Getting out of the house

Week three of Anya's life we introduced her to more friends and some new places. She visited the local fruit stand and the grocery store in one trip- that was a big outing! Grandma and I also took her to Bellevue Square for the first time. She was a fabulous little shopper and we bought too many clothes for her but they were all so cute. Having a little girl is going to be dangerous.

She had several visitors this week including her "cousin" 7 month old Lydia Freeman. Kate, Lydia and Jeremy came into town from New York to visit family. Lydia LOVED Boone and squealed the entire time she was here. Boone of course thought she was great and licked her to death.

Friday night, Grandma and Grandpa came over to our house to watch Anya for a few hours while Myles and I went on a "date". It was nice to get out of the house but it definitely felt like we were missing something the whole time. She was an angel for her grandparents and didn't miss us at all.

On Saturday we took Anya to Jim Sweeney's 60th birthday party. After a two hour nap upon arrival she woke up, ate, and was adored and fawned over by friends and family loving every minute of it.

Hood Canal Cabin Gettaway

We packed up the station wagon on Friday and drove out to the Hood Canal Cabin for the weekend. It is amazing how much you have to pack for such a small baby. Our car was full including the roof box for two nights away. Granted Myles had his golf clubs and fishing gear as well.

The weekend away was as relaxing as a weekend away with a 18 day old baby could be. Myles got to play a round of golf on Saturday, celebrating fathers day a day early. Anya and I got a long walk (in the rain partially) but the fresh air was nice.

The best part about the weekend was having Anya spend some quality time with her grandparents and aunt and uncle. She was her normal wonderful self during the day, but had some difficulty sleeping. Myles and I were up for most of the night on Saturday night in fact. I was worried we might have ruined her perfect streak of "good sleeping" but last night she returned to her normal routine at home. THANK GOD!!!!!!

She had her first real bath last week too. She seemed to like the water and didn't even mind when we gently dumped it over her head! She just doesn't like to get cold at all.

Two week checkup

Anya turned two weeks old yesterday and she had her first doctors appointment. We were excited to have her checked out and to ask some important questions.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I told our pediatrician that I was letting her sleep 5 hours sometimes at night before waking her to feed her. When I told him I was waking her up if she slept too long he asked, "why?" Hooray- so sleeping babies get to sleep. Of course last night she woke up in 3-4 hour increments (nothing to complain about I know) but I was hoping for one long night since she has been sleeping pretty well. We might have ruined it already by waking her and forming a pattern but the nurses said it was imperative to feed her every 3 hours-apparently our pediatrician (my new favorite person) disagrees. Of course if she wasn't gaining the appropriate amount of weight this would be a problem but since she has gained plenty of weight he thinks letting her sleep will not do any harm- thank god!

She is 50% in weight- weighing 7 lb 7.5oz at 2 weeks. She is 50% in head measurement and 75% in height. Myles and I are ecstatic! This by no means signifies any real height in her future but we thought it was promising. At least she isn't starting below average right out the gate!

Anya met her "auxiliary" grandmother yesterday- Diane Sweeney. All smiles and kisses she warmed up to Diane immediately. She loved Colleen too even though she was worried that she would make her cry at any moment.

Good girl for mamma's birthday

Today is my 31st birthday and man, a whole lot can change in one year! I was training for a half iron man last year at this time, now I have a baby- crazy!
This past week Anya has had a lot of firsts! She went for her first walk in the "BOB" and enjoyed the jostling and jiggling. Boone walks very well beside the stroller but does tend to drift over near the wheels on occasion.
She took her first bottle- from daddy none the less- and was a good little eater. Little does Myles know but this can transform the midnight feeding sessions drastically...... tee hee hee!
Myles and I took her to the grocery store for the first time and she did really well. Next time we will make sure it isn't so close to feeding time though, she had a bit of a melt down in the check out line! Oops.

After consulting with some other "mommies" Myles and I decided it was somewhat unnatural to wake our sleeping baby at night to feed her every three hours. Her jaundice is totally gone and as long as she was gaining weight we didn't think it was necessary to wake her. Just to make sure, we took her into the hospital clinic and used their scale to weight her. She had gained 1 lb 3 oz in one week! So that was the end of waking the baby every three hours. Most the time she wasn't hungry anyway.

So the first few nights we let her sleep she would wake on her own every 3-4 hours to be fed. However, last night she slept for 5 hours and then 4 more hours after that! Fabulous- so today I feel very rested and thank my baby girl for that birthday gift. She eats more during the day, but that is fine by me, I'm awake and ready to feed her!

Anya also met some of her parent's friends last night -Rob & Dana, Jeni and Scott, & Kelly and Nick. (well she has met Aunt Jeni a few times but it is still a cute pic!)
As a side note, I fit into my first pair of "real pants" yesterday. Yippee- say goodbye to elastic waistbands!

One week old!

Well, Anya had her first outing into the retail world yesterday. She went to three stores and was carted around in her car seat like a pro. Who knew they designed car seats to sit on shopping carts so easily!
She was admired by strangers which of course filled both her mom and dad with enormous pride.

Boone is sharing the backseat of the car with his 'little sister' without a complaint- (see picture)









Myles went back to work today and I survived the morning with the help of mom and even got to take a shower- now a luxury only a new mom could appreciate.

Our dear baby is STILL very good. Everyone keeps saying we are in the "honeymoon phase" or that all new babies are good for the first two weeks, but Myles and I are holding out hope that this is really her temperament more or less.

We are settling into parenthood and the days seem short while the nights stretch on for hours. I feel like I am breastfeeding ALL the time, mainly because I am.

Anya has had tons of visitors and enjoys everyone coming to see her. She behaves very well when they are here and saves all her more "unladylike" activities for when Myles or I hold her. Our refrigerator is ridiculous. I don't think we will have to cook for months; it is fabulous.

Boone meets Anya

After Anya was born we had my parents take Boone (our dog) for a few days. It was easier to adjust to our new life with a new born without a dog around. We were anxious to have the two meet however. We brought Boone home on Saturday and he met his new "sister". We didn't have any reservations about his behavior and he proved to be just as good of a dog as we had hoped. He sniffed and licked her but sat quietly when asked. Now a few days into it, he follows her everywhere. If I have her upstairs feeding her, he is with us. If Myles has her downstairs on the couch, Boone is there. He even gets up with me in the night and comes into her room while I feed her, it is nice to have to company.

She is still doing amazingly well. We have to set an alarm to go off every three hours at night so I can feed her. This is discouraging knowing we have such a good sleeper, but the doctors and nurses assured me it was important to feed her that often when she is this young.

She was a little Jaundiced when we came home from the hospital, but since my milk has come in and she has been eating like a little pig (complete with grunting and squeaking) she has become rosy cheeked again.

She is sleeping a little less during the day and letting us stare into her beautiful blue eyes more often. Both Myles and I are smitten.

Myles heads back to work on Wednesday so we will all have a tough adjustment this week. He has been so hands on with her care that I am going to miss him most.

Thanks to family and friends our freezer and fridge is stocked with food so we are not going hungry.

New pics

We are taking 100's of pictures a day and I wanted to upload a few more.
She is doing terrific. Sleeps, eats, and poops like a champ- what else can you ask for from a newborn. Since she is small very few of her newborn clothes fit her, we are going to buy some preemie hats too because her head is miniature.

We are having so much fun so far, this is awesome.

Hooray! She finally arrived

Oh my gosh, the past few days have been so incredibly busy I literally have not had one free moment to even think about updating this. We were able to stay in the hospital one extra day because of her late delivery time on Tuesday evening. We took full advantage of the air conditioned accommodations considering the weather was reaching 90 degrees.
I have so much to say but I want to keep this short and add lots of pictures.

She is AMAZING! I know people always say how "your life will never be the same", but I never realized how profound the change could be in a few short moments.

The hospital stats again
Born June 2nd at 10:12 pm
6 lbs 11oz
19 3/4 inches long

The fun stats
She looks like her dad (but way cuter!)
She squeaks and smiles
She has some hair- it is very fine and light brown with blond highlights
She LOVES to nurse
She sleeps very soundly and we have to wake her to feed her at night
She rarely cries (right now)
She is not shy about passing gas in public
Her eyes are dark blue right now but that can change

We want to thank everyone for their emails and phone calls. We will get back to you at some point but we have a VERY important person demanding most of our attention at the moment.

Induction schedule

We went in for my final doctors appointment today. I'm not going to gross everyone out with a bunch of gynecological terms but according to my doctor all it would take would be a few good strong contractions and my labor would get going. Since mother nature has yet to intervene in this labor process we had set our induction to be Wednesday. Originally it was scheduled for Wednesday late evening into Thursday, but they had to move it up to Wednesday morning. So if she doesn't come tonight or tomorrow, she will most likely be with us by Wednesday evening.

Myles and I are are extremely excited to have the end in site. I am disappointed that I won't be able to experience the excitement of "going into labor" at home or while out, but the end goal is the same either way- to have a happy healthy baby.

Thank you all for your encouraging words as we have trudged through the past week.