Talking with Daddy

Hannah loves to sit and talk...she doesn't really do much talking, but she looks and listens - she loves it when Daddy talks to her. She even smiles back sometimes.
Daddy's glasses don't quite fit...but Hannah let Daddy pose her anyways. We're hoping our daughter doesn't have Mommy's (bad) eyes and that she doesn't need glasses until she is over 30!
Our daughter loves to eat!! She actually prefers nursing to a bottle, but if you put milk in front of her face, she's not about to turn it down!

Abby is 3!

On Saturday, April 26th, our "first baby" Abby turned 3 years old. This April is the month of "3" around our house, so I couldn't let my 3-month old sign for Hannah go to waste...

Abby cooperated quite well during our little photo shoot.

Abby turning 3 wasn't the same event as when she turned 1 (long before we had Hannah). For her first birthday, Abby got doggie ice cream and a doggie cake and we invited her brother over to play. This year, we didn't even remember it was her birthday until we looked at the calendar on Sunday....my, how having kids changes things....

Abby & Her Baby

Abby is learning all about taking care of babies....She checks on Hannah in the middle of the night when she fusses, she makes sure she stays put in her pack n' play, and keeps an eye on Hannah when she plays on the floor. But, Abby has her own "baby" a stuffed toy that she just loves.....here is a picture of Abby taking a nap with HER baby.

Disclaimer: this picture was not posed by any human.

On a serious note, since many of you have asked, Abby is wonderful with Hannah. For the most part, she doesn't pay much attention to Hannah (other than when Hannah is crying....Abby either wants to go outside or in her crate - Abby does not like baby crying). We can put Hannah on the floor on her activity mat or on a blanket for tummy time and Abby will just lay down beside the mat/blanket. She never puts more than 1/2 paw on a blanket and is VERY careful when retrieving toys that go near Hannah's floor space (even when Hannah isn't there). Abby even walks beside the stroller when we go out for our daily walks. The only offense so far between the two girls is Abby's tail whacking Hannah in the head....but there is no controlling that wagging tail, so we think things are going well and they will grow up to be best friends.

3 Months Old

Okay, so I went a little crazy with the photo shoot today.....

She's smiling!!!

All ready for bed....and Mommy is still taking pictures!

Down for an afternoon nap...she sleeps like an angel

All dolled up in a 0-3 month old sized dress that is still way too big.....

This onesie is "newborn" size...but she won't be wearing it much longer.

Hannah is already 3 months old. She's growing up so fast...and starting to do some new things.

• Hannah started to smile over the weekend. I was even able to verify she wasn't just smiling while tooting, since I had my hand on her rear end.
• Hannah is growing with leaps and bounds. She is up to 8lbs, 12oz, according to our scale at home. The most recent weight gain is totally on breastmilk alone!!
• Hannah actually slept 4 hours straight last night!
• She has started to "coo" some and loves for you to talk to her.
• She has started to spend more time awake and alert.

In case you're wondering why 3 outfits today....the little girl has a fashion show almost every day by spitting up on her clothes (and Mommy's clothes) on a regular basis. She always manages to miss the burp cloth or bib! Here is a quick shot taken between outfits #1 & #2 (not counting the PJ's that she wore to bed last night). She really keeps Mommy on her toes!

Preemie Party

Addison & Hannah
I tried another angle to make Hannah look a little bigger!!

[Editor's Note: Title of this blog was 100% stolen from Kristi's blog.]

Last Thursday Hannah and I finally got to venture out and about with a destination other than the doctor's office. We went to Antrim Park (for those who didn't know...that's where I got engaged) for a walk around the lake with my friend Kristi, and her preemie, Addison. Addison was due around the time Hannah was born....but she surprised her parents and decided to come early back in late November.

It was so nice to have some adult conversation and spend time outdoors. The two laps we did were wonderful...and more walks are ncessary to get me back in shape following 6 weeks of bedrest (and then another 5+ of just sitting in the hospital beside Hannah's crib all day).

12 Weeks Old

Hannah takes a snooze on Mommy
Our 12-week old girl!!

We've tried to settle Hannah into a routine of going upstairs for her 7-8pm feeding and then doing stories, changing into PJ's, and singing lullabies at that time. I put her to bed and then retreat downstairs to listen in with the baby monitor (Jon likens it to having a house that is bugged). Then, Daddy will give her the last feeding of the night from a bottle to he can have some quality time with her (anywhere from 10:30 to midnight). From that point on, it's Mommy's turn -- all night. For the past few weeks, Hannah had been going through a major growth spurt and was up almost every hour, sometimes every 30 minutes, wanting to eat. Nights were VERY long...and the days weren't much better.

But last night Hannah gave me a wonderful gift (other than turning 12 weeks old yesterday)... our little baby let her Mommy sleep from 12:30am until almost 4am! That is the most sleep that I've gotten at one time since she has been home (maybe since she was born). Hannah actually slept a little longer than that, since I had to pump after I gave her the nighttime bottle (I let Jon go to sleep and I took care of bottle duty because he had a rough day at work). Now, things weren't exactly smooth sailing after I went back to bed at 4:45am....Hannah was up again at 5:15 and then again around 6ish...but getting up those two other times was a lot easier with the sleep I'd gotten earlier in the night. By 7am Hannah was up and alert and ready to start the day (can you say morning child?!), but she did settle down for a short mid-morning nap (that I took too).

I'm looking forward to a little more consistency in her sleep schedule, but I have to keep reminding myself that our 12-week old is really only 2 weeks old developmentally...and that makes it a little easier to understand why her sleep doesn't have a schedule and why after all this time she is still getting up every 2 or 3 hours, but at the same time it reminds me that this is an endurance race and there is still more to go even though she is almost 3 months old. I have an extended newborn phase with her -- it makes me EVER SO THANKFUL that I do not have to go back to work after 12 weeks -- it would be like someone else going back to work with a 2-week old baby at home. I can't even fathom going back after only 6 weeks...she would have only been home for 5 days if that were the case (and I would have worked a month before her due date even came around)!

I'm very fortunate that my firm is very understanding (after all, it's already been 4 months since I've worked -- I left the office on December 14th for the hospital and haven't been back yet). When I first went into the hospital everyone told me to not worry about work - even those in management called to remind me of that. I got phone calls in the hospital from a number of partners reminding me to just focus on my health and the baby's health, and few partners visited me in the hospital, and clients even called and sent well-wishes. Once home the same mantra continued (thoroughly impressing my mother who always thought I worked too much - she didn't realize what great people I was working with), and one partner even brought tons of food to the house so we wouldn't have to worry about cooking! When I go back, I think I'll appreciate the supportive firm family that I have even more, since I know that they don't care just about the number of hours that I bill, but they care about me and my family too.

[For those at the firm wondering, I'll be back sometime in early August...]

Far Off Visitor Award

And...the award for the people who have come the farthest to see Hannah goes to....

Tim and Sarah Hartman!!

The award was previously held by my sister and her husband who came for a visit from Washington, D.C., but Tim and Sarah came MUCH further....Tim is one of Jon's long-time friends who now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tim and Sarah stopped by over the weekend following visits with each of their families. Tim and Sarah were real troopers to spend the night with us and a baby who still gets up 3 times a night....but they said they never even heard Hannah cry (amazing - they must be deep sleepers!).

Thanks for the visit guys -- we hope you can stay longer next time!!

Family Visitors

Natalie, Tammy & Luke check out Hannah
Luke holding Hannah
Natalie holding a very squirmy Hannah

My cousin, Tammy, came for a visit a few weeks ago to see "Baby Hannah" (as her kids call Hannah). Tammy's kids religiously follow our blog and the early pictures of Hannah in the NICU led to some interesting conversations in their house since this was the first time they'd seen a baby born early!

Tammy was my very first babysitter YEARS ago. Tammy brought her two middle-school aged kids with her....and reminded me that I'm getting older too! I can make her feel old since she was in high school when I was born and now I have a child of my own, but she can do the same to me because I was in high school when her kids were born! It's hard to believe they are in middle school already.

I'm a big girl now!

Hannah & Abby

Yesterday we had Hannah's 2-month check-up (even though she is almost 3 months). We had a good doctor visit (despite the 4 vaccinations that Hannah got - I'm sure she didn't enjoy them). We got some good news from Dr. Ann during our visit:

• Hannah's head circumference is caught up to a term baby
• Dr. Ann was surprised that Hannah's length is caught up to a full term baby (21 inches). Usually preemies take longer to catch up in this area, so maybe Daddy's "tall genes" have something to do with her growth.

Hannah sleeping (and growing!)

Even though I'm nursing, those of you who have been around for Hannah's feedings know that sometimes feeding her takes a bit of math and is almost like a chemistry experiment. Her nutritionist at the hospital wanted us to give her at least 4 bottles of my pumped milk with Neosure (a preemie formula) as a supplement each day. We were given a special 70 mL to 1 tsp. ratio....so anytime she wasn't taking exactly 70 mL we had a lot of mixing and pouring to do. We were told that we'd do this until she was 4 months old and then the doctor would evaluate her weight gain and let us know when we could discontinue.

• We can discontinue the Neosure early!!!

I'm super excited, so now I can just nurse (or Jon can give her a bottle) with nothing added. She'll still get daily vitamins, but that's it. It's just up to me to eat a healthy diet and make sure she gets all of her nutrients. Lately, she had been nursing every 1 or 2 hours (or sometimes every 30 minutes) instead of the nice 3-hour schedule she was on when she came home from the hospital. It really made things hard with my pumping schedule, since I had to pump for her bottles. At one point I was afraid I wasn't making enough when she needed to eat. WRONG.

• Our little girl now weights 7 POUNDS, 14 OUNCES!!!

She's gained over a pound and a half in 3 weeks. The doctor was floored at her weight gain and said that Hannah had a mega growth spurt the past few weeks. That explains why I felt like I was constantly nursing - I was!

Our big girl

I asked our doctor about taking Hannah out and about before she hits 4 months since she's growing so well, but that is still a no go. It is still RSV season and it is better to be safe than sorry, so we can do open air public places, but still no restaurants, malls, church, etc. Although I'd love to take her out and show her off, we got enough good news at our visit that I won't push it.

Video - Daddy's Little Girl

My husband the budding filmmaker put together this wonderful video of Hannah's first few days of life. Enjoy!

Video - Hannah's Birth

My parents got Jon a video camera for Christmas so he would be able to film their first granddaughter. Little did they know that giving it to us in late December would be perfect timing so we would have it and know how to use it by the time Hannah arrived a month later.

Here is one of the first videos that Jon made...of the moments following Hannah's birth....We didn't quite have the video camera (or any camera) out when I was in labor because we were only together in the room for about 5 hours before Hannah made her appearance and we just weren't thinking of cameras and such (we even missed getting a photo of Jon cutting the umbilical cord). However, we were told by one of the nurses it was okay to video before she went off to the NICU and the proud papa went to work on his first movie.

Spring Walks

Now that spring is here (at least according to the calendar), we can take Hannah out on walks....we still can't really take her out and about among people yet, but walks around the neighborhood are okay. The doctor said as long as I want to be outside and she's dressed appropriately, we're okay (although I'm sure the doctor didn't realize that I used to walk the dog rain or shine, even when it was 20 degrees outside!).

So, at the first sign of a nice day (and I guess mid-50's qualifies for Ohio), we hit the sidewalk. I loved getting to be outside and I know I'll enjoy our walks even more when the weather is REALLY nice out. Hurry up spring weather!

Our first walk was a family walk down to the park to play frisbee with Abby. Hannah slept the whole time and didn't even know she'd gone anywhere. I think Abby was excited to get back into her routine because she loves walks to the park.


Our second walk was the other afternoon -- just me, Hannah, and Abby. I'm sure we were quite the sight. I was pushing Hannah with one hand and walking Abby with the other. Abby did a great job walking beside the stroller and even stayed put (with a little "encouragement" from me) when she saw a squirrel. This time Hannah stayed awake long enough to get 2 houses down the street. Abby didn't like not getting to play frisbee, but we really need another person to do that...

The Marie's

When we named Hannah, we really only spent time picking a first name....as her middle name was pretty much decided (once we decided to go with tradition, that is). We chose Hannah because it means God's grace, but Marie is a family name -- my middle name, my mom's middle name, and my grandmother's first name. Here is our 4 Generation picture of "the Marie's".

Colleen Marie (Grandma), Julie Marie (Mom),
Marie Lucille (Great Grandma), and Hannah Marie (Baby)