Togetherness

Keepin' it real

We made a couple trips to Ikea in the past week. Jude's favorite things at Ikea are the $1 ice cream cone and doing tricks in the shopping cart. See evidence below.

Little Things: Ada, One Month

Ada is one month old today. The last week with her has been a pleasure, in large part due to a much-needed visit from Ama (my mom). Ama took all of the night shifts while she was here, giving E Ben as much sleep as he needed and me as much sleep as it was possible for me to have in between nursing sessions. Her five days (and almost more importantly, six nights) were very restorative for our family.

Ada is growing like a weed. She has gained a pound in the last two weeks, and is right around nine pounds at this point. She is nursing very well and starting to develop an approximate schedule. I'm most happy about the fact that she is doing a lot better at night, going about four hours between feedings (and occasionally five hours) and only crying a little bit while falling back to sleep at night. She is still mostly sleeping on or next to one of us at night, but she is doing better at sleeping during the day in her swing or sometimes in the bassinet.

Ada has had her first social smiles in the last week. During her alert periods she is very interested in people and activities, especially enjoying the faces of the people she knows best. Ada and Jude also have a nice connection. She likes it when he spends time with her, reading her books or holding her hand. The two of them in the crib together is really cute.

Size-wise, Ada is out of both newborn and size 1 diapers - we are now using the size 1-2 and they fit well. She is filling out the newborn size clothes well, and starting to be able to fit into some of the 0-3 month outfits. We mostly dress her in sleepers, although Ama put her in a few cute ensembles while she was here.

All in all, Ada seems to be doing just what a baby of her age should be doing. She is eating a little less frequently (but each feeding is larger), starting to recognize the difference between daytime and nighttime, and sleeping for longer stretches at night. She also has a few fussy periods each day, which is only to be expected as she approaches the "six-week maximum fussy age". She is best soothed by swaddling, movement, and being held close. Wrapping her up and taking her for a walk in the sling pretty much always does the trick. She has no interest in pacifiers and spits them out in disgust when we offer one to her. Ada is spending more time awake and alert and seems to be taking in the world around her.

Here are a few photos from the past week.

Ada studies Jude's "Big Brother" book in his crib one morning.

A little bit of tummy time on top of Jude. He loves being close with the baby and thinks that she is so funny.

Sleeping in Ama's arms. She did a lot of that in the last week!

Another asleep pose. She likes to have her arms up around her face while sleeping - if she falls asleep unwrapped.

Little Things: Jude, 21 Months

It's been a big month for Jude. Here are a few of the highlights.

Big Brother: Jude became a big brother this month, and he has taken to it really well. He loves his little sister, and always wants to hold her and know where she is. Lately, she has been joining him in his crib after naps and he reads his books to her. It is pretty cute. Sometimes he asks me to put the baby down and pick him up, but that is pretty much the only time he seems to mind that Ada is around. He is very interested in the fact that she gets to drink a lot of milk (since he is still obsessed with milk himself) and makes sure to tell everyone that Ada drinks milk from Mum.

Counting: Jude has developed a real interest in numbers during the past month. He seems to have a good grasp of the concept of one (UN) and two (TOO). After that, it gets a little bit hazy, but he will continue to count (with prompting) up to five (SHREE, FOR, FIVE). Then he skips to EIGHT, TEN, and THIRTEEN. For example, every morning he asks for TOO FAFFLES and sometimes for TOO EGGS. Sometimes it is SHREE EGGS, especially if he thinks someone else might be sharing with him. When we go outside to play, he likes to find FIVE rocks to carry over to the trees and throw them. For a while, UN was one, and TOO was anything more than one. I think that phase has passed, but it is hard to tell how much he really understands at this point.

Friends and Pillows: Jude has become attached to a few more toys and stuffed animals around the house in the past month. He also has started giving everyone a name. His absolute favorite is BUBBY, the gorilla golf head cover. He also really likes SHOOPER, a skater doll from Terry. Another favorite is STEW BUNNY, an Easter basket gift. All of these friends have to be in bed with him when he naps or goes to sleep at night. He also has grown to love pillows. Every night he asks for the pink, blue, BIG, and TINY pillows in his crib with him. Sometimes I wonder if he's going to use all of these pillows and friends to climb out of the crib, but so far the thought doesn't seem to have crossed his mind.

Singing: Jude has really started participating in our family music time in the past month. He has several favorite songs, including CHEESE (On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese), PUFF (Puff, the magic dragon) and SUNSHINE (You are my sunshine). He'll sing along and (if you give him enough time) he will sing the last word of most of the lines of the songs he knows. He also loves to sing the LI-LA-LI's from The Boxer.

Here are a few photos (not in chronological order) from the last month.

Jude brought his friend HOPPY-HOPPY to Multnomah Falls with us. HOPPY lives in the car, and is often asked to drive the car or play hide and seek while we're on the road.

The other day after reading Green Eggs and Ham, Jude ran into the kitchen as asked for TOO EGGS HOT. E Ben decided that he wanted some green eggs, although we agreed later that he might not even know what "green" means at this point.

Jude has been spending a lot of time at Nee-Nee's HOUSE lately, and enjoys blowing dandelions around the field (just what she always wanted).

We've discovered a new park this month (Lair Hill) which has a big field, playground, and tennis courts. Jude approves.

Play date with Cousin Justus at the Hoyt Arboretum A-Frame.

He still loves to wear Daddy's shoes. Lately he wants to put my shoes on me and his own shoes on himself. He also loves to put socks on his hands and play puppets.

This one is from the hospital. Jude snatched the hat off the baby and put it on his own head. This was the day she was born.

Labor Preparation

After two positive labor experiences, a few people have asked me what I did (if anything) to prepare.

One thing I wish we had done differently was pack our bags for the hospital a little sooner. I had made a list, but it was the kind of list that would be useful to jog my memory, not to tell E Ben what to put in the bags (or where to find these things). We spent a kind-of-uncomfortable 20 minutes with me lying on the bed and him running around saying "What did you mean by 'medications'? Where can I find your nursing bras? What is a nursing pad?". There are a few things that had to wait until the very end, but most of it could have been packed a lot sooner.

Here is a short rundown of things I did while pregnant with Ada:

• Prenatal Yoga: I took a series of classes at Amrita during the third trimester. The classes were a great opportunity to spend a little bit of time focusing on the coming baby instead of the toddler who was almost always front and center. I think that the stretching and strengthening both helped during labor. I did some yoga videos on my own with Jude, but taking a class which focused on pregnant women seemed to do more for me.
• Prenatal Massage: I had really bad back pain in the third trimester with Jude, so this time I had a prenatal massage every few weeks (from Angella at Unwind Massage, who is the best, by the way) starting in the first trimester. For the last few weeks of pregnancy, I was going in weekly. I think this made a huge difference in my comfort level and ability to sleep this time. I had some prenatal massages last time at another spa, but Angella's were much better.
• Swimming: I swam once or twice a week when I could find the time (mostly just in the last six weeks). I think swimming is the best exercise while pregnant, but it is also fairly effortless for me since I'm already a decent swimmer. For someone who finds swimming difficult, this might not be as relaxing.
• Sleeping Pills: By the time I gave birth to Jude, I was so exhausted from not sleeping well during the third trimester, and that made both labor and the first few weeks a lot harder than they had to be. This time I took half an Ambien pretty much every night for the last two months of pregnancy. This helped so much. I was actually able to sleep at night and get through the days without being completely exhausted. I also think it helped during labor for me to be well-rested.
• Red Raspberry Leaf Tea: This tea is supposed to strengthen your uterus and make contractions more "focused" (according to this article and others). I drank a cup a day during the third trimester. I also continued to drink a cup a day during the first few weeks postpartum as this is supposed to help reduce bleeding and return your uterus to its normal size more quickly.
• Evening Primrose Oil: This is another natural labor induction herb which prepares your cervix for labor. I took EPO starting at 37 weeks, beginning with 500 milligrams a day, and ramping up to 2000 mg/day over the course of about a week.
• Childbirth Classes: With Jude, we took a class at the hospital and didn't particularly enjoy it. This time, I re-read the childbirth book but we didn't take any classes. After all, it had been less than two years since the last time we had a baby, and it didn't seem like much had probably changed in that time. It worked out fine, although on the actual night I wished I knew for sure which floor to go to at the hospital and I also wished that we had done a dry run of where to park. I had to give directions between contractions and that was a little stressful.

Like I said, I don't know if any of these things contributed significantly to my positive labor experience, but I wanted to share before I forgot what I did! I think that there is no harm in trying any of these things, and they may help.

Eyes, Two

Maybe we have a crappy camera, or maybe we just don't take enough close-up photos, but I feel like we have yet to get a really good shot of Jude's eyes. I've been studying them lately, and I think they're really beautiful. I've also been struck recently by his eyelashes - thick and black, it looks like he goes through lots of Maybelline.

Anyway, here was the best I could do this week. Jude was not exactly being cooperative when it came to close-up shots of his eyes. In fact, we had our first tug-of-war over the camera. Please ignore the crumbs.

This one is a little dark, but you can see how HUGE his eyes are compared to the rest of his face (which is not exactly small).

And here's a mediocre shot of Ada's eyes. Hers are a much lighter blue than Jude's were at this age, so I think there is some chance that she will end up with blue eyes. Her hair is also getting lighter by the day, so we could have a towhead on our hands.

"Eyes, Two" is a common phrase around our house these days. Every time Jude holds the baby, he points out all of her body parts along with a commentary on how many she has. Like, "eyes, two" and "nose, un" and "hansss, two". Then he laughs when she waves her hands at him, and runs off to the next activity.

Top of the Falls

This morning, we somehow got out of the house at 8am for a trip to Multnomah Falls for breakfast and a hike.

Jude and Daddy at the bottom of the falls (on the bridge).

Ada and Mum at the top.

Along the way, we stopped for some stump-climbing and river-splashing.

A very fun day, one of our best so far as a family of four...