Introductions

Yay! We've survived the first couple of weeks and now the introductions swing into high gear. :-)

Lydia has been continuing to sleep well, eat well, and is alert more and more each day. Joshua's adjusting to his role as big brother and regularly asks to hold Lydia, or help burp her after she nurses. So sweet! She's also getting daddy more and more hooked each day, and I know w're all going to miss having him around all day alot when it's time to go back to work.

We're starting to get back out and I was able to attend my mommy's group Thursday morning and we all went to our Life Group last night. It was fun to show off our little one and just to spend time with friends.

This weekend we have family in town. Tomorrow we welcome James' parents, and Joshua's super excited to see his Gigi and Papa, and probably equally excited about the pool at their hotel. We're looking forward to a fun weekend with them. :-)

Sunday evening my mom and youngest brother get into town for a few days and we're looking forward to that as well. Between Mom helping out with Lydia and Stephen playing with Joshua, I may have time to actually work on birth announcements before Lydia's first birthday! Obviously just kidding on that one, but it will be nice to have the extra help since James is headed back to work on Monday. I'm not disappointed about delaying the transition to the "real world" of having two kiddos by myself all of the time.

Joshua is super excited about spending time with our families (as our we), but he's disappointed that more of his uncles and aunts and his other grandpa aren't going to be able to make it this time. So, if you're one of the family members who isn't able to make it to Madison this time around, know that you're missed and our little guy is remembering you in his prayers each night (and if mommy or daddy forget we can't finish the prayer until we pray for everyone--Joshua is quite insistent).

Blessed

It's been a few days, and they've been busy, but good days.
Thursday was Joshua's second birthday, and it might as well have been Christmas! From the second we reminded him it was his birthday in the morning he wanted to do presents, so we ended up in bed with a happy little boy ripping open gifts--how fun! We sang "Happy Birthday to You" every time he remembered it was his birthday thoughout the day and he's beam and laugh the whole way though. He was also thrilled by his little cupcake party with Mommy, Daddy, and Lydia, especially the fact that he got to decorate the cupcakes. I'd been hoping the baby would come soon enough I'd feel up to making a special cake, etc.--but the nice thing about 2 year olds is they're excited by the simple things in life, so using the "sprinkles" made it a treat as is.
Lydia's been taking the past few days to settle in and gradually right her days and nights. After a few rough nights with a wide-awake little baby, we finally were able to sleep more than we were awake last night! She only was up three times to nurse between 9pm to 8am, so Mommy is thrilled, but trying not to get her hopes up that the pattern will continue. She seems very laid back and relaxed for the most part, and spends much of her awake time just taking in all the commotion her big brother makes.
Joshua's big thrill on Friday was getting to introduce his "baby We-we-uh" to his "doc-doc Manda" (what he calls our pediatrician) and "helping" with the checks at her appointment. We also found that whoever entered Lydia's birth stats into the medical records software must have put the height into the weight slot, so we got to the clinic with them shaking their heads over how we had a 20lb. baby. (Mommy was even more glad than the staff that she wasn't!)
Joshua's also loving the fact that daddy is home all the time, and I'm sure he'll be really disappointed when the time comes for James to go back to work (so will I, it's been great to have his help).
Other than that we've just been enjoying our time as a family of four and continuing to figure out how we juggle two kids and still find time for ourselves and each other. We're certainly not there yet, but at least as repeat parents, we're finding it easier to view these first few weeks as a tunnel, not a cave--and we know there's light there somewhere. :-) We're spending the days feeling really blessed to have two happy, healthy children!
Take care and I'll try to put up a few pictures in this post later when I get another free minute!
~Liz

Lydia Elise

She's here!!! We went in to the hospital around 7 on Monday evening, and Lydia just missed putting in her appearance that day, settling for 12:29 on Tuesday the 8th. After a smooth, albeit quick and intense labor she weighed in at 8lbs. 1oz. and was 20" long.

Joshua got to come in the next morning and meet his "siter" and seemed quite happy and excited to finally meet "baby Wee-wee-uh"--I'm sure it seems to him that he's been waiting forever!

Today (Wednesday) we came home around 3pm and are now adjusting fully to being a family of four. Joshua seems to be doing quite well at this point, although his two solutions to everything are either that Lydia should go "night-night" in her bed or swing (even if she's eating, having a diaper change, etc.) so that all the attention can be switched to him, or he announces that she is "heaby" and should be immediately put down--again usually so whichever parent is paying attention to her can make him the focus.

Lydia is nursing well, sleeping lots, and filling up diapers as fast as we can change them and in general endearing herself to us all. She seems to have her days and nights mixed up right now, so we'll all hope for some sleep tonight and more of her bright eyes tomorrow.

Joshua's birthday is tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be rested enough to help make it special for him! We're just glad he didn't actually get a sister for his birthday and that we can be home to enjoy it.

Less than 24 hours!

We're all in a flurry here in the Slager household, we'll see how this blogging thing goes, but if I can stay on top of it, it should be a good way to get updates to everyone with our rapidly growing household!
Baby #2 is supposed to put in his/her appearance sometime tomorrow! We're scheduled to be induced at 11:30 unless baby can't wait that long. We're excited and anxious to meet this little one, it seems like we've been waiting a long time!
Joshua's bouncing off the walls with anticipation (at least for now) and this morning started pushing on my tummy and announcing he was going to "help baby come out"--well, I don't know about that little man, but I appreciate the sentiment. :-) We're hoping the transition from star of the show to sharing the spotlight will be as smooth as possible for him. He's also excited about turning 2 on Thursday and is already looking forward to opening the presents he found stashed away when we were setting up the baby's room.
Everything looked good at the appointment today, and the doctor says everything is just waiting for a final little push, I'm already nearly 5cm and effaced nearly completely, so hopefully labor will move along once we get it started!
I think that's about it for us for now, check back and we'll put up pictures and information as soon as we have more!