Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband! Hope you enjoyed your Spiderman/Batman themed birthday celebration at home courtesy of Jonah!! Thank you for all that you do for our family!! We love you!!

I made it through my first shopping trip alone with both kids....

My first trip out with both my children was while Josh was away for the weekend at a Fraternity reunion. Jonah decided he wanted to plant flowers and he wanted a bird feeder so he could watch the birds thanks to an article we read in his Nick Jr magazine on bird watching. So the three of us loaded up in the car and we headed out to Home Depot on Friday evening and purchased our items.

I was a little nervous about my first time out alone with both of them. You can abandon the shopping cart and chase down one child in a store but it's hard to chase one when you have another one that is asleep in a car seat that is sitting in the shopping cart. I'm not sure why I even thought this would happen. Jonah has never run away from me in a store but I definitely didn't want this shopping trip to be his first attempt.

I had really worked myself up over this first outing but to my surprise Jonah walked along right beside me and eagerly picked out a bird feeder, bird seed, the flowers he wanted to plant, potting soil and a flower pot. Meredith slept through the entire trip! No drama, no tears, and no fits from either of them! Yea!! Afterwards we picked up dinner, came home and had a great evening watching movies. All three of us slept in mine and Josh's bed. Jonah didn't even stir when Meredith woke up crying ready to eat! My fears of being out in public alone with both of them have been put to rest for now. That is until Meredith starts walking!!

Josh's Dad and Susan came up Saturday morning to visit and stayed the rest of the weekend. They enjoyed playing outside and walking around the neighborhood. I enjoyed the company and not having to cook!!

So ready for Summer.....

Sip and See

My friends Shannon and Vicky threw me a fabulous Sip and See this weekend! I was able to show off Miss Meredith, catch up with some wonderful friends, and received some adorable baby gifts!

Two weeks old and two weeks into life with two kids

I posted the first week that I seemed to be more calm this time around well, I'm not sure what it is about the two week mark but it seems that the newborn bliss starts to wear off, the family leaves, the sleep deprivation sets in, routines are broken, pain medication bottles are empty, your maternity clothes are now too big but your regular clothes are still too small and all of a sudden your patience starts wearing very thin. You love this new little person more than words can describe but you find yourself crying multiple times throughout the day for no apparent reason! You start to feel a little bit out of control after the first couple of weeks.

Everyone told us that going from one to two children is a lot harder transition than going from zero to one. They were right and we tried to prepare ourselves for that reality but I don't think you can actually prepare for it. With the first baby you don't know what to expect so you both just try to survive each day and learn from your mistakes. With the second you know what to expect and that's almost more stressful!

Josh and I have to stop several times and takes deep breaths and tell ourselves that we can do this and it will get better! We are a team and we just have to develop a new routine and schedule and remember that this is an adjustment for all five of us (including Riley!) We just have a hard time fitting everything we need to do into the twenty four hours we have in a day. The time goes by so fast! Josh spends most of his time taking care of Jonah's needs while I take care of Meredith right now and we tackle the other stuff together as much as we can!

On the happy side of life, Meredith is still a really great baby. She is such a blessing and we are so thankful for our healthy baby girl! She loves to cuddle and I think she would be perfectly content sleeping in our arms 24/7. She is demanding but we kind of knew she would be. She does like to eat A LOT which takes up most of my time and is one of the main reasons I'm so behind on the blog and my ever growing to do list which includes finishing thank you cards, birth announcements, scheduling a family photo session, and planning Josh's upcoming birthday!

So far Jonah has not shown any signs of jealousy towards Meredith. The first thing he wants to do in the morning when he wakes up is see her and give her kisses. The three of us lay in bed together for awhile after Josh leaves to go to work and those moments are priceless. When she cries he tells me she's hungry or goes and gets her pacifier for her. He likes helping me change her diapers. He takes his role as a protective big brother very seriously. When I take him to school in the mornings I leave her at the front desk with the staff while I walk him to his class room and he tells them not to let anyone touch her. I feel really sorry for her boyfriends! He's eased right into being a big brother but he's also hit the "why" and the "I'll do it by myself" phase of his life and sometimes that presents some challenges. I'm learning to pick my battles. The other morning he wore Christmas socks that light up with his outfit to school and another morning he wore brown leather shoes with athletic pants. Normally his outfits coordinate from head to toe but I can't even coordinate my own outfits in the morning these days!





My two week check up with my favorite OB/GYN, Dr. McIntire. Meredith and Meredith together again! And for those wondering I didn't name Meredith after my doctor. I just love the name and it just happened to also be my doctor's name.


My wonderful nurse Lori!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend! Amy brought Kayla and Christian up to meet their new cousin and Jerod and Lauren also came over to help us celebrate the holiday!

Jonah and Kayla had a lot of fun playing dress up, bouncing in the bounce house, and riding on the roller coaster in the toy room! Since the weather was so bad on Easter Sunday the Easter Bunny came by and hid the Easter eggs throughout the house and we had an indoor Easter egg hunt. Kayla only wanted the pink eggs so everytime Jonah found a pink egg he gave it to Kayla to put in her basket! It was so sweet!

The Baskets



Meredith's First Easter



The Hunt



Look at all those eggs



Meredith and Jonah



Our little chick



More family pics....

Cousins...we realized how hard it is to get four little ones to smile for the camera so this picture was the best we could get



Christian



The Tiger and the Super Hero / Knight



The Tiger and the Dragon



I think Kayla is pretty excited to have another girl in the family

7 Days old

I can't believe Meredith is already seven days old! She is such a good baby and so far has been really easy. She wakes up every three hours to eat and when she's not eating or sleeping she loves to be held and cuddle! Her cry is one loud "whaaa!" to get your attention and that's about it. I love when she's asleep and she makes these little sighs. It's so precious! Jonah is still madly in love with his little sister. She's the first person he wants to see in the morning and the first person he asks about when he gets home from school! He loves holding her and giving her kisses and when she grabs his finger he gets the biggest smile on his face! It's amazing to watch them together. Josh and I are very blessed to have such a wonderful little family!

First days at home

She has only been home a few days days and already has a nickname Little Ladybug (Jonah's nickname is Snugglebug).

We go back and forth on what we call her when we use her real name. Sometimes it's Meredith and sometimes it's Reagan. So, the official ruling is still up in the air and I have a feeling that Jonah will be the one that makes the final call.

Both or I guess I should say all of us are settling into our "new" normal. Our family left on Sunday but since Jonah is in school I'm able to spend my day catering to all of the Princesses needs. And the four items on her daily to do list seem to take up my whole day right now.

The recovery from the c-section has been harder than I expected and I'm relying heavily on my new best friends Hydrocodone and Ibuprofen for support. When they leave I will be very sad!

Josh has been my absolute knight in shining armor this week! He already had some practice under his belt with me being on bedrest for the majority of the pregnancy but he has been the best husband taking care of Jonah, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc. Not to mention taking us to our first appointments with the pediatrician and lactation consultant since I can't drive. And he's been doing all of this while working. Every afternoon he stops at the store to buy Jonah a little snack, picks him up from school and then he comes home and I spend some quality time with Jonah and he spends some quality time with his little girl before making dinner. Oh and did I mention he also had to take Jonah to the ENT and Riley to the vet twice this week. Seriously, I don't know how he does it!! He is definitely receiving the "Daddy of the Year" award!

Jonah is adjusting really well! He loves his baby sister and overnight became the protective big brother. He loves to hold her hand and give her kisses on the forehead. He's told everyone at school that he's a big brother. He tries to really help us out at home with her. Yesterday Josh asked him to get a diaper upstairs out of Meredith's room. He said "okay" but when he came out of the room he yelled "I couldn't find the diapers, so I brought her some sunglasses, a paci, some socks and shoes"! Too cute!

One thing we did this time around is put a bed in Meredith's room so I can sleep with her and wake up as needed without disturbing Josh or Jonah. This may be one of my best ideas yet! So far she's been a great baby. She lets me cuddle her all day which I love and she's eating about every three hours. I'm listening to the advice from all the baby books this time around and sleeping when she sleeps, except she's asleep right now and I'm working on the blog! But as soon as I'm done it's nap time for Mommy.

So right now the adjustment to having two hasn't been as hard as I thought but then again it's only the first week. We'll see what I have to say in a couple of months :) But I definitely feel a lot more calm this time around. I'm not letting things stress me out as much and I'm realizing that we will eventually get into a rythym and work out our routine and most importantly we are learning to take it one day at a time!

She loves to sleep!



Jonah and Meredith



The Stork sign Josh had made for us! (Isn't he so sweet??) Riley and Meredith



First Bath

Family Secrets

Jonah is already sharing all our family secrets!

Family and Friends

Meredith had lots of family and friends come visit while she was in the hospital! It meant a lot to us to have those that were able to be there during her birth and those that came by to visit afterwards! We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and amazing friends!



I didn't get any pictures of the visit from my good friends Shannon and Sarah and I'm totally blaming my forgetfulness on the pain pills!! Thank you again for coming to see us! We enjoyed our visit and I'm so glad you were able to meet Miss Meredith!

More pictures to share from the hospital...

Heading to the hospital



Minutes before the big event



Josh and I enjoying our steak and lobster lunch compliments of the hospital. It was actually really good!




Jonah didn't want any of the steak or lobster but didn't mind helping himself to the whip cream and fresh berries :)


The beautiful flowers that my wonderful husband and sweet son sent! The card read "Thank you for our new daughter and sister! We love you, Josh and Jonah" And yes, I cried!!



Finally heading home. I had a hard time picking out her going home outfit but settled on something pink (of course) with princess crowns because I have a feeling she will be the new little princess in our house which means I am promoting myself to queen! :)

Isn't She Lovely

Meredith Reagan Schneider finally made her arrival yesterday at 12:32pm! She weighed 7.1 pounds and is 20 inches long! She is healthy, beautiful and already wrapped around our little fingers! We are so in love!

Anxiously waiting....














Miss Meredith and Dr. Meredith McIntire