All I want to know is, how do you do it?!
Thanks for all the sacrifices you make for your family.
Love you, Mom!
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Ode to a Supermom
“This morning I woke up at 6, drank my 2 cups of coffee, got the kids ready and dropped them off at school, came back, showered and changed, took Will to Publix, came back home, cleaned up and did a load of laundry while I talked to Dan, washed some dishes, made Will his lunch, took it to him and ate with him, went back home, paid some bills, ran to the post office and by that time it was time to pick the kids up again, so I got them from school, took John to the dentist, called Ab while I picked up some groceries, picked Will up, made some dinner, folded the laundry, took the kids to youth group while Will went to dance, got some gas in the van, picked the kids back up, helped Ana with a homework project, straightened the living room, and crashed into bed.”
Friday, May 07, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
More about Munchkin
A few more things I've been wanting to record:
-Ellie is blowing bubbles now.
-She rubs her eyes when she's tired.
-She rolled over for the first time on Wed. We thought it was probably a mistake, but she did it 3 times that day!
-Instead of craning her head over her shoulder to root like she used to, now when she's hungry she lets me know by licking her lips repeatedly. :)
-She's started having "conversations" with us. My favorite time of day is first thing in the morning (shocking, I know, 'cause most of you know that I am so NOT a morning person). But, this is when she's the happiest and gives us huge grins and "talks" to us.
-We think she has Currie's allergies. Poor thing. The pollen has been horrible this week and when we slept w/ the windows open she woke up super congested. I can clean her nose w/ that nasal aspirator 10 times in a row and she won't complain. In fact, I think she likes it 'cause it helps her breathe.
That's all for now. I'm still in awe of how these silly little things can mean everything to me! Currie told me he read my last post while at school and it made him miss her! We sure are smitten over this Little Honey.
-Ellie is blowing bubbles now.
-She rubs her eyes when she's tired.
-She rolled over for the first time on Wed. We thought it was probably a mistake, but she did it 3 times that day!
-Instead of craning her head over her shoulder to root like she used to, now when she's hungry she lets me know by licking her lips repeatedly. :)
-She's started having "conversations" with us. My favorite time of day is first thing in the morning (shocking, I know, 'cause most of you know that I am so NOT a morning person). But, this is when she's the happiest and gives us huge grins and "talks" to us.
-We think she has Currie's allergies. Poor thing. The pollen has been horrible this week and when we slept w/ the windows open she woke up super congested. I can clean her nose w/ that nasal aspirator 10 times in a row and she won't complain. In fact, I think she likes it 'cause it helps her breathe.
That's all for now. I'm still in awe of how these silly little things can mean everything to me! Currie told me he read my last post while at school and it made him miss her! We sure are smitten over this Little Honey.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
3 months
It's high time for an Ellie update (read: Beware of long post!)
-Ellie's first "social smile" was on Mar 13, the day of the St Patty's Day run. However, she's come a long way in the smiling deparment, just this week. Before we had to practically stand on our heads to get a teeny smirk; now it's full-on open mouth, nose-scrunched, squealy grins almost every time she sees us (or her elephants, or her mobile).
-We can't really call her Grunting Gerta anymore, because all the grunts have turns into adorable coos. Now her sounds mimic language a lot more and are absolutely precious.
-She's gone to a 4 hour eating schedule. The girl still packs it away, but now she goes longer between feedings. She's been eating at 8, 12, 4, and 8, and one middle of the night feeding around 4:30/5:00. Since I'm going back to work next Monday I am moving her schedule back an hour so that she'll eat closer to 7, 11, 3,and 7. I would love it if I could wean her from the 5 am feeding, (it's not even a full feeding...more like 8 min rather than 20) but she still seems genuinely hungry.
-Ellie LOVES her carseat. She seems like a born traveler. In fact, each time we've taken her out for a walk she has ended up falling asleep 'cause she's so comfy in the carseat.
-She has officially been dubbed a "summer" by my Aunt Dee. In our family we stick religiously to buying according to our color schemes so that all our clothes mix and match. Mommy's a winter and Daddy's an autumn, so now we'll have to learn a new color palette when shopping for Ellie's clothes. (I'm still in shock that I have a blue-eyed beauty!)
-Ellie's first "social smile" was on Mar 13, the day of the St Patty's Day run. However, she's come a long way in the smiling deparment, just this week. Before we had to practically stand on our heads to get a teeny smirk; now it's full-on open mouth, nose-scrunched, squealy grins almost every time she sees us (or her elephants, or her mobile).
Here she is giving a grin w/ her Aunt Shanna.
-We can't really call her Grunting Gerta anymore, because all the grunts have turns into adorable coos. Now her sounds mimic language a lot more and are absolutely precious.
-She's gone to a 4 hour eating schedule. The girl still packs it away, but now she goes longer between feedings. She's been eating at 8, 12, 4, and 8, and one middle of the night feeding around 4:30/5:00. Since I'm going back to work next Monday I am moving her schedule back an hour so that she'll eat closer to 7, 11, 3,and 7. I would love it if I could wean her from the 5 am feeding, (it's not even a full feeding...more like 8 min rather than 20) but she still seems genuinely hungry.
-She likes to kick her legs furiously and wave her arms up and down when laying on her back. Yesterday she lay in her bassinet and realized that if she kicked it shook the whole bed, so she really went to town! In the pic below her legs are a blur 'cause they're go, go, go...
-Ellie LOVES her carseat. She seems like a born traveler. In fact, each time we've taken her out for a walk she has ended up falling asleep 'cause she's so comfy in the carseat.
-She has officially been dubbed a "summer" by my Aunt Dee. In our family we stick religiously to buying according to our color schemes so that all our clothes mix and match. Mommy's a winter and Daddy's an autumn, so now we'll have to learn a new color palette when shopping for Ellie's clothes. (I'm still in shock that I have a blue-eyed beauty!)
-She's not a huge fan of tummy time (yet). She can hold her head up for a long time when we're holding her, but she gets frustrated after only a couple minutes of being on her stomach. I am trying to increase this amount of time since our Parents as Teachers rep reminded us of all the benefits of tummy time.
-Confession: our daughter is a paci-holic. I mean serious. addiction. What's funny is that somehow Currie and I have taught her to cough to get the paci. I have no idea how it's happened, but that's how she lets us know she wants it. Or, she'll open her mouth and lean towards her chest because she knows it's down there somewhere, and that it magically appears when she does this. Recently, when that doesn't work, she has figured out that she can shove her fist in her mouth for a similar effect. :)
I'm sure there are lots of things I'm leaving out, like her first trip to the beach, her first flight, her baptism, etc. but most of those I have recorded on our calendar (or have upteen million pictures to help me remember).
p.s. I have videos of several of the above that I am desperately trying to upload, but they take FOREVER. Any tips on quicker options?
-Confession: our daughter is a paci-holic. I mean serious. addiction. What's funny is that somehow Currie and I have taught her to cough to get the paci. I have no idea how it's happened, but that's how she lets us know she wants it. Or, she'll open her mouth and lean towards her chest because she knows it's down there somewhere, and that it magically appears when she does this. Recently, when that doesn't work, she has figured out that she can shove her fist in her mouth for a similar effect. :)
I'm sure there are lots of things I'm leaving out, like her first trip to the beach, her first flight, her baptism, etc. but most of those I have recorded on our calendar (or have upteen million pictures to help me remember).
p.s. I have videos of several of the above that I am desperately trying to upload, but they take FOREVER. Any tips on quicker options?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
I'm an Ellie Expert
So a friend of ours recently told us that we'd spent the last month becoming "Ellie Experts". I love this phrase because it recognizes that as her parents, Currie and I understand and relate to Ellie better than anyone else at this point. In the past 5 weeks we have learned what Ellie's idiosyncrasies are, we can predict how she'll respond to things, and we know what her little grunts and noises mean. And I can't even begin to explain how much joy this brings us.
In an effort to document some of these idiosyncrasies before she outgrows them (and before I buy a baby book to record them in), here are some of my favorite things that little Ellie does:
-She often sneezes twice in a row, but when she doesn't she thinks she will, so she ends up faking the second sneeze and yells "aaahhh" (this is by far my favorite thing she does and it is my mission in life to catch it on video before she stops doing it!).
-When I wake her up from her nap for a feeding, I know she's ready to eat by kissing her cheeks. When I kiss her left cheek she turns and starts to root and ends up "kissing" me with her mouth open; when I kiss her right cheek she turns to that side, roots, and ends up "kissing" me again.
-As documented by some of the previous videos, Ellie is noisy!! She loves to grunt, even in a sound sleep, and was keeping Currie and I awake at night until we learned that it really didn't mean anything. I realized that if she really needed us she'd let us know by crying. We've already gotten knowing looks in our direction during church when people hear her little grunts...though they assure us that they sound louder to us than anyone else. :)
-Just like her mom and dad, Ellie likes to eat. From the first time she latched right after delivery, she knew what she was doing, and she just goes to town. She is not dainty about it either; she is a gulper and chugger and is normally done with a feeding within about 20 minutes! The lactation consultant at the hospital told me that most babies take 6-7 sucks before swallowing; Ellie takes 1 suck before swallowing! She also vocalizes with each swallow and it sounds like she's saying "mmm", "mmm", "mmm."
Here's an overview of what her schedule looks like right now:
-Ellie eats every 3 hours during the day. Most of the time I have to wake her up to eat, and then I try to make sure that she has close to an hour of awake time before her next nap. By the time I feed her, change her diaper, and give her a little tummy time the hour is up and she is getting drowsy.
-At night she can normally give me at least one 4 hour stretch before needing a feeding. She normally sleeps through the feeding (sometimes I doze too), and only occasionally does she wake up after I put her back in her bassinet...then the fun begins. :)
-She tends to have one fussy period in the late evening. Currie's gotten really good at calming her down. He swaddles her really tight, puts her on her side, gives her the paci, and then "shushes" and rocks her. These are the "5 S's" from the book The Happiest Baby on the Block and they really seem to help Ellie calm down.
Well, most of my readers know that it took us two years, a fertility specialist, and a surgery (to remove two large cysts caused by endometriosis) to get pregnant. There were many tears cried and many prayers prayed before God mercifully answered by giving us our Eleanor Rose. So I hope it's obvious from this post how much we absolutely LOVE being parents. I get choked up thinking about how absolutely LUCKY I feel to have her. And to my dear friends that are still trying... know that I am still praying for you. Being an "Ellie Expert" is a huge privilege and I so long for you to have the opportunity to be an expert for your little one too!
In an effort to document some of these idiosyncrasies before she outgrows them (and before I buy a baby book to record them in), here are some of my favorite things that little Ellie does:
-She often sneezes twice in a row, but when she doesn't she thinks she will, so she ends up faking the second sneeze and yells "aaahhh" (this is by far my favorite thing she does and it is my mission in life to catch it on video before she stops doing it!).
-When I wake her up from her nap for a feeding, I know she's ready to eat by kissing her cheeks. When I kiss her left cheek she turns and starts to root and ends up "kissing" me with her mouth open; when I kiss her right cheek she turns to that side, roots, and ends up "kissing" me again.
-As documented by some of the previous videos, Ellie is noisy!! She loves to grunt, even in a sound sleep, and was keeping Currie and I awake at night until we learned that it really didn't mean anything. I realized that if she really needed us she'd let us know by crying. We've already gotten knowing looks in our direction during church when people hear her little grunts...though they assure us that they sound louder to us than anyone else. :)
-Just like her mom and dad, Ellie likes to eat. From the first time she latched right after delivery, she knew what she was doing, and she just goes to town. She is not dainty about it either; she is a gulper and chugger and is normally done with a feeding within about 20 minutes! The lactation consultant at the hospital told me that most babies take 6-7 sucks before swallowing; Ellie takes 1 suck before swallowing! She also vocalizes with each swallow and it sounds like she's saying "mmm", "mmm", "mmm."
Here's an overview of what her schedule looks like right now:
-Ellie eats every 3 hours during the day. Most of the time I have to wake her up to eat, and then I try to make sure that she has close to an hour of awake time before her next nap. By the time I feed her, change her diaper, and give her a little tummy time the hour is up and she is getting drowsy.
-At night she can normally give me at least one 4 hour stretch before needing a feeding. She normally sleeps through the feeding (sometimes I doze too), and only occasionally does she wake up after I put her back in her bassinet...then the fun begins. :)
-She tends to have one fussy period in the late evening. Currie's gotten really good at calming her down. He swaddles her really tight, puts her on her side, gives her the paci, and then "shushes" and rocks her. These are the "5 S's" from the book The Happiest Baby on the Block and they really seem to help Ellie calm down.
Well, most of my readers know that it took us two years, a fertility specialist, and a surgery (to remove two large cysts caused by endometriosis) to get pregnant. There were many tears cried and many prayers prayed before God mercifully answered by giving us our Eleanor Rose. So I hope it's obvious from this post how much we absolutely LOVE being parents. I get choked up thinking about how absolutely LUCKY I feel to have her. And to my dear friends that are still trying... know that I am still praying for you. Being an "Ellie Expert" is a huge privilege and I so long for you to have the opportunity to be an expert for your little one too!
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