Sasha's Birthday Cake

So here is a photo diary of the consumption of Sasha's 1st birthday cake. It starts out as such a beautiful, clean situation. A nice, free (from Albertson's) cake, just waiting to be eaten. And then Sasha comes on the scene...

Big Sister blowing out the candles. What a great helper! :)

The first bite.

Yum! I think she likes it!

Yes! She does like it!

Ahhhh! That was a great birthday cake! Thanks Mommy and Daddy! Let's have some more!

Sasha's 1 Year Old Today!

My baby is one year old today. My how time flies! I cannot believe that it has been a year already. And what a joyous one at that. Sasha has brought so much joy, happiness, laughter, and love into our home. She has such a sweet spirit and is so loving to everyone around her. She thinks the world of her big sister and thinks that Gabby can do no wrong. Her smile and fun-loving personality have brought me and Jay so much joy and we are so happy to have her in our family. Happy Birthday lovely daughter of mine. I love you so much! :)

Sasha and her classic finger-pointing. This is her favorite thing to do as of late. That and making a fishy face.

Cheese!

Tired baby. Taking a rest on the couch from a busy play day. I love this pose.

Sasha's new toy

At least someone is using it! Ha ha! I can't keep her off of it. I guess she sees Gabby doing her "exercises" and has to try it out for herself.

Sasha's First Cereal

October 6th was the big day. Sasha's first taste of rice cereal. I'm happy to report that she loves it. She anxiously laps it up. Now, only 4 days later, she has already learned to open her mouth in anticipation and she is eager to eat it. Looks like I have another good eater on my hands.

Our Family Funtime

A few pics from our recent trip to Utah. Adorable girly girls and their Nana, Great Grandparents (affectionately known as Ggpa and Ggma), and two crazy aunties.



Cute cousins, or as Gabby would say "Friends Together!" Gunnar is only a couple months younger than Sasha, so it is fun to have them together and see how much they love to be with other babies. Babies really do love each other. Sasha is doing her signature lip biting here. Could Gunnar get any cuter?


Sasha, zoning out. Earth to Sasha! Maybe my alien implant is effecting her brain too! (See April '08 dental entry for more details). Darn that breast milk. :)


Two cuties lovin' their Ggpa! I know he loves them too. Just look at the sparkle in his eye! Oh, well, you can't see his eyes. Well, it's there, believe me.


This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of Sasha. Look how cute she is! Of course, I'm not biased or anything (wink, wink). I'm so glad that we have been able to visit with my grandparents when we are in Utah. I know having the girls there just perks my grandma up and makes her have a better day. She is always so happy to see them and play with them. They love her too. Gabby has developed her special games that she plays with Ggma, and she loves to give hugs and kiss her hand.

Remind me again what's so funny? I took the picture so I could remember why Holly is laughing and now I don't. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Good times. These two will just laugh just to laugh. Somehow they can communicate through laughter. It's their special language. I'm a little jealous.

Thanks Auntie Cami for the beanie. I love it. Look how cute I am with it on! :) I will be styling this winter thanks to you. :) I'll be taking orders from all my baby friends, so get your knitting needles ready!

Fun Summer Pics

So here are my two cuties. Can't believe how fast they grow. Cheezers.

Every year in Tehachapi there is something called The Freedom Festival. It happens each August and it's like a town fair, including parade, booths, and carnival rides. We went to the parade with our friends Lisa and Lauren Price. Gabby and Lauren have gotten to be good friends and they like to play together often. Here is a picture of them together at the parade.

We went to the carnival rides, only for about an hour, but Gabby had fun going on the carousel and a bug ride. Daddy helped her win her very own generic Whinnie the Pooh! Good thing Daddy is fast at shooting a water gun. :) They won on the first try! Gabby sure loves her daddy. :)

Sasha's New Milestone

Sasha and I were having some tummy time today and she rolled over from her tummy to her back! Yeah! Proud Mommy here has to share it with the world. :) Sometimes I feel like I am not paying enough attention to her or helping her along in her development, so to see something as cool as this makes me feel a little better. Glad to know that kids can still grow and develop like they should without my 100% attention to their every detail. I still feel like I am only raising Gabby some days, as she is now so verbal and demanding of my attention. Sasha will be there soon enough, I'm sure.

Update on Baby

Hi fellow bloggers. Yes, I have been ignoring my blog for the last 6 weeks and feeling horribly guilty about it. It seems next to impossible to get on the computer now that there are two kids in the Baird household. I will figure this out soon, I hope!


So here is the rest of the delivery story:


We went to the hospital on Wednesday, March 19th, got there about 1 p.m. We were taken to a room and I got settled there. The doctor came in and did an ultrasound, and we saw that the baby was in the traverse position. I was suspecting that she had not turned to the correct position and I was right. So the doctor said that he would attempt the version. I was then hooked up to an IV and filled out some paperwork and about a half hour later the doctor returned with the nurse and the proceedure began. I was bracing myself for the worst, as I had heard that version hurts pretty bad. It was quite uncomfortable and it was a bit painful at the end, but it wasn't anything like what I thought it would be and it's nothing next to the labor pains, so....

Anyway, back to the story. So the doctor came in and got out the ultrasound machine again. He looked to see what was going on with the baby and saw that in the 30 minutes it took to get my IV going the baby had moved again and was now in the full breech position. He put a lot of that jelly stuff on my belly, felt for they baby's head and bum, and started pushing. The nurse held the ultrasound wand-thing on my belly so the doctor could see the baby. The doctor was talking to the baby the whole time, "Sasha, we need you to move. Please move around Sasha. Mommy wants you to be a good little girl and put your head down please." Things like this. It helped ease some of the tension, which was good. After about 5 pushes and tugs on the baby, she was finally in position. When the doctor had declared that the version was sucessful, I had to blink several times to keep myself from crying. I was so greatful. The nurses in the room started claping and cheering. They were as excited as I was. Immediately after the doctor was finished the nurse started me on pitocin. The doctor decided to wait a few minutes before breaking my water, as the sack was still quite high up inside and he wanted to see if the contractions would help bring it down a bit. After about 30 more minutes or so he came back in and checked again, decided it was low enough, and broke the water. That was quite painful, I have to admit. Didn't like that so much. Once he was done though I was gushing. The nurse said that she hadn't seen that much fluid come out of one person for some time. I guess I had almost twice the amount of fluid that most women have. The doctor thought that was part of the reason why the baby was moving around so much, she had a lot of fluid to help her get around. That and she was small (well, smaller than Gabby was).


So that was at about 4 p.m. The contractions started to pick up and by 7 p.m. or so I was asking for the epidural. So I got that at 8 p.m., when I was dialated to about a 4, then took a bit of a rest before it was time to start pushing. The doctor came back in a little before 10 p.m., checked me and said it was time to start pushing. The nurse coached me for about 30 minutes, and at 10:36 p.m. Sasha Marie Baird was born. The whole experience was pretty good, went much faster than with Gabby and I was so so grateful that I was able to have a vaginal delivery and that everything went so well. And I only had one small tear. It made my recovery so much easier. I guess once you stretch everything out one time then it is easier the next time around. Being induced took the guess work out of when the baby would come. It was kind of nice, actually. :)


So here is our little one, born March 19th, 6 lbs 9 oz, 19 1/2 inces long