Our Daughters Are...

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

She's Here! (and a long overdue update)

Alice Margaret joined our family on Saturday, March 22nd!  She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 21 inches long (so 3oz and 0.5in bigger than Eleanor).  I'll post her birth story soon (I promise, really).

We are settling in well to life as a family of four.  Eleanor is an awesome big sister and she loves Alice a ton.  She always wants to give her hugs and kisses, tries to calm her by singing or "shhh"-ing when she cries, and loves to help get toys out for her to play with.  I have loved seeing Eleanor fall so naturally into that big sister role.  She has such a kind little heart.

Alice has been a pretty easy baby so far.  She is eating well and gaining weight (she is up to 11lbs 8oz as of last week!).  She has been giving me one good stretch of sleep at night for about a month now.  She usually goes down around 11pm or so and will sleep until around 6am.  It makes for some late nights, but that initial stretch of sleep has been great.  Eleanor is usually up for the morning by the time Alice is finished nursing, but I can function pretty well on 6-7 hours of sleep.  Alice loves to smile and look at toys.  She is especially fond of the birds that go around at the top of her swing.  Turn them on and she instantly starts grinning and cooing!  At 12 weeks Alice is wearing mostly 3-6 month clothes already.  The 0-3 month things still fit her, but she's so long that everything looks like high waters on her :)

I was fortunate enough to be able to take off the remainder of the school year, so I've been home since Alice was born.  I have really been enjoying my time with the girls, especially now that Eleanor is home too.  We let her finish out the school year at her daycare to help her stay in her routine and to help me settle in.  But May 30 was her last day and she's been home with me since.  I'm loving the time I get to spend with her and seeing her personality continue to develop.  It's so fun!

Eleanor is doing great as well!  She's been talking in complete sentences for months now, so it's really fun to be able to have a full on conversation with her.  She potty-trained over Christmas break, so while she is still in pull ups at nap time and a diaper at night, she is (mostly) dry during the day.  Girlfriend would live in dresses and skirts 24/7 if she could.  Every morning she tells me, "I want wear a dress, Mommy!"  She loves anything to do with dancing, ballerinas, dresses, etc.  We haven't really pushed those things much, but she gravitates toward them.  It's really fun to watch her.  She has been in to playing pretend a lot lately too, so it's fun to make up stories and act out scenarios with her.

As far as Matt and I, we are both doing well.  Work is slowing down a bit for him after his busy season, so it's been nice to have him home more.  I'm currently dealing with some eye issues related to a scratch on my cornea that happened last summer, but I'm hoping surgery #2 tomorrow (the first one happened when Alice was three weeks old) helps heal everything and I can go back to being able to see and function normally.  I'm not looking forward to the actual procedure, however.  Let's just say that for eye surgeries you don't get sedated.  They numb your eye and then start coming after you with metal objects.  "Scrape" and "eye" should never be used in the same sentence, especially when it refers to what the doctor is going to do to your cornea.  Fun fact: the cornea will regenerate itself if it is all removed except for a thin outer edge. (So you should be able to connect the dots and figure out what is happening to my eye tomorrow afternoon.  It's going to be super fun...)

And, what you really want to see, pictures of the girls!

 The first three pictures are from Alice's newborn photos with the super talented Elisabeth Smith, of Elisabeth Smith Photography!  (fun fact: she has a giant canvas of Eleanor up in her studio from Eleanor's newborn photos :) )


Sisters!  Eleanor absolutely adores Alice <3


One month photo

Two month photo - what a difference!

Playing dress up!  Eleanor is very into pretend play right now and it is so much fun!