the big brother rocks.

anna's abc's

smile. kind of.

here's a washed out shot of the girl smiling. she's hard to catch...

the rollover

the anna baby completed another task on the list of things that babies do that moms record in a baby book. the first was being born. then smiling. and last night... the rollover.

while derek was trying to get her to go to sleep *sigh*, she rolled from her belly (shhhh... yes we let her sleep on her belly) to her back 5 or 6 times. i got to witness the last of the rollovers, before derek weighted her down with a blanket.

this morning, i tried to capture a rollover on digital media, with no luck. seems she's only interested in performing this trick for the purposes of remaining awake.

nature vs. nurture...

do my kids get their dislike of sleep from a gene that derek and/or i am carrying? or do i simply make my kids hate sleep? perhaps i'm just so fun that they can't stand to miss out on just one minute of it...

all kidding aside, we're having a pretty tough couple of days here lately. anna has slowly abandoned her terrific sleeping habits for a more sparsely populated schedule of sleeping. and it sucks.

she's really not all that bad when she's awake. which is a plus. isaac screamed his little head off during all waking hours when he was this age. so, no complaints on that. she does require a bit of entertaining when she's awake. and with my hands full, it's hard to tend to other things (showers, brushing teeth, preparing meals, eating meals, isaac). so, it can get a bit frustrating. then when she does actually sleep, i'm rushing around (as quietly as i possibly can) doing all the aforementioned tasks, hoping to squeeze in a few minutes of quality time with my neglected older child before the next round of awake baby comes along.

i know, i know. if it's so rough, why am i on this blog right now. well, i've instituted a bit of a quiet time for the boy. he's in his room, "reading" books. hopefully falling asleep soon. currently singing. so, we'll see how it goes. and anna, who (thank goodness) seems to like her swing for now, is swinging back and forth dozing on and off. so, i thought i would get this all out there. of my chest sort of. to remember if i ever get the notion to have another...

anyhow, i think my new plan is to not care. if anna is going to sleep when she wants and not when she should (ie: when she's clearly tired and has been up forever) and she's not so unhappy when she's awake, i think i'll just strap her into the bjorn and carry on. forget what the books and other people say about routines and schedules and babywise and sleep solutions and happiest babies and all that crap.

for every minute that i'm trying to get her to sleep and she's staring up at me with those beady eyes and isaac is running rampant all over the house (usually naked), i feel like a worse and worse parent. frustrated with a 5 week old baby. resentful that she's taking time from isaac. worried that i'm turning him into a neglected kid. stressed because she "should" be sleeping more. so, if i don't try to get her to sleep and just let her do what she wants... maybe i'll feel better. we'll see...

ghetto deck pool

i commissioned derek to purchase a $10 blue plastic wading pool from walmart for our deck. we're high class now. isaac doesn't really like full all out swimming, so it's pretty much perfect for us. i'm not sure how many more things we can cram on the deck. we currently have a pool, a sand/water table, a grill, a table and 4 chairs, another chair for isaac, an herb garden (sort of), and some other random items...

anyhooo... here's some pics from our adventures in the ghetto deck pool...

anna, in the shade, taking in some fresh air:

isaac, explaining to me that he doesn't think this is "such a good idea":

soaking feet:

one month

anna is one month old today. it's gone by fairly quickly, i suppose. more quickly at first than it's going now. she's getting a little tougher. a little more needy. and a little less likely to sleep. it's definitely challenging here and there. (like right now, that she's awakening from a nap way way way too early...)

last night, we were fighting to keep her awake for just a few minutes so we could eat dinner before we bathed her and put her to bed. this was at 6:40. after her bath, she was awake until 10:40. it makes no sense. and it's irritating. the good news was, after she finally went to sleep, she slept until 4am-ish. so, that was nice.

i would love to be able to duct tape a pacifier to her face. i think she would sleep much more consistently if i were allowed to do that. i should check some baby websites to see where pediatricians stand on that... i'm pretty sure i already know.

all this lack of sleep and neediness is hard on isaac. he's feeling pretty neglected. and that sucks. i don't want to wish away my life, but i'm really looking forward to getting out of this infant time. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i'm not a big fan of little bitty babies. at least this time around, i have a better perspective... that it will go by in a flash and i'll hardly remember it. with isaac, there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

well, that's all the rambling i have for now. it's hard to compose my thoughts with an awakening baby on the other side of the room. :)

anna's first big adventure

with beautiful weather in the forecast for the day, and a mom and boy itching to get out of the house, we decided to head to the natural science center in greensboro. we packed up the entire contents of our house (it felt like) and rolled on down the road...

the springy teeter-totter like contraption.

water table:

examining the current:

too cool:

inside the kitchen hut:

anna was conked out most of the day in the bjorn:

isaac and derek checking out the sweet marble contraption:

view of sweet marble contraption:


obviously, all of these pictures depict a delightful day, but such was not the case...

most of the trip consisted of either one or two kids whining and crying. isaac hated being outside. anna hated (read: screamed in) her carseat for most of the day. it was 90 degrees. isaac didn't really care about most of the exhibits. to end the trip, isaac dozed off in the car and just as we pulled onto our street, he awakened screaming he was wet. so, now i have a pee soaked car seat to contend with...

but, we got out. got fresh air. survived. :)

anna banana

Hair bow envy

siblings

one of the pictures in the "anna's first bath" collection reminded me of one of the pictures from isaac's first bath. i had to search long and hard for it, since i've organized and reorganized our photo collection a number of times (do i sort by age, year, event, etc??)...

anyhooo... here's the side by side (top to bottom) comparison...

(the top is isaac and bottom is anna).

first bath

anna had her first bath, yesterday, while new gramma was here to help out. after the initial shock of being immersed in water for the first time, she rather enjoyed herself...

naked and ready:

getting scrubbed down:

pondering:

drying off:

retraction

a few posts back, i made anna out to be a complete opposite to our sweet boy isaac. well, here it is a few days (weeks, even?) later and i'd like to retract some of that information...

isaac and anna are very very very similar. the main difference is that isaac cried all the time and anna does not. so, it's a pretty big glaring difference. but, it's still pretty much the only one.

lately, we've noticed that anna has a slight aversion to sleeping. she's a little better than isaac, probably because she's not frantic from so much crying. but, she likes to be awake, that is for sure. she has strung together some pretty long stretches here and there.

she's also ultra alert. i think this contributes to her disliking sleep. she likes to be checking things out. her eyes are constantly scanning her surroundings and honing in on where the excitement is. (isaac is her favorite viewing subject).

dear sweet anna is also not a huge fan of just hanging out. unlike other babies that i see (and exactly like our first), she does not enjoy sitting in her car seat or a swing or a bouncy chair for any length of time. she likes to be on the move. changing up her scenery. much the same as the boy. i thought he would never let me put him down. but, then once he could move on his own and change his scenery on his own, he didn't want to be held for the next 2.5 years. so, i'm not so worried about that with this girl. should i be?

finally, the last similarity is her strength. she's already pushing herself up on her scrawny little legs. lifting up her head and looking around. shoving herself forward on her belly during tummy time. it seems i've got another mobile kid on my hands. i was rather hoping for on of those chilled out babies that likes to hang in their car seat while their moms chat away nearby. i guess it's not meant to be for me...

so, to recap... the girl started out the opposite of the boy. but has morphed into pretty much the same baby. only on mute, this time.

just the three of us...

this morning, we put new gramma on a plane headed back to buffalo, ny (via newark, nj)and returned to our "normal" life. we haven't settled in enough to call it normal, but it is our new normal, i suppose. huh?

anyhooo...
while she was here, my battery in my laptop was mostly dead, because she's an avid fan of disconnecting the power supply and then leaving it open for hours on end. my laptop is pretty old, so it only takes a few minutes of being unplugged. so, i haven't posted much by way of blog. unless i used my phone...

while she was here, we went on a couple of adventures with the boy and the girl. it's a lot easier with two sets of grownup hands, that's for sure. anna slept through most of her adventures, which made it even easier. so far, she seems to like riding in the car (isaac didn't), so that's great.

i think that i have a lot of my mom, holding the girl and/or entertaining the boy. so, when i think of it, i suppose i'll post some...

Tummy time

isaac hearts anna

first park trip

yesterday, we met the mielke's at the park for anna's first trip. she slept through most of it. isaac and luke played in some imaginary land that only they have access to. it was good to get out of the house...

here's a shot of anna hanging with abigail...

 

kristin boone does it again...

kristin boone came over to take some pics of the girl last week. of course, she did a marvelous job.

on our own.

derek went back to work today.

surprisingly, it was much much MUCH easier to manage the two kids on my own than it was the first time around with the one kid. the girl is just so chill. it's awesome.

isaac is really great with her. he talks to her and entertains her when i've got my hands tied and she's getting a little fussy. he is always available for shoving a pacifier into anna's mouth, should the situation necessitate such measures. he's a very good big brother.

this afternoon, derek's mom swung by and picked up the semi-neglected boy. now, with the girl fast asleep and no boy in the house, i feel a bit weird. if i nap, i'll feel awful when i wake up. but, it's not like i can start a major project. perhaps some couch vegging is in order...

so, that's all.

about the girl

well, the girl is one week old today. it has been the fastest week of my life. of course, it could be relative, since the previous 2 or 3 weeks of pregnancy dragged on forever...

one week ago, we were kicking off the pitocin party in the hospital and contractions were just showing up on the scene. here's the rest of the story of the girl's life, so far...

labor
around 11 am, i was about 5 cm and they kindly broke my water. this kicked up the pain level of the contractions, so i requested my epidural. :). with isaac, the epidural was relatively pain-free, but my blood pressure dropped like crazy right afterward. this time, getting the epidural was pretty uncomfortable. the doc kept hitting nerves and such on the way through, sending shooting pains down my back and legs. good times. then, to keep my blood pressure in check, they started with a pretty low dose and worked up. which was fine, except for two things. my contractions were moving into high gear quickly AND the epidural was missing a spot on my left side. another doc came in and helped get me fixed up, but until she did, i questioned my toughness and wondered how women had babies in the pre-epidural days.

around 1 pm, the nurse checked me and i was about 6 cm. the epidural was cranking through my lower half and i decided to rest up for the last 4 cm long haul. we turned the lights off and i managed to doze a bit here and there for the next hour, or so. something about knowing you're going to have a baby soon makes it hard to sleep. :)

delivery
sometime after 2, the nurse and my doctor came in to check me again. the doctor had me push just a little, i guess to see what would happen. what happened was, he said, "we're going to have this baby now". so, while he got suited up in his baby delivering clothes, we called our parents (at 2:31 and 2:32 - i checked later)... and we got ready.

(i was quite surprised. when it took 2 hours to go from 5 to 6 cm, i thought we were in for a long afternoon.)

anyhooo...
on the first contraction, i pushed a couple of times and baby anna ("the anna baby" as isaac calls her) was born. at 2:39. awesome.

hospital
while anna was away being scrubbed up and examined, derek went out to get me a quizno's sub, to spare me the hospital food. they brought the girl back and we hung out with her for a bit, before sending her off to the nursery for the night so we could rest. the next morning, she arrived, sleeping away. we were stunned at the difference between isaac and the girl. even in the hospital, isaac screamed and slept very little. it was miserable. anna, on the other hand, slept and gazed back at us and cried very little.

we had some pals come to visit. mark, allison (and almost born babydunc), kerry and jude all popped in to meet the girl. as did isaac and derek's parents. isaac was amazed at how small she was. he asked to see pretty much every "tiny little" part. cute.

we sent the girl off to the nursery for the second night, derek came home to make sure all was ready for the arrival of the girl and the mom. i got a nice solid night of sleep, as did derek, i presume. in the morning, we collected our new kid, our belongings, lots of freebies from the hospital (and by free, i mean expensive) and rolled on out. we picked up the boy, who was very happy to have us back and headed home...

about anna
anna has been an amazingly "good" baby. of course, we only have isaac to compare her to. and he was definitely challenging. she sleeps lots. eats well. doesn't really cry, well, pretty much ever. it's crazy what a different baby experience we are having with this one.
i'm thankful to have had isaac (and survived to tell the tale), because it makes me much more appreciative of how it's been going so far with anna. AND, i think i would rather be bringing home the easy baby to an assertive 3 year old. so, i'm glad we got the difficult one out of the way first. even if i thought i was going to go crazy and we would never consider having children ever ever again...

so, that's the story of the birth of anna. it's not for you. it's for me. because i know in three years, i'll never remember how it all went down...