Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving, and I hope you all did too! We all "slept in" this morning...well, till about 8, since we were out late last night shopping. John put our turkey on the rotisserie, and I made sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes & gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls & butter, and sparkling cider. This year the food was timed impeccably, with everything being cooked and finished at the same time. With two small children that's not an easy task.
William really liked the sweet potatoes.




Then again....




Abby enjoyed being held the entire dinner. She likes being in the middle of the action!


Our two kids, for whom we are very thankful! (The stork is completely incidental.)

Shopping

I wiped out William's shopping cart (he played outside with it this summer) and brought it in the house for him to play with. He loves shopping for his nummies with Herbie, his doll. (Mom, we all want to know where the name "Herbie" came from!) This morning I put Abby in his cart. My intention was to put her in it when she was first home from the hospital, as she was SO small, but I never got around to it.
Giving Abby kisses. They both adore each other!

Singing

William has been learning a LOT these days. He's like a sponge...he's constantly picking up new words and songs. Some of the songs he knows are BIBLE, Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Rock-a-bye Baby, and A-B-C-D. We are also working on catechism questions, although when I ask him "What else did God make?" he usually responds with "Noah". Here's a short video of William signing. We usually have "piano lessons" everyday, where we sit at the piano and sing. I'm working on other songs with him, and he's picking them up, so I'll post them later.

Sunday

William absolutely refused to be photographed, so it's just me and my favorite little gal.


Wide eyed, that's for sure!

4 Month Checkup

This morning was Abby's 4 month well-baby check-up.

Wow! This little gal is growing! She's now weighing in at 12.13 pounds and she's 23 inches. The doctor said that prematurity is "a thing of the past"! Her weight is in the 25th percentile for a four month old!! The doctor, at her previous visits, said that because she was two months premature that we'd be gauging her growth using an age-adjusted scale. (If she's four months, she'd be compared with two month babies, etc.) However, it looks like we're not going to be doing that anymore, as she's making incredible strides in all areas of growth. I couldn't be happier!

She got her vaccinations as well, however John and I decided that instead of following the AAP recommendations we are going to be following a delayed schedule. We still want her to be completely vaccinated, however. So instead of the normal six vaccines, she got two plus an oral one. We'll go back in a month and get another one. I most certainly don't want to get anyone's panties in a bind about this, but we just think that this would be the best for her. She didn't tolerate her two month shots well, so I'm hoping that by spacing them out she'll do better. The doctor said more and more patients are chosing this route as well, especially those who've read Dr. Sears' book, The Vaccine Book. Yup...I just finished it yesterday, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting additional info on vaccines. It is decidedly pro-vaccine, but gives lots of info about them, including a safe alternative the current vaccine schedule. (I didn't realize that cow serum, monkey tissues, and aborted fetal tissues are the ingredients in some of the vaccines!)

William was relieved that he didn't have to get a shot! We've decided not to do the H1N1 shot, for lots of reasons. Way too much hype and hardly any safety testing done for me to allow it. Also don't like that the multi-dose contains mercury. I did give him the seasonal flu shots some time ago, but only because they assured me it was a single dose, mercury free. Appears he got the dose just in time, as they are all out of the single dose, and now are moving on to the mercury containing, multi-dose flu shot.

Well, Miss Abigail is sound asleep in my arms. She seems to be MUCH happier than she was after her two month shots, as she screamed solid for hours and hours. Who knows exactly why...maybe she was just cranky that day. Maybe it did have something to do with vaccine overload...whatever the case is, I feel confident we made the right choice for her!

What Fun!

I just love being a Mom! It simply is the best job ever. Not to mention that I get to do fun things 9-5ers just don't get to do - play-doh! I remember playing with play-doh as a kid; oh what fun! William got this play-doh set for his 1st birthday and I've had to put it away because he was too young for it. Well, I still think he's too young for it, but I simply couldn't stand it anymore. "I" wanted to play with it! I put plastic on the carpet and put his "water bib" on (the one he uses when he plays with the water in the kitchen sink, an entirely different post!) and we got to it! He wasn't quite sure about the stuff, but loved all the molds, plastic knife, scissors, and other things that it kept him busy for a long time.


We'll be doing this again in the very near future! I can't wait.

PS - don't mind that the top part of his head got chopped off....in my haste and excitement I didn't check to see if his entire noggin was actually IN the picture!

For Uncle Terry

This one's for you!

We are really encouraging this avenue for a career against his other favorite service worker - the garbage man.

Girl's Movie Night

I had my first girls ONLY movie night with Abby Saturday. William was in bed, and John was working.

It wasn't my intention to have a girls movie night, but as I turned on the DVD Abby started fussing from her bed, so I got her up and placed her on the couch next to me. However, it wasn't too long (like 3.5 minutes) before she slowly slumped over, sound asleep. Oh well...I'm sure we'll have more mother-daughter movie nights in the future!


Wearing her Sunday outfit.

Faces

I love looking at the similarities between William and Abby...and the differences! They are both around the same age in these photos.

Walk

We went for a walk two days ago, just around our house. The weather is so warm still, and it's November!

Schedule!!

We're only on Day Two of this "new" schedule, but for now it's working like a charm. When it was just William I made sure he got his uninterrupted naps. But with Abby it was like she has been napping on the fly, so to speak. She would cat nap all day long, never sleeping more than 10 or 15 minutes at a shot. Then she'd cry, I'd hold her or feed her, and she'd fall asleep for another 10 minutes or so. It didn't help that we'd spend a lot of time outside playing - she'd be awake because she didn't want to miss anything! Come night time she basically would be awake on and off the whole night, only wanting to sleep in my arms, nursing. I would start my day utterly exhausted.

So, two days ago, after talking with my mom and mother in law, I decided that she simply must be on a sleep schedule, and if she doesn't like it, she must cry it out. (I wasn't letting her cry much because I was nervous about her holding her breath/choking, due to the fact she was a preemie...and her crying would wake William when he was napping.)

Let me just say that the last two nights have been fabulous! She's been taking (under protest a little!) two morning naps (approx. 1 hour each) and 2 afternoon naps. Between 7-8 she's been ready to go down FOR. THE. NIGHT. Yes, she still woke up during the night to eat, but went right back down, and in her OWN bed! Yesterday afternoon I got a full 3 hours of child-free time while they BOTH were napping AT THE SAME TIME! That's never happened before!!

I'm SO excited I can hardly type this! If my writing seems a bit scattered it's because I can't believe that MAYBE we are on the up and up when it comes to getting some sleep!

I think a lot of her crankiness is also subsiding. She seems to be much happier these days. I'm not sure if her extreme dependency for me was due to her being premature, but at 12 + pounds it's time for her to learn to at least sleep on her own. (I checked William's baby book, and at his 4 month check up he weighed 11.11 lbs. At Abby's 2 month appointment she weighed 11.8 pounds....yeah, I'm not giving in to her due to her "prematurity" anymore!)

Crossing my fingers things continue to go fabulously,

The well-rested Mamma!