Highly Entertaining....

happy halloweenie!

From our little pumpkin :)

thoughts

This baby makes me unbelievably happy.

She makes our family complete.

I don't even mind the three wake-up calls during the night for nursing and diapering. We have an understanding that once the meal is over, we rock for a few minutes and head back to our respective sleeping-places ;)

She is getting SO big already. See those chubby fingers? And the tiny rolls near her wrists? I want to kiss them all day long. There are thigh-chubbs, too... I'll have to try and rememebr to snap a picture of those delicious little legs for you to drool over, too.

I am LOVING being at home. I'm still officially a stay-at-home-mom for another month... and I am relishing EVERY SECOND of this time. When I return to work, it is only on a part-time basis, and three days a week isn't the end of the world... right?? *ugh* Good thing I LOVE my job, or the transition back to the work place would be absolutely excruciating.

She is almost four weeks old. I can't believe it has already been that long... and I also can't believe it hasn't been even longer.

oh, scrap!

Miss Maya allowed me a little bit of crafty time during her afternoon nap yesterday... and boy did it feel good to play with paper for a while!

Of course I had to dedicate my scrap-time to the beautiful Maya Papaya :)

Here you've got some Core'dinations (cardstock), Queen and Co. (felty flowers, swirly trim, rhinestones and pearls) and Jillibean Soup (calendar spot and black spotted ribbon). The layour came together very quickly thanks to the great easy-to-use products I had in my stash... it was so rewarding to get this layout finished in about an hour, and still have time left to toss in a load of laundry before my little babe woke up from her nap. I'm looking forward to reserving myself some crafty time daily... at least a few minutes here and there.

Thanks for peeking at the page... more to come in the near future (I hope!).

boo!

Halloween is just a few days away, and preparations in our house have been pretty much non-existent this year. Griffin has his costume, which can be only described a s "black and scary" and not really anything recognizable at all. Hey, he's 12 and anything creepy is good to go. Miss Maya has some pumpkin jammies and a pumpkin hat to wear, although I'm pretty sure she won't be venturing out (more candy for her big brother).

Before Miss Papaya was born, I worked on a few projects for the Core'dinations design team that were Halloween related. This morning I noticed that the *BOO* embellished wood letters I made were featured on the Core' blog... make sure to go check out all the super creative projects that have been featured lately!!

I'm looking forward to getting in a little scrapbooking time in my crafty space while Maya naps in the afternoon. There are tons of fun new goodies to play with sitting in a box right on top of my table... hopefully the sweet little girl will cooperate and let her mama get some pictures glued to some paper today :)

three weeks

Really?

*sigh*

My baby girl is three weeks old today. And I DON'T like it, not one little bit.

This is my sleepy babe. The one who likes to nurse herself to sleep. The one with the tiny mouth that likes to gulp down air with her meals and then refuse to burp, causing majorly uncomfortable belly-situations. Poor babe :(

She is the snuggliest little thing. Her skin is SO soft. She wraps her little hand around your finger while she is falling asleep. She makes smiley faces as she drifts off into dream-land.

She likes to poop right AFTER her dad changes her diaper. She  likes to get all worked up and scream her little scream while he tries to soothe her... then will immediately settle down when momma takes her from daddy's arms. She loves when her daddy walks her around the house, and especially likes to look outside. And bath time, oh bath time. This little girl could hang out in the wam water all day long :)

She is getting too big for her newborn diapers, onesies, and jammies. We've put some of the 0-3 month clothes into rotation, and it is quite satisfying to see that they are still majorly roomy on her (which obviously means that she is still my little tiny baby, and NOT a big girl yet). Although it seems like we change her clothes and go through burp cloths and receiving blankets a million times a day, it still takes a REALLY long time to fill a laundry basket. We are also going through LOTS of stain remover, as miss poopy-pants is also now miss-spitty-mouth as well.

We are realizing that we never announced a winner for the *guess-the-bean's-birthday* contest! There were TWO guesses for October 5th... so we are going with the FIRST guesser. ANN::: I will be popping your scarf-prize in the mail as sooon as I can get myself to the post ofice!!

Here's to three of the fastest weeks of my life absolutely whizzzzzzzzzing by, and to hoping time will s.l.o.w. down a bit for me!

nudie judy

... thats Maya's new nickname. Because she needed another one.

Yep. that's my baby girl who LOVES being in her diaper. Or naked. Hence, the nickname.

Thats really all I had to say for today ;)
 

two weeks

My baby girl is already two weeks old. **sigh**

We were fortunate enough to have a photo shoot with the AMAZING  Sarak Kristiansen on Saturday, thanks to a cancellation in her *very* busy schedule. She spent FOUR HOURS patiently snapping photos of our Maya Papaya, and emailed me a peek of one of the pictures today :) I am SO excited to see what the rest of the pictures look like....

*ack*!! Look at all that dark hair falling down onto her little shoulders already! She was super content to hang out in her diaper all day, until we tried to get nekkid-baby-bum shots of her and she peed all over Sarah's nice while fuzzy blanket. **naughty naughty**

Over the past week she has enjoyed her first bath, had lots of visitors, and made a few trips out in the car with he mama. We made a pit-stop at the pediatrician's office to check out her "white tongue", which so far seems to be just a white tongue (and not thrush). Just for kicks, Dr. Lowe popped her on the scale and checked her weight... and this chubby little thing is already tipping the scales at 8 lbs. 7  oz. Way to go. Maya!! Looks like I might get my chubby-portuguese-baby after all ;)

I would love to share more, but the sweet girl is making squeaky noises into her monitor and must be rescued from her cradle before she get too angry.

Thanks for checking in with us!! :)
 

nine days

Look. At. Her.

Look at this beautiful baby girl.... snoozing in her cradle in the sunshine-y afternoon light. Look at her little wrinkly wrists, the long fingers that are begining to form a little layer of chub. Look at those sweet eyes and tiny mouth. The dark hair and perfect eyebrows and little ears.

She is my Maya Papaya. She is the reason I am not unhappy to be awake at 1 o'clock in the morning... because I get to look into the big eyes that are hiding behind those sleepy lids and know that she is mine.

For the first 24 hours after her birth, I found myself looking at her, examining every little inch of her body. I had no expectations as to what she would look like, other than being fairly sure she would have dark hair. In my mind, though, I was remembering my baby Griffin, with his distinct Griffin-features. His light hair and blue eyes, his chubby bottom lip, his crooked little smile. His "Parker chin".

Miss Maya is indeed her own person. She mostly resembles her daddy, with his dark hair and big eyes and smallish mouth. She does have a trace of the "Parker chin" with the little cleft in it, but it is ever so slight that if you aren't looking for it, you will probably miss it.

She is just plain beautiful. We'll keep her.

She is now nine days old. We visited the pediatrician yesterday and found that she now weighs in at 7 lbs 9 oz. Despite some *majorly painful* nursing issues, she is thriving! She has developed a chubby little belly and is filling out her scrawny arms and legs with oh-so-squeezable baby chub.

 
Her little belly-button stump finally came off (much to her daddy's relief - the thing scared him!) and now she is ready for a full fledged bath. I can't wait to get her into the baby tub and see her reaction to the warm water. She is a HUGE fan of her sponge bath, and would probably allow me to wash her hair all day long if I could. That, at least, is one thing she has in common with her mama. I told Bobio he had better start saving up for some serious spa treatments for this little girl once she gets old enough to appreciate a good manicure ;)

This was pretty much the place to be if you were a female member of our house last week. While Bob had the week off to be home with his new baby girl, he spent some MAJOR quality time snuggling on the couch. Belle has adjusted well to having the baby around, although we did have a few days of puppy-pouting to go through first. She has decided that if anyone is snuggling with the baby, she should be, too. She is my afternoon-nap companion along with Miss Maya, and my trusty nursing-assistant as well.

Big Brother Griffin is in love with his new sister. He is excited to have snuggle-time with her after school and before bed at night. He checks on her in the morning when he wakes up. He wants to smell her head every chance he gets (oh, for the love of Johnson's Baby Shampoo!).

He is aware of everything that goes on concerning this little bean... a few days ago while I was feeding her he asked "so, Mom, is Maya getting any better at latching on?". I never once had a conversation with this boy about "latching on", or the nursing process in general. He just kind of accepted the fact that this is how our baby eats, and must have overheard a conversaton between Bob and I about the whole latching-on thing. It made me realize how incredibly grown up my boy is for handling this whole situation with maturity and genuine concern, rather than being grossed out. He's awesome :)

Speaking of nursing....

Side effect of perfectly tiny mouth = horrendously painful intro-to-nursing. OY. Thanks to some fabulous support form the maternity staff at Falmouth Hospital and the Nursing Mothers Support Group, we're doing MUCH better now ((thank GOD)). There is still a bit of healing that is taking place before we will be 100%, but at least I can fill my baby's belly without bursting into tears.

Life is good. Adjusting to having a baby in the house has been relatively simple. Maya has a pretty decent sleep-eat-wake pattern, and will doze for about 3 hours at a time. THIS makes her mama VERY happy :) She hardly ever fusses, and when she does it's because she is hungry. She loves to snuggle, and likes to have her hands near her face. She sleeps happilt in her cradle, as long as she is fast asleep when she is laid down. She loves being naked (uh-oh...). She makes the cutest faces when she wakes up. We are totally in love.

As the days go by, I feel more like this is exactly how my life is supposed to be right now. It feels natural to have Maya with us, like she has been here all along, but we were just waiting for her to physically arrive. The family dynamic feels complete and whole and like it just plain works. I couldn't ask for a better family, a better life, a better world for myself than what I have right here, right now.

We are all truly blessed to have each other.

baby, i'm amazed by you...

 
Miss Maya Grace Oliveira was born on Monday, October 5th at 1:04 am. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 1 oz, and measured 20 inches in length. Her delivery was relatively quick, and was *somehow* managed without medication. I wasn't sure I could handle it towards the end of the labor (you could probably ask my husband, the hospital staff, AND the other mothers in the maternity ward about the yelling that was coming from our room, but I wouldn't recommend it)... but after a fast and furious round of intense pushing, I was holding on to the most amazing piece of art in the entire universe. It was worth every ounce of pain and fear.

In one single instant, my world became unbelievably filled with more love than I could have ever imagined. She is absolutely perfect in every single way... from her mess of dark hair, to her cloudy dark eyes, her long fingers and toes, and her *perfect* tiny mouth. When I look at her I almost can't breathe.

 

**SO** alert immediately after her birth...

Her first visitors came early in the morning on Monday, when she was just a mere 6 hours old. Nan and Gramp brought her very proud and excited big brother to have some quiet snuggle time before he headed off to school. Griffin is so sweet and gentle and eager to help and hold her. She is perfectly content to let him.

 

These two beautiful ladies now share the same birthday! This was a little bit of an emotional meeting for all the girls in the room... Tania had told me from the very begining of the pregnancy that I would deliver on her birthday. Miss Maya was born in the same room that Auntie Tania had the babes in 16 months ago... also the same room her big brother was born in 12 years ago. Room 5 is very special to us right now.

 Somebody is in love with her papa... and is pretty darn lucky, too.

 

I find myself staring at her. Just holding her little sleeping body in my hands and staring at her. 

She is alert and curious. She is a great sleeper, and is getting to be a professional nurser, too. She's a huge fan of being snuggled, not such a huge fan of laying flat on her back in the cradle (uh-oh....). She is very calm and quiet UNLESS SHE IS HUNGRY. We're working on getting in to a rhythm for those needs... and operation "try to keep the baby awake during the day" is commencing oh-so-soon.

We were fortunate enough to be given a clean bill of health from both mom and baby's doctors. We left the hospital a mere 37 hours after her birth, and are SO happy to be home. We are looking forward to some quiet days filled withots of naps (for Maya and Mom) and lots of helping out from dad. I'm still a little bit sore from the delivery, but other than needing to catch up on some rest, I'm feeling amazingly well.

 

**Hey world, it's nice to meet you!**

 **I'm pretty perfect, incase my mom didn't tell you yet.**

 **I've heard a lot about you all, and can't wait to meet you.**

Thank you all so much for the well wishes. We are taking some time to relax and get to know each other as a family for a little while, then will be so very happy to be able to make *live* introductions once we are settled in. I'll try to post here and there as I am able to sneak away for breif moments, but don't expect to hear too much from me for a little while. This little Bean has her mama wrapped around her tiny little fingers, and I'm pretty sure that's a permanent situation.

Lots of love to you all from the Melissa, Bob, Griffin, and Maya Grace
 

the bean has sprouted!

She is here!! Melissa went into the hospital approx 8:45 last night... and had a relatively easy labor. The "bean" was born at 1:04am this morning!! She is 7lbs. 1oz and 20in.

*newsflash* !! the bean has been named ;) 

Maya Grace Oliveira

welcome!! 

(melissa's blog has been proudly hacked by the {creative chicks})