4 months

The princess is now 4 months old!   Ok, the second princess, Gwen gets mighty offended if I call her princess, but fortunately I happened upon a book at the library called The Second Princess and just have to remind her that 2 princesses are ok, she is still the first princess.  Ah, the joys of multiple children!  Back to Rachel...

Our happiest baby, that I recall.  I don't really remember Nate as happy, just cuddly, Gwen as crying, so currently happiest baby.  She smiles a lot and giggles, and is officially rolling over front to back and back to front.  Sometimes she rolls over if you lay her down for her nap (as you see above) and has actually fallen to sleep on her belly, but I did not get a picture of that.  (I didn't want to wake her while I searched for the camera, Nate was home, need I say more?)  This is also making the diaper changing a bit more challenging, since she is mostly laying on her side when I am trying to get the diaper off and on. 

She is currently drooly, a finger sucker and has a runny nose.  Whether she is sick or teething we will never know.  But, she doesn't seem to mind the bulb as much, I mean sometimes she lets me without screaming...not without wiggling. 

She LOVES watching things, is very distracted by everything and likes to look around.  She just watches and watches and this complicates the "schedule" (ha, schedule, I crack myself up!)  Unless she yawns, it is hard to tell when she is tired, she doesn't just nod off to sleep, she just kind of stares into space and you think, gosh, is that it, time for bed? 

She is a chatter, she just starts babbling on and on, but she usually only does it at home and it is often a sign that she is ready for sleep.  Which is hard to reconcile, because it is so cute and I just want to chat with her...see here.(sorry about the fuzziness, the boy may have been taking pictures and I might not have realized that his finger print was on the lens until after I started the video)(this video might be too boring for anyone but my Mother and Mother-in-law! I hope they enjoy it.)

She is almost ready to sit up and is starting to grab stuff with her hands and bring it to her mouth.  She's not real good at it yet, she's at that hilarious point where you can see her trying desperately and then her hands/arms not totally following the directions her brain is telling them to do.  Fortunately she doesn't get frustrated, she's more nonchalant about it, like oh well, I've still got my fingers.  Now me leaving the room, that is another story.  She seems to not like it when I walk out of eyesight these days, fabulous, isn't a little early for separation anxiety?  With the kids and/or husband around this isn't a problem, but I was just getting used to dashing off to the potty, by myself, oh well.  I guess that was a short-lived dream come true! 

Overall we have a pain in the tail screaming infant, that is turning into a pretty fun contented baby!  Yay Rachel! 

Oh September

It seems like fall now. Our trees are losing their leaves and it is down right chilly in the morning, and it is hard to plan the day of clothes for Rachel.  I'd forgotten that.  Thought you'd like to see some pictures from the last couple days.  Rachel appears to have the same fascination with looking at books and magazines as Gwen does. 

Now this picture is typically Nate, he certainly needs lots of hugs.  He's always been a touchy feel-y kind of kid and this always having to hold Rachel is really hurting his style.  Also he's missing some sleep and that makes him really need more physical contact.  He'll take it where he can get it, so you have to watch out.  But these needs make for a really sweet picture, doesn't it? 

We really enjoy bike riding, so this weekend we made the kids fend for themselves and hooked the car seat in the carrier and went for a little ride to the grocery store. 

Gwen is much better up the hill than Nate so Gwen and I "charged" up the hills and Eric pushed Nate up the hill.  When we got home I ran into the house and got the camera and tripod and set up for our first family outing picture.  Sure, it might not be the best picture, but look here we all are! 

Then we went in side and I got a picture of just the kids.  Look, everyone is looking at the camera!  HI!

 

Family?

Sure, this might not be a best picture, but look, do they all look alike? I realize that Rachel looks a bit crazy, but I guess if you look for those kind of things, there might be a family resemblance?  

Where are Gwen and I in this picture? I am obviously working hard around the house, or making dinner.  Gwen took the picture.  I am sure in the year to come we will get a better picture of the 3 of them.  But, I guess they do look alike.  I am sorry Rachel, we love you dearly, hopefully soon you will be as photogenic as your brother who you seem to look exactly like. You seem to have charmed everyone with your boyish looks, how alert you are, and your love of Momma.  (OK, only Momma is charmed by that.) 

My babies!

I took this picture today during "tummy time", the kids as usual give the full assault whenever I try to do the tummy time with Rachel.  Everyone wants their picture with Rachel, to hold Rachel, to kiss Rachel...translation the newness hasn't worn off yet.  I do wonder if it ever will.  Rachel still doesn't care about them, really, but they think she does.  Gwen is convinced that Rachel loves her second best, after me of course, sadly Daddy is in last place according to Gwen.  Nate declares that he isn't in last place because he gives Rachel lots of hugs and kisses.  Gwen is also convinced that Rachel says "hi" to her and waves to her, I haven't told her that Rachel is cooing and randomly flailing about.  I guess the good thing about all the love is I got a pretty cute picture out of the deal, I think...I apparently got Nate mid speak.  Rachel is almost smiling, I think she is thinking, look how I've got these 2 wrapped around my finger! 

I've heard a rumor that Grandpa might get to glimpse the blog this weekend, so I thought I'd put this angry Nate picture up.  It was Nate's idea to put this "present" from my cousin on, so I don't know why he is giving me the stare down when I took the picture.  Nate is likely the only kid in this family to ever wear this thing, but I guess as far as bibs go, this would be a good one to collect the spit-up and stuff, wouldn't want to get a Buck's bib dirty, now would we? 

For my Mom

If there is 1 thing my Mom loves it is a picture of groups of kids together, especially cousins and what not. These pictures right here are the closest things my kids will ever have to first cousins, only kid missing is Christopher. And now we have 2 babies a couple months apart, so exciting!  And, even more exciting is Jess's sister had a baby today so there are 3 little babies only 3 months apart, all girls!

Jess doesn't believe me, but I think Rachel is bigger than Emily.  I declare it so!  She just looks bigger to me.

As you can tell, Emily was a little off her game that day, Rachel was pretty good, as far as Rachel goes.  Jess doesn't believe Rachel is a fussy baby, guess she hasn't called during the fussy periods! 

It was nice to see the girls!  We've seen them a lot this year and it has been so nice, fun living closer to "old" friends!

1 month

Yesterday, Rachel turned a month old.  To celebrate we had a Doctor's appointment.  Rachel is now:
11 lb 4 oz
22in long
This means she has grown 1lb9oz and 1 in in a month!  Look at how surprised she is!

She is doing mostly well.  She has stopped crying when she is awake, she now only cries when she is refusing to sleep.  See, an improvement!  Everyday is a little better.  Today I was able to put her down for a 3 hour nap and made dinner!  Of course that will never happen again.  I am a little gun shy to take them say to the grocery store in the afternoon.  But we'll get there, and soon enough the older kids will be in school and I won't have to attempt to do anything with all three.  The kids still adore Rachel and she is not the worst baby we've ever had.  And doesn't she look cute in her dress made by my friend? 

I am out of titles

This newborn thing is harder than I expected.  I remembered that I have difficult babies, but somehow that didn't translate to the fact that the baby wouldn't just slide right into our routine or we would have a slightly different routine, but I didn't expect that we wouldn't have any routine.  Which truly is ridiculous because what newborn has a routine?  She sleeps well at night, of course that is after Eric walks her, to get her into solid sleep.  She seems to enjoy movement to help her get to sleep, she doesn't have the ability to self-soothe yet.  But, all of this is familiar territory for us, both Gwen and Nate had the same problem, I just seemed to have blocked it out. 

Gwen and Nate really enjoy holding her.  I took these pictures during the day one day, Rachel was better positioned, but it is hard to take pictures and monitor, but I think it is important to document this for all of them.  What was funny about this picture is that Rachel was sucking on his arm, Nate thought it was hilarious. 

Here is a picture of the sleeping princess...

This picture from today, I was making lunch, Gwen decided to read to Rachel.

In a couple months, I guess we'll get into a routine and she'll learn how to self-soothe and go to sleep on her own.  The kids will lose interest in her and life will be at the new normal.  I just hope I remember to re-button my shirt! 

Your daily Rachel

or is it Nate? Here is a link to a picture of Nate from this age, what do you think?

Think this girl is also going to be blond? We are currently thinking grey eyes, not light blue like Nate, but darker blue. Although comparing pictures I realize Rachel looks just like Gwen, but with lighter hair, shocker, at this stage all my kids lock the same. In hilarious news Gwen told me that this morning that Nate woke her up. I said oh, I'm sorry, how did he do that. She said I could hear him opening up the candy wrappers. That's right, the sound of Nate opening candy wrappers woke her up. Fortunately she still is a tattle tale and came and told us immediately. Daddy has to learn a better place to hide his candy overnight.

Dr's appt

Rachel had her 2nd Dr's appointment today.  Looking good!  She is back up and past her birth weight, a whopping 9lbs 14oz!  At this rate she'll be out of 0-3clothes in about 3 weeks.  She was still 21in.  Things are going well, she had some good eye contact this morning, was very alert and not a bit cranky. 

I thought I would include these pictures I took the other day.  I typically leave the car seat in the car and just sling her, she seems to really enjoy being in close contact and to be swaddled so her limbs don't flail and wake her up.  I put her in the car seat after shopping with Gwen this weekend and this is the position she was in, I thought it was funny, so I snapped a shot.

Mom has been saying she looks older already and I didn't believe her.  But I realize what it is that makes her look older, she has lost some of her chubby cheeks as her face has elongated a little, not that you can tell from this picture.  But still, trust me her face isn't so smushed anymore.  (smushed appears not to be a word by spell check, but I think it totally is and I can't think of another word in it's place, sorry!)

Comparison

Gwen, Nate, Rachel

I thought it would be fun to compare a picture of the kids. Although sadly this is as close as I could get to them all being the same position.  So, do you think all my babies look alike?  Chubby, chubby, chubby!

More photos

I found some more pictures to post. None of which have anything to do with each other.  Here is one more from the hospital. 

Just arriving home!

Before Grandma left.  We had a really hard time getting Nate to cooperate!  This one looks pretty good.

I think her hair is lightening up, kind of like what Nate's did.  Also her eyes appear to be gray, but who knows if they will continue to change. 

I'm having a hard time getting pictures because of this right here.  Every time I go to take a picture, the older kids get in the way.  Today during tummy time, the kids were playing and heard me talking to Rachel and ran over and I couldn't even see her anymore, they plopped right in front of me! 

Sure I know it is good they love their sister!  I just wish I could get more pictures so the Grandma's don't get so irritated with me! 

All Rachel, all the time

Alright, now that Rachel is a week old, I guess it is time to post the last of the hospital pictures! 

The first night Rachel and I spent the night alone in the hospital, Eric was toast and apparently was fortunate enough to go to bed at 8p and slept until 8am the next morning.  I on the other hand wasn't so lucky.  Rachel is something of a pistol, now not near as a pain as the other ones, but around 2:30 in the morning (you know when she was 1 day old!)  She really couldn't be settled, I tried nursing and rocking and walking after about an hour I gave up and called in the nurse, who re-swaddled her and she quieted for a couple minutes, and I tried nursing her again and then she went out.  But it was truly a pain in the tail, and a foreshadowing of our first week. 

Rachel at this point loves to be held.  She especially loves it when someone who is not me is holding her, unless she is being nursed and just fell asleep.  Sometimes she will sleep in her pack-n-play.  Sometimes she will not.  We haven't really figured that out yet, it is kind of a crap shoot. 

Rachel doesn't seem to want to spend anytime awake yet.  She will be fine for about 20 minutes, if that then she will start crying.  Fortunately, Eric and I have a lot of experience with crying babies.  We've done this before!  Of course she is 100x better than Gwen and the jury is still out whether or not she will be better than Nate.  At some point Nate started to fall asleep on his own.  I am not sure that Rachel will. 

Rachel has a strong urge to suck.  I am not sure if that is because she is 9 pounds and I am not keeping up with her or she needs that to soothe.  We don't typically use pacifiers, and I am holding out for a while to make sure it doesn't interfere with her growth and my production. 

But, my word, when she sleeps she sleeps like a champ!  All Gwen wants to do is hold her, Nate just wants to kiss her and touch her.  When she cries they come running.  There doesn't seem to be any sibling rivalry, but I wish that it wasn't 100 degrees here so I could at least take everyone outside! 

Rachel's hospital bath

Another difference between this hospital and the last was that they waited until the baby was at least 6 hours old before they gave Rachel her bath.  I thought it would be fun for the kids if we waited for them to be there before she got the bath.  So, late in the day, almost evening of Rachel's first day she got her first bath.  This has to have been the craziest thing I have ever seen.  The aide put down a paper sheet thingy that was to soak up the water in her bassinet. 

She kept squeezing water on Rachel from the wash cloth and then she would wash her. 

I think you can see it here in this picture, the inside of the bassinet is soaked with water. 

Gwen was the ever patient watcher.  Once Nate was sure Rachel wasn't crying out of stress, he just sat back in my lap. 

I can't remember what they were talking about here, but it sure looks interesting. 

Wet and angry, see the water?

Finally hair washing. 

We apparently didn't take any pictures of the clean baby, I think it ended up being time to eat and the kids left shortly after that, Nate possibly traumatized for life.  Gwen happy to help with bath #2! 

Rachel!

Rachel was born this morning at 2:25 am, she is a rather large baby and I will detail her birth in another post, but I wanted to post some pictures.  Here she is right after they weighed her!  Wow!  I can not believe she is so large!

She has been a good baby so far, although I am finding it difficult to keep on her hat.

The big sibs don't really know what to think yet, but they appear to love holding her, and get upset when she cries.  She is so large that really they have to hold her together! 

Grandma enjoys holding her also.  She was holding her and holding her and holding her and Gwen wanted to know why she couldn't hold her again, when Grandma had one of her extended holdings.