March 2013

Crazy hair, no doubts!

My adorable bed hog!

Super smiles for this puppy!

Our first long walk around the neighborhood!

We now have a nickname for this little one: Mushy. She is our Mushmallow!

Happy St. Pats!

Everything in the mouth!

PJ Day for these girls!

3 Months Old

3 balloons for 3 perfect months!

At 3 months, Molly has not lost ANY hair! It is starting to show signs of lightening in color as is golden underneath. Molly is trying desperately to laugh, but she coughs on it whenever it starts to bubble up! Her reflux is still bad, but doesn't seem to bother her: just a laundry issue for us! She is showing more interest in toys like her play mat and rattles. She hasn't been sleeping as well lately and still HATES bottles! She smilies anytime we sing "You Are My Sunshine"!

February 2013

Molly was caught on camera smiling  *nearly laughing* at her big sister! 

This is Molly's constant request! All she wants to do lately is nurse! When will this growth spurt end!??!

Eva LOVES to write lately! She practices writing uppercase letters and has great fine motor control--look at how she can fit them in these tiny lines! She impresses me everyday!

LOVES the bath! 

Eva started dance class in the fall and has been loving it! Molly and I attended Family Observation Day and she loved showing off all that she has learned so far!

Sisters UNITE!

My two forever Valentines!

A little sister playtime!

Eva at 3 months (left) and Molly at 2 months (right)!

2 balloons for 2 perfect months!

At two months old, Molly is up 2-3 times a night, but has slept through the night a few times in her life. She is gaining weight like a champ, which gives this nursing Mommy confidence! She smiles at her family, especially her big sister, and loves to snuggle. She doesn't seem to mind tummy-time too much and has VERY strong legs! She is still sleeping in the bassinet in Mommy and Daddy's room and hates bottles with the fire of 1000 suns!

A New Year: January 2013

My beautiful girls!

Eva woke up one cold, white morning asking for a haircut! What my big girl wants, my big girl gets!

She loves me! 

Would you just look at this beautiful baby!!?? I want to just eat her!

Our cheerless-cheerleader today! 

Shirts made by mommy=dreams coming true!

Molly's first smile in response to an object! Ooooh she loves mama owl!

Molly actually taking a bottle! This does NOT happen anymore. She has been outright refusing for weeks! 

Daddy and his littlest buddy, all snuggled tight on a cold January morning!

A First Christmas

Merry first Christmas to Molly! Eva was so extremely excited to see what Santa brought her, but it was also very important to her that Santa knew Molly was new to our family and that he should bring her special things as well! She was overjoyed to see that Santa was very generous to both of them! 

I shed tears this morning of the happiest kind because I got to see our stockings hung, representing a family of four. This is something I have been desperate to see in our home and am such a lucky woman to have this dream come true!

Santa brought Eva her Baby Butterscotch horse! She is head-over-heels in love with her!

Mommy and her beautiful girls on Christmas morning!

It was a white Christmas this year!! Eva was thrilled to get to go play outside in the snow with her Daddy and Brady! No one loves snow like our Brady boy!! They went sledding, built a snowman and made snow angels. Molly and I played (aka, nursed and farted and slept) inside and had hot chocolate prepared for when the adventurous crew came inside for a break!

One of the most gorgeous pictures I have ever taken of my sweet girl!

Merry First Christmas to my goofy little girl!

One Perfect Month

One balloon for one perfect month!

At one month, Molly is up 1-2x per night and nurses like a pro. She is eating every 1.5-2 hours, with longer stretches at night. She is easily put back to sleep when she wakes and easily calmed when upset. She loves bath time and snuggles with her Daddy at night. She loves to watch Eva play and act like a goof! She has reflux and can puke so much that it projectiles 3feet away! She farts like a grown man, which shocks everyone who meets her! Her most adorable feature is her thick head of beautiful dark brown hair! Everyone loves how feathery soft it is!!

A First Month

My little bunny is still super sleepy, so this picture was taken in a very short window of alertness! She is a nursing champ and seems to love bath time. Her vision is getting a little better and she appears to focus on faces more and more! 

2 weeks old and such a great baby! She sleeps well at night and is highly predictable! I can't get enough of her sleepy smiles! She farts like a man and it makes us all laugh!

Three weeks have flown by in a haze. We have kept up on our regular routines and Eva hasn't missed a single day of school! She is so happy to be a big sister. She tells strangers she meets that she has a new baby sister! She is so proud!

 

Our first big family outing was to go see Santa at a local farm. I was worried about exposure to germs, but there was no way I wasn't going to take Eva to meet Santa so we packed up the gang dressed in spirit (look at our little elf!!) to meet the man himself! Eva was overjoyed and had star shock for sure! She told Santa that she wants Baby Butterscotch (the horse) and "the baby that eats bananas" (a Baby Alive toy)! Molly telepathically told him she just wanted an unlimited amount of nursing sessions!!
 

Welcome Home

Our first day home was overwhelming for everyone. Eva erupted into jumps of joy to have her mommy and baby sister home and her whole family back together under one roof. She simply couldn't stand her own excitement! Grandma had prepared her for all the changes that would be coming along with Molly's arrival home, but focused on all the good things like that she could fit on my lap again! Eva just couldn't get enough time on my newly available lap! 

I made a BIG effort in those first few weeks home to have Eva view herself as part of the caregiving team and not 1 of 2 children. I thought this would help with feeling jaded and jealous and it definitely did. She helped give her sister sponge baths, chose her clothes and pulled out the wipes. After each task was complete, she would high five and say, "Go team!".

Eva couldn't get enough of Molly and I couldn't get enough pictures of them together, even during a screaming competition!

Molly was a great baby right from the start. 

She latched immediately and had zero issues nursing or sleeping. 

She never had her nights and days reversed and on our first night home she was only up ONCE! 

Molly and I certainly have a special bond already, but she seems to be quite the Daddy's girl. It's wonderful to see their relationship take off so quickly. I think that is part of the joy of second parenthood-all the anxiety of "am I doing this right??" is gone, so there is only love!

Eva and Molly are already thick as thieves and seem to share a secret that I will never get to know. That's just how I want it! 

Maternity Living=Jane's Carb-Fest 2012

Me and my sun, my moon and all my stars!

Daddy and his Littlest Girl!

Molly was born on Friday afternoon and visitors arrived shortly after! When I had Eva, she spent her first few days of life living on her own in her little apartment in the NICU so I only got to spend about an hour with her before she was whisked away. Molly, perfectly healthy and strong, got to start life off living with her parents! I was overjoyed to have her right there with us. It was a strange feeling to have her in the middle of the day, rather than the middle of the night. My phone rang off the hook all afternoon and visitors started pouring in just hours after I was sliced in half! 

Eva and my mother were our first visitors. Eva entered the room and scanned it. I thought she would be searching for her sister, but nope, she searched for me. She locked eyes with me and gave me a once over and saw that I was ok and I could feel a sense of relief wash over her and she relaxed. She said, "hi mommy" in her sweetest sweet girl voice and then looked for her baby sister. She hopped up on my bed (very gently and with support not to touch mommy too much after a gentle hug) and she got her first look at her little sister, whom she named. The smile that spread across her face was precious and priceless. Her sister was here and she was happy. Then, she got a look at her hair and her expression changed and tears welled up, "Mommy, I wanted her to have yellow hair just like me!" and she cried. I don't think she had that much hope wrapped up in hair color, I think the day had been confusing for her and she felt such a surge of emotions seeing me in a hospital gown looking haggard, wanting to hug me tight but not being able to and meeting her sister that she just bubbled over. I took a deep breath to warn my incision and then I hugged her tight. The tears increased at first and then disappeared. She quickly asked to hold her and when she had her cradled in her lap, she rubbed her hair, kissed her head and smiled a smile of pure contentment. She was ready for her role as big sister. It was time. 

Eva meets her Molly!

Having baked Molly on nuts and veggies as a Gestational Diabetic, I was elated to have my baby born without sugar issues and to be given a green light to EAT! I ordered pizza for dinner. It didn't sit right with me and made my stomach hurt for quite some time. I had pancakes for breakfast the next morning and 10 minutes later I vomited so violently that I would have sworn I popped a stitch. My stomach simply couldn't identify these foreign food items and rejected them entirely. I wanted to binge on brownies and bagels, but I was forced to take it slow. But it was delicious on the way down!

Molly May

I recovered well and was able to walk around and feed Molly as much as she wanted. She latched immediately and had zero issue breastfeeding right from the start, unlike her sister. She became irate on night two when she started to want more than colostrum and my milk was not yet in and she had dropped quite a bit of weight. We gave her some formula and she was a happy happy girl who slept like a dream! The bad side of our hospital stay was the gas I had. This was my second C-section so I knew how important it was to get up and move to relieve the trapped gas, but I had no idea how bad trapped gas really could be. I walked the halls of the hospital as much as I could manage. I sat with my knees up as much as I could stand. I drank peppermint tea and took gas x. The trapped gas was so bad that it moved to my shoulder and I seriously felt like I had been shot. The gas pains were so bad at times that I thought maybe they had left a sharp surgical instrument in me during the C-section. It was horrible and lasted for over 3 weeks post delivery. 

Going home!

We headed home on Monday morning and were greeted by Grandma and Eva, who was very emotional about me coming home. She had cried everytime she had to leave me at the hospital, sobbing, "I want to be with my family!". It broke my heart over and over again, We were home now and weren't going anywhere again. She would sob and laugh and hug and kiss like she may never get to do it again. She loved giving Molly her first bath at home and we made an effort to have her view herself as part of the caregiving team and not one of two children so she would not feel slighted.  We were so happy to be home and learn the ropes as a new family of FOUR!