Preparing for 2

We hit the last trimester today, in doing so, I am reflecting on how unprepared I felt when we brought Elizabeth home. Not physically or with tangible things, but with the "4th trimester".  Sleep deprivation, managing it all, feeding, clothing and cleaning myself, let alone another human being made for some tears, overwhelming and pure exhaustion. 

I thought it would never get easier, but here I am, relaxing over a hot cup of coffee, having given myself a pedi, finished 2 loads, put away groceries, ordered Christmas cards, researched photo stuff that I needed to find an alternate print lab, cleaned out the fridge, put up some Christmas decorations, cut the hair and strings off the underside of the vacuum spinner, eaten & showered (huge bonus!) and enjoyed a quiet moment as E sleeps. It did get easier - much to my own amazement. :)

So...with 2. I'm taking the survival approach. Whatever we need to do to survive. I hope my dear husband can live off crummy food, wrinkled (hopefully clean) clothes and a narcoleptic wife for a few months.  I really can't imagine having 2 kids to do everything twice though. I look around and see other people everywhere doing it (somehow).  I guess the lesson to print out for my wall and paste on every flat surface in my house is: "It does get easier...whether you believe it or not!"

Happy Halloween!



How cute that they match?!



Overdue

Wow - sorry for the overdue posting here - I'm going to have to make it short, since Ellie's on her way up from a nap. 

I realized it's been almost a month since I last posted!  Crazy. Quick synopsis of the big things that have come and gone:

• Trip to Germany and Austria (basically the reason I went missing on the blog for a month). Lots of funny stories from this trip that deserve their own post.
• Baby play dates that get so much better each week!  Because the 'play' date actually involves 'playing.'
• Dave has been shooting a LOT. So there's lots of post production that I need to get on - thus, my time normally spent blogging went toward my 'other job'. Which I enjoy just as much, albeit keeping me away from my fun social avenues. :(
• Switching rooms around in the house so that Ellie now has almost an entire room to be safe and play in.  I'm sure the commitment to the kid is much to Annie's chagrin, but it's nice that I can be in the kitchen and keep an eye on her destruction.
• David has been super Dad.  He took on watching Ellie all day yesterday from awakening to nearly  sleeping - he was exhausted when I got home and said, "I don't know how you do it every day." (HUGE GRIN HERE)
• She's started sleeping through the night!
• Nana visited and saved Mama on a few occasions.
• Oh yea, and we're pregnant!

All of these items deserve their own post, so I'll have to get on that!

Glad to be back!

xoxo

wonderfully delightful compliments

I was sharing some of the surprisingly wonderful compliments my husband has showered me with.  Two years ago, I would have laughed at women thinking these kind words would melt their hearts and well up the eyes with some light tears.

• "The house looks amazing!"
• "I didn't expect such good food." (in response to nice surprises about marriage)
• "Great job on the bushes!" (I trimmed them)
• "Look at Mary's awesome garden."

Who knew?!?! Honestly, I feel such confidence and self worth when I hear things like this.  Yes, it seems super lame to you single people.  Just wait.  Your hearts will light up when your husbands/wives dole out special 'nothing' compliments too.  

Date Night!

We had the most incredible date night. My parents offered to watch Elizabeth, and Dave decided we'd head to the Mann Music Center (an outdoor half shell amphitheater).

One of our favorites was playing with the Philadelphia Orchestra behind him. Chris Botti, the trumpet master, himself. Awesome show!  Beautiful weather.  I wanted to sit on the lawn rather than in the seats underneath the partial roof.  We packed a picnic basket of red wine, pellegrino, asiago, sharp cheddar, roasted garlic hummus, garlic naan, baby carrots, red grapes, and a cobb salad (with ranch dressing for my awesome husband)!

We kicked our shoes off and spread our blanket - hearing Chris Botti under the stars and with a city skyline in the background...it just doesn't get better. 

So grateful.

Apparently not pooping for 6 days isn't really a problem.

Not for adults, but for breast fed babies it's a milk production situation that works itself out. Who knew?!

The first time she hadn't gone in I think it was 4 days. I was driving home from my parents' house and frantically called Dave's cell. He was outside building a shed, so he wasn't able to get any of my 7 methods of communication. (voicemails, texts, screams-just kidding about the screams.) I was just begging him to go get prune juice for me to drink. He said I was yelling at him when I got home. I didn't think that I was, just merely talking loud enough so he could hear me over the wailing.

He encountered another Dad in the prune juice section who was all too happy to share some advice. He indicated that they gave their child prune juice, in a ratio of 2 (water): 1 (prune juice) as early as 4 months.  Since we were right at 4 months, David came home and shared the vast knowledge obtained in the juice aisle with his frantic wife. 

So we mixed up the potion and she gobbled it up!  Here's the hindsight.  The poor baby was HUNGRY.  I've since learned, and it makes perfect sense, that babies grow a lot around 4-5 months.  They need more food and so if they're being breastfed, the supply needs to crank up to meet demand.  When she's not pooping, it means she's not eating enough, which is also why she seems terribly upset and wails in stomach pain - it's called hunger.  I had no idea, so of course, I gave her more prune juice - which she continued to lap up (again, clearly hunger, but what did I know?!)  Then I learned part 2 of the prune juice encounter: gas.  It's the smelly stank of putrid. I kept mistaking the gas for her poop, but it wasn't so.  The poor child had awful gas.

Lesson Here: our bodies are meant to work - let them. :)

Dinnertime

Dinner time rolls around and it's such fun to plan.

Having people to cook for always makes it fun, but having a husband to feed makes it better. Last week I threw a chicken cacciatore into the awesome crock pot that Jenn & Ryan Trymbiski got us. It was perfect for summer, since we didn't have to use the stove/oven to cook, and we knew there was a yummy meal waiting for us. It's also great for me to throw together so that he has food waiting if I'm going to be late.

Starting Out

Our growing new family is such a source of pride for me. I feel full, proud and happy.