My Poor Little Sammy

Sammy had a rough night last night.  When I put her in her crib for the night, she screamed, which she never does.  She finally fell asleep but was fitful all night.  I chalked it up to teething and let her cry it out.  This morning, I brought her into our bed to nurse (which is part of our normal morning routine).  And as she nursed, I kissed her forehead and thought she felt awfully hot.  I then brought her back to her room to change her diaper and took her temperature.  Sure enough, she had 102.2 at 6:45 am in the morning.  Ugh.  So I walked with her into the kitchen where the light was brighter and told my husband she was sick.  And when he looked at her, he said, "Man, she looks really sick."  And at that point, I looked at her face and saw that it was puffy/swollen and a bit red underneath her right eye.  I was able to make an early doctor's appointment and we were out the door by 8 am.

At 8:30 am, at the doctor's office, Sammy's temperature was 103.1 and she was burning up.  I couldn't believe how hot she felt.  And she was so miserable.  She couldn't even manage to cry.  She just sort of whined and rubbed her head against my shoulder.  My normally happy and active baby was so sick!  Here's how she looked at the doctor's office - this was the best I could do to get her to smile.  And you can see how her right eye is swollen and red.

The doctor examined her and said that she had an ear infection in her right ear.  He also said she had periorbital cellulitis, which can get very dangerous quickly because it could lead to a blood infection/sepsis.  Because of that, he wanted to do a CBC/white blood cell count to determine the appropriate course of action.  So my little 8 month old had to get her blood drawn.  She did okay once I nursed her and they were able to find a vein.  After waiting over 1 hour for the blood results, her white cell count came back higher than the doctor's cutoff. This meant that instead of oral antibiotics, she had to get an intramuscular injection of antibiotics.  The volume of the shot was too big for it to go into one leg so they split it up and gave her shots simultaneously in her left and right thigh (so she would only have to suffer the pain once).  We also gave her some motrin.

After that, we went home and she took a long nap.  When she woke up, she smiled at me and I knew that she must be feeling better since it was the first smile she gave me all day.  I could tell that her temp was much lower.  Tomorrow, we go back to the doctor for a re-check.  They will do a clinical assessment of her eye (no more blood tests) and based on that, decide whether to give her another round of antibiotic injections or switch her to oral antibiotics.  We dosed her up with tylenol at 5:30 pm and motrin at 7:15 pm tonight and I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be more comfortable tonight.

The silver lining of all of this?  We caught it early and Sammy should be fine.  Plus, as long as they were drawing her blood, they tested her for lead.  I'm so glad the doctor thought through that and spared us a separate blood draw.  It's great when you get good medical care!

**At just over 8 months of age, Sammy weighed 17 pounds, 1.5 ounces**

Sammy is 8 months old!

On Christmas, Sammy turned 8 months old.  Here is her official chair photo - this month in her PJs.

We had a lot more outtakes than usual this month because Sammy wanted to climb all over the chair.  She's really starting to maneuver herself around.  She wants to pull up on almost everything, but is often unable to do so and then gets frustrated.  This is her trying to launch herself over the side of the chair!

A couple of days ago, we realized that Sammy has learned how to get into a sitting position from being on her tummy.  Hooray Sammy!  Based on her current attempts at moving around, I'm guessing that she'll be crawling in about 2 weeks.  We'll see if I'm right!

My Son is Growing Up

I'm happy to say that I no longer dread the weekends.  I'm actually really looking forward to spending time with my son.  Why?  Because he's growing up!  Lately, he's been throwing far fewer tantrums and it's possible to get him to calm down and talk about what is bothering him.  He still has his moments and I still get frustrated with him, but overall, he's really a great kid to be around.  I think going to preschool has been very good for him.  He seems to really love it and the change in his personality seems to coincide with the timing of him going to preschool.  He absolutely ADORES books and will let you read to him for hours if you want to.  Here he is in a crown he made at preschool.  My King Ian.

We met up with friends yesterday and went out to lunch and he was so well-behaved in the restaurant.  It was amazing.  To treat him for good behavior, we ordered him chocolate ice cream.  And when we got home, we gave him an early Hanukkah present and let him watch his first movie ever - the Winnie the Pooh movie.  My brother's family sent it as a gift and it was really great to share that experience with Ian.  He laughed out loud at Tigger's antics and I loved every giggle.

7 month weight

Sammy got her booster flu shot this morning.  I specifically asked for a weight check, which they weren't going to do.  But I want data!  She is 16 pounds, 4 ounces.  That means she gained a little over 1 pound in 1 month.  Go Sammy!  I'm a little bit nervous about my milk supply since I'm just barely pumping the 17 ounces per day she is drinking from bottles while at school.  So I might need to change something up there.  But so far so good!

Last night we fed her some carrots and rice cereal, which was the second feeding of real food in the day.  And she slept through the night (8:30 pm to 5:30 am) with just a bit of crying when she woke up sometime in the middle of the night.  So perhaps we'll start feeding her dinner from now on.  And her other bottom tooth is making its way through her gum.  So soon, my little baby girl will have 2 teeth.  She's growing up so fast!

7 months old!!

Sammy is 7 months old and to celebrate, she has a new tooth!  Her bottom tooth on the right side is poking through.  We saw it in the park yesterday and today, I put my finger inside and could feel it.  Hopefully, she'll sleep better soon, now that the pesky little tooth has cut through her gum.  She continues to be a super and ridiculously happy baby.  You don't even have to try to make her laugh.  She gives big smiles just when you talk to her and focus on her.  She really is as happy as she appears on the photo below!

And because I can't get enough of how cute she is, here is a picture from earlier in the week.

I love her big blue eyes.  We are a family of four and we all have different eye colors.  Mine are green. My husband's are hazel.  Ian's eyes are dark dark brown and Sammy has these beautiful blue eyes.

We had a good Thanksgiving at my in-laws.  My mother-in-law is such a good cook.  She made a kosher turkey (after plucking feathers for 1 hour!), homemade cranberry sauce, wild rice/mushrooms/chestnuts (instead of stuffing), double-baked potatoes, baked yams and butternut squash soup.  And for dessert, she made a hazelnut torte.  We brought over some delicious brussel sprouts and banana bread with chocolate chips and walnuts.

And the weather over the past 3 days has been amazing.  It started off in the high 40s and the past 2 days has made its way into the 60s.  We've been going to the park every morning to ensure that both Ian and Sammy have some good outside time.  Come the New Year, I doubt I'll be praising our New England weather.  :-)

Here we are at the park on Thanksgiving.  Look at that blue sky!

Time for Pre-School!

It's amazing how fast time is flying.  My baby girl is almost 7 months old (!) and finally finally finally she is able to make it through the night without needing to feed.

Ian officially starts pre-school next week.  He's really excited to be going to pre-school as it makes him feel more grown-up.  He tries hard to do a lot of things himself and has been getting pretty good at getting his pants on.  His newest behavior is that instead of sitting in his bed and screaming "All Done!!!!" when he wakes up in the morning, he's been getting out of bed, quiet as a mouse and coming into our room.  Today he gave me a hug to wake me up and said, "Momma, come eat breakfast with me."  And then he asked if daddy was going to come because he wanted "to eat breakfast as a family."  Come on.  Those are some heart-melting words!

Update

I'm feeling guilty about not updating my blog more often.  I did so many posts when Ian was 6 months old and I feel that I have very few for Sammy.  But such is life, I suppose.  I'm the last of 3 children and there are one-third the number of baby pictures of me as for my sister, who was my parent's first child.

The kids continue to grow up and while I can't wait for Ian to get out of his tantrum-throwing toddler stage, I want to put my foot on the brakes!  When I was putting Sammy in her crib the other night, I noticed how big and heavy she was getting.  My my.  My little sweet Sammy isn't so little anymore!  She's doing really nicely these days.  She's sitting up on her own without falling over.  She's not showing any interest in being on her tummy or learning to crawl, but she's happy to sit and play with toys.  She's extremely grabby and has an amazingly strong pincer grip.  She can really rip the crap out of your face when she gets a hold of your skin!  We still don't see any teeth, but I imagine they'll be coming in soon since she's been a drooly disaster lately.  Within the last week, she has also started to make repetitive noises like "ga ga ga" or "da da da".  According to my doctor, that's a developmental milestone so yeah for Sammy!

And Ian is doing well.  He's still no where close to being potty trained, but he won't be turning 3 until March so I'm not going to press the issue.  The people at daycare say he's not ready and I agree.  So there's no reason to push it.  He's going to start swim lessons soon with his Baba and Gramps and they've agreed to spend some time with him on the weekend after the lessons.  So that's great for me and my husband because it means we'll be able to get some things done around the house without a toddler underfoot.

We've made a lot of progress on fixing up the house.  We have the cracks in the basement fixed.  We got all of our wood gutters ripped off and replaced with seamless aluminum gutters.  Not only are the new gutters not rotted, but they're mounted correctly and can handle the amount of water running off the roof.  So we shouldn't have any more puddling outside our foundation and hopefully our basement will remain dry now.  The tile guy we hired just started working in the basement to install the 20x20 porcelain tiles we chose.  I can't wait to see the basement look finished again!

Happy Halloween!

Sammy's 6 month stats

Sammy had her 6 month well-baby visit today.  Her lungs were clear and she didn't have any ear infections.  So it looks like she just needs to get over this lingering cold.

WEIGHT:  15 pounds, 2.7 ounces (33.77%)
HEIGHT:  26.5 inches (78.01%)
HEAD CIRCUMFERENCE:  42 cm (37.20%)

She's doing great and it makes me proud.  The teachers at daycare love her.  They say they're not supposed to play favorites but they can't help but love her smiley and happy personality.  It's also easier to care for her because she doesn't cling to or need any one particular teacher.  She'll take attention from anyone who will give it to her!

Sammy is 6 months old (and other updates)

I've been so busy and neglecting this blog.  But Sammy is 6 months old today so I had to update!  Here are her official chair photos.

You can see in the second photo that she is now sitting up on her own.

Poor little Sammy has been sick a lot this past month.  Less than one week after we finished her antibiotics for pneumonia, Sammy came down with another cold and she is still congested and coughing a lot.  She has her 6 month "well baby" visit tomorrow and we'll see what the doctor finds.  She's also drooling a ton so I wonder whether a tooth is on its way soon and perhaps that is causing some of the congestion?

Ian is doing well.  When he's behaving, he's super fun to be around.  He knows that his first name is spelled "I" "A" "N" and we're having fun teaching him new words (like author, illustrator and phenomenal).  He seems extra coordinated to me.  At the park, he got on a scooter and knew right away what to do and was balancing on one leg and scooting around like a pro.  Another little boy who was 3 (6 months older than Ian) couldn't figure out the scooter, even with his father's help.  So I was quite impressed with my little boy.  

But when Ian is not behaving, oh boy.  He's a train wreck disaster packed into a 31 pound solid toddler body.  He definitely knows what he wants and doesn't want and is prone to throw some serious tantrums.  I'm hoping he'll grow out of this behavior soon, but we may be in it for the long haul.  He's going to be a fireman for Halloween and here he is trying on his costume.

And I had to capture the following - this is the face that Ian makes when you ask him to "close his eyes."  It makes me laugh every single time.

We went apple picking a couple of weekends ago at Honey Pot Hills Orchards in Stow, MA and had a blast.  We went on a hay ride, ate cider donuts and picked a lot of Macoun apples.  I've never had them before and they were super tasty!  Ian had a blast, especially because he was able to climb a ladder to pick apples at the top of the tree.  Here are some photos - I'm really happy we were able to get a picture of all 4 of us!

Work is going well.  My company is growing rapidly which is great, but raises a host of issues and my plate is extremely full (hence the lack of blog updates!)  I have no time during the day to surf the web or accomplish any personal tasks.  And at night, after we eat dinner and get Ian to bed, I'm still busy with Sammy.  And I have to put together her bottles and make my lunch for the next day.  And by the time I watch just one show on TV, I'm totally ready for bed (since Sammy hasn't slept through the night for a while now).  But every day, I'm extremely thankful for my family and I look forward to watching my babies grow up.  And I'll leave you with some cute pictures of Ian and Samantha.

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The Crud Continues

As I mentioned in previous posts, my kids have been sick a lot lately.  (As an aside, I still think it's really cool to say "my kids" meaning that (a) I have kids and (b) I have more than one!  It still makes me pause every single time my husband and I discuss who will be picking up "the kids" from daycare.)  Well, Sammy had pink eye and then she had a low-grade fever for a while, which eventually went away.  Even though her fever went away, she continued to get more and more congested.  And then in the middle of the night one night, she broke into an awful cough and had a fever of 101.6, which then went up to 102.2 by the morning.  Yikes!

So my husband took her to the doctor (it was his turn to stay home from the office with a sick kid) and the doctor didn't like what he heard in her lungs.  So he sent her for X-rays.  X-rays!  On my little happy smiley 5 month old daughter.  Ugh.  The doctor thought he saw a little spot of pneumonia in her lungs and so prescribed her a 10-day course of the lovely pink amoxicillin.  (The official radiologist report said the X-rays were negative for pneumonia but the doctor wanted to keep her on the antibiotics anyway based on the fact that her fever spiked and what he heard in her chest).  She got better fairly dramatically on the antibiotics.  Her fever broke the day after we started giving her the drugs and within 1 day, she was already breathing so much better.  So I'm happy we kept her on the antibiotics.  Tomorrow will be the last day we have to give her the antibiotics and I hope we all stay healthy for a while!

5 months old!

Sammy is five 5 months old today.  Last week, at the pediatrician's office, she weighed 13 pounds, 7.5 ounces.  Look how happy she is, even with a totally congested nose.  She's a rockstar.

Pink Eye, the Croup and Fevers, Oh My!

We've had a rough week.  One day last week, I noticed that the skin around my baby girl's right eye looked a little red and puffy.  I took her to daycare and asked them to please watch it for me.  When we picked her up that night, the teachers thought that she had just scratched herself and it was healing.  Fine.  The next morning, her eye didn't look better.  And it had some yellow gunk around it, but I was still going on the scratch theory.  But then when I brought her into daycare and saw her eye under those bright fluorescent lights, I knew something was wrong.  I put her right back into her car seat and brought her to the doctor, who instantaneously proclaimed she had conjunctivitis.  Sigh.  So we gave her antibiotic ointment 3x a day for the next 5 days.

A couple days later, my toddler son lost his voice and had a low-grade temperature.  I thought it was strange that he would lose his voice but he sounded so cute!  That night, around 1:30 am, he didn't sound so cute when he woke himself up with that horrible croup cough.  Ugh.  I knew immediately what that was.  So we calmed him down and got him back to sleep.  And we kept him home from school the next day because he was still sick and had a low grade temperature.  I also brought him to the doctor and got him some oral steroids to help him through the next night (because croup is worst at night).  He's been on the mend since then.  He still has a bit of a cough and a runny nose, but he's acting like himself again.

But the saga continues.  Whatever croupy virus my son brought home with him also attacked poor little Sammy.  The night after Ian woke up with his croupy cough, I was feeding Sammy in the middle of the night.  And she felt hot.  Really hot.  Ruh roh.  So I took her temperature and it was 101.6.  Crap.  I gave her some Tylenol and in the morning her temp was back to 98.3.  Great!  But then over the next 3 days, she continued to have low-grade fevers (like 99.9 or 100.1) and my gnawing motherly instinct finally told me to bring her to the doctor.  I really did think she was fine and just fighting a cold because her fevers never got worse and her behavior was otherwise normal.  But I was worried that perhaps she had an ear infection.  So I brought her to the doctor one night after work and of course, she was fine.  And now, the poor thing, is just all congested from a bad cold.  We let her sleep in her car seat last night so that she could be upright because sleeping in her crib lying down wasn't doing it for her.  I hope she gets better soon!

3 visits to the doctor in 1 week.  I hope to never repeat that again.

Busy! and Basement Drama

I've gotten pretty bad about updating my blog since going back to work 1 month ago.  But I'm SO busy.  There isn't that much extra time in the day to spend on the internet.  In the morning, we have a pretty good routine to get out the door.  I shower while my husband eats breakfast with the toddler.  Then the baby wakes up and I feed and dress her.  Then I take both kids to daycare and my husband gets ready for work after we leave.  At night, my husband picks up the kids from daycare.  We have dinner and get the toddler to bed around 8 pm.  The baby usually falls asleep around 8:45 or 9 pm after nursing and then wakes one more time to nurse before going to bed for the night.  But we can't just relax on the couch.  We have to do dishes and make lunches for the next day and I have to prep Sammy's bottles for daycare.  By the time we finally relax, I try to watch TV but usually end up falling asleep on the couch.  But as busy and hectic as it is, I love it.  I love my family and this is my reward:

And now for the bad news.  Our basement did not survive Hurricane Irene intact.  We have always thought that we had a dry house.  Last year when the neighbors across the street had 1 foot of water in their basement and our next-door-neighbor's sump pump was pumping like crazy, we were high fiving each other because our basement was dry.  Or was it?  This year, we had Hurricane Irene blow through on Sunday.  We thought everything was fine and went about our business as usual.  Then, when I went to work in my home office on Wednesday (because I typically work from home on Wednesdays), I noticed that the pergo floor in our basement was buckling up.  My stomach dropped when I saw that because I knew that it was water damage.  (I had ruined the first pergo floor in our basement the DAY after we moved in when the toilet overflowed and water got in underneath it.)  So I started looking around and noticed that the brick on the floor near the fireplace was damp.  I called my husband and had him come home from work immediately to start ripping up the floor.  I didn't want the water spreading further and into the back rooms of the basement we had JUST finished.

So we ripped up the pergo floor, revealing once again the horrible brown and beige checkered asbestos tiles on the basement floor (which were now popping up more than ever).  And we weren't 100% sure where the water had come from because the water had dried by the time we realized we had an issue.  But then came this past week, where it rained non-stop for 3 days.  And on day 3, I peeked into our furnace room, and sure enough, it was wet in the corner.  So that actually made me feel better because at least we knew where the water was coming from (and it didn't involve the chimney, which we had originally suspected because of the wet brick).

To make a long story short, we're going to spend a lot of money to fix up our basement.  First we are ripping out the asbestos tile (which requires hiring an asbestos abatement company).  Then we have to call the oil company to replace the copper oil line that will be in the way of some of the other work we need to do.  Then the basement waterproofing experts can do their thing - drilling through our foundation floor and installing french drains and a sump pump.  And then we have to put the finishing touches on - removing the dry wall that got wet, installing new dry wall and painting.  And we have chosen to install ceramic tile as our new flooring.  I'm exhausted just getting quotes for this work and over-thinking every single decision.  But I just don't want to mess around with this again.

Rolling Over!

Sammy rolled over from her back to her tummy tonight!  My husband had put her down on her play mat while we cooked dinner.  At some point, she started crying and we looked over and she was on her tummy.  My husband asked me if I had rolled her over and I hadn't.  So hooray!  And then after we re-positioned her on her back, she rolled over right in front of us.  I'm so proud of my little girl.  :-)

*Here's proof from the next night*

Sammy is 4 months old!

Here are pics from Sammy's 4 month photo session.  Normally I just choose 1 official chair photo to post, but I couldn't decide between these two.  I love how she smiles with her entire being.  You can really see that in the first picture.

4 months! And back to work...

Sammy had her 4 month well-baby visit last week (roughly 1 week before she actually turns 4 months old).  She is doing great!  Here are her stats:

Height:  24.5" (70%)
Weight:  12 pounds, 12.4 ounces (39%)
Head circumference:  40 cm (30%)

So it seems likes she's continuing her trend of being longer than fatter and having a small head!

I went back to work on the 10th.  My mom and dad, who have been visiting ever since we had the baby naming, cared for Sammy through the 19th and we started Sammy at daycare yesterday (the 22nd).  It was hard to leave her in the care of other people but I found it easier to do so since I've already been through this drill with Ian.  My mom and dad loved being with her.  My mom did all of the feeding/diapering and my dad pushed her around in the stroller when she was cranky.  It was really sad to watch them drive away this past weekend.  I was crying and my mom was bawling (which she hardly ever does).  I guess she got really attached to Sammy in the 10 days she cared for her.  And Sammy has only been in daycare 1 day but already the teachers there love her.  They said she smiled a lot, drank her bottles nicely and even napped in her crib.  I'm so glad that it looks like she'll be happy there.

Sammy hasn't rolled over yet, but she tries very hard to get into a sitting position while lying down in her bouncy seat.  I'm impressed at her use of her stomach muscles!  So she really enjoys being in her bumbo seat as you can see from the picture below!

And Ian has been doing great.  He's started singing a lot lately and as it turns out, I think he can carry a tune!  So it looks like he may not have inherited his dad's tone deafness.  :-)

Baby Naming

Last Sunday, we had a baby naming for Samantha.  We had 32 people at our house to celebrate Sammy and it felt great to be surrounded by so many friends and family, many of whom drove long distances to be with us.  My brother and his wife and my sister flew to be here with us for the special day.  And many of my dad's first cousins came and so it was like a family reunion at the same time.  My mom mentioned that it was so very nice to celebrate a birth when she had been going to so many funerals these days.

Samantha Grace is named after my paternal grandmother Sylvia and her sister Goldie.  My grandmother and her sister lived together for decades after their husbands died and I thought it was really nice that the two of them would live on in the same person.  Unofficially, Samantha is also named after our fertility doctor, Dr. Grace Lee.  When doing the transfer during our FET, Dr. Lee jokingly made us promise that if our little frozen embryo was a girl, we would name the girl after her.  So we did!

We chose Shayna as Samantha's Hebrew name.  It means "beautiful" and we think it's appropriate because Sammy is such a beautiful little baby.  And my grandma loved using the word beautiful to describe things.  Except she said it as "beaauuu-tiiii-ful".

The rabbi of our local reform temple did a wonderful job with the baby naming ceremony.  One of my favorite parts was when my husband and I took two lit candles and together lit another candle to represent Sammy.  And Ian was hysterical during this time.  He knows that birthday candles are meant to be blown out and so as we were trying to do this part of the ceremony, he kept wanting to blow out the candles.  So he would blow it out and we would light it and then he would blow it out.  Eventually, we let him blow out all the candles and we didn't re-light them so that we could move on with the ceremony.

I also really loved the blessings that my father, mother-in-law and brother wrote and read.  And my sister participated by reading something the rabbi had written.  She said that if she had tried to read something she had written, she would have dissolved into tears.  And speaking of tears, I was so proud of myself for being able to talk about Sammy's name without crying.  My mom reminded me that although she was named after my very loved grandmother who is no longer with us, this is about a happy event and there is no reason to cry.  And so I kept that in mind when talking about Sammy.

So overall, it was a great day.  After the ceremony, we served a TON of food (as you would expect at a Jewish affair).  We had bagels (served with cream cheese, lox, tomatoes and onions), 3-bean salad, noodle kugel, asian-style cole slaw, broccoli pie, tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, fruit salad, and a vegetable platter.  And my mother-in-law brought her roasted garlic-eggplant salad and her red bean/walnut salad.  And my great uncle brought home-made challah.  For dessert, we had banana bread, mandel bread, chocolate chip cookies, rugelach and chocolate truffles (brought by my mother-in-law).  After this week, I think we've finally finished all of the leftovers.

I'll sign off with some pictures.  The first one is the money shot.  I can't believe how beautiful my little girl looks.  I love her so much.

My sister, me and my brother.

Me and hubby

My brother, Ian and my sister-in-law

My sister and Sammy

My little babies

My mother-in-law and Sammy

Our awesome family of FOUR

Ian and my dad and mom

3 months!

Sammy is 3 months old today!  According to our scale, she is 12.4 pounds.

After a full month of sleeping through the night (roughly 10 pm to 6 am), she has started waking up again around 2 or 3 am.  Oh well.  I got lucky for a month!  I'm hoping she's just going through her 3 month growth spurt and will revert to her regular pattern of sleeping through the night.

Her pooping pattern has also changed so much.  Instead of having poop during every single diaper change, she is now only pooping once every 2 to 3 days.  And man, when she poops, it FILLS the diaper.  It's good to change her right when it happens.  Otherwise it will inevitably get on her clothes and whatever she is sitting on.

She's still a super happy baby.  She'll smile at you the minute you make eye contact with her.  I could look at her forever.  I'm definitely having some mixed emotions about returning to work on August 10.

I Deserve It - The Story of the Squirrel

I like gardening and have planted quite a few bushes in the mulch beds around my house.  I also take pride in how my property looks and get great pleasure from mowing the lawn every week.  I was using the hose to water some dried out bushes yesterday when I noticed a deep hole in the mulch bed.  I thought it might be the home of a little bunny (who has been ruining my lawn by eating it and peeing on it).  So I decided to make it less hospitable and started spraying water down into the hole. After about 2 minutes, a little chipmunk surprised me by springing out of the hole and sprinting around the corner.  I was very pleased with myself for determining what lived in that hole until I rounded that same corner to realize that my garage doors were up.  And not only were my garage doors up, but while multitasking, I had inadvertently also left the door to our basement open.  Crap.  I had just left an open pathway for this little chipmunk to run right into our house.  I thought there was only a slim chance the chipmunk actually ran into the house until this morning.  I was feeding Sammy on the couch when I heard this high pitched squealing and the cat running around.  Something inside my brain went "click" and I knew then that the chipmunk was, in fact, in the house.  I went to the local hardware store and bought a Havahart trap.  When I came home and entered the house, I actually saw that little sucker running up the stairs!  So now I know for sure the rodent is in the house.  I baited the trap with some cheese and peanut butter and set it back downstairs.  I hope we catch it in the next 24 hours.  In the meantime, I looked around upstairs for the chipmunk but couldn't find it.  I did, however, find a huge old pile of cat puke under our dining room table.  Awesome!  I'm guessing that this is karma coming back to bite me.  I ruined this chipmunk's home and now he's in mine.  I deserve it.

Updated Bedrooms

I wanted to post pictures of Ian's updated big boy room.  The picture below was taken last weekend just after the bed was delivered, while Ian was taking a nap in our bed.  As soon as Ian woke up and saw it, he ADORED it.  Now, the bed is a mess because it is piled high with every single stuffed animal that Ian owns.  But he is so cute in it.  We have had no sleep issues since switching him from the crib to the big boy bed.  He wakes up very happy in the morning and chats with his stuffies and surprisingly, doesn't get out of bed until we come and get him.  This morning, I didn't get him until close to 7 am!

And here is Sammy's room.  We previously used this room as a guest room - it just had hard wood floors and white walls.  And now it is transformed into her special nursery.  Enjoy!

My dad pointed out that we really went with the stereotypical boy/girl colors and themes.  But I don't care.  If Ian loved butterflies and flowers, I would have given him butterflies and flowers.  But he loves trucks, trains and airplanes and so that's what I got him.  If Sammy expresses different preferences as she grows up, I'll accommodate that too.  But for now, this is what she gets and I love it!

Weight Loss and Big Boy Beds

Samantha is roughly 10 weeks old now and I weigh about 150 pounds.  This means I still have 7.5 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm trying to eat right and exercise but I'm finding it extremely difficult to shed the extra pounds.  It was much easier the first time around when I was, perhaps, younger and fitter.  Sigh.  I can't really diet for a couple of reason.  The first and most important reason is that I'm exclusively breastfeeding Sammy and I want to make sure I eat enough to be able to produce enough food for her.  The second reason is that I have no will power and am pretty much unable to actually diet.  I really want to get my shape back, but the pregnancy pooch is pretty bad.  I was so sick of wearing my maternity clothes so I went to Old Navy and Target and bought some cheap clothes to fit my bigger body.  I'm hoping that these clothes will be much too big to wear next summer.  I'll be going back to work in 1 month and I'm going to need to figure out what I will wear.  I have slacks with an adjustable waist band and so I think I'll try those on to see if they'll work.  Hopefully they will and then I can wear them now and as I lose weight.  Otherwise, it's time to go shopping for some size 10 pants!  Either way, I will NOT be going back to my maternity clothing.  There is someone who is 5 months pregnant at work and she has asked for my maternity wardrobe and so I am happily giving the clothes to her.

In other news, Samantha is just fantastic.  I am so in love with my baby girl.  She smiles ALL the time now and when she smiles, her whole body smiles.  Her face lights up in this little baby girl grin and her arms waggle and her legs kick and she makes a laughing-like sound.  Not only is it a blessing to have a second child, but we really hit the JACKPOT with her.  Last night, she slept from 10:45 pm until 6:15 am.  I actually started panicking this morning when my son woke us up and I still hadn't heard from her. I rushed into her room and there she was, squirming around all swaddled up in her Pack N' Play.  Totally fine.  She opened her eyes and gave me a big toothless grin.  Love.

And Ian is such a loveable little man.  We took away his crib this past Saturday and put his crib mattress on the floor with 2 side rails.  This is a temporary transition step until his real big boy bed arrives this coming Saturday.  And he LOVES it.  He is so excited to be a big boy and climb in and out of bed himself.  And thankfully, he is still sleeping through the night despite the fact that we took away his crib.  I can't wait to give him his new twin bedding.  At first I bought this because the bedding that I loved had sold out:

But then this morning, Overstock emailed me to let me know the bedding I wanted was back in stock.  So I figured it couldn't hurt to have some spare bedding.  At some point, I'm sure Ian will have some accident with bodily fluids in bed.  And so I bought this too!  It was only ~$60 (including shipping for a 5 piece set and I figured I couldn't go wrong.

I can't wait to see his face when we finally have his twin bed made this weekend.

2 months old!

Sammy is 2 months old.  My how time flies.

She continues to be a wonderfully easy baby.  Amazingly, she continued a pattern of sleeping through the night and we can now consistently get 7 hours from her...from about 10 pm to 5 am.  It's fantastic.  I don't feel the need to nap during the day and I'm sleeping well at night.  I could actually function at work if I chose to go back now, but I'm going to head back in the second week of August.  I know I've said it before, but I just can't believe how different my kids are already!  We'll see if that stays the same or changes as they grow up.

This past weekend, I had to fly solo with both kids since my husband was doing the Bike for MS ride - a 150 mile ride over 2 days.  I managed to get through the weekend with both baby and toddler intact, but it was definitely hard at times.  Last night, during dinner time, Sammy was screeching because she was hungry and Ian was giving me a hard time about eating his food.  I was exhausted from the weekend and out of patience and as I picked up Sammy to try to calm her down, I said quietly, "Sammy, just...shut...up."  I know it's awful.  And I felt horrible afterwards, especially when Ian started repeating "shut up."  Awesome.  Mother of the year award over here.  At least I didn't swear.  I told Ian that it wasn't a nice thing to say and asked him not to say it, but of course, he said it again this morning.  I'm sure it will be the first of many not-so-nice things I teach my child.

Ian is saying some really funny things lately too.  I asked him, "How much does momma love you?"  The normal answer, which I taught him, is "So much!"  The other day, he said, "Momma loves me 6."  It made me laugh pretty hard.  And he's saying some pretty complex sentences now.  He said, "When I fell down in the gym and hurt my knee they gave me a band aid."  Wow.  I mean, he's only 27 months old.  His teachers consistently talk about how verbal he is.  I'm very proud of him.

First Smiles

Sammy has started smiling.  She first started showing real social smiles around 7 weeks and now that she's 8 weeks old, I'm starting to see that smile more often and more consistently.  Here is the first smile that I was able to capture on my camera.

And and and!!!!!  She slept through the night last night.  Incredibly, at only 8 weeks of age, she slept from 10:30 pm to 5:30 am.  7 whole hours of blessed sleep for me and my husband.  I shouldn't be that excited given that nights with her aren't that bad.  Usually we're only up once with her around 3 or 4 am and after her feeding/diaper change, she falls back asleep.  I definitely cannot complain about her nighttime sleeping habits.  I am SO much less sleep deprived than I was when Ian was this age.

2011 Spring School Photos

Here are Ian's school photos.  He is 26 months old here.  So so so so so so cute!  I can't believe how good they came out and I'm so glad we thought to put him in the hand-me-down tuxedo that has been hanging in his closet for the last 2 years!  I will never understand how the photographer not only got him to pose, but also captured his real smiles.  

Fun with Colors

Sammy will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and as of yet, her eyes are still blue.  Here is a picture of her during her bath.  I think it shows off her eye color nicely.

I can't wait to see whether they stay blue or turn green.  I guess it's possible for them to turn brown, but even the doctor thought they were so blue that they would probably stay blue.

Speaking of colors, my mom bought Samantha a bunch of different colored headbands.  So I've been having a lot of fun dressing her up and putting on matching headbands.  Here are some fun pictures.

My husband thinks I'm putting her back in the 80's with the headbands, but I don't care.  This is my one and only daughter and I'm going to dress her up until she is old enough to yell at me.  

My toddler son, who is almost 27 months old now, has always had a strong will.  He is now using that will to refuse any and all clothes that we pick out for him.  So he is now picking out his own outfits, which, as you can imagine, is incredibly funny (ands slightly embarrassing).  He went to school on Friday with a white and red shirt, green plaid shorts and blue striped socks.  As long as he is happy.  :-)

Sammy is 6 weeks old!

Sammy is 6 weeks old!  I took her to the doctor yesterday for a regular checkup and her statistics are so funny:

Height:  23 inches - 92nd percentile
Weight:  9 pounds 14.3 ounces - 51st percentile
Head Circumference:  36.8 cm - 24th percentile

I guess I gave my long and skinny child my small head!!  She weighs less than my son did at this point.  He was 11 pounds 11 ounces at 6 weeks.  Then again, she started out much smaller because she was born early.

Here are some pictures we took while waiting for the doctor to come see us:

Sammy continues to be a super awesome baby.  She has gotten fussier between the hours of 5 pm and 8 pm, but overall, is very calm and happy during the day.  She hasn't been too consistent at nighttime, but the last couple of nights were fantastic.  She slept for 5 hours each night in her pack n' play and then after a diaper change and feeding, slept another 3 hours.  AWESOME for us.  I'm much much much less sleep deprived overall than I was with Ian.

I had my own 6-week checkup and am now free to do whatever I want to do.  While I cannot diet because I'm breastfeeding, I am going to increase my exercise levels.  I currently weigh 152 pounds, which leaves me with 9.5 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I think that should be manageable over the next 2 months.  Hopefully, when I start back at work at the beginning of August, I will be able to fit into my regular clothing again.  I just need to stop eating dessert!

The doctor asked me what I was planning to do for birth control.  I laughed and said my infant was birth control!  And then she said, "No, seriously.  My daughters are 13 month apart in age."  As it turns out, she had a son and then a daughter by IVF.  Then, 4 months after giving birth to her second child, she got pregnant naturally!  I can't believe I heard this story from my own doctor.  I'm not expecting that we will be able to get pregnant naturally, but I don't want to risk it either.  We are very happy with our family of four.  So I agreed to start taking a progesterone-only birth control pill (Cam.ila) (a.k.a. the minipill), which is safe for breastfeeding mothers.  I also got information about two different types of IUDs and we may go that route too.

And I leave you with the following images:

I asked my husband to take some pictures after I got my hair cut and highlighted.  I wanted to capture the prettiness before I went and got sweaty mowing the lawn!

And here is Ian, lovingly nursing Elmo on his mini-boppy pillow just like Momma nurses Sammy: