Two Weeks Old

 Nora is two weeks old today! I wish I could say these last two weeks have flown by, but truthfully it seems pretty long!  I feel like I shouldn't complain because she is so much easier than Henry was at this age, but taking care of a newborn is still hard work regardless of how "easy" they are...plus I am still getting used to taking care of two kids instead of one. We are trying to figure out new routines and make adjustments, but we're learning as we go and the transition isn't always a smooth one.

That being said, Nora is doing great! She had her two week check-up yesterday and weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces. The doctor had me stay and nurse her and then we weighed her again and she weighed 7 pounds, 3 1/2 ounces. The doctor was pleased with that amount of gain in one feeding and said I can let her sleep for up to 4 hours overnight in between feedings if I want. Of course last night (after getting that clearance to sleep longer) she fussed all night long and didn't sleep for more than an hour or two at a time, but maybe tonight she will! She also measured a full inch longer than she did when she was born, but I

 have to wonder if someone made a mistake somewhere, because an inch seems like an awful lot to grow in two weeks.

She continues to sleep a lot, but is staying awake longer and longer each day. She is holding her head up and looking around which is so amazing to see. Henry is still being very sweet with her and handling the changes fairly well. He is definitely missing the attention of being the only child, but so far it hasn't affected his relationship with Nora.

 We gave her her first real bath the other day since her umbilical cord scab fell off. At first she seemed to like it, but then something changed (maybe she got cold?) and she screamed for the rest of the bath. Just like Henry did! I love the look on Henry's face as he helps bathe her...he looks a bit disgusted, doesn't he?

I floated her in his bath this morning and she seemed to like that a whole lot better than the bath in her little bathtub. Henry was like that too - he didn't like the little bath, but loved being in the big bathtub with one of us.

Introducing Nora Lennon

 Nora's here! We made it all the way to the induction date of October 10th! Here are the vital statistics: born on 10-10-12 at 4:43 pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. We checked into the hospital  a little before 8 am and started the pitocin at about 9 am. The doctor broke my water at noon and the contractions really started to get intense around 2 pm. Finally at 3:15 I got an epidural. I was really nervous to get an epidural because I had such a terrible experience with Henry's.

 Not only did it not offer any relief it actually caused me more pain than the contractions...and that's saying a lot! I was also worried that an epidural would make the labor last longer (especially the final, pushing stage). However, none of that happened and it was a wonderful epidural! I could still feel the contractions and the pressure so I was able to know when to push and push effectively, but without a lot of the pain. Of course it still hurt like anything when she was actually born, but so, so, so much better than without an epidural! I pushed for about 30 minutes before she was born, about the same as with Henry. I also progressed much the same as with Henry...going from 5 cm dilated to fully dilated very quickly.

 It was so great to be able to see Henry meet Nora. He is so absolutely sweet with her and was so excited to finally meet her. I was (am) worried about how he would feel going from the only child to the big brother, and while we are experiencing some behavior issues in other areas, with Nora he is 100% sweet and loving. His "big brother" gift was "real" cowboy boots, a new cowboy hat, and a Lone Ranger video. He loves the cowboy boots...he wears them at least once a day to play Lone Ranger or Roy Rogers.

 Today Nora is one week old. It's her 5th day home from the hospital. We're doing pretty good. Of course I am exhausted and it's a whole different experience to have a newborn along with an older child. With Henry I could just adapt my schedule to his...when he slept I could sleep, I could just hang out in bed or on the couch all day...obviously this is not possible now! But we're figuring it out. Yesterday was my first solo trip out with the kiddos - we went to the toy store in Multnomah Village so Henry could pick out a new puzzle. Then later in the day we went on a little walk and to Fred Meyer. Once again, as with Henry, the Moby wrap is a lifesaver!

Especially at the grocery store where I can still have both hands free, Henry can ride in the cart and we still have the   basket part of the cart free for groceries.

Nora is doing good with her feeding; the only problem is that she is so sleepy all the time that it can be difficult to wake her. And she definitely needs to eat! Her billirubin levels were a little elevated so she needs to pee and poop it out. :) Plus newborns are supposed to eat every 2-3 hours which adds up to a lot of nursing! Despite this, she is still much easier to feed than Henry was at this age.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Still waiting for the baby to be born! Although I'm not officially due until this Sunday, I thought that she'd have made her appearance by now, but nope! Sometime between now and next Wednesday (10-10) we'll finally meet her though as I have an induction scheduled for that day. So we'll see.

In the meanwhile Henry continues to do amazingly well at school; loving every minute and even attending a once a week "lunch bunch" where he stays an extra hour and has lunch with some of his classmates and teachers. Here he is with our fall art project - a wreath made from leaves and other things (including a hot pink piece of fabric) he collected from the cemetery. He refused to pose for a picture without his "sword."

First Day of School

 Henry started preschool last week - he's in a split 3s/4s class because of low enrollment numbers with the 4 year olds. It's the same school he went to last year (Burlingame Co-operative), but he goes three mornings a week this year instead of two.  He jumped right back into the routine of school with absolutely no transition problems or separation issues at all. I can't explain how relieved I was about that! We've gone to as many preschool playdates as we could over the summer including a back to school picnic with the teachers the week before school started. I think staying in contact with his classmates and "remembering" about school all summer long was extremely beneficial and made the transition back into school much smoother.

Tomorrow will be my second day parent helping already (only two weeks into the year) because I am trying to knock out as many parent help days as I can before the baby comes! As much as I enjoy having some free time while he's in school, I also really love helping out in his classroom. The kids are so funny and I

love seeing what Henry's up to while in school all morning.

Speaking of the baby coming, we are on final countdown. Technically I have about 2 1/2 weeks left, but I'm thinking she'll come earlier than that. We'll see! I'm already one week past the date I delivered Henry, so that's an improvement!

More Summer Fun

 In August Henry's preschool participated in the Multnomah Days Parade through Multnomah Village. Brett pulled Henry in the wagon and Henry got to toss candy out to the crowd. He loved it! And we loved watching him!

 Here's Henry up at the Rose Gardens after he had his pictures taken up there by a professional photographer. This summer we grew strawberries, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes and a bell pepper. Here's Henry with some of the harvest. I was so happy we actually got some to harvest because I wasn't sure if they would grow or not! We've actually gotten a bunch of cherry tomatoes (maybe 2 dozen) and about 8 tomatoes. Only one bell pepper; but as you can see it's a big one...hopefully it ripens (it's supposed to be an orange bell pepper!) before the cool weather arrives.Our strawberries were harvested more towards the middle of the summer and we got at least a couple to three dozen berries. Not too shabby!

The two sunbathers!

Fair Fun!

 (The video is best watched small...it gets too fuzzy if you make it full screen.)

This summer we went to two fairs: the Clackamas County Fair and the Oregon State Fair. We had a great time at both. It's hard to say what activity Henry enjoyed the most...he definitely loved seeing all the animals but he also loved the rides. The state fair had some other, different, activities that he liked as well including a trout fishing tank and a barnyard animal race at which Henry was chosen to be our section's cheer leader. I was actually pretty surprised that Henry wanted to do it; there was a fairly big crowd and Henry had to go down and stand in front of everyone and wave a flag to cheer on our animal in the race, but he loved every second of it!

Henry with a sheep...this was right before we encouraged him to let a cow lick his arm without knowing how rough a cow's tongue is...he ended up with a pretty bad rug-burn type scrape on his arm where the cow licked him.

 Getting ready for a helicopter ride!

 Pony ride at the state fair!

 Red team cheer leader! Sadly our animal (I can't even remember which one was ours now...) did not win.

 Playing the drums at the state fair - look at the serious expression as he counts out the beats.

Fishing in the trout tank. All three of them took their fishing duties quite seriously!

Testing out an ATV.


The video above shows some clips from the fairs starting with Henry riding the kid's swing ride. I wish there was a way to have captured how thrilled Henry was while riding it; he absolutely loved it! The next part is him and his friend Anna riding ponies at the state fair. Neither one of them looks like they are having that much fun, but they actually did...especially Henry whose horse was the same color as Roy Rogers' horse, Trigger. The third clip is of Henry as the flag-waving, cheer leader of the red section during the barnyard animal race. Finally the last clip isn't actually from a fair, it's from Oaks Park, but it fit in so well with the rest of the clips I had to include it. Henry, Mom, and Brett were supposed to race down the big slide, but Henry took off early and "won" the race by a landslide...and takes obvious delight in his victory.

Swimming Lessons

Henry just completed two weeks of swimming lessons at the Wilson High School Pool (through Portland Parks and Rec). During the summer the classes meet every day for two weeks which really gives the kids a chance to practice, practice, practice their skills. In addition, we stayed after lessons and swam at least 75% of the days as well. The Sunday before Henry started lessons, he also started swimming on his own! Brett bought him goggles and those were the key to giving him the confidence he needed to really keep his face down in the water and swim, swim, swim. In the short two weeks since his lessons began the improvements have been amazing. He can swim and glide for greater and greater distances, he is starting to be able to pop his head up and take little breaths so he can swim longer, he can just about dive in the water, and he has no problem jumping in. He will still need to repeat this level of swim lessons because he can't quite float on his back by himself yet or do a front glide the way they want him to (arms straight up in front of him and not paddling). I'm hoping to be able to keep him in lessons throughout the fall and winter at the SW Community Center as much as possible so he can continue building his skills.