Half a Year- My how time flies!

Our baby girl is 6 months. The other day, I was looking back at old posts of Noah and it was so fun. And so good to remember that it wasn't all kicks and giggles. I felt really bad that all I have to show for our little girl is one entry... Her birth. So I am going to try to be better so that one day we can look back on her life too. She is such a joy to have as a child. When people see her, they always ask, "Is she always this good?" Now people would ask this question about Noah as well, and the answer would be "Not especially" or "Come to our house around naptime." With Esther, we can honestly say, "Yes, she is" or maybe "Even better." She truly is the best baby ever. She has made the transition from one to two much easier than I expected. Here is what she is up to:

- She sleeps all night. She usually goes down between 7 and 8 and sleeps until around 7 the next morning. We thought we were going to have to give her some tough love and cut out her night feed, but she did it herself. Yea! She takes two naps a day now. She probably should still take three a day, but she just refuses. She gets pretty tired in the early evening, but thankfully just when she is at her fussiest, Daddy comes home and puts the wind in her sails.

- She loves her exersacuer and her jumperoo. I keep trying to figure out which one she likes more so that I can put one up. They take up so much space! No luck yet. She seems to love them both equally.

- She can sit quite well. She has never been the most active of babies so sitting is right up her ally.

- She can roll over both ways now. She rolled from back to front for the first time at 7 months (Yes, she is 7 1/2 months old now).

- She still eats like a champ. She drinks four bottles a day (5-6oz) and eats solids 3 times a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). She has slowed down some on the bottles since starting solids. She is a little slower in taking them. I think she just gets bored with them... And very distracted!

- Speaking of distractions, she LOVES watching Noah and would much rather follow his every move around the room than drink a bottle. She laughs at everything he says and does... which is just what he needs, more encouragement. :) She is definitely his Ed McMahon.

- Her other favorite person: Brian. As I mentioned before she gets so excited when he comes home from work. We all get excited. It is pretty much the best part of our day.

- She laughs and smiles all the time. And she is quite the flirt.

Stats:

Weight: 7.98kg (17lb 8.9oz, 75-90%)

Length: 64.9cm (50%)

Head: 41.3cm (25%)

Four Months!

I thought I was a bad blogger before, but an extra kid has definitely slowed my already lacking writing skills. Esther is now four months old. I can't believe it!! The days just seemed to crawl by when Noah was this little, but they are all a blur now.

- She can roll over!!! She did it for the first time on Saturday, just one day after turning four months... Right on schedule I guess. I, of course, was not in the room to see the first time. It is a big joke in our family how I (the one who takes care of our children almost 24/7) have not been present for any of our kids' major milestones. Esther did not disappoint and kept the tradition alive. I was mopping the kitchen floor. Brian laid her down on the living room floor and tadah! she immediately rolled over. There is always rolling the other way...

- She laughs. It is so sweet to hear. She does it the most for Noah. She loves him so much. I pray that she always adores him and that he always takes care of her like now. They are so sweet to watch.

- She can sit in the Bumbo pretty well, much better than Noah could at this point.

- She LOVES to sleep in her bed... You won't find any blog posts about that with Noah. She is such a good sleeper. Right at 8:00 every night, she is ready to go down. She still wakes up around 4:00 to feed, but then is back down until around 8:00 am. The best part, is her napping. She takes about an hour long nap in the morning (sometimes longer) and about two hours later is ready to go back down for another 2-3 hours. Then she takes a little catnap in the evening. What a blessing to have such a great sleeper!

Stats

Weight: 6.45 kg (14lb 3oz) (50%)

Length: 62.6cm (50%)

Head Circumference: 40.3cm (25%)

I am a little skeptical of the head circumference because it looks rather large and round to me (and everyone else who has seen her), but I guess I can't argue with the tape measure.

Picture taken by Noah. He is becoming quite the photographer. :)

2 Months Already

I can't believe it has been two months!!! She is getting so big!

-She is a good sleeper. We put her down around 8:30 (her choice) and she sleeps until 4:00 when she wakes up for a quick feed and then goes back to sleep until about 8:00-8:30 in the morning. She also is taking two naps in her bed a day (morning and afternoon) and then catnaps in her bouncy seat in the evening.

- She smiles quite a bit now.

- She is on all bottles and formula. Sadly my body has failed yet another child. My supply started dropping when she was two weeks old. I pumped until she was six weeks old, but also had to supplement her with formula in that time. I learned with Noah, that it is best for the sanity of the whole household if I am not pumping all the time. Plus, I am pretty sure Noah would not have been too patient waiting for me to pump all the time.

- She is working on sitting in the Bumbo...

- Here are her 2 month stats:

Weight: 4.8kg (10lb 9oz, 50%)

Length: 56.1cm (50%)

Head: 37.2cm (10-25%)

So sad... :(

Both kids lying on their respective quilts made by Gram.

The Best of TImes, The Worst of Times...

My how time flies. I can't believe that Noah is two... until he goes limp and throws himself on the floor screaming because we told him not to run away. :) Other than that, it is hard to believe. Two is an interesting age, and I hear it only becomes more so. One minute, he is the cutest thing ever and I LOVE spending time with him. The next he is driving me crazy and I am on the verge of giving him away (not really, maybe). He definitely keeps us on our toes and makes us laugh.

- He talks ALL THE TIME. When he was 18 months, a friend of mine asked if she and the other developmental pediatrician fellows could practice doing testing on him. He did great on the problem solving part, but when it came to the speech part, he was finished. He wanted nothing to do with any of it and therefore would not perform. The attending was convinced that his speech was delayed (my friend knew he was fine) and was giving me tips on how to help him. Oh if she could see/hear him now. He never stops talking. And he repeats EVERYTHING. We have realized the phrases that we say frequently by listening to him. It is really quite hilarious to hear a two-year-old say, "Hmm, let's see here."

- He LOVES to be outside and cries everytime you come in regardless of how long you have been out. At the playground we go to, he loves to go down the "big slide." He always says he wants to go down the tunnel slide, but when you try to get him to actually go down it, he says "No, no tunnel."

- He LOVES animals of any shape, form, or fashion and he is not afraid of any of them. We have a turtle that lives in our flower bed. He loves to go pick him up and move him around the yard. Brian and I were a little more skiddish about picking up the turtle, but fearless Noah has no problem with it.

- Speaking of being fearless, he has actually started talking about how things scare him. We had our fireplace converted from gas to wood-burning. While the men were here with all the loud equipment, he said to me "I'm scared of those guys." Prior to that, I had never heard him speak of fear and don't know that he even knew what it was. Crazy how you learn to be fearful.

- He is a very picky eater... still. He loves mac and cheese, spaghetti, and "Yellow rice rice baby" (got that from his Dad). He will eat some vegetables and most fruits. He does not like foods to be mixed which unfortunately rules out most casseroles... Thanks for making my life easy Noah. :)

- He is still a good sleeper. He is in his toddler bed now and loves it. He rarely gets up, but I think part of that is that he still gets his pacis in bed. We are rather fearful of how his sleeping habits may change once the pacis are taken away. For now, he sleeps about 11 hours at night (8-7ish) and takes about a 2 hour nap. He will come into our room sometimes before seven, but is pretty good about going back to his room if it is too early.

- His favorite things to sleep with are a few stuffed animals (dog, big dog, polar bear and cookie monster), but most importantly, "big bus" and a flashlight. And of course his pacis...

- His favorite things to play with right now are balls, cars, trucks, sticks, trains, drums, blocks, and his Little People barn and animals. You think he is a boy?

- He is definitely a ham. He loves being the center of attention of a big group. Not sure where that came from... certainly not his mother.

Brian and I pray for patience daily. I feel like some days (a lot days), Noah spends more time in 'time out' than out. But it is that spirit that makes him so much fun too. We love him more than I ever would have imagined possible and thank God for him constantly (in between patience prayers:) ). I sadly did not take any pictures of him at his two year doctor's visit, but here are his stats:

Weight: 31lbs 7.4oz (14.3kg, 75-90%)

Height: 92.5cm (3ft, 90%)

HC: 50.5cm (75-90%)

Esther Claire Hughes makes her Grand Entrance

Thursday, February 3, 2011. I go to the doctor for an appointment hoping he will check me and say, "Wow, you're 6 cm. We better get you to the hospital." Sadly that was not the case. I was 3cm, the same as I was the week before... Are you serious?!?! No change??? Not to worry. My doctor stripped my membranes (again) and got rid of all my plug and said, "I would be surprised if you didn't go into labor in the next 72 hours. " We left the clinic and as we were getting onto the elevator at 4:18, I had my first contraction. They kept coming fairly regularly, but were not that strong and 10 minutes apart. We ran some errands and then came home to make some dinner (tacos). While making dinner, the contractions all of a sudden started coming more frequently (4-6 minutes) and stronger so we decided to head to the hospital. By the time we pulled into the parking deck at 7:20, the contractions were every 1-2 minutes and VERY strong.

We made it to L&D and got put in triage where the tech didn't seem to think that a contraction every minute with me screaming and writhing in bed was anything to take seriously. Thankfully one of friends from residency was on call for Neonatology. She took one look at me and ran to get my doctor who just happened to be on call that night. He checked me and I was 8 cm. He tried to hurry everything along... Told them to get me in a room and call Anesthesia for my epidural (Yeah right). The resident came into do an ultrasound to get a weight estimate and got an earful from me... Something about how I didn't care how much the baby weighed. And that she was coming out regardless. Ten minutes after my doctor had checked me, I started feeling lots of pressure. The tech, still not impressed, told the nurse, "She SAYS she's feeling pressure." The nurse rechecks me and responds with, "That's because she is complete." Still in triage at this point.

They rushed me across the hall to the nearest room where I can hear my doctor say,"If we don't get her on the bed now, we are going to have to deliver this baby on the gurney." Awesome. I crawl onto the bed, which turns out to be broken. They can't get it to break down. They wheel the cart in and everything starts falling off of it. My doctor lifts up the sheet on me to check me and lo and behold there is the head... He throws on a pair of gloves (no time for anything else), sits down on the end of my bed and says ever so calmly, "Julia if you feel like you need to push, go ahead." Two pushes, my water breaks. Three pushes, out she comes sans epidural, IV, and monitor at 8:05.

We were in a state of shock. We have another baby?!?! Just 45 minutes ago we were driving to the hospital. An hour ago, we were sitting down to eat tacos. What just happened??? We called our parents to tell them the news and they did not believe us until they heard her crying. She did great, APGARS 9 and 9. She weighed 7lb, 4 oz and was 20 inches long.

The next morning my Mom came over, there was snow and ice and she was worried about driving in the dark, and some friends brought Noah up to the hospital. He was so excited to meet his baby sister.

He wanted to hold her the whole time... and did not want anyone else, other than Brian and I, to have a turn.

Our new family of four...

It was a crazy whirlwind delivery. Probably not how I would have chosen to do it, but it ended up being good. It was painful, but then it was over before we really knew what was going on. Hopefully, if there is a number three, we can get to the hospital with a little more time, and hopefully... The rest of her life will not be quite as dramatic as her beginning. :)

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and 2011

I realize I am not the best of bloggers... Okay, I am terrible. I know that Thanksgiving and Christmas have long since come and gone, but I figured I should write about them so that thirty years from now we will have a record of our child's second Christmas, but the first where he really did anything. So here goes my brief recap of the end of 2010 and the start of 2011...

Thanksgiving

Sadly, I don't have a whole lot of pictures, but we got a few. We spent Thanksgiving at Brian's parents' house. It was the first time since Noah has been old enough to really interact and play with others that he was around his cousins for an extended period of time. It was a bit of adjustment for him, but overall they got along great.

He pretty much wanted to stay outside the entire time. They loved jumping and diving in the leaves.

This picture is slightly disturbing to me, but oh well. They're little right? :) I think Rose was definitely the agressor on that one. :)

Playing in the leaves again...

MawMaw, Mimi, Robert, Aunt LaRhesa and Noah watching TV.

Solomon, Noah, and Rose "eating dinner" while Mimi and Rudy look on.

We had a great time!

Christmas

This year we spent Christmas with my family at my brother and sister-in-law's new house. We had so much fun! I don't think Noah understood all of what was going on, but he definitely understood getting presents and had fun playing with his cousins. Here are some pictures...

Making cookies for Santa

Eating Santa's cookies

Making pizzas on Christmas Eve.

Brian the master pizza dough thrower. :)

There was an Elmo ornament on the tree that played music. Noah would stare at it and play the music over and over again.

Posing with the stockings and Santa's cookies. Noah is not very happy and Nora and Elyn are very concerned about that.

Noah still upset, but the girls have moved on.

Santa came!

I think he likes it... Except for the Pillow Pet. He made it clear by throwing it down the stairs that he did not want it any where near his bed.

Not the best of pictures, but here is documentation that I was pregnant. Esther Claire to be joining us soon...

One of Noah's favorite gifts... A Charlie Brown ("Charles Bown") shirt. He has wanted to watch Charlie Brown Christmas every day since we showed it to him.

We went outside to play, but didn't stay long because it was so cold. Even Noah did not want to be out.

A couple days later, we all needed to get out so we loaded up and headed to Chuck E. Cheese. Right as we walked in, Chuck himself was there leading a group of kids in some songs. Noah was so excited and joined in. After he finished they threw a bunch of tickets up in the air for the kids to get. Noah quickly joined in and then took his tickets back to Chuck E. Cheese. When Chuck wouldn't take them back, he threw them in the trash can. He didn't quite understand that the tickets were a prize, not trash. He is tidy. :)

We had a great time. It was so good to be with family and so much fun watching Noah get so excited about everything.