Here she is cradling Luke, just as she held me when I was a baby:
Enjoying our new back yard swing with Josh:
Saying goodbye to Luke before heading to the airport:
Dad (PaPa) and Luke:
Mom and Dad and the boys:
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Aunt Pat's visit
My aunt Pat came to visit us and meet Luke while my parents were also here. She lived up to the "Zoo kid" nickname we gave her when we were kids, for always taking us to the zoo, by taking Josh during her visit. Unfortunately, we saw only 4 exhibits, and rode the train ride through the arboretum (Josh's favorite "zoo" activity), before foul weather sent us home.
Here she is cradling Luke, just as she held me when I was a baby:
Enjoying our new back yard swing with Josh:
Saying goodbye to Luke before heading to the airport:
Dad (PaPa) and Luke:
Mom and Dad and the boys:
Here she is cradling Luke, just as she held me when I was a baby:
Enjoying our new back yard swing with Josh:
Saying goodbye to Luke before heading to the airport:
Dad (PaPa) and Luke:
Mom and Dad and the boys:
Monday, June 18, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
A few random pictures
John has begun to introduce Luke to his gymini. Now Josh is trying to crawl in there too, and worse, is trying to get me to get under there with them. I'm in no shape for that kind of contortion!
Here is Josh playing with the new construction vehicles he received as birthday gifts. With his toddler's tongue, it sounds like he is calling them his "destruction" vehicles, which we all find pretty funny, as it is such an accurate description of his style of play.
I just love how Luke is putting his little hands up to his face to sleep now.
Here is Josh playing with the new construction vehicles he received as birthday gifts. With his toddler's tongue, it sounds like he is calling them his "destruction" vehicles, which we all find pretty funny, as it is such an accurate description of his style of play.
I just love how Luke is putting his little hands up to his face to sleep now.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Birthday party
Josh had his birthday party at an inflatables arena called JJ Jump. He calls it the "jumping playground." We have been a few times, just the two of us, and this was the first time he got to enjoy it with friends. They were so cute. We all loved seeing all these little boys climbing, jumping, and sliding together. Josh also loved it when Daddy climbed in one of the bouncers for some aggressive tackling, much more than Mommy allows on the bed at home! Josh also got PaPa in one bouncer, but Nana and Mommy and Lucas stayed grounded.
Here are the boys making their way up the steps to the big slide:
And here are Josh (his feet, anyway) and Terence tumbling down together:
After an hour and 15 minutes of this, it was up to our party room for pizza and cupcakes. Here is Josh blowing out the candles on his 3rd round of birthday treats (after cupcakes at school and brownies at home on his actual birthday):
A good time was had by all. We had one exhausted 3 year old on our hands when it was all said and done!
Here are the boys making their way up the steps to the big slide:
And here are Josh (his feet, anyway) and Terence tumbling down together:
After an hour and 15 minutes of this, it was up to our party room for pizza and cupcakes. Here is Josh blowing out the candles on his 3rd round of birthday treats (after cupcakes at school and brownies at home on his actual birthday):
A good time was had by all. We had one exhausted 3 year old on our hands when it was all said and done!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Toga! Toga!
Luke has discovered his arms. He still enjoys being swaddled, but now he pulls one or both arms out and even puts them up behind his head at times. That means he is also now giving embraces--wrapping his little arm around us--when we hold him. I love it!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Happy Birthday Josh!
Josh has a favorite toy at preschool--a green monster truck he races back and forth, back and forth as often as he can during playground time. He also enjoys crashing it into his friend Terence and his truck. For his birthday, his class celebrated with cupcakes and Josh got to wear a birthday crown, which his teachers crafted as a reproduction of his beloved monster truck. So much fun!
Nana made brownies for our celebration at home, which we all enjoyed. Here is Josh blowing out his candle:
I can't believe he is 3!
He is also having a party on Saturday, with still more cupcakes to come!
Nana made brownies for our celebration at home, which we all enjoyed. Here is Josh blowing out his candle:
I can't believe he is 3!
He is also having a party on Saturday, with still more cupcakes to come!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Luke's first bath
While I wouldn't say he enjoyed it, he didn't put up half the fight Josh did. And he looks so cute in the tiny tub!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Welcome Lucas! The story and the photos
Well, after all the effort into trying to have a vaginal birth instead of a repeat cesarean, my doctor told me last Friday (June 1) that she did not think I would go into labor before my pregnancy hit 41 weeks, at which time she would repeat a cesarean (on June 8). It was discouraging and upsetting, but I continued my acupuncture treatments and the power of positive affirmations.
It worked. On Monday, June 4, I went into labor with Lucas. It felt different than it had with Josh, and I wasn't sure it was labor, but I knew it was something, and something we should have checked out, so we went in to find out.
I'd been feeling different all day Monday, but felt what I (eventually) thought might be contractions beginning around 1 pm. Around 3, I asked John to come home from work to be with me. By the time he arrived home, I knew we'd need to go to the hospital.
Our friends Michelle and Breon arrived to stay with Josh, and we loaded up and headed out. Josh gave us a parting high five.
We arrived at the hospital around 7. It had been made very clear to us that, because of my prior cesarean, we could not labor at home at all and needed to be in the hospital, under the supervision of a doctor, and on electronic monitoring the whole time. So as we arrived, they walked us down to our room. By then, contractions were about 5 minutes apart, and the labor was pretty hard. We waited, waited, waited, waited, alone in our room. We finally saw a nurse at 7:40 or so. We got the good news: I was 100% effaced and 2 cm dilated. It was really labor, we were staying, and baby was coming!
Our nurse said she'd leave us on the monitors for a bit to try to get a better read on Luke's condition--how he was handling labor (given Josh's fetal distress). Again, we waited, waited, waited. By now I was thinking that it was odd that we had been firmly lectured on our "need" for constant supervision, yet here I was in labor and we had seen no doctor, had not been assigned a nurse, and were basically left alone. Anyway, the nurse returned an hour later, and I had rocketed to 5 cm dilated! Halfway there! We were thrilled. There were high fives. It was hard, but it was really paying off to make so much progress in only an hour.
Our nurse said she'd get our room ready. We thought we were in our room and had already unpacked, so John started throwing everything back in our bag. Of course we needn't have rushed, we had plenty of time before anyone actually came to move us.
By the time we got settled in our actual birthing room, and got checked in, again, to the computers in that room, another hour had passed. This time, I was at 6 cm. I was hoping for faster progress, given the jump from 2 to 5, but at least we were moving forward. By now, however, labor was really hard. I took some fentanyl while we continued all the check-in and monitoring procedures, and continued to labor. It was hard work. Luke seemed to be posterior, so I was having painful back labor. After another hour or so, I was still at 6 cm and feeling a little discouraged. The nurse paged a doctor to break my water, thinking it might help things along. We also paged the anesthesiologist, because the back labor was getting to be excruciating and I was going to go for the epidural. Then my water broke on its own, but Luke didn't drop further down as we thought he would. The anesthesiologist prepared my epidural. Then...
Everything hit the fan. All of sudden there was a rush of activity. It started calmly but frighteningly enough--the nurse put an oxygen mask over my face and told John to hit the call button. People started flooding in. Fortunately, the doctor had already been paged to break my water, and the anesthesiologist was already there for the epidural, so everyone was there quickly. They were flipping me over and back, checking monitors, all a rush of activity. John thinks they tried some sort of electric shock wand too, I'll have to ask what that was at my follow-up appointment. It was all fast and a bit confusing. I didn't know if I was in distress (rupture of my previous scar?) or if the baby was. Everyone was talking, but they were all very active and we weren't sure what the problem was. Finally we understood that I was okay but Luke's heartrate had been decelerated going on 9 minutes. They had been trying to move him around, which is why they'd tried flipping me around, and were trying to get him more oxygen through my mask, but he hadn't rebounded yet. We would need another emergency cesarean.
Things went quickly from there. His heartrate actually finally rebounded before the surgery, but the doctor said she would not allow me to continue to labor given the situation and my prior history. During surgery, they could see what had caused the deceleration: his cord had gathered in front of his face, (not around his neck, just in front of his face), and he had leaned forward and pushed his head on it, effectively cutting off his own oxygen supply. When he finally moved, it relieved the pressure and his heartrate rebounded. So he had not suffered any actual problem and would be fine.
They also saw that he was not in fact posterior, but was facing sideways. He was head down, but instead of facing front or back, he was facing to the side, which is why the contractions were so painful and why he didn't drop lower when my water broke. The doctor said it would have caused further problems in trying to move him down the birth canal and, in fact, he probably would not have made it and it would have been an emergency c-section for that reason, if we had gotten that far.
He was born at 11:31 pm on Monday, June 4. He and Josh are both Monday babies.
7 pounds, 12 ounces
20 inches
brown hair, though I suspect it may be going blonde.
Now that you know the story, without further ado, here are the pictures:
Labor:
Birth:
(John calls this the hallelujah photo, for obvious reasons. You can almost hear the choir in your head. If only he were centered a little more under the spotlight!)
Meeting mom:
(I really liked that they delivered him directly to me. With Josh, they cleaned him up, weighed him, etc. before bringing him around for me to see. Here, they brought Luke right to me as soon as he was detached, then did all of his other stuff after we'd had a few moments together.)
Proud papa:
Proud mama:
It worked. On Monday, June 4, I went into labor with Lucas. It felt different than it had with Josh, and I wasn't sure it was labor, but I knew it was something, and something we should have checked out, so we went in to find out.
I'd been feeling different all day Monday, but felt what I (eventually) thought might be contractions beginning around 1 pm. Around 3, I asked John to come home from work to be with me. By the time he arrived home, I knew we'd need to go to the hospital.
Our friends Michelle and Breon arrived to stay with Josh, and we loaded up and headed out. Josh gave us a parting high five.
We arrived at the hospital around 7. It had been made very clear to us that, because of my prior cesarean, we could not labor at home at all and needed to be in the hospital, under the supervision of a doctor, and on electronic monitoring the whole time. So as we arrived, they walked us down to our room. By then, contractions were about 5 minutes apart, and the labor was pretty hard. We waited, waited, waited, waited, alone in our room. We finally saw a nurse at 7:40 or so. We got the good news: I was 100% effaced and 2 cm dilated. It was really labor, we were staying, and baby was coming!
Our nurse said she'd leave us on the monitors for a bit to try to get a better read on Luke's condition--how he was handling labor (given Josh's fetal distress). Again, we waited, waited, waited. By now I was thinking that it was odd that we had been firmly lectured on our "need" for constant supervision, yet here I was in labor and we had seen no doctor, had not been assigned a nurse, and were basically left alone. Anyway, the nurse returned an hour later, and I had rocketed to 5 cm dilated! Halfway there! We were thrilled. There were high fives. It was hard, but it was really paying off to make so much progress in only an hour.
Our nurse said she'd get our room ready. We thought we were in our room and had already unpacked, so John started throwing everything back in our bag. Of course we needn't have rushed, we had plenty of time before anyone actually came to move us.
By the time we got settled in our actual birthing room, and got checked in, again, to the computers in that room, another hour had passed. This time, I was at 6 cm. I was hoping for faster progress, given the jump from 2 to 5, but at least we were moving forward. By now, however, labor was really hard. I took some fentanyl while we continued all the check-in and monitoring procedures, and continued to labor. It was hard work. Luke seemed to be posterior, so I was having painful back labor. After another hour or so, I was still at 6 cm and feeling a little discouraged. The nurse paged a doctor to break my water, thinking it might help things along. We also paged the anesthesiologist, because the back labor was getting to be excruciating and I was going to go for the epidural. Then my water broke on its own, but Luke didn't drop further down as we thought he would. The anesthesiologist prepared my epidural. Then...
Everything hit the fan. All of sudden there was a rush of activity. It started calmly but frighteningly enough--the nurse put an oxygen mask over my face and told John to hit the call button. People started flooding in. Fortunately, the doctor had already been paged to break my water, and the anesthesiologist was already there for the epidural, so everyone was there quickly. They were flipping me over and back, checking monitors, all a rush of activity. John thinks they tried some sort of electric shock wand too, I'll have to ask what that was at my follow-up appointment. It was all fast and a bit confusing. I didn't know if I was in distress (rupture of my previous scar?) or if the baby was. Everyone was talking, but they were all very active and we weren't sure what the problem was. Finally we understood that I was okay but Luke's heartrate had been decelerated going on 9 minutes. They had been trying to move him around, which is why they'd tried flipping me around, and were trying to get him more oxygen through my mask, but he hadn't rebounded yet. We would need another emergency cesarean.
Things went quickly from there. His heartrate actually finally rebounded before the surgery, but the doctor said she would not allow me to continue to labor given the situation and my prior history. During surgery, they could see what had caused the deceleration: his cord had gathered in front of his face, (not around his neck, just in front of his face), and he had leaned forward and pushed his head on it, effectively cutting off his own oxygen supply. When he finally moved, it relieved the pressure and his heartrate rebounded. So he had not suffered any actual problem and would be fine.
They also saw that he was not in fact posterior, but was facing sideways. He was head down, but instead of facing front or back, he was facing to the side, which is why the contractions were so painful and why he didn't drop lower when my water broke. The doctor said it would have caused further problems in trying to move him down the birth canal and, in fact, he probably would not have made it and it would have been an emergency c-section for that reason, if we had gotten that far.
He was born at 11:31 pm on Monday, June 4. He and Josh are both Monday babies.
7 pounds, 12 ounces
20 inches
brown hair, though I suspect it may be going blonde.
Now that you know the story, without further ado, here are the pictures:
Labor:
Birth:
(John calls this the hallelujah photo, for obvious reasons. You can almost hear the choir in your head. If only he were centered a little more under the spotlight!)
Meeting mom:
(I really liked that they delivered him directly to me. With Josh, they cleaned him up, weighed him, etc. before bringing him around for me to see. Here, they brought Luke right to me as soon as he was detached, then did all of his other stuff after we'd had a few moments together.)
Proud papa:
Proud mama:
Birth pictures continued
Still not so sure about all of this:
The very proud big brother:
The sleep of angels:
The very proud big brother:
The sleep of angels:
Still more photos
Gammy:
Poppa:
The serious business of being a big brother:
Luke appears to be doing a fist-pump over his excitement to go home.
Getting sprung from the hospital on Friday:
Poppa:
The serious business of being a big brother:
Luke appears to be doing a fist-pump over his excitement to go home.
Getting sprung from the hospital on Friday:
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Welcome Luke!
The newest Markley arrived 11:30 pm Monday. Lucas Finch Markley weighed 7lbs 12oz and stretched 20 in. Mom and Luke are doing well, discharge will be Friday, pictures to follow. Bye
Monday, June 04, 2007
We're off...
We are headed to the hospital. I am not sure I am in labor, but have been having some continuous pains every 10 minutes or so all afternoon so we are going to find out whether or not it is labor. Perhaps they will send us home, but I am not supposed to labor at home (since I am trying a VBAC) so we need to go find out. In the event this is my last post while pregnant, here is a final picture of me and my basketball belly. As you can see, I am quite large, and well deserving of a delivery!
Cross your fingers for me and hope this is it, and think good healthy thoughts for Lucas.
We'll post more news when we have it!
Cross your fingers for me and hope this is it, and think good healthy thoughts for Lucas.
We'll post more news when we have it!
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