Two Months Already

 I'm way late with my 2 month post, but with the cuteness of these photos, I know that "better late than never" applies for sure.  I can't believe it, but Mara is 2 months old.  She has become so much more alert since last month, staying awake a large part of the day with more defined nap times. She continues to be a relatively good sleeper.  And her smile will light up a room.  We love her so much.  Big brother and sister are still smitten with her.  Lauren, especially, cannot get enough kisses.  But I love watching all of the kids enjoying each other.  I hope I have a lot of deja vu moments in the future, seeing the kids getting along well as grown children/adults, remembering the sweetness of the moments in these early days.

Mara is still quite small.  8 lbs even to be exact at her two month check up last Tuesday.  She grew from 20" to 22 1/2", but the slow weight gain is causing some worry.  We are now instructed to wake her up to eat no more than every 4 hrs at night (she was sleeping 6-7) and to feed her as much as possible during the day.  She ate quite a bit already.  We go back for a weight check on March 23rd and hope that she is pacing on her growth curve.  As long as she hasn't fallen off her curve, I'm told we will be fine.  With as hard as we worked to develop her into a good nurser, I'm really hoping that we don't have to change the program at this point.  But we will do whatever we need to do to make sure she is growing strong and healthy.

At this point, she is still wearing newborn clothes and diapers, although one piece newborn clothes no longer fit her lengthwise.  For fun, she likes to roll around on the floor and play under Aunt Libby's pink play gym.  She loves the Moby wrap and is in there quite a bit during the day.  (It's the only way I can get two hands free to do anything!)  She's a good car traveller most of the time.  Daytime naps are sporadic-long if she's being held, and can be as short as 15 minutes if you try to lay her down.  Night time sleep is great- especially in the Miracle Blanket- but we've been having to wake her.  I fear I may be ruining my good sleeper by establishing those habits, but we'll see.

She coos and smiles at us regularly now and is working really hard to be able to sit up and look around.  She doesn't like to be laying in your arms.  I think she is afraid of missing something interesting. 

I am so in love.  What a precious two months this has been.  I just want to soak up every minute and make them last as long as I can.  There is a song on the newest Selah album that sums it up perfectly- "I'm down on my knees, help me soak it all in.  I want all of this life that You'll let me live.  And when time flies by, Lord, remind me to breathe.  My Heaven on earth is moments like these."

It didn't take much convincing today when we got an invitation to join Emily, Cooper and Kinley at the playground this afternoon.  Originally the day was going to involve cooking, laundry and cleaning out the art supply stash.  Followed by refilling prescriptions for Jason and mailing our tax returns.  After a long winter of days inside the house, fresh air was calling our name, and we answered!  The girls and I picked up Joshua at school and then headed to Subway for some lunch.  We wasted no time and got on our way quickly to the park so that the fun could begin.  The big kids went running and exploring while the Mommies and babies sat and did what we do best-- oohed and aahed at the cuteness of the babies (especially Kinley's adorable pig tails) and solved the world's problems with our conversations.

We left a few hours later with filthy, exhausted kids and recharged batteries from the Mamas after some catch up time.  And I don't know about Emily and her crew, but we are ready to repeat this fun afternoon as much as possible.  We are more than ready for spring!  Here are a few pictures...

I'm just going to do it.

I'm just going to do it.  Skip ahead on my to do list and get right to "blog post", which incidentally has been on every to do list for the week, but I've yet to get that far.  Somewhere between the stuff that HAS to be done, like laundry and cleaning up and changing sheets and making dinner and lunch and breakfast, and feeding Mara...all of the time in the day is sucked into a black hole.  The things that are on the "needs to be done but no one will die if it isn't" list just never quite rise to the top of the priority list.  Never in a gajillion years could I have guessed how unproductive having a third baby was going to make me.  I fear that perhaps a switch was thrown in the delivery that took me from a to do list crosser-offer to an unorganized pile of mess, because most days I feel like the latter.  From time to time, I'm shocked by an abnormally productive stretch of time, but it certainly doesn't happen with regularity.  Truth be told, I'm starting to get used to it, but that doesn't mean I like it.  I keep reminding myself that we are 8 weeks into this new gig...there may still be hope.

I call this next picture my Leap Day miracle.



 Ever since Mara's birth, Lauren has had no regular nap.  She's always been a difficult one to get to sleep, involving rocking and singing and a whole bunch of time.  So if I need any more explanation as to why this hasn't been successful, I suggest you scroll up and read that first part again.  Put another way, I'm lucky if I pee in the course of a day most of the time.  But while Mara ate yesterday, little Miss came over with her Dora pillow and with a little rubbing of her leg, she zonked.  I'd like to say it made her more pleasant through the evening, but that would be a lie.  But I did get dinner cooked last night, so it was worth it.

The real miracle was that Mara also laid down in her crib for a 40 minute nap yesterday afternoon.  Sadly, the  girls' sleeping time overlapped by only the amount of time it took me to take Mara upstairs and put her in the crib, but it was a glorious 2 minutes.

We'll keep working on it.

But this marked our first successful sleeping attempt in the crib.  She is still in the Pack & Play in our room at night time and is sleeping like a dream- usually 5-6 hours on her first stretch (normally 10-3 or 10-4) and then a feeding and back down for another 3-4 hours.  You won't hear a single complaint out of me.  Perhaps God gave me Joshua and Lauren so that I would deeply appreciate this sweet baby girl who seems to know that her Mama isn't a spring chicken anymore and might not survive a string of a year of sleepless nights.  She loves her Miracle Blanket and melts right to sleep in it.

And these are a bit out of order, but the other day we enjoyed some outside play time.  Mara fell right to sleep in her snowsuit and stayed that way once we came in.  I will say that it is good spring is coming because she is pressing the length limits of this cute newborn bear suit.  I cannot wait to see what she weighs and how long she has gotten at her 2 month check up on Tuesday afternoon.  I just don't have a good sense of her weight right now, and I'm anxious to know that our feeding program is working out OK.  I doubt I'd have the happy baby I do if she wasn't getting enough to eat, but until I see the numbers on the scale, I still worry.

And here were the other two, busy at work making chalk masterpieces.  They loved the chance to get outside for a few hours.  Can't wait till we get some nice Spring weather and can do more of that.  We all need it.

I attempted some pictures of Mara the other morning, and this is how they all turned out.  Lauren cannot stop loving on her baby sister.  Always doting on her, kissing her, calling her "pretty girl"...it's precious.  Difficult for picture taking, but I will take a million of these if it means I'll always remember how much these two loved each other, even in these early days.  And, it'll make for good leverage in the future years when Lauren says she "can't stand" her little sister bugging her.

Our day today has been spent nursing Joshua back to health.  The stomach bug appears to have invaded our home.  Poor buddy has been throwing up since about 1:45 this morning.    He has been a trooper and just had some soup and a popsicle, though, so I'm hoping he's on the mend.  Hopefully we can keep the girls free and clear or else it's going to be a long three days.  So, there have been a lot of movies and cuddling on the couch for Joshua today.  Hope tomorrow is much better for him.

More soon...