Our Wild One

Baby Zoey One Year Old!

Baby Zoey

One Year Old

A few of your favourite things:

Putting Things around your neck like a necklace (Ribbons, Cords, Strings, whatever you can find)

Pouting

Peek-A-Boo

Being Thrown Up in the air

Keys

Picking Flowers

Being Outside

Anything Mum is eating

Brushing Teeth

Raisins

Sweeping the floor

Sippy Cups

Pulling all the cards out of mum's wallet

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Being Sick :(

Sleeping (you are waking up like 10 times a night still)

Tomatoes

Juice

Getting Stuck in the Storage Ottomans

Being Held like a baby

Being Ignored

New Tricks:

Growing your Molars (all at once which is not so fun)
Obeying directions (drop it, come here, stop etc)
Can climb down stairs
Yells at you for things (more an annoyance than a trick haha)
Sharing

Baby Zoey 11 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Eleven Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Running

When your sister says "cookie" to you

Food

Playing in the dirt

Pushing your sister around on her scooter

Playing on Playgrounds (swings are your favorite)

Getting into the snack drawer when we arent looking

Pulling everything out of the cupboards

Cheese Graters (You always hunt for them until you find them, its weird)

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Baby Food

When your sister steals your toy

The drive to Grandma and Grandpas house

When dogs bark

Being scared by daddy

New Tricks:

Saying "Hi"
Saying "Tickle Tickle" when you tickle your own feet
Running
Climbing onto Furniture

Baby Zoey 10 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Ten Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Chasing your big sister around the house

Being Tickled

Chocolate

Dancing to Music

Exploring new places

Screaming at the top of your lungs for no reason

Staring at people

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

The Snow

Sitting Still

Being Told off

Long drives

New Tricks:

Feeding yourself like a champ
Walking like a Pro
Down to one nap 🙈

Baby Zoey 9 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Nine Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Playing with your sissy

Cuddles

Bubble Baths 

The Libray

Stories

Pushing Furniture around (you are the best little re-decorator)

Finger Painting

Playing in the toyroom

Pulling sissy's hair

Swings

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Being cold

Sleeping in your crib

Eating Brocolli and tomatoes

New Tricks:

Playing Peek-A-Boo
Climbing Stairs
Walking now! (Only a couple of steps so far but its something!)
Singing
Listening and Responding to commands
Opening cupboards

Baby Zoey 8 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Eight Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Bath Time (Splashing)

Playing with your sister

Dancing to music

Bananas

Banging things to make noise

Sleeping in mama and papas bed

Opening cupboards (Time to re-baby-proof!)

Reading Books

Throwing Balls

Pulling Wipes out of the box

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Taking Naps

Holding Still for too long

Having Diaper Changed

When daddy scares you

Hearing other babies cry

Going shopping

When mama walks away from you

New Tricks:

Saying "Da Da" and "Mum Mum" (and a whole bunch of other noises)

Can stand up by yourself unsupported!

Walking around the house with your new walker
Standing Up for yourself when your sissy is being mean
Major Sleep regression!
Fake Laughing
Responding to conversation
Waving

3 Years Old!

Baby Allira

36 Months Old

A Few Of Your Favourite Things:
Going to Grandma and Grandpa's House
Playing With Friends
Dancing & Singing along to Songs (your favs are "Adore" by Amy Shark and "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Michael Buble)
Playgrounds
Bouncy Houses
Th Library
Reading Books (Fav is Green Eggs and Ham)
Bandaids
Vehicles (Especially Airplanes and Excavators)
Playing I Spy (With Colors)
Riding on your scooter
Going for walks
Nursery
Minnie Mouse 
Skype (With anyone)
Snapchat with Aunty Roo
Ice Cream
Jumping In Puddles (We Live in the right place for that!)
Watching Movies (Sing is your Fav)
M&Ms
Baths
Counting Numbers
Time with daddy
Playing in her toy room
Firetrucks
Matching Games
Baking With mama (cupcakes and cookies are you fav)

A Few of your Not-So-Favourite Things:

Being Told Off for something
Sharing toys with your little sister
Eating Food
Time Outs
Going Shopping
Having your nails trimmed
"Spilling" (Peeing your pants)
When Things are unorganized (Get that from your papa)
The Dentist
Getting Shots at the Doctor

New Tricks:

Potty Trained! (Except "Brown Bottoms", but we are working on it)
Becoming Obedient
Can Spell Her name, Mommy, Daddy and Zoey
Can Count to 40
Memorizes Everything
Can Add Numbers together
Can Identify any Vehicle
Starting to learn how to write
A little parrot, Repeats everything we say
Can Do Puzzles

Baby Zoey 7 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Seven Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Crawling and exploring

Splashing In Water

Playing On Playgrounds (Swings are your new favorite)

Peek-A-Boo

Being Tickled

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Sleeping Through the night :(

Being Babysat

When Your Big Sister Wont Share Her Toys With You

Car Trips

New Tricks:

Clapping Hands!

Can Pull yourself Up Onto Things

Can Use a Sippy Cup

Popped a couple teeth!

No Longer Sucking on your fingers for comfort

Singing (Screaming to music)

Baby Zoey 6 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Six Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Screaming (happy screams) as loud as you can

Sucking on your left fingers 

Splashing in the bath

Having your hand kissed (like a lady)

Being bounced on the bed

Bananas

Playing with your big sister

Pulling hair

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Loud scary noises (like the vacuum)

Taking a bottle

Being out in the cold

Socks or shoes on your feet

New Tricks:

Crawling!

Can sit up on your own

Pinching food with fingers

Sleeping in your big girl crib all night long!

Giving kisses

Growing some hair!

Baby Zoey 5 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Five Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Playing Peek-A-Boo

Snuggling 

Watching your big sister play

Jumping On The Bed (With help Obviously)

Squawking

Hearing Your Name

Being Sung To

Being Tickled

Dancing Around The House

Solid Foods!

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Being In Your Carseat

Long Car Rides

Not Being Able To Reach A Toy

Being Alone Ever

New Tricks:

Rolling Over to Get Places

Rotating In 360 Circles

Can Scoot Towards Toys

Can Walk With Help

Sitting On Your Own (Only For Like 15 Seconds, But Its Something!)

Baby Zoey 4 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Four Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Attention

Smiling

Giggling Like Crazy!

Bouncing In Your Bouncer

Sitting In Your Bumbo

Bath Time

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Still Tummy Time

When Your Big Sister Cries

Bottles (Still Wont Take Them)

New Tricks:

Eating Solids! (So Far Only Sweet Potato, But It Was A Hit!)

Rolling Over From Back To Front

Rolling Over From Front To Back Too!

Grabbing Things

Sleeping Through The Night

Sitting In A Highchair

Baby Zoey 3 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Three Months Old

A few of your favourite things:

Drooling

Standing up

Bouncing in your jumper

Dancing (especially in front of a mirror)

The song 'Sweet Caroline'

People talking to you

Being Tickled

Sitting up

Sucking on your hands

Bright lights and colors

The baby in the mirror

When your big sister plays with you

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Loud noises (especially daddys powertools!)

Being Burped

Headbands falling in your face

Wearing socks

tummy time (just not being able to see everything)

Laying down

New Tricks:

Trying so hard to talk! (you get this serious face when you want to say something)

Rolling from side to side (almost rolling over!)

Lifting upper body up during tummy time

Blowing Bubbles

Iron grip

Can detect where sounds are coming from

Sitting up in your bumbo

Standing on your own while holding someones hands for long period of time(you got some great leg muscles girl)

Getting some hand-eye coordination

Baby Zoey 2 Months Old

Baby Zoey

Two Months Old

Hey big chubby girl!

A few of your favourite things:

Chatting to your mama

Getting cuddles from your big sister

When daddy makes funny noises at you

Doing blowouts

Smiling at everyone and everything

Having your head rubbed

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Being put down (you just want all the love all day long)

Being swaddled with your arms bound (you will grunt and pull until they are loose)

Sitting in your poop (and who can blame you)

Binkies

Having your nails trimmed

New Tricks:

Survived a 12 hour road trip to Utah (and then back again)

Giggling! (first time was at grandpa)

Sleeping in 5 hour blocks at night time

Being in the 50th percentile for height, weight and head circumference

Standing while holding hands

Lifting your head up during tummy time

Discovered how to use your arms and legs (and you accidentally punch yourself in the face all the time haha)

Baby Zoey 1 month Old

Baby Zoey

One Month Old

I cant believe it's already been a month since you were born!

A few of your favourite things:

Bath Time

Snuggling (with anyone)

Going for walks 

Being outside

Looking at lights

Sleeping in mummy and daddys bed

Being sung to

Pooping right after we change your diaper (you literally go through like 30 a day)

A few of your Not-So-Favourite things:

Having a cold

Sleeping in your bassinet

Getting needles

New Tricks:

Loving tummy time

Smiling allll the time :)

Projectile Poop

Projectile Vomit

Putting on mucho pounds

Peeing as soon as your diaper is off (everytime!)

Baby Zoey's Birthday

Baby Zoey's Birthday

May 5th 2017

7.00am

From the minute I woke up I could tell something was different. I had been having some pretty intense contractions for a couple weeks but they were so sporadic that it didn't really make us too excited just yet. At my last appointment on the 2nd I was only dilated to like a half centimeter so we knew it could be a while away yet. I had the nursery ready to go, the hospital bags all packed and the house spic and span so really we were just playing the waiting game at this stage. I had decided that to take my mind off my discomfort and anxiety of waiting I would spend the days just hanging out with Allira and enjoying the last few opportunities we would get to spend time just the two of us. I took her to playgrounds, the kids museum, on countless walks, to playdates, spent hours in her playroom just playing.. On this particular day I had decided to take her to an indoor playground called Dizzy Castle which is probably her most favourite place of all and who can blame her because that place is freaking awesome.

12.30pm
We had been at dizzy castle for a couple hours and I guess it was the crazy slides and crawling through tunnels (yeah i was 9 months pregnant and playing on a playground haha) that got my contractions really going. I texted Alex to let him know, trying not to get my hopes up just in case. When we got home and Allira was down for her nap I decided to try take one too because dang I was tired from all that playing! So I curled up on the couch only to get hit by contraction after contraction, and they were getting pretty painful! I called my mum to let her know because she was planning on driving up from Medford (5 hours drive) when I went into labor.  She said she would finish up at work and go home and pack if they kept going.

4.15pm
Alex got home from work and because it was cinco de mayo we decided to go out to our favourite mexican restaurant. Contractions were still present, getting worse but I didn't want to sit at home anymore, time was just dragging by! So off we went for what would be my last meal for over 24 hours. we had started timing my contractions and they were anywhere from 5-12 minutes apart lasting for about 30 seconds. We called the nurse who said to head to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart, lasting for a minute consistently for an hour.

6.00pm
Sitting in the restaurant and decided it was time to call my mum. This baby was definitely on its way! We were going to go out for ice cream and walk around home depot for a bit but i was in no position to be strolling around anywhere in public at this stage! So we headed home to wait for the contractions to come closer together. I passed the next couple hours bouncing on my exercise ball, climbing stairs and sitting in the bath while Alex watched parks and rec haha it's tough being a guy! :P
We tried to get a nice 40 week pregnancy photo but the contractions had other plans!

9.00pm
We dropped Allira off at some friends of ours from church and headed to the hospital.

9.45pm
Arrived at the hospital and was admitted to the triage only to find out I was only dilated to 2cm! The nurse said they were pretty busy that night and if things didn't progress in an hour she would have to send me home with some pain medication until I was further along. So I put on that lovely hospital gown and for an hour I just walked around the hospital, stopping every 5 minutes to get through a contraction, it was no fun! Mum arrived at the hospital around 11pm, grabbed our car keys and went to pick up Allira for the night.

11pm
The nurse came back to check on me, I was still only at a 2 but she was able to manually stretch me to a 4 which was the minimum that would allow me to stay. Seriously such a relief!! I did not want to go home again! We walked down the hall to a labor and delivery room, Alex went to get our bags from the car and we made ourselves comfy :)

May 6th 2017

Honestly the rest of the night is kind of a blur to me.. I remember the nurses had trouble finding my veins to set me up on the IV. I had 3 different nurses try and I'm not exaggerating when I say they stabbed me with needles over 15 times in 4 different places before they finally had to put it in my hand. My bruising in one spot only just went away and this was weeks ago! So that part was no fun.. We had two amazing nurses that were taking care of us, one was training but they were both so encouraging and amazing and helpful!

2am
It was around 2am when I finally caved and got an epidural. I was only dilated to a 5 and there was no way I could do it anymore! The contractions were coming in pairs and the fact that they were hardly doing anything to get my body ready for labor was just too much. Once the epidural kicked in I was back in my happy place and ready for anything. I tried to nap here an there but its kinda hard when you have nurses coming in to check your blood pressure and temperature every 5 seconds. Zoey's heart rate would also drop occasionally which was so scary but once I had an oxygen mask on it went back to normal.

4.30am
Finally dilated to an 8!

6.00am
Dilated to a 9! And Alex was sleeping through this whole thing haha lucky guy!



9.00am
Still dilated to a 9, and when the doctor was checking she realized Zoey was face up and when they tried to rotate her to face down her heart rate dropped really low. They decided to give it another hour and just have me turn from my left to my right side and back again every 15 minutes or so in the hopes that Zoey would turn herself. They also warned me that I may need another C-section and that I should start preparing myself just in case. The doctor said she thought I had a small pelvis and that the baby could be 8lbs so I would have a hard time getting her out by myself, that was not something I wanted to hear! By this stage I was in tears. It was turning out exactly like Allira's birth which was not a pleasant experience for me! I just wanted Zoey out safe and healthy and all of this was just stressing me out :(

11.00am
The doctor didn't come back for 2 hours and I was starting to get pretty emotional and over the whole labor-thing. I was almost to the point where I just wanted to go ahead and do a C-section just to have this over with! The doctor had left so the nurses both checked and decided I was almost at a 10 and it looked like Zoey had actually turned! They left me alone for another hour, which felt like the longest hour of my life! Alex kept me occupied by getting me grape flavored icy poles, the legend :) it was all I was allowed to eat which is stupid :( I was sooooo hungry!

12.15pm
The nurses came back and when they checked me I was at a full 10! Then they said it was time to start pushing! (They told me that I could be pushing for up to 4 hours which I was so not ready to hear! Why does no one tell you that you could be pushing that long?? I had no idea!) The two nurses and Alex helped and encouraged me through the whole thing. They offered me a mirror so I could see but yeah I didn't want to watch that.. pretty sure it would have just freaked me out haha but maybe next time! The doctor came in at about 1.15pm, right for the big entrance, and like 3 other nurses to help assist once baby Zoey came. I though I would feel weird about all these people seeing me in all my glory but at this stage all I was thinking about was getting this baby out!

1.24pm
Baby Zoey finally appeared! She also had a cone-head like her big sister, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz, 19 3/4 inches long. Daddy got to cut the cord which was special since he didn't get to do that with Allira. Or he didn't want to.. I cant remember haha but they gave her to me straight away for skin-to-skin.
 I'll be honest that by this stage I was so exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed (and HUNGRY!) that I physically couldn't hold her for more than a couple minutes. The nurses took her to weigh and clean and do whatever else they do while I got my awesome 3rd degree tear stitched up.  Maybe I fell asleep or blacked out I don't know but next thing I knew she was back in my arms and I was able to nurse her for the first time and really take in how beautiful and perfect she was!

I'm not a photogenic person to begin with but I swear giving birth makes you age like 40 years in post-birth photos!

A couple hours later grandma bought Allira in to meet her new baby sister and we all just enjoyed cuddling with our  new little princess.

I loved catching him every 5 minutes admiring his baby girl :)

So here she is!! Zoey Layla Cope, our perfect precious little May baby! We love her (and her red hair) so much! 

We were discharged from the hospital the next day right after Zoey had her 24 hour check up with the pediatrician. Once they said she was all good we were out of there! (I mean the nurses were so lovely but who wants to stay around a hospital and eat that awful food for longer than they have to???)

Allira has taken a while to adjust to our new addition. The first week or so she was scared of her! Every time we asked her if she wanted to cuddle baby Zoey or give her a kiss she would like run the other direction! The best we got was a few 'so so soft' tummy strokes and head rubs but that was it. This past week though she has really warmed up to her and loves holding her, gives her so many kisses and loves laying next to her, each time telling us what a good big sister she is haha

This was us trying to get a nice photo of them in their matching Sunday dresses, but you know, one is a two year old so.....

I've missed these milk-drunk moments!

Zoey is seriously an angel baby, she like never cries, only wakes up like twice a night for a feeding and loves loves loves to be snuggled! There have been so many precious and heartwarming moments in this house the past couple weeks as we all get used to each other, its been amazing. I don't want my babies to grow up! :(