Delicious...

Don't you just want to eat these up?


These are my new gallery wrapped canvas prints of the kids that I bought with my birthday money (Thanks Art!!!!!) I'm just in heaven and can't wait to hang them. They're larger than life. I inserted Juliette so you could compare the size.
I've been told that I've been delinquent in my blogging (there was some exaggeration, it hasn't been 3 weeks). I have about a thousand legitimate reasons, but mostly I've been trying to go to bed before 2 or 3 am. It's great to have a baby who sleeps through the night, but if I don't get her down till midnight and then try to catch up on laundry, photos, e-mail, then I'm not in bed till 2:30. Which makes me a little cranky when Trevor wakes me in the morning.

Sean's plant has a maintenance turnaround that started on Monday. So he's gone 14 hours a day including weekends. I'm trying to be disciplined about getting things done while the boys are napping so our evenings aren't a total nightmare. But I think the next three days will be challenging with Sean working and Hayden having t-ball, 2 bday parties, and me shooting a wedding on Saturday. Yikes! Only another 3 weeks or so of this.

I went to a parent social for Hayden's school last weekend. Sean stayed home with the kids, too much hassle to find a sitter. I was talking to two of the other moms who I only know casually from the playground and they were remarking about how mellow I am. I could only laugh. They actually think I seem very calm and cool all the time. That I seem to be able to juggle all 3 kids and everything else with ease. How far from the truth is that? Vito has to be laughing at the thought. Me? Mellow? Ha! Oh well, it's nice that I can come across that way. Not everyone has to see the dark side.

Trevor and I went to a book signing last weekend. Mo Willems was in town to sign the brand new pigeon book. Here's Trevor with the new book while we waited to meet the author:

And here's the pigeon-man in the flesh, signing Trevor's copy of the book:

Very exciting stuff for an almost 3-year-old. Can you believe? Almost THREE? I made his 3-year doctor's appointment yesterday and it was a wake-up call. Even with Juliette here, he's still my baby in so many ways. But in 4 months he'll be in preschool. Time flies...

Switching gears, our friend Ben is in our thoughts much these days since we heard news of his stroke. Very shocking for an active, healthy, brilliant 37-year-old. You can keep up with him on Mama T's blog, but please remember him in your prayers as we wish him a full recovery.


I'll try to post more frequently. A comment or two once in a while wouldn't hurt as a means of encouragement!

Happy...not so happy...

Here's a happy Juliette, enjoying some time on the faux fur, all smiles in her cute outfit.
Here's Juliette thirty seconds later, looking more than a little pissed off to now be sharing her faux fur with two stinky dogs. Isn't it nice how quickly they're able to make themselves comfortable and how they're completely oblivious to the presence of the baby?

Twins?

I used to think that Juliette looked more like me, but now she's taken on a striking resemblance to Sean. I don't know what it is. I just can't put my finger on it...

Am I blue?

Only in the best possible sense of the word. There isn't much that I really like about Texas or the outdoors. I'm a Northerner at heart and the summer heat here really kills me. But Spring? And Bluebonnets? This I LOVE...

More pictures on the KodakGallery site if you're interested.

Thanks Mrs. LeRose...

71 words

Speedtest

Please note, I had to go back and do this again because Mama T threw down the gauntlet with a little challenge.

Happy 3-month birthday Miss J...

It is just shocking to me how fast the past 3 months have gone by. But here she is, my baby girl, getting bigger every day. At least I've finally put her in a proper dress like a regular girl. And she's a big fan of faux fur. Nothing makes her happier than to lay on a soft sheet of furry fabric.

I neglected to mention that we had a nice visit from our friends Anne, Chris, and Olivia this week. Olivia has grown so much since the last time we saw her. She's soon to be a big sister herself, and although she looks up to the task, I think she really has no idea what's about to hit her. Good luck to all of them on the new adventure.

I've always thought the kids are especially sweet and/or funny when they're sleeping. I'm secretly lusting after a new camera with better low-light performance so I can shoot the kids in their rooms at night. But here are a few recent pics of Trevor that I had to share...He often toddles into my room at around 7 am and catches an extra half hour of sleep in the big bed. Who could turn this sweet guy away?
And this is him at about 8 pm on a day where he didn't have a nap. Pretty pitiful...

Substantial Improvement...

Last year, Trevor was deathly afraid of the Easter Bunny, which didn't work out well for the pictures at the mall. Actually, he seemed fine until showtime and freaked out at the last minute. Miraculously, he loved the big rabbit this year. He was all smiles and hugs. So here is my crew in their Easter finery...

Juliette was asleep before we left the house, so we don't have a picture of her in her pretty dress by herself. Later this weekend, hopefully, if I'm on my feet.

And one last thing to mention...

Juliette was cute today and is starting to grace me with her smiles.

Never trust the silence...

The boys got up from their naps today while I was trying to make some spaghetti sauce. I already had Juliette in the Baby Bjorn, so entertaining them wasn't high on my list. But miraculously, Hayden just sat down to read a book and Trevor was quiet.

After about 15 minutes, Trevor comes be-bopping into the kitchen with the St. Patrick's day card Grandma Carole sent him today. "Mommy, is it OK if I color on this?" he asks. "Sure baby," I say, noticing he's already been at it with the blue magic marker. Then I notice that the marker goes all the way to the edges of the card. "Where were you sitting when you colored this sweetie?" I ask. "In my room," Trevor replies. UH-OH, THIS CAN'T BE GOOD.

As I try to make my way down the hall to his room, he's physically trying to block me and push me backwards, saying "No Mommy, No". So I know it's really bad, yet am somehow unprepared for what I see, which is blue magic marker all over his bedsheet, desk, cloth runner on the desk, and the CARPET.

Was it washable marker you ask? Shut up already Vito. Of course, my child ignores the 200 washable and "Color Magic" markers in the house and chooses the permanent "Mr. Sketch" scented markers I bought for him.

I will say this, Folex carpet cleaner rocks. The marker actually came out of the carpet pretty well. Second thing I must say is that Trevor is pretty sweet despite making me want to kill him about 10 times a day. I went back to my spaghetti sauce and noticed he was silent again. Turns out, he had taken the Folex and a rag and tried to get the marker off of his sheets. Which actually worked pretty well too.

But seriously, don't think that because your 2-year old isn't tugging at your shirt that you've caught a break somehow. He's just creating some larger nightmare for you to discover later.

Perfect(ly Bad) Timing...

After Juliette, Trevor, and I picked Hayden up from preschool today, I said we could stop to pick up lunch. At this point, there were clouds in the sky, and it was very slightly misting. We get to the Chik-Fil-A parking lot and it's now actually raining. So I drive around a few times trying to wait for a spot to open up right by the door. No luck.

I ask the kids "Do you just want to go through the drive-thru and eat at home?". Screams of "NOOOO!" are heard from the back seat. "WE WANT TO PLAY!". Honestly, I want them to play too. Because it's raining, so we're definitely not going to the park, and I'd like them to burn some energy instead of coming home and bouncing off the walls.

While I'm driving in circles, the rain is getting worse. So I tell the kids, "If we go inside, we're going to have to go through the rain and we're going to get wet" They confirm that they're good with this plan. Juliette doesn't get a vote. So I get out to get out the stroller. Now it has started a torrential downpour, coupled with gale-force winds. I get out the stroller and am already soaked, despite the umbrella. I open the door on Juliette's side of the van and she is immediately soaked from the blowing rain. The wind blows the umbrella inside out. Now I notice hail also. Nice little ice beads pelting my precious baby girl.

This is when I give up. I get further soaked trying to put the stroller back in the car. The boys are silent when I tell them we're going through the drive thru. I think it's clear to them that getting out of the car isn't open for further discussion. The rain is blowing so hard that I get soaked again just ordering the food, even with the awning over the order box.

Five minutes later, when we're driving home...nothing but a mist. Yep. That's me and my perfect timing.

Hat Baby

Well, Juliette has made it to two months old without being a bow-head-baby. But she might just be a hat baby.

One of my favorite childrens' photographers had a post a few weeks ago with hat babies. Given the inspiration, I ordered Juliette a new hat from Etsy and we tried it out today. Pretty sweet, don't you think? Both the baby girl and the hat. Thankfully it was warm out today, because we didn't have any clothes to go with the hat so we wore our birthday suit.

VOTE!!!

Tuesday is election day in Texas, so if you read this blog and live in Texas, get off your bottom and get out there and vote. And do some crazy caucus nonsense afterwards too. Because if I can drag my 2-month old out to a caucus at 7 pm, so can you.

Look, I'm not telling you who to vote for, just telling you to vote. But if you're really at a loss and need advice from a blog, vote for someone from Illinois. Because people from Illinois are cool. I'm from Illinois you know. And I'm clearly super-duper cool. And if you live in Budapest but are still officially residents of Texas, I hope you got your act together and submitted your absentee ballots. Slackers.

Cowboy up!

Well, it's that time of year again...Rodeo days. Last year, I was the most unprepared for the "Trailrider's Breakfast" at Hayden's school. I sent him in jeans and a regular shirt and everyone else was head-to-toe in cowboy regalia. This year, I made a more substantial effort, although it was difficult without breaking the bank. Hayden has a man-sized head but it's hard to find men's cowboy hats for less than $50. And don't even talk to me about boots. But it is priceless at the end of the day to see my men-folk all duded up in their gear.
Note to other mothers, don't dress your 2-year old in chaps if you're in the midst of potty training. It's hard enough as it is for the little guy, but even his daddy couldn't figure out how to work all the ties on the chaps. But he was awfully cute, wasn't he?

Issues...

When you find yourself picking brownie crumbs off your newborn baby's head (hmm, must have dropped them on there when I was feeding her and eating brownies at the same time) and trying to get chocolate stains off her clothes, it might be a sign that you have a little addiction to sweets. Maybe I need an intervention, because I'm pretty much able to polish off a whole pan of brownies single-handedly. And don't even get me started on the diet soda issue. Hey, I'm trying to hold my act together with three kids. At least I'm not hitting the liquor cabinet. Oh, how we can rationalize.

In other news, I gave blood for the first time in forever this weekend. Platelets actually. It was a triple-point day plus I got 100 bonus points for making my appointment online. Plus, with the platelets you can give every 48 hours or something, so I'm already eligible to give again. And, they let you pick the movie you want to watch while you're donating. The downside is that you're hooked up to the machine for an hour and a half and something they pump back into me makes my face all numb for about 15 minutes. Oh, and I feel like my hand is going to fall off after squeezing that stupid ball for so long. But hey, this weekend is triple bonus time again and they did have that Michael Clayton movie on DVD, so maybe I'll hit it again on Friday.

Oh, and this is for Allison. Isn't her new little guy a cutie? Allison is part of the third baby club at Hayden's school:

The Oscars...

Many years ago, I used to listed to a local morning radio show and try to win their many give-aways. One year, they broadcast the Oscars at a movie theatre and my friend Steph and I won tickets to go. It was kind of fun, because you filled out a card with your Oscar picks and the person who picked the most correct winners, won a year long unlimited movie pass for two people. Steph and I really wanted to win, but ended up one right choice short (we guessed the Barbra Streisand song from The Mirror Has Two Faces rather than the Madonna song from Evita for Best Song).

It sounds cheesy, going to a movie theatre to watch the Oscars with a bunch of strangers, but it was actually fun. But what struck me today when watching the Oscars, was that unlike 1996, when I had seen most of the movies, I had only seen one of this year's nominated films (Juno). And while I still love movies, I'm not really sad to have not seen too many this past year. There are, after all, three good reasons I don't go to the movies anymore. And those reasons were looking awfully cute today...

More new pictures on the KodakGallery site.

Ready for her close-up...

Presenting, the almost fully-recovered from the trauma of the doctor's visit, two month and one day old Miss Juliette...

Initially I wasn't sure what color her eyes were going to be. Hayden has green eyes and Trevor's are very blue. I'm now putting my money on blue for Miss J as well. I think they can change up to one-year old, but hers are becoming more blue rather than less. But they're more of a violet-blue than Trevor. Very Liz Taylor.

7 Good Reasons...

I'm pretty religious about taking pictures of the kids to document their age milestones. Their first birthday pictures aren't taken a week before or a week after their birthday, they're on the exact date. But here are seven reasons I don't have 2-month old pictures of Juliette from today...
Little Miss J had a seriously traumatic visit to the doctor today which ended up with most of her skin covered in band-aids. Five shots and two vials of blood drawn made Juliette not a happy camper. The shots were all standard vaccinations, but the bloodwork is to check on her lingering jaundice. Hopefully nothing is going on with her liver to cause her to still be so yellow (I PhotoShop her skin color a little, so you can't see the full effect here), but we're waiting on results of the blood tests.

This next shot was a moment of exhaustion for her. But for the rest of the afternoon and evening, she screamed every time I tried to lay her down, even for a diaper change. I think she thought another needle was coming at any moment.

In the meantime, Trevor traded a smile for a piece of candy since Mommy had the backdrop out and was itching for a cute face to photograph.

Juliette's trauma made me stay home and miss my photo session with our new friend Will (one of Juliette's numerous future suitors). But she seems to be on the mend already so hopefully we'll get to take Will's pictures next week.

Resemblance?

The general opinion on the street is that Juliette looks like Trevor. What do you think? I see it some, but I remember thinking Trevor as a baby looked so much like Hayden and I think they're very dissimilar now. So you never know.

I feel like I've been so busy, but don't have much to report. I've worked 4 parent-helper days at Hayden's school in the past 2 weeks, plus a 6-hour shift at his school's garage sale this past Saturday. So that's been the bulk of it. And clearing out the closets here in preparation for the garage sale. Lots of excitement and you're all jealous, I know.

My mother came to visit last week (Valentine's day is "Grandparent's Day" at Hayden's school, nice way to import a free babysitter). It looks like they're closing the reservations center she works at in Chicago sometime within the next year so guess what? She might be moving to Houston!?! Hayden is obviously thrilled and planning many sleepovers at Grandma's house in Houston when she moves. I just hope my grandparents come up with a plan to manage without her in Chicago.

I'm starting a continuing education class at Rice Univ. this week. The subject would probably bore most of you (Photographic Lighting), but I'm so excited about it. Every time I've looked at the class before, it's been filled up. And taking it while I'm off on maternity leave works well, because it's hard to work a full day and then leave the kids for 3+ hours at night once a week.

I just hope I don't get too much equipment envy being around other photographers, especially now that I'm on unpaid leave. I've really been eyeing this beautiful new camera too (Nikon D3), if only it didn't come with a $5000 price tag and require me to buy a new lens too...We can all dream, can't we? Someday, if I'm really good, maybe Santa will bring me one.

Look what arrived!!!!

Thank you Mama T for my lovely new hat. I think it looks just wonderful on my little head.

Bowl Cut...

I'm the first to admit that I'm too hard on Sean. When I send him to get the boys' hair cut, I inevitably criticize the results, because I'm pretty impossible to please. But I win the award for getting Trevor a bad hair cut yesterday night. Which I guess means I have to keep my mouth shut for all the times Sean does it in the future. But I probably won't. I digress...

I took Trevor to TGF at 7:30 last night because his hair was in his eyes and clearly making him 1) uncomfortable and 2) half blind. But Trevor's hair is kind of his signature. I rarely take him somewhere without someone commenting on how beautiful his hair is. Not the style, actually, but his actual hair. So I keep it a little long on top so people can see more of it.

Now TGF closes at 8 pm so they're annoyed when you come in at 7:30 especially when they've already got people waiting. So I should have just left. But I'm stubborn, so I stayed. Eventually the guy calls him over to the truck to get his haircut. I noticed a slight accent, but the guy didn't say much, so I just went into my standard instructions (same cut as he has now, just a little trim, up to the eyebrows in front, clippers on the bottom, scissors on the top, basic bowl cut). From then on, I'm really just there as a distraction for Trevor, holding his hand and feeding him candy.

So we're a good 15 minutes into the cut when I realize this guy didn't understand a word I said, and is just marching to the beat of his own drummer. This is the point at which I basically started screaming, "Stop! Stop right now! What are you doing to his hair? STOP!!!!" and I'm ripping the cape off the boy and pulling him out of the truck mid haircut.

All the other customers are gone at this point, but the other woman who works there comes over and asks what's the problem. And I say "this is not at all what I asked him to do, he has destroyed my baby's hair". She asks "What did you ask for?" I said "A bowl cut" At which point she responds "He doesn't speak much English so he must not have understood you and thought you said 'boy cut'. Besides, I've been cutting hair for 20 years and I've never heard of a bowl cut." Now I'm equally pissed at her. Google "bowl cut hairstyle" and you get 22,300 hits. It's classified as a "Classic" hairstyle. There may debate on whether or not it's a good hairstyle (most sentiment says no, but I think it's ok for kids, just bad for adults), but it is well-recognized as a style. Except at TGF, apparently, where it's unheard of. Freaking idiots.

So I took Trevor this afternoon for a correction of his half-cut from last night. They had to cut it pretty short and it looks bad. Out of consideration for the boy and given the fact that things on the internet live forever, I'm not posting a picture. Suffice it to say, he looks like a chump.

Sean's cousin Debbie was over the other day and wasn't happy with her new hairdo. She said "I don't think the woman spoke English." To which I smugly responded "Oh Debbie, I won't even let someone paint my toenails if they don't speak English." So my smugness got its just reward. It just happened to be visited upon my innocent little Trevor. So sad.

Friendly Guy...

I was in the checkout at Target tonight and the guy behind me decides to strike up a conversation. "How old is your baby?" he says. I'm confused for a minute, looking around for Juliette who I believe I left at home with Sean. Then I realize he's noticed the diapers in my cart (size 5 - for Trevor) and I say "The diapers are for my 2 year old." "I'm buying the same size for my son," he says. Interesting, really, I'm fascinated...we must be the only two people in the whole world buying size 5 diapers. "Do you have other kids?" he continues. "Yes, a 5 year-old and a newborn," I say.

Now mind you, after every response, I go back to staring off into space, trying to end the meaningless conversation. Actually, even when I'm responding, I'm not looking at him, I'm staring off into space. Yet he continues, "Are you having any more or are you done with three?" Yeah Target guy, this is something you need to know? I'm thinking of coming back with some response to make him really uncomfortable like "I'm planning to breastfeed for six years so I won't be able to get pregnant again until I start menstruating regularly." Will this stop the conversation? I'm not sure.

It isn't as if I flatter myself into thinking this guy is hitting on me. He's clearly not. But dude, I'm a mother of three with 30 minutes to myself. I got to go to Target and didn't have to bring a single kid with me. This is like a freaking spa day for me. Can I PLEASE just have one moment of peace?

Sorry, just a little rant. In other news, we've had some bug going through the house. About a week and a half ago I had a fever for two days. Then Hayden had a fever for three days last week. Now Trevor has it. So I've been busy trying to bribe my children to take Tylenol for the last week. Hopefully it ends with Trevor.

Oh, and in case you love cheesy portrait studio photos as much as I do, have a gander at this site.

Lucky #7 Here we are, seven years after the day we said "I do". We've gotten in the habit of taking a picture together every year on our anniversary, usually a self-portrait with the camera on self-timer. I'm not so certain I'm liking the tradition these days, since I don't know how kind the years have been. I'll have to dig out the others some day (most are pre-digital camera) and scan them in.

I remember the 2nd anniversary with the scrunched up newborn Hayden in our arms. He was only 11 days old I think. And now there are 5 of us. That's a lot of change in seven years, but it's been a fun adventure and I look forward to many more years with this little family we've built together. I love you honey. Happy anniversary.

Too fast...
What happened to that scrunched up little newborn baby I was holding just a few weeks ago? Where did this big girl come from?

By the way, I stayed strong through my first big girlie challenge today. I was returning the scale I rented at the baby store today, and was convinced to try a miniature bow in Juliette's hair. I was truly tempted to buy it despite my many professions while pregnant that I would not have a bow-headed baby. In the end, I walked out bow-less. Maybe it was the $9 price tag for a 2 cm bow for a baby who really doesn't have much hair.

Evacuation

At the beginning of January, they started some major road construction on our street that's supposed to last till mid-2010. Which is a really long time to be annoyed every day sitting in traffic trying to get to your driveway. So I was even more annoyed today when Trevor and I were coming home from dropping Hayden at school and found the street shut down completely in both directions several blocks away from our house. I tried cutting through the neighborhood and coming back from the other side, but was still blocked off. So I parked the car about a block away and got Trevor out and starting walking.

I asked a cop who was diverting traffic when I would be able to drive my van back to my house, and he said after they fixed the massive gas leak the road construction crew caused when they hit a gas line. So I continue towards the house, suddenly noticing a strong smell of gas. I asked another cop a little further down whether it was OK to go to my house. He asked for my address and then radioed someone and then said "no, your house is right where the leak is". So I mentioned some mild concern that my newborn baby and husband were at home. He said no, they evacuated everybody. I said it seemed strange that Sean wouldn't call my cell phone to tell me they had been evacuated.

So the cop volunteers to go down to the house to see if anyone is home. He comes back and says that Sean's car is still there, but there's no answer at the door. I'm still concerned about not knowing their whereabouts, so he takes Trevor and I in the squad car down towards the house. He tells me to leave Trevor with him while I go check in the house, and that if there's a problem inside, come flag him down. I think the implication was that if my family is asphyxiated, he'll radio for help. So I go in the house and Juliette's carrier is still inside so I call for Sean. He responds "What?" from the back bedroom. I shout "Did you not answer the door for any of the police trying to evacuate you?" "I was in the shower" he shouts back. So I grab the baby, car seat, and diaper bag and tell him to come on. Sean, always cool in the emergency, needs to comb his hair first so I leave without him. He joins us in the police car a minute later. The cop was pretty surprised to see me walking out with the baby he was so sure wasn't there. So Juliette had her first ride in a squad car at only one month old. That's one for the baby book.

We tried to come home a few hours later but the street was still blocked off. We finally were able to get into the house about 6 hours after the initial evacuation. Did I mention it was pajama day at Hayden's school so were were toting around the boys in their jammies this whole time? Eventually I stopped and bought them some pants when it was clear were weren't getting back in the house for a while. Obviously, the house didn't blow up, and the dogs were still alive when we came home. We did have to leave the doors open for a while to air out the gas smell though.

All in all, an exhausting day.

Vegetable Shots???

Hayden had his 5-year checkup today. We thought he was going to have to get one shot, but he managed to make it through unscathed. He's up to 46.5 lbs and 45.5 inches, which makes him 90th percentile in weight and 95th percentile in height. They checked his hearing and vision and other than hearing phantom "beeps" on the hearing test, he passed with flying colors.

Developmentally, he's fine. Although the only things they asked were whether he could identify 5 colors, skip, speak in past tense, tell a story, and engage in dramatic play. Maybe the nurse didn't want to take my word for it, because even though I told her he had that all covered, she still quizzed him on the color of his shirt, etc. Come on now, if you want to test the kid, pull out some medical manual and ask the kid to read it to you. Or grab a map and ask him to identify all the states and their capitals. Or ask him to count to 100, or for fun, have him count by fives. But colors? Don't insult the boy.

The doctor asked him if he eats his vegetables. He said no, he doesn't like vegetables. So the doctor, in a total deadpan, says that's fine, that he can just come in for his vegetable shots every week. And tells me to set up the appointments with the nurse when I leave. I love our pediatrician. Don't you know the kid was begging for green beans at dinner tonight.

Took a few pictures of the baby girl today. Trevor was willing to give her a kiss in exchange for some candy.

FIVE!!!!!

I can't seem to grasp the reality, but apparently we are now the parents of a five-year old. This sounds cliche, but it really does just seem like yesterday that he was born. Sean and I were parent-helpers at Hayden's school yesterday, and the teacher started circle time by lighting a candle and saying "Five years ago today, a light came into the world..." It really chokes me up, I'm such a sentimental sap. So here is a glance at our little light on his big day:

I KNOW I shouldn't complain, but...

I wish Miss Juliette was awake a little more during the day. Seriously, most people would be soooo thankful to have a 1-month old that sleeps pretty consistently 7-hours in a row at night and mostly just sleeps and eats during the day, and rarely cries. And I am happy and thankful, really. But I wish she would wake up and play with me a little more so I could get to know her. And really, open those eyes during the daytime so I can take a picture or two, please. You turned one month old today and I mostly ended up with pictures of you sleeping and pictures of your pretty blonde hair. Oh well, it's obviously better than being up all night with a screaming colicky baby.

And hey, I saw a movie this weekend. How lucky am I to have Sean mind the store while I go to see a movie with a girlfriend and have a yummy lunch? I saw Juno. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes quirky movies (think Napoleon Dynamite, Royal Tennanbaums, Rushmore...).

A few new pictures...

On the KodakGallery site. Now that I'm done with the birth announcements, I can post pics without spoiling the surprise.

Shhh...don't jinx it...

If I tell people, it might jinx things, so I'm only telling my closest friends (the internet). Miss Juliette slept 7 hours in a row last night. Sleep, glorious sleep. We usually set the alarm so I can wake her every 4 hours, but when Sean tapped me in the wee hours and said "are you getting up to feed her?", I said "Is she crying?". He said "No" so I promptly went back to sleep and didn't hear a peep from her till 7 am.

Miss J also had her first international visitor last night. Our friend Mike made the trip from Aberdeen, Scotland to see the new addition and have dinner with us. So for those of you in Hungary, Canda, Chicago, Pennsylvania, etc., what's your excuse for not visiting? What's that? You don't work for an oil company that pays your $5k airfare for you to attend some bogus training class and visit friends? Oh well, we're here and the doors are open if you can make the trip. We don't even make guests change diapers.

Once an engineer...

Always an engineer. I chart everything. If there are numbers, a chart must be created. Sean charts our utility usage. I chart the baby's milk intake and weight. Really quite sad, but her weight seems to be on a good course and she has a second chin now. Dr. Injac always says 11 lbs. is the magic number for sleeping through the night. Which, based on my extrapolation of the chart, looks like it will be on about Feb 10th. So only 28 more days before I get a full night's sleep. Although my old boss used to laugh at my sad attempts to plan the unplannable in life. But a girl can dream, right? Well, not if you're not getting any sleep.

Little Milestones...

Well, I survived my first day alone with all 3 kids yesterday. Although around 8 am, I was thinking I should call Erika and beg her to come rescue me. But I managed to get Hayden to school almost on time and we all had our hair combed and wore clean clothes, so I was pretty pleased with myself.

Finally placed the order for Juliette's birth announcements. Unfortunately, my address list is hopelessly out of date so I'm going to be struggling. If you're a friend and read this blog and you've moved since Trevor was born (June 2005), you'd better send me a note with your current address or you might not get an announcement. I went with a completely different style than the boys' announcements, so it took me forever to design, but I'm looking forward to the finished product, which has already shipped and should arrive here on Tuesday. But I felt guilty not having a matching announcement to the boys' that I could frame with theirs so I made one in that style too. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I also think I've done pretty good so far with Juliette being the 3rd child. I think I have at least as many pictures of her as I did of the boys. Maybe because it's easier with the digital camera. I was still on film when Trevor was born.

The other milestone is that we had our first date night tonight since Juliette was born. We went to see a play. It was nice, although it felt a little strange to be away from her so long. Poor Michele and David were saddled with all three of our kids and their son too. They're troopers though and came through with flying colors. Poor Logan looked exhausted by the time we got home though. Not fair keeping a 2-year old up till almost 11 pm. I wonder if Michele longs for the days when babysitting only involved watching Hayden. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago...

Clean Bill of Health...

Took Juliette to the pediatrician yesterday, for only the 5th visit in her 2 short weeks of life (NOT counting the 3 visits from the pediatrician before we left the hospital and the 3 days in the NICU). He has pronounced her to be perfectly healthy and in no further need of constant attention. She's back up above her birth weight (7 lb 4.7 oz last night) and has actually gained about 2 oz. per day over the past week (1 oz. per day is normal).

He said her jaundice looked much improved and didn't even feel the need to do a blood draw to check her bilirubin level. Which is nice because her poor heel looks like a pin cushion.

He even said I don't have to wake her at night to feed her. So I actually got 4 hours of sleep IN A ROW last night. But I did end up waking her up finally at 5 am because it didn't seem like I should let her sleep any longer and I'm not sure she'd ever wake herself up to eat.

All in all, pretty exciting, although I don't know what to do with myself when I'm not shuttling my newborn back and forth to the doctor's office. He doesn't want to see her again for SIX WEEKS!

I had my 2 week check-up yesterday as well. It was pretty uneventful. My OB/GYN said he was glad we made it through the whole ordeal of this pregnancy. I think he was pretty fed up with all my complications and being paged at 2 am on the weekends. I never blogged it all, since I was on the bedrest, but I ended up with cardiac issues, allergic reactions to medication, and a lot of annoying midnight trips to the hospital with contractions <5 min apart. So we're both glad that I'm not pregnant anymore, but the end result was worth it and Juliette is the perfect little angel so far.

I'm working furiously on her birth announcement, but working furiously means sitting waiting for her to wake up and open her eyes so I can take a picture. I also was hoping for a picture of all 3 kids together but I'm starting to think that's just a hopeless dream. We'll see what happens. There may be a lot of candy and bribery involved.

No Words...

Status check...

Saw the pediatrician again today. Juliette's bilirubin is up slightly to 16.2 (from 15.5 on Monday), but the doctor says that isn't really statistically significant. On the bright side, she has gained some weight: 4 ounces since Monday (she's up to 6 lb 12 oz). Of course, this means the bottle feeding is working so we're staying the course on that end. But we're free from blood draws till next Monday, which will be a nice relief for the baby girl.

I rented a scale today so I could measure how much she's consuming at each feeding. It's accurate to a tenth of an ounce so you weigh the baby before and after a feeding and you can tell how much they've eaten. Juliette is really sloppy with the bottle a drools half of her milk out the corner of her mouth so I can't tell how much she's taken. And of course, I've had no way of tracking how much she takes if she's breastfeeding. So the scale should help. So far I've measured 3 feedings today and she took almost twice as much from the bottle as from the breast, which is quite disappointing. But the jaundice really zaps their energy so I'm hoping this isn't a long-term issue. You do what you have to do though, right?

Juliette had her first trip to the baby gym today and quite enjoyed it. She seems to have a 20-min period of alertness in the late afternoon. I'm trying to convince her that earlier in the day gives better light for picture taking, but she seems to like 5 pm and 3 am best.

Here she is enjoying herself in the gym:

Here is what happens when the big brothers wake up from their naps and say "I remember this toy!"

But big brothers aren't all bad, and can be especially sweet on occasion.

Home again...
As you can see, the family is resting at home again, although clearly some of us are getting more rest than others.

Juliette was discharged from the NICU on Saturday. After they discontinued her phototherapy, her bilirubin rebounded slightly from 9.5 to 11.3, but the neonatologists said it was still low enough to send her home. When we saw the pediatrician on Monday, she was up to 15.5, so we're going back for another check tomorrow (Wednesday). Hopefully, we've hit a plateau or gone down. A bilirubin of 20 or more is kind of the magic number that will send us back to the hospital. The pediatrician is optimistic that we'll avoid that, but indicated some babies stay at the ~15 level for several months, especially breastfed babies.

Juliette lost a few ounces since we left the hospital, so we're trying to feed her more agressively now. The pediatrician recommended that we bottle feed her, since she's very drowsy and it takes less effort for her to get milk from the bottle. Which means I spend about 20 minutes pumping milk, then 20 minutes giving her a bottle. And the process repeats itself about every 2 hours which doesn't leave much time for anything else, like sleep. So I'm hopeful that she's gained some weight at her check-up tomorrow and maybe we can stop the bottle feeding soon.

Sean goes back to work tomorrow. Poor him and poor us. The daytime should be fine, since Erika will come back tomorrow and will be in charge of the boys during the day. But if he has to go to work in the morning, that leaves me on my own for the night shift. He usually takes the diaper phase of the feeding process which buys me an extra 5 minutes of sleep at least. I will miss those precious minutes.

Oh well, been at the computer much too long. I'm so relieved we're starting to get some semblance of normalcy to our routine and I finally had some time to take a few pictures today. One is posted above and a few others are on the KodakGallery page.

Happy New Year!