Anna is 9 weeks old today!

Anna’s stats

I wanted to post Anna’s stats from today…

Age: 2 months, 1 day

Weight: 13 lb 5.5 oz (95th percentile)

Length: 24.5 inches (OFF THE CHART – no percentile for that – ha!)

Head circumference: 40.3 cm (95th percentile)

So goes my statement that she isn’t fat… she’s hardly chubby! (She is chubby but not as chubby as Raven was as a baby!)  The doctor said that her body is just trying to keep up with her height… which explains the 6 month clothes needed for length reasons and yet she can still wear 0 – 3 month clothes around the weight… she’s just… long.  She’s longer than she is big.  But because she is so long, she feels big!  Either way, I think she’s robust to keep up with her sisters… :)

Otherwise Anna’s appointment went really well.  The doctor wants me to start bottle training her during the day (and pumping instead of breastfeeding) so that her transition to daycare isn’t so traumatic, and while I don’t like the idea because of the inconvenience of it, I can’t help but agree as she’s very Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde with the bottle.  Anna starts daycare two weeks from today.

Anna received three shots today and one vaccine via mouth/liquid.  She did really well… screamed like a banshee as expected, but recovered fairly quickly and had a really good day today.

Anyway… that’s some on Anna.  Woohoo!

erin

What happens when Daddy isn’t there…

Yesterday Anna was two months old, as I posted about last night.  I took a whole load of pictures yesterday to try and get one good one of the girls and one of Anna… but, I’ll be honest, I have a really hard time getting pictures of the girls without Adam’s help… er… entertainment.  Adam was gone this weekend for a beer event, and so I was solo with the girls.  I took them to a new park with a lake hoping this would entice them to be good for a few pictures, but it was a no go.

So this picture is an example of what I get when Daddy isn’t there to help:

Big Sister Raven was upset she didn’t get to hold Anna.

Think that one isn’t so bad?

She then turned complete away from Julia and Anna.

Why not give her the baby?  Okay.

This is the look I got and now Anna is screaming mad.  Ha!

I did get one good one of Raven, though:

We also saw a load of geese and ducks that day… THAT was a major source of amusement for the big girls.

Yah.  Raven likes to get way too close to geese.  She’s only back this far because I was yelling at her to stop.

Oh, yah, and that picture of Anna I was trying to get?  Well, let’s just say I was not too picky at that point.

Two months!

I took a load of pictures of Anna today but neglected to download them. I have a hard time grasping that Anna is already two months old and maybe by keeping those pictures on the camera one more day, she won't grow so fast.

Tomorrow we have Anna's two month appointment so I'll be sure to report some stats WITH photos.

Anna is doing well. There are more 6 mo clothes than not in her closet and last night she graduated to Size 2 diapers (only because we ran out of Size 1 and it seems silly to keep buying them when I know she fits better in Size 2). I'm curious to see what her weight is tomorrow, but even more so her length.

Hoping to find the energy to blog more in the next two weeks before I head back to work and lose all semblance of time. Lots to tell you all about!

Erin


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Our Little Trooper

Monday Julia had an allergist appointment with Colorado Allergy and Asthma Center to determine to what she’s allergic.  We were told ahead of time that the appointment would take 2.5 – 3 hours because they reviewed your history, performed the test, reviewed the results, and put together an action plan with you.

I’m very proud of Julia – she’s been handling these recent doctor visits really, really well.  No whining, no complaining, no tears – occasionally she’ll ask if she can go home now – but really, she’s been awesome.

Monday was no exception.  She hung out while I chatted with the doctor and clinician, and she was very good for her skin test – she allowed the clinician to draw on and number her back, poke her approximately 60 times with little pins, and then laid quietly and without issue on her stomach during the test while watching a movie (thank goodness for TV and DVD player in each room!).

The first test showed that Julia is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, dogs, and soy (mildly).  Because of the result of the dog for the first test, they had to do a second test with a needle to determine if she was also allergic to cats (which she is).  Again, she was awesome during that test too and did not even flinch when they stuck a needle in her arm – like, stuck it in there.

As a result of the day, Julia was given two suckers and we were told she was the best 4 year old patient they had ever had there.  I was so proud of her!

Because of the severity of the peanut and tree nut allergies (with tree nut being something we weren’t expecting which is why she reacted SO badly to the walnuts in the carrot cake a few weeks ago), we now will carry EpiPens with us for her and daycare has them too.  Here is hoping we never have to use them, but I am so thankful for this child of mine who is SO understanding.  Her new mantra is “No More Nuts!” over and over again, she asks after nuts in most every food that is foreign to her, and when we discussed the EpiPen, she understands that if she gets nuts, we have to use it, and while it might hurt, it will make her better – and she is fine with that.

It’s hard when your young kids start having to learn lessons like this.  It doesn’t seem so bad, but to have to explain things like this to your child and how she could get really, really sick without taking these precautions – it’s hard, and yet, at the same time, it’s amazing to see her level of comprehension – I simply don’t think of a 4 year old as being able to understand things like that, but yet, here she is, understanding what the EpiPen is, why we would have to use it, and being totally okay with that.

We’re also very thankful that Julia doesn’t have any fear of going to the doctor – what a Godsend.  Adam and I talked about it and really think that we have our chiropractor to thank for that – he is SO good with kids and Julia and Raven both love going to see him.  We think that because of that, Julia understands that we go to the doctor for good reasons and not for bad.  That makes dealing with this sort of thing so much easier.

erin

A picture for today…

Anna is 8 weeks old (yesterday)!

Anna was eight weeks old yesterday.  I didn’t take any pictures of her yesterday and didn’t weigh her either – mainly, we just went through the day as if it was any other day.

There is one point of significance from this week, though – I had to break out the 6 month clothes for her.  I’m really really glad that I set up her closet with all the clothes through 9 months when I first dug everything out – otherwise I would have been digging out tubs left and right.  She has gotten so long and the 3 month one-piece outfits simply are too short for her.  Crazy to think she is wearing clothes at 8 weeks that Julia didn’t wear until she was 5 months old.

Anna has her two month appointment next Monday.  Developmentally she seems to be doing well and is falling into a bit of a groove with napping and sleeping.  We need to work more with the bottle – we’re just lazy like that – so that when she starts daycare in less than three weeks, she’s ready for it.

In other news, I started back to work on intermittent FMLA yesterday – working a few hours a day.  I can’t say that I missed it.  A lot of people ask if I want to go back to work – well, there isn’t much point in answering that question or even dwelling on it because there isn’t a choice in the matter.  We already made our choice about it when we moved here – without some drastic changes, there won’t be a change.  So, it’s a question I try to avoid answering – mostly because thinking about the alternative too much is too painful.  It is what it is.

Off to start our day… but wanted to say a happy 8 weeks to my baby!

Another dress from days of yore…

This is Anna again… another dress from my box from when I was a baby.

Anna is 7 weeks old!

This is Anna today:

This is me in the same dress many, many moons ago (hard to see!):

Anna sure is a trooper.  I think this is the third time we’ve taken pictures in the last few weeks when it started to sprinkle on us when we went outside.

Here is one more picture from today – it is cute to me because she is smiling.  (Or in the process of…)

If the “Three Bears” had a picnic table…

…it would have been just the right size for Goldielocks.   Last year I took the girls to the Urban Farm in Denver and snapped a pic of a picnic table.   I forgot to have size dimensions, so I just took them from one of the girls play tables and chairs.   I went to the store with a friend to pick out treated lumber (Home Depot doesn’t sell “green” C2 anymore, just this reddish treated lumber that makes a great faux-cedar look!

Then one evening I cut and drilled all the pieces so all we needed to do was final assembly.  Thought I’d teach the oldest girl how to turn wrenches…literally.   I got the carriage bolts inserted, and Julia put washers on and screwed each nut on with a socket wrench.   Then I finished it up by screwing on the seats and table top slats.   Fin!

You can tell Julia is proud and happy to have her own “just the right sized” picnic table.  Now I just need to put a coat of watersealer and we’re done.

Prost!

ADAM