Kai's Birth Day

It was just a regular night and I had just fallen asleep. After about an hour, Dawn woke me up saying the baby is coming and the contractions are getting pretty regular. The pain was increasing, but based on Maddox’s birth she felt like it was about time to head to the hospital.

So a quick back story about Maddox’s birth, it was very rough on Dawn. She was induced at midnight and went through a very long and painful 30 hour labor for his delivery.

When we got checked in to the hospital, the initial check showed that Dawn was 9 cm dilated. Everyone was surprised that she was up and walking around.

They quickly wheeled her up to the delivery room to prepare for the birth. When we got there, they immediately asked if she needed an epidural. Since we were so close to delivery, Dawn opted not to get one and did the delivery with no anesthesia.

Dawn is a BADASS.

After about 4 hours at the hospital and 35 minutes of pushing, Kai was born!

and with a FULL head of hair.

Due to the hospital’s COVID protocol, we only had to stay one night. When we brought Kai home, Maddox was really eager to meet his new brother. He was really curious and loved to poke and prod his legs.

A basket of gifts does wonders easing Maddox into the big brother role. The hospital also sent us home with a “Big Brother” cake for him. Perfect timing, the next day was Maddox’s birthday too! We have a lot to celebrate and many joint birthdays to come!

Maddox's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Maddox’s 2nd birthday early since baby #2’s due date is right around his actual birthday. Maddox loves dinosaurs so it’s only natural that we have a dinosaur themed party.

We invited our family over to have a small party and needless to say, Maddox had a great time!

Trying to be like mama with her pregnant belly

Trying out his new bike

Last Family Photos as a Family of 3

We’re getting close to our last days as a family of 3! We decided to do one last photoshoot before baby #2 came. We went to a park nearby, I set up the tripod and did my best to capture our growing family.

Bribery with a lollipop is a necessity.

Surprise Pregnancy Announcement and Gender Reveal!

With our second pregnancy, we kept it to ourselves in the beginning only mentioning it to our families. We decided to announce it to our friends by playing it off as just a normal gathering.

It started off as a normal hang…

This would also be when we would find out the gender. We sent the gender test results to a close friend to get us some cupcakes with colored filling. After a while of eating and chatting, we brought out the gender reveal cupcakes and that’s when the “wait what?” moment happened.

IT’S A BOY!

Last Day in Sintra and Lisbon, Portugal - Day 5

Castelo dos Mouros

On our last day, we had some time in the morning to see the Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors) before heading back to Lisbon. It is a hilltop medieval castle that was built during the 8th century and is also called The Great Wall of Portugal (it looks like a mini version of the Great Wall of China). There is a really nice walk through the forest to get into the main area.

After getting past the main walls, there are flower lined walkways that take you to the outer wall. Walking along the wall is the main draw of the Castelo dos Mouros.

The Castle of the Moors is built on one of the highest points in the area to protect Sintra from attack

The Pena Palace in the distance

The Pena Palace

Back to Lisbon

We left Sintra in a taxi to head back to Lisbon to check into our last hotel for the trip.

This was our last time to walk around and take in the city.

Praca Luis de Camoes

Royale Cafe

Our last dinner was at Royale Cafe. It got a lot of great reviews and definitely did not disappoint. We sat outside in the small patio in the back and got to enjoy our meal with the great weather.

Ponche and a gin and tonic

Bread cheese

Octopus “a Lagareiro”

Black linguini

Our evening stroll while holding hands

And this ends our first trip with Maddox, which I’ve been calling a multi-city, multi-country international trip. We were able to see London, Paris, Lisbon, and Sintra all in one go. Traveling with a baby means you have to make adjustments to your itinerary and accommodations to make sure your baby is entertained and has enough time for rest as well. Luckily we put in a lot of work and planning to make sure our trip went off without a hitch. Definitely looking forward to our next trip!