New Arrival!

To follow-up on the last post...the waiting game for the newest little Gidley ended last Friday and I'm very proud to announce the arrival of:

Lola Aspen Gidley

May 18, 2012 at 8:32 am
8 pounds, 15.7 ounces
20 inches long

Lola arrived via a scheduled c-section, four days after my due date.  We were waiting and hoping I'd go into labor naturally but it never happened.  Given my skill at growing large babies (plus remembering the difficulties we had when Silas was born), a c-section was definitely the best option for us at that point.  And, honestly, I never could have imagine what a wonderful experience it would be.  

It sounds crazy to me (I guess because I really didn't want another c-section), but that evening, I looked at Matt and said "what a nice day this has been."  And I really meant it. Our experience with Lola was such a striking contrast to our Silas experience.  It gave me the opportunity to sincerely appreciate every step along the way.  In the last five days since Lola's birth, there have been so many moments that I didn't even know we missed with Silas.  Holding her in the recovery room was the first.

Keeping her by our side for every minute afterwards was the second.

Now we have begun life as a family of four.  We've all been looking forward to Lola's arrival.  But Silas' response to his little sister melts my heart.  He continues to ask to hold her every chance he gets.  He marvels at the size of her little feet and fingers.  He's been telling her knock knock jokes and singing her made up songs: "I'll never let any bad guys get you..."

Our first family photo:

So now we're settling in to life at home.  Silas is helping Lola test out all her new toys and continues to hold her and sing to her.  I'm sure she'll adore her big brother as much as he loves his baby sister!

The Waiting Game

So - here we are again...waiting for the arrival of a new baby Gidley!  My due date is tomorrow,  May 14, and I guess I was holding on to the notion that she might come early since she is "the second" baby.  But I shoulda known better!  Baby Silas was is no rush to come out and it looks like baby Lola is the same way.   Which would be fine, I suppose, except Matt and I can't help imagining another big baby that is growing bigger by the day.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed she is nowhere near the impressive 10 pounds  10 ounces that was Silas...but we'll see.  The plan is that if she doesn't arrive naturally we're going to do another c-section on Friday May 18.  So one way or another, we'll be meeting Lola soon!!

Regardless, I think this final waiting game is such a strange phase of pregnancy.  Especially with a second child.  I feel like everything we've done lately is the "last time" we'll do that as a family of three or as "Mommy and Silas". It is both a special and anxious time together.

We went to a Diamondbacks baseball game last weekend.  I love how Silas is shielding me in this photo so I look relatively normal.

Ahhhhhh....but not so in this one:

Silas really enjoyed the game - but he was primarily focused on seeing Baxter (the mascot).  He doesn't actually know to much about Baxter, except that he appeared in a little movie with Solar Man (one of his very favorite superheroes) and, therefore, must be a friend of Solar Man.  You can check out the 2 minute movie here: Solar Man Fights Watt Waster

We talked a lot about Baxter...where he might be, what he might be doing, etc. etc.  Luckily, we found him!

Silas and I also had a really fun evening picnic this weekend with some of my life-long friends at a great Tempe park/splash pad.

We even managed to pull-off our Fourth Annual Family Camping trip this weekend!  Except, of course, the our travel only took us to Ahwatukee and it was a backyard camp-out at my parent's house.  Silas, Ma-Mo & Karen actually slept in the backyard.  The rest of us enjoyed the (tiny) campfire and s'mores...but also enjoyed sleeping inside.

We love our Mother's Day camping tradition, though, and look forward to actually doing it in a forest somewhere next year!