Sydney's Birth and First Week!

Wow, so much has happened in this past week it is hard to figure out where to begin! Our sweet little Sydney was born 1 week ago today. She is so incredibly sweet and precious. We are so happy that she is finally here and we are so in love with her. She is a very laid back baby which has been amazing, especially considering how not laid back Jayda was as a baby. That has been a huge blessing for us since we not only have to care for Sydney, but run around and keep up with miss Jayda. The only times Sydney cries are when she's hungry or when she's getting her diaper or clothes changed. Otherwise she is sleeping or quitely looking around at her surrondings. She is such a good baby! Jayda is absolutely in LOVE with Sydney. She asks to hold her all the time and does a great job holding her in the boppy. While she holds her she probably kisses her every other minute. It is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Sydney is so lucky to have such a great, loving big sister. Jacob has been off work this past week and just started back today. It was hard for him to go back and I was super sad that he had to, but I guess someone has to put groceries on the table, right? We had such a special week with daddy off work and I sure could not have done any of this without him, we love you daddy!

Ok, so I guess we'll start with the night before Sydney's birth. All of the grandparents came in town to stay the night at our house. That night we all sat down to a nice dinner together and then had Jayda's big sister party. Jayda got all kinds of big sister gifts and we had an ice cream cake for her!

Jayda showing off her big sister necklace from mommy and daddy at her big sister party the night before Sydney's birth!


Mommy holding up Sydney's "little sister" onesie. Looks like it will fit pretty good.


Last picture of our family of 3!


On thursday morning, February 11th, I woke up at 4:30 a.m., showered and got ready. Jacob and I headed out with my parents to the hospital around 5:45 a.m. on a yucky rainy morning. We arrived at the hospital and checked in and filled out lots of paperwork.

Jacob and I arriving at the hospital on Thursday, Feb. 11th at 6 a.m. for the C-Section.


Momma signing her life away before surgery, lovely right?


After all the paperwork the nurse came in to give me an IV to keep me hydrated. She tried one hand but said my veins were too small after getting the needle in, so she had to do the other hand. Once she finally got the IV in we had to wait a while for the fluid to go in since apparently because my veins were small so the fluid was taking a while to go in. So, after 20 minutes or so of getting hydrated the nurse came to get me and she walked me to the operating room. Jacob had to stay behind while I got prepped for surgery. I walked into the OR and tried not to look around since I had been told that it was pretty creepy walking yourself into the OR. So, I just kept my head down and got up on the operating table. The anesthesiologist (these are always the nicest guys in the world!) came in to give me the spinal block/epidural. The nurse had me lean over a pillow and held me down since I was a bit shaky and the anesthesiologist did the epidural. Just like last time it barely even hurt, just a little sting. Pretty soon the anesthesiologist said you should start to feel your legs getting warm from the epidural and sure enough they did. The nurse helped me get my legs back up on the table and everything started going numb. I laid back for a few minutes and pretty soon they put the drape up and the Dr. came in for the C-Section. My Dr. immediately started the surgery (I didn't even know it), then Jacob came in, I felt a lot of pressure and pulling, and then the anesthesiologist told Jacob to get out the camera because Sydney was almost here! It all happened so quick, probably within 5 mintues!! My Dr. was great and did a wonderful job on the C-Section and on my incisiion. Sydney came out and at first I didn't hear anything and got a little worried. Then all of a sudden I heard this loud, but little cry and then she cried out several more times. They showed her to me on the way over to another little room within the operating room. She was so perfect I could already tell! Jacob went with the nurses while they cleaned Sydney up and wrapped her up in a blanket. Jacob then brought Sydney out to sit with me while they finished my C-Section. Sydney sat there with her daddy so peacefully and quitely and it was the most precious thing! I was so proud and happy to meet our baby girl!

Sweet Sydney right after birth, only 5 minutes old!


Proud daddy with his new baby girl.


Mommy and Daddy so happy to finally meet our sweet baby girl.


After surgery I was taken back to my room to recover for a couple of hours. While I was in recovery the grandparents all came in to meet Sydney, along with Jayda! Pretty soon after we got back to the room I wanted to see if Sydney would start nursing since they say to start right after you have the baby. Almost immediately after I started trying she latched on and has been a great nurser ever since! It is amazing how different this experience has been with Sydney. With Jayda it took us about 3 days for her to start nursing, and lots of lessons from the lactation nurse!

Oma with little Sydney back in mommy's hospital room.


Us with Sydney while mommy was in recovery.


Jayda's first time to meet Sydney. Jayda fell in love with her immediately and hugged her steadily for 10 minutes without saying a word. Melts my heart!


SO, SO happy to hold her little sister!


About an hour and a half after she was born Sydney got her first bath. She didn't like being undressed, but she did like her hair being washed.

Sydney's first bath at the hospital. She was exactly 2 hours old at this point.


Getting her hair washed for the first time!


After bathtime they moved her to the warmer to heat up. She had to stay there until her temperature came up to 98.6 degrees. Once her temperature came up we could move rooms to the post partum side.

Sydney under the warmer getting her umbilical cord dyed.


Jayda opening up her big sister present from Sydney, a Barbie guitar!


Around 11:30 a.m. we were moved to a post partum room. That afternoon and evening we had several visitors come up to meet Sydney.

Michelle came up to meet miss Sydney!


Nanna and Pawpaw with Jayda and Sydney!


Oupa holding Sydney for the first time!


Loving on her baby sister.


Cousin Michelle stopped by with Aunt Sherry and Aunt Cheryl to meet Sydney.


Justin, Lourdes and Nanna with little Sydney.


Jayda loving on mommy, sweet girl!


Paschal family!


Riley came up to meet Sydney too!


Klint and Brandy visiting Sydney on Thursday evening.


Sweet baby girl sleeping on her first night after all of her visitors left.


Night, night Sydney!


The hospital where we were at was great! They had a nursery that you could ask for the babies to go to at anytime. A lot of hospitals have done away with nurseries and do room in only. Rooming in is great, but at night it is very nice to get some sleep and have them go to the nursery. So, we sent Sydney to the nursery both nights that we were in the hospital and it was wonderful! We would send her and they would assess her, bathe her, do whatever screens they needed to and then bring her to us every 3 hours for me to feed her. It was absolutely amazing to get that sleep! When we had Jayda there was no nursery and I remember going home absolutely exhausted because I hadn't slept for 4 nights in a row! I could not even function! It's not like I came home feeling great this time, but I definitely felt rested which helped tremendously!

The beautiful flower arrangement that Jacob's work sent us.


Jayda and daddy loving on their favorite new little one.


Oma and Jayda holding Sydney. Can you tell just how much Jayda loves Sydney?


Sleeping with her daddy!


Sweet baby!


Sydney and I were both discharged from the hospital on saturday morning. We were super excited about that because we thought we would have to stay until sunday. That morning Jacob and I tried to get some cute hospital pics of Sydney.

Our sweet Sydney on saturday before leaving the hospital. Instead of paying an arm and a leg to buy pics from the hospital we just took some ourselves. Thought they turned out pretty good! This is just like the onesie Jayda wore for her hospital pics, just a different bug. Jayda was a bumblebee and Sydney was a dragonfly!


Another one of our attempted hospital pics. Pretty cute though!


All ready to take Sydney home for the first time!

Our new family of 4 leaving the hospital on satruday afternoon!


Sydney all ready to go home in her carseat! She didn't like getting in her carseat, but once she was in we didn't hear a peep from her!


Our 2 little girlys ready to leave the hospital! Jayda had to help daddy carry the carseat out to the car.


Sydney's welcome home cookie cake that Jayda picked out, yummy!!


Little bit in her bouncer all swaddled up. She loves to be swaddled! It is so nice that she likes to be swaddled. When she's ready to go to sleep we just swaddle her up and put her down in her bed and she goes to sleep. It is wonderful! And, she doesn't even have to have a pacifier (Jayda had to have her paci all the time!)



Jayda and Sydney in matching pj's after Sydney's first bath at home! We didn't get any pics of her first bath, but we did video tape the whole thing.


The girls in matching pj's the next night.


Jayda came to crawl in our bed after she woke up so she could lay down with Sydney, so sweet!


Sydney at her first Dr's. appt. on Monday, Feb. 15th. When we left the hospital on saturday the Dr. told us we should have Sydney checked on monday because he thought it looked like she had a little bit of Jaundice. Thankfully when we went to have her looked at the Dr. said she didn't look Jaundiced at all and that she didn't even need to test her, yay!!


Sydney getting checked out by the Dr. at her first appt. Not too happy!


My 3 favorites!


Little sweet pea in her swing. She's still not too sure about it.


Mommy trying on Sydney's new bows, how precious is that?!


Daddy with his 2 girls!


Sweet baby girl sleeping.


Can you tell their sisters?


Sydney getting her 2nd bath last night. Her 2nd bath went much better than the first. She actually seemed to like it last night which is great! Jayda also used to love her baths, which was nice so that bathtime was not a struggle. Maybe we'll have 2 water babies!


Getting all bundled up after her bath.


Daddy with his little girl!


SO sweet!


Sydney at 1 week old with big sister Jayda!


Everything has gone so well with little miss Sydney. She is such a good baby and we couldn't be more happy. It's hard to believe we are already getting some sleep too! At night I wake her up every 3 hours, feed her, and put her back to sleep. It's really nice that daddy is getting sleep already too since he has already started back to work.

We are so blessed to have 2 amazing, beautiful and loving little girls! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for us during this special time, we really appreciate you all! Special thanks to Oma and Oupa and Nanna and Pawpaw for staying with us and helping us take care of the girls! Y'all are amazing!!

Sydney Anne Paschal

For those of you that have been anxiously waiting, Aubree wanted me to update everyone on Sydney and Aubree! Sydney entered the world this morning at 8:08am, she weighed 6 lbs. 12 ozs., and she was 19 1/2 inches long! The delivery and procedure went GREAT! Aubree said that the delivery was night and day considering what they went through when delivering Jayda! Sydney is doing very well, she is sleeping a lot, nursing good, and is alert with her eyes open as well! She had bright blue eyes and a head full of dark brown hair! Aubree is doing very well herself. She is not having the same complications that she had after having Jayda. She is very happy and blessed at how everything has gone and how well she is feeling. She was able to stand with not a lot of pain, and she was planning on going for a little walk around the 3rd floor of the hospital tonight! She is still on a liquid diet, but is hoping to get some food tomorrow morning! They said that if everything goes well then they will get to come home on Saturday afternoon, otherwise it will be Sunday morning. Jacob is just glowing! He is so in love with all of his special girls! Jayda is such a good BIG sister. She does not let Sydney get to far out of her sight, and says who can hold her, when they can hold her, and how long they can hold her! It is so cute! She wants to hold her, hug her, kiss her, and love on her every second she gets. When she met Sydney for the first time, she just hugged her and help on to her for a long time....it was too precious!! She is so excited and happy about her little sister! They are at the Sugar Land Memorial Hospital, and will be open to visitors on Friday! Here are some pictures that were taken today! I will keep you updated with any new news or pictures!

Michelle

Valentine's Craft Day!

Today we went over to Riley's house for Valentine's Craft Day. Michelle is so sweet and invited several other little kiddos over to do V-Day crafts. They made Valentine's cookies, necklaces, heart magnets and V-Day cards. She also made the kiddos heart shaped grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We had so much fun! It is our last day together before Sydney arrives, so it was extra special. Wish us luck tomorrow and please pray that everything goes great! Check back tomorrow for pictures. See you again after Sydney arrives!

Jayda getting a taste of icing.


Riley's Nana helping Jayda put sprinkles on her cookies.


The girls with their yummy cookies.


Say cheese!


Making her necklace.

Jayda @ 2 1/2!

Jayda is growing up so much these days. It is so crazy how fast time flies! She just turned 2 1/2 on January 24th and it is so hard for me to believe that she will be 3 this year! I wanted to do a post on what she's like these days so that I never forget these special times.



-She asks tons of questions all the time. She always wants to know what something is, where someone went to, what someone is doing, etc. She wants to know exactly what is going on at all times. And, if you don't give her a good enough answer, like I'm not really sure or I don't know, she will keep asking you over and over.

-She is very aware and sensitive of other people's feelings. If I get irritated or mad at her she'll always say "Momma, are you happy?" because she knows I'm not. She hates for me to be mad at her and will soon apologize for what she'd done. Or if I'm upset for some reason she'll ask if I'm happy and if I say no she'll come give me a hug and tell me "It's ok mama, it's ok". She is so sweet and cares a lot about others around her.

-Jayda is very perceptive.

-She loves to change clothes all of the time. Throughout the course of the day she will probably wear at least 4-6 different outfits. It is something she enjoys doing so I don't really mind. I feel like it's a way for her to be creative and express herself. At the end of the day I just have to put up a bunch of different outfits that were barely worn.

-She loves her baby dolls. Especially one that she named Sassy. She takes Sassy everywhere with her. She rocks Sassy, sings to her, kisses her, hugs her, tucks her into bed, takes her outside to see the dogs, watches movies with her and lots of other things. It is so sweet to see her be so loving. The other night she was putting Sassy to sleep before she went to bed and she said to Sassy "Give your mommy a kiss goodnight, ok?"

-She loves to watch movies. Her favorites right now are Beethoven's 2nd, Homeward Bound, Meet the Robinsons, Tinkerbell, and Ratatouille.

-She loves to help me all the time. She loves to help me cook dinner, do laundry, clean, or do whatever she sees me doing. I'm sure this is really going to help once Sydney arrives!

-Jayda loves to take bubble baths. It's pretty much an every night occurence.

-She enjoys reading books to herself. She doesn't like for you to read to her, she wants to do it herself. She looks at the pictures and makes up her own story. It is so cute!

-Jayda loves to sing and dance. She likes to sing songs that she learns at sunday school like Jesus Loves Me and The Lords Army. She'll also sing along with any kind of music and just copy what it says. She'll dance to just about anything. This morning we were at the grocery store and she heard some music on the speakers and just busted out dancing in the middle of the isle. She is definitely going to have rythym! She can also shake her hips like crazy. Just get her and Riley dancing together and it is the funniest thing ever!

-She loves to play with her best buddy Riley that lives next door. She asks to play with Riley pretty much everyday. The girls have so much fun together. They act like sisters and they fight like sisters. They are such a mess together!

-She is totally potty trained and sleeping very well in her big girl bed (hopefully I'm not jinxing myself!)

-Jayda loves candy. Her favorite candies are sweet tarts and sour patch watermelons. She will do just about anything to get a watermelon!

-She loves playing with our dogs Harley and Nina. She goes outside on the patio almost daily to pet them, play with them, give them treats and bones, and try to tell them what to do. I'll be inside cooking dinner or doing something and I'll hear her outside hollering something to them. She likes to try and tell them what to do, but they don't really listen to her.

-She is a very sweet, loving, and caring little girl. She makes me laugh and smile every single day. She is definitely the light our little world!

-She doesn't like getting into her carseat. It usually takes us about 2-5 minutes to get her in. Once she's in the carseat she's fine, it's just getting in is the problem. She likes to play around and lock the doors, turn on and off the light switches, and whatever else she can find to do so that she doesn't have to do what mommy is asking her.

-She is very strong willed and independent.

-Jayda loves to play with other kids and is very social. Wherever we go she asks me "Are kids gonna be there?" She loves going to playgroup on wednesday mornings to play with her friends.


This past weekend my awesome friend Lauren came into town to visit from Seattle. She had work to do in Houston for a few days and then came to stay with us for the weekend. We had such a great time together just hanging out, relaxing, and catching up. On saturday we had the perfect girls day. We went and got manis and pedis together in the morning and then went to La Madeline for lunch (my fav!). It was so fun to be girly and not worry about anything! I was so sad she had to leave yesterday, but so glad she got to stay with us for a few days. Miss Jayda loves Lolo and already misses her tons! Can't wait for you to come back in a month girl! Miss you!!!

Lauren, myself and Jayda.


On saturday morning while Lauren and I were having girl time, Jacob took Jayda to see Sesame Street Live at the Reliant Arena. They went with Scott, Michelle and Riley. Jacob said the girls had a blast and were SO excited about the show. They were both dancing like crazy the whole time and had popcorn and snocones!

Jayda and Riley at Sesame Street Live.


The show!

Sydney's Room

After several months of converting our office to the nursery, Sydney's room is finally complete. Whew, what a relief! It has been a lot of work to move everything out, paint, decorate, bring in furniture and so on, but of course all very well worth it. We love Sydney's room, now all we need is for miss Sydney to get here!! We are counting down the last 10 days before she arrives! We are still set for a C-Section on February 11th at 7:30 a.m., unless she comes early. However, I really don't think that #2 is going to be any different than #1 was on the coming early thing. I was induced a week late with Jayda, and even once I was induced, she still didn't want to come out. I am very glad to have a scheduled C-Section this time because I think Sydney would have been the same way. I haven't dialated at all, have had no contractions, Sydney has not dropped down at all, and I am still being constantly jabbed in my rib cage! Needless to say, momma is really ready for February 11th to get here. I'm actually hoping I can make it these last 10 days! I know it's going to come really quickly, so I'm just trying to enjoy this last week and a half with Jacob and Jayda before our world totally changes. Hope you enjoy the pics of Sydney's room!

P.S: I have to say a special thank you to Lourdes for all of the artwork in Sydney's room. She painted the flowers on the wall, both signs, and the letters above Sydney's crib! Isn't she great? If you ever are in need of any kind of decorations like this, let me know and I can put in an order to Lourdes. She is super creative and artistic and can custom make whatever you want!