500!

Believe it or not but this is my 500th post. I sort of can't believe I've done this 500x, but here we go and while it probably won't be anything earth shattering or have any words of great wisdom in it, it's still 500. I'm a little impressed with myself. :)

Things are busy, life is busy, as per the usual. I hate that it's been a week since I've posted, however, it's been a busy week that's just going to keep going. (I am pretty sure this is called "life.") As I was walking up a set of stairs in our house last night for the 352nd time since I'd gotten home, I was curious about what the heck I did with ALL my time before the girls and while Adam was traveling. I think *think* I worked, came home, ate, and did whatever I wanted. Maybe go to the Y, go for a run or walk with Julie, hung out with the dogs, more ME things...like READING :) and the like. And while sometimes I super yearn for those days, I wouldn't give them back for any of the time I have with my babies. Ever.

Speaking of babies...I find it funny that my last post was about weaning Hadley from her swaddle...when I caved last night and swaddled the pants off of her. Let me back up a bit. Hadley weaned from the swaddle GREAT. First night was one arm out, second and beyond both arms were out but the swaddle was around her trunk/legs and still was until last night. Two nights ago, she slept TERRIBLY b/c she has a cold, bad matted eyes (esp at night/first thing in the morning) and to top it off stupid me gave her apples for dinner which is a bad food for a baby with reflux (hind sight is 20/20). So being super sleep-deprived with Adam gone this week, I finally caved after watching her rub her poor sadsick eyes in her sleep for the 78th time and I hid those arms like a crazy person. And gave her Tylenol (that was for the sick part - I don't just drug my babies for my own sleep, duh). And then we both slept for about TWO HOURS STRAIGHT. I could almost fly to the moon. (not the case waking up this morning, however).

So Hadley's got bad eyes, Morgan's are a little icky in the morning but getting ever so slowly worse each day, so off to the doctor we went this afternoon. Long story short, Morgan had a little wax removed from both ears and they were clear. Hadley's ears were clear and good so that's not an issue. Her lungs were "wheezy" so while there, we tried a breathing treatment/nebulizer to see if her lungs sounded better. The doctor said there was no change so our next course of action is to give her Tylenol to keep her minor fever down and make her feel better. Her eyes should clear up but if they don't in 10 days or so, I think we have to take her in but I don't remember. Also, we're switching her to the orange Similac formula (sensitive) b/c we don't feel like the orange Enfamil is working as well as it could be for her. Whew. And there went 1.75 hours of our lives (dr offices take forever sometimes!). And for the record, Hadley is now 14.0lbs and 24" long even though some of her onsies are no longer long enough.

Morgan's having a good week. She was pretty whiny last week and did lots of "noooooo!" while whining and sometimes stomping her feet or becoming a wet noodle on the floor/couch. We decided that she'd get 2 "nos" out of her before there were consequences as I was not about to have her say it to me 15x like she tried with Adam last weekend at one point. Voila. Significant decrease this week while he was gone. Sometimes I think they do this (behave better) while he's gone b/c they
a) know I might lose it (especially when sleep-deprived)
b) to show off
c) b/c Adam threatens them before leaving (right...)
d) b/c if I DO lose it and go into convulsions on the floor, they won't get fed/bathed/hugs/kisses.

But other than that, Morgan has been a helpful, happy, and good little girl. Last night we were Skyping with Adam and she pointed at the screen and said, "Daddy, you ah in Pueh-to Wee-toh?" (Puerto Rico) She sure has a memory on her. ;-)

We were happy when Adam came home, and bearing pizza no less. :) It was a good night with lots of suction for poor Hadley and then lots of play time for Morgan, which unfortunately at this stage of all our lives, doesn't happen nearly enough on Adam-less weeks. Off to enjoy some "us" time before Adam's parents get here soon. It's going to be a good weekend. It's always so good when he comes home.

Project Swaddle Wean

And here we go. It's time for Miss Hadley to break out and be a big girl sleeper. We have several reasons including but not limited to:

1. She's too big for the swaddles we have and I'm not buying more.
2. We began weaning Morgan from her swaddle at this age so why not try it with Hadley now too?
3. She sleeps/naps at Mary's swaddle-less so why not at home?
4. One less thing to pack on WI trips.

So we got Hadley to bed on time (unlike last night. It's amazing how rough bedtime is if she's late getting there) tonight and I put her in her swaddle with her left arm free as the wind. She woke up a little more and had her eyes wide open when I left her room, but when I went back a little while later to get some leg warmers for Morgan, she was out cold with her fingers twitching a little. It's been almost 2 hours and nothing so I think she might do ok! I think it also helps that she's only needed ~1 paci plug per night this whole week. Hopefully this goes better than introduction of baby cereal...

Tonight we went to Applebee's for dinner and we were about half way through the restaurant on the way to our table when Morgan loudly proclaimed with a hand waving all over, "Hello, everybody!!" It was cute to see the smiles on the fellow diners' faces. I'm not going to lie - we laughed our entire way to the table. 

Morgan has been waking up dry now for well over a week, maybe two weeks? She wet the bed one night b/c A) we miscommunicated and thought she had a diaper on but instead she had undies and B) we didn't get out of bed fast enough. She's in bed without a diaper tonight after lots of discussion about how she should wake us up and go herself if we don't make it there fast enough (meaning I want her to at least be getting out of bed by the time I'm running there in my sleep which is exactly how it goes). 

Yesterday, I was privileged enough to be able to see Temple Grandin speak in the Quad Cities - for free! For those of you who don't know, she's a genius woman who also happens to have Asperger's (form of high functioning autism) with sensory issues (all of which is relatively well-controlled through a variety of ways). She has made some amazing gains in the cattle industry and has written several books. It was so neat to hear so many "how to"s (how do you write that plurally??) from her perspective and made me want to be even better for my kids at work. I've heard she will be part of an all day training this fall and I'm terribly eager to go. All in all, I'm leaving out tons of details but it was something I will never forget as long as I live. Amazing.

Otherwise things continue to go well in life in general. The girls are happy. We love them to pieces and pieces. Adam travels next week and then is on/off every other week for 6 weeks straight. Before I know it the school year will be over. Life is good right now. But that said, I'm exhausted. Adam needs help putting the furnace back together after he did some major work to fix the a/c (he's amazing). Happy weekend!

Raspberries

Hadley is a raspberry QUEEN right now. She loves to do this and will even imitate us sometimes when we do it with her.

Hadley had her first cereal yesterday at dinner and ... she HATES it. She makes a terrible face and if offered it more than a few times, will start to cry! It's awful! I feel bad. I think we're going to wait a week or two and see if she's interested then. Mary suggested putting a little fruit in her cereal to improve the taste but that makes me nervous that she's going to only like fruit and not veggies...or something weird like that. Either way, I'm not worried. She STTN and doesn't seem like she's starving by any means.

Hadley brings her hands to midline and pulls things to her mouth ALL the time. When she's nursing, she frequently pulls at my shirt, necklace, anything she can reach while she's exploring.

Hadley isn't NEARLY as interested as Morgan was in standing. She'd much rather sit/lay and play with us.

Hadley rolled from front to back to her right the other day. Adam thought it was an accident. She also rolls to her side often while on her back...getting ready to go the other way sometime in the future!

Holy smiley baby. I love how easy it is to get her to smile. Now, she's giggling and it's hilarious to catch her when she's super ticklish. She almost groans with a huge smile on her face and then falls into a fit of giggles. It's great.

Feeling super blessed lately to have these two girlies...

Morgan Thoughts

I don't want to forget these (sorry if you already saw them on FB) from Morgan today. Talk about one end of the spectrum to the other...

(preface - I'm feeding Hadley and Morgan just started to get upset b/c I told her no, she couldn't watch TV but could instead play with all 9 million of her toys.)
Me: "You can play with your toys instead of TV."
Morgan: "NO!"
Me: "Sorry, that's your choice right now."
Morgan: "I be sassy Morgan!"
Me: "I don't think that's a good idea. Why don't you make a good choice and go play with your toys?"
Morgan: "No." POPS poor nursing Hadley right on the top of the head with her open palm.
Me: "And where do you think you should be headed right now? Time out for you, miss. We don't hit Hadley on the head."
Morgan: waaaaaaaaaa....sits in TO for a minute, comes back, calmed down when I tell her to
Me: "what do you tell Hadley?"
Morgan: ::sniffles:: "Sorry..."
Me: "for...?"
Morgan: ::sniffle:: "Hitting you ... on your ... fluffy head."
Me: ::almost dies laughing and has no idea how the hysterics didn't come out::


(preface - lying in bed talking about Jesus at bedtime)
Me: "You know, you can talk to Jesus all the time. You can tell him thank you for all the great things around you and that you get to do...and ask him for things too. That's a different way to say prayers to Jesus."
Morgan: ::thinks about it, we thank him for some great things in her life and ask him for help with her "sassy nose" (she has a cold again)::
we talk about a few other random things dealing with Jesus and then...
Morgan: "Jesus is so far away! How are we ever going to find him?"
I was glad to get to tell her that he's all around and yes, he will help keep the monsters away.

I am so blessed to have such an inquisitive, intelligent, and caring little girl. I can't wait to see what she has to say once she's been to Sunday school. ox

Hadley is 4 Months Old!

Our teeny little baby is already FOUR months old. I don't know how this has happened as it seems like she joined the family yesterday and has at the same time been here as long as Morgan has. Her trip to the doctor for her well check went fine until it was shots time. She CRIED and cried like someone had ripped her arm off, hit her with it, and really really hurt her feelings. After a bit she calmed down and I think some of it had to do with her being very tired as it was past her nap time.

Her 4 month stats are as follows:

Height - 24", 38th percentile
Weight - 13.5oz, 42nd percentile
Head circumference - 41cm, 58th percentile

I compared her to Morgan's 4 month stats just to see if I was crazy in thinking that Hadley was "teeny" compared to Morgan and sure enough - Morgan was 3/4" longer and 1 whole pound heavier! Head circumference was 1cm bigger for Morgan too.

I tried taking bets with Adam to see who could guess Hadley's weight and be closest (b/c what!? we're competitive? Nah...;-) and sure enough he guessed it SPOT ON. Lucky guy. Good thing I didn't make any real bets. :)

So, since it's Hadley's day, here are some fun things she's up to (sorry for repeats from previous posts):

• She rolls! (well, rolled) She went from tummy to back at least 8x on Saturday and none since. Today we'll take it easy on her b/c of her 3 shots, but she's also starting to make some serious moves to go the other way (back to belly) as she enjoys digging in her heels and lifting her hiney in one direction or the other. 
• Hadley reaches for everything. It's really cute watching her get her "concentration face" on which is exactly the same as Morgan's was at that age. Hadley gets SO excited when she's able to grip something and then bring it, of course, to her mouth for further exploration. 
• She sleeps through the night without feeding. She does NOT sleep through the night without needing her paci stuck back in her face. After tonight (we need to be nice to her b/c of her shots today), she will be practicing not needing this so much. ;-) Mom and dad are tired.
•  Hadley does not like getting her ears looked at or being hurt. I accidentally pinched her the other day while suctioning all the boogers...she cried and cried and cried....I'm sure it hurt but sheesh! There were a lot of tears. She also cried lots for shots today...but happily enough, her mommy didn't. I was pretty proud of how tough I was. :) 
• Hadley's sleep schedule now follows (while at home; I realize her daycare schedule is different and I don't care as long as it works for them) - if she's up at 6:30am, she naps around 8:00/8:15. Feeds at 9:30/10:00 (depends on the nap length). She then takes a nap around lunch time, and another mid afternoon. The past few days she seems to be wanting to cut out her 15-20 min power nap around dinner time. Woo! More play time! 
• Hadley's feeding schedule - at home (ie. weekends), Hadley gets 5 feedings per day, around 3 hours apart from each other. Daycare days, she gets 6 total feedings. Mary likes to feed her babies. :) She's supplemented for sure before bedtime (offered 4oz). Usually she's supplemented at her 4pm-ish feeding and offered 2oz of formula. Some days she's offered 2oz of formula after her 1pm feeding too, but that's occasional. Either way, when she's with me, she's always nursed first before formula. 
• Sad item of note - yesterday marked the last day of my frozen stash for Hadley. :( I teared up quite a bit when Mary told me. Now she gets two BM bottles at daycare and a full formula bottle. I struggle with this as I could try to pump more, like before I go to bed, but I just don't have it in me most days. Since she's getting more than half of her intake as BM, I'm ok with it. Darn deficient tatas. 
• Hadley's wearing some 3-6 month clothes but mostly 6 month clothes now and they fit well.
• We haven't started cereal yet. I plan to give it a go next week after we get back from traveling to WI this weekend for my cousin, Jess', wedding. Shall be interesting indeed. :)
• Hadley now enjoys tummy time. She still doesn't want to be there forever, but for now, she likes it and has a nice, strong neck to allow her to look around. She gets mad that she can't quite reach out and grab things as well when she's on her tummy.
• Morgan wore shoes WAY earlier than Hadley did. I just read back and when Morgan was wearing her penguin Robeez, she found her feet right away. Hadley has no clue she has feet yet. :) 
• Hadley is starting to drool a little here and there...and then a whole bunch. :) Gotta love being upright more often.

We sure do love our little Hadley. She brings a smile to our faces with the cute things she does. Adorable story - yesterday, Morgan took Hadley's hands in her own and "helped" Hadley sing patty cake. By the end, Hadley had her HUGE grin on her face and was watching Morgan's every move/word. We are so very lucky and blessed to have such amazing little girls. Happy 4 months, Hadley!

Our cute little bunnies xoxo

We have a ROLLER!

Well, we HAD a roller. For one day, that is. On Saturday, (Adam's parents were here for the holiday weekend) Adam's mom was in the living room with Hadley on the floor. Everyone else was scattered between there and the kitchen, with myself being in the kitchen.

Suddenly, Sherri yells out my name in a way that made me 99% sure that Hadley was choking and dying and I was going to have to suddenly figure out how to rescue her. Heart pounding, I run to the living room...

To find that Sherri didn't want me/us to miss her first roll over! Hadley was having some tummy time and sure enough, she figured out that if she stuck out her left arm straight in front of her and leaned her big ol' noggin to the left, she'd roll over! And she did it probably 8x before she was done and told us so.

Sunday comes...I want a repeat performance! Nope. Has she rolled since? No...but it doesn't bother me b/c I remember Morgan learning how to roll over in a similar fashion. She thought it was all awesome one day and then didn't roll again for a few days. This is probably a blessing in disguise although her sister has NO problem pulling her across the jungle gym mat by her arm... (No, Morgan, No. We do not pull our sister by the arm across the floor...)

Other than that, we had a lovely Easter weekend with Adam's parents. Morgan, of course, demanded attention like crazy from them which everyone involved enjoyed. :) Both girls were well behaved and as always, could have gotten up a few less times each night (although I HAVE to say that we are so very lucky/blessed/glad we do what we do to get our girls to sleep to have relatively great sleepers considering their ages).

That said, I'm TIRED. I'm going to have a teeny snack and possibly go to sleep early...as of tomorrow morning at 7:40am, we have a 4 month old. She's getting SO big!

Sickity sick sick

Gah. I'm SO annoyed. I'm home sick today with strep throat. Things were relatively mild (headache, sore throat) Sunday and Monday although I took something for the headache. Then my throat still hurt when I left work so I checked in the mirror when I got in the car and sure enough...my right tonsil was COVERED in the tell-tale white spots. I hightailed it home, got the girls, fed Hadley, and handed them off to Adam so I could get to/home from Urgent care asap. By ASAP I mean almost 2 hours (annoying again). I missed the whole evening with them while I sat in a stupid room. :( The short test came back negative but the PA who looked at me was quite shocked with how my tonsils looked and gave me a Rx right away.

I still felt pretty good until the girls were in bed and I finished chores. Then it hit me and I started to slow down quite a bit. I woke up and could hardly swallow in the middle of the night but I felt guilty not going to work today so I got up, showered, and then realized I'd not be too thrilled if someone came to work contagious with something I'd hate to catch so I put my PJs back on and headed back to bed for 10 minutes before Hadley was ready for feeding.

So I'm home, I slept some this morning, worked a little here and there, and am generally taking it easy. I have that 'sick headache' where I'm ok if I'm sitting/relaxing but when I get up, I get this pounding headache. I'm glad I stayed home but it's still SO annoying to have the blip on my work radar. That said, at least I was able to get a chicken in the crock pot for after Morgan's swimming lessons so we could have something healthier than another round of pizza (which they had last night while I was gone anyway...). :)

In more fun news, since I'm posting, the girls are of course continuously growing and changing.

Morgan is smart smart smart. Two nights ago at dinner she was having dessert (which is now necessity in her world) and she was playing with the four tiny cameras she found at my work's Easter egg hunt and we started doing some simple addition/subtraction with her...and she LOVED it. Adam was BEAMING as of course, he's the math nerd of the family, among other nerdy things he loves. We'll play with it and see what she does. We never force these things on her - we just present them and if she likes it, we roll with it.

Hadley is changing more than Morgan, which is to be expected. I think we can safely say now that it's been probably two weeks that Hadley sleeps through the night. No feeding required! She'd gone a few nights without feeding before we went to WI two weekends ago and has kept with that since. She still gets up for a paci here and there and sometimes reswaddling since she's a pretty good escape artist (ok ok, the swaddle is too small and good ol' Muscatine has NOTHING to offer there for a bigger one), but otherwise, she's doing well. Not last night, but several nights before, she struggled with going down to sleep instead of her usual 'I see you walk out of my room and go to sleep on my own just fine.'

Hadley now enjoys her exersaucer while very supervised. She still needs a blanket for support since she's so tiny in there, but for the most part, she's good and likes it. Morgan likes to play with her too while Hadley is in there.

Hadley is now supplemented (while at home) for 3/5 of her feedings. She usually only takes 2 extra ounces after nursing, but it's necessary. She's growing and I'm not keeping up. At daycare, she takes an extra feeding from the frozen stash which will turn into formula when the stash runs out. Hadley readily takes the bottle and seems almost eager when it's time to have one.

Morgan misses me. I miss her. We've just been very busy lately and I end up spending a lot of time with Hadley (thank you, nursing) and I don't always get the time with Morgan that we both would like. This is yet another reason I'm super excited for summer break - when Hadley naps (except during Morgan's nap), I get that extra time with her and we love it. We've tried to make more of an effort for us to spend time together and I can see her eyes light up with that 1:1 time. I love having two babies...but it's hard when one is so little and requires so much time/energy currently.

Ok, I think that's good for now. We're waiting to hear if Ross & Kristen will be coming to visit for Easter unless he has to work. Otherwise Adam's parents will come...either way, we should have family here and then it's WI the next weekend for my cousin, Jessica's, wedding! SO excited to see a bunch of family since we don't usually make it back for their Christmas (held earlier in Dec). But that's too much to think about at the moment so I'm going to go rest a bit more, me thinks.