Heidi Update

Amazingly enough, I have all three kids down for a nap (Benjamin is playing in his room, but close enough).  So I thought I'd use this lovely alone time to give a few mini-blog updates on Heidi.  Yesterday marked her 5 weeks of life.  Sometimes I can't believe it has already been a month, other times I feel like she's been here forever.  Here are some things that are going on with her...(forgive me for being wordy)


Reflux Redux

Things with Heidi seemed to be moving along smoothly.  Sure, she was a bit fussy.  In fact, if she wasn't sleeping or eating, she often looked like this

But she seemed to be sleeping well at night and eating fine, so we just figured she didn't much like being awake.  I thought she might have some gas issues, so I cut down on my milk, tried some fancy gripe water and just dealt with it.  Actually, compared to the craziness with the other two, she was the least stressful.  But mid last week things took a turn.  The first warning came when she started throwing up across the room.  Benjamin spit up quite a large volume, but Heidi put him to shame.  I'm talking 4 feet distance with several heaves.  Pretty disconcerting with such a little one.  Then came the crying during nursing.  We'd seen all this before with Lacey.  So we took her to the doctor to confirm she has acid reflux.  Oh joy.  We were hoping not to have to deal with this again, but alas.  She's now on medicine.  The projectile vomiting has stopped as well as the difficult feedings, but she is still proving to be a bit of a fussy pants.  No one's perfect I guess.


Sleeping Like a Baby

I'm not sure how this phrase started.  It doesn't make much sense since it's supposed to mean sleeping well and everyone knows no baby sleeps well...that is, no baby except for mine.  Heidi has more than made up for her fussiness by sleeping extremely well.  Since she was born, I started out her night time routine around 11pm.  That way I could capitalize on her long block of sleep.  Towards the end of the first week she would sleep until 3 or 3:30am.  Sometimes she would even sleep as late as 5:30ish.  Much better than I expected.  She gradually started wanting to be put down earlier, and I was able to smoothly move her bedtime routine up a little at a time with her still sleeping til at least 3:30.  This last week she was going to bed around 8:30pm and not waking til 4am.  I was a little worried last night because she acted tired at 7:30.  I figured I'd have to wake a little earlier, so Brian and I tried to get to bed earlier to make it easier on me.  This was not necessary.  Much to my surprise, Heidi did not wake up until 7am.  At 5 weeks old, I am amazed at how well she sleeps.  I'm not expecting an awesome night like that again tonight, but you never know.  At least it's a sign that she could be sleeping through the night in the next few weeks.  Woo Hoo!  Then comes the hurdle of moving her into the bedroom with Lacey.  That's gonna be interesting.

Mommy Walk

Last week (I am really slow to blog these days) two of my college roommates,Theresa and Kelli, came over for a walk.  It just so happened that all of us ended up pregnant at the same time, each a month apart.  Kelli had Jackson in March, I had Heidi in April, and Theresa is currently in labor as I am making this post (go Theresa!). 

Everyone had to wait a little for me to get myself and the kids ready, but we were able to enjoy a walk together with our kids.  The weather was partly cloudy, which was perfect for having a baby strapped to you.  Not too hot or cold.  We ended up at Safeway, where we enjoyed Subway sandwiches for lunch and Sbux for the walk back.  Lacey is in the habit of taking her sandwiches apart, so I had to do a bit of juggling with our two sandwiches and Heidi in the carrier.  I ended making a huge mess, even dropping some veggies on Heidi, but Lacey and I ended up fed so that's all that matters. 

Even though we only spent a few hours together and didn't do anything fancy, it was such a blessing for me to spend some time with friends.  The kids do so much better when they have something to do, and I do so much better when I can hang out with someone other than the kids.  I feel very lucky that we all had babies so close to each other so we will be able to spend some time together while they are on maternity leave. 

Mothers Day

Normally when Brian tries to surprise me I manage to ruin it in some way. Either I wake up when he's trying to get breakfast ready, ask too many questions when he's trying to be sneaky, or find some other way to mess it up on accident.

This time he was able to plan a successful surprise. I did wake up to find he was already up, but I just assumed he had gotten up with one of the kids to let me sleep in and went back to sleep. A few minutes later he and Benjamin came into the room with a strawberry Belgian waffle and vanilla latte. They had gone out to get a nice breakfast and coffee without me noticing. The kids (minus Heidi) joined us in bed and we all enjoyed breakfast together.

Heidi had also given me a nice gift by going from 10:15pm to 5:45 between feeds. Feeling well rested and full bellied, I was able to take a long, hot, uninterrupted shower while Brian entertained the kids. When I came out to the family room I was greeted with some cards from the kids and a fancy mirror I had been eyeing for a while. We had brunch down in Tacoma with Brian's family. The kids all behaved themselves despite the hours of sitting still. When we got back home, we enjoyed the nice weather by going to the park.

I took the opportunity to put Heidi in a dress. The barrette was a little silly, but I couldn't resist. Overall it was a very nice Mother's Day. Beautiful weather, nice surprises and well behaved kids. What else could I ask for?

(I apologize for the messy format. For some reason whenever I tried to move stuff around it would delete pictures. So I just stopped messing with it and this is how it turned out.)

The Sweeter Side of Benjamin

I've found the best place to put Heidi when I need to take my shower is in her crib. Benjamin won't go in there if the door is closed, Lacey can't open it, and even if she could she can't get to Heidi. This gives me some peace of mind that she will be undisturbed while I steal a few minutes for myself.

Today was a bit of an exception. I couldn't get Benjamin to leave the room after I put Heidi down. He was really concerned about leaving Heidi. He absolutely did not want her to be alone. I wasn't too thrilled about him climbing in the crib with her, but I decided he was being pretty sweet and nurturing so why try to squash it. He was a good little care taker. He made sure her music box kept playing and gave her a pacifier when she got a little fussy.


He gave her lots of kisses and gentle touches.

And he even read her some stories (although by this point she was completely conked out).

Lacey was totally jealous and wanted to get in the crib with them, but there's no way I would trust her to be careful enough. So poor Lacey had to find something else to do.

Not being up in the crib made her pretty angry though, so when Benjamin did get out she decided to take out her anger on him with a couple of hits. We have been struggling with her hitting lately, so poor Lacey ended up getting her first time out ever. Mean Mommy took a picture of her misery.

This adjusting to a new baby phase can get pretty stressful sometimes. I'm hoping it doesn't last too long, but I'm sure that's wishful thinking.

Sibling Love

There must be some physiological bond between siblings somewhat like what happens between parent and child. Lacey and Benjamin, but especially Lacey, are very drawn to Heidi. Benjamin is often asking where the baby is and wanting to play with her as soon as she opens her eyes. Lacey wants to hold the baby any chance she can, cries when she isn't able to, and is constantly trying to give Heidi hugs and kisses. I just always thought that siblings learned to love each other simply because they are stuck with each other, but the way the kids are so into Heidi makes me think there is a little something more to it than that. Below are just a few of the cuddles that occurred this last week.

Coming Home

We ended up having to stay in the hospital for an extra day for observation because I wasn't able to get enough antibiotics before Heidi was born. Brian and I were anxious to get home, and thankfully our discharge went fairly quickly. We were able to leave at noon. Heidi wore her new panda outfit and the white hat that both Benjamin and Lacey wore home from the hospital.

Heidi did great in the car. She slept the whole time and we were even able to make a quick stop to Babies R Us on the way. Hopefully she will continue to enjoy riding in the car.

Lacey and Benjamin were very excited to see the baby when we got home. We had to keep a close eye on Lacey because she hasn't quite figured out how to be gentle with Heidi yet. She kept trying to rock the carseat, hug the baby by laying on her, and give kisses and pats. I don't know how, but Heidi sleeps through most of it.

My mom was able to spend some time with the baby and help us with the other two before heading back to California the next day.

Benjamin also was able to get his cuddles in too. He is a bit more experienced in the baby holding department, so it wasn't as nerve racking to have him hold her. He did really well, but unlike Lacey, he was done after a few seconds.

Meeting the new addition

We couldn't tell who she looked like at first. She definitely has Brian's mouth and my furrowed brow, but it's still hard to tell. After looking at baby pictures of Benjamin and Lacey, she looks much more like her big brother. So for now we're thinking she might look more like Daddy.

The kids were a little crazy but very excited about the baby. Both of them wanted to hold her right away and Lacey even cried when Heidi was taken away. They did a good job sitting through lots of picture taking and Heidi was alert and calm during the whole frenzy.


Brian and his girls
.

Lacey displayed her first bout of jealousy when Daddy was holding Heidi. She insisted on being held too, so Brian had to do some juggling.






Jessica and the 3 crazy kids



I had thought about how crazy it was going to be when Heidi arrived, but it really started to become apparent as I was trying to gently hold Heidi while Benjamin and Lacey climbed all over me. With two highly active kids and a newborn, life is definitely going to be interesting.