Welcome to the Jungle

Years ago, when my mom and I first went to the then new Ikea in the Twin Cities, she pointed out these awesome leaves and commented on how cool they would be for a kid's room. I agreed. So I knew as soon as I found out I was preggo that I needed those leaves. They were actually the first thing I bought for BGS (even before I knew she was a G).

Decorating the nursery was one of my favorite things when I was preggo. I went to every store with paint to find the perfect colors. E and I made about 5 trips to Babies R Us before finally deciding on the furniture for the room. I spent hours looking at bedding sets in stores and online.

There are still a few things I'd like to add to the room, but I am SO HAPPY with how the room looks now. It is my favorite room in the whole house!

5 Weeks

Baby A is 5 weeks old today. We started our mom and baby group on Tuesday. It was really nice to get together with other moms who have babies A-belle's age. A lot of E's friends have kids already, but not many of mine, so it's a nice place to ask questions and get ideas. There are 2 babies in the class that are younger than A, and 3 that are older, but I think she might be the biggest. At least I know she's getting enough to eat with all this growing!




Yesterday E took Baby A for a few hours so I could get my hair cut and run a few errands. I feel much better after getting my hair under control, and it was so much easier to run errands without a baby along, but I was ready for some baby snuggles as soon as I got home.

1 Month

I can't believe how much Baby A has changed in 1 month! It really hit me on Sunday when she turned 1 month old, how big she has gotten. I don't know how much she actually weighs, but she is well out of newborn clothes, and even some of the 0-3 months are getting small for her. I know I will love seeing her grow, and be able to do more than eat and sleep, but at the same time I'm a little sad to see her getting big. I love my snuggly little baby. I feel so lucky that I get to be home with her for at least 5 months!

Baby A has become much more alert now. She spends much more time awake, and she's better at making eye contact with Mommy and Daddy. She totally has Daddy wrapped around her little fingers, but more on that later. She's also settling in to more of a sleep pattern, although it varies from night to night. Daddy gives her a bottle around 10, and she goes to sleep sometime around 11, wakes up between 2:30 and 4:30 to eat, and then goes back to sleep for awhile. The second sleep strech varies much more than the first.

She loves taking walks... well, I love taking walks with her. We try to go out for about an hour every day, unless the weather is bad. Sometimes we go out for one walk during the day, and another when E gets home from work. Her two absolute favorite things seem to be her swing and her pacifier. She does most of her sleeping in the swings (we have a little one downstairs and a big one upstairs in our bedroom). I was a little hesitant to give her the pacifier, but it really has been a lifesaver. Much better than a screaming baby when we're half way around the lake.

E went out to run some errands on Sunday, and came back with a cake for Baby A's 1 month birthday. He's such a sweed daddy. And, so that Baby A can share in her cake, I've had to eat lots of it :) Besides the cake, we also celebrated Baby A's 1 month birthday with a BBQ for our friend Chris. She has been out of the country for 8 months, and we were so happy to see her again and introduce her to baby A.

We haven't quite figured out what Baby A's nickname is going to be. When we picked Annabelle, we thought she could go by Anna, Anne, Annie or Belle. Now that she's here, she mostly gets called Princess or Princess Annabelle. I guess we'll have to wait and see what her personality is like before we find a nickname for her.

Just for Miss Heather

In honor of our Heather's birthday Baby A wore her (borrowed) I heart NY onsie. We are wishing Heather a year of wonderfulness and sending lots of love to Scotia!

Baby A didn't quite understand that I was trying to include her onsie in the outfit, so she kept covering the letters with her hands. I guess she might be a little tired of Mom taking a million pictures of her.

4 Weeks

Little Baby A is 4 weeks old today. And this past week has been a busy one.

Grandma Tina and Great Grandma Sue came to visit us last weekend. It was really wonderful to have 4 generations together. I love the relationship I have with my mom and grandma, and I hope my little girl has that connection too. Great Grandma brought a picture of her as a baby with her mom and grandma. It was so neat to see (and my grandma's cousin Annabelle was running around in the background. We didn't even know it was a family name when we picked it). Great Grandma also brought Baby A her first piggy bank, with her name, Princess, on it.

We had our first "date night" out with Baby A. E and I went out to dinner near our house. We had Mexican food and I had my first drink since finding out I was preggo. It was very tasty. Luckily Baby A slept through dinner, which to me equaled success. I also took Baby A in to E's office so he could show off his little princess. Later the same day Baby A got to go to her first book club meeting. She did really well with both trips. She tends to be a happy baby, especially if someone is holding her.

Thanks to Miss Heather for the cute onsie (one of many pieces of owl themed clothing Baby A received this week). Miss Heather also sent Baby A her first piece of "fun mail", a sweet note card letter, that left Mommy a little teary eyed.

2 Weeks Old

I can't believe my little girl is already 2 weeks old! Time is going by so fast. This week we've had a few more visitors, and Baby A got to make her first trip to Conny's (although she missed out on the tasty goodness). E's dad came to visit his 5th grandchild, and my brother came up to visit too. E had to go to Ohio for work Monday and Tuesday, so having my brother here made me feel more comfortable.

Baby A and I made it out on our first adventure together, a trip to Target. She was so good, sleeping most of the time, but staying nice and quite when she woke up. It was a little difficult to fit in all of the things we needed around Baby A's car seat, but we managed.

We also discovered that Baby A likes her swing, which is so helpful to me during the day. She doesn't like laying down to sleep, so I can put her in the swing while I get things done. It has been very helpful in allowing me to take a shower during the day. She also likes to be carried a lot, and seems to like the sling.

First Easter

Last Sunday we celebrated our first holiday as a family. It was a very low key day. Baby A and I had a long night, so E watched Baby A so I could get in a good nap. She's so little that I'm sure she didn't get much out of the day. Baby A got her first Easter basket anyway. I stuffed it with a few books, a toy and some candy that E offered to "help" her eat.

When I first went shopping to get Baby A's Easter basket, I thought it would be really cute to take some pictures of her in her basket. With her being such a long baby, it didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. And she certainly did not think it was such a good idea.

First Bath

Last night, Baby A's umbilical cord fell off, so E and I decided to give her a bath tonight. She was NOT happy about bath time. She cried and cried. But she is a clean baby now, and she looked pretty cute wrapped up in her cozy little towel after the bath.

41 Weeks

This is a little late, but by what would have been 41 weeks, our baby girl had arrived, and spent almost a whole week with us. Having Annabelle here is even better than E and I expected, and we love her more than we thought possible.

Lots of people have already stopped in to meet Baby A- grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and friends. I'm so happy that our little girl is so loved!

We took her in for her first appointment with the doctor today and everything looked good. She's gaining weight at a good rate, which is very reassuring to me. It can be hard to tell how much she is eating. She was born 8lbs, 13oz, went down to 8lbs, 3oz before we left the hospital, and is already back up to 8lbs, 9oz. She's a long little girl, which isn't too surprising because both E and I are pretty tall. At 21.5 inches, she's in the 92 percentile for height.

I am recovering pretty well. I'm still a little sore but I really can't complain much. The first few days were hard, but every day gets better. E and I have even been able to take Baby A out for a few walks already. I can't go as far as before, but I think it's good to get some exercise.

I really can't believe how fast this first week went! I am really trying to appreciate this time with a newborn to snuggle, even when she's up half the night. I know it's not going to last forever, and I'm going to miss these baby days when she gets older.