Maternity/Mother's Day Mini-Session with Lisa Rappa Photography

Since Jack's birth, Mother's Day has taken on a whole new meaning for me.  Not only do I celebrate my own mother and thank her for the presence and influence she has in my life, but now I also celebrate myself as a mother.  I relish in the joy of motherhood, enjoying all for which it is, sacred, special and fulfilling.  Of course I also celebrate my mother-in-law and all the other wonderful mothers I know who touch and enrich my life each day, but there is something different and unique to be among one of the "celebrated" as a mother myself.

Part of my celebratory tradition includes having a Mother's Day photo shoot with Jack, and this year we expanded it to also be a Maternity Mini-Session.  So on Monday, May 7th, in a spring wind storm with rain on the horizon, we ventured out to The Marietta Square to have some pictures taken at almost 29 weeks pregnant.  I can't believe how beautiful they turned out, even with the uncooperative weather!  Discovering Lisa Rappa Photography was one of the best treasures I have ever found, and I am so happy with her work. She has become part of my family's milestones, capturing each new stage of our life together, and I truly find her talent remarkable.  I am so excited for her to take Lander's newborn photos once she makes her debut!  

Really love the textures in this pic!

It was really windy, and Jack was holding onto that balloon for dear life!  He did not want it to fly away!

Jack is so excited for his little sister, holding an "ITS A GIRL" balloon!

Jack loves trains, and we were lucky enough to be there as one raced by!

It is amazing to me that Lisa can make me look this good!  I truly LOVE this picture, and I am always so critical of myself!

Best kisser I know!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Now that is a bump!

And the wind blows...

Thank you to Lisa Rappa for these amazing photos I will cherish forever! 

Gum-Chewing-Spider-Jack-Bo

Spider Jack-Bo in his special birthday crown!

Jack's is kinda like this one.

When you turn 3 in The McQ Zoo, you get to chew gum. That is a HUGE privilege and responsibility!  Jack-Bo isn't quite 3 yet, but since we had his 3rd birthday party this past Sunday (early to be sure it was before Lander's birth), we knew we were going to allow it now.  The best part is that at Chuck E. Cheese he had enough tickets (thanks to Aunt Christie who found a 1000-count MAGIC ticket next to the ticket blaster) to pick out a mini gumball machine!  So we got to start his gum-chewing with special birthday party gum, which is just adding to his excitement each day so far.

There are rules to chewing gum though.  Rule #1 is you don't swallow it.  If you swallow it, then you lose your privilege at least until the next day.  Rule #2 is that when it loses its flavor you spit it out IN THE TRASH.  If there is no trash close by, you give it to a grown up.  Rule #3 is no gum in the car b/c if you choke the driver cannot get to you quickly enough.  Rule #4 is no sugar-free gum b/c we don't like Jack to have artificial sweeteners...but of course this makes brushing teeth even more important these days...speaking of which I casually mentioned to Jack last night that in a couple more weeks we will be taking him to the dentist.  HUGE mistake.  I am not even sure he knows what the dentist is, but he had a complete meltdown.  "The dentist is mean!"  Seriously?  How does he already know that?  I haven't taken him with me to the dentist except for one time when he was not even a year old.  Does he remember???  No way!

The party was awesome!  18 kids and 29 adults is a quite a crowd, and with so many family and friends who are near and dear to us, Jack seems to have a big birthday bash every year!  It was a blast! Chuck E. Cheese is the way to go for easy, air conditioned, low maintenance and NO CLEAN UP!  I highly recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or just stressed to find a birthday party solution. We brought in our own cake (Spider-Man, made by GRandi of course!) and ice cream, and even Spider-Man themed plates and napkins, but they also can provide all of that if you want them to. Anyway, it was cost-effective, fun and convenient, and our Party Host did a great job making Jack feel super special.  My favorite part was how proud he looked when he received his special birthday boy medal!

My proud big boy sporting his special birthday medal!

Posing with Daddy

 Blowing out his candles and picking his cupcake!

Getting ready to go into the ticket blaster and very excited!

 Riding the "Thinga-ma-jigger" and waving to Chuck 

(from a distance since he is terrified of the large costumed characters or animatronics!)

I love him SO MUCH!

Here are some of our friends and family who were able to come.  I didn't get pics of everyone, so this is just a sampling!

And here is Jack playing games, posing with loved ones and opening his gifts back at home.  He got lots of very cool toys and special thoughtful gifts!  Thank you so much to everyone!  (Oh and in the top right corner you will see Daddy driving the Chuck E. Cheese picture car to get his own pic with the celebrity mouse!  What a goob!)

One of the coolest things we did at the party was a picture sketchbook booth.  You get your picture taken and then the machine draws it like a pencil sketch.  The frame of course is a limited size, so it is hard to get 3 people into the picture, but we managed to get a hilarious photo in The McQ Zoo fashion of course with funny faces, and it is the only picture I have of me with Jack from the whole party!  I scanned it in below! There is also one of Jack with his cousin, Ethan!

So now we have had one last big hurrah for Jack before we add his little sister to The McQ Zoo!  I really wanted him to have a special time and a celebration just for him where HE was truly the center of attention. I am so glad it worked out how it did, and now we can relax and prepare for Lander and know that Jack had his special moment and that it was WONDERFUL.  Happy "Birthday Party Day," Jack-Bo!  You are Mommy and Daddy's favorite boy in the whole world!!!  We love you!!!

I am so lucky to have this precious boy and this miracle baby on the way!  Blessings from God, no doubt!  And who knows???  Maybe my next post will include our newest The McQ Zoo member!  :-)  Until next time...

FLASHBACK: "Go-Time!" - Jack's Birth Story

As I continue to prepare for the birth of Baby McQ #2, Lander Lee, I can't help but remember the experience I had awaiting the birth of my precious Jack-Bo, who by the way, will be celebrating his 3rd birthday August 4th, and today happens to be his birthday party day!  A bit early indeed, almost a full month, but with Lander due so soon, we wanted to make sure Jack got one more "big hurrah" before his little sister makes her debut.

So in honor of my birthday boy, and for a little nostalgia, here is a blast from the (not so distant) past:

"Go-Time!" - Jack's Birth Story

August 7, 2009

So Jack was overdue, and I was getting more and more uncomfy and worried that him being overdue was going to cause some issues with our birth plan.  On Monday 8/3 we went to our midwife for our 41 week check up only to find I was maybe 1cm.  Now this was the 1st time in my entire pregnancy that I had been "checked."  I thought it was going to be like having a pap-smear done.  No, it is not.  It was excruciating!  Kay (our midwife) said that the 1cm was not indicative of anything, that I could still go into labor at any point, but it would just be a harder labor.  She scheduled us for an ultrasound the next day to check the baby for any signs of distress.  Brett and I left her office feeling discouraged, but also sort of excited for the ultrasound.  We went home and decided to have a nice dinner of tilapia and rice and a spinach salad.  By the time we got done with dinner it was 9:30PM...

At 10:20 I went to the bathroom.  As I leaned forward to wipe, I heard a small "pop" and thought wow, that was a funny kick, Jack!  Then I stood up and my water gushed out!  I screamed to Brett like 5 times before he heard me b/c he was asleep on the couch.  He came in and then we sort of lost it a little in the sense of that we forgot everything we learned and didn't know what to do.  We ended up calling my mom who told us to call the midwife, who then told us that we should try to sleep b/c labor would most likely begin in the next 12 hours since my water broke first.  Had I been in public when it happened, it would have been just like the movies!

It was "go-time" though!  We were too excited to sleep.  We watched Law & Order Criminal Intent and then we tried to go to bed.  At 12:10AM on 8/4, less than 2 hours after my water broke, labor began!

Brett slept maybe an hour and a half during the night.  I did not sleep at all.  I played Tetris between contractions until they became too painful, and then I turned on VH1 and started moving with the music videos to help me through contractions.  Lying down was the WORST, so sleep was not possible at all.  We called my mom and sister early in the morning to update them and ask some questions.  We had a hard time identifying the length of the contractions b/c they were so different.  Some were in the front of my gut and others were in my back, but they were getting pretty close together!  Our birth team was ready to go!  My mom got to our condo about 7:30 and my sister was there at about 8:30.  Our original plan was for my sister to take our dogs to our friend's house and then come back to our place during the home labor part, but by 8:30 Kay had already told us to go in to the hospital.  Labor was REALLY progressing! 

We got to the hospital at about 9:30.  Kay checked me (OUCH!) and I was already 5cm!  After 30 minutes on the belt monitor I got right in the tub.  I didn’t let ANYONE touch me except for dop-tone monitoring.  I tried counter pressure for like 5 minutes tops and just did not want to be touched.  Never left the tub after that – it was my private boundary that no one could enter.  Kay came in about 2ish I think and checked me (TORTURE) and I was 9 cm.  She said I had a cervical lip she would help move for me (over my dead body) after she delivered a baby next door so I could start pushing or I could wait for her to come back.  I pushed like crazy and it just so happened she took longer than expected next door due to an emergency.  When she came back in she said for me to bend over on my hands and knees and she would move that lip and I just said give me one more chance to do it on my own.  The next push his head came out!  Then it freaked me out a bit so I stopped pushing in that contraction and his head got sucked back in.  So then I was like oops, so I pushed and his head came all the way out and the contraction was over.  About 30 seconds later (in SLOW MOTION time) I pushed again and Kay just rotated his shoulders a little and he came all the way out.  Kay gave him a little nudge and he swam over to me and I pulled him right up myself!  Jack Patrick McQuilken was born on August 4, 2009 at 4:44PM weighing in at 8 pounds, 3.6 ounces and 20 inches long.  His head was 14 inches and his shoulders were 13.5 inches!  He was a big, strong, healthy boy! 

The water was too cold though, since I had been in so long and I was not letting anyone around me.  So, they had to take Jack away and give him oxygen, but it was b/c he was cold, not b/c he wasn’t breathing (of course I didn’t know that part until later so I was freaking out when they took him!).  Then Kay got me out of the freezing tub and put me in the bed and then they brought Jack back to me and put him on my chest with warming blankets for us both.  Then it just so happened I lost a lot of blood and my uterus was bleeding out.  So after that entire time with no needles, no drugs, no nothing, I ended up with 2 Pitocin shots in my thighs to stop my uterus from bleeding out.  Brett was with Jack when this was happening and my mom was with me b/c she said she wasn’t going to leave HER baby!  Anyway, they beat up my gut in the process trying to do whatever they have to do to make the uterus do what it is supposed to do (oh and I am out of order here but the placenta delivered in like 2 minutes and didn’t hurt or even feel like anything), but I am glad they did b/c the bleeding stopped.  So finally after our hour of bonding they were moving us to the post partum room and I fainted twice, so the first night I was sort of delirious and out of it, but I was full of adrenaline the next day for all of our visitors!

Jack is amazing!  We love him more than we could have ever imagined.  I do not know how to describe my experience.  I just know that it hurt really, really bad, but I was determined.  Where there is a will there is a way, and there are different ways for different wills, so, to each her own, but for me it was “touch me, and die” so no one touched me.  I even made them let me clean myself off afterwards – Kay said she never had anyone ask that before!  No stitches either – Kay let me choose.  Brett was awesome.  He just stayed there and told me I was doing great which is all I would let him do anyway.  He bailed water once when it got too cold and he tried to get me to move around when I started to get too tired during transition.  He was worried for about 45 minutes of rest, but then I powered through it.  He was also very scared when we didn't know why Jack was blue-ish (it was just b/c the water was cold though), and he got pretty freaked out when I fainted the first time after losing so much blood.  Overall though, Brett is the proudest, most loving daddy ever!  He is so overwhelmed with emotion for how much we love our little boy!

So after 2 days in the hospital, we arrived home on 8/6/09.  We are now trying to get adjusted after our first night, and today (8/7) we bring the dogs home to meet their human brother.  We are so excited to be a family! 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped us through the pregnancy and delivery as well as every day life.  Also, thank you to all our visitors in the hospital and to the many of you who we know we will see very soon.  We love you and are so happy to share our journey into parenthood with you!

Brett and I are the luckiest parents in the world b/c Jack Patrick is the most amazing gift and blessing we could have ever hoped for.  For that, we thank God.

Now, I have to go hang out with my little champion!

Reading it makes me cry.  It is also not my best writing, so in some ways it makes me laugh b/c I can sense the excitement I was feeling and the hurry I was in to get it done.  Often, those are the most sincere pieces though...

I wonder how things will go this time as Lander enters this world.  I hope for a water birth; that is our plan.  I expect some craziness, like maybe the bleeding out, or something like that, so I'm nervous.  I worry about the pain, but I know I can do it, so that part is more anticipation than fear...maybe.  Mostly though I just can't wait to gaze into my sweet baby girl's eyes for the first time and immediately feel an unbreakable bond the same way I felt with Jack.  "I know you."  And I really do.  "Like no one else does."

Jack's party today was a huge success!  He had a fantastic time, and we are just so happy that we planned it this early and at Chuck E. Cheese.  It was super easy for me, so that was another major plus.  I can't believe it has been almost 3 years since my little cherub champion looked up at me for the first time.  The years go by so fast.  I cherish every memory I have of my sweet boy, and I know he is going to be such an amazing big brother.  I cannot wait to see and foster his relationship with his sister.

I am so blessed.  Thank you, God, for the gifts of these children.  I look forward to writing the story of Lander's birth and posting it...any day now!