5 months on Friday!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am that person.

So I always said I would never be the person who said "I'm too busy for Xanga, so find me on Facebook instead..." But now I realize that's exactly what I've been doing! I don't have the time to sit down and write up a post, so it all gets condensed into 2-sentence blurbs on my Facebook status. Plus it's so much easier to upload pictures there, that I just don't have the motivation to upload them here too. But I know I'll regret it eventually, so I figured I should spend the time getting caught up. I figured I'd go back through my Facebook statuses (stati? statusi?) and basically do a bullet post to get caught up.

• It was soooooooo hot for a while here. We still aren't using our A/C, but it's been much more tolerable lately. For a while, we spent every possible second down in the cool basement. But with fewer toys and no food, it was limited!
  
  
• Marissa had a long stretch of time where she kept waking us up at (or before) 7am - and it was miserable. Finally, I managed to teach her to look for the number 7 in the first spot on her digital clock, and now we've moved on to the 8. She's allowed to get up and play in her room, but can't come out (except to go potty) until that magic number!
  
  
• I got a bunch of money for my birthday, and had a BLAST spending it all as fast as I could. Lol. Shopping is just so much fun for me, and in our money-saving kick, I haven't been able to do it in a while! I got a bunch of clothes for myself (desperately needed!) and a few decor items for our house (desperately wanted!) and it was so much fun!
  
  
• Arianna has been teething for several weeks now. I am shocked by this for a few reasons. First of all, it's pretty early! But mostly I'm shocked because Marissa didn't even make a peep for any of her teeth! Arianna has been a drooling, sucking, chewing mess! And just in the last few days, she's all of a sudden snotty and runny and all stuffed up in her nose. I've had to use the Blue Ball of Death several times, because she can barely breathe when she's nursing, so I feel like I just can't do anything to make her feel better! Somehow she manages to breathe just fine when she wants to suck her fingers though!
  
  
• We've had a few storm/tornado watches, and they always freak me out. I LOVE that our house has a basement, but if we're all sleeping upstairs I just don't trust any of us to wake up to the tornado sirens! I think very soon I will be investing in an emergency weather radio for my sanity.
  
  
• Arianna's been sleeping wonderfully still. She always sleeps 12 hours at night. For about a week now, she's been waking up once or twice to nurse, but always goes right back to sleep. I don't mind at all, since I've been getting enough sleep since she was born! I think it's probably related to her teeth/nose issues.
  
  
• I told Marissa that Michael Jackson sings "songs on the radio" (now sure how else to define him?) and her response was "is he scary?" I laughed. I ended up flipping on his memorial service, but I was so disgusted by it! Sure he was famous, and impacted the music world greatly. But he was NOT a god or an idol, and it was just sickening how people spoke of him that way.
  
  
• Marissa still cracks us up. For example, she is still stuck on having a baby brother! I really don't know where she came up with the idea, but she is persistent!

me: I don't want to eat your crust today. I'm all done eating.

Marissa: Is your belly all full?

me: Yup.

Marissa: Did God put another baby in your belly?

me: No, not yet.

Marissa: Why?

me: Because we already have a baby. Arianna is still a baby. Maybe when Arianna gets bigger.

Marissa: Hold on, let me call God. God, when Arianna gets bigger can we have another baby? Cuz I need a brudder (brother).

me: What did He say?

Marissa: He said not until Arianna gets bigger.

• My parents and grandparents came for 4 days last week. I spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing our house, and it felt so good! I have a problem though. I make these nice long lists of everything that needs to be done, with an initial next to whoever's job it is (Dan's or mine). And I get started on something, only to distract myself with something else that needs to be done but wasn't on the list. So I accomplished SO MUCH, but it took extra long to cross things off my list. Lol.
  
  
• I would also like to announce that my second daughter is also a sleep-talker. That makes me the only normal person in my family! I think it was a Saturday morning, since Dan was here, and my family was still visiting, so Arianna was sleeping in the p-n-p in our room. Her eyes were closed, she never woke up, but she was making noises like "ahhhhhh...mmmmmmm...uhhhhhhh" Dan went to her bed to get her, and she was still sound asleep!
  
  
• Dan has had a few episodes where he gets up and walks down the hall in his sleep. It's only been when I was awake and nursing Arianna in her room, but it freaks me out! I feel like I'm the only person I can count on in the middle of the night! Anybody know a cure for sleep-talking/walking? Lol.
  
  
• We decided to go downtown for fireworks on the 3rd. Marissa was up til 11:30pm that night, so we put her to bed at 7 the next night. 8:01pm she comes running down the stairs with her dress for church, all excited because "I can get out of bed, there's a snowman (the #8) on my clock! Let's get ready for church!" Hahaha...poor girl doesn't understand AM and PM yet!
  
  
• I am getting very excited for this weekend. I am going to paint Marissa's room medium purple, and then eventually add white and dark purple polka dots. She has been begging for "purple walls" for a long time, and I can't wait to see her reaction when she actually gets them!
  
  
• I took the girls to Marissa's first movie theater experience! Our local theater does free family movies during the summer, so we went to see Charlotte's Web. She loved it, and Arianna did great during it. But we got there a few minutes late so it was already dark in the theater. She didn't know that the orange lights mean stairs, so she tripped up the first stair. Then she thought there were lots more stairs, so she tried to climb up the stairs. But there weren't. So she was walking really funny. But she's still talking about "that big movie" and I'm looking forward to next week - Horton Hears a Who! I'm especially excited to take her to see the Veggie Tales pirate one in a few weeks, since she's so obsessed with all things pirate!
  
  
• Marissa has discovered that it will always be "ok" to go potty when she's supposed to be sleeping. We're sorta working on staying dry for nap and nighttime, so I never want to turn her request down just in case. She was awake til 10pm last night, when I went in to check on her before I went to bed! I would still call her a "good kid" but she's found ways to work around rules that I never would have thought of!
  
  
• This afternoon she asked me if we could "go to the bike store and buy a skateboard." Apparently there was an episode of Dragon Tales where Ord (?) used a skateboard a lot, and she is obsessed. She wraps play diapers around her knees for knee pads, and balances (quite impressively, I might add) on her baby car seat to "skateboard." Then when I told her we could not go buy one, she got really upset. She is strange. Lol.
  
  
• I am obsessed with Swagbucks. I've earned $30 in Amazon gift cards, and I just got a $5 Paypal gift card. All just for searching on their search engine instead of Google. If you'd like to join, please use my referral link:http://swagbucks.com/refer/rccalyn and I'll earn points every time you do! Then you can refer people, and earn points every time they do! I know, I know, I sound like a commercial, and it sounds too good to be true. I'm still kinda nervous that all of a sudden they're going to say "nevermind, you can't have the gift cards you earned." But it's working for me, and I'm saving up my Amazon cards to buy a handheld vaccuum. So exciting, I know. Lol. If you're confused, go here or here to find out more. Only one account per household. But don't forget to sign up from my referral link. Now I sound like a broken record. Lame.

I guess that about covers everything. Both girls are still sleeping...I just love a quiet house!

BIRTHDAY FUN

So for my birthday on Monday I've been getting money and gift cards in the mail for a little while! I bought mostly clothes (since my 4-months-after-baby body is "interesting" to say the least), but I also just HAD to have these fun wall accessories:

I ordered them from Chiasso.com (they were the cheapest there, and actually in stock, unlike a few other places that sell them), and they came in record time! This huge blank wall in our dining room was just driving me crazy, because it's not actually blank - that hideous vent was an eyesore! These flowers are magnetic, so they stick to the vent (and to the little tacks in the wall) and can be moved all around however I want! I'm still not sure of the arragement (I have 7 left that I could add...), but don't they make my wall look more fun?! Any tips on a different/better arrangement? I really love how they pop out from my green walls :-)

This and that...

~June 4th was our 4th wedding anniversary! We celebrated by getting a babysitter (first time for Arianna) and went out to dinner for Indian food (our favorite!). We got ice cream on our way home, and got home in time to put Marissa to bed. We weren't gone very long, since Arianna has only taken a bottle once, and even that didn't go so well. But it was all we needed. It was so weird to eat out alone! It was fun though, and we finished the evening with a chick-flick - Bride Wars.

~The other night after dinner, we hit a few garage sales - I scored a $2 breadmachine, $2 inflatable pool, and $.25 string of pearls!

Funny story of the week:

The other day I was trying to pick up our living room, and I was getting very frustrated at the clutter, especially the webcam, external speakers, and external hard drive we have on hand for the laptop we use in the living room most of the time. I thought that maybe if I had a nice looking box or basket, we could store those things in it, and it wouldn't look so messy all the time. I realized I didn't have anything that would work, so I tucked away the idea in my head, and that was that. So that night, as I was nursing Arianna before bed, I was on the Home Depot website looking around randomly. It was then that I fell in love. I stumbled on something called a "Small Romance Deco Tote" and knew I needed to have it. It was only $4.99, so the next day, I decided I would see if my local store had it, but according to the website they didn't. According to the website, it was an "online only" item. So I added to my checkout cart, only to see that shipping was $6.50! There was no way I was going to pay that much shipping for a $4.99 item! So I decided to call around to all the local stores and see if any of them had it in stock. There were none in our area, but supposedly there were two near where Dan works (about an 45-60 minutes away). So first I begged Dan to go get me one. No dice, since he would still have to drive 25 minutes to that store, then 75+ minutes home. Then I called that store, and asked if they could transfer it to a closer store. They could do that, so I planned to have Dan pick it up at a store near his work. But as I was talking to the customer service lady, Denise, she went in search of the item in her store. She found two of them, on CLEARANCE, for $2! When I got pretty excited at that, she volunteered to personally meet Dan closer to his work to deliver them to him. THEN she said she didn't even want him to pay her for them! When he met her, he tried to pay her, but she wouldn't let him! So we got TWO of these gorgeous storage boxes (not sure why they called them "totes"?) for $0, when I was about to spend $11.50 for just one! I'm in love (with the boxes, not the lady. Lol.) She was just the nicest lady, and she was so happy that she was able to do this for me.

Tuesday, 11:55pm
(The scene: I am just coming to bed after nursing Arianna. Dan has been asleep since 10:30. I like to try to make his sleep-talking conversations last as long as possible for a higher likelihood of hilarity.)
Dan: "THAT is a gigantic planet!"
Me: "What?"
Dan: "The reason is they have to fit certain requirements to get in. Like they have to be a certain way if they want to get in."
Me: "Get in where?"
Dan: "Like First Baptist (our church), or any church. For example, rich people could never get in."
Me: "Rich people can't go to church?"
Dan: "Nope. They could never get in, or go t oclasses for free."
Me: "That's how you really feel?"
Dan: "You just don't get it, do you?"
Stacy: "No."


Wednesday, 12:30pm
(The scene: Marissa is (still) eating lunch at the table. I am nursing Arianna on the couch.)
Marissa:"Mommy, when was I a baby?"
Me: "A long time ago."
Marissa: "When I was in your belly?"
Me: "Yeah."
Marissa: "What's in your belly now?"
Me: "Um, nothing."
Marissa: "Why?"
Me: "Because there's no babies in my belly."

Marissa: "Well, Mommy, God can send you another baby in your belly!"
Me: "Really?"
Marissa: (Holding her hand to her ear like a phone - she does this a lot to call Daddy, or Timmy, or Jeremy, or Grandma, etc.) "Hello, God? Can you please send mommy another baby in her belly? Ok, you will? Thanks! I just called God!"

(We were NOT talking about anything remotely related to that! I don't know where she comes up with these things!)

~I dusted, scrubbed, re-organized, and vacuumed the whole living area the other day. It had been a while since I did a thorough job of it, and it felt good. I'm not really a picky person when it comes to most areas of cleaning (especially dusting). I also put up two new things on my walls the other day! A while ago I bought some scrapbooking paper that I just loved, even though I don't scrapbook. I had grand plans to buy some blank canvases and somehow put it on there to make art pieces. Well, I hadn't gotten out to getting any canvases yet, and we had some scrap wood in our garage so...I measured and asked Dan to cut me some 9" squares. I sanded the crap out of them, then I used Modge Podge to glue the paper on, trimmed the edges, and put them up on the wall! I also spray painted a shelf we've had for a while (used to have it up in our apartment, but never found a good spot for it here). It used to just be a wooden color, but I painted it black so now it goes with the rest of our shelves. I don't have anything great to put on it yet, but I found some stuff that will have to do for now. Here is the finished wall (excuse the constant mess):

I love how they look against my green walls. Eventually, when we buy some furniture, and stop having so many toys up here (ha, who am I kidding...), I'd like to put a chair/ottoman in the corner under the new shelf (instead of all those toys!). I had to put something flat on the other side since the basement door opens out there.

(The middle one is black with tiny white polka-dots.)

(Dollar store mugs that match my curtains - had to have them!)

~On May 31st we dedicated the girls at church. It was really neat, and they even gave us certificates and little white Bibles for each of them. We went downstairs right at the end of the service to take them out of their classes for the dedication. We sat down in the sanctuary while they were finishing singing the last song, and Marissa yelled loudly (over the music) "I wanna dance!" Lol. So Dan let her stand in front of him, but there wasn't really enough room in between the pews. Then the second we started walking up to the front for the actual dedication/prayer, Arianna started crying. I was trying to hold her so she (and I) looked nice, but she didn't really appreciate that! Then once we were standing at the front, Arianna still crying, Marissa decided that she wanted to spin/dance around in the empty space at the front! She wouldn't stop, since she loves spinning in her fancy "princess" dresses (every dress is a "princess dress"). We just let her, since she would probably have made a bigger scene if we tried to get her to stop. Lol. I was glad we did it, but I wish we didn't have to make such a spectacle of ourselves!

~We went to a church picnic on Memorial Day and I let Marissa play in a volleyball court full of sand. I'm pretty proud of myself. Lol. I do NOT handle dirty very well! She had a blast though, and she came home and went straight to the tub!

3 months?!?

Wow, yesterday Arianna was 3 months old! It's crazy how fast these 3 months have gone. It feels like we were just in the hospital! It's so amazing how much they learn and grow in these first few months:

• She is a rolling fool already, and yesterday she took a nap on her belly! She put herself to sleep by sucking her fingers, then woke up for a little while to eat, then I put her on her back on her mat to play while I did dishes. Next thing I know, I look over to check on her, and she is on her belly, sound asleep!
  
• She is the smiliest, happiest, most pleasant baby in the world. She smiles at everyone at church, and is just as pleasant in the nursery (or so they tell me). She put herself to sleep there this morning, and they haven't had to call my pager yet!
  
• She is finally going longer in between feedings, although if we're just at home, I still usually feed her every hour or so (but she doesn't eat as much each time). Sundays, she goes 2+ hours all morning, and is totally fine. Lol, I know that seems lame, but I still don't care since she STILL sleeps 11pm-8, 9, or 10am! Straight through, no waking up! I will NOT mess with something that is working so wonderfully for all of us!
  
• She can raise her head up so high when she's on her belly. It's so weird to look over and see her being so interactive with Marissa and her toys! She lights up when she sees my face, but she is even more excited every time Marissa looks her way or talks to her. I can't wait to see how they play together in the coming years!
  
• I don't know how much she weighs (I'll have to check sometime on our scale at home), but she is growing! Some 3 month clothes are tight on her, which is so weird for me since Marissa was always so tiny! I have a feeling she's going to grow out of all Marissa's summer clothes long before it's time for warmer outfits!
  

Wednesday night

Yes, I've been slacking. There's not really much new these days. But I assume eventually I'll get into a more regular routine of posting. For now, sporadic is the best you'll get

Dan and Ris are at church. Arianna is laying on the changing mat, on the floor. I was nursing her when I heard her start pooping, so she's laying there, stripped, until she's done. She likes to oooooze all over her clothes. And I don't like to clean that up. Lol.

It's absolutely gorgeous outside. Dan and I have disagreeing views on beautiful weather. It makes him want to live in Florida or somewhere that's nice all the time. But it makes me appreciate it even more when we have to go through miserable winters before the warm summer! There's just something about warmth after yucky weather that makes me happy and in a good mood!

Marissa's doing well. Still doing awesome going potty! She does have this problem though: the second we walk into Meijer, she has to go! Even if she just went at home, or she hasn't gone in a while, or it's the first store we go to, or we've been out for a while...it's ridiculous! Lol. She does this "ribbit-ribbit" jumping thing to Arianna that makes Arianna crack up laughing! It's so cute! We've finally been able to go outside and play on her swings and slide (since it stopped raining all the time), and she LOVES it. She squeals and "weeeeheeeeee"s the entire time! It's hard to find something to do with Arianna when we're out there though. I've put her in my Babyhawk Mei Tai carrier a few times, and she likes to nap in that. But she really hates how bright the sun is, and hats are just annoying.

Arianna is still sleeping all night. The other day it was 11 hours! I love when she sleeps til 8:30 or 9, but any later and it just about kills me. This morning she woke up at 6:15, nursed, then fell back asleep til 10:30! This girl loves to sleep! Her afternoon nap today was from 2-6:30. She sleeps for HUGE chunks, but then is awake for most of the rest of the day. She is so happy and smiley and laughing. She's also been sucking her fingers/thumb a lot lately. She doesn't want to nurse for comfort as much anymore, but she loves to suck her fingers, and she fell asleep three times yesterday to sucking on them! She's just so content all the time - she's definitely just as "low maintenance" as Marissa was! Which makes her really easy to enjoy!

I got the sheet music to the two lullabies from the Twilight movie - beautiful piano pieces! I just wish I could still play like I used to. Maybe these songs will inspire me to get back at it though...

Well, I think Arianna is done pooping. Lol. So I'll go change her now. Ewwww...

Here's a picture I took after I took the girls to get a free portrait done at Sears:

Phew!

Well, I was gonna say it's so hard to post with 2 kids and a house to take care of. Then I remembered why I skipped my weekly "Wednesday night while Dan and Marissa are at church" post: I got sucked into Twilight! Neither of us had read the books, but we were bored one night so we decided to rent the movie. Turns out we both really enjoyed it, and decided to read the books too. Dan read them all one week, and I read them all this past week. I didn't do anything else all week! The girls got dressed and fed, and that's about the only thing that got done around here! It was ridiculous! I really really liked all the books, and that annoyed me since I'm a mature adult and all. Lol. Oh well, now that I finished them, I can get back to regular life and my girls!

Dan and Marissa are gone right now - for some odd reason they needed Dan at work (45 minutes away!) to check on some computer update on a SATURDAY! He only has to be there for about 10 minutes, but since it's such a long drive, it's really annoying. At least they are paying him gas mileage to drive there, and for his meal since it's during dinnertime. But Marissa is always asking to visit Daddy's work (we used to often, since it used to be 5 minutes away), so they went together and she has a free Sonic meal coupon for her birthday so I think that's where they're eating dinner. So it's really quiet here, especially since Arianna's still taking her looooooooooooooong afternoon nap (usually 2:30-7:30ish). Boy, this girl knows how to sleep! Last night she slept for 10 hours straight, again! And I even woke her up for my sake (that is waaaaaaay too long to go without nursing - even though she does it often, it's not consistent so I'm not prepared for it!). I'm really enjoying all the sleep (except for this week, since I stayed up late every night reading those stupid books!). She is still a very easy baby. Most mornings, she enjoys playing on her Baby Einstein mat, and will often just fall asleep there whenever she's tired. She still nurses a lot, and that's still fine with me! She smiles allllllllllll the time, and is starting to laugh and giggle and I love it so much! Her first laughs were at Marissa pretending to eat her cuz she was so cozy and cuddly. They both adore each other, and it's so fun to watch Marissa's little "mommy" instincts and imitations throughout the day.

Marissa is definitely a 3 year old these days. While she's still far better than most 3 year olds I've met (and I've babysat my fair share of them!), it's incredibly frustrating to have her attitude to deal with. She sat in time out for 25 minutes the other day, because everytime I said "if you do that again, time out will be longer" she did it again! She's still so helpful though, and absolutely hysterical to talk with (when I'm not going out of my mind from talking/listening to whys and hows and whatd you say?s). Yesterday at dinner, she got all excited and said "Mommy, there's penguins in our garden!" because there were geese in the field behind our house! Today in the car (during the non-stop conversation!) she was asking me to make her a cape. She still watches Super Why sometimes, and pretends that her kiddie kitchen towel is her Super Why cape. I thought I could probably whip up something that resembled a cape better than her kitchen towel (and that stayed on better) so I told her I would try sometime. Then she said that she'd be able to fly if someone would help her learn how. I told her people can't fly, and she told me that Super Why can fly! I just hated to burst her bubble that a cape would not make her be able to fly because she honestly believed that it would!

I think that's probably long enough for an update. I don't think we're doing anything special for Mother's Day tomorrow, but Dan made a yummy breakfast this morning that I requested. I'll just make sure he gets the majority of diapering/pottying duties for the girls tomorrow

Doctor appointments, etc.

Well, Monday morning I took both girls to the pediatrician for their 2 month and 3 year check-ups:

• Marissa weighs 27 lbs and is exactly 3 feet tall. She did extremely well for the doctor, and only had a minor meltdown when she wanted a granola bar from my purse. She's still 100% accident free, too!

• Arianna weighs 10 lbs 12 oz and is 23 inches long. This is HUGE compared to Marissa! Marissa never made it out of the 25th percentile. Arianna's weight (and head) are in the 50th and her length is the 90th! I am just so shocked, I thought we'd have another tiny baby like Marissa was. There is still that possibility, especially since Marissa dropped her percentile down to 5th for a while. But I just can't believe it! She's in 3 month clothes already, which works nicely since most of Marissa's summer clothes were 3 months. We might be in trouble in the fall though! Lol.
  
  • Poor Arianna got a bunch of shots at the end of her check-up. She cried pretty hard of course, but calmed right down and went to sleep after I nursed her. She slept for a while once we got home, but as I put Marissa down for her nap, Arianna turned hysterical. She cried SO hard, for quite a long time. I nursed her almost constantly, but even that didn't calm her down, as she just kept crying while she tried to nurse! It was just plain awful, so I finally gave her some Tylenol (dr said it was ok) and she finally took a long nap. After her nap, even after the Tylenol wore off, she was completely fine, acting like herself again! But PHEW those were a long few hours!
    

Wednday was Marissa's 3rd birthday and she threw up Tuesday-Wednesday  It was so sad to watch, and she kept saying over and over "It's no fun being sick!" During her short sickness, she watched Monster's, Inc like 3 times! She loves that movie! Poor girl - I had big plans for her birthday, but they'll had to wait. I was gonna take her out to lunch to use her free Sonic meal (online birthday coupon) and then for ice cream to use her free Baskin Robbins online birthday coupon! (I love freebies - anyone else get free grilled chicken from KFC on Monday?) We did actually get the ice cream, since she was fine all day. Hopefully this was the end of it, because we have lots bigger plans for this weekend! Dan's parents are coming for the weekend, and we (and by "we" I mean all the men) are going to assemble her swing set in the backyard! She has no idea she's getting one, and she keeps saying she wants to go slide on our neighbors'! I can't wait to see her reaction.

This past weekend, I finally finished painting the entry way in our house. Last May, I painted our living/dining/kitchen a beautiful springy bright-ish lime-ish green (I think I posted pictures back then if you desperately want to see it - lol). Well, the Friday after I painted, I found out I was pregnant - so no more painting for me! But I had tested colors in the entry way, since I had plans to paint that too. So there has been green streaks on the white wall right by our front door for almost a year! Unfortunately, I picked THE HOTTEST weekend ever (80+) plus I had a horrible cold. It was really hard work, and I'm still quite sore. But I'm so glad it's finally done. It created a huge mess in our entry way and living room from moving all the stuff out of the way. But it's nice to finally get things re-organized (you know how things just get worse and worse and it's just easier to start over!). I can't wait to finally put stuff up on the walls in the entry way (I'd been putting it off since I knew I'd be painting eventually) and ONLY use the mudroom for a mudroom!

Well, I have TONS of stuff to do for this weekend. Bye!

Once again, it seems like the only time I have to post is Wednesday night. I started writing this while watching Idol (LOVE Adam!), but I thought I'd multi-task, then didn't get around to actually posting it (with a few edits) til today:

• Saturday we went to Jungle Jim's and Ikea for most of the day. Dan wanted to show me Jungle Jim's and we needed a stool from Ikea so Marissa could reach the sink upstairs and downstairs. I put Marissa in a pull-up, just because I wasn't sure how she'd do. But she stayed dry all day, and we used public bathrooms for the first time. UGH! She wasn't freaked out at all (although I was - GERMS!), and even survived "falling in" once! I almost had a heart attack because EWWWWWWWWWWWW, but I was so proud of her. She's been in underwear all week, and hasn't had ANY accidents at all! I am still in shock at how easy that was, and how fast it happened!
• Monday night we all went to get groceries together. Marissa had to go the second we got in the store - of course. The bathrooms there were SO NASTY! But it went fine. I just don't like going in all these public bathrooms!
• Tuesday we went to my friend Susan's house so we could chat and Marissa could play with her daughter, Ingrid (just turned 3). We all had a good time. The girls are playing so cute together lately, and starting to have actual conversations that are just so funny. Lol.
• Wednesday I took both girls with me to get Marissa's 3-year pictures taken at Olan Mills. I was kind of disappointed because the main reason we go there is because the lady that takes the pictures is amazing with kids, and today she was training some new guy. But we did end up with several great pictures - and it's always so hard to pick just one! Marissa said she had to go potty while we were taking pictures, but she was able to wait until we were done - which is great that she can wait! Marissa was a perfect angel the whole time though. The guy (and lady) arranged her and she followed everything little thing they said. It had to be the easiest 3-year old photo shoot they've ever done. Lol. She acted like it was her whole goal in life to make them happy!
• The only negative is that I woke up this Wednesday with an awful-on-fire throat, icky nose, and a pounding headache, and it's only gotten worse since then! It's no fun to be the sole caregiver of 2 kids when you're feeling miserable! If only Marissa would understand that it hurts to talk - that girl never stops! Lol.

Potty talk, etc.

Well, wow. Arianna is already 1.5 months old! I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last! It's a lot harder to find computer time these days, especially since the computer is in the basement. I think bullets always work best when I have tons to catch up on!

• I am in love. I want one for both girls. If only...
• My brother Jeff, and his girlfriend Jenna were here for Easter weekend! It was lots of fun, and they both had tons of energy to play with Marissa. Despite stupid van troubles, it was a great weekend, and it was nice to spend time with both of them.
• Part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is Dan was in Texas for work alllllllll week - Sunday afternoon til late Friday night. I'm always over-paranoid, so I didn't want to write anything about it til he was home! It was the longest week of my life! Other than water leaking into our basement Saturday night before he left, the plumber cutting into the ceiling in the basement to fix it Monday morning, and the tornado sighting 5 minutes away from our house Sunday night, it was uneventful - lol. It was tough to have NO breaks all week, and I couldn't watch any of my crime shows after Marissa's bedtime because crime shows scare the crap out of me when Dan's gone. But it's sooooo nice to have him back!
• Arianna is still the best sleeper ever. Every night, midnight til 6, 7, 8, or even 9am (today!) she sleeps straight through. And every afternoon she sleeps from 2-6 (actually, it's 6:30 and she's still sleeping now!). She takes little cat-naps throughout the morning, and is still nursing almost every hour when she's awake. But I refuse to change anything about our routine because I love my sleep! She is smiling all the time now, and coo-ing too. She especially loves to watch Marissa, and Marissa loves to try to make her smile.
• I decided to make a huge effort to potty train Marissa last week. Her birthday is in a few weeks, and I knew she was ready - I just wasn't ready! So instead of going straight to underwear, I decided pull-ups would be less stress for me, which might help her. She only had one accident all week! I'm so proud of her, and she's so excited about it too. She already goes on her own without me having to remind her at all. She has had no trouble pooping on the potty either, and I had been expecting that to be more difficult from what other people have told me. But we were out and about all day yesterday, and she even went in two public bathrooms! She did great, but I was grossed out! She did fall in once, but I tried to laugh it off instead of freaking out. Lol. She's been in undies a lot already, and I think we don't even need to use pull ups during the day at all! She's even been dry after naps, but I'm not ready to risk undies then yet. I'm just so shocked and excited at how easy it was. I guess she was just really ready, since we waited so long. It's so nice that we don't have to buy tons of diapers for her anymore (just for bedtime). (By the way, totally not fair how dads mostly get out of potty training!)
• I guess that's about it. All of a sudden I'm obsessed with crafty blogs! That's another thing that has kept me from posting. Since I sewed my nursing cover, I made a drawstring bag from the scraps, and hemmed two pairs of dress pants. I keep finding gorgeous fabric that I NEED, I just don't know what to make with it, and I'm not all that great at making anything anyways! Dan's dress pants that I hemmed - there is a safety pin permanently embedded in the hem. I sewed it in, and didn't even realize it! So I'm definitely no Martha Stewart, but it's fun!
• Guess that's all! Both of my daughters are sleeping, so I'm going to take advantage of this quiet time!
  

My girls

• Last Thursday or Friday, Arianna started smiling - at 1 month plus a few days.
• She is also starting to coo and gargle - lol. Marissa thinks it's so great that she is "talking" already.
• Arianna likes to roll onto her side, especially to sleep.
• She sleeps like a baby, the good way. She takes a 5+ (straight) hour nap every afternoon, and sleeps straight through every night starting around midnight, ending around 7, 8, or 9am (except of course last night she woke up at 4 to eat, but when right back to sleep)
• Other than her wonderful sleeping chunks, she is very awake and alert the rest of the day. She takes little catnaps after most nursing sessions, and is happy as a clam between them.
• She nurses about every hour when she's awake, to make up for all her awesome sleeping chunks.
• Marissa and Arianna take their nap at the same time, mainly because I can tell Arianna when to take her big nap - I just swaddle her up tight, nurse her, and she's out for a while! That also works for bedtime, though it obviously takes longer. I'd rather go to sleep way before midnight (but I will NOT complain!).
• Marissa is super dramatic these days. I got ready to give her a bath the other night, and Arianna's tub was still in the big tub. Marissa dramatically said "Oh my word-y gosh, Mommy! We are in big trouble now! This is a job!" (That last phrase doesn't even make sense, but I thought it was hilarious!)
• Marissa is definitely ready for potty-training! In the mall last week, she made us stop and wait everytime she had to pee in her diaper. Lol. I feel awful for waiting this long. As soon as I feel like I could actually get up and help her at a moment's notice, we'll start. Pretty much that means we have to wait until Arianna's not nursing literally every hour. Lol.
• Arianna's poop schedule is driving me crazy. LOL. She had been waiting a few days in between, so last weekend I thought I was safe when I went away for a night to visit college friends. But she had a big one while we were all in the movie theater (I changed her on my lap - don't worry, we were the only ones in there!) and then a HUGE explosion at the mall (I changed her in a dressing room at Motherhood Maternity because I had been nursing her when it happened - it was all over her clothes, and I didn't have anything extra for her to wear, or any bag to put the outfit in, so I begged them for a Motherhood bag, and she went out to the car in just her diaper - all cozy in her car seat blanket/cover). The funny part is her poops smell like really buttery popcorn, which is so weird (especially in the movie theater), but makes them not nearly as gross as they could be - lol.
• I had so much fun away for 24 hours! I got to meet Nicole's cute baby girl, and we all spent hours talking - up til 5:30am! Arianna woke up at 8:30, I nursed her, and then she slept til 11:30 and so did I! It was so nice to see my college friends, and spend some quality (QUIET) time by myself in the car driving there (Arianna slept the whole drive).
• Last night we went to Olan Mills to get family pictures taken. The lady there is always amazing at getting Marissa to smile her real smile. Our appointment was at 6, and when we got there at 5:55 she was still in the middle of a family of 6 (with 4 little kids). Then she had to show them their pictures, then there was another family of 4 boys next. They had double booked the 6:00 time slot! Dan ended up taking Marissa to get something to eat (we were going to eat after we got home), and we didn't end up getting home until 8pm! Ridiculous! But we got some awesome pictures and I'm so excited to pick them up in a few weeks! It was unfortunately worth the wait!
• It's naptime for the girls now, so I'm getting off here for my alone time!

1 month!

I can't believe Arianna is a month old already! The time has flown by, but I also have a hard time believing I've been nursing in pain for a whole month. I thought for sure I wouldn't be as miserable this time around as I was with Marissa (two whole months). I feel like we've tried everything, and I'm so sick of hearing all the professionals I talk to saying "give it time"! I saw a lactation lady at the hospital the other day, and she basically said the same thing. Oh well, at least Arianna's doing great. Dan fed her a bottle of pumped milk the other night, and she guzzled the whole 2 ounces. She was ticked off the entire time, and didn't really stop screaming even when she was drinking it. But at least she figured out how - lol. She was pretty upset after she finished it, so I nursed her for a minute. Then she decided she was done with all the pumped milk, and spit up every last drop of it. And she's had several other HUGE spit-ups since then. Like HUGE puddles on my lap, soaking my pants, the chair underneath me, my phone in my pocket, the floor under the chair, etc. It's really quite awful, and even scary to see it happen, but she's been fine before and after each time, so who knows. I just hope we're not headed towards horrible reflux!

For a few nights she only slept 6 hour chunks, and they ended as Marissa was waking up, so I'm was pretty tired. I got so used to being spoiled already! But last night was much better at 7.5 hours straight :-)

A few weeks ago, I bought a Shark Euro-Pro tiny wacky sewing machine online (can't find any links to show you, but it's very odd). I read some good things about it on some blogs (like it was small, portable, and easy/simple to learn), and I'd been wanting to learn to sew lately. I really wanted to purchase a fancy nursing cover, but they can get so expensive, especially when they use fancy beautiful fabric. So I decided to make my own! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out the sewing machine. I'd never sewn anything before, and I wasn't even familiar with all the terms and parts of the machine. It didn't help matters that the manual that came with it is horribly written (most likely by someone who's first language was NOT English), has typos all over, and isn't very thorough. But Sunday night I sewed a straight line on some scrap fabric and it looked great! I was so proud to have figured it out all on my own! I am NOT a crafty person like this, so I was pretty impressed with myself. Lol. I was soooo nervous that I would mess up my beautiful fabric! Not that it would be a huge deal, since it was only like $8/yd. But still. It was hard to find time to work on it, especially since I couldn't do it while Arianna was napping in the living room, and by the evening when Dan's home, I've been too tired to do much. But I managed, and here it is:

I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

Strange little sewing machine

I also bought some fabric to create some art in our bedroom. I'll try to take a picture once that's done.

Marissa and Arianna are both napping right now. Arianna falls asleep for a long nap as soon as I swaddle her - it's like magic! And Marissa went to sleep at 2. Marissa had some MAJOR issues with naptime/bedtime recently. But she's finally doing better. She just decided she wasn't going to go to bed, and nothing we did could change that! She stuck it out for over an hour every time! Impressive stubborn streak, but soooooo hard to deal with! But now she brags to us that she's going to go to bed/nap like a big girl, and not get out of bed at all. So phew! I hope that nightmare doesn't ever come back!

Things are looking up around here, and I feel much better about life with two kids. Especially when they're so cute (and Arianna's pimple cheeks are finally getting better!)

All about breastfeeding - sorry!

Well, I'm home from church still, since Arianna's pediatrician wanted her to stay away from church for 8 weeks just to be safe. I am NOT waiting til she is 2 months old, but I figured I'd give it a few more weeks before we go back. I think we'll start going next week.

I just got out of the shower while Arianna is napping, after 9.5 hours of sleep in a row last night. This girl is incredible! I keep waiting for it to all go down the drain...but it just keeps getting better!

HOWEVER, yesterday was another story. Friday evening Dan and I decided that I would only nurse on one side (which is perfectly pain-free), and pump on the other because it was so sore and not healing. I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I didn't see how it would ever start feeling better if I didn't do something drastic. So I started using the free manual pump the hospital gave me. I knew I'd have to nurse on the good side a lot more, to counteract not using both sides. Looking back on it now, I wonder why it didn't occur to me to feed her the pumped milk from a bottle. Lol. Duh. Anyways, she woke up halfway through the night to nurse, presumably because she was only getting half of a feeding each time. We got up Saturday, and I proceeded to continue the pumping on one side, nursing only on the other. I was prepared to nurse more often, and didn't mind doing that. But Arianna decided she was going to scream hysterically. All day. No matter what. I nursed her non-stop. She had recently pooped. She was still having plenty of wet diapers. There were no tags/etc. bothering her from her clothes. She wasn't spitting up, or even having any hiccups. She wasn't hot or cold. She just cried. Dan and I both tried every trick in the books. She refused to nap unless she was nursing or on Dan's lap for about 10 minutes at a time listening to his Christian rock music. It was insane.

Poor Marissa didn't have a good day either, since Dan and I were up to our eyeballs trying to deal with Arianna. Marissa took over an hour to settle down in her bed and stop crying and throwing fits (which is SO not like her - she NEVER gets out of bed, NEVER cries to go to sleep).

It was the worst day and all day I kept thinking HOLY CRAP TWO KIDS. I know Arianna was annoyed because she wasn't getting as much to eat as she was used to, but I thought nursing more often would help. Sometime in the afternoon, I was just so frustrated, and although I knew I certainly wasn't starving her, I felt bad that she thought I was. So I gave in and stopped pumping and just nursed her on the other side. Unfortunately, that didn't really help. She was still grumpy, crying, and inconsolable! Dan and I were all prepared for a horrible night of sleep since it had been such an awful day. I nursed her at 10:30, she fell right asleep, and the next thing I knew, Dan and Marissa were coming in at 8am for me to fix her hair for church!

I don't know what yesterday was all about, but it certainly didn't bother her throughout the night, and today already seems to be going better than I expected. Yesterday was the hardest day yet of parenting two kids. But we worked together, tag-teaming both kids during their times of need. And we survived! Phew!

Well, I hear Arianna waking up from her nap. Time to go snuggle some soft cheeks!

Ugh

I'm having a rough few days. Yesterday morning I took the girls with me to the fabric store (I'm going to attempt to sew myself a nursing cover - should be interesting, since I have yet to take my new sewing machine out of the box), and overall it went fine. It was kind of a hassle to juggle the car seat, bags of stuff I bought, and try to hold hands in the parking lot, but it wasn't a total disaster for our first outing without extra help. However, Marissa has been giving me trouble about taking a normal nap, and just generally throwing more fits and is harder to deal with lately. I know it's a big transition for her, just as much as it is for us. And that makes me just wanna forget all our rules and scoop her up, hug her, and let her do/have whatever she wants. But I'm trying so hard to stick to my guns, not compromise, and keep things steady and consistent with discipline. And I know that I need to have some sort of balance with those two extremes, but it's hard to find that line. She is usually independent, but always was willing to discuss things and come to an agreement about what's going on (mainly because I only give her choices that I will be fine with whatever she chooses). But the past few days she has not even really been able to listen to my side of things and just totally set in her mind about what's going to happen. It's so not like her, and it makes me sad that things are changing. I know we did everything on all the lists to prepare her for all of this, but it's still upsetting that she is having a hard time right now. I know it will get better, and she will go back to being the well-behaved child she used to be. She still loves Arianna, and hasn't shown any signs of resentment towards her. She's also still better than some 2-year olds are to begin with. She's just becoming more difficult to reason with, and I'm not used to that! But it makes me so sad every time I have to tell her to wait, or that I can't do a certain thing, because I'm nursing Arianna (every hour). "Mommy, wanna play with me?"

I'm also totally exhausted. Not sleep deprived at all (9 hours in a row is just fine, thank you!). Just worn out. There is NO down time. NO time to just relax. I forgot how easy just having Marissa was. Between Marissa talking non-stop, any time she's awake (and even in her sleep), and always having to be ready to nurse Arianna (oh the PAIN! Why won't it go away?!), plus ALL this ridiculous laundry that I can't seem to catch up on...it's a bit overwhelming. But I know it will get better, I will get used to the way things are, and I know I'll never catch up on laundry.

All this to say...I love my girls. I love our little family. I just needed a place to let out my feelings.

Phew!

Wow, it seems like lots has happened since I posted last. I think bullets will work best today:

• My parents and sister were here for a whole week. It was a little crazy, because my mom can't drive or do everyday things as easily (because she broke her shoulder right after Christmas and it's taking a long time to heal), and of course all the new-baby craziness! But we had so much fun, and they were all so helpful.
• Dan got a short throw-up bug last Monday. Marissa got the same bug Saturday at 4:30am. Dan obviously handled it himself, but this was Marissa's VERY FIRST sickness, and it was awful. She handled it so well though, and mostly managed to get to the toilet/bucket on time. She was so pitiful and cuddly (see pics below), but she's completely back to normal now (aside from not having ANY appetite). The hardest part was keeping germs away from Arianna. So far I haven't gotten sick, but I've been extremely obsessive about hand-washing and Clorox-wiping. My hands are bleeding from all the washing!
• Arianna has still been sleeping amazing at night. We've been trying to go to bed at 10, but she hasn't gotten the memo yet. But by midnight she's usually asleep, and sleeping for 5+ hours, then 3 or 4 more after that. I've been waking her up with us around 9 every morning, and she's starting to take naps around the same time each day already. I've had several 7-8-9 hour nights, and I've been waking up to go to the bathroom/check on her, then I go right back to sleep! It's totally crazy, and I love it, but I keep reminding myself it can't possibly last forever!
• She makes up for all the sleep at night by nursing literally every hour most of the day (except when she takes 2-3 hour naps, or is in the car seat). I really don't mind, except when Marissa wants me to play with her, and except for the fact that nursing is still excruciatingly painful sometimes. Again, I keep reminding myself that it won't last forever, and the pain will go away eventually.
• I am really enjoying her new-baby-ness much more than I did with Marissa, because the pain with Marissa was MUCH worse. I am working on a comparison post about Marissa's birth/newborn-ness and Arianna's birth/newborn-ness. If only I had the time, hehe.
• Arianna is a hiccup queen! The poor girl hiccups multiple times within an hour time period, multiple times each day! Sometimes it's just funny, but sometimes it really ticks her off!
• Marissa is growing up so fast: She used to say "pin-pass" but now pronounces princess correctly! Boohoo...
• I am totally swamped by laundry. Since my parents and sister were here I have all their sheets and towels. Which is a lot, but not horrible. But on top of that, I have tons of extra sheets from Marissa's sickness - two sets from her bed (we thought she was done, but she wasn't!), and our flannel king set (which doesn't even fit in the washer all at once!) cuz she joined us at 4:30am, plus all the pj's she got nasty, plus towels and blankets we used around the house that day. PLUS all the regular laundry that I let myself get behind on since Arianna was born. I didn't do any except for Arianna's clothes, and I didn't really trust Dan to do it properly. I am slowly getting caught up, but the hardest part is folding and putting it all away!
• It has been sooooo gorgeous outside! We were outside for a long time talking with some neighbors, and Marissa got tired of playing on her bike. She went inside through the open garage, opened the door to the mudroom, got her green stool, took it back outside, and put it in front of the front door so she could reach the doorknob! I just cracked up when I saw what she had done
• I keep forgetting to write down how Marissa says Arianna's name: Yah-yanna - it's so cute! And she holds Arianna's hand and makes her wave to people saying "Hi, my name is Yah-yanna', Marissa is my big stister!"
  

Friday night!

Yay, it's Friday night! Dan was gone on a short overnight trip last night, and I'm so glad he's back. And my parents and Rach are coming tomorrow for a whole week!

Things are going pretty well. I've been getting good chunks of sleep at night, and Marissa still loves helping, etc. But yesterday morning I woke up after almost 7 hours of sleep straight through. Arianna was fine, and nursed when I woke her up, but I was not fine. I ended up on the couch, in tears, all morning, shivering. I called my doctor, and they called in a prescription for me. My friend from church, Alicia, and her kids (ages 4, 3, 2) were coming over for dinner and some playtime (lots of fun for Ris and me, and so nice to have some adult conversation since Dan was gone!), so she picked up the prescription for me. I'm pretty sure it's mastitis. It's already MUCH better, but yesterday was rough. Marissa watched tv ALOT, and had some behavioral issues throughout the day, but she's better today too. It was horrible timing though, since I knew Dan wasn't coming home til today! I'm hesitant to say it, but I think I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! It still annoys the crap out of me when people (like LLL) say nursing shouldn't hurt. I can't even describe the misery I've experienced trying to get nursing established with Marissa, and now Arianna. I will be soooooo glad when I can enjoy nursing finally! I really love enjoying Arianna as a tiny baby. When Marissa was this tiny, I was sooooo miserable for 2 months plus, I never felt like I got to enjoy her! But I've been cuddling Arianna lots, and I really don't feel too sleep deprived (yet...). Yesterday I caught her sucking on a few of her fingers - too cute.

Well, we are all watching "The Little Mermaid" (HOLY COW - her questions about this movie are ridiculous! How do you explain every little detail to a 2 year old? So funny, yet slightly annoying!) - Marissa LOVES movie night and popcorn, and Dan and I are enjoying the rest time after a long week. I'm looking forward to our first outing as a family of four - church on Sunday. I have a feeling I should set my alarm pretty early though - gotta love trying on normal clothes for the first time after having a baby!

Arianna Grace (WARNING: Possible TMI)

2/24/09, 3:33am, 7lbs 15 oz, 19.5 in

Monday, the 23rd, I had a NST and they said I wasn't having any contractions (even though I thought I was), but she was looking just fine. When the midwife checked me, she said I was a good 3 cm, which was definitely a change from the week before. She also said I would probably be crampy and spotting a little after the exam, and now I realize I should have asked her if she did anything to make it that way on purpose. Anyways, we went home, and I was a little crampy, but still just felt awful in general like I had been for a while. The midwife mentioned that they could break my water to see if things got going on their own, and I had pretty much decided that I'd call Tuesday to schedule breaking my water on Wednesday morning. Monday night after dinner, we all went to buy groceries together, and I was walking slow, but still fine! We went to bed around 11 and Dan fell asleep really fast, as usual. I never fall asleep fast, but I started feeling slightly different contractions at 11:35. I timed them as much as I could, but I was starting to doze off a little. The ones I kept track of were about 9 minutes apart, but they weren't every 9 minutes. I think I must have slept a little, but at 12:53 Dan woke up to me being pretty miserable. By 1am I knew it was time to get going. I called the midwife on call, and she said to head to L & D to get checked. We woke Marissa up, got everything together, and took her to our friends' house around 1:15. We stopped back home around 1:30 to grab the map of the hospital so we'd know where to go. Contractions weren't extremely consistent at this point, but they were at least 9 minutes apart, and very painful and tight. I made Dan run a red light on our way to the hospital, because since Marissa's labor was so fast, I was worried about the timing of things. We checked in to the hospital at 2am, and were put in just regular L & D, instead of the birth center right away. They wanted to check me first, and I needed an IV for GBS. There was also not enough staff at the birth center, so I had to wait a bit. Thus begins the longest hour of my life. Lol. They had me all strapped with the monitors, the IV for GBS, and I had to lay on the table thing. Contractions were really starting to pick up in pain and timing. At the end of every one, I thought I was going to throw up. I didn't, until towards the end, it was a really bad one, and I threw up 3 times in a row. They finally checked me at 2:30 and I was 5cm. Finally, the midwife came to see me, and she took one look at me and realized I needed to get going! She went to the birth center and started getting the tub ready. At 3 they were finally able to move me, and that was a long ride in the wheelchair (not really, but it seemed like it)! They unhooked the IV, I got right in the tub, and immediately felt some relief. I was cold from the wheelchair ride, and the tub was nice and hot. I got a short rest from contractions, but then they got really bad. I remember thinking that this better mean I'm getting close, because I couldn't do it this way for much longer! During one of the really bad ones, I felt the urge to push. So I asked the midwife to check me when it was over. She said I was 9, and I could push if I felt the urge. So the next one, I started pushing. Dan says I pushed for about 10 minutes. At one point, I remember asking if she was "right there" because it was starting to feel different. The midwife said she was, and I was relieved because I was starting to wonder if I'd make it! After that, I opened my eyes and watched for her to come out! I was gripping a bar in the tub with my left hand, and Dan's hand with my right hand. I was holding on soooo tight (my arm muscles were sore later), and for every push/contraction I completely suspended myself in the water by holding on to the bar and Dan's hand. Arianna was born at 3:33am and I saw her come out! Her head came out underwater, and it took a little while for the rest of her to follow. She didn't just slip out (like it looks like on tv shows), but the second she was out, the midwife put her on my belly. All of a sudden, both nurses and the midwife all lunged at her saying "there's a cord around her neck" - none of them were freaked out, but since they all said it at the same time, it freaked Dan and I out! They took the cord off her neck, and she just sat there and looked at me. They had warned us that waterbirth/natural born babies don't pink up right away, and don't necessarily even cry for a while. We were prepared for that, but when it actually happened that way, it made us nervous! The midwife assured us that she was fine, and I just sat in the tub with her on my belly for several minutes. She was all slimy and calm. It was wonderful (because I totally missed that part with Marissa). After a while (since I wanted to wait to cut it), Dan announced that he thought he might like to cut the cord. I was shocked, since he passed out during childbirth class for Marissa. But he actually cut the cord. They took her from me for the first time, and went to just check her out, while I climbed out of the tub. I went straight to the bed, delivered the placenta, and the midwife stitched me up a little. They brought her back to me as soon as I was on the bed, and she just laid on my belly/chest for a while. She was starting to root around, so I attempted to nurse her. At some point (not sure on the time), she nursed for about an hour on each side. I was never away from her until sometime around 7am when they finally weighed her. Sometime mid-morning, I was able to get up and use the bathroom. They gave me one motrin sometime around 7 probably, and I haven't had another drug since. The plan was to come home Wednesday late morning - until the wee hours of Wednesday morning, when the pediatrician informed me that they always monitor GBS+ babies for 48 hours, especially since I didn't have time to get the full dose. I was VERY upset, not to mention a bit hormonal and overtired, so I cried a lot that morning. It was surprisingly hard to be at the hospital all alone, since Dan went to get Marissa. He stayed til about 9 Tuesday morning, and they came back to visit throughout the day, but I was alone at night. But the thought of facing another night alone was tough. The nurses were so nice though, and one of them spent a long time with me during the night when Arianna wanted to nurse every hour on the hour.

All in all, it was a wonderful birth. It was everything I had hoped for, and I feel really great already. Arianna is a champion nurser already, and we are enjoying every minute of her! Marissa is a wonderful big sister, and is so gentle, understanding, and curious about Arianna. I love my girls!

40 weeks, 6 days

40 weeks, 6 days (about 10 minutes ago)

'Nuff said.