6 1/2 weeks old!

Here is an email I sent out last week and because I don't have everyone's email addresses I thought I'd post it here...

I apologize for not updating the blog sooner... I have been busy with Christmas Shopping in the afternoons and Sophia keeps me hopping when she's awake during the day!

Sophia is 6 1/2 weeks... time is flying by! She is sleeping much better. Will usually go down about 7:30-8pm and will wake between midnight and 1am for feed then go back down until 4:30-5:30am. She'd like to start her day around then, however I'm not quite ready!! I can usually get her back down around after an hour and a bit and she and I will sleep until Daddy goes to work at 8:00.

She is starting to smile alot and has even giggled for her Daddy. She LOVES to watch her big sister... and inturn Anika LOVES to play with Sophia and has become a really good babysitter when Mommy needs to jump into the shower in the morning. Anika was amazed that Sophia wasn't going to bite her fingers off when she tried to put her soother back in, so as soon as Sophia starts to fuss, big sister flies in and comes to the rescue! Anika also asked if she could change Sophia's diaper, even after hearing the horror stories of Sophia pooping all over Mommy and even Gramma!! I wish I had my camera with me when the diaper changed happened because Anika was holding her nose with one hand and wiping Sophia's bum with the other! All went well and I'm sure it won't be long before she asks to do it again. Anika also likes to hold Sophia and burp her after she has had a snack! She's such a proud big sister, always kissing and hugging her baby, and singing songs about Sophia! Who would have thought she'd love a baby as much as she does now, when 8 months ago she was mad because she didn't want a sibbling!

I had Sophia weighed yesterday at the clinic and our little pork chop is 10lbs 7oz!! She has nearly gained 4lbs in 6 weeks!! She still has all her dark brown hair, blue eyes, and her skin has stayed a nice olive color. Its nice that she got something from my side of the family... hopefully she keeps the nice dark skin like my Dad had. Speaking of her olive skin... Anika asked us "why isn't Sophia's skin white like mine, Mommy's or Daddy's"!!! LOL..

Well that's about it. Will update soon! We are going to see Santa, hopefully Friday morning. Will post the picture of the girls as soon as I get it scanned :)

Click on the photo to enlarge

Live from the trenches...

Here I am, live from the trenches at 4:08am.

Sophia must have heard us when we said that she might be sold because, she has made a 180 degree turn. Last night she had a bath, was fed and put down in her crib at 7:45pm to sleep. When Gramma phoned at 8:40 she wondered what was happening over here... were we getting ready to battle things out in room #3?? When I said that Sophia was in her bed... she asked "all alone?"... um yes... I won't fit in the crib without the bottom and mattress crashing to the floor. Well... our little Princess #2, slept until 11:30!!!!!!!!!! Yes - you read that right from 7:40-11:30 and if you do the math ~ that is nearly FOUR HOURS!!! Of course my girls (yes my boobs) were ready to explode but I can deal with that! So after Sophia had an explosive poop all over the change table and me (this kid has to make something difficult for us), and Mom... this one was worse than the one you experienced... she went back to sleep with in minutes after her feed. Now it can't happen twice you say??? Guess what... she woke up at 3:45am which is nearly 4 hours again for her night feed.

I feel like a new woman. I'm just waiting for her to fall back asleep then I'll be hitting the bed myself. Maybe Sophia loves her crib... who knew???

Til the next feed... I'm a happier Mommy!!!

Hi... My name is Sophia...

and I'm a boob-a-holic.

I'm at my witts end. We need to find her a support group to help her with her addiction. Don't get me wrong... I am sooo happy that breast feeding is going so well, but at night it would be great if she could go a little longer than 2 hours. I thought feeding every 2 1/2 hours was hard. Sophia has now put on her game face and is eating every 2 hours which has cut my sleep time down considerably.... which makes Mommy a raving lunitic at times.

If I hear that "so and so's baby" is sleeping 7 hours straight and is only 7 weeks old I might scream and sell little Sophia. She's very cute and will have you wrapped around her little finger immediately... but when the clock strikes 11pm its time to pop the devil horns, fuss, grunt, cry, poop, "spit my soother further than you could ever imagine a 4 week old baby spitting" and everything else that goes along with it.

Adrian is off today. Last night he was quite helpful or as helpful as he could be with the devil in room #3. I fed Sophia at 1am, and put her down in her bassinett in our bedroom. That didn't last long before the noises started so I moved her. I decided to see if Sophia would give us all a better sleep if she wasn't in our room. She is a very vocal baby, with all of her sounds and we thought that maybe we were keeping her up by jumping to her every sound. So last night was going to be the first night she would spend in her crib. She'd suck her soother feverishly and it would pop out. Helpless as she is, she couldn't get it back in her mouth. So after 15 trips to room #3, Adrian told me to stay in bed and get some sleep... he would battle it out until at least 3am. I dosed off and on. At 2:30am I heard him mumble something like... "maybe if I duct tape the soother in, she'll stay asleep." LOL... someone else feels my frustration... FINALLY!! I asked him to bring her into our bed. To be honest, I can't recall what happened at that point.. did I feed her? did she calm down? I'm not sure... I do know that I was up with her from 4am-5:30am as she couldn't settle and gets herself into such a rage.

For those of you tht have spent any time with Sophia, you have heard her grunting when she's working on a poop or gas. I have eliminated anything that would bother her little tummy and we still deal with this. I'm going to pick up oval drops today to see if they will work. We have also tried putting the soother back in her mouth when she wakes at night to see if see if she is actually hungry, or just needs to suckle to settle herself down.... it gave me an extra 45 minutes, but she was so angry when she woke up that it took me over an hour to get her settled AFTER she ate!!! So if you have any suggestions please email me at kathrynheidinger@gmail.com

Will post some pictures as soon as I get some new ones up loaded.

Sophia's first 3 weeks of life in pictures...

Here is a Sophia's first 3 weeks of life....
(click on picture to enlarge)

Our Little Sophia

Sorry for the delay in the update, Sophia has been a little more demanding of my time than Anika ever was. She is a fantastic baby, with a completely different personality than Anika's. Its amaazing how quickly their personality comes through. Where Anika was laid back and would sleep anywhere and everywhere, Sophia only wants to be with Adrian or myself. She'd rather sleep on the cold leather sofa than sleep in her nice warm cozy crib or bassinette. She also eats every 2 1/2 hours, which in theory is fantastic - she's a champ and has breast feeding down pat... but that means not much sleep for me. 2 1/2 hours seems pretty reasonable for a baby BUT.. in that 2 1/2 hours, she eats for 20 minutes, then gets a diaper change, then put back to sleep which means I was getting anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour of sleep, then it starts all over again. Needless to say, I was and still am a walking zombie. I did try to nap in the afternoons when Anika was at school but so many things were racing through my mind that needed to get done (laundry, dinner, appointments etc), that I couldn't fall asleep until 2:00 or a little after and I had to be up by 3pm to get Anika from the bus. I do have to say that I really appreciated the meals that were brought over for us. As much as I hate to ask for help, these were sooo appreciated.

Anika is doing really well adjusting to her little baby sister. She often will give her a kiss on the forhead, or shush her or even tell us how much Sophia's fussing is annoying her!! Ahhhh.... true sisterly love!!

As mentioned above, Sophia has mastered the art of breastfeeding, which shouldn't be hard when you saddle up to the boobie bar 9-10x per day!! When Sophia was born she weighed 6lbs 12oz... the day we left the hospital (day 3) she weighted 6lbs 7oz... then the day that the Health Care Nurse came for a visit (day 8) she weighed 7lbs 1oz... then today at day 21, Sophia had her 3 week appointment and she weighs NINE POUNDS 4 OUNCES!!!! She is my chunky monkey!! Her thighs are getting rolls in them, she now has 2 chins and is working on her 3rd (LOL)... even her arms are getting a little fatter. She has also grown 2 1/2 inches!! LOL. No wonder her little newborn diapers were getting tight on her :)

She is making all kinds of noises.. most of which sound like farm animals. Two of her favorites are the goat and the monkey. I'm hoping to get some of these sounds on video. She's starting to throw some smiles our way which is soooo much fun and rewarding. She'll follow your facial expression and copy if you can hold attention long enough. She's been doing this for about a week. If you make an "o" shape with your mouth, she'll do the same... if you then stick your tongue out, she'll stick her tongue out. Adrian told me that I was crazy when I told him she was doing this until the other night when I caught him in her room in the glider, and he was blinking at her and she was repeating the number of blinks he was doing. What smart, cute babies we make :)

Well that's about it right now... I will try to update more in the next few days/week but finding a moment that I'm not feeding Sophia, tending to Anika, trying to get a shower in or trying to keep the house in some sort of order is far and few between... Thanks for waiting... she's worth it :)

Sophia's Gabrielle's Birth Story...

Wow!!! Are we glad to be home!

I'm going to start this post with a little bit about Sophia's birth story...

We went into the hospital on Monday morning for our c-section. We were told to be there at 7:15am to get checked in, meet with Anestesia and Dr. Seager, then have the c-section at 9:15. Well - 9:15 came and went and we had not yet met Dr. Seager. I guess they are a little behind! Turns out we were bumped 3x because of emergencies. Around 12:15, they came and got me to bring me over to the L&D operating room waiting area. Around 12:40, Irene the nurse who would be in the c-section came to get me to have my IV put in and my spinal block, then she'd get Adrian and the fun would begin.

The c-section was definately an exerience... which is making me think that I might do this again! It was absolutely incredible. Little miss Sophia wasn't quite ready to come meet us, as when they went to pull her out, she scooted up higher into my ribs and they had to use the vaccuum to get her out!!! Little bugger!!

She looks just like Anika when she was born EXCEPT for the full head of dark hair!! She does have a few patches of really blonde hair in the back, so I'm sure the dark hair will fall out and she'll be blonde just like her sister :)

We are home now from the hospital and it feels so good to be a family again. Anika has tomorrow (Friday) off of school so depending on how I feel we might go get some groceries. Its important for Anika that we all do things together so we'll see what happens :)

Here are a few pictures of little Sophia... we love her soooo much!! (click to enlarge)