Smiles and Toy Story 3

The smiles of my children feel my heart with such happiness! I can remember the fun Andrew and I had trying to make Cannon smile for the first time and now we get to do it again with Madison. Of course we make our selves look like fools but hey, the smile we get in return is well worth it! Madison has started to smile at us a lot now. She has the biggest, prettiest grin I have even seen! She likes to stick her tongue out when she smiles too. It is the cutest thing. She is on the brink of giggling. We have gotten her to make a slight laugh sound but she hasn't let it out quite yet. I can't wait! Babies laughs are so contagious! Madison is getting so big. She can do everything she is suppose to be doing at this stage plus a little more. Her neck is very strong. We tried her out in the bumbo already but she didn't like it yet. I am ready for her to have more activities to do because she loves for me to hold her, therefore I am not getting as much done during the day as I would like. I realize though that this time is short and precious, so I just need to enjoy it while it lasts.

As for Cannonball, well he is a wee bit obsessed with all things Toy Story! He wants everything there is to do with Buzz Lightyear. His Aunt Daney bought him some Buzz Lightyear pj's and he would wear them every night if he could. His birthday is in a couple months so I asked him what he wanted the theme to be, of course it was BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!!! I was at Target the other day and ran across the perfect birthday present for him and it was on clearance!! It is a Buzz Lightyear costume!
How perfect is that! I can already see trips to the store with my little Buzz Lightyear because I know once I give it to him that is ALL he will ever want to wear! I am just preparing myself. I have this thing about never letting him leave the house in clothes I don't find socially acceptable. I want him to look nice and put together when we are out in public. Well, I know I am just going to have to suck it up and let him leave the house in this outfit a few times. That's okay though, that is what being a kid is all about! I can't wait for September 11th to get here so I can give it to him! :)

Lately...

Things have been pretty hectic lately. I feel as if the last few weeks have been packed full of things I had to do. Doctors appointments, visits with family and friends, etc. I loved having my BFF Candice here with me for a weekend. She and her cute son Cooper came to see Madison Jane. It was great having my best friend to hang out with and go shopping with again. We live way too far apart!

The future Mr. and Mrs. McCuistion??? :)

Candice with Miss Mady Jane

All our cute kiddos together

Andrew had a last minute trip to the Dominican Republic for work last week. I know, tough job huh! While they do spend most of their day at the refineries they get to enjoy lavish dinners at night. The first night he told me they went to a historic downtown restaurant and ate across the street from Christopher Columbus' house and the first cathedral built in the Western Hemisphere was down the street. Of course, he didn't have a camera with him to share the amazing sites with all of us! Oh yeah, to make matters even worse, his hotel room had an ocean view! Man, I think I will trade him jobs. :) Just kidding, I love being able to stay home with my kiddos even if I don't get to take business trips. My sweet mom in law just happened to be coming in town so I bribed her to come stay with me and help out with the kiddos. She took a lot of bribing before she said yes though! ;) I think it was like 2 seconds after I asked she agreed! She loves her some grandbaby time.

This Friday I will be headed to Oklahoma for my cousin's wedding. I will then get to stay the rest of the week in Oklahoma with my family. I am so looking forward to spending time with my family, just not the 4 hour drive it takes to get there! I am extra excited to spend some time with my Jane-Jane, which is my grandmother. She has been in and out of the hospital these last few months and is dying to meet little miss Madison Jane. I can't wait to get a picture of them together. Madison will also get to meet the rest of my family for the first time. It is going to be fun! Keep us in your prayers for safe travel!! And our sanity! :)

Fun With My Girl!

I couldn't wait to have Madison so that I could play dress up with my own real life baby doll!! It has been so much fun buying her cute outfits, bows, etc. Sadly, having a little boy doesn't allow as much fun in this department, so I was THRILLED when they told me she was a she! One thing I knew for sure I wanted for her was a tutu. What little girl can live a full happy life if she doesn't have at least ONE tutu in her life! I planned on having her take some pictures at her newborn photo session but it didn't happen, so I decided to put my photography skills to work. They definitely aren't professional quality but hey, the baby girl makes them look amazing! :) Cannon didn't like that I was giving Madison so much attention so he tried to block her out or cut in as many photos as he could until I finally had to make him leave the room. Poor kid. He doesn't know how to share the spotlight.

Cannon trying to show me he is just as cute to take a picture of!

Sweet Girl

This is her "I can get anything I want from Daddy" face.



One of my biggest mommy freak out moments happened this past week. I had Madison laying on my bed while I was getting dressed. Cannon had come in the room and got up on the bed with her. I told him to just let her lay there and not to mess with her. I had had her propped up on a pillow for tummy time and she rolled over. Cannon thought that was the coolest thing that she could roll over and do "tricks" as he referred to it. I guess while I was in the closet he decided to teach her some more tricks. I came out of the closet, probably about 2 seconds later, to find Madison dangling head first from the bed! OMG! I went crazy. I ran and grabbed her and started yelling at Cannon that he is to never touch his sister again!!! Yeah, I know, pretty harsh, but hey I saw my helpless baby's life flash before my eyes! I would of done the same thing for him. So now I have learned that I have to really watch him around her. I know he is trying to just play with her but he is going to have to learn a little more baby friendly games.

2 Weeks In And We Are Sending Her Back!

Well we all knew this day would come but we just didn't know when. The inevitable has happened...Cannon made his request for Madison Jane to be sent back.

Sunday afternoon when our new little family of four was sitting on the couch enjoying each other's company, Cannon decided he wanted his Mommy. The only problem at the time was Madison needed her Mommy a little more because it was eatin' time. I told Cannon that he would have to wait. He didn't like that and started acting out. He kept "patting" Madison rather roughly on her head, then grabbing her ears, then jumping on my back. Andrew stepped in and told Cannon to stop and leave Mommy and Madison alone while she is eating. This, of course, crushed poor Cannon. He was Mommy's boy and Mommy always paid him attention. I guess he finally put two and two together because he said "Mommy, I want you to send Madison back!" I asked him why and all he said was "because!" Then we asked him where she was suppose to go back to, and he looked at us like we were dumb and said "Uh, Mommy's belly!" Yeah, sorry child, that is NOT happening!

We have had some interesting experiences with Cannon since Madison has joined us. I think the adjustment of a new sibling is taking its toll on the poor kid. He doesn't understand why Madison gets to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room and he can't. He also doesn't understand why he gets to take a nap and Madison gets to stay up! So not fair!

My favorite moment so far has been while I was nursing Madison one day. Cannon climbed up in the chair and saw what was going on. He was like "Mommy, what are you doing, put that away!" I said to him that that was how Madison ate right now. She needs to drink Mommy's special milk." He decided that was a good enough answer and then promptly said (while pointing to each side of my chest) "Oh so that one is mine and that one is Madison's!" Umm...no sorry baby boy, you already had your share of Mommy's special milk! :)

I am sure I will have tons more funny stories to share so stay tuned. I will warn you though, the post maybe few and far between the next few weeks. I am trying to adjust myself to this new mother of two game!

Our Sweet Girls Arrival!

Cannon telling Madison that it is time to COME OUT!

Looking at my beautiful Madison Jane for the first time.

Cannon checking out his new little sister!

I couldn't wait to get this outfit on her!!

Our new family of four!

Madison Jane Mileur made her entrance into the world on May 4th, 2010 at 4:36pm. She was 7lbs 12oz, 20.25 inches long. A head full of dark black hair and dark blue eyes. She is absolutely beautiful! She is exactly as I dreamed her to look like. I am so happy to finally have her in my arms.

The days leading up to her arrival were quite exhausting though. After my first false alarm I had two more visits to Labor and Delivery. The second was because I thought my water broke and the third was to monitor my high blood pressure. My doctor had me come in on Monday, May 3rd to have my blood pressure checked once again. It was still high but I wasn't spilling protein so it did match pre-eclampsia. So she diagnosed me with gestational hypertension and told me I would be scheduled for induction the next day! YEA!! I was so glad. It was only a couple days before my scheduled induction but hey, I was really ready to meet her! So I went in at 9:00am on May 4th. They got me set up in my room at started me on the pitocin at 10:30am. I was really nervous because I didn't want to feel contractions because I never experienced them with Cannon. They told me I had to wait until my contractions were in a regular pattern before they could give me an epidural. Boo! So I waited. It didn't take long for that to happen. Around 12:00 the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epi! YEA!!! My doctor come in soon after to break my water. Well it had done that on it's own right before she went to do it. My contractions started getting stronger. I was a little uncomfortable because I still felt the contractions mildly on my left side. So the anesthesiologist was called back in and he pumped me with some more drugs. I felt GOOOOOD! after that. The nurses said they would check back in on me in a little while. Well at 2:30 or 3:00 the nurses came in and checked me. I was at a 10!! Whooo hooo! We were just waiting for her head to drop a little lower. Then at 3:30 they checked again, it was time! The doctor got there at about 4:00 got everything ready. 36 minutes and 3 pushes later, Madison Jane entered the world! It was an amazing birth! I am so blessed to have such easy deliveries. I know that some women have to endure so much worse and I thank the Lord for allowing me to birth my children so easily. I am now blessed with two beautiful children. The Lord has shown me so much mercy and blessings. To Him I owe everything.

Round 1...False Labor

Sunday morning I was getting ready for church when I felt the beginning of what I thought was labor. I had horrible back pains and pressure. Then my stomach started tightening as well. We timed "contractions" and they started at about 20 minutes apart and quickly moved to 5 or 7 minutes apart. I called my doctor and told her what was happening. She told me to go to the hospital to be monitored since I was 4cm at my appointment on Friday. So I went in and got checked in. They hooked me up to the monitors, took a urine sample, and checked dilation. They said I was still a 4. My urine showed some protein and also keytones. So they started me on an IV for dehydration. My contractions were not consistent on the monitor after being watched for 3 hours. So they told me that I was not in active labor and would be sent home. I wasn't too surprised. I know that this happens all the time with women thinking they are in labor. So she decided to check me once again to see if I have dilated anymore. Much to my surprise and the nurse's I had gone to a 5! She just knew the doctor would admit me and we would be having that baby, but nope! My doctor said to go home! BOOOO! I am told I get to live with this lovely back labor pain until my true labor starts. I am not thinking that is very nice of them! I am so afraid that since I am already dilated so far that when labor does start it will go quickly. I really don't want to be stuck 45 minutes from the hospital when I go into labor. Plus if it happens during the day before Andrew is home from work, I will have to wait 30 minutes for him to drive home. The scenario I play out in my head is not a good one! :) My the Lord have mercy on us! So we are just looking at round 1 as a practice round. We got to the hospital, figured out where everything is, so next round (hopefully the real deal) will go smoothly!!

Big Baby Bump

We have arrived at 36 weeks! Yay! I feel like my stomach has been stretched to the max. I am not sure how much longer it can hold out! But I love my baby bump. I couldn't wait until I had my big baby bump and now it is almost over. :( I am so excited to meet Mady Jane though. I can't wait to see the beautiful creation that God has made. Will she look like me when I was a baby or will we have another mini Andrew? Will she pick up some random family trait and come out with blond hair and blue eyes?? It is such a great mystery! I have had several dreams about her and every time I imagine her I see a dark headed little girl with big brown eyes. In a few short weeks we will know for sure! Last Friday my doctor said things are looking great. My blood pressure was a little elevated but not enough to worry at this point. I just have to keep my eye on it. I didn't have any protein either so that is a good sign. I think that I will be induced on either April 30th or May 7th. I will find out for sure on Friday. I also think there is a good chance she could come on her own before then. My body has been feeling weird lately. It is like I can feel it preparing for Madison's big debut. I am getting so anxious! I am a little nervous about it happening on it's own because I did experience contractions or my water breaking on it's own. Cannon was induced so I got my epidural before the contractions started and they broke my water. I have been experiencing contractions here and there but nothing consistent. They are very uncomfortable so I just hope and pray I get my epidural before I experience the real deal! I am a wimp when it comes to pain! :) Friday I will know a date for induction, so when I find out I will let you all know!