Meet Your Namesake

On Saturday, Maxine's one week 'birthday,' she got to meet one of her namesakes. 

Aunt Alberta, Gigi Maxine, and Maxine.

 Maxine, meet the Maxines. 

Maxine was named after several people.  

Here is Maxine Faye, my grandmother.  

I hope that 'my' Maxine will grow to be as strong and loving as Gigi Maxine.

Archer was Oma Suzi's middle name.  We wish she could have met her granddaughter.  We know how much she would have loved her.  I also hope that Maxine will have the fierce love for her family, as her Oma did. 

Leigh is my middle name, my mom's middle name, and my dad's middle name (Lee).  

I hope these family names give her a strong sense of who she is.  I also hope she knows how much she is loved by all those she shares a name with.

 Maxine seemed to enjoy her visitors as she was awake for much of the visit. 

Cole LOVED having visitors.  

He loves his Na so much!

Thanks for a lovely day, Ladies (and Cole!)!

Maxine @ Home

We got to come home on Monday morning. Getting home and settled in felt SO good to me. Having all of my loves in one place filled me with joy. Our first days home as a family of four were relaxing and peaceful (except for my hormone surges that made me feel like I was not being 'good enough' to Cole. Luckily his wonderful daddy was picking up all my 'slack' and then some.) Here are some shots of our first week....

Maxine's first car ride.  She hated the carseat until the car started moving.  Derek and I were amazed by how badly other people on the road drove....didn't' they know we had our brand new baby in the car!?!

Welcome home, Maxine! 

Phoebe checking her out.  I think Phoebe approved.  She has done well with transition.  She did hurt her leg - not sure if this is an effort in attention seeking or legit (JK ;-)). 

Lita gets introduced to her new competition.  She has been Daddy's girl.  She senses her drop in the food chain.  Derek is now smitten with another girl!

We have all taken turns holding, snuggling, and staring at Maxine.  I get feeding shifts obviously.  Derek vied for all other times when he was not busy with Cole.  Watch out Maxine....I have a feeling you will be *very* protected by these guys!

Cole snuggling his sister.  He loves to talk about her little parts.  We have talked with him a lot about when he was a little baby.  He reminds us often that he didn't cry when he was little (he points this out mostly when Maxine is fussy).  He also tells us that she is "beautiful" often.  He melts me with his sweetness toward her.

Julie, our doula, who helped make natural childbirth (hence, a much more peaceful and relaxing postpartum) experience possible.  Julie came to visit and check in with us on Tuesday morning.  She showed me how to use our wrap, answered questions for us, and encouraged our instincts in parenting.

Maxine in aforementioned wrap.  This is bliss for me.  I enjoyed pregnancy, but carrying her on my chest and looking into her sweet face is amazing.

Cole has spent time in this way many times over the week.  He helps entertain Maxine when she is getting her diaper changed or swinging.  He has been such a good big brother and helper.

We LOVE Maxine's awake time.

Cole has adjusted to being somewhat more independent.  Here is an example.  I could not help but laugh at him when he dressed himself in this getup, tie and all.  I love his little personality that is constantly blossoming!

Derek and Cole were inseparable this week.  I quickly remembered that having a baby with someone makes you see them differently and fall in love with them all over again.  Derek has not only been wonderful with Maxine, but been outstanding in going above and beyond to make Cole feel included, entertained, and loved.  We are all so lucky to have him as the daddy of our family.

<3

Other unphotographed highlights of our week:

-Derek and I took Maxine to her first visit with Dr. Sandy, her pediatrician, on Wednesday. She is growing nicely and jaundice is working it's way out of her body. We got a good report!

-We woke EARLY to have photos taken by Jill Heupel Photography  at 8 am in Edwardsville.  This felt like a huge accomplishment!

-Cole and I made up various songs about Maxine and her constant desire to eat.

-Derek finished many yard jobs while hanging out with Cole outside.  

-All of the trees in our yard were in bloom - our yard will always be pretty for Maxine's birthday!

-We four spent every single day together.  I am so grateful for Derek being home this week.  It was an awesome week for our family.

Maxine: Day Two

Sunday I woke early, anxious to shower and spend time with my newly expanded family.  

Derek joined us early.  He said he relived all of the events of the previous day in his dreams through the night - - not very restful. He was anxious to get his girl back in his arms.

She is so lucky to have a daddy like this - he loves her so much.
I am so lucky to have him as the father of my children and my partner.  So. Very. Lucky.

Big brother joined us again later in the day.  He pointed out all of her"little tiny" parts...one by one.

After we attempted a family nap (unsuccessfully) Grandpa & Grandma came to meet their new granddaughter.

Cole enjoyed the visit and extra attention.  The Easter Bunny delivered him some goodies to help out.

Derek and Cole headed home to run out some of Cole's energy and let Maxine and I get some rest between visitors.

Josh and Courtney came to visit later in the day.  Best Uncle & Aunt!

Maxine is a lucky little lady to have so much family to love her.

Maxine: Day One

We moved to the mother and baby wing about two hours after Maxine's birth.  We were so anxious to see Cole again and get his reaction to his new baby sister.  We were also on a total high - Cloud Nine - hormone and endorphin induced bliss....

Cole was adorable and a bit freaked out all at the same time.  I think we sent him into sensory overload by giving him some gifts, showing him his sister, and having visitors all simultaneously.  His first remarks about his new sister was that she is "beautiful."  My heart soared to have my two babies with me!

Na, G, and Josh brought Cole to the hospital to meet Maxine.  Unfortunately, they went unpictured because of the focus on Cole and his getting acquainted with his sister.

Opa came to visit later in the day.  He was over the moon with his girl. 

After all of our visitors left, Derek headed home to catch up on some sleep. We were all exhausted but so happy and completely in love.  I stared at this precious baby for a few hours before we passed out for the night a few hours until our next feeding session.

Meet Maxine {4.9.11}

Would it be strange to say that a day full of pain was one of the best of my life? 'Cause it was.

I will say that my labor officially started on Friday morning (4.8) at 2:30 when I could no longer sleep through contractions that had begun. I knew that the road would be long to actually meet our baby but I was excited. I woke Derek to tell him. Neither of us slept much past this point. I dozed between contractions until Cole woke up around 7. We made phone calls: to Na so she could come pick Cole up and Julie (our doula) to let her know that things were beginning.

Friday was a long day. I used Derek's iphone and an app he had downloaded to time my contractions. I was pretty consistently contracting between 7-10 mintues all day long. Derek used his nervous energy to work in the yard and I napped most of the day between contractions. We walked Rural King too....and ran to the pharmacy to pick up my prenatal vitamins to find (after nearly an hour on the phone with unsurance, human resources, etc.) that my flex spending account was not active during my maternity leave....but oh well.

Derek and I decided to eat dinner at Applebee's - knowing that dining out options would be limited by a three year old AND infant very soon. My contractions picked up when I was on the move all day. We came home to call Julie and check in. She suggested rest until my contractions started to get closer together. So, back to rest/sleep between contractions I went. Derek tried to sleep also.

I kept the iphone close and timed the start and end of each and every pain. I slept and peed in intervals until around 3am Saturday morning when the pain was really picking up with each contraction and the timer told me that I was averaging 3 1/2 minutes between contractions. It was time to go....

Derek grabbed coffee and all of our bags. He kept his cool and got us to the hospital by 4. Julie met us there.  I was thrilled to find that I was dilated to 6 cm when we arrived.  This was a huge accomplishment and gave me confidence, showed me that we were doing the right thing. 

Derek was totally amazing.  He was tuned in to my pain, could see a contraction coming, and responded perfecectly every time!  Julie was great too.  She helped us to find positions that might help move things along and checked in with me frequently to see where my head was. 

We walked, did the "lift and tuck," squatted against the wall, hands and knees, etc....we tried it all!  6 hours after arriving at the hospital my cervix had not done much.  I got very discouraged around 10:30 when Julie and my nurse, Paula, started talking about how we could get things moving.  My doctor had called to see what was going on and why things weren't progressing.  I knew that there would soon be talk of interventions.  Julie and Paula suggested "nipple stimulation" to amp up my oxytocin production.  Julie went down to get breakfast and left me to "wind them like a watch...."

Within 10 minutes of nipple stimulation I had three hard contractions and my water broke.  I have no concept of time at this point, but feel like things moved very fast.  As soon as my water broke Derek called the nurse, I texted Julie, and the nurse made the call to my doctor.  Go time!

I yelled.  

Paula got in my face and made me focus.  I didn't want to focus.  It hurt and I wanted to yell about it.  Eventually I complied and got with the program. 

It took no time to feel pressure and burning.  I started pushing and felt progress quickly.  I could feel the baby go from "up high" (the "high" that had scared me the day before) to down...and out.

This photo makes me so happy for my kids, their daddy loves them so much.

Indescribable.  Derek got to announce "it's a girl!"  There are no words for the joy that we felt in these moments.

Maxine Archer Leigh Albracht was born at 11:21am weighing in at 8lb 6oz and 21 inches long. 

She looked just like her Daddy when she was born (this has already changed!). 

We could not be happier with her presence in our family and the experience we had with her arrival.

Welcome, Maxine.  We love you so much.