taken it all in stride.
We've had a wonderful week getting used to our new routines. Of course having Brian at home has been great - he's done his own outings with Maya and she has been fine with that understanding that for now mom needs to stay home with the baby.

Tomorrow Brian heads back to work, Maya will be at school most of the day and then the fun really begins - we'll see how I manage both little ladies on my own. The intense heat is not helping, but Maya being so accepting and Laila being a pretty chill baby so far will definitely make a huge difference.  Now that she's here we're hoping to enjoy some more summer activities and hopefully a trip to the Hamptons next weekend. We feel truly lucky to have to beautiful healthy little girls.

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July it is!

38 weeks and counting - official due date 7/21. We'll see if this little girl makes it to then (I'll suspect she will) or if she'll be late like her sister (although I really hope not a whole week late). Still feeling fine thankfully, managing the heat as best we can (it's consistently 90 degrees in NYC these days) and taking it easy now that work for the time being is over with no foreseeable timeline of resuming in the near future.

We started off the month as if on a vacation - childless! Maya went to East Hampton for the long July 4th weekend with my parents and brother - and really how easily one adapts to being childless. We slept in, ate out nearly every meal, saw Billy Elliot on Broadway, Bridesmaids one night and Midnight in Paris the other - both really funny and worth seeing. Sad to say but it's been ages since we've been to a movie - and it will be ages I'm sure before we get to another one. We live by movies on demand and netflix (although we are working through all the episodes of Lost at the moment which we never watched and are rather hooked - averaging about 2-3 episodes a night, I highly recommend it if you've never seen it).

Ms. Maya had a ball and went to the beach with her grandparents and apparently didn't ask about her parents once. She knew she was going to be spoiled and they would put up with her shenanigans - which included driving around until they found some deer grazing in a field because she asked to see Bambi - an indulgence her parents would likely have little patience for. But that's what grandparents are for I guess.

She started her summer program at her preschool this week which carries a whole rainforest theme for the summer. Her challenge has been to say goodbye to her favorite teacher who did all the art and yoga for the school and who Maya adored and was very attached to. Her not being there resulted in some tears this week when I dropped her off. But she won't be back in the fall so sadly for Maya she will have to adapt to not seeing her there everyday.

And so the waiting game begins in these last few weeks of my pregnancy and being able to take it easy and stay local with lots of trips to the neighborhood playground and sprinklers is pretty heavenly. And yes... the cake in the picture was as fun to make as it was to eat. Butter cream cheese frosting, mmmm.

Here comes the sun!

Ahhhhhhh memorial day weekend and we've sprung into June... the official start of summer, and it sure has kicked off in NYC with several consecutive days of 80 and even 90 degree weather. We were off for the long weekend to East Hampton, battling some crowds for sure, but also managed to get to the beach despite some fog and break out some of Maya's kiddie pools and sprinklers in the backyard, and made it to a nearby water park for a day trip. That was fun. Maya loves water slides. It was marvelous to enjoy sunny warm weather.

We have a busy June ahead. Now at 34 weeks with about 6 weeks to go (or less or more) until the arrival of baby girl #2 we've started to think about what our life will look like with two kiddos. There's certainly been less to do to prepare for her arrival, but at some point we do need to decide where she will sleep and make the switch on the stroller from seat to bassinet (so sorry Maya, I did at least buy you a footboard so you could ride on the stroller standing). I've been pulling baby clothes and other items that we had packed away, got the infant car seat back in car which leaves no room in the backseat, and pulled the bouncy seat and other items... and boy do I wish I had more closet space. I think we'll be ready to move to a larger abode in a year. There are some not so distant plans at present to move to Westchester county sometime next year. Closer to Brian's job, more space and good schools and communities. We will miss LIC but are both feeling that our life will require the move and in we're both (yes, even the city slicker here) looking forward to it. More on that later.

This weekend, we're headed to Williamstown for my 10th year college reunion. Time flies! And rounding off the month - Maya finishes off her first year of nursery school in a few weeks, although she will be with them for the summer program a couple of days a week.  She has a ballet showcase with her class to show off what she learned during the semester next weekend and she's likely to be totally uncooperative with all the extra attention. And then it's time to sit and wait, 37 weeks by the end of the month and hope for a visit from the contraction fairy. Who knows what's in store.

Orchids, chocolate bunnies & 3rd trimester

Spring is taking it's sweet old time in NY to really get going, leading us to continue to look for indoor activities believe it or not. We're all a little sick of it and really ready to shed our winter coats (especially if you have no waist to speak of and there isn't a chance in hell you will get anything closed around you to shield you from the wind).

Ahem, yes we're ready for warmer weather.

So we headed to the NY Botanical Garden for their annual Orchid Show. The theme was 'orchids on broadway' and the entire exhibit weaves you through a massive interconnected greenhouse/conservatory passing by several temperate zones. We really enjoyed it. The rest of the garden was still very dormant, barely a touch of green on some trees.

To fully embrace the Easter spirit (well.. the mainstream commercial one involving chocolate eggs and bunnies), we hosted an easter egg decorating play date for several neighbors. Never really know what a group of 2 and 3 year olds will do when presented with paints, markers, colored eggs, lots of sugar and free reign... but the kids did very well. Sort of a prelude to the Easter festivities we are looking forward to in Wellesley next weekend when we go to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hen.

And finally ... I bid farewell to the second trimester and bonjour to the third this coming week. Certainly feeling a little more tired this time around, but I blame most of that on Maya. Overall feeling really good, and making lots of time for yoga.

Birthday Surprise!

Happy Birthday Brian!!

Thanks to everyone who joined us for lunch and for surprising Brian with a belated 35th birthday celebration!