Mae Olivia Lucas

Our beautiful baby girl, Mae Olivia Lucas, was born on July 25, 2019. I'll paint the full picture of the days and weeks before and after Mae's birth because it was a crazy time in our lives. Probably the craziest time ever for us. A few months after finding out that we were expecting Mae, we had made the decision that we wanted to move back to Arizona. With Madeline starting Kindergarten in the fall and me going on maternity leave, moving shortly after I had Mae seemed like a good decision. We didn't want to do it before she was born because our jobs required us to be in Austin. My company agreed to let me come back from maternity leave to a job in Arizona and we were taking a leap of faith that George's job would work out when the time came...it did. Mae was due on July 25 and Kindergarten started for Madeline in Arizona on August 1. We weighed many different options, including starting Madeline in Kindergarten in Austin and moving in October or November, but ultimately decided to get back to Arizona in time for school to start. That meant we would be moving with a couple day old baby if Mae came on her due date. Now I'll cut to Mae's birth story and jump back to the move later. 

My parents came into town on July 18, a week before my due date. (Side note: that means there were 6 of us in a fully packed up 1000 square foot apartment!) The week leading up to my due date, I was having a lot of on and off contractions. There was even one night when they were close enough that we were about to leave for the hospital. However, in the end, nothing ever developed enough for it to be the "real deal" so it was looking more and more like I would get induced on my due date. Getting induced was not my preference, but we really had no choice given that we had movers coming on July 27 (2 days after my due date if you lost track). So the morning of July 25, George, my mom, and I got up early and checked in at St. David's Hospital in downtown Austin (right next to the UT campus) at 6:30AM. My dad stayed back at the apartment with Madeline and Luke. 

Pre-K Promotion

Madeline had her Pre-K promotion last week and I have to share some of the photos and videos because it was the cutest thing ever.  

It was a rough start with schools when we first moved to Austin. We had them in a daycare up in North Austin and after a few weeks, we realized it was a horrible fit. Madeline was screaming and crying everyday when we dropped her off (which is so unlike her!) and there was a lot of turnover even in the few weeks that we were there. We had no back-up plan, but decided to put in our notice at the daycare anyway. We were frantically looking for daycares or pre-schools and kept striking out. One night, we randomly discovered St. Martin's Lutheran and called the next morning. They had a spot for both Madeline and Luke (which can be hard to find!) so we went down that afternoon for a tour. We immediately loved it and enrolled them even though it was a long, traffic-y drive from our apartment. Shortly after, George got a new job downtown and we decided to move downtown, just a few minutes from the school. It all felt so stressful and chaotic at the time, yet it all worked out so well and we are so so sooooo thankful that we made that series of decisions. 

One of the things we love about St Martin's is that it is set-up as a preschool rather than just childcare. They have a really good curriculum, we're constantly shocked at the things they know. They have "specials" throughout the week (library, music, art,  gym, science, sign language, Spanish). The gym teacher has been teaching them bones in the body and Madeline legitimately knows more bones than I do! Both kids love their teachers and have made lot of little friends. 

And another one of her practicing one of the songs with George...

30 weeks

Hi Everyone! Since I last posted, I've become a lot more pregnant. :) I'm now 30 weeks and feeling pretty large, but really good. And I know from past experience that I haven't seen nothing yet! Just like its big sister and brother, this one seems to be a mover. I've been feeling tons of kicks and wiggles. We've started getting some baby stuff out which is making it really sink in that we'll be a family of FIVE really soon! I'm so excited and anxious to know who is inside of me...a baby boy or baby girl. The anticipation of meeting the baby is my favorite part of pregnancy. For now, I'll enjoy my sleep. 

Here are a few recent pictures of me and my growing belly. 

The kids had so much fun with Easter this year. Luke did Easter eggs for the first time and did his best to sabotage Madeline's masterpieces. 

They also had a blast doing our Easter egg hunt. George hid all of the eggs in a nearby park and then we let the kids loose. Madeline is fast and competitive and was on a mission to get as many eggs as possible. Luckily for her, Luke wanted to open and then eat the candy in each egg as he found them, which slowed him down. Haha! I love them and their unique little personalities. 

While George was hiding our eggs, a really nice couple at the park saw him, ran back to their house, and then gave him a bunch of huge Easter eggs stuffed with toys. They had Easter plans that fell through and were looking to get rid of the eggs and toys. Luke and Madeline totally scored. 

These pictures of Luke crack me up. He loves chocolate and was on cloud nine with all of his Easter candy.  

Finally, here are some pics of the kids at my last appointment. Madeline came with us to my 20 week ultrasound so I thought it would be fun to bring both kids to my appointment last week. I think it helps them understand what's going on and what's about to happen. Since the kids were there, my doctor did a quick ultrasound to get some pics for them. When we got back to school, Luke told his classmates that he saw the baby and showed them the pics. It melted my heart.