Happy Camper

Natalie has started smiling.

Hello Channing!

My Prince and I went out Friday night and saw Dear John. I had read and loved the book so I was excited to see it. Well the movie wasn't that great compared to the book but I still enjoyed it because John was played by Channing Tatum and he is gorgeous!!!! How did I never know about him before!! He was shirtless quite a bit in the movie and I also liked the role he played. I had to laugh when my prince complained about the movie because I was thoroughly entertained my Channing alone. See what I mean:

In the mail.

Natalie Rae's birth announcements went into the mail Saturday so I thought I'd share them with you all as well. I ordered them from Instyle Cards and was extremely happy with them. They also did Abigail's annoucments and since I hadn't started blogging then I thought I'd share hers too.

Second Time Around

Today while I was chatting with my sister on Skype about pregnancy and baby care (she is due with her first in August!) and I got to thinking about how different it has been to have a baby the second time around... For me some of the main differences this time are:

• Natalie has been sleeping in her room since she was a couple of days old and so I don't hear every little grunt and jump up to see if she is ok. Abigail started out in our room and was in and out of our room and bed for the better part of a year. (She can still be sound in our bend sometimes 6am for an hour or so just so I don't have to get up.)
• I haven't been using a baby monitor this time either, I just leave our bedroom door cracked and hers open and I hear her right away. With Abigail I was so uptight I used a monitor when she was just feet away from us across the hall...Natalie's crib is probably less that ten feet from our bed.
• Natalie has nursed perfectly from the day she was born....she latched on in the delivery room and I had to cut her off after 45 minutes! Abigail on the other hand struggled to latch on and nurse which caused all sorts of problems that I won't get into...ouch!
• Natalie sleeps! I never really believed people when they said their baby had been sleeping through the night since they were a month old or whatever. But seriously Natalie has been sleeping a 6-7 hour stretch since she was 3 weeks old and she has gone up to 10 hours several times!
• I'm not a sleep-deprived, over protective nut-case. I am able to enjoy little Natalie Rae because of this. I now know that babies grow up way to quickly and I cherish my time nursing and rocking Natalie instead of going crazy and feeling trapped in the rocking chair like I felt with Abigail. (I helps that Natalie doesn't need to be held and rocked forever like Abigail did!)
• Natalie is fussy but not super fussy. Natalie had a few weeks that she was really fussy but ever since she's been on antibiotics for her ear infection she's been much better and has a nightly fussy time from about 8-10pm but it's now too bad. Abigail was really fussy for her first two months until we figured out her milk allergy, then she was like a new baby.
• Natalie takes a bottle without much trouble. I learned my lesson with Miss Abigail and I have purposely left Natalie several times so she'd have to take a bottle. I tried with Abigail but truthfully I didn't leave her very long at a time when she was this young. I always felt to guilty that she would cry. I now know that it's good for both of us to be away from each other for a couple hours now and then. It's also been great for my marriage, I am able to leave and have fun without being overly worried and have a good time with my man.

Guilt and withdrawl

Today I'm feeling both guilt and withdrawal. I am feeling guilty because my sweet Natalie Rae has an ear infection at 6 weeks old and withdrawal because I am without a computer till later this week. (Right now I'm typing on my husband's laptop that he brought home from his office.) Sweet baby Natalie has had a little cold for quite a while now...when she came home from the hospital Abigail was sick and it didn't take long for Natalie to catch it. She seemed fine though...until Saturday morning I wasn't worried. Saturday she woke up with a little cough, a crackle in her cry and her cry just seemed different. So I took her into the Saturday clinic and I couldn't believe that she had an ear infection...no wonder she has been fussy! The doctor said it's really rare for babies to get ear infection in the first couple months and even more rare for a breast-fed baby. I felt terrible...how long has she had it I wondered? I had been writing off her fussiness as typical newborn fussiness or possible colic and here she has probably had an ear infection for at least a couple of days. Great mommy moment!!! On a positive note she seems to be feeling MUCH better already, she's been on antibiotics since Saturday and Tylenol seems to be helping a lot too. Seriously though I don't want to go through this whole ear infection thing all over again. I feel like I just got off this roller coaster with Abigail and now it's Natalie's turn. I wish I could just get her tubes now and be done with it.

I am also feeling quite a bit of withdrawal from my laptop! My husband needed to buy a new computer for one of his employees and I graciously volunteered to give him mine, so then I could get a new one. I thought that was pretty nice of me. :) My new one is ordered but won't be here till later in the week and although I can pretty much do anything on my phone, it's just not the same and I don't have the patience to write a blog post on my phone. I am making the change from PC to Mac and am quite excited. I feel like a big nerd for being so excited but whatever, I don't care.

Natalie Rae - 6 weeks

"What's the big idea?"

Funny story: Last night we were all downstairs playing after dinner and my husband was laying down on the floor throwing a ball up in the air and bouncing it off the ceiling. Every once in a while he'd bounce it off Abigail, which she loved. After a while of this game she walked over to him with her hands on her hips and said "what's the big idea?" We couldn't stop laughing and I couldn't imagine where she'd heard that expression...so I asked her. "Donald says that Mama!" She said it as if everyone in the world knows Donald Duck says "what's the big idea?" For all the times that girls tests my patience there is a moment like that to make me smile.

Only a matter of time

I tried my best but I've always known it was only a matter of time before Abigail learned about princesses. And lets just say she has now been thoroughly exposed. I'm not a girly girl and I've always been a bit annoyed with all the princess stuff marketed towards little girls. So I have purposely not bought Abigail any princess toys or let her watch any princess movies. The only princess she knew anything about was Princess Presto on Super Why (a kids show on PBS) and since she has the "power to spell" I'm totally down with her. Well all my efforts went down the drain on Friday evening when Abigail was given a set of Disney Princess shoes and a box full of Disney Princess dress up clothes at her birthday party. She went nuts for those things, what is with that!? I mean I don't get it...she immediately said things like "ohhhh fancy shoes," "I look beautiful," "shoes match Mama?" She was of course adorable and I had to play along but I found it pretty amazing how she just knew what to do and how to act once she got those princess clothes and shoes on. So she now knows the names of Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty and Ariel even though she's never seen any of the movies. I guess this is going to be first of many things my kids are exposed to that I don't have control over and I need to just get used to it. I just don't like how the princess' always have to be rescued by a man and they are always so concerned with her appearance. These are not things I want my little girls to be concerned about.... I'm probably being overprotected and thinking too much but seriously I just am not into princesses. I'm hoping this is just a phase for Miss Abigail, but I don't know she seems to be in love.

I love this one because she had been trying to run around the in the princess shoes and I told her to slow down and she then went and put her "fast shoes" on. Maybe she'll be ok after all. :)

Natalie Rae - 1 month

I can't believe Miss Natalie Rae is already a month old! Time flies when you're sleep deprived and taking care of babies all day. Here are some 1 month facts about Miss Natalie:

• She is as cute as can be.
  
• She is a great night time sleeper, usually sleeping one LONG 6-9 hours stretch and then it's usually followed by another 3-4 hour stretch.
  
• She is not a good day-time sleeper, usually only taking short naps throughout the day.
• She has quite a LONG nightly fussy time usually going from 7 or 8pm till bedtime at 10 or 11pm. (I'm hoping this is just a phase and won't develop into a long term colic.)
  
• She is having more and more quite awake time.
  
• She sleeps swaddled tightly.
  
• She seems to be quite gassy and I've been eating a very bland diet to try to help her with her tummy issues.
• She's a great eater and nurses every 2-3 hours during the day...more often in the evenings.
  
• She enjoys her baths but hates getting out of the bath.
  
• She hates her car seat and screams every time I put her into it.
  
• She loves music and usually stops crying when music comes on or I sing to her.
  
• She is kicking out of her newborn sleepers and is moving into 3-6 month clothes because of the length.
  
• She is wearing size 1 diapers.
• Did I mention she is as cute as can be....even when she is screaming her head off...which seems to be quite often lately! Hopefully this fussiness is just temporary!
  

My Girls

We had a photographer come to our house a couple weeks ago to take the girl's pictures and they turned out amazing! They were taken by Alicia at Life's Moments. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Birthday Girl!

Abigail turned 2 yesterday and I can hardly believe it! We had a fun day filled with friends, cupcakes and cake. We celebrated with her friends and cupcakes at lunch and had a small "party" last night with just us. We will be having her "real party" in a couple weeks with her cousin Emma since their birthday's are only a few weeks apart. She is not a big fan of cake but enjoyed blowing out the candles over and over! Please excuse the sloppy joe on her face....it was quite a sloppy dinner.

Wordless Wednesday

Lactation 101 from Abigail

She came up with the name "milk buttons" on her own I swear! One day when I was still pregnant Abigail was taking a shower with me and was naming all her body parts, she named her belly button and then pointed to her nipples and asked "whats this name mama?" This to me was a perfect teachable moment and so we talked for a while about how those were her nipples and I talked to her about how her baby sister would drink milk from my breasts and how she drank milk from them and blah, blah, blah. She then pointed to all her buttons and said, "belly button, milk button, milk button" and the name has stuck ever since.