Going Cordless

Olivia turned 3 weeks old today and had two little milestones in the last 36 hours. The first was her first spit-up, which of course went right down the front of my shirt yesterday around lunch time. I could have done without that. The second was losing her umbilical cord stump this morning - oddly enough at the same moment she was spitting up down the front of my shirt. So she is now cordless and Abby is having a great time comparing belly buttons with her baby sister.

Abby has been having a good and bad transition to being a big sister. Most days and most times are good, but she's also been having lots of meltdowns and fits. It will be good to try a day just the three of us girls tomorrow so we can start to establish some rules and regulations for the little girls who live around here. One will need to learn to nap by herself and the other will need to learn that she can't have everything she wants right at the minute she wants it. Actually... reading that sentence I think they both need to learn both of those lessons. I guess I have a lot of work to do.

We had a lot of fun with Grandpa Roy and Grandma Von here the last few days. And we got a lot of yard work done thanks to Grandpa. We have a great spot set for Abby and Olivia's new swing set and a nice new garden with a small rock retaining wall (we found the rocks when we were cleaning up the weedy "gardens" that were left out back). Last night we had a little birthday party for Abby and Grandpa Roy, since Grandpa's birthday was about 2 weeks ago and Abby's birthday is in 2 weeks. She had a great time opening some presents and has lots of cool new Belle things and princess pajamas. She was very impressed with it all, except for the singing gift bags... those kind of freaked her out.

Abby and I went tonight to our small group bible study for the first time since the first Wednesday in March. She had a great time seeing her friends, although she has completely forgotten her playtime manners and how to share. We have some major re-learning ahead of us on that front. But it was great to see friends and have some adult conversation with them. Abby gave all of her friends big hugs on her way out the door... it was the most adorable thing. I can't wait for Olivia to get big enough to have such great friends too.

Snuggle Time

Grandma and Grandpa Obreiter are here, but before they got here this morning Abby and Olivia enjoyed some quality snuggle time while watching Abby's favorite princess sing along movie. They needed to snuggle... Abby was in super crabby mode from waking up in the middle of the night and getting into our bed. No one in our room is sleeping well since Olivia likes to grunt and moan and groan if she isn't being snuggled. It's not that she needs anything... she is just noisy.

House Arrest - Day 10

I had the best of intentions to get some pictures of Abby and Olivia today in the nice natural sunlight, but then the morning got away from us. It is much harder trying to get pictures of one child and supervising the other when you are the only adult in the house. Especially when Abby decides she is moving on to a new activity in a new location (often half a house away). So... instead we got some flashy pictures this evening. I am not a fan of the flash. I would much prefer to get some natural light pictures.














That is just one of the many things I am finding trickier to do with two children. Showering is another. I am going to need a baby gate so I can trap Abby upstairs and put Olivia in her crib so that I can shower without having to wait for Steve to come home for lunch, since some days we need to be somewhere in the morning. Another thing that gets tricky is breakfast for Abby, since Olivia is normally wanting her breakfast right about the same time. Either way someone is going to end up crying. But I'm sure in the next few weeks we will get all these little things figured out and get back into a routine and rhythm that works for us.

Broken Blogger

We can't actually open our blog, so I have to resort to sending my posts in via email.  No fun!  We've been enjoying a lazy day around here (if you count cleaning as part of lazy) and are looking forward to having a little company stop by this evening for dinner and some adult conversation.  Abby and I went on a little trip to WalMart this afternoon while Steve and Olivia hung out at the house.  It was nice to get out again and Abby enjoyed her special Mommy time.  We are counting down the days until we can get back out and spend time with friends.  Abby asks almost every day if her friends are coming over today.  I'd love to tell her yes, but unfortunately it is going to be a while longer.

Happy Birthday Aunt Hannah and Happy Anniversary Great Grandma & Grandpa Hodges!  We hope you are all having wonderful Saturdays :-)

Great Grandma's Afghan

We have been having fun with the camera and Great Grandma Jennie's afghan. 

2 Weeks Old

Or negative 3 weeks... depending how you look at it.

Olivia went in for a check up today to make sure she was gaining weight. She's gained 11 ounces since Friday - I'd say that's pretty good progress for a little lady. So she was up to 7 pounds 11 ounces again and was 19 1/2 inches long (although the length measurements always seem a bit shady to me).

Abby's been having a great time with Grandma Mary - they spent a lot of time outside blowing bubbles and exploring the backyard. She is sure enjoying her grandma time! I am trying to enjoy it too, but today a nap was definitely not in the cards for me. First the mailman rang the doorbell. Then once I got back into bed the phone rang. After that Olivia wanted fed. Then she was gassy and squeaking, so I needed to hold her upright against my shoulder. By the time I got her comfortable and ready to nap Abby was up from her 2 hour nap. So... I think early to bed is in my plans. Especially after Abby woke us up at 4 a.m. and Olivia joined her awake party at 5:30 a.m. It has been a very long day...

The Boats are Back

Another day almost in the books and I am still pretty much sane. I even slipped out for about 30 minutes to pick up some groceries all by myself. It was nice to be out of the house for a few minutes and really nice to grocery shop without having a little person throwing things into (and out of) the cart. And I was even able to sleep until 9 this morning and take a nap with Abby. I am going to be sad to see the era of grandparent help end and lose out on the ability to focus on one child at a time when necessary. But, it will also be nice to get into a routine and figure out how we are going to survive being a family of 4.

I weighed Olivia with the Nintendo again today and it said she weighed 8.2 pounds. I will be pretty surprised if she really does weigh more than 8 pounds when we take her in to be weighed tomorrow morning - that would be gaining over a pound since last Friday. But if we base weight gain on dirty diaper creation, then she may have actually gained more than a pound. We've been going through diapers at an amazing rate.

Abby has been enjoying some grandma time to the maximum. Today Abby and Grandma Mary took a walk down to the Soo Locks since we could hear freighters going through starting yesterday. They didn't get to see any boats, but I think they still had fun being outside. Abby loves being outdoors now that the weather is getting nicer (it was 53 degrees today). I have a feeling this summer will be a lot of time in the back yard for us - not that I have any complaints about that.

Candy Eggs

Here's a sneak peak of our birth announcement - we had a lot of fun with candy eggs and had more fun eating them when we were finished. Abby and Olivia tried to sneak a bite too.

We've had another good day today and have been enjoying and appreciating some Grammy time with Grandma Mary visiting. Abby loves having Grammy around and I appreciate having some extra help with two little girls now that Steve is back to work. We even got our playroom floor mopped and swept. It is so nice having extra hands around, especially hands that Abby loves to be with.

Olivia is picking up weight (according to the Nintendo Wii) and she is starting to sleep a little better. I still end up having to let her hold onto my finger a few times during the night, but considering the fact that she sleeps for about 3 hours at a stretch right now I don't mind a few extra minutes of hand holding to get her to sleep soundly.

"Give Abby Baby Sister"

I think we have a pretty good thing going with these two so far... that is until they team up on us.

At Home - Day Two

We have survived 48 hours alone (just Steve and I) at home with our two girls and so far I am shocked by how well it has gone. We really haven't had any huge fits or meltdowns from Abby and Olivia hasn't really been inconsolable either. I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop - I hope it is days or weeks down the road, but I'm sure we can't be that lucky with a preemie and an almost 2 year old.

We had a much better night's sleep last night with only about 30 minutes of awake but not feeding time. I have the bassinet arranged so that I can stick my hand into it from bed comfortably, so when Olivia just needs to feel and smell mommy I can let her hold onto a finger or rub her head. I had to lay her next to me for a little while too, but she only needed about 5 minutes of that before she was relaxed enough to get back into her own bed. We are definitely not a co-sleeping family - Steve sleeps too soundly and I sleep to lightly, so between the two of us one is worried about rolling onto a baby and the other doesn't get any sleep with a small person next to them. And the doctor's all said Miss Olivia needs to sleep in her own bed and on her back (just like any other baby) to help prevent apnea and SIDS. We are more than happy to comply.

Abby is still doing great in her role as big sister. She has been very good at following the rules for touching her little sister (no touching her face, no picking her up, etc.) and was very careful to keep Maize away from Olivia while she was in her bouncy seat. Abby also enjoyed a solid hour of time outside with her daddy today. The weather was cold (only 36 degrees) but beautifully sunny, so they went on an adventure around the block and played with Maize in the back yard. And she's been reading books to her daddy and baby sister this afternoon too. She is getting pretty good at having a lot of them memorized. She has also managed to absolutely destroy the playroom since we arrived home. You would never know that someone had it all picked up for us. We may have to have a little cleaning party tonight before bed and make her pick up some of her things. I think she pulled them all out just to make sure they were still here.

Since we've been home things have been pretty quiet, but Steve's office did put together a beautiful diaper cake full of cute things for Olivia (some of which Abby decided she would borrow in the meantime - like some beaded necklaces and bunny rings). As we started to pull it apart (after we took pictures of course), we found surprises hidden inside too. It's nice that Steve has such thoughtful and sweet co-workers. We also had a surprise special delivery for Abby and Olivia last night from Steve's office mate Dave and his family. The girls got two matching outfits, a Beauty and the Beast Barbie doll for Abby (she apparently made them play pretend Beauty and the Beast when they watched her while we were in the hospital the first night) and an Ohio State hat for Olivia. I'm not sure we will let a hat like that onto our beautiful daughter's head, but it was a wonderful surprise and the little outfits are adorable (many pictures to come!).