The story of Madeline Grace

We are beyond thrilled to announce that Madeline Grace Hennessy arrived at 8:51am on February 23rd, weighing 6lbs, 13oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She is beyond cute and we could not be more thrilled for Ella to have a sister.

The story of her birth is a wild one but of course has a happy ending. Last Monday on her due date, we went to the doctor to find out I was barely dilated and the doctor telling us it could be awhile before her birth. On Tuesday afternoon, the contractions started but they were pretty sporadic. All Tuesday night I was up with contractions so I went into the doctor Wednesday morning to be checked. Doctor monitored me for awhile and also agreed this baby wasn't coming anytime soon. So, disappointed I went home thinking this baby was not on it's way. Fast forward to 1:45am and I awoke having a strange feeling and all of the sudden, my water broke. It was go time! We called my Mom in Atlanta to come up to watch, Jaime next door rushed over to watch Ella who slept through the entire thing and we were off to the hospital. At this point, my contractions were fast and furious, coming every 2 minutes and extremely painful. After arriving, I was still barely dilated so we waited. After a couple hours, I got my epidural which was amazing but throughout this entire morning, the doctors and nurses kept a very close watch over the baby as her heartbeat was extremely high. We tried everything to bring it down, changing position, giving me oxygen, etc. Finally, a little before 8am the doctor came in and after a very hard and tearful discussion, we concluded that the safest course for me and especially the baby was to do an immediate c-section to stop the stress of the baby. This was something I had really tried to avoid but of course, you have to do whatever it takes to have a healthy baby. So, at 8:51, our little girl was born.
The above picture is Madeline and the below was Ella right after she was born. I think they look very similar and most people do but some others have mixed reviews.
I missed Ella so much but she did great at home switching between my Mom and Mike watching her. We didn't want her coming to see me the first day since I think the IVs would have scared her so she came on Friday. Meeting her new baby sister for the first time.
Not sure how this photo got out of place but anyway, here is a proud Daddy with his new little girl. Daddy is definitely outnumbered now, 3 girls, a girl dog and Daddy.
One of my biggest fears over the past 9 months was how Ella was going to react to the new baby. Would she be jealous, would she act out? Every scenario ran through my head but so far she has been so good. She loves baby Maddie so much and wants to hold her all the time and feed her the bottle. When she came to the hospital, we got a present from Madeline to Ella, a baby doll with a bottle that she can feed while Mommy is feeding her baby. It was a big hit!
I know there will be moments when she is jealous but so far, she has really handled it better than I could have ever imagined. And it helps that she has had lots of attention from DeeDee, Papa and Daddy to keep her very busy.
DeeDee has been a HUGE help, I don't know what we do without her. She has watched Ella, cooked, cleaned and taken such good care of us.
Our first official family picture as a family of four!
We also had some visitors in the hospital, Karen, Jaime and Tracey came to see Maddie and shower her and Mommy with a couple gifts.
And Brooke and Michael brought us an amazing meal that was much needed after the hospital food. And I got to have my first glass of wine with them, it was fantastic.
Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?
Ok, maybe with these big blue eyes, there is something cuter.
On Saturday night, we got to come home. These little peanut is so tiny in her car seat.
We were greeted by Papa and DeeDee and Papa quickly bonded with his 2nd granddaughter.
The name Madeline comes from my great grandmother who I was fortunate to know and spend time with before she passed away. We really wanted Madeline to have a family significance in her name. Grace is just a name that Mike and I have always liked. We do plan on calling her Maddie or as Ella says "Baby Maddie." The one thing we were all shocked about was Maddie's full head of dark hair. After Ella being bald the first 18 months of her life, we were sure this one would be bald also and can't figure out where the dark hair comes from. Guess we will wait and see if it falls out and comes back lighter or stays dark.
Life at home with two is crazy and Maddie doesn't love sleeping flat on her back in the pack n pal so most nights, she ends up sleeping on me but hopefully over time, she will learn to embrace the crib.
For right now, we are soaking up these sweet sisterly bonding moments and just trying to stay afloat and sleep whenever we can.
We are just so grateful to have another healthy, beautiful girl.

At 2 1/2 years old...

Our life is going to get crazy in the next couple of weeks (that is if this baby ever arrives) but before things get too busy, I want to remember and capture everything our first born, our first baby who is not a baby anymore is doing right now.

At 2 1/2 years old, she surprises us in a good and bad ways each day. It is so amazing to see how much they change in such a short amount of time. She is learning new things and songs at school and comes home and will sing them to us. She still continues to LOVE school, running into her classroom each morning. I think she is still a little bit of a teacher's pet from the reports we get. We hear she follows directions very well and listens very closely to the teachers. I think she is also a little bit of a tattle tell. She will come home and tell me who didn't listen to who got into trouble! Her best friend from school is definitely Caroline and the teachers have many pictures of them playing together and holding hands, so sweet.

At 2 1/2, she plays this game with Daddy each night after dinner. It's not hard to learn, she runs around the kitchen and living room as fast as she can and Daddy "tries" to catch her. She would do this all night. Sometimes, they shout "freeze" and then she will count 1-2-3 very softly and then shout "go" and they are off again. The energy of this little girl is amazing, she goes nonstop all day. I guess that is why she sleeps 12+ hours at night and still naps 1.5-2 hours each day. One night while they were freezing during the running game, Daddy got Ella to "tebow" in the kitchen. Check out the picture below.

We had a birthday party for one of our best buddies last week at Monkey Joe's. While her favorite part was putting on the birthday hat, singing the happy birthday song and of course eating cake, I was amazed by how much less timid she was this time.
Sliding down the big slides all by herself.
Climbing up the big ladder all by herself. This would have never happened 6 months ago when she was too tentative or scared to go all by herself.
But she has shown a lot more independence these days, which can be good and frustrating at the same time as well.
She wants to get in and out of the carseat all by herself which is great but can also add a good 5-10 minutes when we are trying to go anywhere. Her biggest independence is when it comes to her shoes and clothes. She wants to pick out her clothes and especially shoes each day. It would normally be fine but she wants to wear the same dress everyday and the same pink shoes which are fine for inside but not suitable for playing outside. I am beginning to think that people think I only have 1 outfit for her! She is going to be quite the fashionista I fear and she is already picky about the clothes that I wear, only wanting me to wear certain things. Oh the teenage years should be interesting! At least the spring and summer are approaching since she prefers to wear a dress everyday.At 2 1/2, she loves to play with all of her friends and best buddies in the neighborhood. We had a Super Bowl party last weekend and all the kids had a blast running around together and building forts. After our walk each afternoon, we have to walk around the neighborhood and check to see if any of the other kids are out playing so we can say hi. We are so lucky to live in such a great neighborhood with so many kids to play with.
At 2 1/2, she loves all things sweet or "special treats" as she calls them. Here she is eating a marshmallow, also during the Super Bowl party. No need to toast it for her, she prefers to eat it straight out of bag and say "marshmallow" really slow while she is eating it. Her favorite treats are Oreos, m&ms, jellybeans, really anything sweet! Maybe it was the sweet tooth I had with her while I was pregnant!

At 2 1/2, she is very aware that she is a big girl now and the baby is coming soon! She tells her teachers, will ask me if the baby came yet and always referring to her new room and then the baby's room. We got down the infant car seat last weekend and she was excited to learn that the baby would ride in the car with her and watch the Ariel movie with her! Not sure she quite grasps the concept of what baby's do, which is not much when they are a newborn. I think she thinks the baby will come out walking and talking like her. I hope she continues to be excited since she will be a big sister soon.

Oh, Miss Ella James, you are sweet and stubborn and silly and all things that come along with being 2 1/2. You make your Daddy and I crack up each day with your funny stories and antics and sometimes you make us want to pull our hair out when you don't get your way and have a meltdown. The good thing is your sweetness and smile far outweigh your stubbornness and we hope it stays that way. We love you little one that is not so little anymore.