el burrito

Maggie's First Sponge Bath

Last night Maggie got her first at-home sponge bath. She didn't really appreciate being wet and cold but she managed alright; mom was quick.
Here's Mags in her birthday suit (thanks to Mags for strategically placing her foot so we don't see too much). Once her umbilical cord falls off she can have a submerged bath... pics of that to come.
Wet and unhappy.
This time around I had a couple of helpers.
My helpers admiring their little sister. Cuties.
The finished product, chubby cheeks and all!

I love being NOT pregnant!

It has been a week since I gave birth to my latest beautiful child. It is just amazing how great I feel! I finally feel like a mom again. Frankly, I am not the greatest pregnant person. I hate being pregnant in fact. I really envy those moms that look and feel great during their pregnancies and just love to be pregnant, but I do not. First off, let me say that I am so grateful that I am able to have children and am able to have them with such ease (perhaps too much ease).

Let me just say that it is great to be able to hunch over again and bend at my mid-section. I really hate the morning sickness, the feeling of being absolutely huge, the pre-eclampsia that it looks like I will always be at risk of having, not being able to fit into anything (though this feeling is continuing after pregnancy as well). Not to mention taking care of kids while feeling sick and tired constantly. I hate the sleepless nights because I just can't get comfortable, my back hurting, my feet swelling which has caused me to have to buy myself 'pregnant shoes'.

I just had this motherhood-epiphany yesterday as I was all alone with my three children for the first time. I was taking Ellie to preschool and we were singing songs and laughing and trying to keep Owen awake. After I dropped Ellie off, I handed out a snack to Owen so he could munch on something yummy and continue staying awake. It was those little things, though seemingly insignificant, that made me feel like a mom again. I have been "checked out" for the past two months because of being on bed rest and feeling so miserable and I just thought to myself, "I can still do this!". It was a small thing, but it made me feel good.

I realize that my little newborn sleeps 95% of the time, so not much has changed and I am sure I have many, many triple meltdowns in my future, but I am really loving being a mom-- at least today. :)

Let me end by saying that even though I hate being pregnant, I really love the end product! I have three wonderful, beautiful and healthy children, who could ask for more in life than that?

The N@ked Golfer

Well, I am not going to put a n*ked picture of my child on the internet, but I was able to do a little crop work to give you an idea of how funny Owen was today. The kids were restless so I took them in the backyard for some pool time. Owen has had a really bad diaper rash and often times the best remedy is to just give it air and sun, so Owen went in the pool n*ked today.

Ellie got some golf clubs for her birthday and Owen really had a field day playing with them in the backyard today... n*ked.
Ellie enjoying the pool.... looks cold.
WEE!!!!
Owen is ready to slide.
More Ellie smiles.

Ellie likes to push Owen down the slide... Lucky for her, Owen puts up with it.

A few other pictures of the day (sorry for the excess of blogs as of lately, but we have lots of family in other places and this is how we keep them in the loop, plus this is our family journal).

Elise holding Magdalyn... aren't they cute sisters?

Owen spending a little quality time with Uncle Evan.

And we can't have a post without some of the most recent pictures of our little Mags.

Yes, this is what she does about 95% of the time... she sleeps. So far, Maggie is a really great baby. She sleeps a lot and really only cries when she wants to eat, which consequently is what she always thinks she should be doing when she is awake. The one thing that we are going to continue to work on is nursing a little better. She has always been ok, but since I have been taking care of sick kids a lot the last couple of days, she has been receiving about half of her feedings through a bottle. Not that a bottle is bad, either way she gets mom's milk, but I just don't want her to get to the point where she decides she likes the bottle more and won't nurse. So, we are working on that.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ellie!

I am finally getting around to Elise's 3rd birthday post (her birthday was May 21st).

Admittedly, I have a bit of guilt about Ellie's birthday this year since I didn't see her at all on her birthday (I was in the hospital having Maggie), but we did the best we could. We bought Ellie presents the weekend before her birthday which she opened up on her own. On Thursday night when I got home and Maggie was still in the NICU we celebrated by going to Rainforest Cafe. The kids were a little cranky that night and we were all pretty tired, but I felt good that we did something for her. I'll be more on top of things next year.

Elise is such a wonderful daughter. She is a lot like me which is a good thing and a bad thing-- I think it drives her dad crazy. Ellie is a wonderful big sister. She loves to show Owen new things and teach him what she already knows. She helps him when he needs it and always gives him lots of loves. Ellie has already started being such a helpful big sibling to her little sister. She enjoys holding Maggie and helping out with changings and feedings and kisses, of course.
Some milestones that Ellie has achieved are:

- speaking fluently and really extending her vocabulary to include bigger/more complicated words-- and perhaps talks excessively even :)

- has memorized several books and reads them to Owen

- sings many songs-- she loves to sing

- has gotten really into school work

- loves to cook/bake

- has graduated to arm floaties while swimming--- she LOVES to swim

- is potty trained! -- (yippee!-- we started this shortly after she turned 2 and she was potty trained at 2 1/2 and then fell back into old habits and is now finally potty trained fully, happened around 2 3/4-- potty training is more training for mom and dad than for children-- I hate it.)

- discovering- she is very into figuring things out and seeing new things

- much more coordinated- from 2 to 3 kids really become fully coordinated and are able to skip, leap, climb high objects, twirl etc.

Personality wise, Ellie is a very loving girl. She likes to be close to people and receive special attention. She is always very concerned for others and always wants to join in when she sees other kids playing. Elise has an incredible memory and can remember events that happened many months ago. She is very good with remembering people and recognizes objects and faces easily. Ellie is also quite stubborn and definitely mastered the two-year-old habit of "I wanna do it myself", perhaps a bit obsessively so as she often has meltdowns if things are not done by her or in a certain way. Ellie is a picky eater, loves to play, enjoys going places and likes to dress up.

Ellie, we love you so much and are so happy you are in our family. You are a wonderful daughter and sister. Happy 3rd birthday!

Trip to the Pool

The community pool finally opened today. So, we loaded up the children and spent the evening at the pool... we didn't dare take our pastey white children in the middle of the day.

Here's Ellie showing off her cheese--- she has graduated to the arm ring floatation devices.

Owen really enjoyed the pool. He was all smiles!

Here is Owen and Uncle Evan having a bit of a moment together.
Dad and Owen.
Ellie and Uncle Evan swimming together (and Owen and Dad in the background). Ellie really liked swimming on her own.The slide was the big hit. We didn't think she was going to be able to go down the slide, but the lifeguard said she could go. She had a blast and can't wait to go down it again.
Dad spinning Ellie around in circles... I think Daniel is making some sort of noise here.
Owen being independent. He liked to go in and out of the pool and go up and down the stairs on this shallow part.

Mags came too. She has a bit of jaundice so we needed to get her outside anyway, so we brought her along. There weren't a lot of people at the pool and no one came near her. She slept the entire time!

Close up... look at that face... those lips!

Here are some other pictures we took today...

Oh yeah, we're sick. Well, Ellie was sick earlier this week, then it went to my mom and now Daniel and Owen have it and my throat is feeling scratchy. It's starting to get to the point where we aren't really surprised-- it seems like we always have our children in the midst of chaos!
Owen checking out his little sis.
Having a bit of awake time.

Magdalyn Happenings

Last night was the first night with our little Magdalyn. First off, we are so happy she is home!! SOOOO happy. She really is a little sweetheart. She might be small now, but so far she is quite the little eater so I am sure she'll chunk up soon. I am enjoying my "little" baby, after all she is probably the smallest that I will ever have.

Here is Mags all snuggled up in bed. She looks like she is all ready for a long winters nap in her yellow sheep cap! We had the ceiling fan on so I thought we should keep her little noggin' warm. She does have her nights and days a bit mixed up. She woke up about every two hours or so and wanted chow (right that instant!) and then wanted to play a bit.

Here is Dad sleeping with Maggie this morning on the couch (they are still in this same position). I have several pictures of Dad sleeping with each of his babies. Sadly I am not sure that mom gets to take advantage as much. It is pretty darn cute to see a daddy with his babies.

Tuesday while I was having Maggie, the kids got to wear these cute shirts that I got for them. Ellie wore hers to preschool. It was a special day for her because she celebrated her birthday at school. She brought cookies for her class and I made a poster for her that had some pictures of her throughout the years and some milestones that she has achieved. It was a big day!

The kids have been really excited to have Maggie at home. Ellie is a little mama and wants to hold Maggie and feed her and change her... basically everything. For right now she loses interest after a couple minutes (thankfully). Owen has been more gentle than we had thought. He isn't too interested in Maggie but will occasionally go over to her and touch her head or her nose and then go back to whatever he was doing. We didn't realize he knew how to say "baby" but as soon as he saw her he said, "It's a baby!" and he says it all the time, but it sounds a little French when he says it like, "Ees a bebe!". It's pretty cute.

Also while we were in the hospital, Ellie decided to open her birthday presents which were hiding in the dining room all by herself. We couldn't get too mad at her, after all, it was her birthday. Plus, it gave her some toys to keep her busy while we were away. My mom snapped this picture right after she was "caught"!

She's Home!

After going home a day earlier than Maggie, she was finally able to come home this morning. We were really thrilled because she was still on oxygen at lunch time yesterday and they usually make you wait at least 24 hours after they take a baby off before you can take them home. The neonatologist must have really sensed how eager we were to take her home.

Here is dad feeding Maggie this morning before we left the hospital.

Our little Ellie clone. I have a picture of Ellie where she looks just like Maggie does in this picture.
Ready to go home!Peacefully asleep on the way home. Look at those cheeks!

Excuse my being in the pictures, but this gives you a little perspective on how small she is. When we left the hospital she was just at 6 lbs. She lost a little weight in the NICU, which is common for newborns.

And here is Elise with her sister.

Well, unfortunately this is going to be more of a difficult week than we had thought. My grandma (my dad's mom) passed away this morning so my parents flew off to California today and will be there until Thursday. So, when Daniel goes to work on Tuesday, I will pretty much be on my own! I will likely have a sitter come help me chase after Owen until Uncle Evan gets home, but we will see how I handle things. It's just one of those things you can't really control... I am feeling sad for my dad today, but know that my grandma is in a good place.

Happy Birthday Ellie

Not to be forgotten, our first girl had her birthday today. Though it wasn't much of a birthday, as we're going to celebrate it later, she did get to open a couple of presents today, mostly because Grammy didn't realize Ellie had figured out where the presents were. Erin will do up a good post bragging about our little 3 year old when she gets home from the hospital, but I wanted to post something on her birthday. All I'll say is she's a sweetheart and I love her to death. Happy Birthday Elise Louise!

She's Here!

After a long day, Magdalyn Beth Weber finally made it here at 10:37 p.m. on May 20th, 2008. Erin was very relieved our two girls don't have to share a birthday. Maggie weighed 6 lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 in. long - a good size for over five weeks early. Her Apgar scores after she was born were high, and we were hopeful that she wouldn't need any special treatment.

The happy Mom and Dad

Maggie looks a lot like Ellie - she's got Ellie's lips and chin and her face is shaped a lot like Ellie's, just smaller. When Maggie cries, she makes the same face that Owen makes when he cries. She's got her mother's ears (thank goodness at least one of our children doesn't have to go through life with their father's weird ears).

Like all the Weber children, Maggie has really long feet and toes.

Unfortunately, after she was bathed and diapered, the nursery noticed that Maggie's respiration rate was quite high. Apparently if babies are breathing too quickly (lots of short, shallow breaths rather than longer deep breaths), it can cause problems with feeding. It's also an indication that her lungs might not be fully developed (though the neonatologist seemed to think that it was more likely due to excess fluid in her lungs - Erin only took one push to get her out, so the process was quick enough that it didn't give Maggie enough time to get that extra fluid out). After a couple of hours of monitoring, the doctors decided it was a big enough problem that she should be moved from the normal nursery to the NICU.

Here she is in the NICU with all her wires attached. She's got monitors for her pulse, heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen saturation. They have a blood pressure cuff around her ankle and give her oxygen through her nose, and a feeding tube that goes through her mouth straight down to her stomach.

As of this evening, we haven't seen a whole lot of improvement with the breathing situation. I should stress, however, that this isn't life threatening and we have every expectation that she'll figure out how to slow down her breathing eventually and she'll be able to come home with us. I'm also under the impression that this process should take days and not weeks, but the neonatologists don't like to set timetables. We'll just wait and see how she does.

We are a bit concerned that she's had problems digesting the formula they've given her (Erin's been pumping, but not enough to provide her entire diet, so they supplement with formula). If she continues to have problems, they may have to start feeding her intravenously. That would probably delay her coming home even more, so we're hoping that they can continue using the feeding tube rather than the IV.

It's tough having your baby in the NICU, but we really are blessed that she wasn't worse off. She doesn't need to be in an incubator or have a respirator breathe for her, and for now she isn't hooked up to the IV, so we can hold her when we come to visit. It felt a little lonely spending the night in the hospital room without her there, but we're looking forward to the time when she'll be healthy enough to come home with us and we can finally be together as a complete family.