Anna is 2 months....1 more month till Eli is 3!!!

Today marks 2 milestones....Anna turns 2 months and Eli enters his last month of being 2!! I think it's great they have the same birthday day as it's so easy!! Anyway, I'll divide this post into Anna and then Eli, so let's get started!

Anna is growing so much that when I took her 2 month pictures today, she looks gigantic!! You'll see what I mean in a minute :) This week, she held a rattle for the first time and started to blow spit bubbles....almost time to break out the bibs!! Also, her facial rash has cleared up and she again has baby soft skin...yay! She is holding her head up while being held upright and when held on your shoulder....strong neck muscles! But like Eli, she doesn't really enjoy tummy time too much and just lays her head to the side. She still naps one nap on her tummy, though, so she doesn't loathe it like Eli did :) Anna also is getting some body fat to her, while she is still pretty lean. Tomorrow is her 2 month well visit, so we'll see how long she is and how much she weighs....I would guess 12 lbs. 6 oz. based on her weight from breastfeeding group so we'll see if I'm right.

Anna continues to be very verbal when awake and she makes the cutest yelps and coos. It's obvious if they are happy or mad/sad ones :) When she is waking up and upset, she does this "yI, yI, yI" sound (the "I" is louder) and then does a "aHHHHa, aHHHHa" when happy...a true yelp! She continues to smile when smiled at and also will mimic sticking out her tongue if you do it first. She watches her toys more intently each week and gives more eye contact to her brother, much to his joy. Of course this is ONLY when he isn't directly in her face!!

Now for pictures of Miss Anna

Smiling on one of her favorite places....the changing table:

She still likes to hold her hands in fists sometimes looking like she'll "punch you out _____ ______!" :)

I had some fun playing with her hair accessories one day...hehe:


Checking out Eli the Elephant...yes that is his real name :)


Her "I'm not happy so you better do something" face:

Getting some rolls....the only time in her life I would actually say that about her :)

Below are the best of her 2 month photo shoot....lots of smiles this month!:

Add in a headband....she's a girl so I couldn't resist (but she doesn't wear them otherwise, really):

Now for Mr. Almost 3 year old! Eli had to be part of the photoshoot:

One of the cool things Eli did this week that I got so excited about is he drew his first stick people!! He brought me the below picture and said it was "people". He then pointed out the hair (2 lines on top), hands (2 lines coming out each side), and feet (2 lines coming out the bottom)!! Love how the "people" or "man" has a round body :)

Eli continues to be a jabber box, and now he seems to want to talk SO much that he has no problem making up sentences leaving you saying, "huh?!". He tries, though :) One time I asked what he meant (which how could he explain what he meant if he couldn't say it, right? Silly things adults say :) and he said it was Spanish. Ha! He also continues to mimic us and he'll say back things to us out of the blue that just crack us up!! Here's an example where Eric asked him to say inappropriate and here was his response:

We are planning Eli's 3rd birthday and this year the theme is Hotwheels. He LOVES Hotwheels and plays with them almost all day long so it will be fun. He also starts preschool next month or September (haven't heard an exact start date yet) 2 mornings a week so 3 will be a big year for him! He also will HOPEFULLY be potty trained so good-bye diapers...for Eli anyway :)

And last but not least, a cute picture of our kiddos:

Have a great week!!

Almost 8 weeks

I'm sorry to say I did not get any pictures taken this week until today due to running out of batteries for the camera, and not getting more until today!! So, I have one cute video and a couple pictures of our cute kiddos, but that's it!

Anna will be 8 weeks on Tuesday, and 2 months in a week!! Lately I've been looking back at the blog to compare Eli to Anna. It's so fun to be able to do this and easily compare pictures, developments, and other tidbits of info. Two things have stuck out in my mind when comparing: 1) Eli weighed 2 lbs. more than Anna at this age, 2) Eli had already developed his "cat napping" and would only take brief naps during the day. Anna, thankfully, is the complete opposite and has fallen into a pattern of a long nap in the morning, a long nap in the afternoon (sometimes so long I have to wake her in fear it will affect her nighttime sleep!), and some cat naps in the evening before she is asleep for the night around 9-10pm!! I remember Eli's cat napping and how frustrating it was as I could not understand why he would not stay asleep for longer than 30 minutes, and most of the time it was more like 15-20 minutes! Hopefully Anna continues this trend and remains a good napper....I think mommy deserves it :)

Some similarities are: 1) I wrote about Eli being very talkative and so is Anna! The video below shows what I'm talking about, 2) Eli and Anna look A LOT alike! In the pictures below, you can see what I mean:

Eli at 8 weeks:


Anna at 8 weeks:

Anna is doing really well. Taking the bottle is still not mastered, but worked on almost daily :) She'll get there, I'm sure. Eli continues to do well, for the most part, and really loves to talk to her in a "baby" voice. Every morning when Anna & I come out of the bedroom he says "Mommy & Anna wake up!". Of course, remembering to be gentle and not get in her face all the time is hard for him, and this week I showed him that if he stays back from her face, she can actually SEE him and will smile at him!

Anna coos, squeals, and yelps a lot when awake and loves to walk around being held or in the baby bjorn facing outward. She's sleeping pretty well at night, due to using a swaddle blanket. I ordered a Miracle Blanket because she is outgrowing the one we have lengthwise already and I've heard awesome reviews! She is swaddled at night and will give me a 5-6 hour stretch and then 3 hour stretches until morning, so she gets up about 2-3 times a night. This could all change, though, as Eli did the same with his nighttime sleep and then it all came crashing down :) We've been co-sleeping since birth, but this last week I decided to see how she would do in her bassinet. She has done well, so what we do is she stays in her bassinet until her 5/6am feeding and then I bring her to bed with me where I lay her on her belly. I'm sure we'll end up co-sleeping again as she gets older and she will be able to side lay nurse, which currently is hard for her. Then for her long afternoon nap, I lay her on her tummy and check her often but she sleeps SO well on her tummy.

Lastly, below is a video of Anna smiling and you can also hear Eli talking to her. Too cute!

Below is a funny picture of Eli. This week he discovered how to lay down in the tub with his ears under the water and how funny everything sounds. He pretty much stays this way most of bath time!:

Anna's 6th week & Eli's activities

While it feels like I just posted, I wanted to get in this week's pictures this weekend so it didn't take 3 days like it did for the last post to get completed! Anna will turn 7 weeks on Tuesday, and in the not too distant future (the 25th) she'll turn 2 months!! Yikes! Time is flying but I must say that I do look forward to her being more & more interactive as Eli is really impatient about her becoming his play buddy :) I keep reminding him that she will someday be able to sit up, babble, and even take a bath with him, which he thinks will be really cool. I know I'll look back & be in disbelief by how fast she grew, though, so no hurry :)

I got some pictures this week of Eli doing some activities around the house. He is pretty hit or miss each day with how he does playing independently. Right now with Anna's "schedule", I try to play with him while she takes her long nap in the afternoons. I admit, though, that also during that time I am trying to do some sort of cleaning so I don't play with him as much as I should. When I wear her in the carrier or wrap during her morning nap Eli & I are usually attending some sort of activity such as music class, toddler town on tour, or just playing outside. For her late evening nap, I carry her in the wrap/carrier, too, and am usually doing dinner, which can be challenging at times. Then sometime after dinner & before Eli's bedtime she becomes fussy-must-be-swaddled girl and I have to swaddle her and calm her and then carry her around for bath & bedtime for Eli. I may be able to actually lay her down in bed so I can focus on his bedtime routine soon as she sometimes sleeps her long stretch at this time. Sometimes is the key word, though, so I usually keep her with me and do bedtime with both kiddos! Anyway, here are pics of Eli first.

Aquadoodle....per Eli's style, he plays with it for awhile, and then wants to dump the water out to see what it does on the mat...or pretty much everywhere! Our boy sure has a way of finding out alternative ways to play with things (did you notice how positive I worded that....I don't usually respond that positive, though :( !)

Eli's Leapfrog Tag Junior....his favorite is the thunder & lightening page in "Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You?":

Our Superman Mr. Eli:

Eli enjoys playing with our neighbor boys. There aren't any boys his age that we know of in the neighborhood, but there are 3 boys ranging from 2nd-4th grade who actually play pretty well with Eli. They are good kids & try to include him in their play for at least a little while. Eli LOVES playing with them & talks about them a lot. He gets along so well with older kids, it's quite amazing to me. One boy in particular he likes a lot (he's the youngest of the bunch at age 7) was outside on Saturday letting his new puppy go potty & we drove by. Eli wanted to go see him so we went to his house but he had gone inside already. I told Eli he could go knock on the door to ask he wanted to play & Eli just walked on up & did just that!! Here they are playing in his room. I really need to invite him over more often as Eli played so awesome & enjoyed his company very much. Eli's just such a social & outgoing kid that playing by himself just doesn't cut it!:

Now for Anna's week. I try to lay her on our tummy time mat more & more but also like to lay her on her back so she can watch the toys:

Here she is really watching the moving toys on the swing....she's really great at tracking. She attends music class with Eli & I & really is doing well tracking & watching the puppets which is great!:

I normally always wear Anna facing me due to her neck muscles not being developed enough. But, she really enjoys walking around with me facing outward so this weekend I tried her forward facing. She did really well for awhile before she got tired, at which time I turned her around facing me. She can only do forward facing a short while, but it gives me free hands during that time!:

Anna also really started to smile a lot more this week. She's been smiling for a couple weeks now, but now they seem more purposeful. They are hard to get on camera, though, as once I pull out the camera, she is distracted by the camera & not me & stops smiling. Here are a few shots & video I did get:

Nothing out of the ordinary planned for this week. I do have my what is supposed to be my 6 week postpartum checkup but somehow they scheduled me a week later at 7 weeks. Oh well. We hope to attend Toddler Town on Tour & music class & just see what else the week holds! Have a great one!

Anna's 5th week & 4th of July

Anna turned 6 weeks on Tuesday and time continues to fly on by!! She weighed in at 11 lbs. on the dot on Monday (the day before she turned 6 weeks) so she continues to gain about 5-7 oz. a week! She also is falling into a teeny tiny bit of a schedule...HER schedule of course, but at least a hint of a pattern is emerging :)

Upon waking for the day (which essentially means that she doesn't immediately go back to sleep after this nursing) she seems to be the happiest & most calm. She is awake & enjoys her time being walked around the house in either mommy or daddy's arms facing outward, swinging in her swing, vibrating in her vibrate chair, being held by her brother, or some outside time. This awake time varies in length but is usually around 45 min to an hour. She then becomes tired and usually quite cranky, at which time she returns to sleep either while I wear her or after I nurse her to sleep and lay her in the bed. Or, if we have an activity that morning, she usually sleeps in the car seat and then again after we arrive and I wear her in the baby bjorn. This sleep lasts around 1-2 hours, depending on a variety of factors. Then she wakes again, nurses, and is awake for another hour or so. This pattern repeats itself for the day and she usually has around 3 naps before actual "bedtime", but sometimes 4 if she decides to sleep again before her longer stretch of sleep. Then between 8-9pm (while we are putting Eli to sleep), she decides she is ready to sleep, at which time she is swaddled (if not already), shushed, swayed, and nursed to sleep. This stretch of sleep is usually around 3 or so hours but sometimes 4. Hopefully in the near future she will decide it can extend to more like 5 or 6 :) She then wakes every 2-3 hours throughout the night to nurse.

Speaking of nighttime, what we have worked out is that I usually have Anna swaddled and shushed after Eli's bath. I then hold her in my arms while she sleeps or nurses and I read books to Eli. Then we turn out the lights and both Eli & Anna fall asleep (or continue sleeping in Anna's case). This works the best as I don't have to worry about Anna waking up if I lay her down while I am putting Eli to bed. So, it works for now, but I'm sure we'll have to adjust in the future as she grows older. Eli does really great with this and for the most part, is very patient and seems to enjoy having Anna there during his bedtime. It could be worse and he could get jealous of her being there and then I think I would lose my mind a little at bedtime :)

Anna is smiling more these days and continues to talk, talk, talk! She makes many cooing noises and when starting to get upset, she lets out these yelps that are too cute. She kicks & punches her arms when talking and Eli always comments that she is "knocking" him or whatever is around her. She is quite particular at times, and will yelp and screech to let you know that what you are doing is not up to her standards. She is quite the mama's girl and we are trying to help her be more happy with her daddy & grandma since mommy has to start back work eventually!! We also introduced the bottle starting last week and I can say it isn't going so smoothly. Because she prefers me, it is hard to find a good time to have daddy or grandma feed her since many times when I hand her over she gets upset. Daddy was successful once, but grandma couldn't even try due to her being so upset! So, I decided to try to feed her a bottle and the first time she took 2 oz! Since then, though, she's just "played" with it and not taken hardly anything. This will continue to be a work in progress!!

Enough narrative, here are pictures from last week!

Eli holding his little sister:

Almost asleep:

Enjoying a nap in the wrap!:

Eli cleaning his canvas for his art:

Eli decided HE would be the canvas....silly boy:

After playing with markers, we played with play-doh:

And watched Anna watch her mobile (which she can hardly stand for more than a few minutes):

Cute socks:

Chillin' in the vibrate chair:

Tummy time is more like rest time so far:

This is a good picture of Anna's rash. She has small raised bumps on her face that turn red with contact or heat. After research, it seems it is baby acne that gets agitated and turns red. It doesn't seem to bother her, though!:

Eli & Anna on the 4th of July:

I never have her wear them, but here is Anna trying on a couple head bands:

We went to Grandma & Grandpa Clarksons for the 4th and Eli loved swimming as usual! Grandma bought him a suit that has floaties in the torso so he can swim independently in the pool. Then as he gets better at swimming, you slowly take out the floaties! But, it takes some getting used to so he needed to use the rings for support:

Eli's flag tattoo:

Funny story about the tattoo. As we pulled into Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson's drive way, we heard an ice cream truck coming down the street. This is not unusual as one goes around our neighborhood a lot. We hadn't ever bought any ice cream from the truck, but Eric & I found it very humorous that not only was there the usual ice cream truck music, there was a drum beat being played behind it AND the driver was ringing the bell to the beat. It just struck me as funny and seemed the guy was trying hard to get some ice cream sold so we stopped him and got Eli a Batman ice cream bar. Since it was on the 4th of July, the guy also gave Eli a flag tattoo....Eli loved it!

Anna's noticing her toys more these days, too. Here she is looking at Mr. Zebra:

On Monday, we went to the mall to let Eli run around. Anna enjoyed looking at the carousal lights:

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July...check back next week for Anna's 6th week pics & Anna/Eli updates!

Anna's birth story

The days leading to my due date, I had random cramping about once a day that felt like gas pains. Same kind I got with Eli only more random. On my due date, I went to my chiropractor in the morning and my sister, Holly, came into town that afternoon. We had decided prior to her arrival that if Anna had not arrived, we would go get a pedicure together so we left Eli home with grandma and headed off to the nail salon around 2pm. The pedicure was great and I felt great! No issues or signs that she would arrive on her due date!

After the pedicure, we went to pick up Chipotle for dinner...yum! While eating Chipotle at home, I started to feel a little queasy and just not hungry. This was around 5pm or so. At around 6pm, I started to feel what could have been contractions...or just indigestion since I couldn't eat my dinner...it was hard to say! They weren't strong or painful, just uncomfortable. They came about every 20 minutes or so, were short & not unbearable so I was unsure if it was true labor or not. I decided to call Eric at work to see how his night was going and to fill him in on the contractions but told him not to come home as they didn't seem bad enough to go to the hospital. Around 7:30ish, I decided to ask Eric to come home "just in case" since they were still occurring, yet still nothing too strong or consistent yet.

The contractions continued to get closer together, but were still not too painful, but I thought that this must at least be the start of labor, but with Eli, he took 12 hours to arrive once they became painful, so I wasn't in a hurry. I updated facebook often and thankfully, Holly and my mom were here to help entertain Eli, who had NO idea what was going on :)

Eric arrived home and I decided to finish packing my hospital bag and asked Eric to pack his. Eric also put Eli to bed and we watched "The Bachelorette" off and on in between packing and contractions. Also, Eli had developed a strange rash, so I was doing research online for that! I was pretty distracted nonetheless :)

Contractions continued to get closer together, a little more painful, but I could still talk through them, so I wasn't too concerned. Then around 10:30ish, I got one REALLY painful contraction and they were about 8 minutes apart, so I decided we should head into the hospital. Eric packed the car, we said our good-byes to my sister and mom and gave directions about Eli and headed out!! We even have a picture of Holly and I right before we left and I was smiling!

Upon arriving at the hospital ER (after hours so I had to go through ER), I waited about 10 minutes for someone to help us and while Eric parked and brought in our luggage. I still was unsure if we would be admitted, but I was wheeled up to the 3rd floor in a wheel chair just in case! I went to triage, did the whole work up, and was checked by the triage nurse....I was already 5 cm dilated!! I was admitted at 11:15pm and the contractions were coming pretty good by that point. We walked to our room, got all situated, my midwife was called, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I thought I would wait it out so I said no. The contractions then picked up really fast, one on top of the other, and I said I needed one. My midwife arrived, she talked about how unique it is to go into labor on my due date, and then the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural.

The epidural took a little while due to my scoliosis, and he even commented that it was one of the harder ones he's done. But, it took and I immediately felt better! My midwife came back in, she checked me and I was 7 cm dilated. By now it was about 11:45pm. My midwife broke my water, thankfully it was clear and good. We chatted, I felt good, and wondered if Anna would arrive before midnight, but was pretty sure not :)

Then around midnight, I felt A LOT of pressure. I was checked and in 15 minutes I had gone from a 7 to a 10!! Anna was on her way! The room was set up for delivery and I began to push. The first pushes were hard to feel due to the epidural, but I eventually got better at them. I was able to feel her head crown and when her head came out, I was SO ready for the rest of her to arrive that I just kept pushing!! 26 minutes after starting to push, Anna arrived!! I immediately held her on my chest and she looked so much like Eli, except she obviously had girl "looks". I was so happy, felt great, and was NOT exhausted like I was with Eli. It was great!! After about 5 or so minutes, I was curious what she weighed so they weighed her....8 lbs. 8 oz. 21 in.!! Bigger than her brother!! Then they put on her hat & blankets and immediately brought her back to me to nurse. She nursed SO well and it felt amazing! I was so relieved that she knew what to do and there was no pain or latch issues....yay! She nursed off & on for a good hour, and no one rushed us at all. It was really nice & relaxed and I was so thankful for that. I was calm, awake, and elated. Then once she was done nursing, the nurses bathed and clothed her while I ate some food. We were wheeled over to post-partum around 3ish in the morning and we tried to sleep. I had a hard time sleeping and Anna slept okay, but we would try to nurse again around 4:30am, so it was hard to sleep for me....too much excitement I guess and just wanting to be with my little girl :)

Here's video of Anna right after her arrival. There aren't any "inappropriate" shots due to the bright light but you can see my midwife taking out the umbilical cord. Pretty awesome!!:



Anna's first nursing sessions shortly after delivery:



The hospital stay was great, I felt good, had little issue getting up and around, and Anna was awesome. We kinda "co-slept" as I would nurse her on the boppy pillow and just keep her there and fall asleep with her. I kinda cheated and when the nurse would come in I would say she was still nursing as they would not allow "co-sleeping" :) Eli met Anna the next day and it was too cute. He was so happy but kinda shy, too, and kept saying "Anna's here?".

My birth experience with Anna was so much more relaxed than Eli's...and fast!! I was thankful to not be in labor overnight and to feel rested and with energy to deliver her. Looking back I probably didn't need the epidural since it was only really used for 45 minutes!! But, it was nice to be pain free for those 45 minutes I guess (well, not during the pushing part!!).

So, there it is. Pretty fast, nothing fancy, and thankfully nothing complicated! Now we have our sweet Anna and our family of 4!!