New bed is finished!

The bed came in this very compact box weighing about 50kg (110,23lbs), mattress was simply rolled up, pretty impressive I think. 

First part done!

No whale tail but nearly there!

Because I took all the pictures it looks like Heather did ALL the work, not true!!
It was a 2 hour team effort..

Yay! Bed is completed but the rest of her room obviously need some love soon. Lucia cant stop jumping up and down. Lets hope her first night goes well and not forget she is a bit higher than usual...

New bed!

We took a trip to IKEA last night to check out the bed we have been thinking about for Lucia. She has been in her current bed since she was no older than Espen is now and he needs to move in to a bed he can't climb out of..

Warm, floppy and squeaky

Day 1 and 2 has been quite intense, in ways I didn't expect.

Day 1 was filled with nervousness and expectations that soon gave way to relief and joy. We are very thankful for the love and support we received, Mimi and pastor Beth was with us and prepared us for the big event and it was clear from the start this was going to be a very different day than four and a half years ago.

The procedure went very much according to plan and I think a great deal of tension was lifted that day through that. It seems like a blur afterwards. 

We were given a new room upstairs with a great view of Redwood City, green and lush from winter rain, and with a steady stream of visiting family and friends we were to busy to be tired. However, on days like this it is easy or difficult to find time to eat, so our good friends Gina and Zack brought us delicious chicken dinner and salad, and even homemade coffee in the morning! 

Magic moment number two on day one that day was when Lucia met her new baby brother for the first time. She was very excited and could not be more happy. She happily washed her hands but was at first a bit hesitant, not sure if she could touch him, or where. Soon she asked if she could hold him, and she loved that too, for a little bit. I think she was surprised to see how floppy and squeaky he was, but she also showed much concern for him, and she jumped to sooth him when he started crying or fuzzing. She will be a great big sister!

The first night was as good as one can expect, none of us got much sleep, but we managed to get a few hours it seems between the fuzzy times. There wasnt much to do besides rocking him or renew his swaddle. And this, turns out, is what day two was much about; getting him to latch and feed. But more about that tomorrow.

Crib before/after

This marks the end of putting her in the bed when having to take care of time-critical tasks like taking the dog out for a quick pee, but since we are both home now that would probably be less of an issue for a little while at least. Good news is she seems to be accepting the new bed without too much trouble, although I did find her snuggling on the floor right up to her door (inside her room) under all her blankets with her doll when I went to check on her this afternoon. She had been banging on the door. We went to Ikea tonight and bought a $10 attachment board that keeps her from accidentally rolling out of bed.

Oh Sure She LOOKS Cute...

Don't get us wrong, we're madly in love with her, but dang, the kid has been challenging. It started with my trip back East to see my family. I'm not sure why, but she was all out of sorts and unsure about sleeping, so naptime became battle time, which you know is always a blast. She'd settle down and sleep if I was holding her tight on my bed, but as soon as I'd put her in the pack n play, there was hell to pay.

Side note: she was absolutely adorable otherwise, and charmed the pants off the family (again). Even the dog is smitten.

So we got home Monday afternoon; she was terribly jetlagged and went to bed at 4:30 p.m. You read that right. We woke her up around 10 and gave her a big bottle, and hoped for the best. It doesn't hurt to be optimistic, but it sure didn't get us much that night: she was up at 2:30, 4:30, 5 and 6.

So Tuesday we vowed to try to get her back on track. Her morning nap went OK, but in the afternoon, again poor Pete had Battle Royale to try to get her to go down. That night she went to bed at 5:30. Making progress...

Yesterday was her first day at daycare, and we prepared our provider for the worst. Don't worry, she said. I called at lunch and as predicted, Little Miss threw a fit for her morning nap. I picked her up after work, and our provider said the afternoon was even worse. FUN!! We put her down at 7 p.m.

Today: same story. Fine on her morning nap, then absolutely tantrum for the afternoon nap. Good god. I came home and Pete was practically hanging from the ceiling.

Dear Little Girl, please get back on your schedule. You're driving Daddy crazy. Thanks!

So tired after the weekend

I'm not the only tired one apparently, despite sleeping from 9pm to 7am last night Lucia suddenly got very tired this morning. Among our bags from our weekend in Tahoe she had too much to explore.

I am going deaf now

This week Lucia has started experimenting with her voice. She tries to scream as hard as she can when she is upset or sometimes just for fun! My ears are ringing and going numb, no joke. The screams are so high pitched and loud that I could leave her in the car and use her as a car alarm. Poor Mrs. Baylee quietly removes herself from the room when Lucia starts her squealing.

A cool technique I have picked up is putting her to sleep right away. Several times during the day when she has been up for a while I notice small signs that she is tired, so I bundle her up and just put her down, she starts to fuss a little, but as soon as I give her the passy she's out. Saves me lots of time too! I'm not sure if this will continue but I hope so.

I have also started letting her feed herself while I change her diaper.
I let her hold the bottle while I do my thing. That way we save time in the middle of the night and theres much less screaming which I am sure those that are sleeping will appreciate...

Wanna Sleep? Nah.

Someone was too wound up to go to sleep tonight. The swing finally worked. Phew.

The Days FLY By!

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already!

We've had a rough week, sleep-wise, thus the lack of posts. We're trying to learn how to put Lucia down to sleep BEFORE she falls asleep on us. Pete's better at this, admittedly. She's so warm and cuddly, but if I let her fall asleep on me, I'm trapped until she wakes us, because if I put her down afterwards, she wakes up and gets all upset. The early part of the week was rough, with every day getting a little better.

So anyway, there's that. It's going well. Dr. Hello Kitty told us to do it this way, so it helps to have her endorsement. We saw her on Wednesday about the rash that Little Miss has; it's dry skin + baby acne. They tested it for staph just to make sure, since my c-section incision is infected (still!). Dr. HK said she'd call me if it was staph, but she was pretty sure it wasn't.

We bought a new baby carrier that I LOVE (see above - note her bunny feet) but unfortunately I overdid it yesterday with it by taking a walk with her. She was fussy and stopped fussing when I kept walking, so I kept walking. Big mistake: last night I was so sore in my back and abdomen from the pressure on the incision. It's very hard for me to take it easy; I'm high-energy and having to limit my activities has and continues to be tough. This is NOT how I wanted to spend my maternity leave.

Tomorrow I'm going to have lunch with a friend who works at Google; it's Halloween so everyone is going to be dressed up. Little Miss is going as a monkey. Afterwards, we're going to a Halloween party at Day One, the awesome center we've gone to for lactation support and general sanity. We'll be sure to take pictures!

Experimenting with Eating and Sleeping

So we've tried to extend the time Lucia eats as much as possible; the general rule is every 2-3 hours, but Lucia is a snoozer, and rather than wake her up and force feed her at exactly 2 hours, we're experimenting with seeing how and when she wakes up on her own (about 3 hours).

We've also experimented with feeding her as much as she wants, which has been a bit problematic twice as when she eats around 4 oz, she spits up some. 2 oz = restless baby in 2 hours. 3 oz = just about right.

So the experiments continue. Here's a funny picture of her in her bouncy seat. She does her Houdini magic act and unravels her hands from her swaddle in record-time, and MUST have her hands free for feedings. She's a character already!