Two weeks old

Natalie on 4.8.11 - her original due date!

Things have been going well and we are learning (again) about the ins and outs of having a newborn at home. Natalie had a really hard time on the Enfamil newborn formula the first week home, so we switched to the Gentlease and it completely changed her! Poor thing was having so much tummy trouble and since the switch, she's been so much happier. She's an easy baby and enjoys eating! From day one, Avery was never a big eater. She still isn't. It's crazy to see the difference in feeding habits! At Natalie's 2nd week appointment she weighed 7 lbs and was 19.25 inches long!

Avery loves being a big sister and likes to help out with Natalie whenever she can. It's so sweet to watch and we're so lucky to have such a great little helper!

One day old...

Do you think they look alike?

Natalie - 1 day old

Avery - 1 day old

She is here!

Natalie Mae arrived at 12:55 pm on March 26, 2011. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 17.75 inches long. She looks so much like Avery and weighed only 2 oz less than Avery when she was born! I was 38 weeks and it went very smooth and really I couldn't have asked for a better labor and delivery. My water broke that morning right before 1 am. By 3 am, I was in the hospital but not having strong contractions. Around noon I got an epidural and at 12:45 I started pushing. Ten minutes later she arrived. I felt such a huge relief after she was born because I had horrible back labor due to Natalie's posterior position. No wonder I had so much back pain in the weeks leading up to delivery. Ouch!

We are adjusting well and Avery loves her little sister. She keeps calling her "Avery's Natalie"! We love our two little angels!

35/35

I made it to 35 weeks, with 35 days to go! This pregnancy has been much harder than with Avery. I've been in constant pain in some form or another since week 30. It's been an interesting 5 weeks of back pain, hip pain, contractions, leg pain, headaches, pelvic pain. Working full time still and coming home to a toddler who wants to play and run around can be exhausting! There is no time for rest, except when Fred gets home from work and can help with bath time and bed time. I'm trying not to complain though. I just want to soak up this time as we are in the final weeks of being a family of 3. Many new challenges are ahead for us! It is exciting but yet also a little scary too. I hope I can handle what's to come.

At my 34 week appointment, I had an ultrasound to check fluid levels. The fluid levels were fine, thank goodness, and we found out baby weighed in at 4.375 lbs. I think we're going to have another petite baby, and I'm very much ok with that! Although Avery was about 6.5 lbs, my guess is that this baby will be close to or at 7 lbs. But that's just my guess!

Discovery Village

We made a trip over to Gig Harbor last weekend. Jody, Ryan, Fred and I took Grayson and Avery to a new place called Discovery Village. They had a huge play area with fun stuff to climb on, a moon sand station, play grocery store, pizzaria, vet office, coloring station, shiny rock station and train station. They also have a litte cafe where moms and dads can order coffees, cupcakes or snacks and just hang out and watch the kids! It was so fun and they had such a great time! These pictures are so funny...Avery still refuses to look at the camera and smile! I hope this phase ends soon.

Independence

At almost 27 months old, Avery is turning into a strong, independent little girl. She is testing boundaries (as most 2 year olds do) and watches our every move to see how we react. Sometimes it's tough to keep our ground, especially when she says or does something that is really funny or naughty. But we are so proud of her in so many ways! In the month of January alone she was potty trained, moved from crib to a toddler bed AND quit the binky. The binky was a tough one but we powered though. It kind of happened on accident as she lost her only binky one night right before bed. We looked for 45 minutes for the darn thing and just gave up. Sure, I could have made a trip to the store to get more but I knew she was ready to get rid of it. It was a rough few days to say the least. She did get to pick out a big girl toy after her first night without her "binky fire" (as she so lovingly called it). She was excited about that and picked out a Mrs. Potato Head.

She is just like a sponge and is constantly absorbing tons of new words (even some Spanish words!), songs, numbers and emotions. She is just the sweetest! The pictures are not the greatest but I've been just awful about taking pictures lately, so the ones above are from our phones. :)

Baby's room (so far)

Today my mom and aunt painted the baby's room for us. We kept it really close to the same color. I'm usually really organized when it comes to paint colors. I've got a spreadsheet made up of all the colors (names, numbers, finishes) we've used in our house so we can keep track if we ever have to re-paint. However, that room was a mystery to us and I didn't keep the paint sample from when we painted that room a few years ago. Anyway, we matched it the best we could but it still was off. It was SO nice of my mom and aunt to paint the room again for us.

My Aunt Cathy then painted a branch of birds on one wall that matches the baby's crib set from Pottery Barn Kids. She did an amazing job and I really feel like it's finally becoming a baby girl's room! We've got a couple things to do still (blinds, lamp, wall letters, picture frames, etc) but we're a few steps closer to its completion. Thanks Mom and Cathy, we really appreciate it!