Siblings

This is pretty much every day for us...  super cute.

5 weeks

Maeve is now 5 weeks old. At her one month appointment she was 8 lbs 3 oz! She gained about a pound and a half in a week!

The not so good news is that at her appointment she was diagnosed with reflux (insert dramatic dark music here). I never wanted to hear that word again, but alas, here we are. She is in a lot of pain after feedings and you can hear her choke up fluid and sometimes she spits, though not very much. The doctor prescribed zantac to help. I am trying to eliminate dairy from my diet as well to see if it helps her. I'm not convinced it's reflux as she is super gassy and fussy. She is not fussy at night or after the first feeding in the morning which makes me think it is something I'm eating. We are looking into infant probiotics, anyone ever had any experience with them?

In other news, she is changing every day. She very much enjoys looking into the mirror for long periods of time and she really, really likes tummy time which also surprises me. We also started the cloth diapering again this week because we were able to borrow newborn cloth from a friend (the one size fall off of her in the smallest setting) and we started the cloth wipes that we just bought as well (we scented them with jasmine and chamomile oils!). She still isn't awake for more than 10-20 minutes after she eats and then drifts back off to sleep for the next hour and a half.

Here she is, with her uber loving big brother!

(Noah just got out of the shower...)

Our curious 3 year old

Noah has been very shy about going up for children's chats in the new church... so we don't push him at all.  Today he decided he wanted to go and that was fine.  He insisted on telling the pastor that his dog is named Sophie and she is at home.  Cute enough.  Then he got up and walked across the altar to tell the lector that his dog is named Sophie and she is at home.  Cute enough.  Then he walked to the pulpit and saw the pastor's guitar and started strumming it.  Mommy was right there to reprimand.  Then he saw some money inside the pulpit and he took it and started to walk away.  I had to force him screaming to give the pastor his money back.  Ugh.  Great intro, huh?

4 weeks!!!

Here's my little girl today!!! 4 weeks old! I am just stunned at how quickly it has gone. She will officially be one month on Monday. She is the most beautiful little girl and just perfect. I think I'll do my review now since I have some time, who knows what Monday will bring!

So, I think she will be up to 7lbs. by Monday. She was 6 10 at birth and 5,8 in the NICU and 6,1 when we came home. She was 6, 14 when the home health nurse came to visit. 7lbs or more is my guess. She is growing quickly and today she wore her first 0-3 month oufit.

Overall she is a very calm and happy baby. She sleeps a ton still and is only alert for about 10 minutes after each feeding. We are doing Babywise again and it is going very smoothly. Maeve pretty much had herself on a schedule before she came home and we have just followed that. She wakes about every 3 hours on cue around the clock. She has some longer spells at night, sometimes up to 5 or 6 hours. Generally we wake her to eat at 11 and then she wakes one more time before the morning. It's pretty nice. Babywise calls for a routine napping schedule and so after her "awake" time we just put her in the crib and she sleeps until the next feeding. Generally she naps 2 out of every 3 hours. She has recently been having terrible gas pains that make her cry a lot but it amuses us because she screams and then farts really loud and is fine. We've tried gas drops but I kind of think they're a hoax. She is also a pooping maniac. She seriously poops 20 times a day. She wakes up poopy after every nap, she poops like crazy during feedings so much that you think the diaper might not hold it, and she poops on you or right after you have changed one of the other two!

Noah is still crazy in love with her and wants to show her to everyone as his prize. We have been good about having just Noah time and emphasizing what a big boy can do and he seems to be doing okay. Noah is still the center of attention around here; his personality and temperment just demand it.

I can't say how happy I am to have two children. It's hard to explain, but I just feel more like a family now. There isn't one on/one off, we're all needed all of the time! It can be exhausting, but also fun. I just appreciate the littlest things about both of them and it makes me so happy to see them grow and change each day. I feel so lucky to be enjoying this because I know that many people warned me about having two. I feel like for me it was a much harder adjustment from 0-1 child than 1-2. I've already been steamrolled so nothing seems so bad anymore. Plus, Noah is potty trained, gets himself dressed, is fully functional and VERY helpful. He isn't needy in the way many who have kids closer together are and he has never been a very clingy child. Maeve just goes along for the ride wherever we go... she's already been to birthday parties, longwood gardens and the zoo. We were still trying to figure out which end was up with Noah at this point!

So, the first month is down and we can't wait to see what's next!!!!

Childhood Friendship

I don't recall ever having the kinds of friends Noah does at age 2 and 3. He literally has a group of kids who he "hangs out" with. I really think it is awesome. Yesterday was one girl's birthday party and there were two of his best friends there... There are just some moments captured by photos that are precious. Aren't they sweet?

4th of July

We had a fantastic day for the 4th. Maeve only woke up once last night and then I woke her up for the day at 6:45.  Noah and Paul were still asleep so she and I had some coffee and chatted.  It was so lovely!

When everyone was up we decided to head to the park as a family.  We packed up Noah's bicycle and our lunch and headed to play.  We don't get to do this every often and it was so nice to have no commitments and to be leisurely about life.  We played for a long while, until it got really windy and we headed home.  

After naps I asked Noah if he would help me water the flowers I had just planted.  He was thrilled with the idea and we grabbed our watering cans and headed to the spigot.  I filled both of them up and showed him the flowers I needed him to water.  He was so happy and I just let him water the flowers while I went out front to get the rest.  When I came back, I couldn't believe what I saw.  Noah had the hose in his hand and was trying to spray the dog, which wouldn't have been a big deal except Maeve was in  her bouncy chair on the picnic table.   He didn't realize it but he had been spraying her while trying to get the dog.  She was soaked and her blanket and chair were soaked.  She was wide awake just staring into space, blinking away the water dripping from her eyes! Paul was right there on the porch working but he didn't realize what was happening either!  She never really made a peep which might not bode well for the future when he means to torment her!  

After we got that all cleaned up it, we ate dinner and headed back outside for Noah's first sparklers.  He has seen them before but he has never been allowed to hold them.  He really liked it.  Paul also showed him poppers and the black snake as well as the confetti pull string ones.

It is amazing how we have really changed over the past week.  It feels totally different to have two kids, but in a really great way.  

Noah is madly in love with Maeve and kisses her and hugs her every chance he gets.  He has changed enormously since she has been home and seems to just understand that he needs to be a bit more of a big boy.  He always asks if she can play with him or sit at his table with him and he can't wait until she gets bigger.  We asked him yesterday who his friends were and he said Maeve was his best friend.   I can only hope and pray that at least for a little while (or maybe always!) that this is true.  I just feel so lucky and so happy to have this wonderful family that God has so richly blessed us with....  Happy 4th of July!!!

Broke Trash

broke mama piggy trash

or something like that....

trash broke mama piggy

mama piggy is broke trash

We headed down to Paul's sister's house yesterday to swim and out of the blue Noah starts talking about broke trash...  it took us a long time to figure out that he was talking about his piggy bank that broke and is now in the trash.  He knew what he was talking about but we thought he was talking about the neighborhood we were driving through!!!!!